Pill Baby is a side-scrolling beat 'em up with a drug theme. Main character Anna finds work fighting against these strange creatures called parasites. After taking a pill, she gains combat abilities and will punch and kick her way through the levels. Between levels, you walk around the streets or office building for a bit of story, or a chance to purchase upgrades.
The game deals with mental health issues, and although the story doesn't seem to develop much due to the game's brevity, there's probably some hidden meaning. I would have thought it would just be Anna's hallucinations due to her drug addiction, but who knows.
The aesthetic, creature designs, overall idea, and the animation style reminds me of David Firth's animations (creator of Salad Fingers). The creatures are very fleshy, and the almost paper-craft style, and colour palette is close to what David Firth often uses across his animations.
The combat can feel a bit floaty, especially when Anna performs a dash with her aerial combos but it works well enough. When combat is initiated, you are walled off into an area, and enemies spawn in. Some are melee and many are ranged. There can be a fair few projectiles on screen at once which are tricky to dodge.
You can only do basic punch and kick initially, but new combos can be purchased in the shop, as well as modified attacks, and a drone to accompany you. The drone fires extra bullets, but then has an ability that can be triggered when the gauge is full. This can be an attack or a support move such as Healing. These new abilities and drones are unlocked as the game progresses.
Since the game is short, and there is alot to buy, there's loads that you will miss out on. I assume you are supposed to replay in a New Game Plus to be able to see everything.
Many of the NPCs speak a different language because Anna is an immigrant. You can choose to spend your money on language lessons but then you are missing out on the extra combat moves. Maybe this makes the game harder but then maybe you see a different side of the game and more side-quests? Maybe I will replay it at some point and find out.
Usually I am heavily critical of games that are short, and favour style over substance, but I found this to be much more appealing. I think with a few tweaks and extra levels, this could be a great game. With more levels, the story could be fleshed out more but it just felt a little incomplete.