Parent's Guide: I Am Bread - Age rating, mature content and difficulty

I am Bread is a bit of a bizarre game that tells the tale of one slice of bread, as it tries to become toast. Taking control of said piece of bread, it's up to you to wrestle with the game's deliberately awkward and sometimes bizarre control scheme to shimmy your piece of bread from your starting point, to any object in the room that might manage to provide enough heat to turn you into a lovely, warm piece of toast.

On PS4, moving your piece of bread involves the four shoulder buttons. Each relates to a corner of your piece of bread, and by holding the relevant button, you can "grip" with that corner. Moving the left analogue stick then allows you to pivot around that point, and move yourself around the room.

It's a strange enough concept, and one that's every bit as tricky as it sounds. Not only do you have to find an object in the room that might give out enough heat it can toast you (from the obvious, like a toaster or a grill, to the bizarre, like a short circuiting TV or a firework), but you have to figure out how to get there in one piece. After all, it's no use being toast if you're no longer edible, and so you'll need to be careful where you tread (or should that be slide?) as you make your way across the room. Brush against any stray hairs, insects, dirt, grime or moss, and it'll rub off on you and take your edibility rating down - and should that reach zero, it'll be game over.

One of the great things about I am Bread is that there's a huge variety in the modes on offer. With five main modes to choose from, along with the standard "toast yourself" mode, there's a racing mode that sees you steering a bagel through a course; a destruction mode that puts you in charge of a particularly awkward baguette; a cracker mode, that asks you to find all the bits of cheese without damaging the fragile cracker too much; and the weirdest, Zero G, which gets you to fly your piece of bread through a room with no gravity, looking for something to toast yourself on.

In terms of accessibility, I am Bread's control scheme is a little bit tricky to get the hang of, and younger players, especially those who have yet to develop the required fine motor skills, may find this particularly hard. Having to wrestle with the shoulder buttons on PS4 can be tricky enough for adults, yet alone for kids, who may well find themselves getting finger-tied. That said, there are plenty of modes here to try out, and the chances are kids will find at least one they can do - most likely the bagel racing, or the zero g mode. It's worth bearing in mind, too, that while you won't get a very good score if you take twenty minutes and only just scrape your way through the level, you will get enough points to unlock the next level, so the barriers in terms of progression are pretty low. With little in the way of required reading, there's not much to worry about here from a comprehension perspective, but the tricky control scheme and free form approach to gameplay makes this one best left for older players.

With nothing in the way of swearing, sex or violence, there's nothing for parents to worry about in I am Bread, and nothing in the way of mature content.

Age Ratings

Format Reviewed: Playstation 4