Baby's Day Out (1970). Play online

Summary

Baby's Day Out for the Sega Genesis never saw the shelves, even though a near‑finished cartridge exists in the hands of collectors. The unreleased title takes a quirky spin on the 1994 film by putting the player in control of a guardian angel, whose job is to shepherd the wandering infant past bumbling kidnappers and hazards to the safety of the home. Designer Software, the studio behind the project, also worked on another lost Genesis conversion of the movie Beethoven, highlighting a brief period when movie‑tie‑ins were being tested on the Mega Drive. Only two prototypes of the Genesis version have emerged online, confirming the game's side‑scrolling levels and simple “guide‑the‑baby” mechanic reminiscent of Pac‑Man 2’s point‑and‑click guidance. While a Super Nintendo and Game Boy version were slated for the same October 1994 launch and subsequently vanished, the Genesis build offers a rare glimpse into what might have been a cult classic among fans of obscure movie games.

Storyline

In the Genesis platformer Baby's Day Out, nine‑month‑old Bennington “Bink” Cotwell IV lives in a Chicago mansion with his socialite parents, Laraine and Bing, and nanny Gilbertine. Three crooks—Eddie Mancuso, Norby LeBlaw and Veeko Riley—disguise themselves as baby photographers, kidnap Bink and demand a $5 million ransom. While Norby falls asleep reading Bink’s picture book, the infant slips out the window after a pigeon he sees on the page.

The FBI, led by Agent Dale Grissom, joins the parents and nanny to follow Bink’s trail. He wanders through a blue bus, a department store daycare mix‑up, a zoo where a gentle gorilla watches him, and a chaotic construction site, each setting causing slapstick mishaps for the pursuers, who eventually give up.

Gilbertine predicts Bink will end up at the old soldiers’ home, where the elderly residents entertain him until his parents reunite with him. The kidnappers are arrested, return the storybook, and Bink is tucked back into bed, ready for his next adventure.