In the game, the player manages a community of Baldies in order to build structures, increase their population, and create weapons to fight against enemies known as Hairies.

The game garnered generally favorable reception from critics; praise was given to its novel style and level of gameplay freedom given to players, though the simplistic graphics, learning curve, and controls were a point of contention for reviewers.

They interact with the game's world and manage a community of Baldies using a hand cursor in order to build structures, increase their population, and create weapons to fight against enemies known as Hairies.

[7] White Baldies work as scientists at laboratories, making weapons and inventions by experimenting with animals that roam the playfield.

[3] Progress is manually saved after completing a level if a Memory Track cartridge is present, but the player can otherwise play through the game using passwords in the Atari Jaguar CD version.

[8][9] In the PC version, up to four players can participate in a multiplayer mode via local area network (LAN), where the last unit standing is the winner of the match.

[30][31][32] It was published in North America and Europe in December 1995, being the smallest game released for Jaguar CD in terms of memory size (at 75 MB).

[43][44][45] A PlayStation port was first published in Japan by Banpresto on November 19, 1998, then later in Europe by Phoenix Games on August 8, 2003, and in North America by Mud Duck Productions on October 3, 2003.

[52][59][62] VideoGames compared the game with Cannon Fodder (1993) and noted its advanced artificial intelligence, but found the claymation sequences to be bleak.

They also found its greatest strength to be the freedom of gameplay, which allows the player to delegate responsibilities any way they like among the baldies or enjoy the unpredictability of what they come up with when given only general guidance.

[54] Marc Abramson of the French ST Magazine commended the game's easy controls, sympathetic sounds, help system, thematic, and longevity, but faulted the compressed Wallace and Gromit-style introductory sequence and lamented the lack of a two-player mode.

[63] MAN!AC's Oliver Ehrle labelled it as a cute Populous clone, citing its varied levels but expressed mixed thoughts regarding the overall audiovisual presentation.

He also commended the mouse-driven gameplay for its easy controls but felt the game was lacking in the sound effects department, summarizing that "Baldies is an interesting idea, which could have used a little more 'punch'.

[42] Gamezilla's Mitch Eatough gave the PC version positive remarks for its gameplay, graphical animations, and assortment of sound effects, but lamented the lack of online play in multiplayer mode.

[56] Author Andy Slaven concurred with Iida regarding the Jaguar's controller not being suited for the game, but ultimately found it to be an entertaining action-strategy title and noted its sense of humor.

[64] Baldies was one of several projects by Creative Edge Software planned to be published by Atari for the Jaguar, but was the only one released prior to the platform being discontinued.

[15][22][65] A follow-up title to Baldies named Skull Caps was developed by Creative Edge and published by Ubi Soft in 1999 for Windows.