After spending a few weeks on Playdate, I’m happy to say it was a joy. Well, its boutique approach to lo-fi indie games is, at the most superficial level, a bit pretentious, but it’s so captivating that I can’t help but let it get inside me. It’s not without its drawbacks, supply issues and chip shortages have pushed its price up to $179, higher than initially expected, but the Playdate succeeds in its mission as a quirky platform for some truly weird little games. I gotta say, I went from thinking the crank was just a silly gimmick to realizing it was actually a smart and fun way to control the game. Sure, it’s silly, but it’s charming rather than striving, and I absolutely love it.
start it
First, let’s talk about the cranks. The part that folds inside the Playdate’s case is one of its signature features: a crank, like you might find on Jack in the Box. It spins with little resistance in either direction and is completely optional when it comes to gaming. You can use it to navigate menus, especially your game collection, and it can be used in-game. It’s not required, but it’s there, enticing developers to use it. I have to say, I absolutely love it when they do. They do it often.
Play Date Reviews – Photos
For example, one of my favorite games is Whitewater Wipeout, one of two games included when you first launch Playdate. You have 3 chances to show your surfing skills by using the crank to control your spin, both in and above the waves. Granted, it took some getting used to, but once I was able to get it off, I was pulling a sick four spins on huge monochromatic waves. It feels fun, and uses the crank as a controller nicely in a way I’ve never considered.
Crankin’s Time Travel Adventure uses Playdate’s novel control inputs more directly. You are a little robot invited on a date, and you use a crank to control the flow of time. While this may seem like a very obvious use for a crank, it’s clever because it requires quick thinking and adjustments to your rotation, including speed and direction.
small. yellow. different.
Crank aside, the Playdate itself is a minimalist gaming handheld. The yellow plastic case is almost a perfect square, measuring 76 x 74 x 9 mm. The corners are rounded, and there are attractive brushed metal screws that hold it together. There’s a hole in the middle of the screw itself, so if you really want, you can attach your Playdate to the boondoggle keychain you made at Scout Camp.
On the front is a familiar set of controls: a cute directional pad and a modest pair of buttons. It’s similar to the original Nintendo Game Boy, but with a slightly different layout. The best part here is the arrow keys. It so clicks in every direction! It wasn’t anything mushy or sloppy. The A and B keys have an equally satisfying tactile feel for them.
The action is very smooth and there are no ghosting issues even in fast-paced games like Whitewater Wipeout or Hyper Meteor.
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The actual buttons are just that, but there’s also an accelerometer inside, so you can tilt the Playdate to control some games. Of course, very few games make use of it these days, so many people probably don’t even realize it exists.
Above the controls is the Playdate’s back-to-basics 400×240 monochrome screen. It’s small, about 70mm wide, not including the bezel, but it’s crisp. There’s no heavy smearing like we’ve suffered with monochrome handhelds in the past. The action is very smooth and there are no ghosting issues even in fast-paced games like Whitewater Wipeout or Hyper Meteor. Viewing angles are okay, not a problem unless you’re about 45 degrees off center, which would be an odd way to hold a handheld. However, getting the perfect contrast and view means you have to look straight, which can be a problem if there are light sources bouncing off the screen. Also, there’s no backlight, which is a double safety, because that means you need ambient light, and again, you need to make sure the light source doesn’t reflect off the screen. This places some restrictions on where and when you can play comfortably.
To the right of the display is the menu button and the Playdate’s tiny speaker, which puts out decent sound considering its small size. Given the retro screen, I’m a little surprised that no hardware limitations hinder sound: Chiptunes are a design choice for some games, but others, like Pick Pack Pup, use actual music tracks. In the Pick Pack Pup tutorial, I immediately recognized Home’s “If I’m Wrong” from the 2014 album Before the Night. Needless to say, I get bonus points for using the music of one of my favorite vaporwave artists.
At the bottom is a 3.5mm headphone jack, a small microphone, and a USB-C port that can charge and transfer data at the same time if you want to sideload some homemade games. This is a very nice feature considering how closed most handheld devices are.
The built-in 168Mhz processor is 40 times faster than the one in the original Game Boy, and its rechargeable battery gives you (advertised) 8 hours of continuous gaming. It’s hard to get a precise measurement, but I was able to play in a few days’ intervals before I needed to recharge it again, and if I had to guess, it was pretty close. I’ve never had battery anxiety of any kind.
Even with modern hardware, it’s a far cry from what a budget smartphone can do. Because of this, game designers have to overcome its limitations, and I really like how it turned out. The hardware definitely colors the design of the software in all the best ways. No 3D graphics here. Just hand drawn art that evokes simpler playtime. Games like Omaze, for example, are essentially a maze created with spinning circles, and the Saturday edition gave me some serious Sierra Online vibes.
My biggest gripe with this design is that my hands are hard to hold, and if I play games like Whitewater Wipeout a lot (quick reminder, it’s by far my favorite Playdate game), my left hand starts to hurt . To get the most out of my sick surf move, I had to grab it by the top and bottom so it wouldn’t get in the way of the cranks, and after a couple of killer tricks, my fingers started cramping in a way I haven’t had since on the original Xbox controller Haven’t experienced a marathon Halo session since.
Express delivery
One of Playdate’s features (or gimmicks, depending on how cynical you are) is its game delivery system. When you buy one for $179, you’re not just buying hardware, you’re buying a steady stream of content: as each week begins, you’ll find two new games waiting for you to try. It doesn’t matter when you connect the Playdate to WiFi for the first time. If you get one every year from now on, you’ll still get a surprise pair of new games every week for 12 weeks in Season 1.
It’s a fun way to hand out goodies, and offers two games instead of one, doubling the odds of having at least something you like each week. It’s kind of like how streaming services have reverted to their weekly mode of shows to keep us coming back instead of screwing everything up a few days later and forgetting about it. In theory, this clever approach will keep people talking about Playdate as long as new games keep coming out. Right now, there aren’t any details about Season 2, like whether it’ll cost extra, or if it will happen. So, in addition to homebrew and sideloaded games, purchasing Playdate guarantees you 24 mini-games to play twice a week for 12 weeks after first connecting Playdate to the internet. From a marketing standpoint, I salute me.
Offering two games instead of one doubles the odds of having at least something you like every week.
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I’ve been entertained by an accelerated version of the game’s release schedule over the past few weeks, which has taken away some of the joy of anticipation, but I’d say “opening” the new game is still very enjoyable for a couple.
Quick spoiler alert, the next two paragraphs will discuss Playdate’s library of games, so if you don’t want to be spoiled and prefer to keep the surprise element of the delivery schedule throughout the season, skip ahead to the slides below.
I mentioned Whitewater Wipeout and Crankin’s Time Travel Adventure, both of which use cranks as a core part of the game. Other standouts include the Ratcheteer, which resembles a cross between Seiken Densetsu and Link’s Awakening…but with a crank mechanic. Forrest Byrnes: Up In Smoke is a side-scrolling game in which you play as a park ranger fleeing a forest fire, and it oozes some major Shovel Knight vibes but is original enough not to feel derivative. I also love Inventory Hero, I had a hard time understanding it at first, but it’s a very clever twist on RPGs: the point is to manage your inventory between and during battles, as each battle drains or destroys you An item of equipment. Questy Chest is one of the coolest games out there, with an ultra-low fidelity aesthetic reminiscent of early PC games. It’s a role-playing game/puzzle/fighting game where the rules of the movement of the pieces affect each level, which is a real joy.
Not every game resonates with me, though. Demon Quest ’85, on paper, sounds like something I really like, but it just doesn’t match my feelings. It’s hard for me to do anything close to a decent round around the Executive Golf DX’s aiming strategy. Zipper, while stunning conceptually and visually, can also be incredibly relentless if you make a mistake. For me… made a mistake. a lot of. That’s not to say these games are bad. Honestly, I don’t think there was a bad game in this group. They just don’t work for me.
Playdate – Season 1 Games
