Playdate

[DANGERMAN]

I finally got my Playdate last week and have played it enough to form an opinion on it. Initially I was a little disappointed with it. It was late, I had issues with customer service, my unit is kind of scuffed, enough issues that I wasn't feeling any excitement about playing it 

 

As I'm spending more time with it I'm liking it more. It crashes less now, at first it was every time you unlocked the screen, since it crashed so badly that I had to do the setup again its worked flawlessly. The battery is great and it charges really quickly, however its not the most comfortable handheld I've ever used. Certain games require the dpad and the crank to play, it's doable but it's way too small for my hands 

 

The games are released 2 a week, I think there's 24 in total. Of the 4 games I have so far from the season pass, one is just a simple music maker, and one I've not really spent time with. Crankin's Time Travel Adventure is fun, it's about winding time to avoid obstacles to your date. And Whitewater Wipeout I'm just not very good at, but it's the surfing game from California Games. 

 

There's a bunch of games on itch.io you can download, some for free, some not. Of them Loopsy is a really good puzzle game, One Bit Arena is probably my favourite so far (it's a bit like Smash TV), and Super Corporate Tax Evader made me laugh 

 

 

 

[Maryokutai]

Probably should have used this topic instead but oh well.

 

In addition to my question about the D-Pad, have you ever tried out their development software? I was looking through their homepage a bit yesterday and that really caught my eye, seems to have an RPG Maker simplicity to it that would allow complete laymen to make something. 

[DANGERMAN]

No, but I did plan on it at one point 

 

Fittingly, I wanted to make a shmup where you could crank one way to absorb bullets, then spin the other way to release them back out as a super. Basically a risk/reward shield /bomb 

[Maryokutai]

Still sounds really cool, but I just checked and saw that they don't ship to my country, so I suppose that settles my indecisiveness for the moment. 

[DANGERMAN]

Ages ago I did a video of some Playdate games, some side loaded in, some just part of the sub 

 

 

 

[DANGERMAN]

I've been playing Gun Trails, the impressive looking shmup. I've been holding off posting about it because I've not got very far, it's really, really difficult 

 

The problem is, I'm not sure why it's difficult. I kind of suspect, if I were to emulate this, play it with, say, a PS5 controller on my monitor, that I'd do a lot better. That says to me the issue is the Playdate, it's too small and the dpad not suited. You kind of skate across the screen when you move, maybe that's down to the game and not the controls, either way it makes dodging bullets difficult. 

 

It may also be that the game is so difficult by design, I've no idea how long it is, or if it even has levels, so it might be a case that the difficulty is ramped up to avoid you tearing through it 

 

In terms of the game itself, it does look amazing tbf, and runs well so far. You have a shoot button that's just a straight line shot, no spread options or anything like that. You have a beam super attack that's charged by collecting gems enemies drop, hold it down and it depletes as it fires, decreasing your movement in the process. This is removed as an option when you face a boss for some reason. 

 

Take a hit (5 hits no continues) and a shield forms around you. This lasts quite a while and can be used to destroy enemies, and also boosts your score if you do so. Again, maybe it's hard by design to be about score rather than progress 

 

It's not bad, feels like it is a good pick up and play game, but the Playdate needing direct light is especially important to see here, so makes it less easy to do 

[Maryokutai]

Sounds cool all things, and some hardware shortcomings, considered. I watched a video a few days ago and it does look really nice in motion but also super difficult. I had barely adjusted to what I was seeing (pixelated B&W does take some time get used to again) and the guy who was playing was already dead by that point.

 

Definitely one game I will pick up whenever I have a playdate though.

[spatular]

Playdate arrived last week, only played the first 2 games so far, the surfing one i like but its really hard/random, it makes good use of the crank, its pretty fun, very small. The birder one is like a small rpg/adventure thing, with some obscure puzzles so i used a guide to finish it but didnt win the competition, theres some funny stuff in there but the mechanics arent great imo, i dont know, it was ok.

 

just got the week 2 games too, one seems to be a music making thing, not tried the other yet.

[spatular]

Played some more of the other games, that crankins adventure one where you crank to move forward and back through time (sort of) to avoid stuff, its nicely animated and at first seems like a fun idea but im only on level 16 or so and already a bit fed up with it, not really finding it that fun, apparently there are 50 levels, think ill give up on it tbh.

 

also tried one of the free ones on the store, reel steal, you control a fishing line down through a stage to hook an item to steal at the bottom and get it out, its a nice idea and quite fun but it gives you a medal for getting points/speed, but you cant retry (unless im missing something) you have to finish all (5?) levels then retry them all, or pick a different character which i think adds slight changes to the stages to make them harder? This seems like a missed opportunity, retrying to get the medals as you get better at the levels seems like it would be fun.

[Maryokutai]

Did you guys give Hyper Meteor a shot? I'm cheating a bit because I've been playing the Switch port these last few days but I think it's pretty great.

 

The concept is relatively simple, you control an arrow and have to ram into enemies to destroy them. Enemies are dual-coloured, the white areas are the weak spot, the black areas damage you and make you lose a life. It's one of those genius ideas born from the limitations of the hardware it's been primarily developed for. The arrow/ship has a bit of forward momentum when you stop accelerating, which took a bit of time to get used to, but other than that this is a great pick up and have fun kind of game. Apparently on Playdate you accelerate with a button or the D-Pad and control with the crank, which sounds a bit weird but I can see it work rather well.

 

It's part of that free Season 1 thing, so I think on Playdate you can just download it whenever? Would definitely recommend, like Vertex Pop's other games it perfectly fills that void left behind when Geometry Wars disappeared or when Housemarque stopped doing small games.

[Maryokutai]

So after two years of waiting I had enough and ordered this about ten days ago. Had to go through a bunch of hoops and subscribe to a specific import service from our postal service, so that the device could be sent over to Germany and then shipped to Luxembourg. A bit more expensive and I'm probably looking at a certain delay for delivery as well.

 

Today I receive a newsletter from Panic that they now ship to every EU country.

 

 

Edit: if anyone else is interested in this, they also mention that they have stock now, so no more waiting times either.

[DANGERMAN]

Ha ha, I saw that it's now in stock as standard. I've not used mine much recently. Honestly, mostly because of the lack of a backlight 

[Maryokutai]

I wonder how I'll feel about the backlight. But turns out I'm going to have to wait a while for this to arrive, as something about the address I got it delivered to didn't work out, so my Playdate is on its way back to the US now. This thing will have the carbon footprint of Taylor Swift when it eventually arrives, Jesus Christ.

 

There was a little update with upcoming games the other day btw.:

 

 

 

I think the 2D brawler looks really nice. They also show some space exploration game towards the end with seems to push beyond what the system was ever intended to do. 

 

[Maryokutai]

--five months later--

 

After what I presume must have been a detour or two to the moon and back, my Playdate arrived yesterday. I've played around with it for only 30 minutes or so but I have to say, the whole design, packaging, setup etc. is so wonderfully playful that you can't help but enjoy the whole process. The system itself feels very sturdy and durable, even if the d-Pad seems a bit too clicky and 'hard'. I can see how that might be an issue for something like that Gun Trails game.

The surfing game is decent I think, not feeling the bird game though. I've also decided to go with the weekly release cadence just to experience it how they set it up. Interested to see how Hyper Meteor plays on this as I did spend quite a bit of time with that on Switch.

[Maryokutai]

So in between Season 1 games popping up on my device I decided to check out, ominous voice, The Catalogue.

 

Bought Tau and P Racing. Tau mimics as a shoot'em up but is actually more of a little dexterity/arcade game. You're automatically flying forward on a cylinder and you can turn the cylinder around with the crank. By doing so you either aim at enemies (firing happens automatically) or avoid obstacles. It's fine for what it is, some animations run at a super low framerate but the crank controls are really responsive. Great music, too.

 

 

P Racing is, well, a racing game, but a very ambitious one. It's designed a bit like Mario 64 in the way that you're driving with a 2D sprite through 3D environments. I'm not sure what tricks they use for the 3D stuff, probably a modern equivalent of Mode7. But outside of the visuals I think it's the featureset that makes this even more impressive. You can drive normal races on three different difficulty settings, complete missions in a teeny-tiny open world, play some wannabe Rocket League, go for time trials with online leaderboards and there's even a (very rudimentary) replay feature. And to top it off it actually plays really well, too.

 

[DANGERMAN]

That racing game looks really smooth 

[Maryokutai]

Yeah, it's genuinely fun, would recommend. Its only downside, if you can call it that, is that due to the complexity of its visuals it doesn't make much use of the great contrast on the screen, so you need more light than usual to see what's going on.

 

I tried that game from Keita Takahashi yesterday, with the little toy man going on a date that was at the forefront of their marketing. It's alright I think, especially for short 5-minute bursts of playtime. I've also (somewhat) gotten the hang of the controls of the surfing game. Turns out it's actually really good if you don't fall on your face after 30 seconds.

 

I realise this is still the honeymoon phase but so far I don't regret the purchase at all. Ever since Nintendo launched the Switch, which is mostly a TV gaming experience on a handheld, I've been missing the more classic handheld experience we used to have. And while this probably won't ever rival the library of even the classic Game Boy, it's a really fun throwback to that time, on a nicely designed piece of hardware.

[Maryokutai]

Limited Edition cover available:

 

 

https://play.date/pizza/

 

It's funny, but there's really no need to own more than one of those I think. They do have the purple one back in stock though, which goes better with the system's yellow than the turquoise one I had to pick.

[DANGERMAN]

Yeah I saw this the other day, it's fun, but I've already paid extra for a case 

[Maryokutai]

Bit of an update after two months of having this little thing: I'm still very much enjoying it. The device itself is wonderfully engineered, not necessarily perfectly in terms of ergonomics and button feel, but just how it looks, how much it weighs and the overall build quality. It's the angular equivalent to an Apple device basically. That said there are some downsides, and I think the d-pad is its biggest issue. Gun Trails for example has only seen maybe a couple of minutes of playtime despite the game being super solid (to those who bought it: they added in a chicken mode that makes it significantly easier). It just doesn't feel good hitting diagonals and overall you just have to apply too much pressure on it – I think a softer, 'wobbly' d-pad like the first GBA had would have been better. I went into this thinking I was going to play a lot of classic arcade games, but the d-pad made me pivot to completely different genres, so I might as well mention some that I found interesting:

 

Orbo is some kind of very basic, almost 'demake' version of Geometry Wars in which you play as a ship that's locked at the center of the screen and the crank allows you to shoot 360° around you. It's super basic, only has one music track and game mode, but it's easily my most played game on the system and I think I've played one round every day since I bought it. Highly recommended.

 

 

 

Echoes of the Emergent is a visual novel which for the concept alone was worth a shot I think. The story is about a girl and her cat trying to survive in post-apocalyptic Japan. It unfortunately doesn't really go anywhere but as a proof of concept it's really impressive, with extremely detailed background art evoking a surprisingly tense atmosphere at times and Playdate's lack of background lighting making this more akin to reading on a kindle than you would, say, feel when playing one of these VNs on Switch on a normal screen (no blue light and all that jazz).

 

 

 

Mars after Midnight, probably the most famous release on the system, is the latest one I bought. It's from Lucas Pope (Papers Please, Obra Dinn) and asks you to organise therapy sessions for a bunch of Martians. The overall structure is rather repetitive – pick theme, choose which city area to target for pop, let eligible people inside, clean the mess they leave after picking their snack – but it's quite funny at times and adds in some quirky little gimmicks to filter out your audience. If it's for people with cracked skulls you have to x-ray them, or if it's for mathematicians you have to make them solve a simple math problem before letting them in. Visually really well executed and solid OST, too.

 

 

---

 

From the free games I really ended up enjoying Lost your Marbles and Star Sled, but a lot of the others were kind of one and done affairs. Hyper Meteor is pretty good as well, but after having spent so much time with the Switch port it's hard to back to this ultimately inferior version (though if you didn't like the controls for this very much but enjoyed the concept, I highly recommend said Switch version).

 

Overall very happy with the purchase. I think I've used it every day since I got it, most of the time only for a couple of minutes, but then again that's precisely what it was designed for. It's also rather refreshing to have a system with games where neither hardware nor software was designed by a committee in an effort to become rich. They released some numbers and it seems to be doing well, but this very much channels the spirit of old-school garage coding, which makes it a rather pleasant contrast to the big money business happening basically everywhere else in the industry.