My Playdate handheld console finally came in and so I'm diving into it. Figure I may as well put my thoughts here of just "day one" stuff. For those that don't know, it's a handheld console made by Panic (publishers of games like Untitled Goose Game) that's its own ecosystem, not just some emulation box like others. Small company making it, small device, but perfect for indie games. Also it has a crank. Like, as an analogue control input.
The Good:- It's cute as fuck. Design is very nice
- Seems to be well made, doesn't feel like it'll break easily, including the crank
- The DPad and two buttons are CHONKY. Not in size, but in feel. Shit feels great to press, without being like super loud. This may be my new standard for "button feel" on a controller.
- The screen is not back lit, however it's super reflective of light or something, so still really easy to see what's on the screen. Also the screen is super crisp. Honestly it's kinda nice not having another thing blasting light in my face as I stare at it.
- The "Catalogue", which is a first-party game shop, is well organized and easy to navigate. The games on there are curated by Panic.
- Sideloading to the console is stupid easy. You tie your playdate to your account when you boot it up the first time, and you can just upload zip files of games to your account, where you can download said game to your playdate at any time.
- Indie devs seem to be paying attention to it, lots of games on itch.io, paid or free
The Bad:- The screen is pretty small, so some things can be hard to make out depending on how the game designs their sprites. May be just old age not helping either.
- No way around it, the console is expensive for what it is. However, that's just how things are with small-scale production of specialty electronics. I ain't gonna blame Panic for it, but it's also why I'm not already prodding everyone to buy a Playdate. I can imagine the tariff situation in the US isn't going to help Panic either.
The Neutral:- The console comes with "Season 1" of games for free. That's like 24 games. However, seasons are delivered 2 games a week with no way to speed that up. So I have... 2 of those 24 games, and it's gonna be a bit before I have them all. It's an interesting idea, as they come "gift wrapped" in the UI, and it does kinda encourage you to try out each game rather than "BAM. HERE PILE OF GAME."
- Main system UI should have some way of creating folders/user-created organization for games. Right now it just kinda slaps them in "Season 1", "Sideloaded", and "Catalogue" groups. I think there's system UI changes planned in the future, so we'll see if this gets cleaned up
- As mentioned above, the screen is great, and the lack of backlighting is probably better on the eyes. However, this does mean you have to be more cognizant of lighting, depending on how the game looks. Again, it's not nearly as much an issue as you'd think it would be though. Thus being a minor 'neutral' note.
Initial "I played this for like 2 hours" feeling is that this is a really cool piece of hardware, and there's already a few games I've found that I really like.
Day 1 games I've been trying out:
Whitewater Wipeout - https://play.date/games/whitewater-wipeout/ (https://play.date/games/whitewater-wipeout/)
Part of Season 1, a surfing arcade game that uses the crank to change your angle. I'm terrible at this, but it seems pretty neat. Never been one to chase high scores in games like this.
Casual Birder - https://play.date/games/casual-birder/ (https://play.date/games/casual-birder/)
Part of Season 1, a top-down adventure game where you take pictures of birds. Get items to unlock things, take pictures of birds by using the Camera item then putting the bird in frame. You have to crank to change the focus to make sure the bird is really visible to properly get an image. A lot more to this game than I thought at first, seems pretty great. Also great sprite work.
Tau (itch demo) - https://gareth.itch.io/tau (https://gareth.itch.io/tau)
Auto-firing rail shooter, your only input is the crank to move yourself around the cylindrical level. Dodge enemies & projectiles, shoot asteroids, fly through hoops to get score multiplier. Good style, simple fun. Full game is $8 on the Catalogue, so may try that out someday.
Solar Descent (demo) - https://qhoang.itch.io/solar-descent (https://qhoang.itch.io/solar-descent)
Free game on itch. Top town action RPG like zelda but with exp. Seems interesting, you crank to regen AP so you can attack, and crank counter-clockwise to use your flask. Keep dying to the first boss though, its kinda rough to use the crank fast mid-boss battle. I'll keep giving it a try.
Overseer - https://thestoff.itch.io/overseer (https://thestoff.itch.io/overseer)
Metroidvania where you play a cute kitsune girl, and its a fully free game on itch (not just a demo). Seems very damn good so far, first boss fight was really clever. Interesting to see what devs can do with just a few inputs. Down to dodge roll, but if used in the air it becomes air dash. So far my favourite game on the system. I gotta find a way to pay the dev for this.
Later Edit: Overseer gets a noticeable jump in difficulty after the first bit. Mainly due to enemies having a bunch of health, but also no real hitstun. So projectile enemies shooting away from you immediately turn and shoot at you if you hit them. Kinda sucks. Also some platforming is extremely strict, even though its early on. I'll poke more into it over time but haven't gone too much more into it.
Day 2 games that were part of Season 1:
Crankin's Time Travel Adventure - https://play.date/games/crankin/ (https://play.date/games/crankin/)
This is one I was looking forward to in Season 1. Fully crank controlled, you move this robot dude forward/backward in time as he tries to run to his girlfriend as he's late for his date. You have to use elements along his path (sniffing a flower, drinking tea, etc.) to dodge things that would hit you. Like flying pigs. Surprisingly really damn good, has Rhythm Heaven vibes despite not being a rhythm game. Did 22 or 23 levels so far and arm tired from crankin' it.
Boogie Loops - https://play.date/games/boogie-loops/ (https://play.date/games/boogie-loops/)
A cute little music maker for the Playdate. Simple of course, but still functional (notes, extra things, dancing animals, tempo changer, etc). Reminds me of Lovely Composer for the PC. Being on the Playdate makes it a bit harder to use compared to having a mouse, but hey, it's a neat way to make music for the (surprisingly strong) Playdate speaker.