If you’ve held an old-school Gameboy before, then the Playdate will feel familiar. The Playdate is really a portable handheld device having a D-Pad, A/B buttons, a couple.7″ monochrome screen (that isn’t backlit) as well as a crank, which is not only its most unique feature, but the most compelling after going hands-on. In some games, the crank is certainly used in a gimmicky way, however in others, it allows you to make precise movements that merely wouldn’t be possible with any other input mechanic. It’s also utilized in a number of games to scroll text and the like, which not only felt natural, but also had me reading in-game text more like a magazine, scrolling inside my own pace, rather than just pressing the A button over and over again.
The Playdate feels great in the hands, with the quality feeling a lot more like a Nintendo product instead of some cheap knock-off. Whilst the screen is gorgeous in the right lighting, I’d be lying if I asserted there wasn’t more than a number of times which i desired to use the Playdate, in both bed at night, or sitting in non-direct light within my house, and only agreed to be left not able to begin to see the screen in a way that would do the game justice. This was worse more often than not after i was looking at white on black backgrounds, and that i fully appreciate why there isn’t a backlight within this tiny device, but I’d hope later on that people at least see some third-party or official accessory that either shines an easy on the display, or just somehow makes it more visible in under perfect situations.
There’s also an accelerometer included in the unit, which wasn’t used as often because the crank, but it’s an excellent thing to have inside a modern portable console. The speaker can also be surprisingly good given how small , light this device is, but there’s additionally a headphone jack, in addition to a microphone built in, so really all grounds are covered, for future use. With regards to battery life, Panic shows that it lasts 8 hours and I’d say that’s roughly in-line with my experience. There’s additionally a clock display that's on the screen once your device is sleeping (you can choose between analogue and digital) and you’ll get roughly 14 days standby by using this, but no doubt this is for use using the dock that's set to launch post release.
Any console is going to live and die by its software, and whilst I can see the potential in the hardware, and love the idea of getting 24 games free with the console and achieving them delivered to you over a 12 week roll-out, the downside of the isn't that everything will be for everyone. As mentioned, there’s 24 games in season one (you can find them all here), some are as simple as Whitewater Wipeout which accurately has you just using the crank to try and ride waves to be able to beat your highscore or Boogie Loops that is literally a basic music mixer. The great thing is that even though you boot right into a game and don’t like it, nothing has been wasted (outside of the initial hardware purchase).
When the games did resonate, boy did I've found myself struggling to take my thoughts from them. Games such as Pick Pack Pup that is a clever puzzler about a removalist doggo or Crank’s Time Travel Adventure which has you simply while using crank in order to control a robot who must make his date by a certain time. Both were insanely simple, both in their premise and gameplay mechanic, but that was part of their charm, and what kept me coming back. Are they games that may exist on other platforms? Probably, but there was just something stand out about playing these games on the handheld that felt enjoy it was in the 90s. There weren’t huge, expansive worlds to understand more about or dozens of mechanics to navigate, it was just fun gaming in its purest form.
It may appear weird, but this really did sometimes, seem like if Nintendo released the Gameboy in 2023, and then had a bunch of games designed for it with modern sensibilities. It’s a really interesting mixture of old-school hardware with a bunch of really cool Indie developers developing games for it, with the learnings of history 20 or 3 decades.
Whilst we don’t determine if you will see further seasons of games, you’re able to sideload games really easily via the Playdate website. I had been able to perform this using the first paid Playdate released for any game called Bloom (it’s $10 USD). Panic has also announced a marketplace app called Catalog that will presumably let you download free/paid games post-release.
There’s a host of other software that’s already available too, such as Playdate Mirror which helps you to plug your Playdate to your PC and instantly get it mirrored on the display, so that you can use a controller, capture content or livestream to platforms. It worked flawlessly and honestly much better than most software from larger publishers. There’s also Pulp that allows talented people to easily build games for the Playdate.
Everything concerning the Playdate oozes polish, and I’d recommend the handheld for any gamer, if it weren’t for two things. The cost which is almost $300 AUD with shipping, which again does include 24 games, but is still a decent investment, as well as the proven fact that if you were to order one today, you won’t be capable of getting one until 2023 (unless production magically improves before then).
What I will say though is when you can get you on one of those devices, even for a couple weeks for a friend as such, you’re going to be set for a great time, and not for the proven fact that many of these games couldn’t be played on another console, but simply because it does indeed feel like an ideal mixture of retro gaming with modern games, without the constant have to play online or improve your games. It’s a very fun time.
