This month I finished up Horizon: Forbidden West and am still playing more Gran Turismo, but last week my little yellow Playdate finally came in the mail.
The Playdate
I don't feel like the Playdate should need an introduction but it's also such a niche device that it probably does. Developed by Panic (yes, the Mac developers behind Transmit and Nova) with some assistance from Teenage Engineering, the Playdate is a small handheld game console that embraces some pretty severe limitations to encourage a modern take to classic video game designs.
To start it's quite small - about the size of an iPhone cut in half. The screen is 2.7", 400x240px, 1-bit black and white. There are two main buttons, a d-pad, a home button, and a crank (yes a crank!). Many reviewers have complained about the lack of a backlight on the screen, but I think it's just an additional limitation that invokes some nostalgia. I haven't had much of an issue finding enough light since the screen is so reflective.
Games can be developed by anyone and side-loaded by just dropping them into a website where they will automatically be downloaded by the device but Panic also includes a season of games being released each week for the first twelve weeks. Two a week for a total of twenty four included games. The first two are Whitewater Wipeout, an arcade surfing game that exclusively uses the crank as an input method, and Casual Birder, a birdwatching RPG. I also downloaded Bloom on Itch.io. This is a real-time narrative gardening game that really shows off the depth that can be implemented into Playdate games.
The Play date is a very cool device and I can't wait to see what the other 20 games in season 1 are (I didn't mention the other two that I've got and also refuse to spoil myself on the rest).
I also had a Steam Deck show up on Friday, but I'll save that for next month.