Playdate game reviews
As covered in our Playdate review, the little yellow handheld comes with a “season” of 24 games. That’s a lot of content to crank through, so you might be satisfied by those titles enough to never acquire more games. However, with Catalog (the Playdate app store) up and running, it’s super easy to purchase new games and download them onto your device. Plus, with the Playdate being an open platform, sideloading games is also an option. Basically the world beyond Season One is vast and filled with portable gaming opportunities.
So with that in mind, here are a handful of reviews for Playdate games you can buy today. Instead of doing individual posts for each game, I’ve decided to do one larger post of mini-reviews. I figure small games, small reviews; seems fitting. Alright, let’s get started.
Catalog Games
Pullfrog Playdate Deluxe
Made by Amano, Pullfrog Deluxe is a Playdate remake of a colorful PICO-8 game. An adorable amphibian adventure, Pullfrog is the perfect combination of falling-block puzzle game and platformer. In fact, you are basically playing a platforming game inside of Tetris. This might be the textbook definition of a Puzzle Platformer.
Like with Tetris, block pieces of various shapes fall down into a well, and—again, like Tetris—completing horizontal lines causes those blocks to disappear. But unlike a traditional puzzle game, the player can’t control the movement of pieces directly. Instead, you take on the role of a little frog in the well, who can jump around and drag the falling blocks around with his long froggy tongue. That’s easier said than done, however, as the trick is to avoid being squashed by the blocks in such a confined space.
In addition to dragging falling blocks, the frog’s tongue can also be used to break blocks that are already at rest. This can be a useful trick for completing lines when the pieces didn’t land quite as well as you would’ve liked. As multiple lines are cleared, the game provides the player with a selection of power-ups. Options include increased jumping height, a longer tongue, an extra life, and so on. And as you get farther into the game, you even unlock new playable characters.
Having spent a good amount of time with Pullfrog, I must admit that the gameplay takes some getting used to. Jumping around is simple enough, but using the frog’s tongue to maneuver falling pieces takes considerable practice. First you have to actually hit the block you're aiming for, and then you need to direct it one way or the other. You’re also likely to be attempting this move while in midair, leaping around the playfield. So there are plenty of variables to juggle, and the Playdate’s D-Pad might start to feel a bit small or otherwise inhibiting.
Even with my own control struggles, I can wholeheartedly endorse Pullfrog Deluxe as a Playdate title well worth your time and money. It’s exactly the kind of game I want on my portable handheld and makes for an excellent showcase of what the device can do.
Tau
Made by Gareth Williams, Tau is a 3D on-rails shooter in the vein of Star Fox and Space Harrier, but controlled entirely with the crank. This game has gates to fly through like Star Fox and checker-patterned terrain like Space Harrier. However, unlike those titles, your ship is always firing projectiles at a constant rate, automatically.
The playfield in Tau is actually one large cylinder, and your ship is flying down its surface. With constant forward momentum, the player is able to stir the ship left or right using the crank, rotating around the cylindrical field. Since your ship is shooting automatically, there’s no need for Fire Button, and the whole game can be played using only crank controls.
Visually, Tau is crazy impressive, sporting 3D visuals one wouldn’t think possible on the Playdate. The cylindrical playfield might be made of polygons, but your ship, enemies, and other in-game objects appear to be well-designed flat sprites, creating a pseudo-3D appearance through clever animation. However it was done, the game looks amazing, and it’s great fun to play as well.
Any Playdate owner who’s a fan of Star Fox needs to play Tau immediately.
Jezzak
JEZZAK, which comes to us from Optimal Prime Futureworks LLC, is an area-capturing game in the style of Jezzball or Qix. While it’s a classic type of puzzler, Jezzak interestingly includes an apocalyptic storyline to lend the game a narrative.
As these games usually work, the player’s cursor extends vertical or horizontal lines out to the edge of the playfield—called the Isolator—in order to create a wall. Bouncing balls must be avoided when extending the isolator, as they break it (and damage the player) on contact. Whenever an area is walled off without any balls inside of it, that area is captured by the player. Capture 80% of the playfield and you win the stage.
Jezzak spices up its gameplay with power-ups and way to “overcharge” the isolator, which build walls faster. Overcharging can be risky, however, as if you overcharge too much, the player will explode. The flexibility provided by these extra options gives the game more long-lasting appeal than it otherwise would have.
As far as the story goes, I honestly didn’t feel compelled to check it out. The Arcade mode(s) was more-or-less exactly what I was looking for, so I mostly played that. If you’re fan of Qix, Jezzball, or Barrack than you really should give this one a try.
Hermit
Made by Matt Medal, Hermit is a little Solitaire game for Playdate. I got pretty excited for this one, which I suppose shows how old and boring I’ve become. But what can I say? Few time-wasting diversions are as reliable as Solitaire. And I am but a simple man.
Unfortunately this isn’t exactly the solitaire game I wanted. Hermit appears to be a riff on Free Cell solitaire, a variation that I’m not really accustomed to. My preference would have been the classic Klondike style solitaire, but that’s not an option here. Perhaps with the Playdate’s small monochrome screen, the emphasis Klondike puts on suits would have been an issue. In any case, I haven’t really connected with Hermit as much as I would have liked.
Personal solitaire quibbles aside, it must be said that Hermit does look fantastic on Playdate. Everything from the text font to menu style exudes a mid-90’s early Windows aesthetic. Visually, this game nails the assignment. If you enjoy Free Cell solitaire, give Hermit a shot.
Games to Sideload
Immediately after playing a bit of everything Season One had to offer, I had decided to sideload a few games as well. That process was easy enough, but it’s even easier now. If you create a Playdate account with Panic today, sideloading games is really simple as just uploading a zip file on your browser.
Funnily enough, almost every free game I have found to sideload has been an unofficial 1-bit remake of some previously released game. (Which will become quite obvious in a moment.) So without further ado, here are my top recommendations for games to sideload on your Playdate.
Playdate remake of a Flash game
Playdate remake of a PICO-8 game
Playdate remake of the PICO-8 version of Celeste
Playdate remake of Pac-Man
