6
The first deliveries are approaching for the Playdate, the amazing portable hand-cranked console from the American publisher Panic. A very original and wildly crunchy little beast, but which unfortunately we risk having quickly gone around.
She had been talking about her for almost three years. Announced in May 2019, the Playdate, designed by the American company Panic (publisher of the recent darlings of the indie game that are Firewatch and Untitled Goose Game) was originally supposed to see the light of day in the first half of 2020, then finally piled on some of those delays that the gaming world, like tech at large, has become accustomed to in recent years. But the wait has come to an end, at least for the very first people to have reserved the machine, who started receiving it from April 18. Our comrade Lucile “Luma” Malargé from gamekult was also able to get her hands on the console. Here are the highlights of his impressions.
A neo-Game Boy full of charm
As soon as it was announced, the Playdate immediately attracted many intrigued eyes, due to its concept going against the current of the time: far, very far from the race for technological sophistication, it presents itself as a kind of neo-Game Boy, with its small black and white LCD screen of 400 x 240 px. But its most striking singularity is obviously the small crank flanked on its right side, an unusual control interface that game developers are invited to use as they please. This curious appendix sets the tone for the state of mind of the machine: it claims to be a small concentrate of oddity, of eccentricity. A console that you grab to enjoy a few small laboratory games, simple and short, but whose primary virtue will always be originality.
On a physical level in any case, the fact is that when you see the Playdate for the first time, it is very difficult not to immediately fall under its spell. Its soft lines and its particularly bright yellow color immediately communicate a very jovial mood. In hand, the sensations given are also very good, even if the tiny size of the console could pose some small problems of long-term comfort, depending on the morphology and the sensitivity of each one. But the good surprise comes mainly from this famous screen, which pushes the nod to the Game Boy until the absence of any form of lighting. But don’t worry: its readability is excellent, far superior to that of the first portable consoles from Nintendo. And if it is certainly impossible to play in complete darkness, there is however no need to contort yourself under the direct light of a lamp to hope to see something there. On the contrary, the non-emissive nature of the screen even has the advantage of being more restful for the eyes, like an e-reader display.
A first season of 24 games, with variable interest
And on the content side then, how are things going? Again, quite unusually. Panic has made the rather clever choice of organizing its outing schedule in the form of “seasons”. The first has just started as of this writing, and will run for 12 weeks, during which two new games will be released each week. Twenty-four titles in total therefore, downloadable (via wifi connectivity) at no additional cost for all purchasers of the machine. Regarding the following seasons, several games have already been announced, but nothing is set in stone regarding the form they will take, the number of games they will contain, and above all the price at which they will be offered. Panic indeed prefers to keep a little latitude to adapt its plans according to the success of the first season.
Among all these games, these are 10 titles to which our friends from Gamekult had access for their test of the machine. Sufficient to note, perhaps without great surprise, that not all of them make extraordinarily thoughtful and inspired use of the crank. Among the best students from this point of view, we find in particular Time Travel Adventurefrom the fertile imagination of Keita Takahashi (creator of Katamari Damacy). This platform game is even played exclusively with the crank, which we turn in one direction or the other in order to advance or reverse time, and thus allow our character to cross a succession of tables on a rhythm. making him avoid the multiple obstacles standing in his way. A very ingenious use of the mechanism, but which is unfortunately accompanied by some frustrations: the precision that the game requires in places is not really compatible with its display on a very small unlit screen.
Time Travel Adventure. © Panic
In the end, the most distressing observation is that at present, the most pleasant games and with the strongest taste for coming back to the machine are found above all among those using the crank in the most secondary way. , even anecdotal. So is the puzzle game in isometric view zipper by Bennett Foddy (QWOP, Getting Over It), where the crank is only used to launch previews of each move, completely optional. As for the “match-3” Pick Pack Puphe invites you to turn the crank only to… stroke the head of the game’s eponymous puppy. So we won’t get much out of it other than a little joke.
After the curiosity effect, what will remain?
In the end, beyond the initial power of attraction of the machine, we have to admit that its games have a little trouble being more than friendly curiosities, admittedly sometimes exciting, but never enough for us to find enough to spend more than a few hours there. And now suddenly hovering above the Playdate the serious risk that it ends very soon forgotten at the bottom of a drawer. Obviously, it is not impossible that salvation will come from future games of the machine. And we are talking here not only of those to which the big names in video games are attached – for example, a strong expectation has been created around March After Midnightthe next creation of Lucas Pope (Papers, Please, Return of the Obra Dinn) —, but also titles signed by the hand of all young creators, for whom the Playdate also wants to be a springboard. It is for this reason that Panic has endeavored to create an SDK as easy to use as possible, and to make said SDK downloadable for free by everyone.
Will this approach bear fruit? Players who have not yet gone to the cash register have time to see anyway: if you decide to place an order today, it is not before 2023 that you will be debited the 242 dollars (i.e. 179 dollars for the console + 27 dollars of transport towards France + 36 dollars of taxes, all the same!) confirming the expedition of the machine.