PLAYDATE

Our launch verdict on the belated arrival of Panic’s portable, and its debut season of games

Finally, it’s here – for a select group of players, at least. It feels like a long time since May 2019, when E333’s cover story introduced the world to Panic’s yolkcoloured handheld, but then we’ve all endured a pandemic since then. That partly accounts for the holdup, and for a slower-than-planned hardware rollout. But we’re not here to talk about Playdate’s manufacturing issues, which are already well documented – and not unique, as many would-be PS5 owners will attest. We do recognise, though, that while we’re fortunate enough to receive one of the first retail units direct from Playdate’s maker (magazine lead times do have their advantages sometimes), plenty of interested parties will still be waiting for theirs to arrive. At time of writing, the first batch should be on its way to those who got their orders in first. Anyone preordering now can expect to receive theirs no sooner than ‘late 2022’.

By our reckoning, Playdate could well be the most press-, streamer-and developer-friendly handheld ever

There’s a sad irony that this has been forced upon a console that is otherwise so immediate and approachable: indeed, by our reckoning, Playdate could well be the most press-, streamer-and developer-friendly handheld ever. Those of us who recall the hassle capturing from Sony and Nintendo portables will be pleasantly surprised by the Mirror desktop app, which, as well as letting you record footage easily (at 2x zoom if you prefer) will also let you play its games in a window on your PC via its USB-C-to-A cable. That should somewhat ameliorate complaints about accessibility, since you can expand that 400x240 display to fill your monitor, or map inputs to a console controller or keyboard.

Budding developers, meanwhile, can tinker with the Web-based game creation tool Pulp. Tailored to the hardware’s strengths, it’s a welcoming and flexible package, designed to make it straightforward to build your first Playdate game. Subsequently trying it out is simple, too: export the PDX file and upload it to the official website, and it will be added to your account; on any registered device, you merely need visit the settings menu and your list of available titles will autorefresh, letting you install your new game. To illustrate this, Panic allows us to sideload an early version of Bloom, an engaging gardening-themed life sim that runs in real time, à la Animal Crossing – though this preview build speeds up progression to give us a flavour of it more quickly.

We haven’t yet had the opportunity to try out the stereo dock (with built-in pen holder), but its chunky, cuboid appearance can’t help but bring to mind a certain Nintendo console

Indeed, for press there is an accelerated rollout of Playdate’s first season of games: we receive a pair each day across a span of 12 days, rather than two per week on the appointed, well, playdate. While some of the anticipation is lost, there is still something gently thrilling about seeing the hardware’s tiny light flashing to let us know we have a new delivery. Each new arrival (and that includes sideloaded games) appears in giftwrapped form, with robotic arms pulling the ribbons apart to unveil the game within, accompanied by a fanfare and a burst of confetti: a winsome flourish on a console that is hardly short of charm as it is.