{"id":22680,"date":"2022-10-28T00:01:32","date_gmt":"2022-10-28T00:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=22680"},"modified":"2022-10-03T12:34:14","modified_gmt":"2022-10-03T12:34:14","slug":"playdate-update-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2022\/10\/28\/playdate-update-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"PlayDate Update: Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A while back I reviewed the PlayDate<\/strong><\/a>, a new handheld gaming device that has a crank on the side that you can wind to control some of the games.\u00a0 The other unique thing about this device is how you get the games.\u00a0 They come two at a time and are downloaded automatically on the handheld each week on a Monday.\u00a0 I talked about a few of them when I wrote my initial review, but since I didn\u2019t have all the games yet in \u2018season one,\u2019 I said I would talk about more of the games later when I get a good amount of them.\u00a0 So now that I\u2019ve got a few more, let\u2019s go over what they are here!<\/p>\n

Lost Your Marbles<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a really weird mix of an interactive story and a marble maze tilting game.\u00a0 You are a girl who is about to go visit her scientist friend, who also happens to be a talking cat. \u00a0This cat scientist has invented a new machine that lets your brain automatically pick the best decision without you having to think about it.\u00a0 Unfortunately you make the mistake of bringing your dog with you, who makes a mess of the lab when it sees the cat scientist.\u00a0 Even worse, you were using the new invention at the time, so now that everything got messed up, your brain is all addled and you can\u2019t make the right choices.\u00a0 So now you go out on an adventure to find your dog who has now run away, and see if you can fix the invention as well.\u00a0 But when you get to an important decision, the game switches to a marble maze tilting game where you tilt the maze with the crank.\u00a0 You must make the marble break an object in the maze that represents a decision, but usually the best decisions to make are the hardest to get to in the maze.\u00a0 So yeah, it\u2019s a pretty weird game and it makes me wonder if it\u2019s done by the same folks who did Casual Birder, since it\u2019s done in that same style.<\/p>\n

Pick Pack Pup<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now I really like this one!\u00a0 It\u2019s match three puzzle game where you are a dog and must ship out items by matching up three of them.\u00a0 You slide around the pieces similar to how you would in Puzzle and Dragon, and when three or more are matched up, they\u2019ll turn into an unmovable box.\u00a0 You must try and match up as many as you can, then touch a box with the cursor to ship them all out and earn points.\u00a0 Each stage has an objective, like shipping out a certain number of something in a time limit, or reaching a certain score, etc.\u00a0 My only problem is the text to read these objectives is too small on that little screen!\u00a0 I wish this game would be ported to other consoles, as you only use the crank to scroll the \u2018story\u2019 along, and even then you can just press down on the control pad to do that.<\/p>\n

Flipper Lifter<\/strong><\/p>\n

Use the crank to raise and lower an elevator in a building.\u00a0 Penguins will get on and\/or off, depending on the floor you are on.\u00a0 You get points when they get off.\u00a0 Only problem is it\u2019s hard to tell which floor the penguins need to be on, and the game doesn\u2019t give you any instructions at all.\u00a0 The game is pretty simple, so at least it doesn\u2019t really need much, but a little direction would\u2019ve been nice.\u00a0 It kind of reminds me of a mobile game I reviewed a few years ago called Lifty<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Echoic Memory<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like a memory match game, except instead of flipping over pictures, you\u2019re playing sounds.\u00a0 You must turn the crank to play the sounds, which seems a little unnecessary.\u00a0 I guess it\u2019s good for listening skills.\u00a0 Only problem is they play a lot of Dubstep, and I\u2019m not a fan of that music genre.\u00a0 To me it sounds like Optimus Prime\u2019s digestive tract.<\/p>\n

Demon Quest 85<\/strong><\/p>\n

The menu selection \u2018box art\u2019 of this game makes it look like some sort of cool side scrolling Castlevania-like 2-D action game.\u00a0 Which would be cool since there hasn\u2019t been one of those yet on the PlayDate.\u00a0 But unfortunately, this game isn\u2019t that.\u00a0 You are a high school student and you find a book under your older brother\u2019s bed.\u00a0 The book has instructions for summoning demons, so you must gather clues from the book, pick a tribute (food) from the kitchen, choose the appropriate music, and then invite three friends over from a yearbook menu.\u00a0 If you select all the right things, you\u2019ll summon a demon to help you be more popular at school.\u00a0 So it\u2019s basically a demon summoning dating sim.\u00a0 Blech!\u00a0 No thank you!\u00a0 They even warn you this game may be inappropriate for younger players.\u00a0 And the text is way too tiny on the small screen.\u00a0 Hard pass on this one.<\/p>\n

Amaze<\/strong><\/p>\n

I THINK \u201cAmaze\u201d is the title of this game.\u00a0 It\u2019s not on the title card on the menu screen, just an eyeball.\u00a0 And if you blink, you\u2019ll miss the title at the beginning of the game.\u00a0 So I\u2019m not sure if that\u2019s the game\u2019s title or the developers.\u00a0 Anyway, in this game you use the crank to move a dot around circles.\u00a0 When your dot is next to another circle, you can press the A button to have it switch to the next one.\u00a0 Do this to get to the goal at the end of a sequence of circles.\u00a0 Sometimes you must avoid obstacles and if you hit one, you\u2019ll have to start the maze over again. This game isn\u2019t \u201cAmaze\u201d-ing or anything like that, but it is perfectly suited to the PlayDate handheld.<\/p>\n

Hyper Meteor<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a unique take on Asteroids gameplay.\u00a0 You control a triangular ship like the one in Asteroids, and you steer it around with the crank.\u00a0 Press up to thrust forward.\u00a0 Instead of shooting asteroids, you must ram into them.\u00a0 But you can only ram into white asteroids.\u00a0 If you ram into the side of the asteroid that is black while it\u2019s rotating around, you\u2019ll explode and lose a life.\u00a0 If you press right on the d-pad, you\u2019ll use a smart bomb that\u2019ll clear out the whole screen.\u00a0 Use those when things get too chaotic.\u00a0 Only problem I have with this game is that the background is white with these abstract shapes all over, and it makes it hard to see your ship.\u00a0 Plus this game requires more precision control than Asteroids since you\u2019re ramming into things instead of shooting them from a distance.\u00a0 And I was never that good at Asteroids anyway, even if it is a fun game.<\/p>\n

Zipper<\/strong><\/p>\n

I guess this would be considered like a super simple strategy game.\u00a0 You are a ninja samurai dude storming a Japanese castle.\u00a0 You view the action in an isometric viewpoint and the spaces where you can move are full of squares.\u00a0 You can move as many squares as you want to as long as it is in one direction.\u00a0 When you do that, you\u2019ll \u2018zip\u2019 to the last square you highlighted.\u00a0 In each single screen room are enemies you must deal with.\u00a0 When you move, they\u2019ll move a certain number of squares, too.\u00a0 You must figure out where you can move so you can cross paths with them and kill them before they get you.\u00a0 Only problem is I can\u2019t tell you any more than that because the game comes with no instructions so I\u2019m not totally sure how to deal with enemies or their logic or whatever.\u00a0 Maybe I\u2019m just old fashioned, but I\u2019ve been playing video games for over 40 years, so I would like to consider myself pretty adept at figuring these kinds of things out.\u00a0 But at least a LITTLE direction would\u2019ve been nice.\u00a0 Especially since when you die, you must start over at the beginning of the castle again!<\/p>\n

Executive Golf DX<\/strong><\/p>\n

You play golf in an office building skyscraper in 2-D side scrolling fashion.\u00a0 Regular golf controls work here.\u00a0 Change the trajectory with the D-pad, and the strength of the swing with the A button in time with a rising meter.\u00a0 You must make it to the elevator on the top of a few floors, which serves as the \u2018hole.\u2019\u00a0 You must also watch out for obstacles like office furniture along the way.\u00a0 The gaps you must make the ball go through to get to the next floor are teeny tiny and hard to get through, and yet once you make it up there, it\u2019s super easy for the ball to fall back down again.\u00a0 So yeah, more frustrating than fun in my opinion.<\/p>\n

Questy Chess<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now this one is a bit interesting, even if it\u2019s not my cup of tea.\u00a0 You are a pawn stuck inside an old chess playing computer.\u00a0 In fact, all the graphics look like an old Apple PC and the sound effects are like the grinding and whirring noises of floppy disk drives, if anyone remembers those.\u00a0 It\u2019s kind of like a strategy game using chess rules.\u00a0 In each level you must get to the exit using pawn moves, either moving one or two spaces forward.\u00a0 Land on enemies to defeat them.\u00a0 If they get the best of you, you\u2019ll lose a health bar from your meter of three.\u00a0 Run out and you must start the level over again.\u00a0 Also if you run out of moves, you must start over as well.\u00a0 You can get items that\u2019ll help you change the landscape so you can move forward.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure if you can play as other chess pieces with their moves, as I didn\u2019t get very far with this one since I\u2019m not a big fan of chess anyway.\u00a0 But I guess this would be a good way to learn some chess strategies, maybe?<\/p>\n

End of Part 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all for now!\u00a0 There should be ten more games coming out for \u2018season one,\u2019 so in a couple more months, I\u2019ll post a final update with those.\u00a0 You\u2019d think that with a handheld game with a crank on its side, one of those titles would be a fishing game.\u00a0 But I guess we\u2019ll just have to wait and see!\u00a0 Later!\u00a0 –Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A while back I reviewed the PlayDate, a new handheld gaming device that has a crank on the side that you can wind to control some of the games.\u00a0 The other unique thing about this device is how you get the games.\u00a0 They come two at a time and are downloaded automatically on the handheld […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22674,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22680"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22682,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22680\/revisions\/22682"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}