The Panic Playdate - a handheld you probably won’t have heard of with a unique feature!

 

Well I’m pretty sure this is a handheld not too many of you will know about - it’s called the PlayDate and it’s made by a company called Panic who are best known for the excellent adventure game Firewatch.

The machine is unusual in the fact that it employs a crank handle on the side of the machine which, for many games is the main method of control, think of it as Panic’s equivalent to an analogue stick!  It works brilliantly and docks magnetically in the side of the machine when not required.

The screen is good, although the only downside is it isn’t backlit so playing in poor light could be an issue but indoors under good light or outdoors it should be fine.

Included with the machine in what Panic calls ‘Season 1’ are 24 games, these are released at the rate of 2 each week for 12 weeks starting with when you first register and activate the machine.  When two new games are available a light blinks on the top of the machine and there’s also a small notification on the screen.  Installing them is simply a question of accessing the Games menu and downloading and installing, a feature I like is you unwrap each game as if unwrapping a present which is quite fun!  Releasing the games like this is a great idea and gives you two little surprises to look forward to each Monday.  I’m so far three weeks in and out of the six games I’ve received at the time of writing it’s a mixture of great games with a few duds as well, the best two so far are a surfing game called Whitewater Wipeout and a ‘match 3 symbols’ type game called Pick Pack Pup.  From looking at the full list of 24 games it would appear that the best titles are yet to come so stay tuned to this blog for any updates as I unwrap them each week!

An active community is already also developing their own games for the system and these are available either for free or for a very small fee mostly on the itch.io website.  These games are sideloaded quickly and easily onto the system using Panic’s dedicated sideloading website.  So far I’ve installed some excellent titles including Asteroids and a version of Dr. Mario, the fact that such an active community exists for the PlayDate should hopefully ensure a healthy future.

To sum up this is a terrific little machine unlike anything I’ve seen or played before and I love it! OK there have been a couple of duds so far in the Season 1 games but am confident that the majority of the remaining titles will more than make up for it!  A brilliant, innovative and fun little handheld!