The Playdate Review: an interesting step forward for handheld gaming
The Playdate is a fascinating little handheld console from Panic, a team that, after years of working on Macs, decided to try its hand at creating its own console platform. And for the most part? I’d say that they’ve already succeeded, as my time with the Playdate has been full of nothing but my innate desire to explore the tiny device and discover its full potential.
Handheld gaming has always been something that’s appealed to gamers, particularly in this new decade with the upgraded Nintendo Switch OLED and the ever-evolving Steam Deck. Gaming is changing and more and more of us are looking for ways to game on the go, or on the comfort of our sofa. With the Playdate, you can do both, and all you need is light to work well with the reflective display, a free hand, and the desire to play. In this way, the console is very familiar to that of the Game Boy Advance.
Of course, the Playdate is far from perfect and its lack of accessibility options is something that ultimately prevents the handheld console from achieving the perfect score.
The Playdate comes packaged in a rectangular, yellow box. Its contents include a USB-C to A Cable which is used for charging the device, as well as a user guide. I recommend giving the user guide a brief look, but for gamers who just want to jump on in and game as fast as possible, the tutorial that comes with the console should be sufficient enough to get started.
Key Specs
Dimensions: 76 × 74 × 9 mm
Display: 400 × 240 1-bit
Battery: Around 14 days standby clock or 5-8 hours during active play
Bluetooth: Yes
WiFi: Yes
Weight: 3.03 oz
CPU: 180 MHz Cortex M7, the SDK supports Lua, C
Speakers: Built-In Mono Speaker, Stereo Headphone Jack, and Condenser Mic + TRRS Mic In
Storage: 16 MB RAM, 32 KB L1 Cache, 4 GB Flash
Looks and Features
The moment I unearth the Playdate from its packaging, I’m struck by just how small it is. The device can easily fit, snug as a bug, in the palm of my hand and as someone who was often nicknamed ‘baby hands’ throughout my entire working life, that’s quite the feat. It has a stylish, yellow paint job and a crank that makes a fun, digital ‘THUNK’ noise each time you insert it back into its proper place, and a ‘SHWIP’ jangle when you take it out to play. If nothing else, the Playdate really leans into having a charming personality, one that makes it stand out in comparison to consoles like the Xbox Series X/S and PS5. The Playdate wants you to feel enamoured by it, and I can’t deny that only an hour or two into my time with it, I was very much won over.
One of the things that makes the Playdate unique is its use of the crank, a slim, metallic handle that you can wind forwards and backwards to navigate the console’s menus (if you’re not happy just using the D-pad, of course), as well as use in games. Part of the crank is a yellow handle, which you can also twist to get the same effect. For the most part, the use of the crank is purely circumstantial, with some games (such as Zipper by Bennett Foddy) not really implementing the crank at all, whereas in Crankin’s Time Travel Adventure by uvula there is nothing to use but the crank.
For the majority of my time with the device, I found myself preferring a lot of the games that have the crank not take up the entirety of the gameplay as eventually the feature started to feel a little too gimmicky for my tastes. In my eyes, the crank works best when it’s used in a way that actively makes sense and flows neatly with gameplay, not used solely because it’s there.
Another handy, dandy feature – and one that surprised me with how much I liked it – is that the Playdate doesn’t shut down when you aren’t using it – but reverts to a clock. In the Settings of the device you can change how that clock looks (whether it’s analogue, digital, or my personal favourite, through the use of a speech bubble), but you can’t switch it off in its entirety. It may seem like a little bit of a waste of battery, but after checking on the console after a day of not playing, I was amazed to see that the battery, located in the bottom right corner of the display, had barely moved at all. While not exactly a necessity, it’s nice to be immediately reminded of the time the moment I lock the Playdate and put it down for the day.
Games
The first two games that come with the Playdate are Casual Birder by Diego Garcia, and Whitewater Wipeout from Chuhai Labs. Naturally, these two games displayed different ways in which the crank could be implemented, with Casual Birder using the crank as a way to take photos, and Whitewater Wipeout encouraging players to perform tricks on the waves with a twist of the crank. I was absolutely awful at the latter but found myself thoroughly enjoying how photography could be used as a gameplay device in the former. The use of getting the perfect picture with the crank is also used in other games, such as Sasquatchers from Chuck Jordan.
Still, it isn’t just photography that shines when it comes to the Playdate. The crank is used well in uvula’s Crankin’s Time Travel Adventure where you play as Crankin, an incredibly sleepy guy who is always late for his dates with Crankette. The crank of the Playdate is used to wake him up and get him to the date, all while avoiding obstacles like butterflies and 30 to 50 feral hogs. As expected from the title, there’s liberal use of time travel, and it fits the tone of the game like a glove, quickly making it a favourite of mine despite being thoroughly stuck on Level 9. It’s just that good.
The games on the Playdate are incredibly varied, meaning that you should keep your expectations on the games as open-minded as possible. One moment you could be playing a crew of cryptid hunters, looking for their next big scoop, and then the next you’re playing a Japanese warrior who has come home to take revenge on those who have hurt him. And then…well, you could be playing a game that asks you to make animals dance. …Yeah!
More games are to be expected to come out for the Playdate after the first season, however, whether they’ll be free – or distributed in the same way as the first season – remains to be seen.
Accessibility
One of the biggest criticisms I have for the Playdate is that despite me enjoying its small body, and huge weirdness, it sees the strides being made in accessibility with other platforms and sadly falls short of anything remotely to do with that. There are accessibility options in the settings, but they are only limited to two changes: flipping the screen so you hold the console upside down and the crank rests above your knuckles, or get rid of the flashes that appears in some of the games. These options are at least something, but as far as I’m concerned? The Playdate doesn’t go far enough.
A lot of where I feel the console fails in accessibility is with its display: a reflective, black and white screen that really captures the essence of the games you play, but is also just too small to be comfortable. I wear glasses, so already my eye sight isn’t the greatest, but often I found myself having to pull the device in closer to see what was happening on screen, meaning I had to twist my wrists at an odd angle. This wasn’t too bad, as my hands are quite small, but I can imagine having to do this with larger hands would be pretty fiddly.
The Verdict
The Playdate is definitely a quirky console that asks those interested in it to be open-minded, and the dorky personality it possesses is part of its charm, but I’m unsure that it has what it takes to stand alongside other handheld devices like the Switch and the Steam Deck. However, I’m not certain if the Playdate itself even wants to do that, content instead with showcasing a way to game that isn’t entirely reliant on being big and beautiful.
For now, the Playdate is a platform that’s still growing into its boots, but it’s feverous desire to stand out makes it hard not to root for it to succeed.
Score: 4/5
A review copy of The Playdate was provided to Gayming Magazine by PR.
You can pre-order the Playdate for yourself on the official website.
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