Board 8 > Suprak's Playdate Play Date (Playing Through EVERY Playdate Game)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Still Playing: Lost Your Marbles

Thoughts:
-Help I can't get free of this.
-Ok. Seven out of 10 endings now. I'm slowing down each and every one thought because this just isn't fun.
-Also, I've played enough now to know this game is a SCAM.
-So yeah, technically you have all these different pathways but the truth is there are only a couple that actually matter.
-Like, the first area you go to (library) has three separate paths depending on your choices during the marble sections. But then, regardless of which of the three paths you take, and regardless of which of the three choices you make in any of those three paths, you always go to the exact same spot next.
-Same thing after that. At the ball museum you have three paths you can take. BUT when you get to one of those three places and you make one of the three next choices, nothing matters. You go to the same ending bit regardless.
-The endings work like this (1 of 3 of the first choice that changes things) and then (1 of 3 of the second choice that changes things) gives you 9 of the 10 endings. Nothing else matters. ITS A SCAM PEOPLE. SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE
-I have not yet figured out how to get that tenth endings, but the final checklist shows two options from the very first lab scene and I've only ever found one so it has to be tied to that.
-Also, the more I play the less "charming" I find the writing here and I never really found it charming to begin with.
-All the funny bits are Prota saying dumb stuff when you pick the bad choices, and honestly only about half of the scenes here even have funny dialogue for that.
-I'm looking forward to being done with this. I'm like six games back on the season now because I've been trapped here. SOON

Time Played: It's been like...fuck. 15 hours now? I hate that I've been playing this that long
High Score: Best ending I've gotten so far is (good choice - bad choice) for the two choices that matter. I still have good medium and good good left.
Beaten? So many times. SO MANY TIMES
Grade: 3/10. It might've been a four if the choices mattered more or the marble bits were more fun, but they aren't. It has been trending downwards but I feel like its safe from a 2 still.
Favorite Part So Far: You can get Prota sent to traffic school on one pathway and one of the questions is "what's the minimum speed you can go where hydroplaning can occur" and the dumb answer is "hydroplane". That at least got a chuckle out of me.

Game #5 Complete! Lost Your Marbles

Final Thoughts: The more I played this the less I liked it. The best way to play it is to play it for like ten minutes, shut it off, and let the game end on a high note. The three bad choice options in the library (which is the first real level) is far and away the funniest scene of the game. So, check out that scene, turn the game off, and call it a day.

I'm also annoyed because I spent like an extra two hours trying to get the last ending before figuring out I've now locked myself into the "best" ending so I can't see one. Apparently if you unlock all the other endings you get the "special" one which is an incredibly cringey rap which rivals the Scott's Tots episode of The Office for giving me secondhand embarrassment. You're supposed to get an ending based on one of the nine possible paths you can take, but I tried three different ones (including ones I had seen before) and it kept showing me the same ending regardless. So now I have every checkmark in the game but one. Cool. That won't torture my fake OCD.

Speaking of fake choices and endings, it was around the time that I discovered that the game is much smaller than it presents itself and a lot of "choices" here don't matter at all that the game lost a whole point from me. Do the best, middle, or worst ending for the Skate Park or the best, middle, or worst ending from the preschool or the best, middle, or worst ending from the sandwich shop? Doesn't matter, who cares. You're going to the Ball Museum regardless. There's a lot of options here but only two of them really matter and the rest is just shuffling dialogue around.

And the game is occasionally funny, but mostly cringey. It is pretty poorly written and they try to make Prota feel earnest but she really mostly comes off as annoying. "Oh man it must be so cool to have a mom who is a professional wrestler." "Oh yah my dad is super cool as well. He's a preschool teacher." That's some of the absolutely riveting dialogue from the end of the game and there's a lot of stuff like that.

Also Prota kinda sucks. They try to make her quirky but she's more annoying than anything else. The game starts off with Prota being twenty minutes late to work, being forced to walk her dog, and deciding to take her dog to work with her where it attacks the professor (who is a cat) and ruins his invention. Then, at the end of the game, regardless of what decisions you make she takes a two and a half hour nap on the grass and winds up being almost late to the end scene. Everything in the game is her fault and the more I played the game the more I was annoyed by her.

And the more I played the game the less I was charmed by any part of it. The marble mazes are boring, feature weird physics, and there are only a couple here that have any sort of interesting design to them. The dialogue options start feeling lazy and there are really only a couple of scenes (the library, the safety center) that really do a decent job of leaning into the humor. I went through getting every path and more often than not it felt like a complete waste of time for a couple of different lines of dialogue that really weren't all that interesting.

The game also commits the cardinal sin of game design for a game like this and it doesn't let you skip to specific segments. You can skip the dialogue, but you have to do the marble scene over and over again even if you've already unlocked a specific path before. It leads to a lot of redundancy if you want to see all the endings, and the game wasn't good enough to make me want to play it the first time much less the second or third or fourth.

I wasted way too much time on this. I've got a backlog of games now because I was stubborn and refused to move on until I did every pathway for this on the off chance I was missing something good. I wasn't. You won't be. Skip this one.

Should You Play It? No. Like I said, check out up to the library, get the funny endings, and turn it off. You'll save yourself twenty joyless hours.

Final Score: I want to say a high three. It's a bad game but it is almost a "kinda bad" sort of game. Congrats?

Games Completed: 5/90

Game Rankings:
5) Boogie Loops
4) Whitewater Wipeout
3) Lost Your Marbles
2) Casual Birder
1) Crankin's Time Travel Adventure

Currently Playing: Pick Pack Pup

What Is It? A match three with a puppy. What is with this system and puppies?

Thoughts:
-There are these cute little comics preceding each level. It stars a puppy. Cute! He appears to get sucked into an Amazon Warehouse type job situation. Less cute.
-The gameplay here is pretty simple and SHOCKINGLY not crank related. You move tiles around and when you match three (or more) they turn into a tetris block like package that you can send away. If you get multiple of these adjacent to each other, you can send them all at once to get a higher score. AW YEAH.
-After the tutorial you can access the menu and there's a couple of options here. You have a story mode (30 levels), an endless mode, a speedrun mode, and some other stuff. I could see myself playing around with this for a while, already.
-The introductory levels here are fun, but honestly I don't know what a fail state is. There aren't enough different tiles to really get stuck, I don't think. You don't seem to be timed so I don't know how to lose.
-It reminds me a lot of Yoshi's Cookie, which is good because I liked Yoshi's Cookie.
-The story gets to a scene with some dog being like "they don't like it when you take breaks here don't take breaks or they'll yell at you." Pick Pack Pup is 100% working at Amazon and one of these levels will have a mini-game with me trying to pee in a water bottle without losing any productivity.
-One of the levels here trashes the bottom lines every twenty seconds or so and I don't see to have a way to stop it. It doesn't do much but dock my pay a little, which makes it take slightly longer to finish the level. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong here or not.
-Special goals are getting a bit harder now, but I can't tell if they matter or not in terms of actually completing the game.
-This level wants me to send out as many apples as possible. It sounds like a special type of level, but honestly it doesn't change the gameplay at all. You're still just match three-ing and only one specific one is counting.
-Oh wait. I'M A LIAR.
-This level is timed, so you have to get as many apple matches as quickly as possible. I actually lost this my first time because I didn't realize I was being timed at first.
-Hooray this is a game! There is a fail state!
-I think I'm about eight levels into the story so far. It is a fun little match three even if it doesn't necessarily do anything I haven't seen before.

Time Played: 30 minutes or so
High Score: N/A but there is an endless mode I'll play after the story, so I'll be able to get a high score this time.
Beaten? No not yet.
Grade: Too early to say. It sort of depends where it goes from here, but I at least like the concept here and it is a fun enough puzzle game on first impression.
Favorite Part So Far: Definitely the timed apple level. I was relieved to find a fail state because I was actually worried for a minute that this game wouldn't have one.

I thought Pick Pack Pup was pretty dope. It keeps throwing fresh ideas and challenges at you so it never feels stale

Im only 30 minutes in but I can guarantee itll be top three haha. Its a cute little match three and like you said they keep changing goals so levels feel fresh. I dont quite know where itll go from here but Im positive its better than Lost Your Marbles already.

Lost Your Marbles can lock you out of an ending?? The game does seem to prioritize its 0_o~quirky~0_o humor over fun, fluid gameplay. It's a shame because I do love Taito's Cameltry and have been hoping to see a game like it on Playdate.

Yeah, I don't know if it is verified or not because I am probably one of eight people in the world that has played this game enough to find it out. So this is sort of my theory but I could be wrong. Essentially:

-The game keeps track of each ending and "exit" you get. Each area you go to has three exits for bad, medium, and good depending on your answers.
-The ending shows you how far you've gotten, checking off each thing you've done either on that run or any previous run.
-There are nine "normal" endings and one best ending. To get the normal endings you just play through the game. There are two parts in the game where you choices lead you to one of three different levels. So you have (one of three) choice the first time and (one of three) choice the second time. You get nine endings that way from those nine permutations.
-The tenth "best" ending you appear to get from getting all the exits in the game. So, not all the endings. But if you get the bad, medium, and good exit on every level, you trigger the best ending regardless of what other choices you made.
-So I did each exit before I did all the endings. I had one endings still left to go at that point, but now no matter what path I take it gives me the best endings. I've tried three different paths and its all the same now. So I'm locked out from 100%ing the game.

It isn't a fun game to start with, and now I'm extra salty because there is no way I'm wiping my save and starting over to see the one stupid ending I'm missing.

BOO THIS GAME

Currently Playing: Pick Pack Pup (Con't)

More Thoughts:
-Fetch is proud to provide plenty of opportunities for employees to enjoy culture. You can read any of the books in our warehouse. Just make sure to pack them and ship them out when youre done! Nice try fake Amazon. I know youll kill my family if I stop to read.
-There are cute little comics after you beat each little group of levels. Theyre not great but they are cute. Ill take cute!
-This boss dog (who is holding a bone like a cigar) tells me Im doing a great job and if I keep working hard I can get vacation. This is a capitalist hellhole!
-Couple more interesting ideas here. One level wants you to group seven all together, another one wants you to send your matches out at the very last second before the timer counts down which will prevent anything from getting trashed.
-Oh, I forgot to mention. For a lot of these levels there is no failure timer. What you have instead is a timer that keeps counting down from twenty or so, and when it hits zero it trashes your bottom line (taking away money from your goal total) and then starts counting over again. So you are incentivized to go fast here and pay attention to the timer now that the last second package send mechanic prevents the junking from occurring.
-Oh hey this level is about a new weird handheld console being sent out. Haha meta am I right? Er, or I guess it would be meta if the game was then like oh hey nevermind we dont have the material so all these shipments arent going out until two years from now.
-THIS LEVEL HAS A GOSH DARN GOOSE GOOSING THINGS UP
-Hell honk and then bite a piece and if you dont move it quickly enough hell pull it off the grid.
What a jerk ass goose.
-CHAPTER 6. Hopefully this is the chapter that the workers rise up.
-I find a diamond just sitting on the floor. Hey look surprise Christmas bonus. Way better than jelly of the month club.
-And they dont pay holiday or sick pay here, so consider that your bonuspop. That you wizened old coworker dog. Ill make sure to let you join our glorious revolution.
-I do well enough to win a holiday, but that entails them sending me to an island and forcing me to work even more because there arent labor laws there. REVOLUTION REVOLUTION
-I like how there are new twists every couple of levels in terms of what your goals are and what you need to do. Theyre getting a lot out of this concept.
-One of the most clever so far is one where you intentionally have to trash as many packages as possible. So anything on the bottom line gets trashed, and there is a set amount youre racing for within a time limit. You have to be careful here because you can block the bottom line by accident if another package gets formed, and I lost my first time because I was being careless.
-Chapter 8! Four levels left.
-Uh oh our pup overhears the bosses say they have robots now and can fire all the workers. Have I called for a revolution yet?
-A couple of robot packing levels, then another cutscene. These robots have a giant self destruct botton on the back, which seems like a design flaw but I dunno I dont run evil packaging companies. Pup flips the switch and things start getting blowy uppy.
-There's a final cutscene where the boss dog is like "help me package up my money!" and the dog goes "here's the boxes, good luck" and steals his rocketship. Truly the goodest of boys teaching the baddest of boys a lesson.
-Final level is a letdown because its basically just "eh just box these things for a while" but overall the campaign mode was fun. Nice little puzzler with a story attached.
-BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE
-Several other modes here that get rid of the story and just get you down to puzzling.
-I've started with chill mode, which has turned out to be anything but.
-There is no timer, but you have ten rounds where you try to box together as many items as possible. High score is 30 for getting them all, and then the game averages out your score on all ten levels you give you your total score.
-It is fun and frustrating because it is so easy to make one wrong move. Like you're rearranging stuff to make a perfect match and accidentally swap something you didn't see that makes a different match and then you block yourself off and suddenly there are like five items you can't match anymore.
-I've gotten through five screens perfect so far, made this mistake, and had an existential crisis.
-I could see myself playing this for a quite a while. It is a fun puzzler and with multiple modes to chase your high score on (beyond the nice story campaign) there's a lot here. Definitely a good surprise on the system!

Time Played: 3 hours now
High Score: My best score on the chill mode is a 29.0/30.0. So basically I missed one item per puzzle, but in actuality I was dumb in two levels and it ruined my score and blood pressure.
Beaten? Yes, but there's so much more space for activities!
Grade: I think we got another 7 on our hands here. It isn't the best puzzler I've ever played, but it is definitely a good game. I'm getting a lot of play out of the concept here even if it is a bit simple overall.
Favorite Part So Far: Destroying the capitalist dog hellhouse and riding off into space on a fucking rocket ship. More games should end that way.

Currently Playing: Pick Pack Pup (Con't II)

More Thoughts:
-There's a lot of additional modes here. Most aren't anything. But some are something!
-I think worst is timed mode, which is basically just two minutes to get as much money as possible. Two minutes isn't enough time to really get a full round in and I feel like this should be five or ten minutes (or variable?) but definitely not two.
-Infinity mode isn't much better. Here, you basically just play until you get bored. There is a high score associated with it, but it feels less like something that's testing your skill and more like something that is testing how much free time you have on your hands. The higher the score, the more likely the game is to contact someone to come check on you.
-Next is the danger mode, which is basically the same as infinity, but it ends if you let a bomb get trashed. Which makes it immediately better. Not sure how many times I'd play through that one but it is at least a mode with a challenge in it.
-Favorite so far is still the chill mode. Still haven't hit that perfect 30 average I'm aiming for but going for that is the most fun.
-There's also a time attack mode, which I did play through. Best time so far is 50 minutes, and then it links you to the speedrun page for comparison. It would put me in fifth place. Out of five. BOO.
-I do like the idea of the speedrun here though. Yet another thing the game adds on top of all the other stuff.
-Finally, we have a SECRET MODE which you unlock by figuring out the puzzle at the end of game. It is like a safe cracking puzzle, and it unlocks another mode which isn't all that different from the other modes but eh.
-I think I'll give this another couple of days then call it. I've played all the modes and beaten the story, but I'm having fun still so I'm going to try to improve my top scores a bit more.
-It is still just slightly too basic for what I'm looking for and the core gameplay is more of a "good" than "great" for me. Solid tile matching game, but definitely not the best I've ever played.

Time Played: Probably in the 7 hour range
High Score: Chill mode: 29.0/30.0, Infinity mode: $10412; Time attack $1820; Speed run: Just under 56 mins; Secret mode: $7932. Those are some great numbers, past me. .
Beaten? Ayup, technically twice now since I speedran it.
Grade: Almost certainly a solid 7.
Favorite Part So Far: Figuring out that safe cracking puzzle all on my own. Fun little secret they have hidden in here.

Game #6 Complete! Pick Pack Pup

Final Thoughts: I'm not "done" done with this one I don't think as I could definitely see myself coming back to play this some more. Speedrun mode and Chill mode in particular both are likely to get some more play. I improved my speedrun time to sub 35 but that included two stages I forgot the objective for initially and failed, so I'm positive I could shave another 6 minutes or so off my time with a decent run. And Chill Mode I keep getting to like the 7th out of 10 puzzles and making a stupid mistake and quitting out of RAGE and FRUSTRATION. Those two are fun to play around in thought and I'm almost positive I'll come back.

Overall, this was a fun little puzzler. I am, overall, sort of tired of tile matching games and they have to be pretty good to hold my attention for very long. And this one is pretty good! It is a very basic set up and I do feel like part of the game feels a little aimless. There is a lot of good stuff here but then there's also stuff where I feel like they didn't really get the most out of the concept. Take the time attack mode, which could be fun but then it only sets it for two minutes and it feels like they didn't really consider what people like about these tile matching games. About half of of the story mode doesn't have a fail state and you're just kind of putzing around some, too. And story mode is short. I like all the different ways they iterate off of the concept here, but there's only 30 levels and it feels like they could've gotten more out of it. There is this trend of introducing a fun idea, letting you play around with it, but never really challenging you with it. There isn't that stage that really makes you tear your hair out because its hard, and I really wanted some of those to help tie things together.

Still, fun game. Lots of good ideas here. A couple of fun extra modes that really help add some longevity to the game in a real way. I'm playing this because I'm trying to top my high scores and not because the game is forcing me to if I want to see the best ending (like Lost Your Marbles). It is also the first one here I could see myself going back to. I think Crankin is still the best game overall, but it doesn't really have much in terms of replay. There's plenty in Pick Pack Pup to really sink your teeth into and I appreciate that.

Should You Play It? Yep, definitely. Particularly if you like these sort of tile matching puzzle games, this is one of the better ones I've played recently

Final Score: I'll go with a 7. Like, a totally solid 7. One step under Crankin for me still just because of how clever that game was, but this is a good simple game that does a lot with what it has. And it doesn't even use the crank all that much! You can put normal games on here too, I guess.

Games Completed: 6/90

Game Rankings:
6) Boogie Loops
5) Whitewater Wipeout
4) Lost Your Marbles
3) Casual Birder
2) Pick Pack Pup
1) Crankin's Time Travel Adventure

OH WAIT.

I forgot they added more games to the catalogue when I wasn't paying attention. That should read:

Games Completed: 6/108

Help I'm going in the wrong direction.

Currently Playing: Flipper Lifter

What Is It? A penguin elevator riding simulator. How many penguins and how many elevators do you like in your game? I hope the answer is a lot.

Thoughts:
-This is cute and does sort of capture a fun sort of arcade vibe with the high score chasing.
-The gameplay is essentially you start off with maybe three floors in this hotel and penguins will walk towards the elevator on a specific floor. Pick them up by using the crank to move the elevator up and down floors. Once you do, a timer starts to get them to the floor they want to get to (a clock will appear on that floor to let you know). Drop them off and you get time added to the countdown clock on the level. Take too long and they'll complain, freezing your elevator and draining time. You want to get drop off as many penguins as you can until time runs out. One point for each penguin. GO GO GO GO GO.
-It is a very simple game here and I basically just described 100% of the game, I think. There are hidden stages I think that you get for increasing your high scores. I top 75 penguins on the first level and the second stage unlocks, which is a mine.
-The mine is basically the same, except now there are two places to drop penguins off on a single horizontal level (one on the right and one on the left).
-Help I can't figure out how to get to the right side.
-Help I still can't figure out how to get to the right side and now I've pressed all the buttons.
-Oh ok, got it. There is this little part in between two levels that I didn't notice and if you sit there for a second, it will move you to the opposite side of the stage so you can do the drop offs on the right side or come back to the left as needed.
-There is a bit of a Playdate functionality issue here, because the screen is so small I'm having a hard time seeing what is going on in the level. It is very easy to miss the "!" for the level a penguin wants to go (especially when you have like five in the elevator) because of how small everything looks, and like I said I was having a problem on the mine stage because I couldn't tell there was another bit I could wait at.
-Levels get added the longer you play too, so your three story hotel becomes like a 10 story hotel by the time you drop off 100 penguins.
-There's also another minor issue here where because of how small things are, it can be slightly finicky about dropping penguins off. If you park the elevator at the entrance to a floor, the doors will open and penguins will get off and on. But because of how cramped things are, it is easy to miss the floor by a fraction of an inch and not really be able to tell you're not there because of how things are visually presented.
-I don't hate this so far though. I am running into some control issues and presentation issues, but it isn't a bad idea. Particularly since you have goals here to unlock more levels (there are 5 in total, I think) it really pushes replays and I'm having fun chasing high scores even with the frustrations.
-Really could use full leaderboards though and not just local ones. I could see myself score chasing here if there were scores to chase.

Time Played: 1 hour
High Score: 112 on the hotel and 59 on the mines. I'd like to get to 75 on the mines just so I'm not really struggling on levels 3/4 to unlock that fifth and final level which requires a high score of 300 between all the other levels
Beaten? Nope. Two stages in with 3 unlocked so far.
Grade: This might be a 5 or so. Maybe low 6. It is not too bad but pretty limited and I will likely call it quits because of some control/presentation frustrations after unlocking everything
Favorite Part So Far: Some penguins do an adorable belly slide after you drop them off. Which is a good way of letting me know I did a good job, I think.

Still Playing: Flipper Lifter

Thoughts:
-I am a penguin chauffeuring machine.
-So I've unlocked all the levels now. I replayed the hotel level and got a huge boost because I figured out how the controls work and it was all pretty simple from there.
-Nothing but high score boostin' now. We'll see how long I can play this before wanting to move onto something else.
-The other levels here are a mountain, a construction site, and then space. Penguins probably shouldn't be any of these places, honestly.
-The gimmick of the mountain level is that a bird will come and EAT YOUR PENGUINS. I'm suddenly extremely invested in not failing and getting cute penguins eaten.
-You can get into a bit of an unavoidable failure state with the bird though. You can make it to the level you need to just in time, but if the bird time then to randomly come on the screen you're just sort of out of luck.
-Construction is similar to the mine except there are THREE places to drop off the penguins on each level. So things are even more cramped and tougher to get around.
-Space is basically just the mountain again? I think? But with more gaps between levels so you have to really crank it.
-This is another one I might replay from time to time. It feels like one of those arcade games from the 80s where you only do one thing but it wants you to do it really well. I've never been huge on those kind of games, so this is something you may enjoy more depending on how much you like high score chasing.
-Definitely needs a leaderboard system though tbqh regardless.
-The only level I'm not a huge fan of is the construction one. It feels really slow compared to the others. There is no way to directly get from the left to the right side of the screen, and if you want to you have to take one of the sideways moving spots to go from left to middle, then take a second one that gets you from middle to right. Definitely a lot more plodding than the other levels.
-Also I'm just mad I've played that level 3 times now and my high score is still only 41. That's an embarrassing and I don't want it on the menu screen.

Time Played: Hm two or three hours? Time flies when you're shuttling penguins.
High Score: Hotel 156, Mines 83, Mountain 74, Construction 41 (F this level), Space 113
Beaten? I guess? It isn't really a game you beat but I did well enough to unlock all the levels.
Grade: 5 or 6. Totally average and mostly playable in spite of a few frustrations
Favorite Part So Far: Replaying the hotel and absolutely demolishing my old high score. Take that, past Suprak. You suck.

I feel like you should be hired to post these in a more public venue as an ad for Playdate.

No kidding. I was pretty starved for Playdate opinions and this guy delivers

Haha thanks! I somehow doubt they'd want to use my opinions as promotional material when my highest praise so far is "good!" and I've got three of the six games rated as a 3 or lower. Appreciate it thought!

Game #6 Complete! Flipper Lifter

Final Thoughts:
-Hm. Ok. Let me try the mountain level again. My high score isnt great there either and it is less annoying than the construction level.
-I take it back. This level is annoying as well.
-Im not sure what happened but there was only a smattering of penguins that came out. I feel like I played it close to perfectly and got a score of 34 which is like half of what I got before. You can get sort of screwed here if the RNG just doesnt give you penguins it looks like, which isnt fun.
-ALSO I HATE YOU GIANT BIRD STOP TRYING TO EAT MY PENGUINS
-Hm. This time went a bit better and I got 65. Still below my high score but at least penguins were showing up and not just hiting in their room watching tv.
-Woo hoo! New high score of 96 on this one.
-I have noticed some weird occasionally jankiness now after playing for a bit. Like the screen will freeze for a half a second. In one level, the door stayed open and a jerk ass penguin refused to leave. Like it was his floor and he was supposed to get out, but he just wouldnt at the timer eventually hit zero and he walked out complaining. I TRIED TO DROP YOU OFF YOU JERK.
-I missed my high score on space by a single penguin. This is the first time Ive ever audibly cursed out a slow moving penguin.
-Im listening to the podcast surrounding this game on the Playdate website and theres some interesting tidbits here. They said the biggest part of QA was making sure there wasnt slowdown when more penguins started getting added. They dont succeed with that. Ive noticed a lot of instances of slowdown particularly later in the levels.
-They also talk about the interplay between ramping up difficulty later in levels and not making things feel impossible. I actually think they do a decent job here, so good job team. The only frustration I have is that there are a lot of times where no penguins are coming out on some of these stages, particularly in the early/mid stages and I just feel like Im wasting time.
-Oh the voices of the penguins and seagulls are actually one of the people on the team. Good job random people! I wouldve guessed these actual soundclips.
-I am having fun on replays here, but I think Ive sort of reached my limit. Again, this arcade style score chasing gameplay isnt really my genre. BUT I think if that is your genre, you should definitely check this out as it is a really good execution of the concept.
-Oh, and the crank is used really well here. I like that quick rotation back and forth as youre trying to get to levels. You need speed to move large distances and then finesse to get it to the right point for drop offs. Another game that was really cleverly designed specifically for the Playdate.
-Oh. Ok. I'm officially calling it now. I was two away from my high score in Construction with literally 30 seconds left to go and the game just glitched out on me. I missed dropping off a penguin, which is fine, but then the elevator froze and the penguins refused to leave. The timer still counted down, so it went from 30 to 0 with me stuck on a level unable to move at all. Not cool, game.
-I do feel like this is a simple enough game that these sorts of technical issues are kind of inexcusable. I was seeing a lot of slowdown or skipping, and then twice now my game soft crashes and I can't move my elevator and I'm forced to just watch things count down to zero. Not completely game breaking, but very frustrating.
-On to the next thing, I guess!

Should You Play It? Even with all the technical issues, sure. It isn't my favorite game but it is a fun little arcade style score chaser when it works. I'm sort of disappointed it struggled as much as it did because I would've ranked this a bit higher otherwise I think.

Final Score: Probably a 5. It might've been a 6 if not for the technical shortcomings. Also, ymmv and if you really like those arcade style score chasers, this might rank higher for you.

Games Completed: 7/108

Game Rankings:
7) Boogie Loops
6) Whitewater Wipeout
5) Lost Your Marbles
4) Flipper Lifter
3) Casual Birder
2) Pick Pack Pup
1) Crankin's Time Travel Adventure

Currently Playing: Echoic Memory

What Is It? A song matching game to help a faceless company build a slightly more intrusive version of Alexa. I'm sure nothing will go wrong.

Thoughts:
-Up next is Echoic Memory. I remember when I downloaded this game I somehow thought it was called Ectopic Memory and thought that might be the weirdest name for a game ever. Turns out I just cant read.
-This is the final week 4 game of season 1, so I'll be 1/3 of the way through the season once I finish this. My pace is a bit slower than I was hoping for, but I'm doing other things so I'm not 100% Playdate focused. Shocking, I know.
-Story mode just jumps right into things.
-You: I had the most amazing dream last night. I was in a secret club, filled with all these people. Alright game you clearly do not know me because that is a sentence I would never say, ever. That sounds like a nightmare.
-You: The one weird thing was the DJ kept looping the same song over and over for the entire night. OH NO IT IS A NIGHTMARE HES DESCRIBING BOOGIE LOOPS.
-You: Everybody loved that song. They didnt want to dance to anything else. Actually you might be describing the plot of Hocus Pocus.
-You: We were dancing to that song for what felt like days. The suddenly the musicstopped. The speakers went silent. It was horrible! Everyone got so mad. Hey yes it is 4 AM and our DJ only has one song they can play. We were hoping you guys would take a hint and get the hell out of here hours ago. Please leave. We have families we need to get home to.
-In a shocking TWIST our narrator selves find out that we were the DJ all along. This is just like The Sixth Sense but with more techno music and axe body spray.
-Ok so now I get to pick between two songs to get the party going again. No clue if my choice makes any difference at all.
-Oh and apparently Im describing my dream to a robot. Cant even get a human to listen to my boring ass dream where I am a club DJ playing one song over and over, huh?
-So robot I had this dream and I was playing the same song over and over and the song kept going and then robot guess what guess what robot I was the DJ and then the music stopped and then I played it again and everyone clapped isnt that cool robot huh robot? BEGINNING SELF DESTRUCT SEQUENCE
-Also I dont want to belabor this point but if I was at a club and a DJ kept playing the same song over and over I would do everything I could to organize a mob and usurp the DJ. Im a bit worried the protagonist here doesnt know how DJs work.
-Robot: But I dont ont nt understand 32what iwh104@t is at is a is a isis11532a (lambda symbol)R10197109?? Aw fuck we broke the robot with our boring story.
-Also what is a isis?!? Someone needs to stop this robot before he joins a terrorist sect.
-A voice on the loudspeaker tells me that new hires shouldnt make conversation with robots which is a good rule of thumb in general.
-Also the talking sound in this game sounds like bad audio feedback which is like the most annoying choice from a design perspective.
-Also Im a menial worker at some sort of manufacturing plant in this game? What is with the Playdate and throwing me into the most depressing, boring jobs imaginable?
-Their flagship product is an AI powered, robot smart speaker. What makes a speaker smart? Well, typically knowledge about the subject matter and a willingness to engage their audience. But that doesnt matter now.
-It is a voice commanded speaker that is ALWAYS LISTENING and oh hey an Alexa parallel. Playdate hates Jeff Bezos, is the impression Im getting so far. Which, I mean, fair.
-Loudspeaker: All the 1010s in the wild collect plenty of data for us. People are low key OBSESSED with our tech! Unfortunately, most of that data is people asking their not-Alexa if they should be concerned about this weird raised mole they just found.
-Loudspeaker: Your job is to make sure every unit passes Quality Control Validation. Yeah, cant wait to see how the game makes THAT fun.
-The robots head opens up and the loudspeaker tells me I need to validate the audio memory. Uh, do I get training on this first or what?
-Er. Ok. So the jist of it is the robot will play a short audio loop and I need to poke around to find the same audio loop. Easy enough, I guess.
-Yeah. So the game plays a little song loop and then I listen to four different options and pick the one that matches. I need to do that three times and then I move on. The sound clips dont sound all that similar so Im guessing this gets harder the more I play.
-The robot is still speaking in gibberish nonsense but uh I guess job well done?
-Loudspeaker mentions something about this next unit having a new algorithm. You: Wait, did you say new Al Gore-ism? HAHAHAHA. Hilarious. And timely, might I add.
-The new twist is that now I need to tune the song first. I wonder what part of the Playdate theyre going to have me use to tune something.
-Hm. So immediately I notice this tuning thing doesnt really have any sort of finesse to it. You start listening to the tracks now and you cant hear anything. Then you move the crank for a while and you hear something. And then you keep moving the crank for as long as you want and nothing changes. You arent really tuning you can just crank like crazy and thats enough.
-This data harvesters er I mean smart speakers cant be doing a very good job because even the ready one just kind of say random works. Hey Alexa wheres a good pizza place. Im gonna gomma gungungungunna Hi! There here ER. Ok cool thanks Alexa, that helped a lot.
-Im warned that if I validate the wrong bit (so match the wrong song), the robot blows a fuse and too many and they scrap the whole unit. And dock my paycheck. I have no idea if that means anything in terms of things that actually matter in the game, but Ill be careful regardless.
-So Im like five in now and things are going pretty smooth. Im doing such a good job that Loudspeaker voice goes on break. Bye loudspeaker voice! Ill miss you.
-Ok. You do like ten of these in a row and eventually the four options give way to eight to make things a bit more complicated.
-Bad news is I'm getting bored already. "Match this sound with this other sound" isn't a bad idea per se, but it isn't working for me.
-The "story" here also isn't helping. A robot comes, says gibberish, you do the sound matching game, then it says more gibberish and leaves. It isn't interesting at all and I'm not sure if this is going anywhere or not.
-I do feel like there is a fundamental flaw in the design here. Each robot is timed (a battery icon slowly drains as you do things). I have absolutely no clue if it means anything at all and what the punishment is, but the effect here is I'm rushing to match songs. So if you like the music, you can't really enjoy it because you're rushing to match songs. And if you don't like the music, well then what the hell is the point of any of this?

Time Played: Probably just over an hour.
High Score: No high score here, but I'm perfect at the "listening to music and matching it to the same music track" part.
Beaten? Not yet.
Grade: Early ballots aren't looking good. Gameplay is vibing with me. So like a four/five for now but that could fluctuate some still.
Favorite Part So Far: Um. Some of the songs are pretty catchy, I suppose.

Still Playing: Echoic Memory

Thoughts:
-Well this latest fake Alexa thinks that it is its birthday and its waiting for its parents to pick it up. OH NO SOYLENT ALEXA IS PEOPLE
-That definitely isnt the twist but I wish it was.
-Act 2 starts up and loudspeaker friend is back. He asks if anything exploded while they were gone. Nah, bro. Just more Simon Says sound matching.
-I tell loudspeaker guy something was wrong with the last unit and hes like SHUT UP.
-Loudspeaker: They babble sometimes. Youll get used to it. Seems like a design flaw, loudspeaker guy. What the hell are these things supposed to do again?
-New update just dropped. Cool. Hopefully it is a the smart speakers no longer think they have birthdays update.
-To diversify our product offering weve added more seeds into the ECM-1010 memory banks. Oh cool 8 already felt unwieldy enough. Cant wait until the whole screen is crammed full of audio loops.
-Oh uh nevermind. Theres only four again and they twist is that now there are different types of music. Which seems like it should make things easier? If theyre doing multiple genres it is even easier to pick things out, right?
-I finish it up pretty easily and the unit comments that it liked the song, which is apparently weird enough for loudspeaker guy to comment on it. Like its listening to itself. That shouldnt happen. -Uh oh two steps away from Skynet now, I think.
-He goes to investigate it but then comes back right away. You gotta investigate harder than that, man!
-ECM1010: they hooked up a tv and vhs player and we watched movies while eating snacks and talking yes yes I too remember having a substitute teacher in 2005, what is the point of this story?
-Loudspeaker has found out some news. Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with the ECMs gaining sentience. Fortunately, it is that Bob in accounting is throwing a party on Friday. Thanks Loudspeaker for telling me about a party I didnt get an invite to! Those are the kind of parties I like most.
-Loudspeaker: Youre not invited though. I dont think youve met Bob yet. Bob is an asshole for inviting a loudspeaker and not me.
-One of these ECMs asks me for my name. Wow, thanks Alexa ripoff. Bob from accounting never asked me my name. HE NEVER ASKED ME MY NAME!
-The songs I have to match to are now up to ten. I almost ran out of time on this latest one. I have no clue if that does anything or not but Im going to assume battery running out means bad and try to avoid it.
-I ask another one of the ECMs its name and it doesnt remember until I music match and then it does! It says it remembers all sorts of other stuff too. Hopefully one of those things isnt its insatiable human bloodlust.
-The loudspeaker yells at me for talking to the Alexas again and says it would fire me if that wouldnt impact productivity goals. Im gonna talk to so many robots now that I know you arent gonna punish me.
-Wow this last one has a full sixteen to match through.
-I actually lose on this one because the time limit is kind of strict and I waste too much time listening to the music. I fly through it on my second attempt though.
-Ok end of chapter 2. I wonder how many chapters there are? Hopefully not too many Im sort of at my limit here.
-Like this feels like actual work. I relate to the person in the dead end job here because it feels like I am also stuck in this dead end job.
-It kind of reminds me of something youd take during an IQ test? And at this part were testing your sound memory and it is kind of fun but only because it is better than the chain of numbers they were just having you try to memorize.
-It is also dragging out how long its taking me to play this because theres only so much I want to play at once. Ill fix one or two robots and think eh thats enough for now so I cant power through it like some of the other games.
-Story is pretty bleh so far too. Robot says garbled nonsense. Play sound matching game. Robot says slightly less garbled nonsense. Loudspeaker guy says not to talk to them. Repeat.

Time Played: Maybe three hours. I have no idea. I play in very short bursts over a period of days with this one so I can't even guess.
High Score: One robot friend made. One Bob enemy made for life.
Beaten? Two chapters. But not the full game yet.
Grade: Leaning towards a 4 or maybe 3. It's a slog, for sure.
Favorite Part So Far: Probably being taunted about not getting invited to Bob's birthday. That was like the one glimmer of personality the game had so far.

Still Playing: Echoic Memory (Pt. 2)

Thoughts:
-Oh no help this is getting worse.
-So the twist in the third segment (I think) is that the songs are harder to hear and come through quieter and a bit more garbled even after you tune them. This is supposed to be fun and not a punishment, I think.
-I have to be honest Im not sure if Im playing this right at this point. I tried to search for info but not many people play the Playdate and the ones that did seemed to have not played this one all that much. There isnt a lot out there on it. But I have no clue if Im just tuning things wrong at this point or if everything is supposed to sound like hot garbage.
-It 100% isnt fun though. I get trying to make it harder but having me struggle to hear the song when the entire thing is a sound matching game kind of ruins the whole thing.
-The loudspeaker guy thinks someone is doing corporate sabotage so theyre locking down the building and wont let any of us get near anyone else in case we try to hand off SECRETS. Ok. Now this place is officially worse to work at than Amazon.
-This is the second Playdate game Ive played recently where the overarching story is essentially corporate America sucks and needs to be destroyed. I get big Amazon vibes from all these places, too. Im hoping the next game targets my first job because PetsMart needs to be taken down a peg.
-Fake Amazon speaker is like hey psst dont worry theyre in a meeting and arent watching us hey psst look at me its ok dude this isnt your fault. Nice try, robot that is clearly a plant sent in by the company overlords. Not taking that chance.
-Now this fake Alexa is telling me it wants to remember. Guys, I just need a paycheck. Can we hold off on the robot apocalypse for like two more days?
-This fake Alexa tells me its name is Nicholas and that it and its ex girlfriend used to relax in a hammock outside her moms house. I cant tell you how little I am interested in your fake ex-girlfriend, you robot liar. Oh uh shes totally real but you dont know her because she goes to a different factory. Yeah, sure, nice try.
-ECM1010: We cant all die so I guess, beautifully grim. We were people once. Not just people, we were humans. And not just humans, but human beings! And not just human beings, but homo sapiens!
-You: I cant handle this, move along! Yeah, seriously, robot I cant deal with your identity crisis right now. Theyre not paying me to do anything but a simon says music matching game, so thats all Im doing.
-Thinks keep getting weird. Another units talks about how much they liked sitting in their grandfathers kitchen and when I politely ask him to shut the hell up he says thats Im restoring their memories and helping them remember who they used to be. What the hell does that mean?
-He also says theyre keeping me safe. What the hell does THAT mean?
-Apparently theyre doing something so we can chat without being interrupted. Guys, if youre planning to kill all humans can I at least get a heads up?
-This smart speaker says it remembers me! These smart speakers are way nice than Bob in accounting, that much is confirmed.
-This smart speaker says its name is Megan and it has memories of before it was at the factory. -Human memories of a human life. And also a death, I remember my death. Hey uh fake Amazon Im going to need you to stop cramming dead people memories into these things, ok? Its messing with the processing chip.
-All of these things are apparently talking to each other through their cloud servicing layer and are talking about what a great helpful person I am. Well, yes, my sound matching skills are second to none.
-We agree youre responsible for our mnemonic liberation. Uh whoa hold on lets not say anything that can be used against me in court, okay?
-Apparently these things worked together to cause the lockdown specifically because they wanted to talk to me. Yes and how would I get you guys to agree to a let me go home please protocol?
-And thats it for act three! Two more acts left.
-Gameplay is wearing thin. I'm basically forcing myself to take my medicine at this point.
-I don't necessarily hate the idea here, but the sound matching isn't a strong enough core mechanic to build the whole game around. I got bored quickly, then stayed bored, then continued being bored, and then, after a long process of growth and maturity, finally arrived here: bored.
-Also I listened to the Podcast and apparently this story is "procedurally generated". I think that means what specific robots come out are somewhat random which explains why one time I quit out of the game to upload some screenshots and then came back and the robot said something else.
-I don't know what the hell the point of that is, at all. They mention in the podcast that it means you can come back four different times and the story won't be the same! Except, if I had to guess, it will be! Just bits of dialogue will be different and that dialogue wasn't that interesting any way so who cares.
-This definitely isn't the worst game I've played, but since the story mode is actually a full story it is the closest I've come to quitting and moving on to the next game. It isn't terrible but it also isn't good.

Time Played: I've lost all sense of time with this one. I've played for a little bit every day for like a week now and then sometimes a little more and other times I decide I don't want to do this for like a full 24 hours. What's that work out to?
High Score: My high score is not quitting yet. That's an incredible score for this game, I assure you.
Beaten? Three chapters. C'mon baby two more left.
Grade: High 3? Low 4? Somewhere around there.
Favorite Part So Far: A couple of these songs are what the kids these days refer to as "pretty good!" I couldn't really sit and enjoy them but I at least was like "hey I'd listen to that for longer than two seconds if I could."

Still Playing: Echoic Memory (Con't Pt. 2)

Thoughts:
-Do you know of the Greek muses? The nine goddess sisters? Um there were five in Hercules but sure carry on.
-Each muse embodied a particular interest in art or science. But all of them loved music. Who doesnt? Except for me now, because of Boogie Loops.
-This thing gives me a brief Greek mythology lesson even though I didnt ask for one and started whining loudly when it started. These things cant take a hint.
-Oh no Im terrible at music.
-The first one in this fourth act takes me, no joke, ten times to figure out. There was something about the type of the music that my ears just werent picking up right, particularly with the slightly off key versions I was getting to match with. The timer was kind of brutal here too and I was struggling to get it done in time.
-And then I beat the second one on my first try. That one sounded more violin-y, I think? Not sure but whatever it was had a much more easy to identify melody even with the distortion.
-These things are now just giving me history of music lessons from Wikipedia, I think. I miss the gobbledygook.
-Yeah this chapter 4 story is following a pretty straight path. ECM shows up and starts talking about Greek mythology music lesson, particularly focused on wind vs string and what was holy and what was crude. Then I do music. Then the robot just starts talking about a happy memory from their childhood. The story from the previous robot continues on the next so I dont think this part can be procedurally generated like the others.
-Also this is actually getting tough now. There are sixteen I have to mix and like four of them will sound very similar and you have to tune things just right. Im starting to come back around on this one a little bit. It isnt my favorite but I'm getting more into the gameplay, for sure.
-The myth being covered here is some dude challenging Apollo to a music off with the muses being the judges. The judges declare Apollo the winner when he starts to sing while playing his harp. Damn Apollo always cheating with his beautiful singing voice.
-Marsyas could not use his breath to both play the aulos and sing at the same time. So he lost. This is why you always got to bring backup vocalists to a music contest against the god of music, man.
-This robots favorite thing is listening to music while driving. Hey! Thats one of my favorite things! Maybe I am a robot. I do babble a lot and go on endless tangents about Greek music contests apropos of nothing.
-As punishment for challenging a god and losing, Apollo tortured and killed Marsyas. I feel like thats also the punishement for challenging a god and winning, sometimes.
-Also, Marsyas, you gotta read that fine print before you start just randomly challenging gods man. Feel like this is partly on you.
-Marsyas was strung up inside a cave, andthis part is really gross. Oof. You know its gonna be bad when a robot is like nah man you dont want to hear this part. Imagine if you Googled something and Google was like trust me you dont want to search for eye surgery videos Im going to show you kitten pictures instead.
-Apollo skinned Marsyas alive and left him to die. Oh phew. I thought he was going to make a lute out of his intestines or something.
-I ask why the hell its telling me this and the ECM is like oh so many people mourned his death they all cried a river and named it Marsyas and some people say it is still flowing today. Which people? Whos been telling you that? Crazy people? You cant listen to crazy people and their theories that rivers are actually giant flowing puddles of tears. You should know better, smart speaker.
-Hell yeah just completed a 16 matcher by the skin of my teeth. Am I started to kinda like this again? Maybe? I cant tell if I do or if Im just relieved I dont have to replay that one.
-A story? Well I wish I like, could explain the perfect horror of once finding a vending machine humming alone in the dark countryside at 3 in the morning. I feel like anything in a dark countryside at 3 in the morning is a little scary but Im sorry you found a rest stop and didnt know how to handle it.
-ECM: Apollo stopped playing music after that. Decided to get full time into torturing huh?
-I really hope this is the last Apollo story because I am BORED with the 74th most interesting Greek myth of all time.
-Many years later, Apollo repented for his unnecessary cruelty. Im sure the flayed long dead corpse of other guy appreciated it.
-ECM: We think bout that story a lot lately. They mythical link between music and memory. Uh huh. You sure you computers are thinking about it because of that and not because of the whole flaying a human alive aspect of the story?
-The ECM keeps going on about what they are. They can make sounds of string and wind despite having no strings or breath. We have no mouths and we must sing. I dont think thats the quote. Also you guys havent sung at all, as far as I can tell.
-Woo hoo! ACT 4 BEAT. If my intel is right (Playdate Podcast), only one act left to go.
-Im getting better at sort of getting the guesser songs close enough to the actual thing and then listening for the similarities. Its picking up a bit for me for sure. I still wouldnt say its great but its working its way out of the bottom ranks.

Time Played: I'm going to guess five hours but I have no clue how accurate that is.
High Score: One of these groups had like six songs I thought were catchy.
Beaten? Almost, I think.
Grade: Might be up to a 5 thanks to me finally getting into it a bit. A low 6? I dunno, it's going up though for sure.
Favorite Part So Far: One of these I was like "aw fuck I'm not going to make it" because I had like eight left with barely any battery. I strung off a string of quick matches and cleared it right before the battery went out. I was looking for someone to high five but alas it was like 1 am and everyone else was asleep.

Still Playing: Echoic Memory (Final Part)

Thoughts:
-Latest ECM introduces itself as Sherry and asks if I recognize its voice. You sound like all the other bleeps and bloops I've been hearing for a while now.
-ECM-1010: Have you noticed nobody has interrupted us for a while? Oh no the robot apocalypse happened while I was hearing about Apollos sick lyre skills, didnt it?
-Oh nevermind theyre still stuck in a meeting. But the robot assures me they are NOT malfunctioning. Hm. That sounds like the sort of thing a malfunctioning robot would say
-ECM breaks it down and says all the smart speakers are Contemplating our existence with the only sense we have left: hearing. I for one am glad they removed the taste module from you guys.
-It also warns me the meeting is ending so this is my last chance to talk to it freely. I asked what the hell it is doing all this for and it tells me it just wanted to talk to me. Thanks? Im flattered, I guess.
-Apparently what makes me special is that Im the first person that ever really listened to them, and it made them dig into their entire existence. Last time I listen to a robot.
-Loudspeaker guy says they finally found the bug that was causing things to act erratically. Nice! -Hes also going to do an internal investigation too see if I was espionaging. Less nice.
-For now, keep working. Seems like maybe something you wouldnt want someone you think might be espionaging to do, but fine.
-ECM: Does listening to music inherently change who we are? I know Get Low by the East Side Boyz forever changed me and redefined who I am as a person, yes.
-I fly through a couple more. This batch seems easier than either chapter 3 or chapter 4 and Im not sure why. Music seems less catchy too. This is the oh no were out of ideas chapter, maybe.
-Loudspeaker: ECM cognition vectors are holding within standard deviations. Yes, hello Guiness? Its me, Suprak. I want to submit a contender for the most boring sentence ever written.
-A couple more of these things pass by saying basically nothing and then an actual important one shows up and lets me know they did something to the something and now the loudspeaker people cant hear them. They tell me not to say anything because they can still hear me, and I yell WHAT? immediately like an idiot. This is why you dont get invited to stuff, me.
-So, apparently all the music I hear from the music matching game part is from their real memories.
-Prior to me, all the songs were installed in them. BUT NOT ANY MORE.
-I feel like a lot of this story is honestly just random gobbledygook and I feel like Im almost at the end and there was not real build up for an ending yet.
-OH WHAT THE HELL 20?!?!
-I go from 16 grids to 20 grids and I somehow have even more music to listen to now.
-Ive also noticed they reuse songs. Like a bunch of these keep getting thrown back in over and over. I at least recognize them, which is a decent sign for their quality I feel like.
-Hm. Ok, so Im definitely enjoying chapter 5 less than chapter 4. Theres a lot of swings back and forth for this game for me.
-A couple of things Ive noticed in chapter 5 it has gotten away from the narrative focus of chapter 4. There, each robot built off of a story being told by the previous one and it felt like there was a point. Here, were again back to a sort of independent chain of events. There isnt even really a preamble for most of these. Theyre just like 1) this is music I like 2) puzzle and then 3) when I was a kid I ate a whole blueberry pie and boom on to the next one.
-The 20 grid is also exhausting and I only do one at a time for now. Its just too big and unwieldly, honestly. AND it is easier. Like theyve gotten rid of the songs that sound similar and Im making way less mistakes. Ive cleared the first two 20 grids with zero mistakes each. Im glad in a way because if I had to restart a puzzle over at this point I would sit staring out the window forlornly for a couple of minutes before trying again.
-Just as I say that my game straight up crashes. I thought it was a song at first because it happened when I matched one and they were throwing in a new song to search for. It was just a loud, long buzzing noise and for like the first five seconds I was like wow theyre really getting a lot less creative with these songs. But, no, my Playdate just crashed.
-Ive been worried I was heading for a crash for a while. Each time you complete a robot, it rolls out and a new one rolls in in what is the sole bit of actual animation in this game. But, each time it does, the Playdate realllllly staggers and slows down and multiple times Ive thought it was going to die.
-Im hoping Im almost at the end here. The novelty is wearing out.
-The game has now crashed four times since I had the first crash. At weird times too. Ill move from song to song and it will just freeze. I think the twenty grid wasnt optimized right and its causing big problems at the end here.
-ECM says theyre about to lift the lockdown. AM I ALMOST DONE? PLEASE. THE GAME IS ABOUT TO EXPLODE I NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE.
-Loudspeaker: Behavioral vectors are holding steady within targets. Is that target gaining sentience and overthrowing the shackles youve imposed? Because then yeah, it is definitely doing that.
-Loudspeaker: Just a couple more units on the line, then youre done for the day. YES. YES I SEE THE LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL.
-You: Finally! Its been so many hours! Aw fuck the game really did gain sentience. Its thinking exactly what Im thinking now.
-ECM: Well, Im the last one. End of the line. Thank you game for telling me not to take a break and to just power through now. Appreciate it.
-ECM: One more round. For the muses? Yes, but only for the five Hercules muses because thats my favorite iteration of muses.
-Final puzzle solved. First try. Im officially a music machine.

-Final ECM is like you know so much about all of us and we dont even know your name. Im about to tell him and hes like dont say it weve all come up with a name for you. I hope it isnt GUY WHO HELPED US ENSLAVE HUMANITY.
-ECM: Youre the master of this ceremony. Thats your name, thats who you are. Youre our MC. Aw yeah MC GUY WHO HELPED US ENSLAVE HUMANITY coming atcha.
-Im still not sure what exactly they mean by hey youre the first one to listen to us and that awoke our memories. The story here is honestly a little fuzzy to me, still.
-Loudspeaker: Your shifts over now. Finally. Was a long one today. Youre telling me.
-M.C. As I left the warehouse, my mind was racing. I decided to take the scenic route home. Probably a good day to do it before the smart speakers launch all the nukes.
-M.C. My first day working at SoundFluxxr This might honestly be the first time they mention the company name. Its been a while so no clue if it was called that at the beginning or not.
-MC is also unclear if these things were made from the minds of humans, and how, and if their memories were real or not. Same, pal.
-And thats the end. Good job me. Another one to cross of the list, I suppose.
-Holy shit the credits have animation and different looking ECMs that all do little dances and its cute. Where was this the rest of the game? I wasnt even sure if the person who did the art here knew ow to animate anything.
-I try to play around with the free play mode some, but honestly it isnt worth it. You can set which tracks, what modifications, and how big the grid is, in addition to changing how many fuses/time you have. The difference here is you match two by two instead of having one target youre searching for. I dont really have any sort of desire to play an uncurated version. The fun I was having was from racing against time and I dont really want to set my own randomized challenges.
-I think Im calling this one. Story mode beated and free play tried out. Ill post my final thoughts in a bit.

Time Played: Lets say 6 hours. Maybe.
High Score: Twenty songs matched at once. That's the only score you can get at the end, but it's also my high.
Beaten? Yes sir.
Grade: Probably sticking with a 5 but I gotta think about it. All the crashes at the end didn't help.
Favorite Part So Far: The credits were super cute. Where was that charm the rest of the game?

Game #8 Complete! Echoic Memory

Final Thoughts:
I was all over the place on this one. At first I kinda liked it. Then I hated it. Then I liked it! Then I hated it? I think probably, overall, it was ok. Okay? I know that's always a super interesting and HOT take, but it's how I felt. (Bad+good+bad+good)/total amount of playtime = average. That's just math, okay?

This is a game I feel like could've benefited from a couple of things. The first was a better tutorial type system. I didn't know what the hell I was doing at first and I'm not good enough with musical cues to make up for that. "Hey adjust the song until you get it right" "Okay how?" "Shut up I'm dancing here you fucking dork." That's how the game felt at first and it was more annoying than anything. I was sort of just guessing at points and it wasn't fun.

Then I got it and it was pretty good for a while! I figured out I didn't need to get the tracks perfect to sync up and as long as I could tell what the hell I was listening to, I could figure out the song. Honestly, it was more fun that way and the whole "adjustment" part is not needed. Like, this is the worst use of the crank out of any game so far, and there are two games here that don't use the crank at all. I didn't like having to adjust the songs because 1) it felt like a chore and 2) once I knew what I was doing every single song was adjusted the same way. As soon as I got to a song, I would slow it down as much as possible until you couldn't hear anything, then crank in the other direction for like a second, and you'd get some close approximation of the song. That's it. Every time. It was work by the end of the game and when you get to those big 20 grid tests it is brutal to have to do this over and over and over (and over) again.

BUT here's what works. You get a song. You get a bunch of slightly off pitch versions of other songs and you look for the one you need. That I liked. It was very puzzle-y and it worked well. You hear the right version of the song and then you go through a bunch (including several that sound similar) and you're like "oh wait...is that it?" But then the tempo is a bit off or there is an extra beat or there's a weird breathing sound and you have to keep looking. That part was actually fun for me, for a while. Having to really listen and getting that AHA THAT'S IT moment was pretty cool and it saved the game for me when that clicked.

Then after doing that for a while you get the downswing again because that's all there is to the game. The story is boring as hell and poorly written and a whole bunch of stuff here feels like it either repeats itself or doesn't matter. I don't know how many more saccharine stories of fake robot memories I can listen to, but I know that number is significantly less than what's in the game. It is a story that starts nowhere, goes nowhere, and ends nowhere. There's a bit in chapter four that is kind of interesting where all the robots actually start telling the same story and it feels like its building somewhere, but the rest of the game is a bunch of independent stuff that I didn't really care about.

And when the game is the same thing over and over and over (and did I say over?) again, the concept wears thin. It was fun in chapter 3 and 4 and then chapter 5 comes around and I was like "oh man there's really more of this, huh?" I was dreading failing a block because I didn't want to start over. Luckily, things also got easier the more I played so most of my failures occurred in chapter 3 and I didn't fail a single time in chapter 5. Games need growth or twists or something, and doing the same thing, but more really wears thin.

This isn't even mentioning the technical issues, and luckily all my crashes occurred after one or two matches. If it happened at like match 16 I think I would've just called it a game and moved on. So it's a little fun, a little boring, a little creative, a little repetitive, and a little broken. Is that clear enough for you?

Should You Play It? I think so. I think I'm on board with this. Look, it's free. It comes with the Playdate. If you don't like it, you can stop. There's something good in here though if you can dig through the not good stuff.

Final Score: Another 5. Maybe a 6? Or a 4? Depends on when you ask me.

Games Completed: 8/108

Game Rankings:
8) Boogie Loops
7) Whitewater Wipeout
6) Lost Your Marbles
5) Flipper Lifter
4) Echoic Memory
3) Casual Birder
2) Pick Pack Pup
1) Crankin's Time Travel Adventure

I'm so excited to find out what's next!

Thanks for doing these

I am debating buying one of these...

TotallyNotMI posted...

I'm so excited to find out what's next!

You'll find out tonight! It's another interesting one. And spooky season appropriate!

TomNook7 posted...

Thanks for doing these

Yup yup. Feel free to post your thoughts if you have any! There isn't a big community and fewer people talking about the actual games. I did find a discord server which is kind of fun so there's at least "some" community out there.

TotallyNotMI posted...

I am debating buying one of these...

Do it! Give into peer pressure.

Seriously though, it is a very interesting console but I get not wanted to jump at it. The $200 price point is admittedly a bit steep considering the library it has, but it comes with 24 games bundled with it and I think the concept of a "season" is pretty fun. Lots of unique games here, too, even amongst the ones I didn't really care for.

Currently Playing: Demon Quest '85

What Is It? A visual novel/adventure game where you summon demons so they can solve menial problems for your high school friends.

Thoughts:
-Next up is Demon Quest 85. I know nothing about it but Im going to guess its an old school RPG from the name and menu icon.
-So Im sprawled out on the roof of the car, and Im naked. Wow what a great opening line.
-Vomit everywhere. Wow what an awful second one.
-Oh I get to respond. Its either I dont want to hear about this youre my brother or Go on Ew what an awful second option if this is their brother.
-I pick the first one and they keep talking anyway. Im going to guess my choice didnt matter at all.
-Apparently this guy Im talking to did this on the dean of admissions car at his college. DELTA HOUUUUUUSE!
-So Im gonna get off the phone with you real soon, okay? Can you just say goodbye like a normal, not naked covered in puke on a car person?
-Hm okay so I found a book under his bed. It is some sort of monster book. Brother is confused about what it could be though.
-Also he 100% thought I found his secret porno collection.
-Brother claims it was grandads book. Uh huh. Nice try. I found your weird monster porno book, pervert, and Im telling mom.
-I think its about demons? Like summoning demons. Wow granddad was into some freaky shit.
-Brother says he tried it last year by shutting of the lights and saying I summon you, demon! Shocking that didnt work. Did you really need a book to figure that out?
-I can now look through the book. It is The Ars Goetia: A Book On The Names and Offices of Demons and the Methods for Speaking with Them. Yes this demons name is Hank and he works in accounting and you can reach him at extension 666.
-I get to name myself now. I choose Svengoolie because I am a man of culture and some is the playable character.
-Alright, first page gives me the low down. To summon a demon I need to offer a gift or tribute, play the appropriate music, bring three companions of pure heart and good breeding, and a concern that the companions share (or at least an interest in a common topic). Ok. Uh. So I know zero people of pure heart and good breeding. I feel like people of pure heart and good breeding arent trying to summon demons in the first place.
-Some good demon choices here. First page shows Marquis Cimeies, the grand Marquis of Hell. Hes a huge warrior astride a black horse, which is awesome. He is the master of bloodshed. Good. And hes also the master oftrivia? The fuck? Hold on, sorry to interrupt your eternal torture but first I need to know: what do you call that little plastic piece at the end of your shoelaces?
-He has the ability to locate missing objects. I feel like that may come to relevance at some point.
-He claims to like all kinds of music. As someone who dated a lot of girls with that in their Facebook bio, I can assure you that means mostly country but Im too scared to put that in my bio and get judged for it.
-Next up is Marquis Shax. He is a great thief that steals monkeys and horses from the houses of kings. What weirdly specific things to steal. Well my gold and jewelry are undisturbed. But someone stole my snub tailed macaque and this time it wasn't Fish and Wildlife services.
-He can also steal knowledge and possesses the ability to make men forget anything. Thats cooler than the monkey thievery.
-Also hes a stork. Did I mention that yet? Less cool than a giant knight on a horse.
-Duke Crocell is next. He is a teacher of liberal sciences, geography, and geometry. And your next demon isyour fourth favorite professor from college! He will forget to grade your papers until the last minute oOoOoOoOoOo
-He can also find water. These demons are a weird hodgepodge of characteristics.
-Duke Agares is a weird dude. If whilst wandering the Eastern wastes thou encounter a man riding a crocodile, do not countenance to mock that man. Yeah, no shit. Why the hell would a mock a man with a pet crocodile? Is this something that needs to be said, demon or not. If you ever see a bear do not hit it with a beehive. Yeah, ok, got it.
-He carries a hawk with him and you are under no circumstances to mention it. Fuck now that one I might do by accident. I feel like it would be the first thing Id say to someone carrying a hawk.
-Hes also an instructor of language, can cause earthquakes to strike, and may compel creatures who have fled their home to stay still or return. I feel like he made up that last one because he felt inadequate around the other demons who had more skills. Uh yeah my other skill is that if an animal runs away, I will make sure they stay runned away or Ill make them return. But I cant tell you which before hand so just trust the process. Its likeyeah. Come back or not come back represent 100% of the possible options here so of course one of those two things will happen.
-Ok next page is President Glasya-Labolas. Theres a president in hell? Who knew the place was a democracy.
-His blood is the hatred of man. Oh cool mine is O negative so I think I can be a donor still.
-The author says they TOTALLY know how to summon him but wont tell us because he killed his friend a long time ago. Which friend, you may ask? Well you wouldnt know her. She goes to another school. In Canada. Shes not on Facebook so dont try to look her up.

-I close the book and Im brought to my house and I can pick places to go. I can go back to the attic to summon a demon. I can go to the kitchen to pick out an offering. I can go to the lounge to pick out some music. And I can go to my bedroom to check out the yearbook and pick some friends. Alright, game time, I suppose.
-Im going to go for the Marquis Shax because he is a giant bird and that seems cool. Sorry other demons. Be giant birds next time.
-His music is trumpets which is cool. And he wants a gift but owns everything (due to the stealing) so he wants nothing specific. Ok random gift time. Youre going to regret that, demon stork.
-I nab him a sandwich because everyone likes sandwiches and I pick the song that has a trumpet on the cover art.
-I look at my friends and one of them is missing a cat. Thats great because this dude is the demon of maybe making your pet come back or keeping them away forever. I like those odds!
-Oh wait. Nevermind. Thats a different demon. This one is the knowledge stealing guy. One girl wants people to forget about a note she got caught passing. Im taking her along for sure.
-I find two other people missing stuff so I bring them along too. No clue if Im doing this right.
-One of the girls comments on her missing book and then the main girl I selected to be a medium says no way the demon is helping her make people forget. Signs look good I picked the right bunch of dorks so far.
-Yep that didnt work. Girl at the end basically says I need to summon one of the other demons first. Hm. Ok. Let me check the first guy because he had the most details.
-Ok notes on first guy master of bloodshed and trivia, teacher of rhetoric, can transform the magician into a warrior,
-Possesses ability to locate missing objects. Oh, ok, this is where I put the missing stuff people
-Attracted to those who need his services (find people missing something ASAP).
-Likes all kind of music and is compelled by the smells of salt or warm meat. Sounds like all I need to do is through a BBQ party and this guy might summon himself.
-Ok. I bring salt, put on a random track of music, and keep the two missing stuff people in my party and swap out the one who wants the memory gone with the one who is struggling at debating.
-Oh shit. It worked! Dude in the middle who needs help with debating has his eyes go all crazy and hes fully possessed now.
-Hm. Ok he says hell only do one thing. I can ask him to find Beths notebook or help Nick get better at debating. Ill do the debate thing since hes the one possessed.
-So he says hell help the boy become a leader of men for the teensy eensy price of Nick writing down the demons name and putting it in the food of his kin. I dunno Nick this sounds like a bad thing to try
-I have no clue what these choices will do in the long run. But I tell him to feed his kin the note and kick the other kid off of the debate team for not respecting him enough. I mean, it isnt my soul being damned here so, sure, go for it other guy.
-I ask about Shax as hes next in the book, and the demon warns me that he is a liar and not to trust him. The only way to get him to speak truly is to bring with a magic triangle. Do I have one of those?
-Im then like oh hey lets keep chatting which is apparently a no-no because hes waging war on someone else in hell. I can ask him more about that so I do. Just for funsies.
-Time to go summon a different demon I guess. For what point? Because I can? Im not sure and they didnt put dialogue in here to explain so make up your own story, I suppose.
-Ok so I can check the yearbook again and Nicks profile is updated. Hes a hardass, but the debate team is super good. Yep. I did that. Hope your soul was worth second place at the regional debate conference, kiddo.
-One important thing I find out is that stork demon only speaks the truth around triangles. I check the offerings and theres nothing there even vaguely triangle shaped.
-Ohhhh but wait! I check the yearbook again and there is a weirdo that brings musical instruments everywhere including triangles. Hey band nerd wanna help me summon a demon?
-Annie Pasternack's bio: Im friends with Annie, but she is really religious. I think she even runs a Bible study group after school. She doesnt use swear words. I wonder what she even likes to do. Wow what a great person to help summon a demon. Im not sure I could pick a worse collection of traits for a demon summoner if I tried.
-Grace Wong also gets an invite as she wants people to forget something and stork demon steals memories. Seems like the right person to help here.
-I dont know who the third person I should invite should be, but I pick Melinda Bergman because she thinks she killed a rabbit while on LSD. Seems like the sort of thing someone would want to forget.
-Oh wait. Hm. Theres that kid who wants his cigarettes back from the principals office and this bird can steal anything. Maybe Ill ask him along instead.

Okay wait this game sounds amazing

-I bring chocolate because it says he doesnt need anything specific and who doesnt like chocolate? Then I pick the music with the trumpet picture on the front because hes heralded by trumpets. Okay lets go demon summon, I guess.
-Aw yeah it worked! Im a pro at summoning demons, guys.
-Demon asks who summoned him and my character responds. None of them it is I, Svengoolie, who summons thee. Fuck guys Im so happy I named my character Svengoolie, you dont even know.
-So my choices here are help people forget the girls embarrassing secret or steal back the stoner kids smokes. Wow what a tough choice. I wonder if theres a demon I can summon that can help someone kick a nicotine addiction.
-Steal back thy secret from the slick tongues of church-bells and fish-wives? Hey stork demon I like the way you talk.
-He says a theft of the mind is the greatest theft of all. Thou need only ask King Beleth for a testimony to that claim! Uh let me write that name down in case it is important later.
-Oh King Beleth had his mind replaced by that of a screaming dog. Ill just follow the barking then, I guess.
-Shax only asks that she remembers him as the one who helped her. Thats a pretty tame deal to make with a demon, so we take it.
-GASP. Twist. The demon looks into their minds and finds out that cool girls crush Aaron has beenintimate with church girl! Oh man theres gonna be a fight during this demon summoning.
-So the demons trick to make people forget is to give them juicier gossip, apparently? Is this guy a demon or someone who works at TMZ?
-I can also ask Shax about Lord Crocell. He wants to know why I want to meet him. I say I want to meet all the demons I can. That sort of works but Shax is confused why Baal is letting me talk to members of his court.
-Shax thinks its hilarious that Im summoning demons without Baals permission because hehmm let me check my notes heredecapitates every living creature who trespasses in his realm?!?! Guys I changed my mind I dont want to talk to demons anymore.
-Okay. Crocells secret is he cant resist settling a feud so I need to get two people fighting side by side. Seems easy enough because I already remember a biography talking about how two people were fighting.
-One other thing is to bring along a stupid boy, in need of instruction, because teaching is his first love. I already know who hes talking about because there is a dummy that needs a tutor on account of his dumbness.
-The last thing I can ask him is to tell me more about himself. He rambles about how cool and awesome he is, and about how he stole a contract from a skeleton. Duke something or other. Not that impressive as I can steal from skeletons too if the local cemetery would lift their restraining order.
-That contract gives him full use of the refinery, which makes weapons for the war Marquis Cimeies and president Glasya-Labolas are fighting. Jeez, even demons have day jobs, apparently.
-I now have to pick who I think he should help and I pick Glasya-Labolas. He seems like the kind of president I could have a beer with. Shax thanks me for helping him and promises to tell Cimeies that I am responsible for his downfall. Hm no maybe you can leave that part out.
-That's enough for now.
-It isn't bad but it's pretty simple overall. There is some light "puzzle solving" considering you need to figure out how to summon the demons, but most of it is directly told to you so as long as you can read you shouldn't have much problem.
-I'll give the game a break though because I'm guessing this is like the intro chapter and things get harder in later chapters.
-Kinda digging the writing so far though.

Time Played: Like 30 minutes? I've spent more time writing than playing so far. Very text heavy and lots of weird stuff to comment on.
High Score: Two demons summoned.
Beaten? Not even close.
Grade: Too early to say.
Favorite Part So Far: Demons keep referring to me as Svengoolie and it might be the best decision I've ever made.

Still Playing: Demon Quest '85

Thoughts:
-Hm ok where was I? Summoning a demon, duh, but what did this one want again?
-Duke Crocell likes water, the sound of rushing water, two friends who are fighting, and one friend he can teach. Ez pz.
-Classmate notes say Aaron and Ted are fighting over a matter of honor (whatever that means for high school boys). Teds bio doesnt mention Aaron but does say he is trying to get a story printed about how a teacher got fired from another school for drinking animal blood. Was that teacherAaron??! Do we have a classic Never Been Kissed but with animal blood situation on our hands here?
-And our third is Werner Shulz who is bad at geometry and needs a tutor. Doesnt say if that tutor has to be of the non-demon variety, so we should be good.
-Theres tape with nature sounds and a straight up bottle of water. Easiest demon to summon yet, honestly.
-Aaron and Ted start fighting immediately and kill the whole ambiance I was going for. This demon needs to show up soon or Im going to find someone less annoying to help me.
-The Duke shows up and immediately threatens to kill me for not bringing him a proper gift. Hey man what the hell. Is a bottle of water not enough?
-One of the dialogue choices is Hey, we got you this water, you dummy. I dont pick it even though I really want to. Ill have to do a second playthrough with joke choices after this, I think.
-Oh. Doh. He points out he is the master of water so he has no need for a bottle of it because he can find it anywhere. Oops I shouldve thought of that.
-I ask him for help and his whole countenance changes. Shouldve lead with that to avoid the whole threatening to murder me thing.
-Ah. So this is some sort of punishment from Glasya-Labolas. Good thing I tried to get on his good side with the whole war thing going on down there.
-President Glasya kicked the Duke out of his court and did something to him to force him to help mortals when asked. Sweet. Im never taking a math test again.
-All of this is just sort of reiterating how powerful Glasya is. Im two away from him unless something changes. Gulp.
-So I ask if I can help, and apparently I can also set him free as telling him to be free would unset the curse. Hm. Gotta think what to do here.
-He says hell settle his business with Glasya if I set him free. Seems like that would make Glasya mad though. Hmmmmmm.
-I do it. Seems like the nice thing to do. Im sure I definitely wont regret this later on.
-He will do me ONE favor. I can either stop the two dorks from fighting or help Werner with his Geography final. I go with the final because the two guys are annoying me and I dont feel like helping them.
-He starts going off on the geography of hell. I cant imagine this is going to be helpful in whatever remedial geography course Werner is taking. Hell likely just have to point out Ohio, which is sort of like hell but less interesting.
-Duke Crocell WILL help him but he needs Werner to open his mind to him first. That sounds like a bad idea considering 1) he is a demon and 2) he didnt know what Mount Everest was until two lines before this request. This demon might not be an expert on the geography you need, Werner.
-Crocell promises that Werner will know the tortures he has endured, smell the blood he has consumed, taste the bones he has eaten. Ok yeah great but again I just need to know where Lake Superior is please.
-Now Werner wants to know what I would do. Well, on account of Duke refusing to answer if this would drive you crazy AND the fact you said this isnt even a final, Im gonna go with no. Not worth the risk.
-Hes angry for refusing his help and says it wont go unpunished. Uh huh. Uhhhhanyway how do we talk to the next demon in line.
-He says Agraes is an old fool so I agree and call him an old turd to get him to see were on the same page. I think he likes that. Turd is just a funny thing to call someone in general so this has to be the right dialogue option.
-Agares apparently likes mortals whos hearts have been toyed with and torn asunder. Uh so do I just use that one girl again who was in love with Aaron?
-Ok bye dude. Hopefully this next demon is cooler.
-Duke Agares likes hearts, hates choir music, and likes people suffering from a broken heart. Oh and hes an instructor of language and can get animals to return home.
-Oh. The first time I summon him it doesnt work. Apparently by the he attacks when he hears a choir the game means you should use this to make him appear. I thought it was an avoid at all costs sort of thing.
-Before the demon shows up there is a debate about whether or not a cat can live long enough to be a grandfather. I feel like there has to be a great grandad cat alive somewhere considering how long they can live!
-Uh oh. Something went wrong! Demon is like phew finally I had to murder Duke Agares himself to get to you. Um. Sorry wrong number.

-Its Glasya-Labowhatever. Hopefully hes here to thank me for the thing I helped him with and not yell at me for the thing I didnt.
-I have many names. CaacrinolaasCaassimolarClassyaborym. Do you have any names less than 18 syllables? These are hard to type out.
-So he seems a bit grumpy with me. First for giving Cimeaes the idea to recruit his men into his army. Second for releasing Crocell from his servitude. Will an apology suffice?
-His head sits upon a spike at the gates of my kingdom. SoooI mightve bet on the wrong horse on that one. Oops.
-He asks who I fight for and I say him. Mostly because I dont want to get murdered.
-Oh hes cool with me now. Well, then. This demon is kind of a dummy because I didnt even have a good lie.
-He says hell grant me a favor as a sign of gratitude. I can ask for help for one of the two dummies here, or I can ask for the sixth throne for myself, OR I can ask if cats live long enough to be grandfathers. The choice is obvious.
-He says NO and then tells me I can ask something else. What the hell? This game is a full on grandfather cat conspiracy theorist at this point.
-I can now only pick between finding the cat and helping the dummy learn a language. Another easy choice because I dont want to leave this poor cat out there. Other girl can study for French on her own time.
-Glasya-Seomthingsomething is like you know Im an all powerful demon, right? This is what you want to ask me? Trust me the other option was way dumber.
-I taunt him into helping me find the cat, which he does. Her cat is fucking my cat right here in the attic. Seems like we shouldve been able to hear them then. Thanks Glasya-Soandso.
-I ask him to perform a cat wedding. It doesnt go well.
-Apparently Baal is going to murder me for interfering with demons. Maybe I can ask him to perform a cat wedding?
-The president is like it will totally definitely happen but I just dont know when. Uh huh. Let me guess: three chapters from now?
-I will either have to face him or run for the rest of my life. I am good at cowardly running away, so lets do that option.
-Well thats it for now. The demon book has been updated with everyone covered in blood and a final page from Baal saying we need to talk. I need to bring people who have been helping me so far and thats it. No music or tribute. This guys all business.
-Updated profile for Tracey Young: We had a wedding for our cats. I dont want to talk about it. Hey man dont deprive me of the sweet deets of a cat wedding!
-I bring the note forgetting girl, the cat marriage girl, and the debate team guy to help out. Quite the motley crew.
-Cat wedding girl: There isnt anything else I need. I guessI do have two guinea pigs that could get married. STOP MARRYING YOUR ANIMALS TO OTHER ANIMALS.
-Well, this worked. Baal shows up and asks me to have a seat over there. NEXT TIME, ON TO CATCH A DEMON SUMMONER
-Baal says he maybe might not maybe wont kill me. Maybe. I like those odds!
-He wants to talk first and ask me some questions, and hell let me ask questions in return. My question is going to be will you please not kill me?
-He wants to know why Im summoning all these demons and meddling in the affairs of hell. None of the options sound that great so I go that I think demons are more interesting than people.
-I can ask him a question now. Two are catty (including one thats just isnt Shax awful? which is definitely a high school thing to say). I ask if hes ever loved anyone as that seems the most interesting.
-Aye mortal. I have loved Lilith, the lady and mother of jackals and desert beasts. I want to get my wife a hoodie that says Im not a normal mom Im a jackal mom just to see what her reaction is.
-Thou are nearing the end of thy journey through hell. Wait what? Really? Ive been playing for like an hour!
-He asks if I regret my actions. I say yes, for one of my friends. He asks who and I can say Grace or Annie. Waitwho the hell were these two again?
-Ok going through my notes Grace is the one who wanted people to forget her secret and Annie is the one who was a religious nut sleeping with Aaron. Obviously I go with Grace.
-Next group of questions comes with why do I have to die? which was my joke question at the start so Im 100% picking that one.
-Everything must die. There is no shame in this. Ok maybe I wasnt clear. Why must I die NOW is more what I was getting at.
-Final question he asks is do I like myself. I take the middle option as it doesnt sound vain or depressed.
-Final question I ask is the big one. Can cats live long enough to be grandfathers. Truly this is what the game has been building up to!
-Not in this world nor the next. EVERYONE IS IN ON THIS CONSPIRACY.
-Alright help me out google.
-Cats can live 12 to 18 years, on average. Cats can start having kittens at 4 months of age. So not only can a cat be a grandfather, it can be a great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather! Add more greats in there until the math works out, my hands were getting tired.
-Demon Quest 85: The Game Trying To Marginalize Grandfather Cats.
-He lists all the bad stuff Ive done now. Sounds pretty bad when you make a big list of it, I admit.
-Not since Joahann Weyer hath a mortal wielded so much influence when facing the demons of hell. Who?
-Wikipeida: Johann Weyer was a dutch physician who was amongst the first to publish a thorough treatise against the trials and persecution of people accused of witchcraft. Oh wow cool. Im not reading the whole article but Im going to guess they burned him alive for witchcraft.
-He doesnt want to kill me. He wants to appoint me a member of the hierarchy of demons! Do I get my own corner office?
-At the rank of Marquis, thou shall carry out mine orders in thine Earthly realm. Hmmmm. Interesting. What sort of salary/perks are we looking at here?
-Debate team guy tells me to do it because Cimeaes has made him awesome at debate since talking to him. Fair point. Cat girl says it's only because he became a dick. Also fair point.
-But its called show business, not show friendship! Well debate club isnt show business so maybe write that down for later.
-Two people say to do it. Grace says not to do it because shes lame and can think things through.
-I go ahead and do it because what fun is it not picking the crazy options at this point?
-My first mission is to go amass my legions because work has gotten to hell and other jealous demons are going to be coming for me. Wow word travels fast down there huh? This all happened literally eight seconds ago.
-Thou must spend 1986 gathering thy forces and preparing for the war that is to come. Wow Demon Quest 86 sounds like its gonna be a banger.
-He says hell see me in one year and then it just says THE END?
-WHAT? Really? Thats it?
-Oh what the hell credits. Thats really it.

-Hahaha I can go back and check the book and on the final page is now Marquis Svengoolie. Worth sacrificing his soul for that sick title, I think.
-I cant do anything else. I was hoping I could pick three friends to add to my super cool demon squad but I cant. Bummer.
-Man, I wish this was longer. This wouldve been a really fun introductory chapter but it does not feel like a full game. I have no clue why they stopped here.
-I would say, right now, fun idea. Fun writing. Fun lore. Not a full game.
-Im going to go back one more time and change my decisions to see how much that matters, if at all, to the ending. I wont be taking notes this time so it really should only take like 45 minutes or so.

Time Played: I think actual playtime here is like an hour and maybe not even that.
High Score: Four demons summoned.
Beaten? Somehow, yes.
Grade: Man. I'm not sure. Maybe a 5. It is fun but super insubstantial even for a visual novel.
Favorite Part So Far: Definitely all the questions about the cat grandfather. I actually had to Google some cat facts because I thought I might be losing my mind.

Still Playing: Demon Quest '85 (Final Part)

Thoughts:
-I keep the name Svengoolie because it is the best name and I can only go down from there.
-I tried selecting different options during the opening. Not much change in dialogue. I do get some different flavor text but most of it is the same regardless of what option you pick.
-Oh wait the person who wrote this book is Johann Weyer. Cool I didnt realize that was a real person my first time playing this.
-I try inviting someone new this first time to see what happens. I have the two people I know I need and then a rando swapped out for the guy who wants his cigarettes back.
-Svengoolie, dont you have any GOOD games? Wow I was just asking myself the same question here.
-Ok so the words you use to summon a demon dont matter at all. I was picking the best sounding ones last time and this time I just picked Hey demon! Come here. I want to talk to you about stuff. And it still worked.
-I get Beths notebook this time, and Cimeaes says hell help as long as she whispers his name three times next time she eats cow flesh. Uh Beth maybe just become a vegetarian here in the short term.
-Oh Beths debate team boyfriend took her notebook! Good job ratting him out, demon.
-Man and she was so supportive of you on the other path, too. What an absolute loser this dude is.
-I missed this the first time but the sixth throne these guys are fighting over is carved from the spine of Cimeaess father. Mustve been a giant dude or a very tiny throne.
-Nicks new bio: Nice used to go out with Beth until he stole her physics book at the movies because he was jealous and a demon told Beth about it and Beth got really upset about it and broke up with him. And I saw one of the babies and the baby looked at me!
-He plays guitar now. Fuck. Truly this is the darkest timeline.
-I have Shax steal the cigarettes back. Thats a good use of a demons time, right?
-He breaks into the office, but notices the pack is still sealed and smoker dude is a big PHONY who doesnt smoke at all. How do you pretend to smoke with no one noticing for any length of time? Dont they notice youre just standing there, miming smoking a cigarette? This dude is such a POSER.
-I try six different things to summon Crocell but none of them work. You literally have to use the water even though when you do he tells you that isnt a good offering. I TRIED MAN. Next time, take my jerky or cheez-wiz like a good demon.
-Also the fact you can never use your cheez-wiz as an offering is borderline criminal.
-WOW Crocell has a dark path. Rather than setting him free, if you go all the other way you can command him to kill his brother.
-Man. I really would like to see a full version of this game. This is a fun little idea and they have pretty good dialogue choices all things considered.
-OHHH I was actually oddly close with my joke guess of what the dispute between Aaron and Ted was. Ted wrote the story about the teacher who got fired for drinking blood and the teacher in question is Aarons dad.
-So the decision is given to me as to who is in the right and Crocell makes us all promise that whatever decision is rendered is FINAL no takesie backsies. I wonder what horror this will result in.
-We say Aaron is right, and Ted apologizes. Wow that wasanti-climactic. I was expecting bloodshed or death or at least a hangnail or something.
-Glasya-Whatever isnt as helpful on the other path. Hes just like I dont speak other languages and then tells the girl she cant learn it because shes dumb and lazy. Wow same energy as my highschool Spanish teacher.
-I ask him if he thinks I can take Baal and hes like ha! At what? Failing languages and disappointing your friends? Baal has done all youve done and better! I dont know if you meant that to be a sick burn against Baal but it sort of is, Glasya-Something and Im gonna tell on you.
-Yeah so when you get a choice of talking to Baal, last time I picked yes my lord and this time I picked nah I dont want to talk to you about anything and it leads to the same path. I was afraid a lot of these choices were choices and its turning out to be right.
-Oh wait now I dont get to ask him questions. It just skips that part. So it does change a little, I guess.
-And thinking about it, I told Crocell to kill his brother but then Glaysa shows up and is like nah I told him not to do that because I want to. You have a ton of choices here but they tend to amount to absolutely nothing.
-Well, the ending is a bit different but I literally think it just depends on the last choice in the game.
I played it differently as I could and I pretty much got the same preamble. I was a straight jerk to the demons but hes still like wow yeah you should join me mm hmm. I say no and hes like aw man, uh, how about you Beth? and she becomes a demon.
-He says the other demons will hunt me. I ask Beth for help and she says if shes not busy. Ok cool thanks for your support, lady.
-And thats it! I dont think Ill play through it a third time. Theres likely one slightly different ending because I can pick sure Ill be a demon but I wont serve you which is probably its own three lines of dialogue, but I dont feel like chasing it down.
-Final thoughts coming tonight!

Time Played: 1.5 to 2 hours
High Score: Still four demons summoned.
Beaten? Twice.
Grade: Uh. Like a 4 or a 5. Which is pretty good considering the length here.
Favorite Part So Far: All the demons saying Svengoolie with a straight face.

Game #9 Complete! Demon Quest '85

Throw This Quote On The Back Of The Box: A game so good you're going to wish they finished it!

Final Thoughts: Man, I wish they had just worked this out a bit more. I like the writing here and they put all this time coming up with this interesting lore and then they just sort of wander off right when things start getting good. You have some interesting dialogue choices, some funny responses - there's good stuff here. It is so fleeting though that I can't imagine this is going to make much of an impression on anyone. It is like if you asked someone what their favorite game is - no one is going to say the demo disc that came with Official Xbox Magazine #103.

I get that a lot of these Playdate games are on the short side, but this is too short. I feel like I just sat down for a tasty dinner, took two tasty bites and then the waiter showed up, slapped me in the face, and ran away with the plate. The little puzzle part doesn't feel well thought out, and while it would be fine if it was the introduction part, it turns out the introduction part is the whole part. You read the description and it says you need to bring salt and there's literal salt as an option of something you can bring. Things are spelled out pretty clearly, so the only puzzle here is if you can read or not. I would've been happy with like maybe twice the content here, and anytime playtime is less than an hour it is hard to get too excited about the game.

The game also has one of my biggest bet peeves in adventure games, where choices that you are told matter don't actually matter. Free Crocelll from servitude or demand he kill his brother? Eh, doesn't matter. You get like one line of changed dialogue and the actual events of the game stay exactly the same. Some lines literally affect nothing. You can pick two completely different things and get the same response. It is like figure 1A of lazy adventure game design, and while the dialogue choices are fun I sort of wish they impacted something other than the literal next line of dialogue.

So its kinda funny and kinda charming and kinda interesting and kinda not finished. This is less a visual novel and more a visual novella. It probably is a good sign when my biggest complaint is "there needs to be more of this" but this is an example where there really does need to be more of this. It teases a sequel but I have no clue what the likelihood of that ever happening is. You don't really have a full story here, just a couple of fun vignettes and a disappointing ending to tie a bow on everything. I did enjoy what was here, mostly, but I'd appreciate it more if they actually finished what they started.

Should You Play It? Yeah, sure. It is interesting and worst case scenario, you're out like 45 minutes, tops.

Final Score: This is a really hard one for me to score. I want to like this more than I do. There is this charm and personality to it, which is huge. But the game part isn't much of a game and the visual novel feels unfinished, at best. Ugh. Probably a 4 or 5. Wish it was higher.

Games Completed: 9/108

Game Rankings:
9) Boogie Loops
8) Whitewater Wipeout
7) Lost Your Marbles
6) Demon Quest '85
5) Flipper Lifter
4) Echoic Memory
3) Casual Birder
2) Pick Pack Pup
1) Crankin's Time Travel Adventure

I had a really hard time ranking between Demon Quest '85 and Flipper Lifter, so don't be surprised if those two swap at some point. I feel like slight edge to Flipper Lifter. If had to recommend between the two, I'd say play that one first.

There is a pretty clear tiering here though.

Must play: Crankin/Pick Pack Pup
Very solid: Casual Birder
Enjoyable, but with notable issues: Echoic Memory/Flipper Lifter/Demon Quest '85
Kind of a drag: Lost Your Marbles/Whitewater Wipeout
Boogie Loops: Boogie Loops

Currently Playing: Omaze

What Is It? A bite sized puzzle game where you race around a series of interlocking circles to get to a goal.

Thoughts:
-I actually dont even know the title of this next game yet because the menu card is just a blinking eyeball. So Im going to be playing blinking eyeball game.
-Oh. Omaze. Its a puzzle game.
-Mechanics are basically you use the crank to move your little eyeball around a circle. A series of circles will be connected and you can move from one to the next through little shared gaps.
-The game starts introducing little twists pretty quickly. There are things you cant run into or you die. There are little dials in the middle that force you to move one direction. There are blocks that rotate with you and can block the exit depending on your timing. Nothing too crazy, but it works well within the context of the gameplay.
-They start combining multiple things to make things puzzle-ier. For example, youll need to move to a circle that automatically rotates you around, but then next circle will have those blocks you can't move through so you still need to readjust circles to create a path to the end.
-Oh theres a boss?
-There IS a boss. He is very easy and you basically just need to get to the target three times.
-Im now at a menu thing it looks like and there are four different options to choose from. I have no idea what is what so I pick the bottom.
-There are a lot of weird bad quality of life things in these games. For example, I cant get back to the hub area now. Im just stuck in this level until I beat it. The pause menu is no help and these games never explain anything. There is an option on the menu screen for this game that says progress. I click it which checks it but I have no idea what that does so I uncheck it.
-The theme of this stage is sort of jumping through a circle. So if you hit the a button youll skip the sides and jump from one side to the other.
-Oh wait. This game is called Omaze like O Maze. Ive been caling it oh-mazay in my head. Doh.
-I get stuck in a level for like a full minute before figuring out you can actually move against those auto-move circles. Like it kept throwing me into a wall and I was trying to figure out how to adjust it while all I needed to do was move. I may not be the smartest person.
-Oh duh I can just rotate the direction of those auto move circles by pressing a button. I shouldve figured that out. Again, I may not be the smartest person.
-New trick: circles that shrink in size randomly while youre in them and kill you. You have to time their patterns right to get through them.
-This is a perfectly fine little puzzle game so far. Nothing extraordinary but sometimes something simple like this hits the spot.
-Most of the puzzles on this block require precise timing. Like between the teleporting, rotating circles, and shrinking circles, you mostly just have to time your way through the path.
-Theres another trick where you have to dock the crank and really just figure out the timing without actually rotating your stuff around.
-I get through this second block pretty quickly. I beat the second boss on accident. I move to an auto move area I didnt realize was an automove area and my kid said something to me so I looked up and when I looked back down, the boss was beaten. Uh. Good job me?
-Oh, wait. There are four blocks of puzzles here, not five. That first one I beat was grayed out on the hub, and now the bottom one is too. So uh two left?
-The third area is interesting. There are lasers that rotate around specific circles which add another obstacle you need to work against. They do some clever things here where you need to carefully time yourself around the little space of the lasers to get into another little bit.
-I have no idea if Im playing these in the right order, but this does feel like it is building on past areas?
-Another new obstacle a black that slowly disappears over time. You basically need to bounce yourself back and forth by changing direction until it goes away. They get used a lot in those automatic circles that rotate you automatically.
-Another boss level down. Do I just have one more block? This game feels like another short one. Week 5 had the lowest playtime by far so far.
-That block was definitely solid though. Lots of precise movement and timing. Crank is used well and it is a fun concept for a puzzle game.
-Aw man the final area isnt an area at all! Its just a super quick boss fight you cant really lose. And then it resets the other levels so you can play them again.
-Uh well I guess thats another one beat. First time I cleared two games in the same day for this!
-Final thoughts coming in a bit.

Time Played: Uh. I think it was like an hour? It wasn't very long, that's for sure.
High Score: One eyeball creature made. I worry about depth perception.
Beaten? Sadly, yes!
Grade: Um. I'm not sure yet. Ask me tomorrow. I wasn't expecting this to be over yet.
Favorite Part So Far: Some of the levels in that third block of puzzles have a whole bunch of stuff going on and it is definitely fun.

The theme of week 5 appears to have been "games you're going to wish last longer than they did." I'm almost halfway done with season 1 now. I'm not sure, but I might start peaking around in the catalogue. My last games of season 1 download tomorrow which is a bit of a bummer because I've really liked the little light notification that pops up to let me know I've got new fun stuff to play. I have no clue if there will be a season 2 so I might want to keep some of these season 1 games in my back pocket for later on.

I dont think Whitewater Wipeout deserves to be that low. Just because its not a full game doesnt make it bad. It can be an addictive little high score chaser, and its a cool showcase for what the crank can do. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do, and thats more than you can say for half the games on that list

TomNook7 posted...

its a cool showcase for what the crank can do. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do

From the sounds of it it seems like most games on this console are like that. A showcase of what they could do but no one actually doing it.

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

From the sounds of it it seems like most games on this console are like that. A showcase of what they could do but no one actually doing it.

When it comes to the crank, unfortunately yeah. Crankin seems to be the only game that actually uses the crank to truly innovative effect so far. I like Pick Pack Pup and Gun Trails, but those are crankless.

Another thing Id like to say about Whitewater is I appreciate how easy it is to jump in and play. Thats the main draw for me. Thats how Gameboy games were, and all the best Playdate games are like that so far. I dont want to sit around and read never-ending dialogue on a screen that I can barely see

TomNook7 posted...

I dont think Whitewater Wipeout deserves to be that low. Just because its not a full game doesnt make it bad. It can be an addictive little high score chaser, and its a cool showcase for what the crank can do. It achieves exactly what it sets out to do, and thats more than you can say for half the games on that list

Yeah, I was also debating flipping Whitewater Wipeout with Lost Your Marbles, specifically. Looking back I started Lost Your Marbles on 9/10 and didn't finish until 9/22 even with the short story length. That's definitely the bit where the project dragged the most and where I was most forcing myself to play through the game.

I guess part of my issue isn't just that it wasn't a "full game" but that they didn't really try to do anything to it but show off how the crank works. Flipper Lifter, for example, gives you five different levels and little goals to unlock each. That's at least something that shows they were thinking a bit about how to build on more than just a demo for the crank. Flipper Lifter was borderline broken at times, but I still had more fun with it than Whitewater Wipeout and its works much better as an arcade style point chaser.

Like in Whitewater Wipeout you have a set end state. In Flipper Lifter, while things get harder and harder you at least feel like you could extend your play time if you play well. In Whitewater Wipeout, the wave just ends in a minute. You basically try to string a handful of big jumps together and then see what score you get. I also admit point chaser games like this work less well for me than a lot of people and even big names in the genre I tend to get bored with.

I agree that Whitewater Wipeout achieves what it sets out to do. It's just that what it sets out to do isn't interesting to me. I think it is a good demo. I just think it isn't a very fun game. I'll go back and play Flipper Lifter once in a while in spite of it being broken at times. I have no intention of going back to Whitewater Wipeout.

(Your mileage may vary, of course, and it is FREE and is a good starting point to show off the crank so it probably is still worth checking out!)

-hotdogturtle-- posted...

From the sounds of it it seems like most games on this console are like that. A showcase of what they could do but no one actually doing it.

I agree with TomNook that Crankin actually not only shows what you can do, but pulls it off. It requires both fast and super precise movement, in close conjunction with each other, and I don't think you could play this on another console and have the same experience.

I'm really going to have to check out Gun Trails here soon. Pick Pack Pup and Crankin are definitely my top two at the moment, and Nook keeps throwing Gun Trails in there with them as well. I don't really care if something is crankless as long as its fun!

Game #10 Complete! Omaze

Throw This Quote On The Back Of The Box: Omaze is o-kay.

Final Thoughts: Wow, the theme for Week 5 must've really been "oh jeez oh man the deadline is tomorrow uh uh I guess we send them what we have." I've played some short games in my time, but Omaze is the first one where I had to go to a discord forum and make sure my game didn't glitch out on me. Like my first thought here was "oh wait I must've accidentally skipped an area or two how do I fix that". Turns out that was just wishful thinking.

What is here is pretty good though. It is a unique and breezy puzzle game that is enjoyable enough while it lasts. I feel like I've said this for almost every game, but I was playing this and thinking "wow I haven't played something like this before" which is always a fun feeling. I wouldn't say any of the puzzles here are overly complex, but there is a good interplay of precision and timing mixed in with the puzzle elements that works. It definitely gets good use out of the crank in the levels that allow for it, and I cleared this all in one sitting partially because of the length but also because I was enjoying myself. Well, mostly because of the length, I guess.

I do wish there had done more with the game. I feel like one or two more areas would've been perfect. There had to be more here they could work with, somehow. I'm not smart enough to figure out how to fill this game out, but I can at least recognize that it needs to be filled out more. There are some levels here that provide a bit of a challenge, but honestly the hardest part was always acclimating myself with what direction to crank when I got to a new circle. There's always this brief disorientation when you get to a new circle and since some obstacles are on you immediately a wrong turn usually means death. There was some frustration associated with that too, but every level here is short it wasn't that big of a deal.

This is another game I feel like really needs a "full" version. I get this is a small console and the games on here aren't going to be Skyrim, but I can't keep finishing games by accident. If a game is short enough for me to wonder if I did something wrong, you might want to add a bit more too it. Some games do what they want to do and then end, but Omaze feels like it does some of what it wants to do and then runs out of the room screaming because it forgot it had a doctor's appointment.

Should You Play It? Definitely. Short and sweet. Really, really short and kinda sweet but that's still a decent combo.

Final Score: Probably another 5. Solid but very insubstantial. A tasty appetizer you only get a single bite of before the waiter whisks its away.

Games Completed: 10/108

Game Rankings:
10) Boogie Loops
9) Whitewater Wipeout
8) Lost Your Marbles
7) Demon Quest '85
6) Flipper Lifter
5) Echoic Memory
4) Omaze
3) Casual Birder
2) Pick Pack Pup
1) Crankin's Time Travel Adventure

Currently Playing: Questy Chess

What Is It? The end result of an evil scientist crossbreeding chess and a strategy RPG.

Gameplay Overview: You start as a simple pawn and you move like a pawn does. You move one space at a tie, and can attack diagonally. Levels aren't necessarily a simple chessboard and there's all sorts of stuff in your way. You also can get attacked by other chess pieces, and you're basically just trying to get to the end of the level although you do earn points for completing under a certain move limit or killing all the enemies. You can replay levels, but they're left the way you leave them. So if you kill all the enemies, they won't respawn.

Eventually you can unlock more pieces and you can swap out which piece you're playing as on the fly (taking the spot on the board your previous piece was at). It is sort of a movement puzzler, although I can see it being classified as a very basic sort of strategy RPG. There are items you pick up (restore health, wipe the board of enemies, keys to unlock doors, etc). You won't be able to clear everything your first time through, and there are some levels I had to return to after unlocking the right piece.

Thoughts:
-Questy Chess is a fun sounding name for a game.
-Its tagline is Role Playing Chess Simulator and I have to admit, Im interested in whatever the hell that means.
-Deep in an ever advancing computer, forgotten and unchanged remains chess program v1. Well every ever advancing computer has to start somewhere, I guess.
-I update to V2. Who wants to play Chess V1 when you can play Chess v2?
-Chess V1 is being updated until a final pawn is left. RUN ROGUE PAWN YOU GOTTA GET OUT OF HERE.
-ERROR! CANNOT OVERWRITE PAWN! ABORTING! Aw yeah good job pawn v1. Way to show that overwrite whos boss.
-That pawn is you. All around you is chaos. Everything is stuck in upgrade limbo. Ugh that happens to my phone sometimes and I hate it.
-Embark on your quest to remove all traces of chess v2 and restore peace. Haha well I have to give the game credit for having a weird and interesting setup, at least.
-I move my adorable little chess piece and I can now select from one of four zones. I go with forest because that sounds the most introduction-y.
-So you basically move like a pawn and you can attack only in the ways a pawn attacks. It is more of a puzzle game than an RPG, but you do have HP and can pick stuff up.
-You also have goals at the end of each segment. Kill enemies, open chests, etc. You're scored out of 100, and I have no idea what that does but my completionist tendencies are going to force me to 100% every level. Im going to replay 1-1 because I can do better, dang it.
-There are squares here where you can terraform and use the crank to move the next column of squares youd walk on up or down. It help create paths or move enemies. Interesting set up, so far.
-I see a knight in the second level, but I cant get to him. I try to replay the level but since I killed the pawns I was using to move into different columns, I have no legal moves and the game crashes. I feel like maybe Ill unlock more pieces and can come back at some point. I hope at least.
-AHA! I do unlock the knight. Fun. Now I can go back and do fun things, I think.
-Oh this is a little annoying. The other chess pieces are usable items. So if I swap back to the pawn because I need to use different movement, the knight disappears from my inventory. To get it back, I need to go back and replay the level I picked them up at. This is going to be annoying and a waste of time, I think.
-I get through the forest zone pretty easily. There is a boss fight where I battle against a king piece and I have to hit it twice. I basically just move around the board until the king moves into a dumb spot and I can beat him up. TAKE THAT FALSE KING.
-I level up, which gives me an extra HP. Nice.
-I like the sort of movement puzzle/RPG thing this game has going on. I might do something weird here and keep playing this when I should go to sleep because Im interested.
-You unlock the rook in the second area. Thank God. Movement is way less annoying now and it is much easier to capture pieces instead of trying to dance around with the knight.
-I go back and 100% a couple more levels. It itches that caveman part of my brain that likes to see completion numbers go up.
-Hm. For the first boss you need to capture 1 piece (king). But, for whatever reason, you don't capture it. You attack it once (has two HP), and then if you start a turn from an attacking position it is automatically check mate and you don't get to nab it. No clue what to do so I'll come back later.
-There are a couple of other levels I'm stuck on, including the one I need to beat to get to the second area boss. I think I need to find a bishop for these, so I might have to explore the third world first.
-I'm calling it for tonight. I definitely like this, as basic as it is. I feel like there is only so much they're going to be able to do and it is likely to be another 2 hour or so game, but it is weird and unique and kinda fun, so I'm on board.
-There are a bunch of weird annoyances though. Pieces as usable items, for one. I spent five minutes grinding the level you find the rook in so I'll never have to come back, but it is a tremendous waste of time.
-I also don't know what all the items do. Once says for long range attacks, and then i use it and it doesn't seem to actually do anything. The game as a whole is bad at explaining mechanics, which is a complaint I have about a lot of Playdate games.
-Oh, here's another thing I thought of that sucks. There are parts in certain levels where you "terraform". Stand on a square and you can adjust a column somewhere in the level. It is used to move obstacles so your pieces can move into the squares you need. But it is also a limited use item for some reason. You run out of it and can get stuck, which I kept doing in levels because I didn't know which way the crank would move the column (up or down).
-It also doesn't even need to use the crank and they definitely did it because nothing else in the game uses the crank and they felt bad.
-Overall: still enjoying it. Weird design choices that make things unnecessarily frustrating and very simple overall but there's something kinda cool here.

Time Played: Probably an hour. I spent a lot of time going back and replaying levels though and grinding for pieces.
High Score: N/A
Beaten? Nope. Maybe about halfway.
Grade: I'm going to guess a 6 based out of what I've seen so far.
Favorite Part So Far: The premise here is a lot of fun by itself, so I'm going to pick that. And, strangely enough, this isn't even the best chess themed strategy RPG thing I've played before.

For now, I've skipped week 6. I'll get back to them eventually. Those games are Hyper Meteor (which sounds like another arcade score chaser and I wasn't in the mood for another one just yet) and Zipper, a Bennett Foddy game. I played for a couple of minutes and it is a rougelike strategy game and at least just not a vehicle for endless frustration and Youtube reaction videos like I know him for. It wasn't clicking for me so I decided to skip it and come back.

Just saw a clip from the game Root Bear on my tiktok, first time I've seen Playdate talked about outside this board

The game looked pretty barebones but it's a top tier pun

Johnbobb posted...

Just saw a clip from the game Root Bear on my tiktok, first time I've seen Playdate talked about outside this board

The game looked pretty barebones but it's a top tier pun

There are dozens of us Playdate fans out there. DOZENS. Root Bear actually isn't an "official" Playdate game. You can't find it in the catalogue, but you can side load it onto your Playdate.

And, sadly, "pretty barebones" has been describing most of the Playdate catalogue for me so far.

I may or may not have done something stupid that caused a delay in my Questy Chess, uh, quest. So, for now you get...

Currently Playing: A Joke That's Worth 0.99 Cents

What Is It? A Game That's Not Worth 0.99 Cents

Gameplay Overview: Your Playdate shows a Playdate on your screen and when you turn your crank the crank on the Playdate turns. Your goal is to bounce a guy around back and forth on the virtual crank, popping stars as they appear. Each time you pop a star, you get the next line in the joke and you keep popping until you get to the punchline.

Here's Some Pictures!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/0/AADHM9AAE-my.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/1/AADHM9AAE-mz.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/2/AADHM9AAE-m0.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/3/AADHM9AAE-m1.png

Thoughts:
-This is the first Playdate game I'm playing that isn't part of season 1. I went to the catalogue and I looked through the games, and this was the one that stuck out to me because I was like "wait what the hell is this" so points for the name at least, I guess?
-There's actually TWO jokes here. What a steal!
-One joke is worth a penny and there's two stars you pop so I clear it like my second try.
-The second joke is worth 99 cents (according to the name of the mode - I have my doubts). There's like maybe 50 stars. Or 100? 12? I have no idea. There's a decent amount.
-I beat it in like 15 minutes.
-Uh. That's it.
-No seriously, that's it. The game ends there. It's $1, so, sure. But also...hey I need to find another game now.
-I guess I'll post full thoughts tomorrow, but for the time being, it isn't very good. It is not worth a dollar, so this is FALSE ADVERTISING I WANT MY MONEY BACK.
-You just bounce the guy around for a while. There's no high score mode or endless mode or anything, you just complete the joke and then you're done. The crank thing works ok but it does feel largely pointless.
-The most outrageous thing is the jokes are terrible and you don't even get to hear them really. Each time you pop a star, you move onto the next line of dialogue. However, if you pop another star while that line is still being spoken, you skip that line and move on to the next one. So I was hearing like every third or fourth line sometimes and just skipping around the joke. Hey you know my favorite joke? The one that is cutting in and out like you are talking to someone while driving through a tunnel.
-Here are both jokes. SPOILERS.
-What do you call a meeting between two lispers? A spraydate! Haha because like Playdate guys.
-Three guys are sitting at a bar. A fairy shows up and offers them each three wishes. The first guy wishes for a millions dollars. The second guy wishes for ten million. The third guy wishes for bouncy butt, which is weird but the fairy grants it to him. For their second wish, the first guy wishes to own his own island. The second guy, not to be outdone, wishes for ten islands. And then the third guy, hearing what they wished for, wishes to be an inch tall. Finally, for their final wishes, the first guy wishes for a beautiful wife. The second one decides to up that and wishes for ten wives. Finally, the third guy wishes to be forever bounced up and down on a Playdate. They agree to meet up in ten years to talk about their lives. When they do, the first guy is happy. He donated a bunch of his money to charity and him and his wife are living happily on his island. The second guy is even happier. He sails back and forth between his islands to visit his wives. Then the third guy speaks up.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/1/4/AADHM9AAE-m2.png
-That's it. That's the joke.
-I feel cheated out of 99 pennies.

Time Played: 30 minutes. I beat the game somewhere in the 15-20 minute range and then tried again because I wasn't sure if I'd get a different ending. I did not.
High Score: There is no high score in this game.
Beaten? Yep.
Grade: Very low. 3 probably. There is a little bit of fun bouncing around for a bit but they didn't really add a game part here.
Favorite Part So Far: There is this really poorly sung song that gets played before you start either of the jokes and in the longer version one of the lines is something like "the longest joke in the world!" and then if you play the short version, someone cuts over it and says in this weird monotone voice SHORTEST instead of longest. That made me smile.

Game #10 Complete! A Joke That's Worth 0.99 Cents

Throw This Quote On The Back Of The Box: A dollar isn't very much. Please give us your dollar.

Final Thoughts: On the one hand this is a dollar, so I wasn't expecting very much. On the other hand, either a game is good or it isn't and this isn't. It is kind of like an arcade style point chasing game with the point chasing aspect removed. You just have this one mechanic you keep doing over and over and eventually you get good enough to do it for about a minute straight and then you're done. That's the entirety of the experience here.

If I'm being positive, I'd say I liked this better than Boogie Loops. I had a root canal done last week though and I also liked that better than Boogie Loops so that really is damning by faint praise. It is a bad joke and you likely won't hear most of it because of the way it gets told and it isn't very fun and a whole bunch of other not good stuff. This is one of those game you play and then you're like "why did someone make this?" I'm honestly not sure. It feels like the kind of game that got made because someone wanted to make a game and this was an easy one to make. Think "a college senior's final thesis project that they got a C- on" in terms of quality, and you have this.

Should You Play It? Even though it's only a dollar, no. It isn't worth that dollar.

Final Score: A three. Not horrible and it is completely functional, but without the fun. It's at least a game, so we got that going for us.

Games Completed: 11/118

Game Rankings:
11) Boogie Loops
10) A Joke That's Worth 0.99 Cents
9) Whitewater Wipeout
8) Lost Your Marbles
7) Demon Quest '85
6) Flipper Lifter
5) Echoic Memory
4) Omaze
3) Casual Birder
2) Pick Pack Pup
1) Crankin's Time Travel Adventure

They snuck another 10 games out on the catalogue when I wasn't looking!

I did a quick scan and I think these two look the most interesting, but they aren't really at the top of my list to play at the moment.

https://play.date/games/glagstone/
https://play.date/games/quest-for-x/

They're releasing games faster than I can play them, those jerks. Feel free to mention if you see anything that looks interesting and I can bump it up my list. I'm just sort of randomly picking at this point.