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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Just made my first Playdate game purchase!

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/e/eb7d7df9.jpg

the audacity

How dare you sir.

I love how ever my screen of that game is an unintentional Wheres Waldo search puzzle.

Banned.

Geeze, what did you do to yourself to deserve this?

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

-What do you call a meeting between two lispers? A spraydate! Haha because like Playdate guys.

Interestingly, I got this game and the joke has been changed to:
-What do you call a meeting between two deodorants? Spraydate!
Maybe someone found the first version offensive? As far as bad jokes go, I think this revision has actually improved it by adding a element of surrealism. However, it fails to account for roll-on deodorant, so hopefully a third update is forthcoming.

I've picked up a few games in the sale, and while I have yet to go through everything, I will say that Legend of Etad is my favourite so far and I would recommend checking it out. I'm judging based on a smaller sample size than you've experienced, though.

Also, HANA really is quite terrible, huh? I quit out to try something else and when I went back to it, none of my progress had been saved. Do you know if it saves at any point?

sergiocornaga posted...

Interestingly, I got this game and the joke has been changed to:
-What do you call a meeting between two deodorants? Spraydate!
Maybe someone found the first version offensive? As far as bad jokes go, I think this revision has actually improved it by adding a element of surrealism. However, it fails to account for roll-on deodorant, so hopefully a third update is forthcoming.

I've picked up a few games in the sale, and while I have yet to go through everything, I will say that Legend of Etad is my favourite so far and I would recommend checking it out. I'm judging based on a smaller sample size than you've experienced, though.

Also, HANA really is quite terrible, huh? I quit out to try something else and when I went back to it, none of my progress had been saved. Do you know if it saves at any point?

Oh interesting. I wonder if that game has multiple "short" jokes. I played through a couple of times and got the lispers joke each time, so you could also be right and they changed it later on.

Thanks for the heads up! I'm planning to download a whole bunch that are on sale at the moment, and Etad has been on my shortlist for sometime as one that looked pretty good. I'm glad you found something fun already!

AND I TRIED TO WARN YOU. As far as I know, no, but I'm not sure. I got a message at one point saying it was saving, but when I tried to go back in my progress was gone and I had to start over. I was curious if it saved at the "halfway" point, but there was zero chance I was going back in there if it didn't so I played through to the end out of fear. I don't actually know...

Currently Playing: Saturday Edition

What Is It? A noir themed adventure game where you play as a former alien abductee trying to figure out a string of recent disappearances everyone else is linking to aliens.

Gameplay Overview: It is an adventure game in the same vein as Night In The Woods or Distraint. You are on a 2D plane, you walk left to right, and you can interact with certain objects. You can pick up certain objects and certain dialogues give you "notes" that you can use to bring up the subject to other people or sometimes trigger a specific action if you use it in the right spot. Classic adventure game stuff.

Here's The Game Page! https://play.date/games/saturday-edition/

Here's Some Pictures!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/3/33db10d5.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/42101dfa.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/5/5b73ac3b.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c1bb62b8.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/71b1a5e3.png

Thoughts:
-Ok, so here's the thing. You shouldn't read this if you're planning to get a Playdate ever. The story here is actually a lot of fun, and I'm going to be spoiling it. If you aren't going to get a Playdate, fine. But if you are you should definitely play this game and don't read my thoughts until after.
-You hear me? Go on! Get! GET OUT OF HERE! I DON'T LOVE YOU ANYMORE!
-Are they gone? Good.
-I actually played this game like 1.33 times. I got about a third of the way through on a plane ride without taking notes because I was expecting another "Life's Too Short" kind of experience. But then I was like "holy shit this is actually good" and had to stop and start over sometime I could actually write stuff down. My own fault for underestimating a Playdate game, I guess.
-This is a Season 1 title, and it pretty much cements my opinion that the Season 1 games were so much better curated than the catalogue games. It isn't even close at this point.
-On Thursday, February 10, 1972, John Kornfield was taken from Earth and brought to a far away planet, in a far away galaxy, by beings unlike anything he had ever known. Thats right this game starts with an ALIEN ABDUCTION. You guys arent ready for this one.
-These alien beings, called the Uviel, had been studying the human beings of Earth for thousands of years, unsure of any way to safely establish contact given their fragile and defensive nature. You studied us for thousands of years and after all that time you decided to steal a single dude? I feel like you couldve stolen a farmer in 1544 and nobody wouldve known.
-It was finally decided that a single human would be invited to live with the Uviel for a period of time on their home planet, Vanien. Imagine if we were surveying aliens for thousands of years and our big plan was to stick one in an apartment building and see what happens. I feel like NASA would be defunded as soon as that plan hit the presidents desk.
-They declared the experiment a success and John asked to stay there permanently. What makes this experiment a success again? No one ate him?
-As days went by, Johns memory of Earth and his old life began to grow distant. Yeah I guess that would make sense if he lived there for a couple of dec- Four Earth years passed. EXCUSE ME WHAT? He lived there for four years and his memory of Earth grew distant? I still sometimes put my shipping address as my old graduate school apartment building and that was like a decade ago now. I hope they have something to treat memory loss on Vanien.
-At which point there occurred a seismic shift in the structures of power on Vanien, placing Johns life among the Uviel in jeopardy. Wow election year politics are tough on immigrants even in fictional made up universes, huh?
-John was sent home before the new leaders could hurt him. Thanks, I guess? It is going to be hard to explain to my family where I was for four years and why all their grandchildren have antennae.
-This is all if you believe the words of John Kornfield, a 42 year old security technician who his best friend Tyler Egan tells us has always been a pretty honest guy. Oh shit Tyler said that? Well Tyler would never lie to me so I guess Ill believe this guys alien abduction story.
-John was gracious enough to share with us the various details of his journey, including crude drawings of the foreign world. And we do mean crude. There were weird alien genetalia everywhere. Im beginning to think this guy might not be on the up and up, regardless of what Tyler has told us.
-Well be dedicating a full page to the experience of John Kornfield in next weeks Saturday Edition. THEY DID IT! THEY SAID THE THING!
-Uh am I in heaven?
-Yep. Pearly gates. And some buff angel standing guard outside. Ok. Interesting.
-The animation in this game is actually super impressive. You get little character portraits that move and are dynamic. Definitely one of the more visually impressive/aesthetically pleasing games on the Playdate. AND IM ONLY FIVE MINUTES IN FOLKS.
-Angel lets me know Im not on the list. Damn. Oops. Now Im definitely not on the list.
-Theres a numerical key pad on the gates. Got to keep the riff raff out somehow I guess.
-Aw man Im the riff raff, arent I?
-Luckily Im some sort of electronic security EXPERT and I know all about keypads. The angel is lazy and is like hey help me change the code and Ill let you sneak in. Damn heavens security straight up sucks.
-Ok, so the key code is an item and you have to go into the menu and use it on the gate. Tutorial puzzle solved!
-Oh it was all a dream.
-Wow Kornfield you dream about using your knowledge of electronic locks to impress the guy guarding the gates to heaven? Im not sure I can imagine a more boring dream.
-I like the set up to this game. It is one of those 2D sidescrolling adventure games, so every screen is this 2D plane you walk left and right in. Objects you can interact with pop up with an icon and you solve puzzles by using items you pick up in the right spots. It is a great format for an adventure game like this on the Playdate. It looks so much better than all those cheap-o ones I had been playing.
-Anna Egan calls me and tells me to call her back, but doesnt leave a number. Classic Anna.
-The animations in this game have no business being this good, honestly. I get to the door to see a cop outside, and the little picture prompt has this animation of John opening the keyhole, the officers face appears and then zooms in to give a keyhole type effect. What the hell have all these other games been doing?
-I take the fire escape. SEE YA LATER COPPER.
-There is a power outlet on the roof. This is a very odd place for a power outlet and will absolutely be used for a puzzle later in the game.
-I take my car out and theres a map with multiple places to travel to, each with multiple screens and multiple people/things to interact with. Holy shit its like an actual, complete adventure game. WHO WOULDVE THOUGHT?
-I go to the office first because the other option is a mall and I havent wanted to go to the mall since roughly 2014.
-Apparently the cops are after me for unpaid parking tickets? Dude how many parking tickets did you get?!?
-New character in the office: Ty. Hes Annas dad. And my boss? Why is my bosss kid calling me?
-Tyler asks me to pick him up a couple of coaxial sockets. Mm hm mm hm yes of course I know what that is, no further explanation needed.
-Ty says it would do me no good to call Anna back because shes never home. Yeah well she was at one point if her voicemail is any indication.

-I need to go find her at the beach, because she runs an ice cream stand down there. And if I sneak in a quick game of volleyball, no one will even notice
-I show him note about the parking tickets and it starts with him saying hey man you got to pay that to geez did you hear a 29th person went missing yesterday. Great segue, man.
-Also 29?!?! Remind me to lock all my doors jeez people are disappearing left and right.
-Ty also thinks maybe that cop was at my door because these people going missing coincides with a bunch of people seeing weird flashing lights up in the sky.
-Kornfield, the aliens are back and this time theyre snatching up everyone! You got to do something man!
-but first let me go to the mall to grab those coaxial cables I was asked about.
-Newspaper in the malls top story is about Henry Altons health issues. Am Iuhsupposed to know who that is?
-Theres this little kiosk at the mall and Kornfield finds himself drawn to a weird rock. Jeez this is like taking my kids to the mall. No, you cant get the weird twinkly rock. No, it isnt anything special put it down. Dont listen to that lady shes just trying to sell you junk.
-Lady: Quartz might help with your slouch. See? Called it. The saleswoman is a weirdo trying to sell you junk, Kornfield!
-Lady: Do you believe in the healing power of nature, sir. Kornfield you dummy this is your cue to keep your eyes down and keep walking. Have you never been harassed by mall salespeople before?
-I feel like the healing power of nature is a phrase that is uttered by medical professionals talking about specific salves and balms like 1% of the time and people trying to get you to jam a quartz crystal in your anus for $99.99 the rest of the time.
-Well the electronics store I need to go to is closed. Great. I get harassed by a mall hippie and dont even get my coaxial cables out of the deal.
-Time to go to the beach! Shouldve brought my swimsuit.
-The ice cream stand has three flavors: classic vanilla, mint chocolate chip, and orange licorice. Holy shit what a wild swing on that third flavor. This stand is constantly out of two flavors and has never opened that orange licorice, I guarantee it. Hey what does your restaurant sell We have hamburgers, hotdogs, and deep fried armadillo lung.
-Anna tries to sell me ice cream and fails. Im just here about the message, you can keep your orange licorice flavored abomination, lady.
-She starts to tell me then asks if Ive seen the news and Kornfields just like I dont watch the news and shes like oh ok sorry to bother you. Wait this phone call was dependent on me staying up to date on the news? You maybe want to just tell me what the hell you were going to say anyway?
-Oh ok I show her the note I have about the strange lights and she starts talking. Guess I just needed to prompt her with an item first.
-I do like how Anna and Ty both seem to believe my insane alien abduction story for some reason. I feel like the right response to Kornfield telling you about the five years he lived in an alien zoo is just to politely nod and make sure you have a clear escape plan.
-Kornfield is pretty non-chalant about all of this and is like eh it was 15 years ago I dont remember that well. You dont remember your ALIEN ABDUCTION AND LIVING ON AN ALIEN PLANET all that well? I still remember when I accidentally called my fourth grade teacher mom.
-You dont forget trauma like this, man.
-Anna thinks they might be looking for me. Their plan just to keep abducting people one at a time and hoping the get the right guy? "I told you idiots we should've taken a picture! We're never going to find him at this rate!"
-John thinks that maybe he can put out a radio signal to get in touch with them. Seems like a bad idea since theyre in the process of disappearing people, man.
-Oh ok thats all for the first day. Kornfield leaves saying it doesnt sound like the Uviel because when they snatched him up there were no lights. Maybe they fixed their headlights in the 15 years youve been back?
-New day new message on the machine! Today it is Gerald Davis from KXP-TV. He wants to interview me on account of my crazy story ten years ago and all the lights appearing now. See? Now whos the crazy lunatic in a trenchcoat, Gerald?!?
-No one is outside the door but John still wont go out it. Better safe than sorry. Yeah totally. You know how youre paranoid how people are outside your door and you have to always take the fire escape? Totally normal not crazy person behavior.
-Oh what the hell? The cop is waiting for me at the bottom of the fire escape! Turns out John wasnt crazy enough. I knew I shouldve gone to the roof and used my bounce house secret escape plan.
-Now the number of disappearances has gone up to thirty. I am guessing one of those people I talked to yesterday has been disappeared.
-Haha the cop is like uh it uh says here that in 1976 you had a hm let me check my notes interplanetary experience? Yes asshole I was KIDNAPPED BY ALIENS no need to sugarcoat it.
-Officer: Im not here to bust your balls, sir. Well as long as you pinky promise we can talk.
-The cop says Chief Richardson would like to talk to me in person, then makes a passive aggressive comment asking if my door doesnt work. No, I was just trying to avoid you er I mean yes I always take the fire escape.
-Ok now I can explore the apartment building. Theres nothing of interest. Hooray?
-Im in no rush to talk to the cops so Im going to do everything else first. Uh Ty you got anything for me?
-Kornfield is shockingly unconvinced that the sightings are alien abductions. He talks to Ty and is like yeah I dont know and I feel like he should be like I TOLD ALL YOU PEOPLE THEY ARE SNATCHING US UP.
-Ty lets me know Anna called yesterday and is CONVINCED aliens are behind the disappearances. -Also she was happy to see me. Sorry Ty. Shes got that Kornfield-fever.
-I bring up her idea that I should try to send a radio signal since theyre probably the Uviel, and Ty thinks its a good idea. Pfft you only think that because shes your daughter.
-Ty is going to bring a transmitter from his garage tomorrow. Ok fiiiiiine Ill talk to the aliens.
-Margarent is still at the mall selling her magic moon rocks.
Shes like hey youre back do you work here and John is like SOMETIMES I EAT AT THE FOOD COURT. Dammit John. Youre ruining your chance her man.
-Margaret: Crystal Visions is my business and my passion. Ok cool uh uh do you ever eat at the food court?
-Margaret is convinced shes heard my name before and John is very shy about telling her he is the alien abduction guy so hes just like oh uh have anyone install any security lately. Double smooth, this is going GREAT.
-Bye Margaret Ill be back and less awkward.
-She does give me her business card, so I got that going for me.
-Lees is still closed. Dammit Im never going to get these coaxial cables.
-I pick up random shard of glass at the beach. Aw yeah! Garbage.
-Ok ok fine Ill go to the police station. I wont like it but Ill do it.

-They send me down to the police chief and this dude is lounging back with his feet up on the desk. -Hey man youre TOO casual. We have aliens straight up snatching up people 30 at a time. I need you hunched over your desk looking stressed out as hell, not like youre the cool kid in detention.
-They called me down here because they think I might be able to help on all the recent disappearances on account of me previously being kidnapped.
-Police Chief: Frankly, I dont believe in aliens. Then why do you think I can help? Hey this guy is probably crazy and made up the whole getting kidnapped by aliens thing. Maybe he can crack this 30 missing person case for us!
-Police Chief: There were seventeen other disappearances in 1972. Ohhhh. Very interesting. First time Im hearing about this. Wonder what happened to the other 16.
-Kornfield is caught offguard about this too. And those 16 people never came back, unlike Kornfield. -Very interesting indeed.
-Chief actually doesnt want me talking to the media because it would make things a lot more complicated if they run with this whole alien abduction thing he doesnt believe in. Fair.
-Oooh he wants to know if theres anything he can do to help make it worth it to keep quiet. Goodbye 27 unpaid parking tickets heh heh heh.
-You can ask the chief about the missing people, but it doesnt sound like they figured much out. It happened over a short period, stopped, and then eventually John came back. Thats about it.
-Not great police work, guys. Pretty bad when your answer like 15 years later is I dunno it was weird man.
-Cough cough so about those parking tickets
-Police Chief: Parking violations? Some of these are almost nine years old. Hey some of those missing people cases are over nine years old and you never took care of them either. Really want to compare notes, chief?
-The chief was already aware of the parking tickets and was going to use it as leverage I think if I didnt bring it up. Cool. So uh we good then?
-Hes like oh yeah some people in the department believe in the abduction theory but I dont think you were abducted in 1972 but we can have disagreements do you understand John. Um. No? Are you hinting at something or just rambling because youre over the age of 60?
-He reminds me the media arent my friends, and to stay quiet if I want them to forget about those parking tickets. Dammit John were getting blackmailed because you couldnt stop parking your car on top of fire hydrants, you lunatic.
-One final interesting tidbit is every single one of the missing peoples cars are also missing, so its like they all drove somewhere.
-The day isnt over yet, so I got back to talk to Ty. Hes usually got something to say on all the items I pick up.
-I show him Margarets card and hes unimpressed. Ty doesnt understand rocks and minerals. Wow what a SCATHING indictment. Poor Ty.
-I bring up 1972 but doesnt really get any good info. Ty says they almost went out of business and John apologizes, but says he doesnt regret going to Vanien. It was irresponsible for me to leave. I ran away. But I dont regret it. Uh how did you run away to an alien planet?
-I go to leave and see another ticket on my windshield. DAMMIT KORNFIELD STOP PARKING SO BADLY.
-Kornfield stops to think about how nice Margaret is to talk to. Yeah you sure wooed her with all that food court talk, my guy.
-And now its Wednesday! Ive got a strange feeling this game is going to end when I get to Saturday.
-TWO messages on my answering machine. Well well well look whos Mr. Popular now that we have 30 unexplained disappearances that may be connected to 17 unexplained disappearances that involve me.
-Lame its just two reporters. Sorry guys I have unpaid parking tickets to think of.
-Hm. Ty isnt at the office today. BUT hes left the transmitter on his desk. John says itll need to be put somewhere high and yes, yes, I get that it goes on the roof already.
-John picks up the newspaper at the mall today because it talks about the missing vehicles. Pockets starting to get full here
-Margaret knows who I am now! She read it in the paper. I swear Im not a crazy person.
-John once again slow playing things, I cant say for sure where I was Margaret. But, it sures hell wasnt here. It was AKRON OHIO OH GOD THE HUMANITY.
-Margaret: I dont think its so unusual. Things in this world arent always what they seem. What about things off of this world? Because thats specifically what I was talking about.
-Margaret: Are you aware of the astral plane? I feel like thats the question you get from a cute girl at a party in college that immediately ends your plans for the night.
-Margaret: Well our experience is comprised of seven planes. OH NO WHAT HAVE I STARTED.
-Margaret seems to believe that people can travel between planes and spirit travel and jump between existences and I saw Principal Skinner and Ms. Krabbaple kissing in the closet and they made a baby and the baby waved at me.
-Are all these people astral projecting or something weird? Was John Kornfield astral projecting? -Hey, crazy lady at the mall, please help me solve this very difficult police case.
-Margaret: It is all very well documented. That is another thing said exclusively by crazy people to validate the dumb thing they read on the internet.
-Margaret is convinced that John astral traveled and John asks if she has any crystal that could help him do it again. Oh man, the things youll believe if a cute girl says it to you. John youre about to be out $500 for a lump of zirconium.
-Yeah I buy the pretty crystal at the end of the table for a cool $50 to help with astral traveling. -Margaret takes 25% off so it is definitely NOT a scam.
-Lees is still closed, and its been closed long enough now that it gets added to my evidence. Lee have you been kidnapped or astral traveling or going to Akron for the worlds saddest vacation?
-Back to the beach! Anna is here again and I got stuff to show her. Like a glass shard?
-Oh, even better! Anna got excited and made me a tape for the transmitter. I hadnt returned to the roof yet so I didnt even know I needed one! Puzzle accidentally solved aw yeah.
-John asks how long it is and Anna says it is only thirty seconds, but it should be enough. Im going to imagine it is just Anna yelling STOP. STEALING. ADULTS. over and over until proved otherwise.

-Theres some way I can loop it and John says hell figure it out. I hope there is a loop button on the transmitter because thats about all I know about transmitters.
-John asks Anna what she put on the tape. Well I told them who you are. And where to find you. And that youd like to go back to Vanien. And maybe bring a few friends this time around. Anna was this whole thing your pitch to get a free vacation?
-Anna is all in on the alien abduction thing. She thinks all those people in 1972 were taken by the Vanien as well but Kornfield isnt so sure. Likley on account of not seeing them when he was there.
I show Anna my geode and shes very impressed. Yes, yes, Im aware of the effect I have on women.
-Tyler pages me. Time to go back to the office, I guess.
-Tyler excitedly tells me people got a video of the spaceship! And its on the news! And John is thoroughly unimpressed. He begrudgingly admits it is interesting to himself, but thats it. John why do you have to be such an alien party pooper, man?
-I show him the tape Anna made and he helps me create that loop, so thats one bit of the puzzle down at least.
-I do laugh because this scene is the first time all game I feel the Playdate struggling with what they want to do. It is a conversation like Lets go inside (two hours later) Now we just need to loop it (six minutes later) I have to go to dinner, but youre almost done (one hour later). Ive actually enjoyed the mood of the game so far this is the first time it feels cheap to me where there probably had to be a better way to do this that conveyed what was going on without it feeling like a gag almost.
-I get the transmitter connected and hook up the tape. ALIENS. COME GET ME.
-This feels like a good stopping point.
-All in all, pretty impressive so far. The puzzles are a bit easy but I like that format here and the game overall is charming and interesting. The plot has me intrigued. Im down. Definitely one of the better Playdate games Ive played so far!
-Unless things go off the rails in the back half. I take no responsibility for that.

Time Played: I think already two hours or so. Times flies when you're detectiving so I'm not positive.
High Score: No high scores, but I did talk to one cute girl about my food court experience, so that's something.
Beaten? No not yet
Grade: This is heavily story based so it really depends on the ending, but right now it is in the 7-8 range pretty easily.
Favorite Part So Far: The way the guard at the Pearly Gates lowers his sunglasses to look at you when he talks. What a fun animation.

tag just learned about this topic from snarky asshole and this sounds awesome, gonna read later

Welcome!

what is snarky asshole?

A man went to he doctor, depressed. He said Playdate games are harsh and cruel, and he feels like he's the only person playing Playdate games that are vague and uncertain in controls and story. The doctor says 'Treatment is simple, snarky asshole Suprak has a topic about Playdate, go and read that. That should pick you up.' The man bursts into tears and says 'But doctor, I am the snarky asshole Suprak!'

TotallyNotMI posted...

A man went to he doctor, depressed. He said Playdate games are harsh and cruel, and he feels like he's the only person playing Playdate games that are vague and uncertain in controls and story. The doctor says 'Treatment is simple, snarky asshole Suprak has a topic about Playdate, go and read that. That should pick you up.' The man bursts into tears and says 'But doctor, I am the snarky asshole Suprak!'

My first reaction was "what is snarky asshole?"

My second reaction was "fuck why didn't I call this "A Snarky Asshole Plays Every Playdate Game"?!?!

Still Playing: Saturday Edition (Part II)

More Thoughts:
-Ok. I check the checkpoint from the menu and weve finished four and have five left to go. So not quite halfway through just yet.
-Well lets go find us some aliens. Or astral traveling. Or love? Or all three? At once?
-Ew its raining outside. Rain, rain, go away, or my transmitter will not play.
-Another message from Gerald at the news station. He begs me to call him back because this is bigger than me or something or other. Is it bigger than 47 unpaid parking tickets? Doubt it.
-There is a cockroach in the hallway. John comments on how he used to hate them and it scurries away. Diddid that do something?
-The transmitter on the roof did indeed stop. CALLED IT. Rain, please leave. Youre ruining my attempts to contact aliens.
-John does see the video of the ship on the news and comments that it does look like an Uviel ship, but he doesnt get why theyd be so careless all of a sudden. Interesting.
-Well Ty isnt in the office, and Im assuming Anna wont be at the beach since its raining. Ill go talk to Margaret instead!
-Margaret wants to know what it was like coming back to Earth. Probably pretty lame, if I had to guess.
-John: They took me to a farm up just south of Hanover. Yes, yes, we know what people do when they have unwanted pets.
-He went back to his apartment after that, hoping to run into Sarah. Ex-girlfriend? No clue, but she wasnt there. He called Ty instead, who was there to help. SEE SARAH, I DONT NEED YOU ANYMORE.
-Although I guess you go to live with aliens for five years, your girlfriend (?) is right to leave you. I wouldnt try to out wait an alien abduction either.
-John: I dont know why, but I felt really good that day. I wouldve given anything to stay on Vanien. But I missed my friends, Margaret. Not enough to come back after 3 or 4 years, but after 5 it was definitely time.
-John brings up the alien footage, and Margaret says she hasnt seen it yet because shes too busy. Ok, yeah, sure, you let me know what you were so busy with that takes precedent over definitive proof aliens exist.
-I check in with the chief who has finally done some police work. They dug through old reports and found that in 1953, 17 total people went missing. We might be dealing with Pennywise here, folks.
-Chief also gives more info on the missing cars, which all turned up in Farefield Park. The bad news there is that also happens to be where Kornfield met the aliens when they abducted in. Apparently it is the Uviel's favorite vacation spot.
-Oooh new location on the map! I can now go to Farefield Park. BUT FIRST Im going to go back to the office to see if Ty is in yet.
-Yep hes in. TY TELL ME ABOUT THE MISSING PEOPLE IN 1953!
-Hes just like huh and thats it. SOME HELP YOU ARE TY.
-Couple of things of note at the park: a pack of matches with a weird symbol on the front, and a street sign showing Pacific. Kornfield muses thats the same street he works, and suddenly those cctv camera out front of our building have a purpose.
-You can look around the park, but there isnt too much to see. Kornfield wonders if the missing people were summoned here, but he doesnt think that sounds like the Uviel. He wonders if he was summoned here too, but doesnt seem to remember. Guy, you have to remember your abduction better. It has to be like a top five important event in your life!
-Ok, now were getting somewhere. I bring the note to the cctv cameras which gives Kornfield the idea to talk to Ty, and Ty then hands over the tapes for me to review. IM A DETECTIVE! Well, some sort of lock install engineer, but a noir-y detective-y one.
-Actually Johns work is kind of weird, considering how this game is playing out. It definitely has noir vibes, and his work as a lock installer doesnt really come up. Seems like making him a detective wouldve been an logical change. Curious if it plays a role later on.
-Oh, nice. I use the tapes in my vcr, and then the newspaper report on the tv that talks about the missing cars. I manage to see two of the missing vehicles right before they go missing. Each one drove by at roughly 1245 AM and each one was followed by a white truck afterwards. Kornfield muses that its probably nothing. Im beginning to see why this guy isnt a detective.
-I wake up the next morning and theres a reporter at my door! Ugh. How do I know its a reporter? Uh, good question. Kornfield just says it looks like a reporter and refuses to open the door.
-Someone took the transmitter and Walkman off the roof. Yeah, maybe leaving multiple pieces of expensive machinery unattended for a lengthy period of time was not the best idea.
-Aw farts. The reporters are also camped out at the bottom of the fire escape. This one I also know is a reporter because theres a guy pointing a giant tv camera at me.
-This is Leanne Hayworth with Channel 7 news. Pretty solid reporter name, honestly.
-LEAVE ME ALONE I HAVE PARKING TICKETS TO CONSIDER!
-Leanne: Do you have a brief moment to speak with us? John run away man it isnt worth it.
-He goes ahead and talks to them. OOOOOF. I hope you have 53k to pay off that mountain of parking tickets, man.
-Welp shes the one who stole my device and she listened to the tape. Wow. Great job, genius. Now youre never going to get those parking tickets paid.
-Kornfield tries to downplay things but her finding that caught him off guard. She keeps hammering him for info and its kind of hard to play dumb when theres a recording on the roof saying hey Uviel it is me John Kornfield. I definitely believe you are connected to things and come get me I want a burger.
-John: I think some funny things are going on. HAHAHA 21 PEOPLE ARE MISSING HAHAHA oh wait I meant tragic yes tragic.
-John you idiot. Hes like I dont think the same thing that happened to me is happening now. Nobody knows whats happening. Nobody knows what happened in 72. Nobody knows what happened in 53 AH DANG IT DANG IT FORGET I SAID THAT.
-Yeah the reporter didnt know about anything from 53 either. Way to blab, blabby.
-Ty looks at me and is immediately like Whats wrong? Whats with that look on your face. TY I BLEW IT ALL I NEED A LOAN MAN I CANT PAY ALL THESE PARKING TICKETS.
-Newspaper says Henry Alton died at 78. I still dont know who that is, but ok.
-Park is full with people this time, but I cant do anything there. Nothing really to do at the office either, so I head over to the mall.
-Kornfield thinks he likes the sond of Margarets voice. Ok, maybe tell her that instead of talking about your favorite food courts this time.
-John: You know, electronics use crystals. Theyre used to measure time. OH GOD KEEP THE WEIRD ALARM CLOCK GUY AWAY FROM CRYSTALS GUYS! He's going to give us a clock that measures time by the beams of light that refract off of the crystal imperfections and I already lost my ability to tell time last time I played that game.
-Also, that doesnt sound true but I dont know enough about electronics or crystals to disprove it. Maybe this is all just part of Johns hilarious flirting technique.
-John and Margaret talk about crystals for a while and I start looking for a fire escape of my own to sneak out of.
-On to the beach, where Anna adds nothing of value. I thought she was going to recognize the matchbook, but nope. Ive asked everyone about it now
-There is a new ice cream flavor: cosmic swirl. Sounds better than orange licorice, at least.
-Well uh time to go apologize to the chief.

-He did not miss the morning news. Great. Asks me about the thing they found and Kornfield fesses up like AN IDIOT. Chief tells me that I need a permit to transmit radio. Great. Add that to my list of tickets, please.
-Oh thats basically all he says. Adds a little bit about the cat being out of the bag on the park connection, but thats it. I thought for sure I was going to get yelled at. Aw yeah no parking tickets for this guy.
-I share my info with the chief. Not because Im afraid of getting more parking tickets heh heh heh no not that at all. Just being a good citizen.
-For some reason Kornfield omits the white van info. I hand over the tapes though so maybe the chief can find it himself.
-He gives me some info, too. Each car they found at that park was tuned to the same radio station. 88.5 CXM. THE MORNING HITS AND THE EVENING HYPNOSIS is their slogan, so someone shouldve pieced that together earlier.
-Whoa Anna has info on 88.5 CXM. It is the college radio station and there is a late night program shes fond of called The Darkest Hour. They tell beautiful and haunting stories. Got it so basically Are You Afraid of the Dark?
-Any of those stories involve driving to the park and disappearing, out of curiosity?
-So I bring that tidbit to the chief and hes like yeah I know we didnt find any foul play. Damn.
-Chief: My wife listens to that program all the time. And shes been missing since 1953 so HEY WAIT JUST A MINUTE.
-I get a page (is that the right verb?) from Ty and he tells me I have an install over at Alfalfa Tower. That is the worst tower name Ive ever heard of, but ok.
-Well I go to do the install and some weird writer comes out to talk to me about aliens for half an hour. And the old unit they had is pretty new and in perfect condition. Im beginning to think this was a set up, guys.
-This guy sure loves talking about aliens. Hey can you move out of my light Im trying to work.
-Guy: Whatever happens, John, you cant denyIts brought tremendous hope to the community. The disappearances? Are you sure? You guys feel hope? Oh boy this string of missing people sure makes me hopeful for a future with low property costs because of no one being around to buy anything.
-Guy: With hope you can truly do anything. You can elevate an entire city. Excuse me who the hell are you and is it too late to run away screaming?
-He goes on to tell me he thinks I let a lot of people down with my interview. Ok. Coooool. John how fast can you install a key pad because we really need to get out of here.
-Guy: You see, John, they know what happened to you. They care about what you have to say. Mm hm. Sure. So what are you mad about?
-He wants me to stop with my conspiracy theories and stick with the alien stuff. Im not sure that sentence has ever been uttered before, but ok.
-Hes upset I put the idea of a serial killer in their head. Did I do that? I dont remember doing that.
Also this guy is clearly a serial killer trying to hide his murders behind alien abductions isnt he?
HEY TALK LESS ABOUT SERIAL KILLERS THERE ARE NO SERIAL KILLERS ITS ALIENS YOU GET ME. Yeah man I get you I get you just please let me see my friends again, ok?
-John: Wow. Sort of a strange guy. Oh, you think?!?!
-Well he leaves and it is now Saturday. I check the menu and there are two days beyond this still, so I got until Monday to solve everything and hopefully not get murdered by clearly a serial killer guy.
Wow the park is PACKED. Someone build a UFO replica thing in the background. Pretty sure you guys have guaranteed whatever is going on is going to stop unless this alien spaceship has a Uhaul attached to it for all the overflow they're going to get.
-Anna is here! She brought her friend Kess, who looks a bit dopey.
-John gets why Anna wants to be here with all the people. He says the park has a good energy. And probably an unrelenting BO problem.
-He wishes he had something good to share with her. That shes believed his story from the beginning. She happened to be 12 at the time, and it seems kind of weird to be telling a 12 year old about your harrowing abduction story, Kornfield, but ok.
-Kornfield: What do you think Kess? Kess: I dont know. Ah yes you got roped into your girlfriends weird UFO hobby too, huh?
-The tower is now empty, but I can check the directory inside and I see theres only one company here: Gannet. So weird guy works for Gannet. Good to know.
-I think of using the Garnet info on the phone booth outside the mall, but that doesnt work. I then think of trying to call Lee with the Lee info and it does work! Apparently his lease is out but theres some new space on the other side of the mall hes considering. Intersting
-Also pretty cool this puzzle has been sitting unsolved for a couple of days and I can just do it now. Im curious if things change at all or if this was just luckily the first day I could call Lee.
-The sign for the lottery at the mall has been replaced by an in memoriam thing about Henry Alton. Kornfield comments hes not a handsome man. Hey man stop bullying the dead guy!
-Hm. Interesting. John comments there are a lot of dates on this thing, and I use the 1953 missing people note and find someone else tied to Alton died that year. A Ruth Pike, who he named the garden in this mall after. That seems like a coincidence more than anything, but it uses up the note and gives me a Ruth Pike note instead, so it is clearly doing something!
-I can also try to use the matchbook on it, but Kornfield says he wont set it on fire. Hey man I was just trying to see if that symbol appeared anywhere! Dont you blame your arson thoughts on me.
-Actually there is different dialogue when I look at Lees store today. Something about it being empty and cleared out. So maybe this was the first day I could call him and I just got lucky.
-Police Chief is apparently in hot water with the feds. Theyre not happy with how hes handling things. Yeah, 30+ missing people tend to raise eyebrows, I guess.
-Police Chief: They dont like our response to the footage. They dont think were taking it seriously. Well every time I come in here youre sitting reclining with your feet on your desk and as far as I can tell Im doing most of the investigative work for you. Somaybe theyre right?
The police chief is still not convinced the sightings people are seeing are really a UFO. Lieutenant Daniels has a reasonable take. It could be a dirigible. Got it so the unidentified flying object isnt an unidentified flying object, but actually some sort of flying object, the specifics of which you havent identified yet.
-Do you guys see why the feds are mad at you guys yet?

-Oh ok interesting theres a bit more meat to their theory. They think it is a blimp covered in Christmas lights, meant to serve as a distraction to what is actually going on. Which is?
-Ok well they dont know that part. But the feds might take over the case it sounds like with a focus on the UFO stuff. Chief is pursuing it as something else and plans to keep doing his job. You go get them, chief.
-The Gannet name gets some interesting responses. Chief knows them. Theyre apparently a wine company that owns a bunch of wineries along the cost. I mention the weirdo that talked to me and that seems to get his attention. Since Kornfield didnt get a name, there isnt much to go on and the Chief overall doesnt seem too concerned because people in general have been getting worked up about the alien stuff.
-Kornfield doesnt bring up the fact that he brought up the possibility of a serial butcher unprompted, which was the most suspicious part of the whole interaction. KORNFIELD CMON MAN I KNOW YOU ARENT A DETECTIVE BUT YOU GOTTA REMEMBER THIS STUFF.
-I also get the name of a lawyer, for some reason. Chief brings it up but Im not quite sure why. I get a note on him though so I might be able to check the phone directory again.
-I tell Chief about Ruth Pike, too, and Chief doesnt seem to think it matters much.
-John: I guess she loved plants. Chief: Everybody loves plants, Kornfield. I dont know what to make of it. Yeah Kornfield gotta agree with the chief on that one. I dont even know what the connection here is supposed to be. Ok so people went missing in 1953 and someone died in 1953 and now people are missing again and someone died again? Sowhat? What are you getting at and why even focus in on the date? Im confused.
-Chief doesnt want to get the Pikes involved if he doesnt have to. Sound powerful. Yeah ok chief but have you considered she died a year other stuff happened? Hm? HMMM?
-This does trigger something else though. Chief goes on to say theyve dug around in older records and found many more missing person events. Going back through the years pretty frequently. WE REALLY ARE DEALING WITH PENNYWISE! Or some sort of rich person cult or something. Not sure.
-John: Whats a normal amount of missing persons? John I get what youre asking but that is a sentence you never want to say to a cop because its going to get you put on a list.
-Chief sort of gets it though. Most years only have a handful through a year and they get resolved within a couple of days.
-This is a really fun story but one weird thing now: how the fuck did someone not notice huge clumps of people disappearing all at once in specific years? That seems like something even a little routine police work wouldve uncovered.
-Oh ok that lawyer is the lawyer for Gannet Wines. Thats why the Chief brought him up.
-Ty pages me. Another job?
-Uh no. He just wants to talk about how cool the park was. And how excited Annas been. More excited about this than shes been in years. Thatsdepressing.
-Like I get that the alien thing is cool, but at the same time you think more people would be like oh shit 30 people are gone what the hell happened to them?
-Ooh Ty isnt all gushing about aliens. He knows about Garret Wines. It is where the Altons got their start, apparently. INTERESTING.
-John is like how do you even know that? and Ty is like uh I read it in the paper this morning. Dammit John. Thats what you get for telling me you didnt need the newspaper when I checked the stand.
-Kornfield keeps thinking back to what the weirdo said. Stick to the alien story. People like it. Yeah, people like that better than the rich people killing everyone story I feel like things are heading towards.
-Well its Sunday. Two days left. I feel like the twists will be coming soon.
-Uh oh. Kess says Anna was supposed to be at the park two hours ago but never showed up. She left the park at like 11 last night so she could listen to The Darkest Hour. THATS HOW PEOPLE GET DISAPPEARED, YOU FOOL!
-Well time to go tell Ty his daughter is dead and mutilated.
-I tell Ty and he is way too nonchalant. Oh maybe she slept in. No, thats not the appropriate response, you dork. More along the lines of OH MY GOD 30 PEOPLE HAVE GONE MISSING CALL THE COPS OH MY BABY GIRL. Put your heart into it, man.
-The receptionist is back at Alfalfa Tower. She left at five so she didnt see the weirdo talking to me and she never heard of the lawyer I ask her about. USELESS.
-Except not useless! Not useless at all! She recognizes the match book. It is for an event space called Heaven that is also owned by Gannet. She gives me the address and I skip along my merry way.
-Margaret is back, and shes got juicy info for me. That Gary Lowell guy is her ex-husband. Oh boy.
-Ok so Gary worked for the Hawthornes, which is some other big family. Margaret got to know them, the Altons, the Pikes, and the Farewoods. All big families in town. Theyre very strange people, John. I KNEW IT! MURDER BILLIONAIRES! THEY HAVE A MURDER CLUB!
-Margaret: These people just inherited some funny traditions. Ok, you got to tell me about murder club. Unless the first rule of murder club is you cant talk about murder club.
-She mentioned that Gary changed when Robert Hawthorne died, back in 1972. UH OH.
-So Pike dies in 53, people go missing. Hawthorne dies in 72. People go missing. Alton dies now and more people go missing. What the hell are they doing with the people?!
-So Hawthorne died in 72, but they kept that a secret for three years before announcing it. Why? And how? And why?
-Hey Chief! I got news Chief!
-Oh Chief is sad. Poor Chief.
-Feds are coming tomorrow to take everything over. Theyve been tracking the ship for days, they told him. Maybe you stop relaying messages from federal agents to me, chief. Im a lock installation guy and dont have the clearance for this.
-Some lady also followed the ship, and she saw something different. Like they thought, its a dirigible. Cool word by the way.
-Apparently it was remote controlled. Six guys took it down out in the woods and Chief is having some guys track them down. Hey, actual police work!
-Aw man he tells me to stop coming by. Itll complicate things with the feds and also everyone things Im crazy. Yeah, fair.
-He gives me his home phone and tell me to contact him if anything comes up. Hey Kornfield! Kornfield! Mention the lawyer guy and rich people dying the years disappearances happen. Tell him Kornfield!
-He doesnt tell him. Drats.
-Well time to go check out heaven. Hey wait I just realized that was the opening scene in the game, sort of. I was wondering how getting into the pearly gates tied into everything.
-I drop by Heaven and theres people moving around inside, but I cant get in because it is closed for a private event. Altons funeral? HMMMMM? Kornfield thinks so too and goes home to get some rest before crashing it.
-Oh, thats it! End of scene. Im entering the final one now which is Sunday night.
-I really want to finish but Im too tired. Looks like Ill tie up the mystery tomorrow. Sorry Anna! Hope youre not ritualistically sacrificed by then.

Time Played: Probably a solid three hours. And I'm not done yet! Hooray full game.
High Score: 7 days beat. 1 "day" to go.
Beaten? Close, but no.
Grade: It'll depend on the ending, but I'm pretty sure it'll be a 7 or 8. Somewhere in that good to very good to great range.
Favorite Part So Far: The whole thing is just kinda cool. I like the noir mystery vibes I'm getting.

Man I feel like getting a legitimately good enjoyed game is rare. I mean even three Time Travel Adventure got like an 8 i think

Spoilers: Unless Saturday Edition completely fumbles the ending, it is going to wind up 1 or 2 on my rankings.

Crankin' is the only other Playdate game I've played that falls in that "really good almost great" sort of range. Another high 7/low 8 kinda thing. The game Saturday Edition currently reminds me most of is Night In The Woods, which is high praise because I love that game. It isn't as good as that. It is pretty clearly a tier below that, but I don't necessarily mean that as an insult because I really, really liked Night In The Woods.

Saturday Edition doesn't quite have that level of character development or world building, but most adventure games don't. It is a little below that just in terms of charm and personality, too. But it is sort of close-ish, which is honestly way more than I was expecting going into it. I think character development is where it is the furthest off, but at the same time it is giving me very noir-y vibes and I think some of the understated characters here are a result of that.

Of course maybe the ending is nothing but incoherent duck noises so maybe I'm getting ahead of myself. But, yes, it was nice to actually really like something on the Playdate. I don't want to always be negative haha.

Still Playing: Saturday Edition (Finale)

Thoughts:
-I cant really do much of anything. No one is around except at the park, and thats just a bunch of nameless nobodies. I guess I go to Heaven.
-The doorman at Heaven is the same animation as the angel at the start of the game. I don't know if this means anything or not.
-I give my real name like an idiot and the guy is like yeah, no, you cant go in. John you dummy.
-Another guy shows up, flashes his hand and just walks in. Uh hey man I have a hand too let me just wiggle it a bit and no? Still cant get in? Drats.
-I got to call Margaret since shes in with these people. She says they all have a marking on their wrist and I ask her to come down to the mall to give me my very own so I can sneak in. Im sure mall kiosks are overflowing with henna tattoo options.
-Margaret draws it on my wrist for me. Its a moth. Suitably creepy for a rich old cult, I suppose.
-Margaret: Are you going to do something stupid? Considering Im widely known as the alien abduction guy and everyone in there should know Im not a part of their weird cult, yeah, pretty stupid Id say.
-John: I cant say what Im going to do. Margaret: You cant tell me? "No I can't pronounce it."
-John: No, Margaret, thats not it. I simply have no idea. John I might advise you to rethink your plan. In that you should have one.
-John: Maybe I can tell you first thing in the morning? Tell you how it went. Yeah, fun first date. One small issue is that youll likely be dead by then.
-John: I brought my pilikin for you. Its in my car if you want to see it Hey baby want to come back to my car to see my weird alien footy pajamas? Never mind, I take it back. John has game.
-John asks Margaret if she wants to keep it and she says no. It fits you so well, John. And it has a very positive energy. Thats exactly what I say when someone tries to give me clothes I dont want, too.
-She thinks I should wear it to the memorial tonight. Better than the trenchcoat Ive been wearing, I guess. Still think alien guy thats been all over the news is going to draw attention though.
-I go up and talk to the doorman, like an idiot. And say there was a misunderstanding earlier, like a double idiot. Somehow it works and he lets me in. He shouldve been like uh you know I saw you look at that guy and then you left for an hour and now you come back and then pick me up by the scruff of my neck and toss me out.
-First thing I can inspect inside this place is ice cream. MORE PLEASE
-We got someone on the violin, someone on the harp, a bunch of rich people in dark clothing. Ritualistic sacrifice when?
-There is some sort of performance going on, which means I have time to sneak around since everyone is distracted. Thanks whatever the hell is going on in the back.
-Its like a ring of people holding hands above their head and moving around in a circle. "Cool"
-I grab a snack from each table and then decide its time to leave. John did you come here to investigate or to raid their dessert service?
-I go out the back and notice the white truck parked here that I saw in the footage. KIDNAPPERS! I TOLD YOU JOHN! RICH ASSHOLE KIDNAPPERS!
-I open up the truck and two henchmen immediately come out. Good timing, John.
Shorter man: I recognize you. This is the guy from the newspaper. Gee my plan of having no plan and being the most famous guy in town somehow didnt work.
-They ask what I saw and I say nothing, and the taller guy is like hes lying the truck is wide open. John you are so bad at this.
-They shoot me and the screen turns black. WHAT THE HELL THIS BETTER NOT BE THE ENDING
-It isnt. Phew.
-I somehow survive. Not sure how. They apparently shot me, tossed me in the dumpster, and went back inside. These guys are even worse at their job than I am!
-Was I wearing my special bulletproof pilikin?
-Apparently, no. I have a flattened bullet now and all John can think is that something flattened it. It ripped a hole through his pilikin and trenchcoat, but not him for some reason. Strange.
-I try opening the truck again and this time it works. Damn. I was hoping to get stuck in a loop where they kept shooting me and then throwing me in the dumpster and confusedly coming back outside two minutes later.
-Inside the truck John finds transmission equipment. Fancy stuff though, not my poor people stuff.
-I start listening and it is a weird radio recording. Probably The Darkest Hour from earlier. And it sounds like some sort of attempt at hypnosis. Either that or its the worlds most boring radio program ever.
-Before I can hear the count down from one hundred, I hear someone open the back door again. Thank you for saving me from that scene, whoever you are.
-John quickly closes the door to the van and hides behind boxes. Better than getting shot again, I guess.
-Well the van starts so I guess were going on a field trip! Hopefully to an amusement park and not a kidnapping emporium.
-The engine stops, someone leaves, and then its quiet for a bit. Ok, time to get out and see where the hell Im at.
-Huge mansion. Yep, rich people cult confirmed. Time to get out of here before they eat my liver to preserve their youth.
-Theres a rusty old bike leaning against one of the walls, but for some reason John doesnt use it to ride away screaming for help.
-John does a smart thing for once and just doesnt walk through the front door. We sneak through the side and find a back entrance nice.
-He also does a not smart thing and sticks his head way too far into a well to try and see and loses his hat. Damn. It completed the look. Now the trenchcoat and pajama robe looks silly.
-So inside is an insanely long table. There is a bucket of black sand and a really old looking book. Not a good start here.
-John: Liturgy of the NestLiturgy of the Harvest..no, these arent recipes. Oh God, John, you think? Which one of the horrific chapters titles tipped you off?
-Also in case youre dumb like me and didnt know what liturgy meant, it is a form according to which public worship is conducted. So my rich asshole cult is all but confirmed.
-John decides he doesnt have time and leaves the book. Dude, READ THAT. Arent you curious what the hell this crazy cult is doing?
-Also on the table is an empty wicker basket. Thats at least less threatening. Maybe this family just likes to shop at Hobby Lobby.
-Theres a locked door and a phone here too, but John cant use either just yet. Well then, Im stuck.
-Oh nevermind. Some maid comes walking in to uh fluff the flowers? Is that what youre doing.
-I decide to talk to her because I cant do anything else. Hopefully my tattoo tricks her better than the guys that shot me.
-Lady: Everything is in order for the Chrysalis! God, lady, Im not sure there is a combination
of words I wanted to hear less right now.
-Lady: The ring is basted five times! Oh ok nevermind you found one.
-Lady: All the fight is out of them. Ooooh boy. Lady, you are the master of not fun sentences, you know that?
-Lady: Well be wanting for spice after this evening. What does that mean???
-Well at least I get a note on Chrysalis. I use this on the giant book and find a chapter on it. Im sure this wont be horrifying, so lets go.
-Book: The ritual for transmutation. The hand passing the crown rises from the Earth protected by a convoy of serfs. Honorable and wholesome in its construction. John: What? Same John. Same.
-Book: Enter candle maidens. Aw hell yeah candle maidens. Now were getting to the good stuff.
-Book: Lead in hymn in the fourth hour. Lead in procession to Chrysalis. Aw man nevermind. These arent the cool sort of candle maidens.

-Well someone wrote a code in the book and it happens to be the code to the locked door. Well, that was dumb of you, cult, but thanks.
-Down in the wine cellar is an elevator. Sure, lets take the creepy elevator to the sub-sub basement. Why not?
-Um. OK. UM. HELP.
-I have entered the inner sanctum of the cult, it looks like. There is a weird giant statue. And my hat! Well, at least I know where that well empties out to, I guess. Also, hooray, my hat!
-UM. HELP.
-I make it to the base of the statue. There are a bunch of what I assume to be people covered in white sheets propped up against its base. John thinks one is breathing and tries to talk. No response. It is wet and smells bad. Thats never a good combo.
-Oh. Ok. Ew. So John says its isnt a sheet they have on them. It is some sort of cocoon like material. WHAT IS GOING ON.
-I use the glass shard I picked up to cut a hole where the head should be. Theyre breathing, but not conscious.
-Again: WHAT. IS. GOING. ON.
-I cut open three of these people. The second one tries to talk but is incoherent. The third one is Anna. Uh oh. UH OH.
-Johns plan now is to go back up and try to get help. Good plan. Shouldve called the cops when you had a chance.
-I call the chief and tell him that I found them. Chief: Thats great news. Thats the best news Ive heard in years. Yeah you might want to let me finish my sentence here, chief.
-I give him my general location. Big mansion, north of the city, surrounded by Cypress trees. Cool that should only take a couple of days to narrow down.
-I dont tell him about the human cocoons downstairs for some reason. Way to bury the lede, man.
-I mention how my head and chest are killing me. Might be the gunshot or almost gunshot, whatever it was.
-John suddenly gets an idea and says to send out the choppers and look for the signal. You, uh, want to share with me what that is. Because I dont know what you want me to do man.
-No? Ok, cool. Time to wander again!
-I find the maid and tell her to get everyone out of the house because Chrysalis is cancelled. She just wanders off, probably to get the murder demons to eat my eyeballs for being a non-believer.
-Oh what a neat mechanic. So something I havent really mentioned is that each time you get a clue, John writes down a note. And when you use it one the right thing (either a person to trigger a conversation or item to get John to do something) he crumples it up. But you keep the crumpled up note in your inventory and I had no idea why because it was taking up space. BUT now Im at the end of the game, I find an empty wicker basket and when I try to set it on fire John goes I need some kindling, first. And you fill the basket with all your used notes. What a cool payoff.
-Well now the house is on fire. Um. You sure those human cocoons are safe down in the basement, John? Might want to go check on them first or nope ok were running out of the house.
-Hm. Ok. Odd. So I take the bike and ride off after the house is on fire and there is some sort of dialogue that pops up each screen I ride through. It goes: He is not well. What do his thoughts say? It is unclear. He is in pain."
-John stops the bike because he cant go any further and needs water. I check my inventory really quick and the amethyst geode is burst into pieces. He doesnt say it directly, but Im assuming thats what stopped the bullet. One mystery solved, at least!
-Well I manage to stagger one more screen before John lays down to look at the stars and maybe possibly die.
-PULL THROUGH JOHN YOU CAN DO IT!
-John: I remember the stars. I remember them quite well. Sometimes theythey shimmer. Yknow, those arent bad last words John.
-Oh nevermind he keeps talking. Sorry I thought you were going out with something cool.
-AHHH THAT ISNT A STAR IM BEING ABDUCTED. My hat doesnt make it. Aliens! Go back and abduct my hat, please
-Ill just type out the whole ending for the curious. We get a little scroll. It was John Kornfield who tipped Chief Robertson to the bizarre discovery at the Gannet Estate. Thirty-eight people were recovered from a well on the property. All of them are understood to be alive and willing to share their stories with local police despite threats from federal authorities who had been scheduled to take over the investigation. Sources at the scene, the officers who entered the well, were overheard describing a rather harrowing sight. Its a damned ancient tomb, exclaimed one of the officers. Ive never seen anything like it in all my life. The evening of Henry Altons memorial will not soon be forgotten. What this means for the esteemed family cannot be certain at this time. Well be providing daily updates to this remarkable breaking story in section F9. Anyone who has information on the whereabouts of John Kornfield is encouraged to speak to the police.
-What a cool game. Really enjoyed that one. Reminds me of a not as good version of Night In The Woods, but that isnt meant to be an insult because I just really, really like that game.
-Fun, weird story. Cool mechanics. Very noir feeling to things. I have some minor complaints but overall that was great.
-All those other adventure games I played I shouldve been harder on. You can make a great adventure game for the Playdate they just didnt know how!

Time Played: I think total run time is close to five hours which means this is a full game!
High Score: One rich cult defeated
Beaten? Yes
Grade: I think this is like a low eight. Like a "great" but just barely. I liked it a lot but there were some parts of the story that could've been better and I wish the puzzles were just a bit more difficult. Thoroughly enjoyable for what it was though.
Favorite Part So Far: The ending was just about as good as I could've hoped for.

Suprak_the_Stud posted...

Time Played: I think total run time is close to five hours which means this is a full game!
Grade: I think this is like a low eight. Like a "great" but just barely.

https://youtu.be/iFmNyxni-0A?feature=shared

ill have to dust off the playdate!

Game #37 Complete! Saturday Edition

Throw This Quote On The Back Of The Box: "Playdate's first must play game. Well, pretty close, at least."

Final Thoughts: I haven't brought this up until now, but I'm pretty sure I've been getting contacted by some of the people that work on these games. One I know for sure (they emailed me) but a couple others have messaged me anonymously here to tell me I am too harsh and not funny. The second thing is absolutely true but I am not so sure about the first. I can't imagine anyone getting so worked up about my opinions on "Playdate game #26 that no one played" that they feel the need to yell at me about it unless they had a hand in making the game. Or maybe their mom, I guess. Did I get yelled at by someone's mom recently? I'm not sure but it is a distinct possibility. Anyway I bring this up just on the off chance the people behind Saturday Edition read this for some reason: you should make more games.

Also: I should've been MORE mean to all those other bad adventure games! You're telling me I could've been playing this the entire time? I've played so many bad adventure games lately that some of those messages had me thinking "...am I too hard on these games?" Maybe you just can't make a good game on the Playdate, I don't know. It would be like criticizing games made on a TI-83 calculator in 2003. Hey man, you can only do so much with this thing. Stop being so grumpy. BUT NOPE.

I

AM

VINDICATED

All those other garbage games can go kick rocks. My standards aren't too high - your 26 minute game about the squiggle getting lost in what looks like a melting Jackson Pollock painting just wasn't very good.

Saturday Edition is exactly the sort of thing I'm looking for in an adventure game. We have this weird, interesting story that feels wholly unique combined with some decent puzzles and its long enough that I'm not going to finish the whole thing in between commercial breaks of whatever is on tv. Could it have been better? Sure. I mentioned before, but this reminds me of a less good version of Night In The Woods. Again, not an insult. But it just isn't *quite* at that highest level of adventure game. It doesn't mostly everything right, but doesn't do everything so right that it is going to be in my game of the year consideration. The puzzles could've been a bit better and most of the characters here are kind of forgettable...there are things I could point to if I felt like being a nitpicker.

But I'm not here to pick nits. Not today. I'll save that for when I'm reviewing HANA 2: The Death of Smiling. This is just a really, really good adventure game. It is the kind of game that made me fall in love with the genre so many years ago now. YMMV here, of course, and I could be overrating slightly just because I like the style of the game. The note system is really clever though and it makes John feel more like an adventure game detective than most adventure games I've played staring actual detectives. I like how most of the game is conversation focused and I like how the notes John takes can be used to either advance conversation trees or trigger some new knowledge with an item to use it in a new way. The story is a lot of fun, and I think the little bit of vagueness here works in the games favor. I like just about everything about Saturday Edition.

It was really hard for me to decide between this an Crankin' for that coveted top spot on my list. Crankin' is the sort of game that justifies the system. It makes fully use out of the crank and it does so in such a way that you can't really see it on another system. Saturday Edition doesn't use the crank, at all. It could've appeared on any console since the NES, really. But what Saturday Edition does is speak to the spirit of the Playdate. It is a great example of the kind of game Panic is trying to attract to the Playdate. A genuinely good, wildly unique, thoroughly charming indie adventure that feels like it never wouldve made it out of a pitch session at a big game studio. It is fun and weird and strange and a little rough around the edges. Basically, it is exactly what you should expect out of a Playdate game. Saturday Edition showcases exactly what can be done on this adorable little console, and it is a shame more games didnt follow its example.

Should You Play It? Absolutely. One of the best games on the Playdate AND it is completely free with the console. You'd be crazy not to.

Final Score: 8. Very, very good. Thoroughly recommended to everyone unless alien abductions trigger your PTSD.

Games Completed: 37/151

Game Rankings:
37) PLAYTIME Weird Alarm Clocks
36) HANA Spacetime Fantasy
35) Boogie Loops
34) Hidey Spot
33) Bub-O Collect
32) The Lushes Land
31) Nightingale
30) A Joke That's Worth 0.99 Cents
29) Recommendation Dog!!
28) Trickle Greenweed, Mermaid At Law
27) Whitewater Wipeout
26) The Botanist
25) Snak
24) DYG
23) Lost Your Marbles
22) Grand Tour Legends
21) Life's Too Short
20) Life's 2 Short: Unhooked
19) Demon Quest '85
18) The Fall of Elena Temple
17) Flipper Lifter
16) Questy Chess
15) Slitherlink PD
14) The Keyper
13) SKEW
12) Star Sled
11) Echoic Memory
10) Executive Golf DX
9) Omaze
8) Sasquatchers
7) Hyper Meteor
6) Castle Tintagel
5) Casual Birder
4) Zipper
3) Pick Pack Pup
2) Crankin's Time Travel Adventure
1) Saturday Edition

Oh shit #1?? Im on it

I've got some HOT PLAYDATE NEWS to celebrate a new king of the hill in Saturday Edition.

First off is there is a Playdate game you might actually be excited for now. Or at least I was excited for it I should say. Pretty big indie dev launched their game last week:

https://play.date/games/mars-after-midnight/

Mars After Midnight, brought to you by Lucas Pope. For those not intensely in the indie game scene, Lucas Pope's previous games are Papers, Please and Return of the Obra Dinn. I happen to love both of those games and Mars After Midnight was the most anticipated game for Playdate since the launch titles by a very large margin. It's gotten universal acclaim so far on the discord, but honestly every single game does. It is an echo chamber there because a lot of the developers post there too and no one wants to be mean, which means it is hard to tell what is real hype and what is just overinflated. I'm really excited for this one though. I know literally nothing about it and I refuse to look into it. I want to go in blind. But I'd expect to see this one popping up here shortly.

Next is the Community Awards were streamed the other day! They did this back in 2023 as well for the 2022 releases. I just checked because I couldn't remember and Saturday Edition was actually a finalist for game of the year! It lost out to Ratcheteer which I also should be playing soon.

https://play.date/games/community-awards-2023-goty/

You can find the actual video on Youtube. The winner of the Game of the Year was Reel-istic Fishing with the runner ups being Root Bear, Gun Trials, and Resonant Tale. I've played...none of those so maybe some good stuff in my future! I actually hadn't played any of the 2022 Game of the Year nominees either besides Saturday Edition. Maybe my list is bottom heavy because I've been playing all the wrong games.

And, finally, as I referenced above, there are so few (and by few I mean zero) reviews of most of these Playdate games that I think some of the developers have started looking for feedback anywhere and found their way here. One I know did for sure because they put their name to it in an email! I'm including the email below because it was very nice:

I'm [redacted], from Cool Lemon Club. We just read your review for our game and we just needed to get in contact. Not only is one of the very few reviews we got -- the Playdate is a very niche console and getting attention is hard -- it is amazingly detailed and well written! It shows how deep you thought of our game and the time it took for you to complete and analyze it. We are reaching to you to express our sincere thanks for it.

We make games for this kind of moments, were an experience we crafted meant something to someone, and that someone leaved our product with something along them. Our intention with the Keyper was to create exactly what you described, word by word.

Thanks again for playing and for taking the time to write your impressions so thoroughly.

So if you have the Playdate, go check out The Keyper! I thought it was pretty ok and the developers seem like cool people. It is very unique and very weird, which I'm always a fan of at the very least.

This has, however, made things a bit more awkward going forward. I've gotten several anonymous messages that I'm assuming are people connected to certain games and now this email. I like posting thoughts here because I always assumed no one is going to read my stupid ramblings other than the handful of people that call this board home so I could basically say whatever I want. Knowing this feedback can (and has) made its way back to people is something I don't want to impact thoughts/rankings so hopefully it doesn't but who knows.

I was wondering if that would be the new #1!

Also Lucas Pope making a Playdate game is the most compelling argument in favor of it I've heard yet

I honestly love that email! How very sweet.

Oh shit Lucas Pope game is out? damn son playdate is back

Oh wow wait another? It took me so long to gather up my thoughts on Saturday Edition I've already beaten another game! Or three...

Currently Playing: Word Trip

What Is It? Basically Word Ladder but with a hot new twist. Have you ever played Word Ladder on Sporcle? They have them daily so go check it out if you want and you'll get like 75% of the experience here.

Gameplay Overview: You are given a word and you need to make it into a new word using one or more steps. The only rule is you have to take three letters from your first word and one of the goal word to make a new word. So if your starting word is FART and your goal word is BUTT, you could use the ART from your word and the B from the goal to bake BRAT. Then take the BRT from BRAT and the U from BUTT to make BRUT, and then finally you can make BUTT. You get points each time you get to your goal word, at which point you get a new goal word and you keep going as long as you can. You are on a timer and each new word you make (even if it isn't the final goal word) gives you more time. Keep going and climb the leaderboards.

Here's The Game Page! https://play.date/games/word-trip/

Here's Some Pictures!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/88e30948.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/0ece8deb.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/b/bb8e4d5c.png

Thoughts:
-That last one was so good I feel like I should sprinkle in something less good. Dont want to get all the good ones done in a row! So time to see what the catalogue has to offer me this time.
-Ive bought like thirty games when they were on sale so there are a ton of unopened presents on my menu screen. I pick one at random and getWord Trip! Its a word puzzle game. Couldve been worse because I bought some weird stuff.
-Welcome to Word Trip! The goal of the game is to get from the top word to the bottom one by making new four letter words. You can only change one letter at a time. Its a classic puzzle type but I cant remember what its name is.
-Oh ok this is a little different. Theres a little fuel gauge on the side, and you need to get to the bottom word before time runs out. You can refuel at a pit stop if youre running low and earn extra pit stops every eight word puzzles you finish.
-Oh no I think I like this one too.
-I was honestly hoping for a bad game to follow up Saturday Edition. I don't want to accidentally play all the good games and get stuck with random garbage and calculator apps at the end.
-This is pretty solid though. Like, ok, so it is a simple word puzzle game. There's a ceiling here. But it is pretty fun in short doses and I keep coming back for another run or two after thinking "eh I should call it a night".
-I might be too dumb to be great at this game. A lot of times I'll get stuck and time runs out and the game is like "why didn't you use this word?" and I'm like "well I didn't know that was a word or I would've!" Like, what the hell is FLAM? No one told me about FLAM? Like flimflam?
-I google it and flam is "one of the basic patterns of drumming, consisting of a stroke preceded by a grace note". Ohhhh of fucking course. How did I not think of flam? I can't wait to use flam in my day to day life now. I'll be listening to a song with my wife and I'll go "wow did you hear that flam?" and she'll go "what is flam" and I'll go "one of the basic patterns of drumming, consisting of a stroke receded by a grace note" and she'll go "I want a divorce."
-Oooh AMOK that's a cool word.
-Some of these linking words are absolutely wild and I can't tell if they are intentionally programmed to be partnered up like this or just random.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7d9fdf14.png
-That would've been so much more fun if I was doing METH FIRE instead of FIRE METH.
-Welp right after that I found a new favorite.
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/6/6350d3c7.png
-AIDS BABY? HOLY SHIT WORD TRIP YOU CAN'T JUST SAY THAT
-I did a double take when AIDS BABY appeared on my word puzzle game. Didn't think Word Trip would just drop an AIDS BABY in my lap and walk away.
-Ok serious complaint here though: it is way too easy to cheat the leaderboards.
-I play this for a while and get really good and get really lucky with some easy chains on hard, and I finish with a score of 56 on hard. 56 is good for second place overall, alltime. First place is...hm...let me check this quickly 155 by uncletrunks
-Uncletrunks is either a super computer built to chase high scores on weird indie game system no one plays, or a no good cheater.
-After being confused as to how the hell first place was 100 points ahead of me in second place, I was like "can you cheat in this game?" and pretty easily found a way to do so! You can pause your game at any time, solve the puzzle, then unpause and put the answer in quickly. There is nothing stopping you from doing this as there is no punishment associated with pausing. The landing page for Word Trip links you to a puzzle solver for any two words you put in. Why? WHY ARE YOU TEMPTING PEOPLE TO CHEAT, WORD TRIP?
-I mean, you can just play without cheating if you aren't a jerk, of course, but half the fun here is chasing the top scores on the leaderboard and that is a lot less fun when it is so easy to cheat and the top scores are almost certainly doing so.
-Also the word bank here is smaller than I thought. I keep getting the same target words. So part of this is fast reaction word puzzle solving and part of it is "oh yeah PARA is the word I couldn't think of for this one last time, guess I'll put it in."
-That being said though, this is pretty solid. I enjoyed this and played it longer than I was planning to. I'd probably isn't quite Hyper Meteor level of score chasing fun, but like just a bit below that.

Time Played: I'd say likely four hours or so. A whole bunch of runs, but all the runs are pretty quick. No clue what the overall playtime was but I'd say four hours is a safe guess.
High Score: Easy: 120, Medium: 75, Hard: 56
Beaten? Sure. A whole bunch of times.
Grade: I would say this is pretty safely a 6. Kind of a "eh, it was pretty good!" kind of game.
Favorite Part So Far: AIDS BABY

Johnbobb posted...

I was wondering if that would be the new #1!

It was super close! I like Crankin' a lot, but this one gets the edge ever so slightly. I'm a sucker for a good adventure game.

Johnbobb posted...

Also Lucas Pope making a Playdate game is the most compelling argument in favor of it I've heard yet

TomNook7 posted...

Oh shit Lucas Pope game is out? damn son playdate is back

Knew I could count on this board for the Lucas Pope excitement. This was the first "day 1 download" title for me on the Playdate. I haven't played it yet but it is definitely on my to do list.

TotallyNotMI posted...

I honestly love that email! How very sweet.

Right?!? Super sweet when I was honestly relatively harsh on their game. Glad someone was able to get some feedback they were looking for, honestly.

So exciting to see a new game top the list! I look forward to playing it. It looks like I'll be waiting another two weeks for Saturday Edition... unless I decide to skip forward in the season.

It's interesting to hear that developers are finding this thread. It's unfortunate that there's so little writing about Playdate games out there, but I've personally always appreciated your candid, snarky tone. There's a real sense that these are your honest and relatively unfiltered reactions, which I find so valuable. And it's certainly not dissuading me from buying any games! I bought HANA Spacetime Fantasy, A Joke That's Worth 0.99 Cents, DYG, and The Keyper, all after reading about them in this thread. Hell, I bought a Playdate partly thanks to reading this thread.

I haven't spent enough time in Playdate communities to speak with any authority, but I get the sense that most places shy away from potentially upsetting criticism in favour of more encouraging positive feedback. I think this can be great! If developer-focused Playdate spaces are welcoming of inexperienced newcomers, strange experiments, and rough edges, it will no doubt improve the breadth and magnitude of the Playdate library. I personally prefer this to be balanced with the sort of criticism found in this thread, and as a game developer I often seek out (constructive) negative feedback in hope of improving my craft, but I understand not everyone feels OK with this.

That said, I love reading glowing reviews of weird stuff too, and I've found that Playdate: The Unofficial Website (run by TheGameLlama) is an excellent source for this. Check out this wildly different review of HANA Spacetime Fantasy! https://www.playdateunofficial.com/the-games/hana-spacetime-fantasy

They also put out a really intriguing 2023 GOTY list (also consisting entirely of games you presumably haven't played, and neither have I): https://www.playdateunofficial.com/articles/2023-playdate-goty

One of them, Initial Daydream, is currently only avaialable on itch.io. I hesitate to bring this up, but... I suspect your count of total games available on Playdate has been excluding everything there? Because it looks like there are at least 817 available there: https://itch.io/games/tag-playdate
Apologies for any can of worms this might open.

Lastly, I finished Mars After Midnight last night. It suits being divided into short sessions very well, so I played it nightly with my mum over the past three weeks. It's definitely one to get, and I look forward to reading your thoughts!

sergiocornaga posted...

So exciting to see a new game top the list! I look forward to playing it. It looks like I'll be waiting another two weeks for Saturday Edition... unless I decide to skip forward in the season.

It's interesting to hear that developers are finding this thread. It's unfortunate that there's so little writing about Playdate games out there, but I've personally always appreciated your candid, snarky tone. There's a real sense that these are your honest and relatively unfiltered reactions, which I find so valuable. And it's certainly not dissuading me from buying any games! I bought HANA Spacetime Fantasy, A Joke That's Worth 0.99 Cents, DYG, and The Keyper, all after reading about them in this thread. Hell, I bought a Playdate partly thanks to reading this thread.

I haven't spent enough time in Playdate communities to speak with any authority, but I get the sense that most places shy away from potentially upsetting criticism in favour of more encouraging positive feedback. I think this can be great! If developer-focused Playdate spaces are welcoming of inexperienced newcomers, strange experiments, and rough edges, it will no doubt improve the breadth and magnitude of the Playdate library. I personally prefer this to be balanced with the sort of criticism found in this thread, and as a game developer I often seek out (constructive) negative feedback in hope of improving my craft, but I understand not everyone feels OK with this.

That said, I love reading glowing reviews of weird stuff too, and I've found that Playdate: The Unofficial Website (run by TheGameLlama) is an excellent source for this. Check out this wildly different review of HANA Spacetime Fantasy! https://www.playdateunofficial.com/the-games/hana-spacetime-fantasy

They also put out a really intriguing 2023 GOTY list (also consisting entirely of games you presumably haven't played, and neither have I): https://www.playdateunofficial.com/articles/2023-playdate-goty

One of them, Initial Daydream, is currently only avaialable on itch.io. I hesitate to bring this up, but... I suspect your count of total games available on Playdate has been excluding everything there? Because it looks like there are at least 817 available there: https://itch.io/games/tag-playdate
Apologies for any can of worms this might open.

Lastly, I finished Mars After Midnight last night. It suits being divided into short sessions very well, so I played it nightly with my mum over the past three weeks. It's definitely one to get, and I look forward to reading your thoughts!

Savor the weekly season releases! It's the most fun part of the console imo. Glad I helped sway you into getting the console and didn't wind up scaring you away. It has probably become my most played console for the past 4-5 months or so. It is just sort of a fun idea, even if a lot of the games here aren't great.

Yeah, I'm definitely not complaining about the discord being somewhat coddling. There are developers crawling all over the place there, and a lot of the more effusive praise is from one developer to another if you check into who is commenting. Which is fine! It just makes it very hard for me to figure out what is good since everything is praised there.

I somehow have not seen that website at all so thanks for linking it. I've also been looking for other "reviews" and I could not find anything. I'm shocked to see that level or praise for HANA, but I do also wonder if I was so annoyed I couldn't appreciate the story. I don't think that's it - I remember finding the plot really bland and uninteresting at the time. But I also remember hating the gameplay and visuals and style so much that maybe it just bled over and lead me into a hate cloud I couldn't see through. I dunno. Glad someone out there liked it.

It makes so much sense it was released in two chunks on itch. I didn't know that and the style change is so jarring it feels like someone stappled some other game onto the back end of it which I guess is kinda sorta what happened.

The most important thing I can say about this game was that I never had any idea where it was going.

Well I 100% agree with that at least.

I do know this is the kind of game that just doesnt get made when you have a lot of people above you telling you what game to make. Its rough, and strange, and doesnt spell out everything for you (but it does explain enough to help you understand what you're doing and where youre going and why). Its one of those games that only an open ecosystem like the Playdate would allow. Highly recommended.

I get what they're saying here and it is also something I find valuable about indie gaming in general. BUT I also think you have to realize that not every bit of company oversight is creativity quashing, focus group restricting nonsense. Sometimes someone above you tells you what to do because they can't appreciate your vision, and sometimes someone above you tells you what to do because covering your entire body in macaroni and cheese and running naked through a playground just isn't a good idea. That lack of oversight can lead to great things, but it can also lead to things that would've been changed or refined for good reason.

That is an interesting GOTY list, too! I mentioned before but I had only been following the community awards, where the nominees were Root Bear, Gun Trials, Reelistic Fishing and also Resonant Tale. Bloom was a 2022 nominee though so that was also on my radar! I'm assuming that's the game that got the big update that they said should could for 2023. Some of these games I have intentionally been saving for a rainy day (Gun Trials in particular) but others like Bloom I just haven't heard all that much about. And Resonant Tale I almost played last year! I was looking for something that fit into the action adventure category here on GameFAQs and there weren't a ton of Playdate games. My two finalists were Resonant Tale and...HANA. Oh, what a terrible decision I made in retrospect. Curse me for picking what I thought was the more interesting game title.

And, yes! I am not counting things you can sideload for a couple of reasons. First, there is at least "some" curation process into what gets put on the catalogue from itch.io. So I have to assume the average quality of that endless sea is somehow worse which isn't something I want to deal with. And, second, every hyped game from itch.io has been brought over the catalogue at some point. I'm assuming the good stuff will make its way over before shop is shut down.

Thanks for the links here though!

Game #38 Complete! Word Trip

Throw This Quote On The Back Of The Box: "Worth the trip."

Final Thoughts: Curse you Word Trip! I was looking for a bad catalogue game since I had just played a great season game and didn't want to use up all my good games in a row. Word Trip had to go and mess things up by being halfway decent. The audacity. THE AUDACITY. This game is pretty good and really simple. I can't have funny thoughts about that!

The caveat I'll preface this with is that this isn't anything great or exciting. This isn't Saturday Edition or Crankin' or even Casual Birder. No one is running up to tell you how excited they were about Playdate. If they do, that's just the developer and please report them because they've been banned from several Targets already for that level of aggressive marketing. Word Trip isn't making any end of year "best of" lists because this just isn't the kind of game that was made with that sort of thing in mind. No one's favorite game is going to be Word Trip. If someone tells you that, keep a close eye on them because they might be a rogue AI built to solve word puzzles and they've escaped their lab.

What it is though is fine. It's fine! It is a perfectly enjoyable word puzzle game you can play for ten minutes when you're bored. It would up being one of the better score chasing games I played. I thought I was done and I moved on to the next mystery game, but while I was playing that one I was like "hm Word Trip was better maybe I'll go give that another run instead" and I did a couple of times. I like word puzzle games like this and there is enough here (plus online leaderboards!) that gave this decent replayability.

The biggest issue for me is the word bank feels smaller than I thought when it could be "all four letter words" and I was seeing target word repeats way more often than I should. Also the online leaderboards can be easily cheated using my fool proof method. I had this amazing run on Hard and got 56 which was good for second place in the whole world! Woo hoo! Then I checked the leaderboard scores and first place was 155. Boo. That's the word puzzle AI I've been warning everyone about! Or it is another person who found out how to cheat and just went crazy. You shouldn't be able to pause in a game like this. I get accessibility but the whole point of this is leaderboard chasing and it is way too easy to cheese with a pause button. You don't have to cheat obviously, but I always get discouraged from leaderboard chasing when the top scores just aren't possible to get legit.

Regardless, it was a solid title. I had fun even with the simplicity and the flaws I mentioned above. If you like word puzzles you'll probably like this.

Should You Play It? Sure. if you like word puzzles at least. There's definitely a niche for this sort of game and if you aren't in it, you won't like it.

Final Score: 6. Totally fine. Mostly pretty good even if it could've been better. Putting it just below Hyper Meteor which still stands as the best point chasing option on the Playdate imo.

Games Completed: 378/151

Game Rankings:
38) PLAYTIME Weird Alarm Clocks
37) HANA Spacetime Fantasy
36) Boogie Loops
35) Hidey Spot
34) Bub-O Collect
33) The Lushes Land
32) Nightingale
31) A Joke That's Worth 0.99 Cents
30) Recommendation Dog!!
29) Trickle Greenweed, Mermaid At Law
28) Whitewater Wipeout
27) The Botanist
26) Snak
25) DYG
24) Lost Your Marbles
23) Grand Tour Legends
22) Life's Too Short
21) Life's 2 Short: Unhooked
20) Demon Quest '85
19) The Fall of Elena Temple
18) Flipper Lifter
17) Questy Chess
16) Slitherlink PD
15) The Keyper
14) SKEW
13) Star Sled
12) Echoic Memory
11) Executive Golf DX
10) Omaze
9) Sasquatchers
8) Word Trip
7) Hyper Meteor
6) Castle Tintagel
5) Casual Birder
4) Zipper
3) Pick Pack Pup
2) Crankin's Time Travel Adventure
1) Saturday Edition

Currently Playing: Inventory Hero

What Is It? One of the games Panic developed themselves as part of the Season 1 releases for the Playdate. You intensely manage the inventory of an RPG hero. That's everyone's favorite part of an RPG, right?

Gameplay Overview: The game actually sort of plays itself with your RPG hero facing off against a continually stream of enemies. Each time they hit an enemy, they'll drop something. It can either be a piece of equipment, a healing item, or straight up garbage. You need to equip the good pieces of stuff and toss what you don't need. You only have six inventory slots and once those fill up you'll start discarding things randomly once new stuff pops in. The hits come faster and faster so you have to stay on top of things or else risk getting beat up by angry crabs, giant humans, and a crow boss.

Here's The Game Page! https://play.date/games/inventory-hero/

Here's Some Pictures!
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/afdf396d.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/ced74dd1.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/9/945d2ef3.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/c/c4308450.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/a/a9b9b411.png

Thoughts:
-Wellon to Inventory Hero! Another Season 1 release, so Im hoping for something better than average at least.
-Menu screen is cute. Begin thy quest yes please!
-Also theres a high score so Im guessing this is another score chaser kind of game.
-You are about to explore faraway lands, battle beastly foes, and grow as a Hero. But dont worry most of this happens by itself. You have but one challenge: to balance your inventory. Ah so an adventure game for people that spent hour optimizing space in the Diablo 2 menu screen, eh?
-Looks like my options will be to drop something, equip something, or save for later. Easy enough. I look forward to accidentally killing my person over and over because I dont know what items are.
-So you have a little screen within the screen showing your Hero running and battling foes, a menu to the left side showing health, level xp, and what you have equipped, and then all your items at the bottom. Easy enough so far.
-A little ghost shows up saying they used to be like me once. Before the death thing?
-Ghost: My advice? Watch out for rabbits. Wow if my downfall was caused by rabbits I would spend my entire afterlife lying about it.
-Ok so this is a sort ofauto fighter thing? Each enemy drops something, which seems to be equipment (breakable after a while), a healing item, or trash. You want to toss the trash because when your inventory is full it gets rid of the oldest item and it could be something good.
-Im uh not having fun. And Im five minutes in. UH OH.
-Well on to adventure valley. Will this be the same as the intro area? Undoubtedly.
-It basically is. There are a couple of twists now. There are multiple things that can take over your inventory. Get a bunny? It starts multiplying and overflowing into adjacent slots and soon your whole inventory will be bunnies.
-OH GOD THAT GHOST WAS RIGHT WATCH OUT FOR BUNNIES.
-I think mushroom are the same, but they dont multiply as fast and you can actually heal with them so they arent totally useless.
-I spent roughly five minutes on the boss before figuring out what to do. I didnt even notice my guy wasnt draining its health at first because I was too busy managing my inventory haha.
-So the boss tosses out junk items that fill your inventory, useful items you want to keep, and bombs. I thought bombs were going to be something that blew me up, on account of them being bombs, so I kept quickly tossing them. It wasnt until I noticed I hadnt done any damage that I tried using one and it does cause damage to the boss. Oops.
-Well boss one down! On to the next level: the jungle.
-WELCOME TO THE JUNGLE. Do you have fun and games?
-The jungle is incredibly annoying because like two thirds of my attacks miss so every fight takes forever. COME ON MAN HIT SOMETHING.
-Im fighting a cube and it keeps avoiding. IT IS JUST A BOX SMUSH IT OR SOMETHING
-Get through the jungle and the area after it, which is world of big things or something like that and all the enemies are slightly larger than normal.
-I think one of my problems with this game is that all the enemies feel basically the same. Im barely paying attention to the actual action and just sort of looking at my items to toss or use what I need.
-My basic strategy since I figured things out is to sort of get five good items, keep tossing or immediately using the next one, or move over to the next worse thing and toss it. Its worked swimmingly so far without much issue.
-Second boss is sort of the first again, except now you need two pieces of a scroll to make a bomb, and then use the bomb to damage. So basically the same as the last one except you want two spots open instead of just one.
-Castle level is next whichmight be the end? I feel like castle is the logical end so well see.
-Oh no this is probably the end. After castle is glitch. Cant get more intense than glitch level, right?
-Boss of glitch is harder. Now you need to link three scrolls to make a bomb, which means leaving a lot of space in your inventory so you cant just keep a ton of healing items. Then hell throw up these super spawning rabbits that take over your entire inventory and you basically have to toss everything all at once.
-That being said I still beat him without much trouble and I dont think my health ever dropped below like two thirds.
-Theres more glitch? Another glitch? What the hell?
-Oh its a never ending glitch. I get like three glitch stages in a row before eventually dying, and at that point I go to look it up because Im confused as to what the hell is going on.
-The discord server confirms it it repeats endlessly. You just keep playing, maxing out your level as high as you can.
-Im not positive how many times Im going to want to play this. I dont really care about maxing out my level here or beating my old high score. Ill give it a couple more plays just to make sure I have a good sense of everything and then Ill call it a game and move on.
-I do that and I have no real new thoughts because nothing changes. This one doesn't work for me as well as the lot of the other score chasing games for a couple of reasons, one of them being RNG can just end your run.
-Like not even anything you can do, just RNG giving you the finger and saying you're done playing.
-Equipment degrades, and once you reach the glitch the degradation happens super fast. Like I had a 38 attack go to 17 in a single hit. I have no idea how degradation occurs because it doesn't every time. But you can have a sword and a backup sword go to zero and the game just not drop weapons in that time frame, so you are just literally unable to hit. The attack drops below a certain point and you can no longer hit enemies. I've had runs where all my weapons degrade then I miss for like two solid minutes while my health gets slowly drained. "Fun"
-I get RNG is part of the fun, but it is hard to have a run end ONLY because of RNG. Why would I want to go through the first boring 20 minutes again just to get back to the end segment and have to rely on the game playing nice to top my old high score?
-Also no online leaderboards. All my homies hate games with no online leaderboards.
-MEH.

Time Played: Between all my runs I'm at roughly 3-4 hours, I think.
High Score: 89 levels.
Beaten? As much as you can, yeah.
Grade: Too much happiness for a while and I'm back in the realm of "3" I think.
Favorite Part So Far: Probably the concept itself. I was like "oh that's kind of interesting" and then I played it and was like "oh that's not very fun though."

Only 6 slots seems like it would be limiting to som.ething like this

That's kind of the point, I think. You're supposed to be making these rapid fire decisions because your inventory space is limited. That part I don't mind. It is how endlessly repetitive things are and how RNG can really just straight up kill you at the end. So you have 20-30 minutes of boring repetition followed by maybe the game letting you play a bit longer or not depending on its mood.

Game #39 Complete! Inventory Hero

Throw This Quote On The Back Of The Box: "The most compelling inventory management simulator on the Playdate!"

Final Thoughts: Inventory Hero is a great example of an interesting idea I just have no interest in playing. At first I was like "wait I'm just throwing away garbage in my inventory?" and I was ready to call things right away. Then I played it for a little while and I was like "oh this is actually kind of interesting." Then I played it a bit longer and decided I never need to play it again. It is one of those things that is more interesting than good. I kind of like how they hyper focused the gameplay on this one relatively minor aspect of most RPGs, but I don't kind of like playing it, which is a problem.

Inventory management is usually the kind of thing I do to get to the fun stuff in RPGs. Just a task that is sort of in my way of what I want to do, so I do it. Here it is the whole thing, which is at least an idea. Some of the games I've played on the Playdate only have one idea and that's "make a game that is functional, maybe." This has a core concept and unique hook, which I appreciate. It is just not really a fun concept. So while I appreciate the thought that went into this...no. No. Take it back. I don't want it.

There's a lot of weird things here with the design that just don't quite work. I can see why the developers here thought they would, but almost all of them make things worse. Like, the RNG. Ok, you need RNG in a game like this. The game is so dreadfully repetitive to begin with and you literally are just watching two characters bump up against each other for half an hour and sometimes the sprites change. That RNG of giving you new items or garbage is sort of the "hook" of the entire game. The limited inventory is the "hook". Hey you don't know what you're getting and you don't have a lot of space to work with - work with what you got and see what you can do. That's the game, essentially, and it works sort of in short doses.

But then you get to the end game. Then you get to the part where the game actually wants to challenge you, and the RNG can just walk up to you, hit the "your game is over" button, and then your game is over. Weapons degrade so fast and whenever you get to a certain point, you just cannot make contact with the enemies any more. So your weapons get weak, and then you cannot even hit the enemies to get new ones. This isn't even about keeping enough extra weapons on hand at the end, because degradation can occur so fast (and not really even explain how or why), that you're just out of luck. You just can''t win. You get to watch your character miss for like two minutes as your health is whittled down and you waste your healing items in futility. Games just tend to be less fun when the RNG can make it impossible to proceed. RNG is there to add variety to the gameplay. It shouldn't be there to loudly announce its bored and shoo you out the door because it has a hot date.

And with that RNG...honestly, what is the point in even playing again? There are no global leaderboards (a huge oversight from a game Panic themselves made - how do you omit a leaderboard when the whole conceit is getting to the highest level possible?) so why bother trying again? The early game is utterly brainless because enemies are relatively easy and your weapons aren't crumbling to dust every time a character looks at them. I got to the end game repeating level my first try, and then never once played through a game without getting back to it. The first 20 minutes are utterly brainless, and then after that you get to the stuff that matters and sometimes things are fine and then other times the game just loudly yells "LEAVE ME ALONE" and your run is over. That combination of slow, boring, repetitive gameplay at first and the "fuck you leave me alone" RNG at the end make it so hard to keep doing runs. Once I realized what was happening, the last couple of runs I did felt like an absolute chore.

I'm also more annoyed than I have any right to be that the game is endless and I was not told. I complained about Recommendation Dog!! but your first time through that game there is an ending. You reach an end and then the game is like "ok now just keep going". How hard would it have been to put that in? I am tired of going to the Discord to find out something about a game because the developers didn't one to put a one sentence blurb somewhere. I played for a handful of runs and wasn't sure if I was trying to get to some point or if I was in just an endless loop game and didn't know.

I just did not have a good time with this. Any time I'm about to start a game up and it feels like a chore, something when wrong somewhere.

Should You Play It? It is free. It isn't fun, but it's free. Make of that what you will.

Final Score: 3. Bad. Bad bad bad bad bad. So bad.

Games Completed: 39/151

Game Rankings:
39) PLAYTIME Weird Alarm Clocks
38) HANA Spacetime Fantasy
37) Boogie Loops
36) Hidey Spot
35) Bub-O Collect
34) The Lushes Land
33) Nightingale
32) A Joke That's Worth 0.99 Cents
31) Recommendation Dog!!
30) Trickle Greenweed, Mermaid At Law
29) Whitewater Wipeout
28) The Botanist
27) Snak
26) DYG
25) Inventory Hero
24) Lost Your Marbles
23) Grand Tour Legends
22) Life's Too Short
21) Life's 2 Short: Unhooked
20) Demon Quest '85
19) The Fall of Elena Temple
18) Flipper Lifter
17) Questy Chess
16) Slitherlink PD
15) The Keyper
14) SKEW
13) Star Sled
12) Echoic Memory
11) Executive Golf DX
10) Omaze
9) Sasquatchers
8) Word Trip
7) Hyper Meteor
6) Castle Tintagel
5) Casual Birder
4) Zipper
3) Pick Pack Pup
2) Crankin's Time Travel Adventure
1) Saturday Edition

Game #40 Complete! Crankulator

Throw This Quote On The Back Of The Box: "Calculate exactly how much money you're wasting!"

Here's Some Picture, I Guess:
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/0/04c03c94.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/7/7b053f54.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/1/1c82acc4.png
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/4/4e6c6342.png

Final Thoughts:
Crankulator is very special in my heart, because it is the game that has finally convinced me I need to move out the apps into their own separate category. I can't keep playing these pointless little apps and throwing them to the bottom of the list. That just isn't fair to games like Bub-O Collect. Those games have to try so hard to be bad and then a calculator app just shows up and utterly dominates it merely by existing. So, for now on, games on one list, things that aren't games on a second list.

I didn't record my thoughts while playing this, because why would I? Who wants someone's calculator reaction thoughts? Here's what mine would've been: "This is a calculator. This is a calculator. Why is this a calculator? This is just a calculator." Imagine how psychotic I would sound if I gave you a play by play of using a fucking calculator. Is there a more boring thing to give a play by play of? "I am now pressing the number two. Now I am pressing the number four. Now I am pressing the numbers 58008 and holding the calculator upside down...ladies and gentlemen, I think I may have found an easter egg."

So, and I've asked this question before, but: why? Why? Someone, somewhere got their hands on the Playdate and saw what it was capable of and they thought to themselves: "I should make a calculator!" You can do anything you want and you make a calculator? I was utterly perplexed by PLAYTIME Weird Alarm Clocks, but at least that guy had a thought. That guy woke up one morning and was like "I had clocks and keeping track of time and I want everyone else to hate those things, too. I should make the worst alarm clocks ever so no one knows how to tell time again." In contrast, the person who made Crankulator was like "hey what if calculators existed? that would be cool!" and then Blaise Pascal showed up from 1650 to hand them a violation of intellectual property. You can't just release a calculator on a gaming storefront. That's like that one awful house that would hand out toothbrushes and Bible verses on Halloween. These things are supposed to be fun. Or at the very least, these things are supposed to be not a calculator.

ALSO. Also. This is a worse version of a calculator. This is a calculator that is absolutely awful to use. They got the crank involved, for some reason, and you have to crank your way to the number you want to use. This is fine if you're six and adding 12 and 7 because your brain can't do math yet. But say you want to calculate 80 million times 45678. Hope your wrist is strong because you're about to do more cranking that [THIS SECTION REMOVED FOR HORNYPOSTING]. The Crankulator is the world's least accessible, least usable calculator. The numbers are read by a mostly unintelligible robot and you use a crank to get to them, and that's the whole gimmick.

There is exactly one and only one scenario where this game is worth purchasing, and that is as part of a white elephant gift exchange. "What is this thing?" "A calculator!" "A calculator...that seems normal enough." "No, this calculator talks like a robot that is having a stroke and you can only get to numbers by cranking to them." "Haha, that is the worst calculator of all time! Congrats on this hilariously bad joke gift." And then everyone claps because you found the single dumbest thing of all time. That's the only time you should buy this. Otherwise you know that thing you have in your pocket that you has a calculator built into it? Use that instead.

As a very quick conclusion - there is actually technically a game here. You have to find it. The developer hid it because they were afraid someone might have fun with it and that would defeat the point of a calculator app in the first place. If you hold down b for several seconds, you get taken to a screen that is something a bad teacher in 1993 would use to teach dumb children math. You are given a prompt (like "which of these doesn't equal 19" or "which are prime numbers" or "on a scale of 1-10, how sad is this game making you?") and you have to pick the five correct answers while avoiding the wrong ones. Some sort of monster creature shows up and jumps around some like he is a villain from Q*Bert that got laid off and took a job to make ends meet, and if you bump into him you lose a life. You also lose a life if you pick a wrong answer, and after losing three lives you're kicked back out to the screen and have to do more crank related math problems as punishment.

I'm not sure you can lose at this unless you're trying and eventually I just had to feed myself to the monster because I couldn't take another group of remedial math problems. Your lives refill after each question, which feels almost cruel because it traps you in this longer that way. I don't want to talk about that though because I can't talk about prime numbers any longer for the day according to my therapist. What I spent most of my time thinking about while playing this was actually "is this the least played game I've ever played?" The Playdate has a small install base. Fewer of those people are actually playing games on it. And then fewer still are purchasing from the catalogue. And then even fewer are buy a game that advertises itself as a calculator. And then, of those people, you essentially have to be someone weird enough to go in the discord and read up on how to do this, because while the store page hints at an easter egg, that's all you get. Have more than a dozen people played "crankulator: hidden math question mini-game"?

If you have, please reach out to me. I want to make us all t-shirts.

Should You Play It? No, on account of it being a calculator. If I ever recommend a calculator to you for one of your gaming consoles, I have already been replaced by a smarmy less handsome AI facsimile.

Final Score: 1. On account of it being a calculator that is difficult to use. I might even need a new ranking system because 1 is too generous. This one scored a calculator/10.

Games Completed: 40/172

Game Rankings:
37) HANA Spacetime Fantasy
36) Hidey Spot
35) Bub-O Collect
34) The Lushes Land
33) Nightingale
32) A Joke That's Worth 0.99 Cents
31) Recommendation Dog!!
30) Trickle Greenweed, Mermaid At Law
29) Whitewater Wipeout
28) The Botanist
27) Snak
26) DYG
25) Inventory Hero
24) Lost Your Marbles
23) Grand Tour Legends
22) Life's Too Short
21) Life's 2 Short: Unhooked
20) Demon Quest '85
19) The Fall of Elena Temple
18) Flipper Lifter
17) Questy Chess
16) Slitherlink PD
15) The Keyper
14) SKEW
13) Star Sled
12) Echoic Memory
11) Executive Golf DX
10) Omaze
9) Sasquatchers
8) Word Trip
7) Hyper Meteor
6) Castle Tintagel
5) Casual Birder
4) Zipper
3) Pick Pack Pup
2) Crankin's Time Travel Adventure
1) Saturday Edition

App Rankings:
4) Crankulator
3) PLAYTIME Weird Alarm Clocks
2) Boogie Loops
1) This space left intentionally blank

The calculator killed this topic:(

Good news everyone! I finally managed to drag myself away from my calculator app from 1984 to play more of the things kids call "games". I've beaten one and started another. Updates should be coming tonight.

Hype. I still gotta get back on my playdate