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A new handheld to the market
I used to be a huge handheld player and collector, but I kinda did fell out of it in recent years. The latest I’ve played was 3DS (and its various versions) but I also always wanted to own some other handheld device that can play older ROM games (which is probalby my next handheld I’m going to buy). When I first heard about a new handheld called Playdate (from Panic that published games like Firewatch and Untitled Goose Game) I was instantly sold. Everything it promised to bring; simple yet intriguing games, crank controller and an easy software to make your own games—I wanted to buy it instantly. Well, they didn’t immediately delivered their device to Finland, so I couldn’t get one in immediate launch, but I did manage to grab one later on, and it is finally arrived to me.
This review is based me playing Playdate for a one week. What can it offer? Is it too expensive? Do you really need it?
Lots of power in a small package
Playdate is a small handheld that has following specs:
CPU: 168 MHz Cortex M7
STORAGE: 16 MB RAM, 8 KB L1 Cache, 4 GB Flash
WIRELESS: 802.11bgn 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth® (coming soon)
SOUND: Built-In Mono Speaker, Stereo Headphone Jack, Condenser Mic + TRRS Mic In
DISLPAY: 400 × 240 1-bit
INPUTS: D-Pad, A + B, Sleep + Menu, 3-Axis Accelerometer, Crank
SIZE: 76 × 74 × 9 mm, See it for yourself
BATTERY: 14 days standby clock, 8 hours active
INCLUDED: Playdate, USB-C to A Cable, 40″, User Guide
COST: $199, Plus Taxes & Shipping
If we look other handhelds such as GameBoy Advance, Playdate is many times more powerful than that, but not as powerful as 3DS. First you might think there aren’t any 3D games on Playdate, but there are! And they look pretty nice as well. But mostly the games are 2D or from top-down perspective.
What comes to the games, Playdate has Season 1 of 24 games that comes free with the console. I did enjoy them and they aren’t just some filler games, but very well-made video games. Even though some of them are rather short, but their replayability value is high. There are also other games you can buy from itch.io and from Playdate website. Be mindful that the console only has 4GB space in it, so it might fill up at some point if you buy tons of games, but mostly the games are small 2MB but they can be as big as 160MB in size.
What comes to the playability with the console, well, it is a very simple console with D-Pad, A and B buttons, 3-Axis Accelerometer and a crank, so the games aren’t that complicated to play. I like how accurate the crank is and how various ways it can be utilised. But I must say that I didn’t like much of the D-Pad and buttons as they doesn’t feel nice to push. They should be much “softer” to be pushed and not as harsh as they are now.
I did play simple 2D games to fully 3D driving games, so Playdate’s hardware can be pushed. The only thing that might restrict the console is the display, as it is only 1-Bit display. It is sharp, don’t get me wrong, but they probably went for the non-backlit display to safe the battery life. The display also is very light-reflective so Playdate can be played in a dim lighting. Even though I noticed that the display has a one sweet spot where the display looks nice and doesn’t have any reflection on it, then it looked the best.
The sound is stereo, but the speaker is mono, if you want stereo sound you have to plug it with headphones/speakers. The sound is crisp and clear, even with the audio on full volume. You might think the audio is very much like in a GameBoy or something, but you couldn’t be far from the truth. It is nothing like GameBoy has, it is very high quality audio which is probably MP3 quality. There is also a headphone jack and microphone, which use I didn’t find at all. There wasn’t a game that used the micprohone feature so I’m not sure why they put that in the console.
Playdate was fun to use. Some of the games I didn’t get at all, but some of them I liked a lot. Most of the games are rather short, everywhere from 1 to 3 hours. What I was missing was a full-length featured game—or at least a longer game that has a nice story and the crank used ingenuitively, but that game was nowhere to be found.
Be mindful that anyone can make a game on Playdate, because they have a free developer software named Pulp (that runs on the web browser). I didn’t try it, just quickly checked it and it seemed like it is only for 2D or top-down games, so if you want to make some other style game, I have no idea what kind of software you should use with it. There is one game I wanted to make, but I’m not sure if I ever get myself into doing that.
Playdate costs $199. But I payed almost $300 of it because I ordered the cover that was $29. Then came all the shipping, handling and taxes I had to pay, so in the end it was something like $287. So this fun wasn’t cheap at all and. I had to wait it for two years to get it. It does include Season 1 which has 24 free games in it, but if you want to buy other games their prices varies from $1 to $20.
Final Verdict
Playdate is a niche item that is kind of expensive in the end. Even so, I wanted to buy it because I like handhelds very much. Seems like handhelds’ time is over after 3DS died, but Playdate breathes some life into that tiny market. Hopefully video game makers—or just everyday people—keep making games for the console and keep it alive. It’s still too early to say is Playdate doomed or not, since it was launched about 6 months ago, but thusfar everything looks good.
Playdate can be ordered on Playdate official site at price point of $199.
SCORE:
4/5
“The display also is very light-reflective so Playdate can be played in a dim lighting”
One More Level 
For a quick play of some short games while traveling around or waiting for public transport, this does sound really good, imo. I love my SteamDeck but it’s really big and heavy. Playdate looks as small as the GameBoy SP was – just a perfect size for a portable device imo
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