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Now that the Playdate has been around for a while, there are a ton of paid games in its official storefront and via itch.io to help build up a library of quick titles to play when you have some time. To help you sort through them and find something that suits you, here are some we’d recommend to get started with the system. Now, keep in mind there are tons of great titles, and we're just highlighting some of the best ones to keep in mind when you go shopping.

Best overall Playdate Game: Mars After Midnight 34623o

Mars After Midnight is a whimsical take on Papers, Please, as you’re trying to help aliens with groups. This means targeting the right areas, having the right refreshments, and letting the correct characters into the meeting. There’s a good balance between simulation and silliness, it looks fantastic, and it’s just a well-designed marvel that shows the system off perfectly.

Mars After Midnight is $6 on the handheld. 

Best game played in short sessions: Root Bear s6435

Root Bear is about pouring root beer for bears via turning the Playdate crank. You get a minute to fill as many glasses as perfectly as possible, with the customers tipping you for performance. Those tips determine your scores. Since you have to for different glass shapes, foam, and fill requirements, it always feels fresh and fun to play for a few minutes.

Root Bear is $3 on the handheld.

Best action game on the Playdate: Pullfrog Playdate Deluxe  f722f

Pullfrog Playdate Deluxe is a combination action and puzzle game. You’re trying to clear lines of blocks, a la Tetris. However, the way you move said blocks is by directing a little frog around and pulling them with their tongue. You also can hit fallen blocks to chip away at them to make them fit or fall. Plus, there’s a roguelike element as you get additional power-ups or enhancements as you clear lines. It’s great!

Pullfrog Playdate Deluxe is $8 on the handheld.

Best infuriating, but fun, game on the system: A Balanced Brew  4g6621

A Balanced Brew makes me want to scream sometimes, and that’s why I love it. You use the crank to help a person get a cup of coffee. Said person insists on using a unicycle on the most perilous and winding road ever. This means you need to balance, speed up, slow down, and handle situations where you ride a unicycle on a unicycle to get your latest cup. It’s tricky, but so satisfying when you get it right.

A Balanced Brew is $8 on the handheld.

Best game to play every day on the Playdate: Bloom 4r1l5s

If you enjoy casual games with daily life simulation elements, Bloom is probably the closest you will get on the Playdate. Run a flower shop, grow flowers, and exchange text messages with folks as you go through a casual life that encourages you to stop by each day as you progress.

Bloom is $10 on the handheld.

Best Simulation game on the handheld: Glagstone 2u1847

Ready to manage an entire island? One that doesn’t seem quite right? Glagstone tasks you with keeping up with a community and taking on quests as you attempt to manage resources and build up the island while also perhaps finding out what happened to the last manager.

Glagstone is $6 on the handheld. 

Best shooter on the Playdate: Gun Trails  5z5021

I had no idea a shoot’em up would not only look so good, but also work so well on the Playdate, but Yoyogi Games proved it is possible with Gun Trails. It’s an amazing shmup with great graphics and modes for newcomers and veterans. There’s even an online leaderboard.

Gun Trails is $6 on the handheld.

Best puzzle game on the Playdate: Generations 3jj3z

Generations is a match-3 game where it is very easy to mess up if you don’t pay attention. You need to place portraits on the wall of a home and ensure ones of people from a similar age group are all next to each other. Doing so starts a chain in which they all come together and transform into one portrait of the next “generation.” You keep doing this as much as possible until you start to clear the board. It’s incredibly strategic, but also easy to play for 5, 10, 15, or even 20 minutes.

Generations is $6 on the handheld. 

Best RPG on the Playdate: Under the Castle 6u2x3f

I didn’t expect an action-RPG sort of experience on the Playdate, but there are quite a few and Under the Castle is one of the best at making the most of the system. It’s your goal to face the Evil Lord, heading through dungeons and gathering things you need to make saving the day seem possible.

Under the Castle is $10 on the handheld.

Deceptively Difficult: Jolly Chimp Champ 62224c

Jolly Chimp Champ is one of the most recent Playdate games, and I’d say it is one of the best at looking simple, but then being much harder than you’d expect. You use the crank to control conveyor belts and get a monkey toy from one point to another. However, there are also hazards like guns, bombs, and gaping holes, and precise timing and thoughtful cranking is the only way to get around each challenge.

Jolly Chimp Champ is $6 on the handheld.

Most Pokemon Like: Shining Gadget and Shadow Gadget 206g63

There’s no true Pokemon type of game on the Playdate, but the next best thing is a creature-collector of sorts. Shining Gadget and Shadow Gadget, both collecting ghosts with the crank. There’s no RPG element, but there’s still that drive to fill your collection or maybe even use Spirit Swap to share with other Playdate players.

Each of these gamesis $13 on the handheld.

The post Siliconera’s Playdate Games That May Be Worth Your Time appeared first on Siliconera.

Now that Panic’s Playdate is widely accessible and available, it feels like the new Lucas Pope game Mars After Midnight is here to show us what games on the system can do. The design, direction, and charming premise all come together to create what feels like a game that’s less stressful than Papers, Please, but just as artistically appealing as Return of the Obra Dinn.

Things begin with an overview of Mars. There’s the Earth colony, as well as a much larger Off-colony Settlement. After midnight, a standard Air Tight Shipping and Receiving area turns into the Off-colony Community Center. Each day, a certain event is held. So on day one, it’s a Cyclops Anger Management meeting. You man the event and make sure people who should be there are.

Much like Lucas Pope’s Papers, Please, Mars After Midnight is a Playdate game about paying attention to people and letting the right folks inside. Then, after they visit, you clean up and reorganize the refreshment table. Each night, a certain quota of people can visit. So on Cyclops Anger Management night, only beings with one eye and a sad expression can get into the event. Anyone who meets the criteria gets in, and you get credits for if they feel refreshed after possibly sampling the food and feel the meeting helped. 

Your goal is to eventually help all Martians with your meetings. After the Cyclops Anger Management tutorial session, you choose a session topic, the level of promotion, and the refreshments. You need to promote in the right areas to help affected people. Also, refreshments can encourage people to tip more, which means you can reach more people with promotional posters. This adds a management simulation element to the game.

Especially since the game builds on who you can help. For example, you can’t run the Gnat Knife Handling meeting unless you pay for a five dollar accessory for it. This is a one-time usage fee, so if you rerun that session, you need to pay that $5 Some meetings require cartridges you don’t own yet, so you need to hold other meetings first, earn money from them, then buy those cartridges if the vendor comes around during a shift. You can also buy other items, if you get enough funds, like recipes for different refreshments or a translator so you can know what the Martians are saying.

The nature of this means that Mars After Midnight can feel a bit tedious. However, I believe much of the reason why I felt this way is because I wasn’t playing the way Pope intended. All Playdate titles are structured in a such a way that you’re probably only supposed to play for 15 minutes or so at a time. For the sake of the review, I was playing for a few hours straight, going through various sessions. I imagine playing it as intended, in shorter bursts and perhaps at a rate of one session per day, would be fantastic.

Especially since Mars After Midnight basically blends elements of Lucas Pope games like of Papers, Please with the artistry of Return of the Obra Dinn in a wonderful way. This is a gorgeous game that does so much with its 1-bit design limitations. It’s an artistic marvel, just like Return of the Obra Dinn, with personable monster designs, fantastic use of audio and sound effects, and such a great job of creating a Mars colony that feels real and full with so little. Likewise, I love how it has this Papers, Please element, only without the same level of stress that makes me worry about if I’m doing the right thing and going to survive. It’s the epitome of charming.

Most importantly, after playing an array of other Playdate games, I feel like Mars After Midnight is the perfect example of what a game for the system should be. It can be played in short bursts or for an extended period lasting an hour or two. It makes use of the crank in an organic way that suits the situations, be it opening the flap to see who’s outside or trigger a broom to clear a table. The audio makes good use of the small speaker. The artistic direction makes the 1-bit restriction feel optimized. The only time I didn’t enjoy it is when I’d need to position my Martian’s tentacles just so to press the A and B buttons to jam a cartridge for a session into the machine.

Honestly, the only downside to Mars After Midnight for me is the knowledge that it won’t reach as many people as past Lucas Pope games due to the fact that this is likely going to be referenced as the signature Playdate game of 2024. This is such a pleasant and entertaining game that makes the most of the platform’s unique features. I love what it does and feel it is probably the signature game for the system now that it is here.

Mars After Midnight is available for the Playdate.

The post Review: Mars After Midnight Shows What a Playdate Game Can Do  appeared first on Siliconera.