#the ratcheteer

[lapsedgamer]

The Ratcheteer (Playdate)

I recognised Shaun Inman’s name on this but it took me ages to place him - he’s been showing up in my iPhone music player since I bought the The Last Rocket’s soundtrack over a decade ago! The Ratcheteer has similar vibes of chunky, GBC-era pixel art, tight retro level design, and earworm music, this time from collaborator 8bitmatt. I’ve been thinking about friction in games a lot lately, and the way The Ratcheteer makes you switch gadgets constantly to efficiently navigate its stages gives it bags of character. There’s a wonderful sense of place and a sweet little storyline tying it all together to make a little snow globe of adventure. The archetypal Playdate game - I can’t imagine this being anywhere else.

[lapsedgamer]

Playdate season 1 - week 12

My first season of games comes to an end! A couple of thoughts:

1) Every game on this system saves automatically, invisibly, and exactly where you want it to. Immaculate. No notes.

2) The seasonal model is delightful, and it only works because the games are quite compact. Unlike the monthly AAA release model on PS Plus or the steady trickle of games on the other subscription services, this isn’t blasting you with content you don’t have a hope in hell of even touching. Two games per week is just enough to give a bit of choice but not make you feel like you’re paralysed by the options. It actually feels like the glory days of the Vita where you’d get one nice indie game per month on PS Plus and have plenty of time to really dig in to it.

3) I’m nowhere near done playing or writing about these. I’ll continue to post as I finish - or finish with - particular games.

So, here’s the last couple of releases. Spoilers!

b360: the “b” stands for “Breakout”: it’s a circular block breaker from Panic themselves. There’s a really quirky arcade-style framing device about you being on a space ship destroying asteroids. Going to dig in to this some more later.

The Ratcheteer seems to be a top down adventure in the style of Zelda: A Link to the Past with really chunky graphics. It’s a nice bookend to go with the first week’s Casual Birder. One of those games I’m going to set aside some evenings to do in its totality.