Playdate review: An alternate-history boutique handheld
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When I unboxed the Playdate handheld on TikTok, a number of people asked if they could play old Pokémon games on the device. That makes sense because we’ve seen so many portables out of China that only exist to play old ROMs. The $179 Playdate, however, is something new. It combines low component costs (relative to the past) with modern indie-gaming sensibilities to produce a unique experience. That has led to a quirky-yet-cute portable console. And one that deliberately upends your expectations for how game distribution should work.
The Playdate is launching soon. All I can do so far is unbox it. #PlayDate #gametok #switch
The Playdate is a small, 76-by-74 mm yellow handheld with a 400×240 black-and-white screen. That display does not have a backlight and is even more “black-and-white” than the original Game Boy. Playdate can only display 2 possible colors instead of the 4-way, 2-bit grayscale of Nintendo’s device. But the image is sharp and pretty easy to see as long as you have a light source. And the display refreshes quickly, so don’t expect any of the weird ghosting you might remember from using 1980s/90s handhelds.
As for input, you get a D-pad, two face buttons as well as buttons for Sleep and Menu, a 3-axis accelerometer, and a crank. And those controls are more important than the specifics of the internals. This is a system where how you play games is much more significant than the power of its CPU. But it is crucial that the device has Wi-Fi because that is how you’ll get more software.
And it’s that software that is the start of the experience.
Playdate doesn’t play Pokémon. Well, it probably will
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