A Date With Playdate Awaits – Could We Be Thankful For The Crankful?

As a variety of casual and hardcore gamers, we are all familiar with handheld gaming, yes? The delights of PlayStation Vita for our Vita misters and sisters and such [23]? Well, it seems like handheld gaming is going to be around for another decade. For four years, a group of designers at Panic designed and constructed a new small piece of hardware that seemed to helped them enhance their ambitions in what they enjoy doing [9] [10] [16]. Considering that the new invention is named the “Playdate”, I suppose it could be great for…well…playing video games during a date with your significant other? Anyway, due to its features that have been revealed on Panic’s official Twitter for new hardware, I am rather fascinated with the Playdate’s outcome for its release date; sometime in early 2020 [14]. Furthermore, please allow me to express my thoughts on the odd contraption of a handheld for those who are wondering if many consumers will be thankful for the crankful.

The Playdate’s final design after four years of development. [9]

The Playdate seems to be rather pint-sized, quite like a Tamagotchi [18]. It appears to be shorter than the Game Boy Pocket’s model and small enough to meet the standards of small gaming systems from the Game Boy Micro [4] [7], the member of the Game Boy family that was sadly the least successful one [6]. Luckily, the system might be comfortable for the hands of children and preteens between the ages of seven and twelve. As a young adult with small hands, I guess I could manage the experience in a calm and casual manner. Nevertheless, its overall design should hopefully not be too puny for many teenaged and adult gamers’ to play any of its games comfortably and refrain from squinting. Just in case, plenty of them can simply keep their own Playdates close enough to their faces. Alternatively, perhaps a bigger version could be released in 2021. At least those who buy the Playdate will not have to suffer from struggling to find the best position for playing a certain “huge pair of goggles on a stand” or feel the humiliation from experiencing the utter hilarity of the R-Zone in the early 2020s [20] [21] [22].

Oh. And let us not forget how unsatisfactory playing a game on a Tiger Wrist Game felt. [20]

Ultimately, it seems as if the Playdate can fit in a pocket, which is pretty casual. [18]

What about the controls? Well, you can say the front of the handheld seems rather traditional with two circular buttons and a D-pad. But wait, what is this? A crank you can turn on the right side of a handheld [11]? This is a very strange feature to me, as well as probably the first thing you will notice about the new specimen of a gaming system. Aside from how unusual a crank on the right side of gaming system is, it at least gives the Playdate some individuality, which is important for making a product recognizable. Unfortunately, I am not sure if flipping the screen by turning the Playdate upside-down could fully work for left-handed players due to the permanent placements of the buttons [3]. Pressing buttons that are above a screen during gameplay might feel too awkward, so I believe that there should be a left-handed edition of the Playdate just in case [3]. I honestly would not be surprised if the system ought to feature a main menu that allows you to play classic songs, such as “Pop Goes The Weasel” by turning the crank around as if they were aiming to activate a jack-in-the-box [11].

guerillacupid2 made a very good suggestion for the sake of left-handed players. [2]

The games for Playdate shall only be featured in black and white [12] [13]. At least it seems more appealing than the Virtual Boy’s rather unsatisfying red and black aesthetics [22]. The gameplay and art style of an example of a game for the Playdate, Crankin’s Time Travel Adventure reminds me of Vib-Ribbon due to how the way the playable protagonist is jogging is animated similarly to Vibri’s jogging [24]. The crank seems to really come in handy when reversing and fast-forwarding time for Crankin as a way to introduce a unique gameplay technique that can benefit the chance of the new system being sold well [12]. It would be interesting to see an adaption of Tamagotchi for the Playdate, considering there was one for the Game Boy back in 1997 [25] [26]. I know we are living in a generation of mostly appealingly detailed settings with many colours, but with creativity, logical decision-making, and hard work, the developers of the games that lack a huge variety of colours could enhance the Playdate’s appeal [12] [13]. After all, there is nothing wrong with only black and white on some occasions.

Four monochrome title screens exclusively for the Playdate. Even though black and white is nice, perhaps there could be a successor to the Playdate that provides a library of games in enormous collages of colours if it becomes fairly successful. [13]

Where have you been all this time, mister? [12]

Speaking of colours, the best way I can describe the Playdate’s signature colour is a shade of yellow that is close to being considered light orange [15]. The overall design of the Playdate and its hinted library of only black and white games may make it look like a more obscure system from the 1990’s, but I bet the gaming vibes from those days could be enhanced with a splendid list of colours available for gamers with different tastes. After all, the Game Boy Colour had a steadily increasing library of colours and editions from late 1998 to 2001 [5] [19] [27]. I bet many of us remember the fourth and fifth generations of the iPod Nano from Apple were available in a wider range of colours back in the days of 2008 and 2009 [1]. Similar to how I remember witnessing the Nintendo DS Lite becoming available in a radiant variety of different colours in the late 2000s [2] [8], I would be interested to eventually see the Playdate in different colours, especially a stylish shade of pink.

I changed the colour of the Playdate twice in Adobe Photoshop to show two examples of how it can be sold in different colours to increase sales. [18]

According to another delighted tweet from Panic, the interest towards the Playdate has rapidly increased within twenty-four hours, despite some gamers feeling the complete opposite [16] [17]. Because of this and according to what it has to offer, I have a feeling that the Playdate will be the spiritual successor to the Game Boy that casually consists of monochrome vibes. But then again, perhaps, it may not seem to be enough for this generation's gaming standards. The thumbnail of the link to the Playdate website features a speech bubble that says “Hello” on the little thing’s screen [15]. Isn’t that cute? I and possibly many others are hoping that with enough approval after its official release date, the Playdate may also be available in a wider range of colours for different demographics and a left-handed edition for left-handed gamers. We will have to wait for the strange contraption of a gaming system to settle in the markets in 2020 [14], a year of the rat and the year that could begin a whole new era besides a new decade. Will the Playdate make the fidget spinner eat one of its blades out or will unsatisfactory sales make Panic…panic?

They've worked on it for forty-eight months
The thing's design is clickbait
The games so far are in monochrome
Look! It's the Playdate! [11]

References

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