Panic isn’t messing round with Playdate’s second season. After on the proper foot with Dig! Dig! Dino!, Fulcrum Defender and the shock rollout of Blippo+, the group has adopted by means of with one other sturdy pair of video games for week two. and are, just like the week one video games, polar opposites of one another: a somber, narrative-heavy post-apocalyptic journey and a nutty dirtbike recreation with practical(ish) physics.
In the event you’re in search of any throughline between them, I’ve acquired you. It is squirrels. You will see. (Alright I could also be reaching, however as each a journalist and a wildlife rehabilitator who’s presently elevating orphaned squirrels, simply let me have this one).
This week additionally introduced an replace for the “intergalactic TV service,” Blippo+, and it seems like we’ll be getting new content material for a while to return. The Season Two group wrote in an electronic mail accompanying the most recent drop that “Blippo+ itself goes to replace each week for eleven (!) weeks, each Thursday at 10AM PT [1PM ET].” As soon as it is throughout, there might be reruns. We’ll get a countdown for that on week 12, the group says. Now, let’s get into the brand new video games.
The Whiteout
Minutes into taking part in Scenic Route Software program’s The Whiteout, I turned sure that this was going to be one other recreation that might make me cry. The narrative tone is heavy, the ambiance is bleak and completely nothing about it means that something goes to get higher… ever. It feels hopeless from the beginning, however it’s a must to hold trudging alongside anyway. (In the event you’ve ever learn The Street, the sensation ought to be acquainted). After I lastly reached the tip, although, I wasn’t in tears — I used to be completely speechless, in a “mouth hanging open, empty inside” form of manner. It is beautiful.
The Whiteout is narrative pushed, choosing up in a barren post-apocalyptic model of the US wherein a snowstorm started one spring and by no means stopped. The occasions are set in present occasions — the onset of the snow occurred in spring 2025 — giving it an eerie, near residence form of high quality. Every thing about it seems like one thing that may occur. As you play by means of its 5 chapters, the story is instructed by means of the playable character’s musings concerning the previous and current. It is all superbly written, with quite a few sentimental moments that felt genuinely heartbreaking.
It did handle to get just a few smiles out of me although; the character makes cynical quips right here and there, and a nefarious bunch referred to as The Woodpeckers involves be recognized merely as “the ‘peckers,” which acquired me each time. And the looks of a squirrel simply form of hanging out within the background served as a refreshing signal of life amid the desolation. (I puzzled whereas taking part in if the squirrel was a checkpoint, however I would need to undergo all of it once more to determine that out for positive.)
The gameplay entails largely linear exploration, looking for assets, fixing puzzles and making selections about your subsequent strikes. There’s not a lot in the best way of motion, and also you spend many of the recreation simply strolling with a slowness that’s at occasions maddening. However, whereas I positively would have appreciated the choice to hurry up even slightly (a delicate jog, possibly?), the lethargy helps for example how laborious it could be to hold on in such circumstances. Backtracking a number of occasions to get all of the assets you’ll want to progress in some areas is painfully tedious, so the reduction while you do full the motion is actual. Endurance is vital on this recreation.
I worry some folks will quit on this title early due to the tempo, and I implore you not to do this. It is value each minute. It is also value it to play with headphones, as advisable, to actually let your self be immersed within the setting. I stayed up half the evening taking part in and acquired up early the following morning to complete it, and I am nonetheless desirous about the ending I got here to. There are a number of endings in response to the creators, so I am going to probably dive again in for an additional go as soon as I’ve had extra time to digest. The Whiteout is definitely essentially the most memorable recreation of each Playdate seasons thus far.
Wheelsprung
So, you performed The Whiteout and now you are depressed. The Playdate group appears to have ready for this, as a result of the opposite recreation that dropped this week with the second launch of Season Two could as properly be the antidote. Wheelsprung is cute, charming and foolish as hell. It is also a reasonably difficult (and irritating) physics recreation, however I do love a recreation that pisses me off slightly.
The artwork of Wheelsprung is immediately recognizable as that of Julie Bjørnskov, one of many creators of and Escape the Arcade, which is to say it is oozing whimsy. Bjørnskov made this one with programmer Nino van Hooff. The story is fairly easy: a household with a toddler who loves nuts — like, sufficient to scatter them in all places in pleasure — has briefly left their residence unattended, and you are a squirrel geared up with an absurdly versatile dirtbike who’s on a mission to gather as many nuts as potential of their absence. There are practically three dozen ranges to finish, every of them an impediment course you have to determine navigate on the two-wheeler. There’s additionally a to create your personal tracks.
The squirrel’s dirtbike is principally a Dr. Seuss contraption, and it is able to some fairly spectacular maneuvers. Lean in both path utilizing the D-pad and it will probably do a wheelie. Hit the down arrow and it will immediately flip you to face the opposite manner. However you have to all the time take heed to your stability. Permitting the squirrel’s helmet to a lot as faucet an impediment will end in a run-ending wipeout, as in fact will all-out crashing. This recreation forces you to get extraordinarily inventive to traverse sophisticated tracks. There is a leaderboard and ideally you wish to end with the quickest time potential, however for a handful of ranges my most important objective at first was simply determining make it to the tip in any respect.
I do not wish to give away too many hints about excel on this recreation, however I positive have spent a shocking period of time driving my bike the other way up dangling from one wheel, or rocking the bike forwards and backwards to creep ahead like an inchworm. It’s completely ridiculous, and many (considerably rage-inducing) enjoyable.
