Playdate’s second season is off to a great (and very weird) start
- The Playdate’s second season has started, featuring a dozen games released over six weeks.
- The entire collection will be available for $39, with two new games dropping each week.
- The first game in the season is Fulcrum Defender, a modern take on Asteroids that utilizes the crank to rotate and aim shots.
- Fulcrum Defender has a roguelike element, where players can unlock random upgrades like new weapons or a larger spread for their ship.
A lot of games have been released for the Playdate since it launched in 2022, as a quick browse of itch.io or the Catalog shop will attest. But still, there’s something unique about the handheld’s seasonal format, which just kicked off its second iteration. When it first launched, the Playdate came with 24 games from notable indie developers that were steadily released on a weekly cadence, making a perfect introduction to the little yellow device and its crank. Now, a few years later, we finally have season 2, and it’s off to a solid start – and it even includes a bizarre mystery.
The new season runs for the next six weeks and totals a dozen games, two of which will drop each week. The entire collection will run you $39. To start, we have a pair of very different games. Fulcrum Defender, from FTL: Faster Than Light developer Subset Games, is sort of like a modern take on Asteroids. You control a little ship in the middle and fire guns at little squares flying toward you. The twist is that you use the crank to rotate the ship around and aim your shots. There’s also something of a roguelike element, where you steadily unlock random upgrades like new weapons or a larger spread for y …
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