The joys of subs and seasons

New Playdate games, Apple Arcade updates, and remembering Micro Machines

Hello there! Alice is off sick this week so I’m flying solo, but there’s plenty to talk about. It’s time to dust off your Playdate if you have one, or considering jumping in if you don’t. And it’s been a big month for Apple Arcade, so I’ve tested out every new addition.

For Retro Esoterica I’m looking back at Micro Machines, mostly because of a rabbit hole I’ve been down lately. I’d been revisiting the originals because they’re some of my favourite two-player racers, and I was trying to track down whether there was a modern equivalent. The most recent Micro Machines was very disappointing, but it turned out Codemasters made a spiritual successor in 2014. I fired up Steam and … it has been delisted. EA wiped it from existence in March this year, no reason given. Good thing it can’t get its hands on my old cartridges.

Playdate renewed for another season

By Tim

I’ve written before about my fondness for Playdate, the tiny yellow indie console featuring an analogue crank you can use to play small black and white games. But while I’ve bought plenty of games for it and play them from time to time, the system’s never been as fun as it was in the weeks immediately after I got it.

That’s because Playdate’s entire sales pitch is based on its “season” of games; 24 interesting playable gifts that arrive two a week for three months after you turn it on for the first time. It’s a brilliant gimmick unlike anything you can find on other consoles, and it kept me using the system solidly for those three months, discovering the mysteries of the new games (which could be literally anything, from turn-based strategy campaigns to goofy visual novels) while continuing to revisit my favorite ones.

And that’s why it’s so exciting that finally, two years after the console’s release, the Playdate creators at Panic are launching a second season next month. New players will still get the original season included when they buy a console (it’s currently $360 for the console and the 24 games), but existing owners can pay $60 for a new slate of 12 games, which will again arrive two a week.

Personally I think I’d prefer if Panic revealed nothing about these games, but I get the need to market the wares, and it’s struck a good balance by only showing the names of the twelve games, and giving a little detail about four of them. Including:

• Fulcrum Defender, a Vampire-Survivors-like from one of the main developers behind Into the Breach and FTL.

• Dig Dig Dino, (pictured) a casual puzzle loop game about recovering and piecing together old skeletons.

• Taria & Como, a physics platformer with creative use of the crank and a very personal narrative.

• Shadowgate PD, an official remake of the classic NES point-and-click, with all new music and visuals.

The Playdate has been an unqualified success. The original idea was that it would simply play a dozen games delivered in a season, but its popularity led to that number being doubled, and then dozens more games being created for side-loading. An official on-device store has added more than 250 games, making more than a million dollars for devs. But I’m so glad Panic is returning to the season method of game delivery, and I hope it becomes a yearly thing.

What to play

• Grand Theft Auto V has returned to the Game Pass library, although at 12 years old and with more than 200 million copies sold it’s hard to imagine many people who don’t have access to it already. Also newly added are SpongeBob SquarePants: The Patrick Star Game and Crime Scene Cleaner, plus a brand new release in Witch Beam’s magical puzzler Tempopo (pictured), which is quite a different vibe to its previous game Unpacking. Also keep your eyes peeled for much-anticipated RPG Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, due to hit the service this week.

• It’s been a pretty quiet week for big releases, and I didn’t really play anything new to recommend over the holidays, but there are still interesting things on the calendar this week. Indiana Jones has made its way to PS5 if you missed it on Xbox and PC, and it’s one of my favourite games from last year. There’s also a remaster for the first two Lunar games, which were incredible RPGs for Sega’s Mega CD that I will absolute revisit once the price comes down ($70?!). And I also have my eye on Bionic Bay, a cool-looking PC puzzle platformer that looks like an ideal Steam Deck adventure.

Stay weird, Apple Arcade

By Tim

Apple Arcade continues to be good value, adding interesting games to the service every month. It’s especially worthwhile if you have multiple people in your household using Apple devices; as an alternative to buying games and systems for your kids, $10 per month for a family of users on whatever devices is a steal. So I thought I’d check in on the service by spending some time with April’s games.

Puffies: This is the standout of the month, though it’s simple and silly. In each level you have to open a pack of themed stickers, then place them in the correct spots on a sheet. It’s kind of like a jigsaw puzzle and kind of like a nostalgic return to the 90s sticker era, except the end result is a complete and unpeeled sheet. It’s a meditative good time, and the sticker designs are all adorable.

The Game of Life 2+: This complex and overly-animated digital board game is surprisingly fun and can be played together on the one screen. Each turn players make decisions about their life, like whether to go to university, or choosing between picking up odd jobs or throwing a party. The goal is to amass cash, but you also get bonuses for how rich your relationships, knowledge and assets are.

SpaceInvaders InfinityGene EVO: Despite the deranged name, Taito’s latest version of its finest classic is a satisfying and stylish shooter that’s a touch on the indecipherable side, but can be played just by sliding your thumb left and right. Every time you clear a stage you move either left or right along an evolutionary path, adding features and bonuses that switch up the game.

Sesame Street Mecha Builders+: I’m not really the target market for this one, and if you’ve ever played a Lego Duplo or Crayola game from the App Store you’ll know exactly what to expect here. Still, if your little one likes Elmo and Cookie Monster and doesn’t mind some simple puzzles and toys (some of them purely creative, some basic maths and coding), it seems perfectly cute and fine.

Roller Coaster Tycoon Classic+: This is one that begs to be played on a Mac rather than a touchscreen, though it did have some rough edges when I tested it out. It’s also not exactly like the original PC game, but is rather a retro-style remake with elements of the original and its sequel. I had some fun building coasters and jacking up the price of burgers, though charm is definitely missing.

Katamari Damacy Rolling Live: If you’ve played a previous Katamari it will come as no surprise to hear this is absolute lunacy in the best way. The King of All Cosmos has heard about livestreaming, and he wants you (the Prince) to entertain the masses by rolling a huge ball around and collecting everything. It feels like a lost PS2 game that saw the future. A proper controller is a must.

Retro Esoterica

by Tim

Long before Rocket League and various attempts to make a decent playable Hot Wheels experience, the ultimate small-scale competitive racer was Micro Machines.

British studio Codemasters had developed a prototype beach buggy game, which led to a request from Galoob to create something based on its line of tiny vehicle toys. But despite the potential of that scenario to end in a fairly uninspired game (and despite a lawsuit from Nintendo which was not impressed with the unlicensed and reverse-engineered game), Codemasters ended up creating one of the great local multiplayer experiences of all time.

The original 1991 Micro Machines is a top-down racer where you pilot various vehicles on household-inspired tracks; speedboats in the bath, F1 across the breakfast table, and so on. I prefer the more measured handling and speed of the original NES version, but it was ported to essentially every 90s machine with better graphics and greater differences between vehicles. You can play against the AI, but the best and most chaotic experience requires two humans. Rather than simply racing around the track, you’re battling to get far enough ahead of your opponent that the screen can no longer contain both of you and they get left behind. This leads to many desperate short-cut attempts that may end in glory, but more often in falling off a table.

In 1994 a sequel went further. Thanks to a special cartridge with two controller ports built in, and a new mode that let two players drive per controller, you could get up to 8 players locally on the Mega Drive. Along with many more vehicles and new stages, this made Micro Machines 2 an ultimate party game, and I remember renting it consistently despite never actually seeing it in stores. A 1996 update to the game added even more content, as well as a track creator, while a new entry in 1997 (Micro Machines V3) took the series into the third dimension with surprising success.

Unfortunately a series of entries in the 2000s are more or less deplorable, and the games have never recaptured the local multiplayer goodness of the original. These days Micro Machines is owned by Hasbro, and Codemasters is owned by EA, which will probably give you a sense of how the series is going. The latest game is an online-only Overwatch-style lootbox-fest featuring Nerf and Hungry Hungry Hippos, whereas the closest thing we had to a modern take on the old-school games (a spiritual successor from Codemasters called Toybox Turbos) was recently delisted from digital stores.