There is a company known as Panic, and they are making a handheld console called the Playdate. It's underpowered, gaudy, and pretty strange for a device made in 2021, and it easily fits in my pocket. That's why I want one so bad!

I have been lamenting the course of handheld gameplaying ever since the Switch got announced. After having a clamshell DS/3DS in my pocket for about 15 years, the Nintendo Switch is not quite what I'm looking for. The Switch is simply too much of a system for my pockets, or even my backpack. Too large, and even larger if you want to keep those analog sticks from getting bumped around, or bring along your pro controller and wall charger. Stumbling around with all that mess makes me feel like the intro to an As Seen on TV product.

What I really want is the simple design that I call the Switch DS. It’s still only one touchscreen, but we bring back that classic DS clamshell design. Got the big (OLED) touchscreen up top, and shove all the buttons and everything else to the bottom. Plenty of room down there without a second screen. Definitely have to go back to the circle pads instead of analog. Perhaps the bottom half could be detachable, then use it as a funky looking rectangular bluetooth controller! Okay, I doubt that last part, but the rest doesn’t sound too hard. It’s not going to happen though. Nintendo has a habit of pretending nothing happened between the SNES and Switch except for the Wii. So I have to look to another company to give me that handheld gaming I love, in a form factor that is truly portable.

I don’t want a simple, portable emulation machine though. The DS and 3DS didn’t become two of my favorite consoles simply because they are portable. I loved the DS especially for the mix of classic gaming and unique experiences that was published on the console. in 2004, when the original Nintendo DS launched, AAA game budgets were really taking off, and indie games weren’t really a thing on consoles yet. (Remember when Xbox Live had a file size limit, and it wasn’t even a whole GB?) The Nintendo DS was the place to go if you were a small developer with a strange idea. Then a few small studios had some relatively big hits and it was open season for developers on the DS. Thanks to this environment, we got tons of new and strange games from Nintendo and third party developers. It was the best console for unique games, and strange twists on old game concepts. There probably isn’t another console that has as many 3rd party developed games in my list of best games on the console.

Right now is also a good time to be playing video games. An overwhelming time even. There are tons of great and unique games available to more people than ever. File size limits mean nothing to a hardcore gamer. Indie games can be published to all major consoles, and can be as weird as the hardware will allow. That is the main thing I miss now from the DS era. The Nintendo DS hardware was an absurdly unique console, especially at the time. A touch screen and mic several years before the iPhone launched. Eventually one of the first consoles with WiFi support. The main oddity of two screens, and the best amount of buttons for a controller. The Nintendo DS was weird, so devs could get very weird with it.

Weird is where the Playdate comes into the picture. Playdate is selling me on it’s quirky design and aesthetics. I’m ready once again for the kind of unique games you get when you introduce some ridiculous novelty like accelerometers, a touch screen, or a handcrank. Anyone can come up with a gimmick though, it takes quality game developers to make it functional.

That is where Panic really has me on board with the Playdate. Several in depth videos have shown off the games and developers for the little yellow handheld, and I have deemed them definitely weird looking. The black and white pixel art aesthetic really speaks to me. Then there’s the fact that each of these games will be presented on a weekly basis instead of dumping them all on you like a pig about to binge from a trough.

Then there is Panic’s open aesthetic, which speaks to someone like me who enjoys softhacking my old consoles into yet another homebrew and emulation device. A free and open development system for the Playdate claims to be able to let anyone program for the console. That is also enticing to me as someone who is messing around with GB Studio to make little handheld games. This company really gets me.

There are also wacky accessories, like a pencil holder. I really don’t want or need a pen for my Playdate, and might be mistaken for a stylus by those who still expect the Playdate to have a touchscreen. In the end, it seems like every piece of the system has some idea or aesthetic behind it. Everything Panic is doing in relationship to the Playdate is just kooky and fun.

Playdate went on presale a few weeks ago, and yes, I did get in on the initial launch window of twenty thousand units. I am chilling comfortably around the 10k range with my pre-order. I hope these things sell well, because my existential game about lake fishing needs a home somewhere.