All 24 of Playdate’s included games, reviewed

Enlarge / This is your last chance to turn back before finding out what all these Playdate game icons mean. (credit: Panic / Sam Machkovech)

If you're reading this article before perusing my full Playdate hardware review, stop right now. Click that link, read today's hardware-specific review, and get the context for why this portion has been broken out to its own protected silo.

Okay, cool. You know what you're in for: a full spoiler-rama of all 24 Playdate-exclusive games that come as part of the small, quirky system's $179 price. As an additional spoiler, these are listed in their unlock order, since Panic mandates that the games appear on owners' devices as part of a two-per-week download process. (The main system review explains why you might not want to know this stuff just yet, and it includes a spoiler-free breakdown of the system's included games.)

The number next to each game name designates its unlock week, not its rating. (Thus, if you want to spoil only the first four weeks of games, stop once you reach the "5"s.) Ars doesn't score game reviews, but since there are so many to pick through, I'm opting for a simple personal-opinion dichotomy: "thumbs-up," "shoulder shrug," and "thumbs-down." This applies to both a game's fun factor and its Playdate uniqueness. These are also miniature reviews, owing as much to the number of games as their general brevity. If you're looking for deep and massive games, Playdate is not for you.

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