rewrite this title Playdate Season 2 review: Shadowgate PD and CatchaDiablos

Earlier in this Playdate season, I commented in a review that I “love a game that pisses me off a little.” Well, I may have shot myself in the foot with that one. Week four of Playdate Season Two brings us not one game that got my blood boiling, but two. CatchaDiablos is a roguelike with a unique movement mechanic that is both pretty cool and absolutely infuriating: running in circles with the crank. Shadowgate PD, on the other hand, is a remade-for-Playdate version of the classic point-and-click adventure that’s filled with tricky puzzles and hidden death traps.

This week is not for the faint of heart. Am I having fun? Yes. Am I suffering? Also yes. I haven’t yet had a chance to check out the latest update to Blippo+ because I’ve been fighting for my life with these two titles, but I sure am looking forward to turning my brain off soon and getting lost in that strange, strange world as a treat after all this.

CatchaDiablos

Amano, the developer behind CatchaDiablos, kind of has a knack for games featuring unusual methods of movement. Amano previously gave us Pullfrog Deluxe, a Tetris-like (that I highly recommend checking out) in which you rearrange falling blocks as a frog that pulls stuff around using its tongue. In CatchaDiablos, things are a bit more complicated. You play as something of a demon wrangler on an unnamed moon, rounding up “Diablos” that are scattered all over the place. Of course, as any witch knows, the way to do this is by drawing a chalk circle around the entity, so that’s exactly what you do. But, following the chalk line is also the only way you can move.

CatchaDiablos basically throws you right into the deep end. There is a very brief tutorial at the beginning to introduce you to the idea of traveling along an arc of pre-determined length, but then you’re on your own to take on swarms of the little devils. To make a circle, you aim using the crank and, once you’ve got the outline placed where you want it, you hold the A button to draw. You have to draw a complete circle around a monster (or a group of monsters, for more points) in order to catch it, but when it comes to moving, you can stop the drawing at any point and you’ll only move as far as the chalk extends.

Doing this while trying not to run into any Diablos — you take damage every time one touches you — is hard. It gets even harder when some of those Diablos start firing projectiles at you, and they’re surrounding you in greater and greater numbers. Everything descends into chaos and it becomes really difficult to try and think fast enough to outmaneuver the Diablos while also trying to run in haphazard half-circles by swinging the crank. And after some time has passed (three eyes at the top of the screen will open), a boss will show up to make things even worse. This is a roguelike, so once your health is depleted, you’re dead for good and have to start it all over.

I want to be clear: I really, really like this game. I found it hard to put down once I got going, and it’s another fun example of how the crank can be used in unexpected ways. It’s just kicking my ass. A lot. CatchaDiablos isn’t entirely unforgiving, though. As you catch monsters, a status bar on the right side of the screen will start to fill up, and you’ll eventually be rewarded with power-ups that can dramatically improve your odds. These come in the form of discs that will pop up in random places and bring perks like extra health spaces, the ability to draw a wider chalk circle and faster movement.

Roguelikes aren’t for everyone, but if you are into them, this is a great one for the Playdate. As a plus, there’s a “Diablory” bestiary of sorts where you can see drawings of every type of creature you’ve encountered so far. You can access this from the title menu, and it’s really worth flipping through after you’ve sunk a good deal of time into the game.

Shadowgate PD

“You seem to be wasting your time.” It wasn’t exactly a good sign for me when Shadowgate hit me with this message repeatedly in the first room of the damn game, where I found myself stuck for much longer than I’d like to admit and clicking on literally everything in my desperation. Anyone familiar with Shadowgate (1987) or the NES version (or the several other versions beyond that) might already have been braced for the difficult path forward from the get-go, but as someone who never played the original… let’s just say we got off to a rougher start than expected. Such a rough start that I was forced to do something I generally avoid at all costs: look for a guide online.

So, I must concede that while I have navigated the treacherous castle halls, I had a good amount of help in doing so, which makes it feel like much less of an accomplishment. Bruised ego aside, though, Shadowgate makes for a really cool game on the Playdate. You must explore the castle room by room, solving puzzles, picking up keys and items to access locked areas along the way, defeating enemies and generally just trying not to die. It’s a lesson in persistence, really.

There are many different ways to die, and much of the fun in games like these for me lies in keeping track of all those that I succumb to. There are the classic deaths, like plummeting after a floor suddenly drops away or getting incinerated by a dragon, and then the silly, unexpected ones, like tripping in the dark and falling flat on my face… fatally. (You really need to pay attention to your torch use). Thankfully, you’ll be revived in the room where you died so you don’t lose too much progress every time. The art and music really elevate the whole experience. The atmosphere is just right.