Taria & Como and Black Gap Havoc

[ad_1] We have formally made it to the tip of Playdate Season Two, and what a season it has been. Regardless of having half the variety of titles as Season One, this newest spherical of weekly sport releases has made a a lot stronger impression (on me, a minimum of). If nothing else, it is simply been cool to expertise the brand new video games in actual time with different Playdate homeowners suddenly, which the staggered rollout of the console did not actually enable for with the primary season. In an e-mail forward of the ultimate launch, the staff at Panic famous that Season Two has offered 12,000 items.

It ends on a excessive observe with Taria & Como and Black Gap Havoc, the previous an emotional physics-based platformer and the latter an action-puzzle sport about blasting black holes with black holes. Whereas the weekly sport drops could also be over, we nonetheless have a number of weeks left of latest Blippo+ content material to assist fill the void (to not point out the reruns, as soon as all of it wraps up).

Taria & Como <img class="caas-img caas-lazy has-preview has-width" alt="A still from the Playdate game Taria & Como showing a girl swinging from a rope between platforms in a crumbling building" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/CDF_6huoVBAzYimfJU3_zw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU3Mw--/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2025-07/f7539bf0-5aa9-11f0-afe7-3a6c72da04e6" height="573" width="960"/> Popseed Studio Inc/JuVee Productions

Taria & Como would absolutely resonate irrespective of when it have been launched, however at a time within the US when households are being forcibly separated and entry to ample healthcare for tens of millions of individuals is below menace — a difficulty that comes on prime of the various present flaws of the system — it hits significantly onerous. The tempo of this puzzle platformer is comparatively chill, however the journey it takes you on is admittedly shifting.

You play as Taria, a woman whose mother and father have been kidnapped by the medtech firm and obvious authoritarian overlord, Toxtum Inc. Taria makes use of a few mobility aids to get round, together with a prosthetic leg that permits her to leap and a flying well being robotic, Package, that has a tether so she will be able to swing. However after a catastrophe in the future, Taria wakes up in a Toxtum facility to seek out that her youthful sister Como is gone, her prosthetic leg has been taken and changed with one that can't soar (the Toxtum-approved design), and her healthbot has been swapped with one which's programmed to do every part in its energy to limit her freedom. The next journey is Taria's quest to seek out her sister, it doesn't matter what it takes.

There's a lot to like about this sport, however there's one foolish little factor firstly that wants a shoutout: an sudden folder in Package's information labeled "Ferrets." Inside that folder? Two footage of ferrets carrying bonnets. As a longtime ferret proprietor, all I've to say is hell yeah. Anyway, the sport. Taria & Como is an excellent expertise from begin to end. Every chapter is preceded by a superbly illustrated crank-to-scroll comedian that strikes the story ahead, and the sport's distinctive mechanics general made this a very compelling play for me.

Since Taria cannot soar post-disaster, many of the sport is spent swinging (and arguing with the brand new, not-cool healthbot). Shifting round this manner requires some planning, because the platforms Taria can stand on are sometimes separated by partitions and different obstacles, and a few surfaces aren't secure for touchdown. You utilize the crank to purpose the bot at a grabbing level, and you may crank ahead/backward to reel Taria out and in. Swinging left and proper offers you momentum to launch your self farther so you possibly can cross greater gaps, and you may kick off of partitions. I had a lot enjoyable with this, and beloved how the design of all of it slowed me down and made me suppose a bit tougher.

As you progress, you may accumulate items from Como's diary in addition to Tuxtum information and codes to hijack the healthbot in your favor. The means by which you entry these information is one among my favourite components of the sport. There are kiosks scattered all through the map and so they all comprise a single minigame, which includes a turtle carrying a prime hat. Crank to make the turtle dance — and crank actually quick, so he cannot sustain, and the entire thing will glitch out and convey you to the system information. I used to be maybe too excited the primary time I encountered that, and loved it each time after that too.

Over the course of her journey, Taria runs into different individuals who have additionally been failed by the system: somebody who can not take the remedy they want as a result of it is not "firm accredited," somebody whose has been ready in useless to be reunited with their wheelchair, and so forth. All of the whereas, the healthbot talks all the way down to Taria with essentially the most painfully infantilizing rhetoric. The commentary right here is fairly blatant, and I am unable to say I did not recognize it as somebody who has been burned by the healthcare system many occasions over my lifetime of attempting to handle persistent sicknesses.

There have been just a few hiccups in my playthrough. The sport appeared to lag so much with each chapter change, briefly making me fear every time that it was going to crash. And my Playdate did not all the time reply correctly to sure actions, like while you need to simply go searching to survey Taria's setting. You have to dock the crank to try this, which in itself felt a bit disruptive, and I typically discovered myself simply launching Taria into the unknown to seek out out what was down there the onerous manner as a substitute. On a number of events once I did dock the crank, my Playdate did not register that I would completed so, particularly towards the tip of the sport, so I needed to repeatedly dock and undock it till it will definitely labored.

This stuff in the end did not detract a lot from my enjoyment of the sport, although. Taria & Como is unquestionably one among my favorites from this season. It is a gorgeous story, and it could not have come at a greater time.

Black Gap Havoc <img class="caas-img caas-lazy has-preview has-width" alt="A still from the game Black Hole Havoc showing a scene with space tourists in spacesuits surrounded by small black holes, while a cannon at the bottom fires more black holes at them" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/3GRiWWe3ym5JHzWT7sv9qQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU3NA--/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2025-07/1d1793f0-5aaa-11f0-beff-c24ae9a7dcd2" height="574" width="960"/><img alt="A still from the game Black Hole Havoc showing a scene with space tourists in spacesuits surrounded by small black holes, while a cannon at the bottom fires more black holes at them" src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/3GRiWWe3ym5JHzWT7sv9qQ--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTk2MDtoPTU3NA--/https://s.yimg.com/os/creatr-uploaded-images/2025-07/1d1793f0-5aaa-11f0-beff-c24ae9a7dcd2" height="574" width="960" class="caas-img has-width"/> Cosmic Bros

Years of taking part in the Neopets sport Faerie Bubbles has ready me for this second.

The story behind Black Gap Havoc is fairly simple to glean from the title — black holes are popping up in all places and threatening civilization, and you need to cease them. Fortunately, you and your pal are outfitted with simply the best tools to generate black holes of your individual, which you'll hearth from a cannon on the evil black holes to cancel them out. However they should be the best measurement or they will not successfully vanquish their targets. You purpose utilizing the D-pad and pump with the crank (or A/B) to regulate the scale of your individual black holes earlier than capturing them out. Hit a black gap with one other of the incorrect measurement and you may take harm.

Initially, all of it appears pretty simple. You may have purpose help for the primary few ranges, which gives a transparent visible indicator of the trail and measurement of your black holes. However after that, you are by yourself to line every part up proper (you possibly can flip purpose help again on within the settings, if want be). The additional you get, the extra obstacles are thrown your manner. The black holes begin rising in numbers; area vacationers present up and get in the best way of every part; the ceiling begins collapsing, pushing the black holes down onto you; blocks of ice will ship black holes bouncing again your manner when you hit them; bizarre big bugs. All of it goes from chill to extraordinarily unchill fairly quick.

The Story Mode is nice, with 80 ranges and enjoyable cutscenes (that are skippable when you're impatient, however they are surely value watching) to introduce the brand new areas you may should clear. That appears like quite a lot of ranges, however I used to be completely flying by way of them and was 40 ranges deep earlier than I knew what was occurring. There have been just a few video games this season that I've discovered to be tremendous addicting, however Black Gap Havoc form of takes the cake for me in that class. It simply ticks all the best packing containers. There's additionally an Arcade Mode if you wish to simply soar proper in and chase after larger and better scores.

From the artwork and animations to the music, developer Cosmic Bros actually knocked it out of the park with this one. Not a nasty approach to end a implausible season.