Playdate’s back, baby! Season Two has landed at last, ready to pour forth with quirky goodness on the little yellow handheld. Expect two new games per week, delivered right to your Playdate until July 3. With the launch already felt, a pure good time awaits all of Season 2. Launched May 29 with an immediate contrast: “Fulcrum Defender,” a fast-paced arcade shooter from the creators of FTL and Into the Breach, and “Dig! Dig! Dino!,” a ridiculously charming digging adventure. Chalk and cheese, these games-but both are certified bangers.
Panic’s original Blippo+ is back again, and the Season Two premiere is a gloriously insane broadcast direct from the warped id of cable television. Be prepared for weirdness.
Fulcrum Defender
Subset Games
“Survive 10 minutes.” For the player, it was easy to imagine the tutorial fromFulcrum Defendernot so much as a guide and more as a gauntlet thrown down in challenge. A mind-blurring flash of stats on the screen, hordes of weirdo enemies, and weapon upgrades throughout the tech tree were all about to consume me even before the very first shot was ever fired. Bracing up for a brutal brain-melting challenge, I took the plunge.
Normal mode was instead the moment of reprieve.Fulcrum Defenderwasn?t the soul-crushing bullet hell I had expected. It was a tight and focused experience, a digital dojo in which I could really survive. I entered into this satisfying rhythm of dodging, shooting, and upgrading that was almost… relaxed.
At the stroke of ten, the gates of digital hell flew wide open, andFulcrum Defenderrevealed its true face. Survival was now out of the question; it was about enduring the apocalyptic onslaught. My zen expired; all a frantic, hold-on-for-dear-life fight. Good luck. You will need it.
Are you ready, Defender? You are the last hope in a wrathful arena. A never-ending horde tries to bash into the energy shield, each thump wearing away your defenses. Let too many slip through, and extinction shall be the end.
Your weapon is your only salvation. Spin the crank, lock your sights, and lay down a barrage with the D-pad. Some enemies fall with a single shot, but beware the hardened ones: they demand sustained assault from you and darkened form.
Wins are the payoff. Get the gaining from upgrading: missiles guided by the search for a target with deadly precision or a flail that sweeps the enemy ranks like a storm. Evolve your weapons, shield yourself, and become the Aureola of Fulcrum Defender!
Extremely distressing and addictive. One soothes the ears with the serene, deceptive calmness amid near-constant peril. As if survival were even a possibility, it becomes a tantalizing challenge that digs itself under your skin. Ten minutes was enough. Then the bolt tightened. Obsessively being pursued for that endless higher score. Imagine a world leaderboard, an endurance test for mankind, muting the other side of how utterly far one stretches to survive. I would gnaw for that competition, for that dizzying perspective.
loved it? Go behind the curtain! We sat down with Jay Ma, co-founder of Subset Games and mind behind Fulcrum Defender, to uncover where the game’s secrets lie in creation. Don’t miss the exclusive interview!
Dig! Dig! Dino!
Dom2D & Fáyer
Forget the spreadsheets; forget deadlines. Right now, my soul is knee-deep, trowel in hand, moving through prehistoric dirt in search of giant ghosts. That is the purest and most unadulterated happiness of working in Dig! Dig! Dino!- a primal awesome excavation where the intention is just to dig up the next fossil wonder. Getting blissfully zen while bone hunting requires no brain at all.
Dust off that brush and meet with a quirky cast of animal paleontologists and take part in an uncommon excursion! Uncover bizarre dinosaur fossils and enigma-laden artifacts that whisper of some prehistoric mystery. Assemble crystallized skeletons, scan them in the lab, and watch these majestic creatures animate. But beware: What you find will question the very history you have always known. These bones echo whispers of doom reverberating across time that elaborately attempt to thwart the Asteroid that changed their world forever. Something smells off here, and you are about to unearth the truth!
Picture this awkward situation-lower stakes than a limbo bar all the way down at ocean depths. With the trusty shovel in hand, a clanking drill, and a curious and crazy radar that hums when secrets are near, you’re off for an underground safari. Time is not your foe. It’s your friend. Dig, find, and dream. Watch out and guard your stamina, because everything counts: every chest-a-thumping shove, merry whirring of the drills-just depletes it. Run out once; the expedition halts. But worry not, brave one! Go back all you want to unveil every single piece of fossil buried under earth. It’s not a fight against time, it’s a casual trip along the path of prehistoric possibilities. So, grab your tools, inhale deeply, and brace yourself to unearth all the marvels that await you in this laid-back adventure.
This is not a game; it’s more like a sweet escape with a cute storyline. Hours will melt by as you get engrossed in a simple yet absorbing world. The best part? You can jump in and out anytime you wish to-do list, no mental gymnastics required. I was utterly charmed.
Blippo+
Panic
Blippo+: Where TV melts. This fever dream of “1-bit television experience,” included with Season Two games on Playdate for free, was a surprise release after it was first teased by Panic as a Steam title in December 2024. No more channels; think portals. Each one oozes hallucinatory programs, a descent into digital psychedelia. But the rabbit hole deepens with Femtofax, a bulletin board keeping alive patches of digital detritus: cryptic affirmations, small-town quarrels, and faintly whispered secrets from the stars. Panic calls it “Twilight Zone-esque,” but I think that does not do it justice. Imagine the Twilight Zone taken over by Tim & Eric, airing on Adult Swim past midnight. I don’t know what this is, yet I think I am hooked.
I am hooked already. Right now, I’m imagining my Playdate sitting permanently on my desk with Blippo+ burbling in the background, nonstop, filling days with wonderful distractions for the next 12 weeks. The ever-scrolling TV guide screen, with that theme song stuck in one’s head, is really mesmerizing. If you’re as interested as I am, here’s the lineup station’s online schedule, go check out what’s playingright at this moment.
Thanks for reading Playdate Season 2 review: Fulcrum Defender Dig! Dig! Dino! and Blippo+
