Playdate is a great indie puzzle machine

We live in a wonderful time for puzzle games. Seemingly everyone, from New York Times To LinkedInhas fun puzzles to play, so every morning I have plenty of options to accompany my first coffee of the day. But lately, most of my daily puzzle time comes from an unexpected source: playdates.

Panic’s little yellow handheld device is famous for calling it home Whimsical indie games you can’t find anywhere elsemany of which use a crank to play. But it’s also amassed a library of excellent puzzle games that can be played in quick bursts. It makes it easy to put Playdate in your pocket and grab it when you need to kill a few minutes; This is especially useful if you’re someone who, like me, tries hard to avoid reaching for your phone in those moments. Here are a few recent favorites.

He loves Same play date, LexGrid It looks like something from an alternate universe. It’s a bit like searching for a crossword with a crossword puzzle. In each level, you are given the task of finding a series of words in a grid of letters. The twist is that you get an idea of ​​the word you need to find, rather than the word itself. What makes matters more complicated is that the clues can mean different things; As you progress, you’ll discover different symbols, each of which has a specific meaning. One might ask you to find the opposite of the keyword, another might ask you to find a synonym. They’re kind of like word modifiers.

The codes get more complex and weird as you go, but the really hard part is that you don’t get actual instructions. Instead, you have to figure it all out on your own. This is the best and worst part of LexGrid; It’s incredible when you solve a particularly obscure puzzle, but there were plenty of times when I found myself struggling. Fortunately, the game generally gives you multiple puzzles to solve at once, so you can bounce back whenever you get stuck.

Switchmeanwhile, reminds me more of a lo-fi style Nintendo Box Boy series. You play as a little guy in a black and white world, and your entire job is to flip some switches to get to the next level, where you flip more switches. These levels are small in size and limited to a single screen, but are still (almost always) very satisfying to solve.

You have a very limited set of options available to you; Really, all you can do is press some boxes and switches and change color by entering strange portals. These are important because you can only walk on squares when your color is opposite. This simplicity in terms of movements and navigation means that the levels require a great deal of spatial awareness to solve and, for me at least, a great deal of experimentation. Fortunately, there’s a rewind button that encourages you to try things without any consequences.

I also love What time? Few games have such a quite descriptive title. It’s like a puzzle book where each page is one picture, and then you have to select the time of day. It could be a string of numbers, a deck of playing cards, or maybe even just a word. From there you have to know what time it is. There’s a hint system, but for the most part it’s just staring at the picture and trying to work out what it’s telling you. Entering the time means turning the Playdate lever to set the clock, which is fun, and the 50 included puzzles can be solved in any order you like. Which is good, because some of these are harsh. But again, this makes your eventual victory all the more satisfying.