Latest news with #Taria&Como

Engadget
06-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Engadget
Playdate Season 2 review: Taria & Como and Black Hole Havoc
We've officially made it to the end of Playdate Season Two, and what a season it's been. Despite having half the number of titles as Season One, this latest round of weekly game releases has made a much stronger impression (on me, at least). If nothing else, it's just been cool to experience the new games in real time with other Playdate owners all at once, which the staggered rollout of the console didn't really allow for with the first season. In an email ahead of the final release, the team at Panic noted that Season Two has sold 12,000 units. It ends on a high note with Taria & Como and Black Hole Havoc , the former an emotional physics-based platformer and the latter an action-puzzle game about blasting black holes with black holes. While the weekly game drops may be over, we still have several weeks left of new Blippo+ content to help fill the void (not to mention the reruns, once it all wraps up). Popseed Studio Inc/JuVee Productions Taria & Como would surely resonate no matter when it were released, but at a time in the US when families are being forcibly separated and access to adequate healthcare for millions of people is under threat — an issue that comes on top of the many existing flaws of the system — it hits particularly hard. The pace of this puzzle platformer is relatively chill, but the journey it takes you on is really moving. You play as Taria, a girl whose parents have been kidnapped by the medtech company and apparent authoritarian overlord, Toxtum Inc. Taria uses a couple of mobility aids to get around, including a prosthetic leg that allows her to jump and a flying health robot, Kit, that has a tether so she can swing. But after a disaster one day, Taria wakes up in a Toxtum facility to find that her younger sister Como is gone, her prosthetic leg has been taken and replaced with one that cannot jump (the Toxtum-approved design), and her healthbot has been swapped with one that's programmed to do everything in its power to restrict her freedom. The subsequent adventure is Taria's quest to find her sister, no matter what it takes. There is a lot to love about this game, but there's one silly little thing at the beginning that needs a shoutout: an unexpected folder in Kit's files labeled "Ferrets." Inside that folder? Two pictures of ferrets wearing bonnets. As a longtime ferret owner, all I have to say is hell yeah . Anyway, the game. Taria & Como is a wonderful experience from start to finish. Each chapter is preceded by a beautifully illustrated crank-to-scroll comic that moves the story forward, and the game's unique mechanics overall made this a really compelling play for me. Since Taria can't jump post-disaster, most of the game is spent swinging (and arguing with the new, not-cool healthbot). Moving around this way requires some planning, as the platforms Taria can stand on are often separated by walls and other obstacles, and some surfaces aren't safe for landing. You use the crank to aim the bot at a grabbing point, and you can crank forward/backward to reel Taria in and out. Swinging left and right will give you momentum to launch yourself farther so you can cross bigger gaps, and you can kick off of walls. I had so much fun with this, and loved how the design of it all slowed me down and made me think a little harder. As you progress, you'll collect pieces from Como's diary as well as Tuxtum files and codes to hijack the healthbot in your favor. The means by which you access these files is one of my favorite parts of the game. There are kiosks scattered throughout the map and they all contain a single minigame, which features a turtle wearing a top hat. Crank to make the turtle dance — and crank really fast, so he can't keep up, and the whole thing will glitch out and bring you to the system files. I was perhaps too excited the first time I encountered that, and enjoyed it every time after that too. Over the course of her adventure, Taria runs into other people who have also been failed by the system: someone who can no longer take the medication they need because it isn't "company approved," someone whose has been waiting in vain to be reunited with their wheelchair, etc. All the while, the healthbot talks down to Taria with the most painfully infantilizing rhetoric. The commentary here is pretty blatant, and I can't say I didn't appreciate it as someone who has been burned by the healthcare system many times over my lifetime of trying to manage chronic illnesses. There were a few hiccups in my playthrough. The game seemed to lag a lot with every chapter change, briefly making me worry each time that it was going to crash. And my Playdate didn't always respond properly to certain actions, like when you want to just look around to survey Taria's environment. You need to dock the crank to do that, which in itself felt a little disruptive, and I often found myself just launching Taria into the unknown to find out what was down there the hard way instead. On several occasions when I did dock the crank, my Playdate didn't register that I'd done so, especially toward the end of the game, so I had to repeatedly dock and undock it until it eventually worked. These things ultimately didn't detract much from my enjoyment of the game, though. Taria & Como is definitely one of my favorites from this season. It's a beautiful story, and it couldn't have come at a better time. Years of playing the Neopets game Faerie Bubbles has prepared me for this moment. The story behind Black Hole Havoc is pretty easy to glean from the title — black holes are popping up everywhere and threatening civilization, and you have to stop them. Thankfully, you and your pal are equipped with just the right equipment to generate black holes of your own, which you can fire from a cannon at the evil black holes to cancel them out. But they have to be the right size or they won't effectively vanquish their targets. You aim using the D-pad and pump with the crank (or A/B) to adjust the size of your own black holes before shooting them out. Hit a black hole with another of the wrong size and you'll take damage. Initially, it all seems fairly easy. You'll have aim assist for the first few levels, which provides a clear visual indicator of the path and size of your black holes. But after that, you're on your own to line everything up right (you can turn aim assist back on in the settings, if need be). The further you get, the more obstacles are thrown your way. The black holes start growing in numbers; space tourists show up and get in the way of everything; the ceiling starts collapsing, pushing the black holes down onto you; blocks of ice will send black holes bouncing back your way if you hit them; weird giant bugs. It all goes from chill to extremely un chill pretty fast. The Story Mode is great, with 80 levels and fun cutscenes (which are skippable if you're impatient, but they really are worth watching) to introduce the new areas you'll have to clear. That sounds like a lot of levels, but I was absolutely flying through them and was 40 levels deep before I knew what was happening. There have been a few games this season that I've found to be super addicting, but Black Hole Havoc kind of takes the cake for me in that category. It just ticks all the right boxes. There's also an Arcade Mode if you want to just jump right in and chase after higher and higher scores. From the art and animations to the music, developer Cosmic Bros really knocked it out of the park with this one. Not a bad way to finish a fantastic season.
Yahoo
17-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Playdate Season Two includes an action arcade game from Into The Breach studio Subset
The long-awaited second season of weekly Playdate game drops commences on May 29. During a showcase on Thursday, Panic revealed that players will get two fresh games on their console every seven days for six weeks. It's also promising a surprise of some kind. Unlike the first season of games that's included with every Playdate, you'll need to pay extra for this one. Playdate Season Two will run you $39. You can pre-order now through the Playdate Catalog. Part of the allure of Playdate's seasons is that the games are a bit of a mystery, so you never quite know what you're going to get in your weekly drops. To that end, Panic didn't go super in depth into all 12 during the showcase, instead opting to shine a spotlight on four of them. One of the games will be of particular interest to FTL: Faster Than Light and Into The Breach fans. Subset Games, the studio behind those hits, has made a brand new game for the Playdate. It's an arcade action game called Fulcrum Defender. You'll use the crank to aim and shoot at waves of enemies as you try to survive. Subset co-founder Jay Ma says the enemies will progressively become more complex and you'll need to have good aim and choose upgrades wisely to keep your run going. Antonio "Fáyer" Uribe, one of the folks behind last year's well-received Arco (which Panic published), teamed up with Flinthook designer Dom2D to make Dig! Dig! Dino!. This is a relaxing puzzle game in which you'll be digging for dinosaur bones and treasure. Sell the booty and you can unlock upgrades to help you dig deeper for more bones and artifacts. The maker of Playdate titles Life's Too Short and Time From Earth is back with another game that will be part of Season Two. It's a remake of the classic point-and-click adventure Shadowgate for the diminutive console. Pixel Ghost says it took the best parts of the previous versions to make Shadowgate PD, which includes new music, art and features. The fourth game that was featured in the showcase is Taria & Como, a puzzle platformer that's based around swinging instead of jumping (that reminds me a little of the wonderful Grapple Dogs). You'll take on the role of Taria, a girl with a prosthetic leg who sets out to find her sister, Como. JuVee Productions, Viola Davis' production company, collaborated with Popseed Studio on this project. "A few years ago, my friend's son was diagnosed with Tourette's, and I began to think about what sort of stories he'd grow up with. As a disabled person, I've seen the same tropes recycled — pity case, inspiration, disability as a superpower, magical cures," Taria & Como creator Kip Henderson said in a statement. "Disability is complex, and we're more than the inspirational fodder for able-bodied people. Taria & Como is the story I wish I had growing up." In addition to the Playdate Season Two details, Panic revealed a new cover for the console to go alongside the purple, blue and pizza ones. This one is yellow to match the hardware and it costs $34. The price of the console itself recently jumped up to $229, but you might be able to snag an official refurbished model for the system's original price of $179.