STARHACK
STARHACK is up there with the best puzzle games on Playdate like HEXA or Four Corners. Playdate games really only have three colors you can easily work with: black, white, and gray. Anything more than that (done with dithering and the like) is great for shading and mood, but not really feasible in a puzzle game where you need to quickly differentiate one movable block from another. In HEXA, you matched the three colors into hexagons. In Four Corners, you made big rectangles by having matching colors in each corner, far apart from each other on the screen. The goal in STARHACK is to make a solid line of one color from one side of the screen to the other, and you do this by battling your own color prejudices.
The line you create can be any one of the three colors, and it can turn this way or that, but it can’t loop back onto itself or have any offshoots. Longer lines score more! If you make too many of the black or white lines, you’ll be left with a screen full of gray and no way to turn that mess into a single line. This was my main problem during my first few games. The subdued gray blocks, to my uncultured brain, appeared as obstacles, when what they actually are is an opportunity to earn more points. If you don’t alternate your completed lines’ colors, you’ll be left with too many of one kind and not enough of another. It’s all about equality and taking turns, actually.
Unlike in the Shift games from Scenic Route, every color here is worth the same. And like in billiards, it’s important to always set up your next shot. You rotate 2x2 blocks around the screen, battling the timer as it gets closer and closer to the bottom of the screen. Every so often, more blocks appear at the top, pushing down towards a game over. There’s also a timer-less mode where more blocks are added every certain number of moves, and you can even start the game right from level 10 if you’re feeling froggy. (Like Tetris, it gets harder and faster the better you do.)
There are global leaderboards, and you’ll master your own style the more games you play. It’s just a tight, well-crafted puzzle game that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the best on the system. The Playdate’s limitations really let it be a haven for simple, old-school puzzle games, and even people who aren’t necessarily “puzzle gamers” are sure to find something that tickles their brain here.
(Released January 11, 2024, on Itch and March 26, 2024, on Catalog. Copy provided by developer.)