Black Hole Havoc
Black Hole Havoc feels like a Flash game from the early 2000s (complimentary). It stars these two featureless humanoid bros whose job it is to stop the new and seemingly random proliferation of black holes. They do this by making their own black holes and firing them into them. By matching the size, they can eliminate the “bad” black holes by some sort of negative energy faux science thing. There are silly “Old Internet” style cutscenes to explain this, and it feels almost like Henry Stickmin has been brought back to life, like I’m playing this game in-browser on eBaum’s World. There’s nothing with quite this vibe on the entirety of the Playdate.
The game itself plays like a Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move – one bro is in charge of aiming and shooting, while the other bro increases or decreases the size of the black hole (you don’t have to worry about which bro does what, but there are two different control schemes in case you want to crank or be purely button-based). Your goal is to make the size of your black hole fired from the cannon at the bottom of the screen match the size of the one you’re aiming at. Any difference in size between the two will deal damage to you, but matching them up perfectly will give you lots of points, including combo bonuses if done quickly. If they almost match, you’ll still get points but also lose a little health. BIG size differences will deal massive damage to your health bar, potentially ending your game with one misplaced black hole firing.
There’s an arcade mode with online leaderboards (one life to a finish), as well as a normal story mode with new gimmicks, cutscenes, and different level themes. It’s a pretty sturdy story length, with 80 levels to conquer! And the humor/style is just so unique, it’s almost like a playable cartoon. The game also eases you in with the guide lines on your shots and black hole size, with no time limit, before it starts piling on additional challenges as you improve and progress. It’s a very smooth learning curve, but the amount of damage that one missed shot can do keeps it challenging to the very end. Luckily, dying just means you get to start that level over until you get it right, so you won’t lose a lot of time or get too frustrated.
In the end, the gameplay is good and solid, but it’s the art style, unique animation, and sense of humor that really elevates this game above many other Playdate offerings. Games don’t really look like this on Playdate, or anywhere else for that matter, anymore. They should!
(Released July 3, 2025, as part of Season Two.)