Cranky Cove
Cranky Cove is one of those games that just feels GOOD on the Playdate, like it could never exist on any other platform that didn’t have a crank on the side. It’ll also melt your brain from the tutorial onward, and continue pushing you to beyond what you thought you were capable of.
It can be described as… an action puzzle game? It feels like one of those games from the early Nintendo DS library that people would spend hundreds of hours playing and then forget about when they’re asked about their all-time favorite games, as if this “wasn’t the kind of game” that makes it onto those lists. It should!
So basically, the game screen has three rings: one with a variety of person types, one with tools, and one with various resources. Match up a person/tool/resource by lining them up by rotating the three rings to make SOMETHING, like bacon, or a diamond, or a fish. As the game goes on, you’ll combine those initial crafted items into higher-level items, like first you’ll craft a diamond, then you’ll turn it into a ring, or first you’ll harvest some wheat, and then you’ll make it into bread. Customers will approach the outside ring looking for a specific thing, and your job is to make it and rotate it to them to deliver it before they get mad and stomp off. Each level has a certain number of things you need to deliver before the time is up to get to the next level, and there are postcards that drop bits of story lore between the different stages.
I’ve been watching The Bear recently, and it has some similarities! There’s always a ton of components flying around and things that you’re being asked for, and it’s not until you force yourself to calm down and attack each request one at a time that you’ll be able to succeed. Do NOT get overwhelmed; you have more time than it seems! But the game does such a good job of throwing a lot at you at once that you’re always almost overwhelmed. In the words of a recent character from a famous cartoon, “Relax, guy!”
Most of the tools can be used by multiple people, and most of the people can create multiple resources, so it’s a constant juggling act of prep work and focus. Each tool and character looks different enough in the tiny icon on the 1-bit screen that it’s not an issue, but holding all the various recipes in your head can feel like a lot. Luckily, each creation feels logical – there’s no chicken-and-a-pulley combos here.
There are a ton of levels (and achievements!), but I don’t have the cognitive capacity or focus required to see them all. You might! And an update on July 28, 2025, added even MORE. This game could take over your entire mind, leaving you no time to worry about anything outside of it. And, man… sometimes that’s exactly what we need.
(Released February 25, 2025, on Catalog. Free demo available on Itch. Copy provided by developer.)