Pahtkest!
Pahtkest! feels like a game I found loaded up on an Eastern European microcomputer from the 80s when I bought it at a flea market, not knowing if it would even work (complimentary). It’s a little Plants vs. Zombies and a bit of Zoo Keeper, and the whole game is in its own language like I’m trying to decipher the Tunic instruction manual. You CAN translate it (and there are some on the Playdate Squad Discord that have, I believe), but it’s not necessary to do so in order to enjoy the game. This is great for me, because I am NOT of the mind right now where I will be translating a made up language into English just so I can enjoy something. Subs or dubs for me right now, thank you!
The actual game has you in the top left corner with a gun facing off against a row of monsters all ready to take turns on you. The bottom half of the screen is a huge randomized grid of creatures, and you draw a line to connect groups of the same creature. Match three bats and it does two damage to the bat at the top of the screen, or match five snakes to do four damage to the snake. They’ll hit you in between each turn, and each one you defeat restores some health. See how long you can go! Each creature you defeat gives you one point, and there’s a global leaderboard.
One fun quirk is that when you defeat one of the creatures, all of that icon will disappear from the screen. Normally, the blocky little pixel animals slide to the left and fill in the blank spaces as matches are made, but when a bunch disappear like this, it will leave large empty zones. You can connect the empty spots just like you do to the animals to slide everything over like a big Bejeweled match, but the animals at the top will keep whacking away at you as you waste a turn clearing out the blank spaces. Powerdive is great at finding tiny little twists like this that can completely transform the flow of the game. No one would think twice if matches just always filled in the blank zones, but why not one more wrinkle of challenge?
When this game first came out, the Discord folks that worked out the translation of this made-up, magical language were all talking to each other in it, and I was so worried that if I wasn’t willing or able to translate it myself, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the game. Like the title, Pahtkest!… what does that even mean? There are dozens (dozens!) that know the answer, but I’m of the Frodo mindset: “Alright then, keep your secrets.” Like playing Metal Gear on my MSX in the original Japanese, it’s fun to enjoy the gameplay without quite “getting” everything around it. Make matches, shoot monsters, get gold. It’s that simple, and it’s good!
(Released August 16, 2024, on Itch and December 10, 2024, on Catalog. Copy provided by developer.)