Crank it yo! Master the waves and hang ten in Whitewater Wipeout! This wave crashing, high score chasing, crank-tastic experience is inspired by the classic California Games. Experience surfing in an innovative new way while performing sick tricks using the Playdate's unique crank. Perform daring 360’', gnarly double 360s all while avoiding the shark. Will you rise in the ranks of the global leaderboards or fall prey to the wave?
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I’m not sure if it’s better or worse that Panic decided to start with a pretty weak title for the Playdate’s first free season 1 game. If you remember those McDonalds happy meal toys that were little handheld digital soccer goalie games in the late 2000s, Whitewater Wipeout very much reminds me of them. They’re both small, short, sports based games that rely on providing 1-5 minute sessions rather than a prolonged experience. I don’t want to get ahead of myself, as I am writing this review after having already played a handful of other Playdate games, but I think a couple of other titles do this so much better and more addictively than WW does.
Unlike Root Bear, Snak, (two Playdate games I’ll review soon) and even the soccer McDonalds toy, Whitewater Wipeout is less about precision practice and random chances resulting in strategy re-evaluations and more about doing one single thing the exact same every single time. I’ll give small props that it relies solely on the console’s crank, but finding the sweet spot in how many times you can spin around in a circle before you wipeout from the waves or landing upside down gets old fast. It’s a game about performing simple surfing tricks as you flee an approaching wave, so why can I only do one move? Why would I want to play the game any more than to understand what it’s about when that entails me having to sustain a single time-limit unbound run by flipping over and over and over with no breakup of monotony or increasing of stakes. Whitewater Wipeout isn’t bad because the mechanics aren’t sound or premise uninteresting. It’s bad because it offers little to latch onto past its elevator pitch and doesn’t stand out from other five minute pick-up-and-play games.
Unlike Root Bear, Snak, (two Playdate games I’ll review soon) and even the soccer McDonalds toy, Whitewater Wipeout is less about precision practice and random chances resulting in strategy re-evaluations and more about doing one single thing the exact same every single time. I’ll give small props that it relies solely on the console’s crank, but finding the sweet spot in how many times you can spin around in a circle before you wipeout from the waves or landing upside down gets old fast. It’s a game about performing simple surfing tricks as you flee an approaching wave, so why can I only do one move? Why would I want to play the game any more than to understand what it’s about when that entails me having to sustain a single time-limit unbound run by flipping over and over and over with no breakup of monotony or increasing of stakes. Whitewater Wipeout isn’t bad because the mechanics aren’t sound or premise uninteresting. It’s bad because it offers little to latch onto past its elevator pitch and doesn’t stand out from other five minute pick-up-and-play games.
I kinda thought I would get bored of this quickly but I keep finding myself coming back to it. Using the crank to control the board feels good and it's satisfyingly easy to play but hard to master.
Ein guter erster Titel fürs Playdate um mit der Kurbel vertraut zu werden. Wenn man erstmal den Dreh raus hat, dann fühlt sich das Surfen per Kurbel echt super an.
This might be controversial but... I don't think I like this. It's a fine minigame. It's a decent way to show off the Playdate crank out of the box I suppose. I just don't feel like there's a lot here. I gave it a lot of tries and even once I figured out how to really pick up speed it didn't feel like there was much to it. It's okay.
Simple. Great art.
So I bought a Playdate, a small handheld console with only two buttons, a D-pad, a monochrome screen, and an analog crank. Yes that's right, a crank. As part of the purchase, the developers give two free games per week as part of the first "season" of content, with Whitewater Wipeout being one of the first two games. You play as a surfer with three attempts to get the best high score on each run. There's no other content than that; it's an arcade-esque experience with only one mode, making the game very short but sweet. To angle your surfer into the waves you use the aforementioned crank. I will admit the controls are a bit unintuitive at first, as its the angle of the crank that directly corresponds to your player angle, not the relative angle. Once you get the hang of it though, the game is quite fun. The graphics are really nice and I think it is a good choice to include as part of the first week's batch, as it showcases a unique idea that only this system can do. The A and B buttons aren't even used at all. However, it's a very short game, and if you aren't terribly interested in beating your high score then it won't hold your attention for very long.