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Two Playdate Games Serve Up Gouda Vibes and Spooky Tales
Returning to the Playdate feels like catching up with an old friend, and this reunion was perfectly seasoned with two games that are, quite literally, about cheese. After a break following the eccentric delights of Season Two and the chaotic fun of Blippo+, picking up the yellow console this week introduced me to Cheese 'n Crackers and Say When!—two Catalog titles united by a dairy theme but offering wildly different experiences.The first is a surprisingly zen game of charcuterie assembly, where you build the perfect snack platter for a rotating lineup of clients like Speed Daters and Grandma's Bridge Club, each with their own distinct tastes and dietary needs. It’s a game of intuitive pairing that hides surprising strategic depth; a dedicated community has even created a Cheese 'n Crackers Compatibility Spreadsheet, a sprawling document for culinary optimization that hardcore players use to chase high scores, though a ticking freshness timer keeps you from getting too bogged down in the data.Then there's Say When!, which swaps tranquility for pure tension. Adopting a Root Beer Tapper-like structure, it has you frantically grating cheese for a stream of restaurant patrons who, despite the game's name, never actually say 'when.' You must instead watch for subtle visual cues—a twitching mustache, a raised eyebrow—to serve the perfect amount before a looming satisfaction meter gets you fired. With shift modifiers and chaotic mini-games, like performing the Heimlich maneuver on a choking customer mid-grate, it delivers that frantic, one-more-try energy that is the Playdate's signature.As a bonus, completely unrelated to cheese, I discovered Ware-wolf Campfire Stories on itch. io.This free anthology from 15 development teams packs 14 spooky micro-games into one package, framed as tales told by kids around a campfire. It's a brilliant sampler of the Playdate's indie scene, offering quick-hit experiences from ghostly pursuits to skeleton battles, each one a creative showcase for the console's versatility and a perfect gateway to discovering new favorite developers. This little handheld remains a treasure chest of quirky, experimental games that larger platforms would never risk, proving that the most memorable gaming moments often come in small, yellow packages.
#Playdate
#handheld gaming
#indie games
#cheese games
#spooky games
#featured
