The Morning After: Our verdict on Playdate, the console with a crank

After all that waiting, Senior Editor Jessica Conditt finally got her hands on Playdate. From the makers of Firewatch and meme-friendly Untitled Goose Game, it’s a petite portable console that marries the familiarity of the GameBoy with the spirit of indie game innovation. That last bit might sound like hollow platitudes, but well, it’s true.

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Engadget

This isn’t a console for FPS, teraflops or anything MMO, it’s like a pixel-filled brainstorm of delights. Having said that, if you decide to order the handheld today, you’re in for a wait. “We’ve filled our production capacity for 2022, but we’re ramping up to make even more systems,” the company says on its website.

Maybe I’ll wait out for Playdate 2. I’ll always have my fishing controller, but it’s not the same.

— Mat Smith

The biggest stories you might have missed

VW ID.Buzz first look

An EV that makes vans cool again.

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Engadget

If you want an electric van, your options are limited, which is precisely what VW is hoping to address with the upcoming ID.Buzz. At the New York International Auto Show, we finally got to check it out.

It’s slated to go on sale sometime in 2024, featuring a 77 kWh battery and two rows of seats for the European model (which is the version VW had on display) or a full three rows of seats and slightly longer chassis for the US market. Other specs, like its range and price, are still TBD.

Take a closer look.

Samsung Galaxy A53 5G review

Hardly an upgrade.

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Engadget

Samsung’s Galaxy A53 5G offers one of the better displays on a midrange phone, with a 2,400 by 1,080 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate. But Samsung’s slow Exynos 1280 chipset struggles, even with basic tasks. If you’re set on a Samsung phone and have an extra $100 to spend, consider the Galaxy S21 FE, which has been heavily discounted since its launch last year.

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‘Battlefield 2042’ will finally get in-game voice chat on

Groundbreaking.

Battlefield 2042 will finally get in-game voice chat, but with caveats. The VoIP feature won’t work across an entire team. The only channel options are for parties and squads (with a maximum of four members). Given that teams can have up to 64 players, voice chat could get messy fast with that many people talking over each other. A proximity-based option might have been helpful for callouts, though. Sigh.

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The Engadget Podcast

Nintendo Switch Sports and Elon Musk’s ongoing Twitter affair.

This week, Cherlynn Low and guest co-host Sam Rutherford discuss the new Nintendo Switch Sports games, a coincidental week of beauty gadget coverage and the ongoing saga of Elon Musk trying to own Twitter.

Listen and subscribe here

For some reason, Nintendo’s Super Mario anime has been remastered in 4K

But we still don’t understand it.

Nintendo’s first anime movie, from 1986, is back. Femboy Films has released a 4K remaster of The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach on both YouTube and the Internet Archive. You’ll get clean, color-corrected visuals based on a rare 16mm print, and new English subtitles and a fresh two-channel Dolby Surround audio capture from the VHS release. Oh, and Mario and Luigi work at a grocery store now.

It gets weirder…

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Sega’s Super Game project already has a Crazy Taxi reboot under way

A new, big budget reboot of Crazy Taxi has already been in development for more than a year, and is expected to launch within the next three years. That’s the revelation issued forth by Bloomberg today, suggesting that a rebooted Jet Set Radio is also currently gestating with a similar development timeline. Both titles are part of Sega’s Super Game project, which the company first teased back in early 2021 as a way of accelerating the developer’s recovery.

Details about Super Game have been thin on the ground but Shuji Utsumi, the former PlayStation executive leading the project, has let some things slip. Back in April, he said that the project would involve a series of AAA titles leveraging cloud gaming and, deep sigh, NFTS. Late last year, Sega announced that it was teaming up with Microsoft’s Azure cloud division to help produce large-scale “global games.”

When Super Game was announced, Sega bandied around references to its Silver Age blockbusters including Crazy Taxi, Jet Set Radio, Panzer Dragoon and Virtua Fighter. According to Bloomberg, these titles are going to be reborn in the Fortnite mould as a free-to-play, massively online title. Sega is reportedly staking its business on the riches on offer from such titles, which already have devoted cult followings. Of course, as with any title this early in its lifespan, Sega could pull the plug before it reaches players, but it’s about time we had something nice in this life, and no amount of NFTs can make us hate Crazy Taxi… right?

‘Love Death and Robots’ Season 3 comes to Netflix on May 20th

The third season of Netflix’s animation anthology Love, Death and Robots will bow on May 20th. The streamer teased the release with a short video showing the same adult-oriented themes and wide variety of animation styles as the previous volumes. 

The series is produced by Tim Miller and David Fincher, who has a four-year exclusivity deal with Netflix. In the trailer, Netflix showed short clips of The Crown, The Queen’s Gambit and other shows as a way to contrast them with the far more intense “problem child” animated show. “The threesome you’ve been waiting for,” the tagline states.

The styles run the gamut from hyper-realistic with a Gulliver-like character to 2D cel animation, with just about everything in between. The series has garnered solid critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, though audience scores dropped in volume 2 when it toned down the nudity and gore. The number of episodes also dropped in the second season with eight compared to 18 in volume 1. Netflix didn’t say how many episodes are coming with volume 3, but you’ll only have to wait a day to find out. 

Jason Momoa in negotiations to star in ‘Minecraft’ movie

A movie version of Mojang Studio’s Minecraft is starting to come together. Action hero veteran Jason Momoa is in talks to star in an upcoming film adaptation of the popular worldbuilding game, reportedThe Hollywood Reporter. While no contract has been …

Netflix is making an ‘Exploding Kittens’ mobile game and TV series

If Exploding Kittens is still a part of your party game repertoire several years later, Netflix has just the news you were hoping to hear. The streaming service is introducing an “exclusive” version of the Exploding Kittensmobile game as well as an animated TV series. The adult-oriented show will be executive-produced by card game creators Elan Lee and Matthew “The Oatmeal” Inman as well as veterans like Mike Judge, and will star well-known personalities including Lucy Liu (Kill Bill) and Tom Ellis (Lucifer).

The series revolves around a holy war that sees God and the Devil visit Earth in the form of beefy house cats. It won’t stream on Netflix until 2023, but the upgraded game is due in May with two new cards and promises of future gameplay based on the show.

Netflix is keen to note this is will be the first time it launches both a game and a series from the same franchise (Stranger Things doesn’t count, apparently). While the game certainly wasn’t built from scratch, the company not-so-subtly hinted that it might repeat this simultaneous development strategy going forward — don’t be surprised if more games and shows arrive in tandem.

Nintendo’s Super Mario anime has been remastered in 4K to confuse a new generation

You probably didn’t get to watch Nintendo’s first anime movie when it premiered in Japan in 1986, but you now have your chance — at quality you would never have experienced in theaters. Polygonnotes Femboy Films has released a 4K remaster of The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach on both YouTube (below) and the Internet Archive. You can not only expect clean, color-corrected visuals based on a rare 16mm print, but new English subtitles and a fresh two-channel Dolby Surround audio capture from the VHS release.

The story isn’t exactly revolutionary, but it’s an intriguing peek at the Super Mario Bros. franchise at a time when the canon was far from settled. Mario and Luigi travel from the ‘real’ world into the Mushroom Kingdom to rescue Princess Peach after briefly escapes into their realm and is captured by King Koopa (Bowser). You can expect many references to the original Super Mario Bros. game, but you’ll also find unusual deviations from the now-established premise. Mario and Luigi work at a grocery store, and they’re compelled to save Peach thanks to a Dumpling Dog character. And did we mention Luigi drinks sake?

Whatever you think of the plot, this is a significant film preservation project. Great Mission was only officially released in Japan, and there was just one run of VHS tapes. If it weren’t for the restoration, the anime might have been lost to modern audiences. The remaster should ensure that younger gamers have a glimpse of early Super Mario culture beyond emulated games or the not-so-stellar American movie from 1993.

Roland celebrates 50 years of music gear with glossy new book

Famed electronic instrument maker Roland is celebrating its 50th anniversary today by teaming up with boutique publisher Bjooks to announce a coffee table book that tells its story. Inspire The Music: 50 Years of Roland History is a 400-page tome that delves into the tech, people and culture behind the company.

The book includes several chapters that explore Roland products and their impact on certain music scenes. Roland and Bjooks say Inspire the Music explains the context and history of the Jupiter-8 Synthesizer, Boss guitar pedals, TR-808 Rhythm Composer and TB-303 Bass Line. The book will cover other gear, such as keytars, grooveboxes and V-Drums, as well as how the Octapad SPD-30 percussion pad became a staple of modern music in India.

In addition, Inspire the Music features dozens of interviews with artists and Roland designers. You can expect to hear from the likes of Johnny Marr of The Smiths, DJ Jazzy Jeff, guitarist Nita Strauss, Sister Bliss of Faithless, Orbital, Peaches, Swizz Beatz, Jean-Michel Jarre and Nick Rhodes and Roger Taylor of Duran Duran.

Bjooks, which put together Inspire the Music, came to prominence through Kickstarter. It has published glossy books on topics such as guitar pedals, modular synthesis and interface design. In 2020, Bjooks teamed up with Moog for a book featuring tips and tricks for the semi-modular Mother lineup.

Inspire The Music will be released this summer. It will be available through Bjooks’ website and from authorized resellers. Pricing has yet to be revealed.

Inspire The Music: 50 Years of Roland History
Roland/Bjooks

もへもへ on Twitter: “ハフポストの記事改ざん確認した。いろいろ消したけど自分で確認したのでこれが最後。マジでくるってる。やばい。一枚目が現在の記事。二枚目が最初の記事。 https://t.co/aH3dZnu1bT”

ハフポストの記事改ざん確認した。いろいろ消したけど自分で確認したのでこれが最後。マジでくるってる。やばい。一枚目が現在の記事。二枚目が最初の記事。 https://t.co/aH3dZnu1bT