If you like puzzles, check out this trippy comic-style escape room game for Playdate

Assembly a web based good friend in individual for the primary time will be fairly awkward. If solely there have been a option to skip the bizarre small discuss half and get proper into the circulation of actual dialog — like, say, getting shrunk right down to the scale of a chess piece and trapped in a collection of board video games, forcing you to speak so you’ll find your method out. That is precisely the state of affairs through which characters Alex and Sarah discover themselves within the Playdate game Escape the Boardgame, and it is extremely charming.

Escape the Boardgame is type of like an interactive comedian, and it is the second such sport by Julie and Anders Bjørnskov, following 2024’s Escape the Arcade. You utilize the crank and typically the D-pad to maneuver the story ahead panel by panel, working into puzzles alongside the way in which that may function short-term roadblocks till you have provide you with the answer. Whereas it’s an escape room of types, this is not a high-tension state of affairs; Alex and Sarah are caught in a comfortable boardgame cafe, not Jumanji. As they attempt to make their method out the door by traversing varied sport boards, they encounter a bunch of quirky however in the end innocent characters.

Simply because it is informal doesn’t suggest it’s going to be a breeze to unravel the puzzles, although. They’re actually inventive, typically requiring you to pay shut consideration to each little element on the display to be able to crack some obscure code, and different instances forcing you to zoom out and take into account the entire image to see what’s hidden in plain sight. The video games throughout the sport, like one through which you might want to match pets with their right house owners, are a delight to soak up. There are a number of hints for every puzzle, which you’ll entry within the menu, so you possibly can have various levels of help relying on how caught you might be.

Savvy puzzle solvers will most likely end Escape the Boardgame in underneath an hour, so this one is ideal for if you simply wish to play one thing easygoing that may be wrapped up neatly in a single sitting. As an alternative of leaving you annoyed, it is a mind teaser you are more likely to stroll away from feeling all heat and fuzzy.