Pinball friend! Have you heard of the Playdate?

It is an incredibly charming lo-fi micro handheld gaming console. The Playdate, unveiled in 2019 and released in 2022, is small and square-shaped, with a bright yellow hue, and a little crank as an input device. Yes, indeed, you can do the same moves with a specially designed handle, as if you were using a pencil sharpener or a fishing reel. The Playdate is amazing. It has been developed and produced by Panic, a small and friendly hipster tech company residing in Portland, Oregon. The industrial design of the device was created by another hipster firm, the Swedish audio tech wizards of Teenage Engineering.

Little yellow square

You can picture the Playdate like the original Game Boy, only smaller, cooler and much more open to basically everyone who wants to tinker around with creating tiny but unique black-and-white videogames. Owning and playing on a Playdate is a revelation when it comes to pure design and creativity. The technical possibilites are limited, and that is the main reason why the focus in its games lies in experimenting and getting ideas across without overcomplicating things.

Since late March of this year the Playdate also, finally, has its own pinball game. And what a pinball game it is! Devils on the Moon is an astonishingly varied three stories high table developed by a duo under the moniker Amano, consisting of two Mexican game developers who specialize in designs for smaller systems. In an editorial for The Ball is Wild 🪩 published in Fall of 2024, I was already raving about my passion for vertical pinball stacking, the art of putting two or more playfields on top of each other — something that could never be done with physical pinball.

Pinball stacking

Devils on the Moon is referencing some of the very best vertical pinball stack games, including Game Boy classic Revenge of the Gator and the spooky gothic themed Alien Crush, both originally released in the late 80s. Now, the things you can do on the lower, mid and high playfields of Devils on the Moon are connected to each other, but you only gradually realize which things do what, and where. Themed around the phases of the moon, you are able to access different bonus stages depending on which phase you are currently on.

Possessed by the moon seem to be the over 50 different peculiar devil creatures which you can summon on the lower playfield by shooting lanes and then hitting five different shots. As soon as a devil appears, you can bash and finally collect it when it is dazed. But aside from moon shenanigans and dozens of creatures that you can collect, the most surprising thing about Devils on the Moon is how you nudge and tilt. Intuitively placed right next to your flipper buttons, there are the controls for left, right and upwards nudging. If you overdo it, you don't get warnings — you go straight to the tilt. With this game though, tilt means something different than anywhere else: The game only rewards you a timeout for the nudge feature, lasting some seconds. Otherwise, you continue playing.

Video pinball that stays with you

Both shooting and nudging work so well, once you get the hang of it, that you almost think that Devils on the Moon was a dedicated and seamless product, combining bespoke hard- and software. You can rack up a lot of points by preparing, playing and completing challenges as well as by collecting different end-of-game awards and multipliers. Aside from the standard 3-ball play, there is a 1-ball only hardcore mode and also a practise mode which turns the tilt timeout off completely, offering you unique gameplay abilities that I won't spoil here.

I understand that most people won't consider buying a 229 Dollar micro gaming console (that you need to import if you are outside the US) just to play a little pinball videogame. Or many other neat little games for that matter. You can find similar titles somewhere in a web browser, on platforms like Itch.io of Lexaloffle, or on your smartphone. Sure. But maybe you know someone who can lend you a Playdate? Because it really feels different. If not, you can always wishlist Devils on the Moon on Steam (Windows, Mac, and Linux). The game is planned to have its big screen moment in the first few months of 2027. Until then: Devil up and stack the stages!

Cool pinbally things:

• Cultural pinball history: I can highly recommend the new book Same Player Shoots Again: A Biography of the Pinball Machine by German scholar Andreas Bernard. Originally published in German in 2024 (when I reviewed the book for FM4), it is an analysis of what comprises pinball, intertwined with Andreas’ autobiographical coming of age story taking place in Munich in the late 70s and early 80s.

• Same games, new names: In case you like the popular pinball simulations developed by Hungarian videogame company Zen Studios for almost 20 years now, you know how confusing their different releases can be. I just recently noticed that they renamed most of their pinball game hubs for different systems, a decision which was annonced back in March.

• The Ostermeier: Serious pinball instructor Abraham aka Abe Flips has made a name for himself with his extensive video tutorial film Mastering Pinball (which The Ball is Wild 🪩 covered in December). Abe is thorough with his work and keeps adding content, recently posting a longer interview with two-times World Champion Johannes Ostermeier. Very interesting and helpful for improving your pinball skills. Thanks Abe!

• Unhinged video balls: As The Ball is Wild 🪩 always embraces digital pinball in almost the same way as the real physical thing, here is a neat rundown on the history of video pinball called The Unreality of UNHINGED Pinball which was published on Youtube recently. The focus here lies in the fact (which is also mentioned in the editorial above) that there are crazy and experimental things only possible in virtual pinball realms where the game can go wonderfully bonkers.