The diddy little Playdate handheld (🟨) continues to deliver great fun little titles. The latest? This Metroidvania marvel called Echo: The Oracle’s Scroll. Launching this week, it’s a Metroidvania title and, without doubt, one of the most impressive technical achievements on the handheld yet.
It’s from British indie dev bumbleborn, who’s focussed the gameplay on combat-free exploration of a beautiful looking monochrome world.
Calming Combat-Free Exploration in Echo: The Oracle’s Scroll
Metroidvania is pretty much our favourite genre these days, so we’ve played a lot of them. It’s a tribute to the Playdate’s ingenuity (even within its seemingly purposeful limitations) that devs can create an entire Metroidvania.
We briefly chatted to bumbleborn about this on Twitter and he’s been very pleased with the reaction, especially when we highlights Echo as a great technical achievement.
It really is, too, we’d say it’s one of the most advanced titles on Playdate.
The Oracle’s Scroll is one of the most chilled out Metroidvania we can think of. It even has a scrolling intro similar to other Playdate gem The Botanist. Once you’ve got the story down (a tale of a world succumbing to a terrible blight), you head off with your character to deliver a mighty scroll.
Behold some bumbling opening gameplay from us, recorded on the Playdate Mirror app (if you were wondering, you can connect the handheld to a laptop and record your in-game action).
Exploration is key to the game. In classic Metroidvania fashion, you just head off in any direction you fancy and try to tie all the knots together.
Once you get your dash ability and find a missing crank, you’re really off on your way. That section is in the area Bottomrock, but eventually you access the likes of a lift (in between bouncing off many mushrooms).
Crucially, that need to… keep… on… exploring… is right here.
It’s the hallmark of any great Metroidvania. You just want to explore every nook and cranny to unlock the secrets. What’s impressive is just how much ruddy stuff is packed in here. It’s a big world! With 250+ separate areas to discover. There’s even a classic Super Metroid style map to help you find your way around (and we can name a few bigger Metroidvania titles on Steam that don’t offer that).
With its very fancy score (put together by bumbleborn), there’s a melancholic tinge to the game we like. The music is lovely. Plus, we love the game’s visual style. The water effects, in particular, are just great.
It’s a Metroidvania on Playdate! There aren’t many of them. This is arguably the best and offers real scope and challenge to its interconnected world, bustling with secrets and chillout moments.
And bumbleborn has confirmed some 300+ copies of the title have sold so far, which is good progress! It’s a 100% must for the lucky Playdate owners of the world.
The Making of Echo: The Oracle’s Scroll
A lot of indie devs keep a devlog detailing their creative progress. Lucas Pope kept an extensive one for the excellently oddball Mars After Midnight (2023).
Not being game developers, this sort of thing fascinates us. We know it’s a very time-consuming and intricately detailed process, one that a lot of gamers don’t appreciate enough (we think, anyway).
Anyway, if you want to play this game… you’ll need a Playdate! 🟨
