#pocketchip

Playing "Neon" by lucatron on pico-8.

Cart BBS link: https://www.lexaloffle.com/bbs/?tid=37278#playing

Let’s catch up with PICO-8 and feed some ducks 🦆

Though we haven’t talked about the PICO-8 platform for making, sharing, and playing tiny games (all built into the cute PocketCHIP handheld), the community continues to put out curious releases for the “fantasy console.”

If you want to dive right into what’s been going on in the PICO-8 scene and its standout releases, our friend and Club Tiny member Tony just brought Pico Chat out of hiatus, an appropriately brief podcast dedicated to the platform. Listen to it here or check it out on Anchor for links to the games discussed:

This episode introduced me to the wonderfully silly Feed the Ducks, which I won’t spoil but will tell you to stick through its seemingly simple screens in the first few minutes. Being a PICO-8 game, you can play it for free in your browser.

The only thing keeping me from playing Celeste is more, tiny Celeste ⊟ 

If you’ve somehow made it this far without a dozen people recommending Celeste to you, I am telling you now that the platformer is worth the $20 to buy it on Switch’s eShop and play it a lot. Celeste is very good and also worth picking up for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, or PC too if that’s all you have.

One of the neatest things about Celeste is this easter egg allowing you to play Matt Thorson and Noel Berry’s prototype originally created (during a game jam!) for the Pico-8 fantasy video game console. Celeste Classic is still available to play for free online here or on the very cute PocketCHIP portable! 

I dabbled with the prototype on a PocketCHIP last year, but after rediscovering it in the Switch release, I’ve refused to return to the main game until I master Celeste Classic. One thing you should know about this site: the only thing we love more than “tiny games” is “tiny games with more tiny games in them”.