Up until now, Subset Games has made two games, and they’re both kind of ideal. Perfection has no place in art, but these things are really special. FTL is a terrifying and hilarious game about steering a ship across the galaxy in short hops, managing various stats, accidentally venting your comrades into space, and dealing with robot invaders who can literally shoot their way into your hull. Into the Breach is a game of tactics and positioning as you take three units into compact turn-based battles that clearer heads than mine have pointed out wouldn’t be out of place on the games page of a newspaper.
Fulcrum Defender reviewPublisher: Subset GamesDeveloper: Subset GamesPlatform: Played on PlaydateAvailability: Out now on Playdate as part of Playdate Season 2.
So when I heard Subset had a new game coming out I thought: clarity and chaos will both be at the heart of it, but beyond that? No idea. I have no idea what Subset’s ultimately capable of at this point. Then when I heard that Subset’s new game was a platform exclusive, and that the platform in question is the Playdate? Mercy, as Roy Orbison so memorably said.
Anyhoo, Subset’s new game is called Fulcrum Defender, and it’s available as part of Playdate’s second season, in which new games appear on your machine every week or so and anticipation is a huge part of the fun. Subset gets the opening act, which makes sense as pretty much everyone who’s played FTL and Into the Breach has nothing but good memories. But on the surface, Fulcrum Defender is a very different design. It’s an arcade game, and it’s as twitchy as they come.
The Playdate is the console with the crank, and Subset’s decided to go all-in on that concept. Fulcrum Defender is kind of like a spin on Asteroids or an inversion of Tempest. You’re at the centre of the screen and enemies come from all around you, moving through 2D space as they zero in on your position. The gimmick is that you aim your weapons by turning the crank, and then you fire either by pressing up on the d-pad for a single shot, or down for everything in the clip.
Already Subset’s particular interests are visible. Your clips are very shallow at first and they take a long time to recharge, so you’re constantly managing your aggressive tendencies against your resources. You have shields, which come with a meter that’s a classic piece of utilitarian Subset UI, and so you have a limited ability to let enemies slip through your defences and impact you.