Ratcheteer has broken out of its Playdate exclusivity, making its way to PC and Switch with more graphic options and a CD quality soundtrack, along with support for more languages. While it has all of these additions, the core gameplay of Ratcheteer remains the same in Ratcheteer DX. The surface world is caught in a permanent winter following an asteroid impact, with most of humanity moving underground. You are an apprentice mechanic who needs to restore power to your underground settlement. It’s an initially simple task that turns into an adventure of dealing with all sorts of challenges.
With the power out and you being underground, a lot of the world is in darkness, but you have a trusty crank lantern to light the way across the world. It is one of a number of tools that you will get equipped with, with others including a drill shield that blocks damage and allows you to break through some walls, a wrench sword to attack enemies with, and rolling armour to let you roll around with speed. Each of the tools has a use in the environment to solve the puzzles of each room, be it rotating platforms or digging a tunnel. They also relate in some way to the boss fight for the area you discover the tool.
Ratcheteer DX has different palette options, with the original Playdate black and white visuals joined by a Game Boy-like pea green screen and, as hinted by the ‘DX’, colour visuals in the style of the Game Boy Color. For me, the colour option proved best as it allows you to see more details in the environment – handy when looking for crumbling walls and dangers on the ground. No option is bad, though, and you will have your personal preference, and if one isn’t working out you can always switch to another. The soundtrack is also very good, evoking some nostalgia of classic bit tunes.
Ratcheteer DX has toolbags of style, but the gameplay can be finicky. A lot of it is simple enough and the way the game uses light to trigger things like enemies and paths is well done. Combat is a quick hit with your wrench, drill, or rolling armour, and even bosses are relatively straightforward to overcome. However, the experience can also be frustrating at times, especially with some navigation.
Each area has its own map, with the map itself being quite a simple display, but it doesn’t really show pathways. There were plenty of times where I got a bit lost trying to find my way to the next point of interest, and in one of the later areas it took ages to spot a crumbling wall that opened up the path I needed.
Something else that could be frustrating, again in the later levels, were some of the enemy placements and attacks. You need to be quick in some cases to avoid enemies or in one case try and ignore the small ones for the boss while moving around. The jumping for the platforming could also have been better implemented. Even if it looks like the Ratcheteer is landing on a platform, if it is not dead on centre then he falls off the platform. Then (slight spoiler) you get the use of a mech at the end which you embark and disembark from by jumping, and it is really annoying to get on it. Standing next to it and just pressing a button would have been a much more preferable way to climb into the mech.
