Mars After Midnight Impressions

Mars After Midnight is a fascinating thing. It’s beautiful and can be monotonous but I’m so glad it exists. It definitely won’t be the reason that you get a Playdate, but it is easily one of the best games on the console if you already have one.

What is Mars After Midnight?

Mars After Midnight is the latest game from Lucas Pope. He is the developer behind cult classics Return of the Obra Dinn as well as Papers, Please. In his latest title, made exclusively for Panic’s Playdate, you play as an alien bouncer in charge of making sure that you let the right people in the building for your Mars-based events. Your tasks go far beyond just guarding an entrance, however. Beyond manning the very small window at the speakeasy-style door of the Off-Colony Community Support Centre, you have to promote your events to the right Martians who live in various neighbourhoods across Mars. It doesn’t stop there though; you also need to get the right snacks for that clientele and then make sure that the snack table is well-stocked and clean for every new guest coming through.

The loop is charming and fun and is bolstered by the screening requirements of specific events. Some are simple, others are more complicated.

Lost in Translation

Since you’re in an alien world, every single interaction with an alien is done in a language that you don’t understand. Thankfully, you quickly acquire and equip a handy-dandy translator that uses the Playdate in a fun and innovative way. As the aliens communicate with you in a foreign language you’ll be given a two-character alphanumeric code. These codes are then translated into English via the in-game dictionary. You access that dictionary by hitting the small menu button on the top right corner of the Playdate that is usually reserved for the pause menu. This is the first time that I’ve seen the menu button be used in gameplay. Beyond saying the right thing to gain admittance, some of your event programming requires an extra layer of screening. Most event screenings require the use of a specific tool and these tools add a layer of freshness to the routine of the game; screen, let the right guests in, let them eat, clean, restock and do it again. Without spoiling too much of the fun, these tools vary from a device that makes noise to an x-ray device that ensures your alien patrons coming for the head injury event have a cracked skull. It’s fun and goofy and the sights and sounds attached to each different tool made me smile nearly every time.

Beyond the screening, there’s also the aforementioned refreshments part of the experience; this is the second half of Mars After Midnight. When a patron inevitably takes from the refreshments and messes up your table, it’s then your job as a tentacled alien to clean the table, tidy it up and make sure it’s ready for the next patron. This mini-game is a fairly simple puzzle requiring you to stack items to clear the table and clean it with Playdate’s built-in crank. The crank is also used to lift your little speak-easy door window in the screening part of your job. They’re both great uses of the hardware.

Big Style on Little Mars

This game oozes style. Even though the game is only playable on Playdate, a system with limited horsepower and sound processing capability, this game takes full advantage of what it’s got. You can only see black-and-white images, but this thing is incredible to watch in action. The alien designs are all so fun and well animated and Pope found a way to combine the vibes of both a 90s skater zine and the puppet design of Sesame Street. Small graphical finesses like the animation that accompanies the updating of your Martian map elevate the visuals; it was a small flair that I looked forward to every time it appeared. The sounds match the cool visuals and although there are just a few tracks that play in this one, the combination of music and sound effects are perfect for this game.

Mars to Midnight: Stuck in a Routine

Routine is the perfect word to describe what Mars After Midnight is all about. The loop is small and standard and almost feels like a miniaturized version of Papers, Please. At the same time, that loop is fun and Mars After Midnight looks and sounds like few games that I have played in recent memory. The only downside here is that it doesn’t have a lot of legs to it (even though the aliens surely do). However, if you’re curious about this one and have made it all the down to the bottom of this article, you probably already have a Playdate or are curious about the system. This next message is specifically for you: Mars After Midnight is a tight, finite and cool package. If you’re picking up a Playdate, this needs to be the first game that you grab after you’ve poked around the Season 1 games included with the device.

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A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for this feature.

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