playlink is a thing not a lot of people will remember or even have ever heard of, no less experianced, it was a mobile games initiative started by sony in 2017 where their selling point was that it was a mix of both the mobile game experiance with a real full ps4 experiance, you could use your phones as the controller, making party games easier as people didnt have to bring their own controllers, just their phones, at least that was the idea. the reality is that it had maybe 10 games to its name, most of those were not particularly popular or successful and are a nightmare to get working even a few years after launch. The idea was sound i think, people will own phones but not everyone will have a ps4 or a controller for one and the games themselves were pretty good considering, you had party quiz games, mario party style party games, a full official singstar game and even an until-dawn style multiplayer horror game from the people behind that game! i played a few of these just to get an idea for what the service had to offer. first off actually gettng these to work, the game's arent particularly hard to find physical copies of, hidden agenda for example i paid a grand total of 99p for and the others were not much more expensive, the nightmare is the apps and sometimes getting the games to even work, some are not backwards compatable on current gen systems and the apps will not download on many modern phones, none of the games i tried for this would even legally let me download the apps from the playstore as my device was on too high an android version, so i had to sideload them. this did work after a few tries for all apps involved and connecting them to the ps4 was a shockingly easy process, but this is a nightmare for presevation and the games really should have had more alternative control schemes with this idea in mind, some do like planet of the apes but most do not and are unworkable without the app. the games themselves do have very good production value, they're clearly smaller scale projects but they are well made for what they are, hidden agenda for example does feel like a AAA project just a much shorter one and the quiz games all feel super well made for what they are, feeling above even a jackbox game in terms of presentation.

the first of these playlink game styles i ended up playing was the simplist one, uno! the game that comes with every xbox. this one is one of the few that doesn't require a playlink to play and is more or less just a side option within a more standard game of uno, there isn't much to say here, it's a cute option to make local multiplayer a lot more viable, works well when you can get it working and the game even has a lot of customisation with things like themed decks based around ubisoft games and a ton of alternate movesets, it's a fun time and a cozy one at that, it's a little generic with its music and themes as you'd ecpect from an ubisoft game but it does a servicable job for what it is and it's a pretty perfect example of the kinds of board and card games that playlink had a ton of like this, battleship and ticket to ride. this game does come with a big caviat though as it ws the only one i could not for the life of me get working on my own phone, i had to use a different phone to get this specific app to recognise the console at all and even when i did get it working it was very slow and had major connection and freezing issues, so i would say to just use a controller.

the next style of game presant was the narritive adventure game, something i imagine sony was hoping would do well on the service. hidden agenda was made by supermassive games, the people behind until dawn and a *ton* of similar games. if you've played something like that or a david cage game you'll have a good idea of this game, make choices that effect the game in surprisingly drastic ways and get an ending, it's much closer to an until dawn than a telltale in that way as here your choices actually do matter, over my two playthroughs although a few sections were similar, the two had wildly different scenes show and a good 60% of the game was original even on my second playthrough. this one even has some gameplay bits which i didn't expect when you have to search for clues in a very strict timeframe which can effect what your ending is like too! the playlink connectivity here comes in in the form of a multiplayer mode (although playlink is still required even in the solo campaign) where you and a few others play through the campaign together but with one person having their own agenda and trying to influence choices made in order to win. it's a super cool mode and one that i feel fits the games themes massively and is something that i do think could only have worked on something like a playlink, it's a fantastic use of the tech available. it helps that the game itself is great! it's a decent story that's pretty decently told, it's a little generic serial killer fic and it uses the "abused cycling abuse" trope that i actually fucking hate as well as maybe a little bit of sex worker shaming? but beyond that it is a decent story, enough to keep you engaged at least. it looks good too, from a purely technical standpoint it's by far the best looking playlink game, it looks AAA like their other games with known actors and high detail environments, though this one felt much worse stiched together with some really janky animations and scenes just, not working as they should? with some wrong animations playing and failing to load models that should be there. the only other game in this style was a licenced planet of the apes game released shortly after, this would be a digital only affair beyond a very small limited run games print run, but it would be one of the few playlink games beyond uno to work with a controller.

the next kind of game popular with playlink was the party game. in this case i had played the game that's you! a staple of playlink mainly as it was given away on services like PS plus and with copies of other games like everybodys golf as a free download, it was a game sony were really banking on selling playlink with and i can see why. the game is a party game based around a 70's road trip theme where you and some friends can manipulate pictures taken with the phones camera in ways themed around the round, answer silly questions about each other and do some picture associations in order to win points and use your phone to draw things during art rounds. it's fairly basic but it uses playlink pretty perfectly, the selfies taken with the camera and the use of the touchscreen to draw are very uniquely playlink things and to its credit you could not play this with a controller and i think that makes it kind of special, i had a great time playing this with my partner and its actually the main one we've went back to multiple times over the years because it's fun, unique and the 70's aesthetic just gives it a vibe that not many other games have, it's also one of the most consistantly well working ones with even now it not being particularly hard to get running, although much like many other playlink games even with a physical copy you will need to pirate the app on the store in order to even get it running. there were a ton of games like this on playlink other than this like the likes of chimparty and frantics, it was basically what it was made for.

the last kind of game is one ubiquitous among the casual game scene, the quiz game. the main one here is knowledge is power. tha game is basically a modern day buzz complete with a funny host and it's a lot of fun, albiet not as iconic as buzz was. it was released in two versions with the basic version and then a later decades edition focusing on a set of questions for people of differnent ages. it has a cute visual style using what i think is claymation, it reminds me a lot of a mix between the tomorrow children and the psvita brain-training style game smart as... also from sony and it's a nice style, works well, you have a good few cute characters to play and they all have very well done animations that make it feel fairly high budget for a quiz game. the cute way this game uses the playlink is in the power plays, little attacks that let you harm your opponant by obscuring the screen or making them swipe goo off of the phone in order to answer, it's cute honestly and makes it feel so much more interactive and fun, a lot like the items in a mario kart game. you an also even use the camera here for your profile picture. it would be followed up by a sequel as mentioned but also more quiz games like wordhunters.

playlink didn't have a ton of variety it has to be said and it also did die very fast, with the last real release being in 2019 with the game erica and even that not really being a title for it, just supporting it and most of the games are very difficult to get working on now, which kind of makes me feel like it's for the best it died off so soon. it ended up only having between 13-15 games depending on the list, but all but a few controller compatable ones are fully exclusive, would i reccomend them? i'm not totally sure, if you're confidant you can get them running then yes, they're all cheap with the exception of planet of the apes and the 4 that i have played so far were all super fun, i'll work through the rest one day as i do have every app already downloaded just to try them.