I’ve spent the past handful of days with my friends in a house near the beach in Maine, communing with nature not in the sense that we’re at all removed from civilization, but certainly in that, when compared to the oppressive grays of New York, there are more trees around. In line with this slower-paced, foliage-rich approach to life, the house we’re staying in contains one of those wooden toys where you try to swing a ball into a cup. This one, Wikipedia just informed me, is called a Kendama and is actually of Japanese origin. I have some thoughts.
There is a pleasant physicality to the Kendama that makes it appealing in a gently social setting where, say, a few people might be talking while a couple others are scrolling on their phones. I could, in such a moment, also send my brain hurtling back to a realm of stress and obligation via the obsidian portal that’s always weighing down my pocket and my life, or I could swing a wooden ball attached to a string until it lands in a cup.
Nothing beats the sheer elation of finally pulling it off – except managing to do so two times in a row. Three times in a row feels at least as good as beating one of the less-acclaimed Souls games. Four times, my current Everest, is probably akin to meeting Gabe Newell if you’re really into big boats. But even that does not compare to a feat I pulled off last night: spinning the handle and propelling the ball from one cup to another. In that moment, I saw the face of God, and He said, “Hey man, that was pretty cool.”
You can pick up the Kendama anytime, anywhere, which greatly adds to its appeal. In that regard, it’s not unlike the Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS edition, the other handheld gaming console I’ve been spending time with during my trip. The Go S differentiates itself from the rest of the pack in that it’s the first Steam Deck-alike to come with native SteamOS support, meaning that it’s as intuitive out of the box as Valve’s ultra-portable PC – and with beefier specs to boot. As Ars Technica has observed, SteamOS also seems to give games a minor performance boost compared to Windows 11, so the Go S SteamOS edition also outpaces its own closest relatives in Lenovo’s Legion Go line.
I’ve spent many an idle evening hour playing Warframe – which has barged back into my life after TennoCon last month – on the Go S, and the odd frame drop here or there aside, it runs pretty much perfectly, popping off a screen which is both bigger and higher-resolution than the Steam Deck’s at 1200p (compared to the Deck’s 800p). When it’s running a game like Warframe, which is not super hardware-intensive but still has a flair for the dramatic in terms of scale and aesthetic, the Go S really shines. Despite owning a Deck since the machine first came out, the Go S has still given me a couple “I can’t believe I’m playing this on a handheld” moments.
That said, its fans sometimes get really, really loud, threatening to overwhelm its speakers, which to my ear are of vastly lower quality than the Steam Deck’s. Also, while the Go S often meaningfully outperforms the Steam Deck (RPS put together some nice comparison graphs with exact framerate differences), it’s not in an entirely different league. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, for example, still requires a handful of graphical settings to be turned down just to reach an acceptable 30 frames-per-second range, and compared to a proper PC or console experience, it doesn’t look great. It’s playable, but there are so many more optimal alternatives.
At $600, the Lenovo Legion Go S SteamOS Edition is also pricier than the Steam Deck, which makes it challenging to recommend: Speaking personally, as someone who also owns a Steam Deck, I like it a lot and will probably default to it in lieu of the Steam Deck from now on. But if you aren’t a power user or someone with money to burn, the Steam Deck’s combination of acceptable performance and relative affordability is better. Put simply, the Deck is the more practical option.
However, both pale in comparison to the humble Kendama, which retails for just $20-$50 and comes in fun Kirby colors, among numerous other options. It, too, is loud, but in a way that satisfies the user and delights onlookers. Sometimes the ball lands on your finger, but even then, it hurts less than you’d expect. It cannot run Warframe, a bummer but not a deal breaker. All in all, if you’re about to go on a trip to an old but nice home near the sea, I unreservedly recommend stumbling upon a Kendama and fidgeting with it constantly because you have undiagnosed ADHD. 9.97/10
