João Duarte's Reviews
Legna Tactica is a tactical/strategy RPG that is competent enough to respect all the hallmarks of the genre, including an enjoyable combat system and a good difficulty curve. Unfortunately it doesn't dare to go beyond that and suffers from a lack of originality that make it nearly impossible for Legna Tactica to stand out on its own and an easily forgettable title that will disappoint many fans of the genre.
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I Am the Hero evokes memories of the sidescrolling beat'em ups that made so much success in the late 1980s/early 1990s, aided by its very representative art style and overall amount of combos and attacks. Where I Am the Hero does not do its job well is on the overall gameplay experience, which feels repetitive, not to mention the flaws in its control system, which feel clunky difficult to use. Alas, it looks like this game falls short of the threshold that sidescrolling beat'em up fans hold.
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Breaks are for Losers is a fun racing game with a rather original concept and which allows for an entertaining experience thanks to its simple and direct gameplay. It doesn't go much further than that and quickly enough its limitations become all too obvious, as the game starts losing appeal on the short-term and it will make its players feel less compelled to return to it.
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Cybarian: The Time Travelling Warrior presents a very enjoyable audiovisual environment and with its completely absurd plot and fun boss battles, there certainly are good points in its favour. At the same time, there are issues which also raise concern, such as its frustrating combo system, the scarcity of checkpoints through the levels and poorly placed life machines. Overall, ther is definitely something good to draw from this experience, but there are also elements that need improvement.
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Immortal Planet is the kind of game that raises expectations before a proper exploration but this work turns out to be a disappointing piece of gaming. Despite a good approach to combat mechanics, the game ends up harmed by its unappealing exploration, inconsistent level of challenge and its drab, dull and off-putting audiovisual environment, topped off by a mediocre performance which harms the overall flow of the game's experience.
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Mighty No. 9 created very high expectations and could have reached a perfect formula for success but as it is, it failed to capture Mega Man's essence and doesn't build up on what its inspiration did best.
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ABZÛ fits into the type of games that want to offer an unorthodox experience. It's possible to do wonders within that realm but unfortunately, ABZÛ falls behind expectations. Not that its audiovisual environment does not try, if the game's visual world looks stunning, ABZÛ's soundtrack is simply out of this world, but the almost entire lack of a compelling and motivating gameplay experience seriously impairs ABZÛ's ability to deliver something memorable.
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While Kingdom's Item Shop has a concept that on its own, could be enough to stand out, its execution turns it into a dull and extremely repetitive game, where players will find themselves performing the same actions again and again and following unclear instructions, much to their disappointment and frustration. Were it not for this, Kingdom's Item Shop could actually be a fun and original title to get to know.
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InkSplosion doesn't manage to stand out amidst the shoot'em ups available for the Nintendo Switch. While its visual environment is worthy of praise and its controls are responsive and well implemented, the game itself suffers from a lack of variety which turns it into a dull and repetitive effort, without any reason to attract any players to this work.
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Simple and straightforward, as expected from games aimed at young audiences, Ayo features an attractive environment and competent level design. Unfortunately the experience turns out to be far less enjoyable, mostly due to a rather poor execution of the game's controls. It's fundamental for a platformer to have well implemented controls, but Ayo is far from successful at translating the player's inputs into acts and establishing a link between the player and lead character.
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Bit Dungeon+ features some nostalgia-inducing visuals and some fun combats in its dungeon crawler meets roguelike approach. It doesn't quite succeed on its other components and turns out to be way too simplistic for its own good. Due to way too frequent glitches, a skills system that doesn't make much sense and a low-quality soundtrack, Bit Dungeon+ turns out to be a low par performer that could have turned out much better.
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Its gameplay is extremely frustrating and entirely based on trial and error, forcing the players to repeat the sames stages over and over under an extremely tight time limit and making use of very inaccurate and imprecise controls, which will only aggravate the players' overwhelming sense of frustration.
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Minigames and party games need to feature plenty of quality content to stand out and sadly, Scribblenauts Showdown has neither. Other than a rather attractive art style, Scribblenauts Showdown offers nothing but a short and poor set of minigames, some of them designed without much into consideration, which are either dull and repetitive or frustrating. Hardly an experience to recommend to anyone looking for quick and fun moments with their friends.
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Avenger Bird follows the footsteps of 2D platforming revivalism of the 16-bit era but unfortunately, it's not nearly as memorable or as enjoyable as any of the names it tries to pay homage to. Its controls, a key aspect in any action game, are too loose and unreliable, the level design gives the player no motivation to explore and the overall gameplay is simply too frustrating to go on. Avenger Bird ends up being a completely missed shot in all the dimensions it's aiming for.
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