Stefano Calzati


90 games reviewed
82.1 average score
83 median score
71.1% of games recommended
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8.5 / 10.0 - Swordship
Dec 20, 2022

Swordship is a great example of contemporary arcade. It does one thing, it does it well, and it's incredibly fulfilling, challenging, and exhilarating. Smugglers of the post-climate change future against corporations, pirates at the service of the least, always ready to take risks and with a great sense of entertainment. Great management of the risk / benefit component, precise controls, audiovisual remarkable, with each game over generating more sense of revenge than frustration. A truly remarkable work in its compactness.

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Dec 9, 2022

Need for Speed: Unbound is a particular work, capable of forcefully bringing back street culture, the contemporary one of generation Z, but unable to create new spaces of playful expression. Everything that revolves around the characters of the story and our avatar works like god, from the style chosen to describe them to the driving system, from the soundtrack to the special effects in graffiti style, in contrast with a Lakeshore that, despite its vibrant technical realization, remains an ordinary and almost anonymous city, a hub with some collectibles scattered around that acts as a glue to a rather lazy playful structure.

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7 / 10.0 - Somerville
Nov 23, 2022

A promising debut for Jumpship, with a perfect Game Pass title that can easily be finished in one evening but that would have deserved some extra polish. I want to believe.

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Oct 17, 2022

Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope is not just one of the best exclusives for Nintendo Switch, it is a game capable of evolving significantly compared to the previous chapter, reaching an absolute playful level. A hilarious, light-hearted, creative but also well-kept work, with an artisanal level design and constantly growing for the duration of the adventure, exactly like a combat system that is pure joy, tactically deep and at the same time hyper-dynamic, comic and at the complete disposal of the player's creativity.

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7.5 / 10.0 - Soulstice
Sep 20, 2022

Soulstice turned out to be a good stylish action game, with a solid combat system embellished with good ideas, able to tell its excellent protagonists, Briar and Lute, both through the battle and with the cutscenes. The story of Ilden's veil torn above the sky is intriguing, with beautiful twists and a well-studied mythology, it is therefore a pity that the setting is not able to sustain this charm, despite the very good basic technique, trapped in a artistic direction that is often too generic and redundant.

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8 / 10.0 - Islets
Sep 13, 2022

Islets is a compact, very nice metroidvania, full of ideas and adorable characters. A beautiful, hand-drawn world divided into six parts to be put together, rebuilt, setting off on an adventure that is as crazy as it is epic.

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Jul 7, 2022

Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course is like one of those delicious cream puffs, a single explosive mouthful with which you risk getting lost in a blissful glycemic trance.

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6.5 / 10.0 - Shredders
Mar 25, 2022

Shredders is a peculiar work full of contradictions. If its narrative, crazy, hilarious and embellished by the participation of some snow stars is as fresh as snow, his good gameplay (inspired by Steep) must clash with a disastrous technical performance. Still a game worth trying, especially on Game Pass.

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9 / 10.0 - Gran Turismo 7
Mar 2, 2022

Gran Turismo 7 brings the saga back to a balance between single player and multiplayer, with a rich, dense campaign with a relaxed but constant and satisfying progression. The control system is spectacular, enhanced by DualSense, while the lighting and attention to detail do justice to the potential of PlayStation 5. Pure automotive culture.

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Feb 17, 2022

The premises were there, the artistic direction is probably one of the most impactful and evocative seen in the 2D field in recent years, but GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon is lost in the execution.

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9.5 / 10.0 - OlliOlli World
Feb 3, 2022

OlliOlli World is one of the best platformers of recent years, a spectacular interpretation of the skate genre and, in general, a very fun, serene game, as relaxing as it is competitive, as spiritual as it is consistent and muscular.

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Dec 21, 2021

Gear.Club Unlimited 2 Ultimate Edition has a good Career mode, with plenty of races and events and a little bit of story, but it is far from enough to rescue its incredibly sub-par gameplay, to the point that it is uncapable of conveying any emotion. And the game doesn't fare much better graphically, with poor textures and unstable frame rates. A pity, given the resume of the developer.

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7.7 / 10.0 - MXGP 2021
Dec 10, 2021

Milestone has the reins of motorcycle racing in hand, which it manages with enviable confidence, raising the level of the motocross sub-genre like never before but at the same time not being particularly interested in pushing the franchise in a new direction.

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9.5 / 10.0 - Forza Horizon 5
Nov 4, 2021

Forza Horizon 5 turns "more of the same" into a mark of true excellence, furtherly polishing and improving on a winning formula and making it exponentially more spectacular on a technical level and more enveloping on an environmental level, and mixing it all with its distinctive driving model, a unique mix of a simulative superstructure with an arcade heart beating beneath the hood.

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9 / 10.0 - Happy Game
Oct 27, 2021

Happy Game rests its foundations on a solid, intriguing and stimulating puzzle design and then leaves room for the artists, free to disturb, reworking reassuring, sunny shapes, objects and creatures, in their deviated, deformed and repulsive version. A world of phobias that should reject but that instead attracts, inducing a magnetic morbidity, linked to the curiosity to see how far the developers have gone.

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8 / 10.0 - Gearshifters
Oct 22, 2021

A small-scope but excellent game with very clear ideas, enjoyable, sincere and particularly exciting when the going gets tough, like during very intense boss fights. Pimping our ride to make it look even more aggressive and suited to the post apocalyptic world feels great. A Mad Max-like shoot 'em up is exactly what we needed.

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9.3 / 10.0 - Metroid Dread
Oct 12, 2021

Metroid Dread convincingly shows that Samus Aran is, after so many years, still at the (or very near to) the top of the genre it helped define. MercurySteam's creation is exhilarating, well balanced and beautiful to look at; even the somewhat atypical E.M.M.I. sections are competently integrated with the rest of the game.

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6.7 / 10.0 - No More Heroes 3
Aug 27, 2021

Removing everything that does not work and that is there to do "longevity", we would have had 5 sensational hours of pure videogame exploitation that we would have been ready to glorify as a cult. But the reality is that Suda51's new work for Nintendo Switch is the shadow of the No More Heroes that was, where brilliant ideas, follies, memorable moments and the same brutal combat system are watered down in a mediocre and rhythmless techno-playful context.

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9.5 / 10.0 - Hades
Aug 10, 2021

Hades on PlayStation 5 is the essential masterpiece we all know, embellished by the 4K resolution and a mild use of the features of DualSense. A real must-have.

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Jul 30, 2021

The Silver Case and The 25th Ward are both testament to the talent of one of the most picturesque, brilliant and punk directors of the videogame scene, capable of amalgamating, no one knows how, a series of themes, influences, styles and characters that in the hands of others would have turned into a disaster.

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