Leonardo Faria's Reviews
Asterix & Obelix: Heroes isn’t technically broken, glitchy, or even aggressively bad, but it’s completely devoid of life or joy. It’s a soulless attempt at making an Asterix-themed Slay the Spire clone, without any of the challenge or roguelite aspects that made that game so appealing in the first place. What we have instead is a linear take on the formula, with uninteresting cards, boring visuals, nearly no sound to speak of, and little to no incentive for you to play it for more than maybe ten minutes at a time.
If you’re looking for a way to learn Japanese in an interactive manner, even dealing with the annoying reminders from Duolingo is a better choice than paying actual money for a game like Easy Japanesey. It is an excruciatingly boring puzzle game if you already know Japanese. It is also a completely pointless waste of time if you don’t, given how it doesn’t teach you anything. I booted it up expecting very little, and I still managed to give up on it just a few minutes later feeling disappointed and angry.
It might be a clear example of a game that’s more style than substance, but despite its many issues, I still had fun with Hellboy: Web of Wyrd, mostly out of intentional design decisions, but also the fact it was so damn easy at times, it almost felt like a power fantasy. By no means would I decide to recommend it over other combat-oriented roguelites like Hades or Dandy Ace, but if you’re into a borderline entry-level take on the genre with not many stakes, or if you’re a fan of Mike Mignola’s magnum opus, this one is a no-brainer.
If the original Hot Wheels Unleashed was already magnificent, imagine what to expect from a sequel with more content and slightly better presentation? The changes in Hot Wheels Unleashed 2: Turbocharged aren’t particularly immense, but it checks all of the necessary boxes: it has slightly better visuals, it features some brand new gameplay mechanics, its track editor is bigger and more varied, and it features even more tracks, cars and modes.
After being given so many years to build upon previous Forza titles, as well as learning from what Playground Games was able to achieve with its Horizon games, Turn 10 focused too heavily on gameplay and progression elements nobody had ever asked for, almost as if they were intentionally padding the game’s length in order to make a Game Pass subscription feel more enticing in the long run. Everything about it feels bureaucratic: the narration feels bored, the UI feels excessively professional, it’s hard to feel like there was any passion in the creation of this title.
Haunted House overcomes its low budget aesthetics and occasional lack of polish with a simple, but unique gameplay loop featuring elements from roguelikes, stealth games, puzzlers, and survival horrors (well, the PG kind of survival horror). It just features enough room and puzzle variety, as well as decent progression system, to keep you wanting to play just one more round, just to see if you can finally beat that one annoying boss, or if you can find another Atari cartridge to hand over to that nerdy kid at the lobby.
Whether you’re into a customized, ultra-violent arcade experience or a more realistic simulation, NHL 24 has you covered. I really enjoyed its sheer amount of content, intuitive controls, overall presentation, and its Be a Pro mode. Yes, its Ultimate Team mode, just like similar modes in other EA Sports titles, is an insane gambling machine meant to suck your wallet dry, but considering the wealth of other modes included in this package, you can easily ignore it and have a lot of fun with NHL 24.
Slightly better puzzles and more visual variety make Hidden Through Time 2 more enjoyable than its predecessor, but do not expect a lot of depth from this pastime of a game. There’s just so much you can do with a game that’s essentially Where’s Waldo with a different art style. I appreciate the improved presentation, better UI, and community-created content, even if the latter will remind you of how unfair the first game’s puzzles were by the end of it.
EA might try to convince you that its new buzzwords are actually game changing features, but it’s visually the same, and it plays extremely similarly to all previous three iterations of the game on PS5. It’s still entertaining, and avoiding FUT like the plague will give you a somewhat feature-filled and microtransaction-free experience, but it’s just a roster update with a few new teams and a bland soundtrack.
More than just a review, this is almost a plea. In order for LogiKing to actually showcase its full potential, it needs more players. As it stands, it’s a barren desert built on top of a fantastic foundation. Its combat system is pretty creative, it runs well, it doesn’t do any egregious mistakes. It’s just lacking in single-player content, with nobody else playing it at the moment to populate its barren multiplayer servers.
Gothic is the kind of ultra-janky game you’ll most likely grab on Steam or GOG, at a monstrous discount, at maybe two dollars during a sale, and play for a few hours whilst trying to cope with dated visuals, controls, physics, and so on. This is NOT the kind of game that deserves being sold for thirty bucks on the eShop, with little to no improvements, and a control scheme that just showcases this has always been meant to be played with a mouse and keyboard.
BIT.TRIP RERUNNER is a very straightforward remake, but one that does exactly what it needed to do. It didn’t change a thing in its gameplay, for there was no need to fix what wasn’t broken. It offers vastly superior visuals, with a brand new “retro meets modern” coat of paint, and an excellent level creator to exponentially increase its lasting appeal and overall value.
Ty the Tasmanian Tiger 4: Bush Rescue Returns lacks a bit of the charisma seen in its predecessors, a consequence of them being 3D platformers, with this one just being a bog-standard 2D side-scroller. It does feel cheaper than any other Ty game, but it is still quite fun, though. It might not be that creative, but it’s certainly less janky and less buggy. It’s also a perfect fit for the Nintendo Switch, given how you can enjoy it in short bursts in portable mode.
Although I did enjoy my time with El Paso, Elsewhere, I cannot hide the fact it was plagued with some questionable gameplay decisions and repetitive visuals. You will probably play El Paso, Elsewhere not because of its janky gameplay, but because of its strong story and character development.
Redfall might not be the worst game released in 2023, but I don’t think I have played something more uninspired. It looks dated, its performance is disappointing, its plot is bland, the controls are glitchy, and the entire gameplay loop is the most generic and passion-devoid AAA schtick you could think of. If Arkane clearly wasn’t willing to make this game, then why would any of us should or want to care about it? Not even the fact it’s on Gamepass makes it being worth downloading it and playing for a day or two.
I don’t know how the hell Nintendo allowed for this game to be launched on their system (I do understand WB probably did not care about doing some quality check on their end, though). It is something that needs to be played for you to believe it even exists. Not only is this the worst Switch port of a AAA title out there, this might be the single most pathetic entry in Mortal Kombat history. Yes, even more than Advance or Special Forces. At least those games weren’t being advertised as equals to ports on more powerful machines.
You know the drill at this point: NBA 2K24 is just like its predecessors, in both the good and bad ways. It still looks impressive and has great controls, but it is also plastered with convoluted menus and a ridiculous amount of ads and microtransactions. What can I even add at this point which hasn’t been said in my previous five reviews of NBA 2K iterations? It’s good as an arcade experience, it’s frustrating elsewhere, and you know for a fact nothing will change because there is no need to innovate when you don’t have to deal with competitors.
It’s hard to ignore how creatively bankrupt The Crew Motorfest is, but it is not a bad game at all. When you’re trying to be a carbon copy of a masterpiece of a racing game, and you do your homework to a satisfactory degree, you need to be utterly incompetent not to be, at the very least, a pretty good time, even if not a jaw-dropping one.
There isn’t a lot that needs to be said because Gunbrella, despite the unique premise, is really straightforward: what you’ve seen from previews and trailers is what you’ll get. It’s a really well-designed platformer that might be a bit too brown and dour at times, but plays like an absolute dream. With excellent level design, great boss fights, and just the right amount of funny dialogue bits to remind you that yes, you’re playing yet another high-quality Devolver outing, Gunbrella might not be one of the publisher’s top titles, but it’s still absolutely worth your while.
This is the best kind of sequel. Horizon Chase 2 is the kind of game that makes its predecessor look and feel obsolete in comparison, with vastly better graphics, AI, tracks, and controls. It might not exactly have a lot of cars for you to choose, but there is still so much content in here that complaining about it almost feels like an annoying nitpick. Aquiris has clearly managed to outdo themselves, with this game being one of the best retro-styled racers available in any console or PC right now.