Leonardo Faria's Reviews
Puzzle Bobble Everybubble is basically more of the tried and true formula that has been going on for the past thirty years. Despite that somewhat dismissive statement, don’t call that criticism. The franchise has tried to reinvent itself in the recent past with a 3D iteration, and it didn’t work very well. Returning back to its more successful format, with just a few additions here and there to pretty much justify its existence as a brand new, commercially-available product, was the right choice.
Pulling No Punches is a very hard sell unless you fall into its specific target audience: fed-up Brazilians who had to deal with a stupidly stressful couple of years during the pandemic. If you fall into this niche demographic, this is the catharsis you’ve been waiting for. If not, you can still have fun with its good controls and decent art style, but the in-game jokes and overall premise will mean nothing to you.
Gekisou! Benza Race: Toilet Shooting Star is a truly baffling waste of time I would have clearly ignored if it was kept as a Japanese eShop exclusive, as it should have been. It wasn’t the case, however, as some mad mind decided to release it in the West with absolutely no translation or localization efforts. What we ended up getting as a result was a near criminal waste of thirteen dollars, where you can’t have fun with its premise, nor can you understand what the hell is happening onscreen. Fittingly enough, a game about toilets deserves to be thrown into one.
Whatever gripes I may have faced during my dozens, perhaps hundreds of hours with Tears of the Kingdom, don’t make it any less engrossing and amazing. It’s not perfect, it’s not my favorite Zelda game of all time, it’s not even the best game we’ve played and reviewed in 2023. But does that really matter? At the end of the day, it’s an improvement over Breath of the Wild, a really impossible task that Eiji Aonuma managed to achieve.
Humanity is the kind of experimental breath of fresh air we rarely see being released nowadays. Evoking the spirit of the more bizarre and experimental games from the Dreamcast era, it features a bonkers premise and a pointless plot, but also excellent controls, a really intuitive gameplay loop, and of course, as to be expected from a game published by Enhance, trippy visuals and great music.
I’m not going to say that Pretty Girls 2048 Strike is terrible because, honestly, it isn’t. Especially when compared to some other atrocious games released by the same publisher in recent times. Sadly, it’s just very unnecessary. By the time the game becomes somewhat challenging and interesting, you’ll be wondering why the hell weren’t you just playing 2048 on your phone, for free, while doing something else at the same time.
Herodes is way more interesting than it seems at first glance. Sure, its difficulty curve borders on the unfair at first, and its in-game economy basically means you are forced to replay some levels in order to afford its borderline mandatory upgrades, but once you’re finally upgraded to a desirable degree, everything clicks. Each level features a unique gimmick or objective, the presentation is decent enough, and the controls are pretty good.
Even if some of its levels felt poorly designed, I ended up enjoying Panic Porcupine quite a lot. From its silly premise (never thought I’d give a crap about this game’s plot, but here we are), sublime presentation, and somewhat fair initial difficulty curve, the game did a great job at mixing the gameplay styles from both Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Meat Boy in a cohesive and enjoyable way. There’s little else that needs to be said about it: if you’re into either franchises, Panic Porcupine is a no-brainer.
What a massive disappointment. Sure, the fact this overly ambitious game was a single developer effort is something worth commending, for the scope is quite surprising, but this ended up being its main issue as well. Molly Medusa shouldn’t have been this ambitious, or at least it should have spent more time in the oven before being sent out to the public. It’s chock full of terrible gameplay decisions, poor puzzles, and nauseating camera controls.
Coming from a newcomer to this criminally underlooked classic, Final Fantasy V captivated me in ways I wasn’t expecting. Even though I cared very little about its admittedly generic story, its insanely addictive Job system, coupled with a handful of quality of life improvements stemming from the Pixel Remaster edition won me over like very few JRPGs, either modern or retro, have ever been able to.
At the end of it, I couldn’t help but just constantly ask myself, “what’s the point of all this?” I will never not appreciate a developer for coming up with a unique premise for a game, but make it fun, or at least moderately coherent for it to justify its existence as a piece of entertainment.
I still need to commend the fact that, indeed, Kill It With Fire VR is much better than its non-VR counterpart, but mostly by default. That game just was plain bad to begin with, so adapting it to a more immersive medium, with the addition of (clunky) motion controls to mess around with would automatically make it more engaging. Sadly, just like the original Kill It With Fire, it is fun for an hour, maybe two, but it will then get boring pretty quickly.
I honestly think Amid Evil VR showcased the Quest 2’s biggest strength like no other game in the system so far: it’s a perfect place for VR adaptations of older or arcade-like games released in the past. PCVR can keep the bulkier physics, and PS VR2 can have the more cinematic and graphically-intensive games from bigger publishers. This game is a surefire hit and a must-have for owners of this VR headset. Now, can we get Dusk in VR too?
In the grand echelon of modern bullet hell shooters, R-Type Final 3 Evolved is still one of the most advanced and featured-filled games available right now, but as a game only available on the PS5, supposedly taking advantage of what that hardware has to offer? Yeah, I don’t see the point. It’s barely better performing than its predecessor, sometimes featuring framerate hiccups not even R-Type Final 2 had. I don’t see why this wasn’t a cross-gen title, since its exclusivity will do nothing but hinder its sales.
I like this ultraviolent delight even more than I like Hotline Miami. It took everything that worked in those beloved action games, gave players a bit more leeway with an improved health system, and dialed things up to eleven, be it with its insane soundtrack, aggro-as-hell nature, and especially its roguelike elements. They just fit in perfectly with this particular arcade-like gameplay loop.
Maybe I just expected more from Gun Jam because every other rhythm-based action game released over the past years ended up being such a banger. It’s not bad at all, as it features a decent cel-shaded presentation, runs like a dream, and features really responsive controls. Sadly, even though the foundations are solid, its main gimmick is a bit too clunky and confusing. I love shooters, and I love Guitar Hero… but combining these two games, without leeways, resulted in a messy experience.
The sheer amount of recipes, Michelin endorsement, and intuitive mixture of gameplay styles are enough to satisfy gamers who are also culinary enthusiasts. Just make sure you have a controller in hand if you decide to buy it on Steam. In a scale from Pizza Hut to Gordon Ramsay, this game scores an honest Guy Fieri.
Luckily for it, nothing about its graphics, performance, or controls is bad enough to relegate it to echelon of historically bad failures, but maybe that’s also one of its biggest issues. It’s a bland game that just so happens to have a nonsensically star-studded cast, and one not crappy enough to warrant an ironic playthrough.
Moviehouse: The Movie Studio Tycoon has a solid foundation for a movie producing simulator, but given how you can’t actually make these shorts like its main source of inspiration, The Movies, all you get here is a basic business management simulator with little action, player input, or excitement. If this was a budget title available on a phone, then sure, this could work as a nice pastime for fifteen minutes at a time. It isn’t, so it’s hard not to remember it’s far from being the love letter to Peter Molyneux’s magnum opus it so proudly boasted before release.
Even though Squad 51 vs. the Flying Saucers is beyond frustrating, I didn’t think it was that disappointing. It’s still very unique and completely bonkers. Its premise is set, and needs no improvements. Its gameplay design choices render it annoying to deal with right now, but I honestly think a second attempt, with a smaller playable character and better balancing, would result in one of the best bullet hell shooters in years. As of now, this is a fun diversion, but a flawed one.