Leonardo Faria's Reviews
I commend Dakar Desert Rally for being a lot more polished and accessible than its predecessor, but it’s still a hard game to sell to a wide audience. Don’t worry, the game itself is actually pretty good, despite its technical issues, but it is a very niche rallying game that pales in comparison to its vast amount of competitors when you put them side by side. Maybe a follow-up will add a quick play mode and fix its technical issues. As it stands, it’s janky and still brutal towards newcomers, but it’s a step in the right direction for the series.
Here’s the weird conclusion to this weird port of a really weird game: I don’t think the Switch version of NieR: Automata is worth your time, despite it being, for all intents and purposes, excellent. Considering the limitations of the hardware it was ported into, it’s a godlike effort, but one that makes it the worst version ever released for this game, by far. You’re not getting the best version of its soundtrack, you’re not getting the best visuals, you’re not getting the best framerate. Even though you could, in theory, play it all on docked mode, why bother? You can get better performing and cheaper versions of it elsewhere.
All in all, Atari Mania has a fantastic concept, and could have been a surefire hit, but its poor performance, lack of polish and unfair difficulty ruined my enjoyment with it. The fact that WarioWare: Get It Together somehow managed to be even worse is the only reason I’d call Atari Mania the ideal candidate if you want to have something that even remotely resembles Nintendo’s cult classic series on the Switch, but even so, it’s a massive stretch.
No More Heroes III could have been great. Its visuals, performance, and combat system are all a massive improvement over its predecessors. This game had all the ingredients to become a hack ‘n’ slash classic, but Suda51 had to shove it, nay, drown it with arrogance, self-indulgence, and some of the unfunniest “humor” I’ve witnessed since, well, the original No More Heroes, I suppose. The return of the pointless open world is further proof that player feedback, as well as trend analysis, haven’t been taken into account.
Super Jagger Bomb is just Bomb Jack with an average-at-best polygonal coat of paint. It plays just like a nearly forty year old game, with little to no interesting gameplay elements added to the mix. You might want to grab it if you have some sort of nostalgic feelings towards that Tecmo cult classic, but at the same time, if you do, the original Bomb Jack is available on the Switch eShop. You probably own it already.
Prodeus would have been great if it was only a mere shooter heavily inspired by 2016’s DOOM, but its developers went above and beyond. What an amazing game. It’s both a love letter to old and modern shooters, embracing the best elements from both eras. Its levels are amazing, its gameplay is fast-paced and punchy, its soundtrack is insane… and it’s got a freaking phenomenal level editor that will basically ensure that players will have an endless supply of brand new levels to tackle for the foreseeable future.
Even if the gameplay loop outstays its welcome after a few rounds, and you can play all of its songs in about two hours, I can’t help but love the fact that Trombone Champ exists. It’s just… weird. Weird in the most adorable of ways.
Shovel Knight Dig is a great Downwell-esque roguelike adaptation of the franchise’s formula, though its somewhat unfair steep difficulty curve can be a bit irritating at times.
It’s hard to recommend PBA Pro Bowling 2023, even though there’s nothing inherently bad about it. Sure, its presentation is really subpar, but as a bowling experience, it does offer more than I was expecting. That’s the problem, though: it’s a bowling video game. It’s very limited in terms of scope and gameplay, despite featuring a career mode and licensed players. You can’t help but feel like you could get similar experiences in other games that just so happen to feature bowling as one of their side activities.
Some unnecessary design choices hindered my overall enjoyment with Hardspace: Shipbreaker, namely the monstrously uninteresting story and short work shifts, but I still spent a shocking amount of time with this curiously relaxing mix between a pasttime simulator, a puzzle game, and a survival title. It featured one of the most enjoyable, innovative and relaxing gameplay loops from any game I’ve played this year.
Its online modes are bland, and its gameplay is really sluggish for modern fighting game standards, but the sheer amount of content and fan service make JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: All-Star Battle R a must-have for fans of this utterly ludicrous but endearing franchise.
I love that Easy Come Easy Golf exists for the Switch. Everything that was wrong with Mario Golf: Super Rush (and honestly, all Mario sports games released over the past decade or so) isn’t present in this adorable title that keeps thing simple, but also fresh. Its gimmicks are minute, only improving what’s still an easy and intuitive gameplay loop. It might be a bit grindy, but it’s also quite addictive. In short, this might actually be the best Mario Golf game in years, and it doesn’t even feature any Italian plumbers in its roster.
The developers behind the project had a specific niche of players they wanted to target, and delivered in spades. You need to like heavy metal, DOOM and rhythm games in order to enjoy this innovative, slightly flawed, but ultimately amazing experience. Brutal, fast-paced, mechanically sound, replayable, and most importantly, a blessing for metalheads’ ears. You will need some time in order to get used to its mechanics, which feel confusing at first, but once everything clicks, you will have the loudest and bloodiest of times with this hellfest of a shooter.
This is not an easy recommendation, given how unbelievably challenging this game is, even on the easiest of difficulties. Radiant Silvergun is a gem of its time, but one that has managed to age gracefully. Few bullet hell shooters released in this day and age are able to stand next to it and its sequel, Ikaruga. Being able to take this absolute classic on a portable, with a handful of simple, but welcome quality of life improvements, is worth the entry fee if you’re a fan of bullet hell shooters.
The only thing that makes NBA 2K23 better than its predecessor, even if by just a little bit, is the inclusion of the excellent Jordan Challenge mode, a great love letter to the best player of all time. Does that make the game worth your time? Well, if you’re into basketball, you don’t exactly have a choice, but, at the very least, 2K23 isn’t worse than the games that preceded it. Small wins, y’all.
It’s a bit janky and it has some questionable design choices, but Steelrising is yet another pretty good effort from Spiders, solidifying the small French studio as one of the most interesting developers in the industry nowadays. Its absolutely unique premise, mixing the freaking French Revolution with robots and Dark Souls, is the main reason you’ll want to play it. Even though it has some progression and level design issues, as well as a bit of AA jank, it’s still well worth your time.
As a whole, I can’t stress enough how impressed I was with Rollerdrome. Roll7 perfectly picked up two completely different gameplay loops and mixed them together in a cohesive and addictive title with a shockingly intuitive control scheme. It’s fast-paced, it makes you feel cool as hell while playing it, and it’s ridiculously addictive. It’s one of the perfect examples of creativity still looming in today’s seemingly tired and creatively bankrupt industry.
You’re here because you want to witness first-hand the fact that a Behaviour Interactive-endorsed dating simulator where you can date serial killers and monsters actually exists. Thankfully, the novelty aspect isn’t the only appealing factor in this game’s favor. It’s funny, snarky, and really well-written. There’s not a lot else that needs to be said. Hooked on You is exactly what it looks like. One of the weirdest games I’ve played this year, but one I certainly do not regret tackling.
I would have already loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection if it were a mere collection of a handful of TMNT titles from back in the day, with little to no extras. But the addition of online co-op, gameplay modifiers, regional variants, and that adorable Nintendo Power-esque tips guide for each title just elevates this compilation to nonsensical heights. This is Rare Replay levels of good, one of the best retro compilations of the past years.
For its time, Pac-Man World was a revolutionary revival of a long dormant franchise. Nowadays, PAC-MAN WORLD Re-PAC is still a fun platformer, but it does feel a bit by-the-books, especially since we’re aware of the improvements featured in the original game’s sequels.