Leonardo Faria's Reviews
Despite being originally released as some sort of April Fool’s prank, The Murder of Sonic The Hedgehog is not a joke. Sure, it’s silly as hell, but it’s a pretty decent and lighthearted visual novel with some clever writing and a unique premise. Even if it was released as a paid product, I’d call it worth your time, but as a Steam freebie? Just go for it, we’ve all gotten worse stuff on that platform for free.
There’s something cathartic about Terra Nil‘s gameplay loop. It might not be the most engaging or addictive strategy/puzzle hybrid out there, but I commend Free Lives for making the sole act of wanting to clean up a wasteland fun and engaging. It is not the most realistic eco-friendly game out there, far from it, but I think it manages to deliver its “save the world” message better than most songs, movies, Twitter posts or activists out there.
Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon is a weird beast. It’s a pretty decent game, with a neat level of presentation, and a nice change of pace from the tryhardish action seen in the main games. However, it’s also a game I simply cannot recommend at the suggested retail price.
As far as Switch ports go, this one is not bad. Sure, compromises are apparent, namely in the visual department and some egregious loading times, but I had a good time with it. Or better yet, I had as much fun with this particular port as I could on my own. This is still a co-op game at heart, so we can only hope more people buy it in order to populate its lobbies. As of now, however, I can’t say this is a must-own.
It was a commendable effort by its developers, but sadly, the game falters in its minuscule roster size, pointless story mode and ridiculous trophy requirements. Still, I am actually glad this game exists. There’s something about it that made it extra charming. Omen of Sorrow reminded me a lot of those adorable mid-tier fighting games that were everywhere during the Nintendo 64/PS1 generation. Games like Fighters Destiny, Bio Freaks, War Gods, Mace: The Dark Age. Games that weren’t able to compete with the big ones, but sure as hell tried, and we all lauded the attempt.
Mile High Taxi has its flaws, namely in the lack of challenge (unless you play in Sequential Mode) and the occasional visual glitch, but color me impressed: this is one of the best, if not the best Crazy Taxi clone I might have ever played. It makes up for its flaws with its unique setting, excellent performance, and the fact that, at the end of the day, it plays and feels like a Sega arcade from 1999. It is a clone, no doubt about it, but with enough qualities of its own.
I can’t help but constantly feel like this game, or its predecessor, could have just been part of a cheaper upgrade DLC pack, or something akin to what Konami did with PES before its demise a couple of years ago. There’s just no reason for Monster Energy Supercross 6 to be a full-fledged game. If you really want a supercross game and don’t own a single one so far, then sure, Monster Energy Supercross 6 is an excellent choice. But if you already own any of its predecessors, just stick to them.
Color me impressed, Justice League: Cosmic Chaos was actually quite fun. Is it too simplistic? Yes. Is its combat beyond shallow? Yup. Did I dislike the fact I only have three playable superheroes at my disposable? For sure. With all that being said, it was pretty hard not to fall for such a cheerful presentation, with some high quality voice acting, and an open world that was just fun to full around as a cocky and pun-loving Superman.
If you love Digimon and want to play some great Digimon games, don’t worry: between Cyber Sleuth and Survive, you have more than enough content to satiate your needs on the Switch. Digimon World: Next Order is nowhere near as good, fun, engaging or memorable as these other titles. Sure, it might be a love letter to a PS1 classic (?), but there’s a reason as to why not a single other Digimon World besides that first game had Tamagotchi-based gameplay, it just wasn’t fun.
This is a straightforward recreation of a simple, but addictive Atari game very few people have even heard of. That’s probably why Caverns of Mars: Recharged feels oddly fresh. It feels like the kind of indie roguelike any small team would develop as its first title. It’s also a game that manages to overcome some of its flaws, namely an average presentation and questionable collision detection, by simply being way too addictive, the perfect kind of game to own on a portable.
Once you get used to the controls in the Story mode, skip towards the game’s sandbox mode. With little to no stakes or objectives, Hotel Renovator quickly becomes a relaxing game to be enjoyed while listening to music or a podcast, as the game itself barely has any music to begin with. That’s the bizarre magic behind games like this one and House Flipper. They are beyond flawed, buggy, messy, not very intuitive, but there’s an inexplicably relaxing gameplay loop in the middle of all this mess.
This game is unbelievably silly, almost to a surrealistic degree, but man, it works. Fitness Boxing: Fist of the North Star is a fun mixture between a workout session you can take with you on-the-go and a fun homage to one of Japan’s most famous franchises ever. It looks the part, sounds the part, and its controls are way more reliable than I was expecting.
Even if I didn’t care at all about its plot, and there were a handful of issues with its gameplay, namely feature creep, I played it for hours and hours. The brilliant mixture of Nioh, Sekiro, Bloodborne, and even a bit of Battlefield resulted in a game that feels familiar and fresh at the same time, and one of the most exciting action RPGs released in recent memory.
It is an ungodly flawed game in need of some patches, without a doubt. Some of its design choices are questionable, to say the least. Yet, somehow, I still liked Clive ‘N’ Wrench way more than expected. By no means was this up to par with some of the other love letters to the collectathon genre released over the past decade, but its charm and creativity somewhat outweighed its cons.
So this basically ends up being the typical licensed game that feels like a godsend to fans of the franchise in question, but is a cautionary purchase for everyone else. Gigantosaurus: Dino Kart is easily 3DClouds’ best attempt at a kid-friendly racing game, and it has enough mechanics to make it feel like the perfect introductory racing title for your kids before you teach them about the horrific tale of the Blue Shell, but it’s a bit too brief in terms of content.
The classic case of a jack of all trades, master of none. I also have to commend the developers for a truly gorgeous presentation, decent tutorial and a user interface that isn’t half-bad, despite being made with a largely forgettable gameplay loop in mind. We have enough city builders and strategy games out there right now. Just get one of each and enjoy their vastly different purposes. You don’t need a game trying to be both at the same time.
With that being said, this is not bad DLC. Far from it. This is the perfect kind of content I’d want from a PowerWash Simulator crossover expansion. The Midgar Special Pack uses the base game’s inexplicably appealing gameplay loop as a foundation for players to immerse themselves into some extra Final Fantasy VII content. It’s lengthy enough, giving fans of both franchises more of what they love, be it some healthy doses of fan service or just more horrendously dirty machinery to clean up.
Sure, a full-fledged remake of Like a Dragon: Ishin! would have been the better deal, but finally being able to play a localized version of this ludicrous Yakuza spinoff is still great. Even though it’s a bit dated for those used to the Dragon Engine, the controls are still excellent, the sheer amount of content is staggering, and the combat styles at your disposal are some of the best the franchise has ever seen. This is what we’ve been asking for years, and Sega delivered. I can’t complain that much.
Inti Creates knocked it out of the park with a game that feels right at home on the Nintendo Switch. What little I have to complain about is so minute it feels like nitpicking. If you’re a fan of Castlevania, but are fed up with the sheer volume of metroidvanias flooding the indie scene nowadays, Grim Guardians: Demon Purge is the perfect pick.
If this is what Atari will keep releasing from now on, I’m game. It might be a brand new title, but Akka Arrh feels like the perfect marriage between the Atari of old and the technology of today. It’s also weird as hell. It took me a while to understand what on Earth I was supposed to do in this game, but once I got the hang of it, I had a blast with this bizarre mixture between a space shooter, a puzzler… and a golf game.