Leonardo Faria's Reviews
Just like other games in the franchise, Cotton Fantasy is not meant to be challenging. It’s yet another cathartic power fantasy of a shooter, where you’re given an excessive amount of weapons to wreak havoc against some of the cutest enemies in the genre. Even if the polygonal visuals aren’t as charming as the graphics in previous games, the sheer amount of playable characters, as well as its nonlinear structure, make this game the single most replayable Cotton title out there.
Battle Kid: Fortress of Peril is a competent attempt at recreating the look and feel of the NES era, but even then I don’t think it is that impressive, especially considering it’s already twelve years old. Some of its issues, namely the hit detection, infuriating initial difficulty spikes and button placement are hard to ignore, even when taking its system limitations into account.
Get-A-Grip Chip and the Body Bugs is much shorter than the original game, feeling more like a standalone expansion than a re-imagining or sequel. It’s more of what made the original game so appealing, with a non-condescending edutainment coat of paint, even though its subject matter is oddly specific for an educational title. Were you a fan of the 2020 original? By all means, you’ll love this little gem, even though you’ll beat it in an afternoon at most.
You will still have a ton of fun with Little Cities, regardless of which city building style suits you best. I do have a few gripes with its progression system and poorly crafted happiness meter, but I was able to quickly ignore its shortcomings and play the damn thing for as long as the Quest 2’s batteries allowed me to. It’s a joyful little piece of software that will win you over in a mere couple of minutes, and yet more proof that city building and virtual reality are a match made in heaven.
There is a lot in The Tale of Onogoro that deserves praise, from its impressive presentation to its overall ambitious format, trying to be a more cinematic and story-focused action-adventure game in a brand new gaming medium. For as much as I think this is a gorgeous game with occasionally good controls and interesting puzzles, the sheer amount of dialogue cutscenes bothered the hell out of me really quickly.
Know what to expect from Trek to Yomi before purchasing it. I had a great time with it, but that’s because I knew this wasn’t going to be a high-octane, indie equivalent of Ghost of Tsushima or Sekiro. This is the closest to a Kurosawa game we’ll probably ever get. Not only due to its phenomenal presentation, but also due to its emphasis on storytelling and world building, instead of nonstop action and ludicrous combos. Combat sections were more sparse and sluggish than anticipated, but that’s fine since it’s so easy to sink into the game’s world.
At the risk of sounding like the typical scratched record begging for a difficulty slider, Ganryu 2: Hakuma Kojiro is the kind of game that would have been a lot more enjoyable if it actually had one. It gets so many things right, namely its great visuals and controls, but some of its difficulty spikes, most notably its obnoxious boss fights, will frustrate a lot of players.
Thanks to its intuitive controls, excellent new UI, and the overall addictive nature of the city-building genre, Cities: VR is now one of my favorite titles available on the Quest, possibly in VR in general, and another great example as how to translate a tried and true formula, once thought to work solely on computers, to a brand new system.
Sure, it might have a few technical issues here and there, but they are minute when you assess everything this hilarious and thought-provoking walking simulator has to offer. Not to mention the fact it runs superbly well on the Switch. In short, buy The Stanley Parable: Ultra Deluxe. It’s brilliant. It’s a testament to game design. It was oh so worth the wait.
It might be a bit nostalgic to some people, perhaps even a bit charming, but play it for a bit and you’ll realise why you asked your mom to buy you a copy of Banjo-Kazooie or Rayman 2 instead of this game back when it first came out.
Trolley Problem, Inc. is a hard sell. At face value, it’s a game that wants to make you feel dirty and disgusted. It’s really not fun to play it by yourself. However, you can get a sizeable amount of entertainment out of it by either playing its co-op mode or just discussing your answers with your friends. I don’t think I will want to replay it to find out different outcomes to my decisions, nor would I recommend it to the faint of heart, but this was an interesting social experiment to partake on.
MotoGP 22 might just look like another yearly (albeit competent) outing in Milestone’s long-running motorbike racing series, but the addition of the Nine Season 2009 mode, a jaw-dropping retelling and recreation of what’s considered the best season in bike racing history, makes it not only stand out from its peers and predecessors, but also turn it into an actual must-have for racing game enthusiasts.
The fact the Switch version is a remaster of the massively inferior Wii version, by itself, is a huge disappointment. You’re getting less interesting visuals, worse controls, and shorter levels. Why was that version chosen to be the basis of the remaster? The Switch is underpowered, but it can handle an Xbox 360 game with ease. The motion controls aren’t even that interesting in this case. It saddens me to say this, but the Switch version of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed isn’t the blast from the past you’re looking for.
Serious Sam: Tormental is not mind-blowing, but it’s way more fun than it looks like at first glance. In fact, its main issue is the fact that it’s yet another indie roguelite in an increasingly saturated market, not any technical or design flaw of its own. Furthermore, it’s probably the best Serious Sam game released in years, now that I’m thinking about it.
I still don’t understand the reasoning behind remastering and re-releasing a game that had already been remastered and re-released in the past, but thankfully, Tumblebugs is so much fun that I quickly forgot about this behind-the-scenes nonsense. I usually prefer to play these “pick up and play” games on a portable, but Tumblebugs runs, looks, plays and loads so well on a PC, that it ended up becoming one of my favorite casual computer games to play for a few minutes at a time.
Taito Milestones is a reminder that Taito has released more than just Space Invaders and Breakout clones. Sadly, it is also a reminder as to why none of the games included in this collection are fondly remembered.
A few annoying issues here and there may tarnish its overall quality a little bit, but boy, did Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga deliver. I was expecting for it to be great, but wasn’t expecting for it to basically rival Super Mario Odyssey in terms of charm and amount of collectibles.
It’s silly, and it’s pretty janky, but the overall campy nature of the franchise made me overlook some of the issues present in The House of the Dead: Remake. As of now, its performance needs some tinkering, and the developers really need to fix the responsiveness of the gyro aiming functionality. Still, I had a lot of fun with it.
Slipstream is a fantastic game if you’re looking for a retro-style arcade racer to satiate your nostalgic needs. It knows its audience, and wants to please that specific niche of gamers. It’s a game that proves that solo developer, ansdor, could (and should) be hired by Sega in order to handle a brand new entry in the OutRun series. If you’re not into retro racers, be it by being more fond of the improvements seen in modern racing games or the fact you have never liked these simpler, more limited experiences in the first place, Slipstream isn’t going to change your mind.
Kombinera isn’t a puzzle game that will please most fans of the genre. It is really minimalistic, and its difficulty curve is all over the place. Still, it is oddly charming. There is something about its really creative premise, as well as the fact Atari is backing it, that makes it amusing. At times, it does feel like I’m playing a hidden gem from the 80s, a game Atari could have released back in its heyday.