Leonardo Faria's Reviews
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.
The worst kind of bad game isn’t the one that is a total and complete train wreck. In Nightmare is the worst kind of bad game. It’s just absolutely uninteresting. Not good enough to be worth tackling, not bad enough to be enjoyed as a “so bad it’s good experience”, but also flawed enough not to be considered just downright mediocre. It’s boring and poorly designed.
Nightmare Reaper has the foundations of a pretty fun shooter, namely thanks to its strong combat and visceral nature. Sadly, I do not think its looter and roguelite elements improved its overall gameplay in any way. On the contrary, to be honest: the overall map randomization made some early levels insanely frustrating to deal with, while later stages felt like a cakewalk. It’s not a bad game, far from it, but you cannot beat the creativity and imagination of an actual human level designer.
I love games like this. Agent Intercept is the kind of fun arcade game we rarely see nowadays. It knows what it’s supposed to do, and achieves that with honors. It’s Spy Hunter for a new generation; a game full of insane set pieces, simple controls, a lovely sense of style, and replayable missions.
Tentacular is not exactly a groundbreaking achievement in physics-based puzzlers or VR gameplay, but it was still a pretty fun time, all things considered. It’s cute, it controls well, it’s funny when it needs to be, and it features enough comfort settings to please all kinds of VR users. It might have a few annoying issues here and there, namely its camera controls and lack of replayability (outside of its average-at-best sandbox, that is), but I’m beyond pleased with Devolver’s latest foray into VR gaming.
Monster Energy Supercross 5 is still a good racing game, just like its predecessor. I welcome the addition of a few new assists and difficulty settings that make the game slightly more appealing and accessible towards newcomers. With that being said, all of those additions could have been added in its predecessor, via a patch. I just sincerely don’t think this franchise needs to have a yearly release, as there is very little that differentiates this title from 2021’s iteration.
There’s a lot to like in Phantom Breaker: Omnia, namely its “easy-to-learn, not-so-hard-to-master” combat system and the sheer amount of fully voiced campaigns for players to enjoy on-the-go. It even controls surprisingly well on Nintendo’s archaic Joy-Cons, all things considered. The problem lies on its uninteresting character design, resulting in half of the roster looking like clones of each other, and the fact I legitimately cannot see its online community lasting for long, especially with Persona 4 Arena Ultimax right around the corner.
Gripes aside, I loved Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. I commend Atlus for releasing a fighting game as the sequel to what I consider to be its best Persona game ever, with tight controls, neat visuals, and most importantly, a fantastic story that will please each and every single Persona fan out there, be them fighting game fans or others. Even if the main game isn’t available on the Switch (and at this point, I don’t even know if it ever will), having this fighting banger on-the-go is worth the investment.
Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin might be as dumb as Limp Bizkit’s lyrics, but damn if it isn’t as fun as Wes Borland’s riffs.