Leonardo Faria's Reviews
It is more of a tool than a game, but I had a great time with Virtuoso. I’m a sucker for musical production, and I can’t help but laud the devs at Really Interactive for coming up with a ridiculously easy way for a person like me to compose, perform and download brand new creations of my own. I just hope they continue supporting it down the line.
Gran Turismo 7 was a mixed experience. I love its car loving philosophy, giving us gearheads a playground to mess around with some of the most beautiful and powerful machines ever created. Sadly, for every aspect Polyphony has knocked out of the park, such as the quality of the models and the Music Rally mode, there was something else that made the overall package feel like a glorified PS3 racing game covered with a next-gen, ray-traced coat of paint.
It can entertain you for a few minutes because, as I’ve previously mentioned, VR can make anything amusing for a while, but you’ll quickly realise there’s not a lot to do in here. The immersion will also quickly fade away due to the poor visuals and subpar physics.
UNBINARY is not a groundbreaking VR puzzler, and for every excellent idea, such as its visuals or its movement system, it is crippled by its short length, glitches or its terrible camera system… but it’s still a fine game. It brings nothing new to the table (well, aside from its excellent graphics), but if you’re a fan of VR puzzlers, or pretty much anything that would even remotely remind you of Portal in any way, shape or form, you could do a lot worse. It’s pretty short as well, so you can knock it out in a lazy afternoon.
Considering it was originally conceived as a joke, the fact that Conan Chop Chop might actually be the best Conan game of all time goes to show the sheer amount of dedication put into it by Mighty Kingdom and Funcom. Sure, it has issues, but its absolutely dumb art style coupled with a borderline arcadey “pick up and play” gameplay loop resulted in a nearly addictive roguelike experience that fits like a glove on a portable like the Switch.
It’s sad to see such a promising idea for a game fall flat like this one. Music Racer: Ultimate could have been a somewhat worthy successor to Audiosurf if only the act of looking for a custom song to play in it wasn’t such a nightmare, all thanks to a terrible UI and search functionality. The seizure-inducing visuals and tracks that rarely match the beat of the song didn’t help either.
Between its mediocre visuals, unappealing presentation, borderline mindless gameplay loop, and complete lack of interesting set pieces or boss battles, there is really no reason to give this aggressively bland title a go, when there are literal dozens of much better dungeon crawlers available on the Switch. Ironically enough, most of them coming from NIS America themselves.
Know what you’re getting into before deciding to tackle Circuit Superstars. It’s not a bad game at all, and it’s really fun at times, but it’s neither a retro arcade racer or a simple “pick up and play experience”. It might look like Micro Machines, but it lacks the simplified physics and overall zaniness from that series. As it stands, Circuit Superstars is a game that requires a bit more from your average arcade racing player, but once you get used to its gameplay, you’ll be greeted with a pretty fun and refreshing experience.
I am not going to call this a commendable effort, because honestly, this is how Cyberpunk 2077 should have been released in the first place. Sadly, committing to last-gen platforms at first, combined with fan demand, death threats, and the COVID-19 pandemic, resulted in a botched version of a great game that left a horrendous first impression. That is not the case with this PS5 version. This is how Cyberpunk 2077 should be played.
It’s not that River City Girls Zero is inherently bad. It definitely isn’t, but I do think that its title did the game no favors. The original River City Girls was amazing, elevating the Kunio-kun franchise to a previously unheard degree of quality, so attaching the name to a port of a really dated Super Famicom game made me (and will surely make everyone else) expect a lot more from it. Pay double attention before biting the bullet with this one.
I knew there was something special about GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon, but I didn’t expect for it to become this juggernaut of a roguelike that captivated me like no other game in the genre has ever done, and doubtfully will do in the foreseeable future. It’s not just about the jaw-dropping ukiyo-e visuals; it’s the addictive loot acquisition, the ultraviolent combat system, the enemy designs, and the sense of beating an entire level without ever getting touched by an immense boss, all culminating into what’s possibly my favorite roguelike of all time.
The fact that its aggressively bland campaign is, by far, the best part of the package says a lot about the overall quality of what this game has to offer. A multiplayer mode so clunky and so hell-bent on making you spend money on microtransactions to a beyond insane degree, you can’t even play it ironically, in order to make fun of it.
Sure, it might be a bit rough around the edges when put next to a few higher-budgeted fighting games, but The King of Fighters XV ended up being exactly what I wanted it to be. Kudos to SNK, for they have successfully delivered a banger after so many delays and setbacks.
The original game had a ton of potential, but it was quickly forgotten by players due to its original hardware limitations, unfortunate launch dates and poor sales. Nightdive revived a forgotten (and flawed) game, proving that there has always been potential in it. It was ahead of its time. I loved playing PowerSlave Exhumed, not only because of its fun combat and setting, but mostly due to its proto-metroidvania format and progression system, and can’t wait to see what Nightdive will unearth next.
The main problem with Breakout: Recharged is that the block breaking formula has spawned literal hundreds of different games over the past decades, a good chunk of them featuring more gameplay elements and content than this one. Why should I pick this one up instead of a Taito collection featuring Arkanoid or one of the dozens of Breakout clones published by Sometimes You? The only thing going for Breakout: Recharged is the authenticity badge it carries, the fact it is the return of the original block breaker franchise.
I wanted to play OlliOlli World thinking it was going to be a trippy and challenging arcade experience. Sure, it can be that if you want to, but what I liked the most about it was its inviting atmosphere, which made me want to tackle it as a borderline relaxing, “feel good” experience.
I did not expect to like The Company Man as much as I did. Sure, it has some gameplay limitations stemming from some design choices, but not only did I enjoy the fluidity of its controls, and especially its inventive boss battles, but I couldn’t stop laughing and relating to the unhealthy amount of postmodern corporate satire included in here.
Some people will hate its art style, while others will love it. Some people will call it way too punishing and overcomplicated. I may agree that it is a punitive game, but I couldn’t stop playing it. I loved almost everything the game offered me, from its slick graphics and neat storytelling, to the cathartic sensation of clearing an entire room full of goons without losing a single chunk of health. This is a game that will demand a bit more from players, but those who decide to stick with it will be rewarded for their patience.
There’s a lot to praise in Les Mills Bodycombat. When it hides the fact it’s a workout method, when it lets you believe you’re just playing a game that uses your body as the controller, it’s a blast. I adored its rhythm-based gameplay loop, its soundtrack, and the simplistic yet effective ways it rewarded my actions with visual stimulation.
I’m not going to deny that Sherlock Holmes: Crimes and Punishments isn’t a proper fit for a portable system, and it has aged somewhat weirdly. With that being said, a good game is a good game, no matter the platform it is released for. I still had quite a lot of fun with this title.