Leonardo Faria's Reviews
Pardon the cliché, but Art of Rally is exactly that. It’s art. Not only is it one hell of an entertaining racing game, but it’s also a visual delight, a musical masterpiece, and a love letter to cars and racing in general. The developers took inspiration from lots of different gaming and non-gaming sources in order to create something unique and truly memorable.
I’m pleased with how robust Tennis World Tour 2 is. It looks decent, its framerate is great, its controls have been completely revamped, and it’s chock-full of content. I may not have cared that much for its card system, nor have I enjoyed what they have done to its serve mechanics, but as a whole, this is a fantastic improvement over its predecessor. Right now, this is easily the best option if you want a tennis game on your current-gen console.
In many ways, you may think that Breakpoint is probably the most generic title in gaming history. It doesn’t look very appealing and its gameplay is as shallow as a puddle. Yet somehow, it works. It’s so simplistic and carefree to the point of becoming freeing. There’s just something about slashing tons of colorful enemies onscreen that makes me feel entertained.
Metamorphosis has a great premise and a very intelligent story. I’m not gonna lie, playing as a bug in a first-person perspective was impressive at first. Too bad this one of the most unpolished games I have ever played in my life.
Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact this collection exists. I love that I can play these classic Mario games on-the-go. They are still ridiculously fun. But I can’t help but feel annoyed with the lack of effort put into this collection. It just feels lazy. We are paying sixty dollars for emulated ROMs, available for a limited time only, with little to no quality of life improvements. This sets a very bad precedent for the future.
No Straight Roads‘ premise is fantastic. I loved its setting, its soundtrack, and I really enjoyed its cast of characters, despite how freakishly weird Mayday looks. A game all about saving the world with the power of rock should be an easy win for me. If it wasn’t for its clunky combat and controls, as well as its tendency to bite way more than it can actually chew, No Straight Roads would have been one of the best surprises of the year.
If anything, eFootball PES 2021 Season Update is very upfront and very honest. It offers almost nothing new when compared to last year’s PES 2020, besides some very minute (but still welcome) gameplay tweaks and some roster updates. However, it does feature a much more honest price tag as a means to compensate for that.
You’ll spend about fifteen minutes between downloading Road Bustle, getting all of its trophies, and uninstalling it. It actually took longer for me to write this review than it took me to 100% the freaking thing. Technically speaking, it’s not a completely broken game, as it does what it advertises, but it’s so pathetic and uninspiring.
The idea behind Double Kick Heroes is absolutely amazing, and its soundtrack is oh so great. I really wanted to love it, considering how much I love most rock-centered rhythm games, but this game is a mess when you play in harder difficulties.
Playing Street Power Soccer right after tackling another lighthearted arcade football experience in Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions just makes the overall experience even more annoying. It’s not pretty to look at, its soundtrack is atrocious, and its gameplay is way too stiff for a freaking freestyle game.
Captain Tsubasa: Rise of New Champions is exactly what I wanted from a game based off the classic anime franchise. It looks the part, it’s filled with overdramatic cutscenes and set pieces, and its gameplay doesn’t exactly follow the rules of football to a tee. This is basically the closest to a Super Mario Strikers or one of those older SNK football games you will find in the market nowadays.
I was really hoping Tamarin was going to be the spiritual sequel to Jet Force Gemini I’ve been waiting for the past twenty years. What I ended up getting was a carbon copy of an old game with even clunkier controls, underwhelming production values, a terrible setting, and not a single droplet of charisma or humor.
I am beyond disappointed. Bounty Battle has such a fantastic premise and such an amazing roster, but calling this half-baked doesn’t even scratch the surface of its issues. It looks bland, its sound department is mediocre at best, it features an underwhelming selection of modes, it’s a bit glitchy, and to top things off, its gameplay is just not fun.
This is the third time in a row that Rayark Games releases a game with little to no fanfare or prior promotion, and that game ends up being a surprising, well-crafted gem. MO: Astray is a fantastic little indie platformer that manages to be really engaging and creepy with its storytelling, while also managing to entertain with a very unique and intuitive control scheme.
Inmost is the rare case of a really good game that intentionally tries to be discomforting and uneasy due to its themes. I liked its visuals, level structure, and sound design, but it’s hard for me to actively recommend it. It’s just way too downtrodden and depressing in a way that it almost demotivates you to play it for long.
This is getting more and more frustrating with each new iteration. NBA 2K21 is not a bad basketball game. It’s robust. It’s realistic. It’s really fun if all you want is a quick match with a friend or the CPU. The problem is that very few additions were included when comparing this game to NBA 2K20, with its additional monetization practices getting even more absurd with each new iteration. When will enough be enough?
Hotshot Racing is a nice throwback to the heyday of stimulating and cheerful arcade racers of the early 90’s. It’s as challenging as your average Ridge Racer or Virtua Racing, but sadly, nowhere near as charming.
Considering previous reviews for other platforms, I was expecting for MX vs. ATV All Out to be way worse than what it ended up being. It’s by no means a great game, as it’s quite boring and performs poorly. However, I still managed to have my fair share of fun with it, mostly by wasting my time looking for collectibles in its interesting open world mode.
I just feel happy playing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2. After feeling disappointed with the re-release of another childhood gem of mine, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles, I was worried this game was going to be another case of a poorly aged title that relied more on nostalgia than its actual quality. I’m so glad I was wrong.
Mask of Mists is just fine. I’ve played much better games, but I’ve also played a ton of games that were a lot worse. For a seemingly lower budget title, it gets the job done if you’re looking for a short and straightforward Skyrim lookalike. It even has some inventive puzzles, which surprised me. It might be very janky, unpolished, and a bit uninventive, but you can notice the developers gave their best shot when making this project.