Leonardo Faria's Reviews
I had a great time with Hatsune Miku Logic Paint S despite not being a fan of the source material. You can easily ignore the anime and idol aesthetics and enjoy what’s essentially one of the best picross titles in the market.
That little cutscene nearing the end of the game and the surprisingly competent voice acting are basically the only minuscule silver linings in an otherwise patience endurance test. Adios is a story-driven game with a boring story and a lack of compelling characters. It’s full of minigames that are either broken or just too boring to play. It’s ugly to look at and its framerate is nauseating. Considering the fantastic premise, this should have been a lot better and this is what disappoints me the most.
Even if Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection features some abhorrent gameplay issues, something about it still makes it an entertaining game. You will die over and over again, but you won’t rage quit as quickly as you would imagine with a game riddled with so many inconveniences.
All in all, despite still not being a fantastic achievement when it comes to its presentation, Beach Buggy Racing 2: Island Adventure is easily one of the more full-bodied kart racing options available on the Switch. Sure, competing against Mario Kart is basically a death sentence, but considering its great controls and nonsensical amount of content are being sold for a surprisingly reasonable price tag, I’d say this one is easily worth picking up.
Estranged: The Departure is hindered by a truckload of technical issues, namely in its controls and framerate, but considering the hardware we’re talking about and the fact it was developed by a single person, it’s a game worth praising at the end of the day. Its story is a bit predictable and its combat sections are beyond bland, but all in all, you’re paying just five bucks for a surprisingly hardy first-person horror game that actually demands a bit from the Switch’s hardware. I have nothing but respect for the game and its developer, even if it’s far from perfect.
Despite the surprisingly great controls, Gensou Skydrift is a low budget disappointment. It’s ugly, it doesn’t feature a lot of content, and it’s not exactly the most accessible game if you’re not a die hard fan of the Touhou franchise, since you won’t understand a single thing about its plot otherwise.
In an era so devoid of proper RTS releases, Stronghold: Warlords stands out as a breath of fresh air. It appeals to both newcomers, with its excellent AI and voiced hint system, as well as veterans, with its deep mechanics and endless possibilities on how to create the best kind of stronghold against your enemies.
This is still far from what I expect from a proper next-gen racing game, but Monster Energy Supercross 4 is a pretty good game in its own right. It’s brutally challenging at first, but rewarding. It is chock-full of content, with a sizeable career mode, lots of tracks and licensed bikers, and a great track editor to boot.
In Rays of the Light is a massively disappointing game hampered by its confusing nature and abysmal optimization. So far, it’s the PS5-specific game with the single worst framerate in the console’s fresh, yet ever growing library. It’s a shame, considering that Sergey Noskov’s previous effort was such a delightful surprise, but this one fails to deliver in every single aspect except its soundtrack.
All I can say without spoiling things for you readers is that it’s a game worth experiencing. Despite the myriad of grammatical errors, this is an incredibly smart story that will catch players off guard with its inventive twists. It’s also one hell of a fun mix between an RPG and a rhythm game.
This game might be set in Ancient Mesopotamia, but there’s more bureaucracy in here than your average trip to the DMV, not to mention the lack of a true sandbox mode available right from the get-go. A commendable effort from a two-man team, but one that probably bit a bit more than they could chew.
As a project developed by a group of recently graduated game developers, Mail Mole is worthy of praise. It runs well on the Switch, it’s mostly devoid of bugs, and its character design is quite cute. Sadly, it’s a generic platformer with a very simple premise and forgettable level design.
When compared to other monster truck simulators out in the market, Monster Jam Steel Titans 2 is still miles ahead of its competition in terms of performance, gameplay, and overall amount of content. The problem is that there isn’t a lot of new content included in here to justify its existence as a full-fledged, pricey sequel.
I cannot think of any other text-based game that made me want to go for another playthrough with completely different outcomes as soon as I had finished my first one. This might not be the most visually compelling or action-heavy game released in recent memory, but it’s easily one of my favorite games in 2021 so far.
The developers did include some neat features, such as a story-focused reward system for collecting crystals and a (boring but still existing) horde mode, but at the end of the day, this feels way too clunky and unfinished for what’s basically a port of a Steam game released in 2015.
Room to Grow isn’t spectacular, but it’s not bad either. It’s a simple puzzle game with a very interesting gameplay mechanic that becomes a bit tiresome after a while due to its repetitive nature. The excessively simplistic visuals and sound effects don’t add much to it either. It’s fairly enjoyable, but as mentioned with many other small Steam indies I’ve tackled in the past, this would have been a better fit on the Switch or a phone instead of a PC.
Taxi Chaos isn’t really terrible. All in all, it’s a decent attempt to replicate what made Crazy Taxi so good twenty years ago, but in a new era of consoles. It’s just completely devoid of charm, with dull characters, visuals, and soundtrack. It’s fun for a few minutes, it manages to scratch your nostalgic itch for a while, but it’s definitely not a substitute for Sega’s near-perfect arcade franchise.
I was expecting for the Blizzard Arcade Collection to be a simple throwback to the company’s earlier days. However, I certainly wasn’t expecting to be overwhelmed with tons of extra content and brand-new Definitive Editions of each game included in the collection. This is a work of love, a fantastic tribute to one of the most iconic developers of the past thirty years and their iconic early titles.
Steven Universe: Unleash the Light is, for all intents and purposes, a premium mobile game now available on the Switch. Don’t expect a lot of depth or sidequests: this is a mostly linear RPG experience that was tailor made for a younger audience.
It’s not only a well-designed puzzle platformer with good controls, but also a story-driven treat for the eyes and ears, a game that will make you care about a bunch of moving rectangles, somehow. It might not be very replayable (actually, let’s double down on this: it’s devoid of replayability), but it’s still pretty fun while it lasts.