Leonardo Faria's Reviews
I may have one or two complaints about the $60 pricetag, but at the end of the day, this is the ultimate version of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. A magnificent gem half a dozen people played back on the Gamecube is now widely available on a more successful machine, with a handful of audiovisual improvements, whilst keeping that pristine combat system and gameplay loop intact. Whilst I wish there were more additions to this pricey remake/remaster (hell if I know how to label it), it’s exactly what I wanted.
Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is a tricky beast. On one hand, I was impressed by the realistic visuals, the voice acting, the music, and Senua’s growth as a character. On the other hand, its pacing was awkward, even though it was short. It suffered from a lackluster third act. It’s pretentious, to an arrogant degree. It was also quite devoid of gameplay, focusing more on spectacle than substance.
Is there a reason to pick Samurai Warriors 4 DX up if its sequel has been readily available on PC for the past couple of years? Yes. That is, if you’re into Musou-style catharsis. It might not be as pretty or polished as its sequel, but it makes up for it with a lot (and boy, do I mean a LOT) of content.
I still think it’s not the single greatest indie of all time, but there’s no denying there’s a lot to like about Braid, especially if you decide to pick up this Anniversary edition. Having this on the Switch, with downright gorgeous visuals, a neat screen resolution, and so many additional levels, is just a no-brainer. Even if you don’t consider it to be the big daddy of the indie scene, it’s an important title, and it’s worth checking out, at the very least, for you to learn a bit more about the history of gaming, and how this little piece of software changed the world without even trying that hard.
Reviewing PO’ed: Definitive Edition is weird because, sure, the game is actually terrible, but it’s not Nightdive’s fault at all. On the contrary, they have done quite a lot of work remastering its visuals and improving its controls. Sadly, the core ideas, the original level design, those haven’t changed at all, and Nightdive wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.
It’s impeccably well-designed, with a ton of secrets to unfold, but I also feel it wasn’t that much fun at all times. I’m all for a game not holding my hand throughout its entire runtime, but it didn’t need to feel so cryptic, and so focused on trial-and-error, especially when its checkpoints were way too far away from each other. At times, I loved exploring its many secrets. Other times, I felt so frustrated I wanted to throw my Switch across the room. All in all, it’s still worth checking out if you’re into a deceptively complex metroidvania, but be aware of some truly obnoxious design choices and roadblocks.
Awesome. This is Mullet MadJack in a nutshell. It could have easily been just another first-person shooter with a neat visual gimmick, but its developers went above and beyond with a lot of style and a fantastic gameplay loop, which is equally enjoyable in either Easy or Hard difficulties, for completely different reasons. It doesn’t matter if you just want to feel overpowered against an army of robots, or if you’re looking for a challenge: Mullet MadJack delivers in spades.
The gameplay loop became repetitive after a while, as there is just so much you can do in terms of trading, loot, and exploring. The combat was an utter joke. I appreciate the effort, but this just didn’t land with me at all…
You need the proper mindset to enjoy it properly. If what you want is a relaxing, exploratory game, and if you’re into collectionism and task-completion, without having to actually resort to any complex mechanics or hardships, this will be a perfect fit. If not, you may find this game to be quite boring, possibly a bit pretentious. Thankfully, I sided with the former.
Of course, there’s the everlasting conundrum regarding 2K’s monetization practices, but this game did not feel as grindy or egregious as its basketball counterparts. If you are not into online play, you won’t have a lot of options; you will most likely spending many hours grinding for experience points to upgrade your avatar. Thankfully, the gameplay is downright impeccable.
The Switch version of Sticky Business is less of a game, and more of a very clunky and shallow creative tool with not a lot to entice players for long. The progression system is silly, the gameplay loop lacks any kind of excitemente, and the controls and interface are embarassingly bad, never taking advantage of the Switch’s touchscreen, or even giving us the bare minimum of a completely cursor-based interface.
Zombies, Aliens and Guns is probably one of the least ambitious and memorable games I’ve ever played, but oddly enough, it was far from being bad. It fulfilled its reason to exist, which was to distract me for about two hours in a Thursday afternoon, entertaining me with its accessible controls, easygoing level of difficulty, and easy achievements. I played it, beat it, had a bit of fun with it, and will now probably forget about its existence. There’s nothing wrong about being competent but largely disposable.
A Difficult Game About Climbing is obviously frustrating, and I don’t exactly think it’s a fun pasttime, but it’s exponentially more enjoyable than the horrendous Getting Over It With Bennett Foddy. It’s actually beatable with enough trial and error. Its mechanics, whilst not exactly polished to the brim, work as intended, with no intentional input lag. It’s still clearly meant for Let’s Play youtubers to film themselves losing their minds over it, but it can still be a passable challenge if you’re up for the task.
New Star GP is adorably retro in its visuals and vibes, but it’s got some surprising amount of depth and an interesting career mode. A little hidden gem in the racing scene, without a doubt.
Had Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade: Wrath of the Mutants been released in, say, 2021, I would have definitely complained about it, but I would have also said there was no better option for us fans out there. In a post Cowabunga Collection and Shredder’s Revenge world, however, this game feels almost like a joke. I don’t know who this game is for. By being so dull, so lifeless, so devoid of joy and excitement, Wrath of the Mutants actually stands out like a sore thumb.
It’s far from being a bad game, mind you. There’s quite a bit to like about it, such as its Half-Life-esque presentation and expansive levels. With that being said, it’s not as over-the-top, and as a result, entertaining, as its predecessor, which featured better combat sections and more replayability. It does scratch a very specific itch. If you want to play something that vaguely resembles the original Half-Life in scope and gameplay, I think that Phantom Fury can satiate said niche.
Bear in mind that I appreciate the attempts at spicing up a Cretaceous-era gameplay loop with elements like the stress meter and a (forgettable, but still extant) story, but all in all, Lunar Lander Beyond is best enjoyed, and then forgotten, in 15 to 20 minute bursts. There was nothing about it that irritated me, but rarely did the game wow me, very rarely did it impress me. It’s a very honest attempt at reviving another Atari IP without the need of turning it into yet another Recharged title, but there’s just so much that you could do to update something that was already quite limited in scope even back in the 80s.
I’m not going to say that The Epyx Collection: Handheld is an easy recommendation, but it’s a fantastic opportunity for retro gaming enthusiasts to experience a few hidden gems which had previously only been available on a very obscure, but very underrated portable system. You may think this collection is a waste of time because nobody (aside from me and half a dozen other weirdos) owned a Lynx back in the day, but games like Gates of Zendocon and Blue Lightning are still amazing, more than 35 years later.
I may have enjoyed the shallow, but ever amusing combat sections featured in this collection, but I had to endure utterly boring VN sequences in order to reach the next one. There was also not a lot of substance in terms of lasting appeal and amount of content, despite the “Collection” name in its title. The ridiculousness of the premise doesn’t entirely make up for the technical shortcomings or the boring plotlines, but it’s still amusing in shorter bursts.
Corn Kidz 64 may have its fair share of issues, but it clicked with me. The visuals, the exact kind of instrumentation you’d expect from an 12MB cartridge, the nonsensical emphasis on collecting everything on sight… it’s all there. Add in some charming animations and some shockingly great level design, and what you have here is basically a staple for all future indie developers to look upon when deciding to make a N64-inspired retro platformer.