Leonardo Faria's Reviews
To be fair, what is actually disappointing about Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered is that, as a remaster, it’s not the most impressive piece of work out there. The colors are drab, the particle effects are still dated, and the gameplay, whilst pretty good, should have received an extra layer of polish. With that being said, I had a bit of fun with it. Everything that had to do with Shinji Mikami’s side of the project, namely the gameplay, worked wonders for me. The Suda51 side of things was a mixed bag at best.
There was never a moment prior to Totally Spies!: Cyber Mission‘s release when the game didn’t look like it wasn’t going to be a mess, but at the very least, I was expecting for it to be somewhat tolerable as a solo experience. It’s not a fun co-op game, and it’s downright disastrous if you decide to play it by yourself (which, let’s face it, you will, you won’t convince anyone else to join you in such ordeal).
You can have quite a bit of fun playing as Ash Williams or Michael Myers in RetroRealms Arcade, but I can’t help but think that this collection’s entire structure is completely unnecessary. Both Halloween and Ash vs. Evil Dead could/should have been released as separate games altogether, and for a slightly lower pricetag, devoid of DLC practices.
Don’t get me wrong; at the end of the day, this is still Yakuza Kiwami, and that means you can have a lot of fun with. I loved revisiting it, for instance. The great writing, characters, music, everything is here. But the Switch just isn’t the best place to enjoy this kind of game. From the unstable framerate to the short battery life, this immersive narrative brawler needs to be enjoyed on a big screen, with great visuals and framerate. Which you can do, if you play it on a PS4, PS5, or Xbox.
Hot Wheels Monster Trucks: Stunt Mayhem is an easygoing and accessible monster truck game, but also one that suffers from a severe lack of modes and overall variety. It’s as shallow as the puddles you use to throw your Hot Wheels miniatures into. Kids will enjoy this for a few hours, but that’s about it. For anyone else, Monster Jam Showdown has been released just a few months ago, and it offers a lot more bang for your buck when compared to this game.
Reviewing Clock Tower: Rewind was a mixed bag because, on one hand, I get it. I understand the importance of Clock Tower, and the impact that game had on survival horror as a whole. As a piece of gaming history, finally archived and widely available on the West, this is a fantastic release. The added interviews, cartoon animations and soundtrack are a neat bonus. But as a game, this has aged incredibly poorly.
This is not at all a mindblowing platformer, but this is clearly meant for a younger and more casual audience. Considering that specific factor, I can’t call Care Bears: To The Rescue a bad game. A shocking example on how to make a platformer/shooter hybrid for small children, it’s not a very memorable game for anyone above the recommended demographic’s age range, but it’s also cute and competent. I gets the job done without any major issues.
Levels are a bit too long, and the platforming could have been a bit better, but all in all, The Smurfs: Dreams is a pleasant surprise. With great visuals, a spectacular orchestrated soundtrack, and quite a lot of content, I simply wasn’t expecting to like this little guy as much as I did. In a console full of platforming juggernauts such as the Switch, it might be hard to justify purchasing it if you’re not exactly a fan of the Smurfs franchise, but I’d still recommend it to any platforming fan.
It’s almost odd that one of the best things about Dragon Ball Sparking! Zero is the fact it’s not trying to be the most technically sound or balanced fighting game in the franchise. Yes, it’s inconsistent and occasionally frustrating, but the sheer amount of stuff to do, and characters to play as, all culminated in me feeling like I was just playing an incredibly pretty PS2 game from back in the day, back when developers would try to fit in a DVD with as much content and fanservice as possible, balancing be damned.
Even if, mechanically speaking, there is nothing special about Kong: Survivor Instinct, and it’s filled with questionable decisions and clunky sections, I do appreciate the uniqueness in its premise. Its developmental team tried to come up with an interesting mixture between a cinematic platformer, a metroidvania, and an apocalyptic survival game, with the limited budget they had at their disposal.
What I really wanted to do (and loved) is dance in VR. Just Dance VR: Welcome to Dancity absolutely nails in this regard. I have no idea why Ubi took this long to release a virtual reality version of one of its most successful franchises. It’s a perfect fit for a portable VR system like the Quest. Even if the current selection of songs is admittedly sparse, it does cover a wide assortment of genres and styles.
It is, admittedly, pretty loyal to the source material, and can be fun with the right mindset and group of friends. If you can either put up with playing it on reduced visual settings in order to mitigate its optimization issues, or if you decide to just wait for a few patches, there might be some hope on what’s essentially a fun, but flawed, multiplayer shooter, one which will be constantly (and, unfortunately, unfairly) compared to a much better multiplayer game, also inspired by Starship Trooper, which also came out this year.
I will commend NBA 2K25 for being more accessible than basically any other modern iteration of the franchise I can think of, making this more of an interesting purchase for newcomers to the franchise. Veterans and/or fans will still buy this in droves, no matter what, so for them, this is just business (in more than one sense of the word) as usual.
Nightdive has helped revitalize this forgotten gem, with incredible improvements to its visuals, framerate, and controls. It might not be one of the most glamorous outings by the company (I really don’t think a lot of people are even aware that this game has existed for nearly 30 years), but it’s also one of their most impressive feats so far. Finally letting this underrated title have its time to shine on PC and mainstream consoles, you can’t help but respect the hell out of them for that.
I may not think that UFO 50 fully succeeded at feeling like an actual compilation of 8-bit games released for a long-lost console in the early 80s, with pretty much all of its titles feeling actually like modern indies covered in a retro coat of paint, but when a good chunk of these titles is so much fun, that’s just anecdotal.
In a way, I get it: there isn’t a lot that differs Earth Defense Force: World Brothers 2 from its predecessor. It’s a bunch of new levels and characters, with the added benefit of feeling a bit more polished than before. With that being said, just being able to enjoy more of a shockingly competent formula with slightly better visual effects, less glitches and even more content is already great in my books. It’s still tons of fun, so “more of the same” in this case is a good thing.
I think that the best thing I can say about Parking Garage Rally Circuit is that I wish this was actually available on the Saturn, as it’s an absolutely phenomenal retro achievement. As cliché as it might sound, it is a perfect recreation of a Saturn game, from its visuals to its simple physics and scope. It plays well, even if it’s a bit too hard at times. It might lack some polish in some aspects, but it more than makes up for it in terms of charm.
It may have taken nearly three years for the port to be released, but it’s basically the same game as the PS5 version, if you’re a Series X owner. For Series S owners, there may be one or two setbacks, such as the framerate cap, but the game is still beautiful and very much enjoyable. The final verdict is simple: Kena has issues, but it’s still one of the most fascinating indies released over the past few years. I fully encourage you to give it a go, if you still haven’t at this point.
All in all, Victory Heat Rally suffers from a handful of issues, but what really matters is that it is a really fun and easygoing arcade racer. It’s not exactly meant to make you think very hard: just pick a course, pick a racer, and have at it with its intuitive drifting controls and adorable graphics. There isn’t too much of a reason to continue playing after the career mode is done, but it’s worth a shot regardless, especially if you can play it on the Switch or a device like the Steam Deck.
I’m not going to say that the re-release of Backyard Baseball ’97 is a game-changing moment for baseball titles, with MLB The Show still being equally accessible and enjoyable, but I’m glad this exists, and it’s so readily available on Steam. It’s a charming and nostalgic reminder to specific era of kid-centric PC gaming, when titles featured long and high-quality spritework and animations, and were filled to the brim with fun dialogue and simple controls. I guess you had to be there, but well… I was. So I’m glad I’m now able to revisit some of Humongous’ more “gamey” games in an easier manner.