Game Forces PT

"Don't change a winning team" is the great mantra of Nikoderiko: The Magical World. Niko and Luna's adventure may be exaggeratedly faithful to Donkey Kong Country and Crash Bandicoot, but when its inspirations are excellent and the execution is so neat, the result is necessarily a fun experience tailor-made for platform game lovers, with professional level designs, lots of secrets to find, a magnificent soundtrack by David Wise and a level of graphics and camera dynamism difficult to find in its contemporaries. The cost to be paid was the formation of its own identity, in a title that only goes against the tide to collide with small icebergs.

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Until Dawn is an interactive horror experience that, despite some technical flaws and animation inconsistencies, manages to offer a memorable narrative and an immersive environment. The game's ability to create suspense and tension, supported by an excellent soundtrack, maintains the player's interest throughout the story. There is an effort to update a well-rated title, although the characters' movements and facial expressions can break immersion at certain moments, the rich plot and meaningful choices make up for these imperfections. Even with its flaws, Until Dawn manages to provoke emotions that rival the best psychological horror experiences, becoming an important reference for fans of the genre.

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EA Sports FC 25 remains the top choice for football fans. This is largely due to the lack of competition, but there are still new features to be highlighted: the more realistic and precise gameplay, the more practical Career Mode and, the big highlight, the new Rush mode. Overall, the FC 25 innovates some details, without losing the familiarity that we have become accustomed to, both good and bad.

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Astro Bot is a beautiful tribute to the trajectory that PlayStation has covered in its 30 years of existence. It manages to prove that the 3D platform game style is still alive and that, above all, it can have a lot of quality. I can't remember the last time I felt so excited about playing such a simple title, but with so much content. Now comes the real question: "Is this Astro, the new PlayStation mascot?" In my opinion, I think there is no other character as impactful at this exact moment as Astro and, after a game of this caliber, it would be more than fair to place him as the new face of this great company.

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The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom is nothing short of a brilliant celebration of the series. Recapturing the structure of the classic games while transcending it with the innovations of the newer open-world adventures, this adventure combines the best of both worlds. Its familiarity is used to catch us off guard with its exotic and refined exploration. Zelda's debut as a protagonist was a long time coming, and a few growing pains and missteps in her dungeons don't undermine how triumphant it is.

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Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition does exactly what it sets out to do: give the average player a taste of what speedrunning is all about, and provide them with a sense of achievement and mastery over NES classics. It doesn't do much more, showing complacency in the superfluous extra modes, in the refusal to revamp the 13 classics it includes, and in the lack of interest in celebrating speedrunning culture or even the championships that birthed the game. This is a step backwards from NES Remix with humble ambitions, not reflected in the price of a proposal that could very well be a bonus on the Nintendo Switch Online service.

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With very visible changes compared to the first title, Darkest Dungeon II continues to be a game for those who find some pleasure in... repetition. With a challenging randomness system, we must always keep in mind that we never know how the expedition will go, that the strategy we prepared may be working one moment and, suddenly, our team may be dead and we have to start another expedition all over again. With this in mind: "Have courage. Do not give in. Go forward through the encroaching darkness and face your fears. Redemption, finally, can be found."

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Luigi's Mansion 2 HD may not have the immersive atmosphere, memorable humanoid ghosts and surprising sequences of the other games in the series, but it offers any Nintendo Switch owner an addictive experience of exploration and combat against otherworldly beings, with a deeply portable design that makes it perfect for consoles like the Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch. I'm not telling you anything new if you've already experienced this campaign on the 3DS, but that's because there's nothing new to say. Aside from the indispensable accommodations for the game to run on current hardware and a respectable improvement in presentation, this adventure has been ported to Nintendo's hybrid console under a glass dome, and there's no argument to win over those who still own Nintendo's last portable console.

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Splashing through SCHiM's stunning levels, watching its simple, but effective and human story, and absorbing its promising and ingenious elements, I believed that I would find in this indie an experience to praise and rub in the faces of friends and readers at every imaginable opportunity. And I would have found it, if I hadn't reached the credits without finding the glue that would bind all these components together: inventive and structured level segments, capable of squeezing exciting puzzles and platforming challenges from all these pieces, and preventing the gameplay from becoming an automatic and, occasionally, boring process.

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There are few turn-based strategy games, but I can say: few but good, and Capes falls into this category. It appears with its own identity in a theme that could become uninspired, and it uses several well-crafted strategies to establish itself in this corner of video games. I believe that players who want to delve into this genre will find their entry title here.

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20 years after its release, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year remains a brilliant surprise: it's surprising how much its adventures differ from each other and from Mario's standards, it's surprising how impressive the combat is after so long, and it's surprising how the adventure is pure fun at every step. Well, not all of them; unfortunately, there are still a good dose of backtracking that hinders the campaign. But the truth is that in this remake, which brings a complete and beautiful audiovisual remodeling and countless adjustments to the experience, a measured cut of these time-wasters is the biggest shortcoming we can point out.

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Like its previous titles, Brazilian developer Aquiris Game Studio has managed to show that this arcade genre is still appealing today. Horizon Chase 2 continues these ideas, making some small (well-made) changes to immerse players in this universe. I believe that this is a genre that will always be more appealing with a nostalgic effect, if well implemented, and that even new players will be able to have a pleasant and interesting experience here. It is a title to have in your library and invest some time in from time to time, thus avoiding feelings of repetition and monotony.

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If there's one game that's prodigiously multifaceted, it's Chicory: A Colorful Tale. There are no big "buts" to raise here; this indie project has something to offer every player - whether it's gifting those looking for a feel-good experience with a peaceful world full of warm activities and deep customization potential, or offering a polished adventure and exploration of impostor syndrome to those looking for a more structured, traditional and memorable journey.

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Stellar Blade presents an extremely polished experience that seeks inspiration from well-known titles. Fortunately, Shift Up has managed to unify these elements of different natures in a coherent and effective way, making the final result more than just the sum of its parts. The sexualization of the protagonist, although serving a commercial purpose, is also clearly a reflection of the culture of the title's country of origin, and is duly justified during the game. In the end, we can't help but recommend that you try Stellar Blade, so that you can confirm that it is indeed much more than just a pretty face!

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Sand Land brings us a formidable, comical narrative experience that at various times evokes the good energy that the late Akira Toriyama accustomed us to, with a rich open world to explore and a good vehicle customization system. It has some flaws, but overall, with everything positive it manages to convey to the player. We invite all fans (and not only) of Akira Toriyama to discover, once again, a small taste of what he gave us so well.

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Tales of Kenzara: Zau is a touching and emotional metroidvania that very literally and metaphorically portrays the pain of loss and the subsequent grieving process. The narrative is very strong and its world is a delight to discover and explore, just missing a more robust combat system and the resolution of some problems to be an experience that takes us to heaven. Still, I have no doubt that fans of this genre will find an absolutely captivating and memorable experience here.

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This was perhaps one of the games I most wanted to play in 2024. The theme of samurai in 19th century Japan is something that fascinates me immensely and, despite being a theme in many games over the last few years, this title had awakened me something through the trailers. However, the end result was disastrous, with terrible performance and gameplay that only gets away with it thanks to the combat (which, in turn, becomes repetitive very easily). The story is interesting but the way it is told is ineffective. which makes it difficult to interpret and at the end of the day, the only thing left is the combat which, perhaps even interesting for fans of “Soulslike”, however they won’t find the same difficulty as they do in a “NIOH”, for example In the end, Rise of the Ronin ends up being just another samurai game without a unique identity, which will only be recognized for being mediocre.

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Where we could see a genuine and enthusiastic recommendation, we ended up finding “just” a solid option to spend two or three hours. With a prosaic plot and fun but basic combat, Rose & Collection is a “diamond in the rough”, a solid base to snap and cry for more, which leaves us with a bittersweet reflection on the number of possible directions to take the narrative potential, ironic and mechanical in addition to the already competent half-league on display.

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Penny’s Big Breakaway is a game in which the idiomatic expression “first you find it strange, then you understand it” is perfectly applied. The first impact causes some strangeness and confusion to more modern gaming sensibilities, but as we progress and master the mechanics better, we find a real pearl in this experience. It will not yet be a milestone within the 3D platform genre, mainly due to some inconsistencies and some technical problems that disturb the experience, but it is a game that leaves us with our mouths watering, and praying that Penny ends up leaving in more adventures in the future.

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Splatoon 3: Expansion Pass appeared to be a guaranteed victory for Nintendo, after the developers of the shooter series discovered the perfect formula for this style of content in the previous game. However, a respectable search for a new direction and format for the solo campaign culminated in a gigantic drop in the quality and quantity of content, in practically all aspects - and the inclusion of Inkopolis Plaza does little or nothing to dampen it. Still, I'd be lying if I said that playing Side Order wasn't fun; Even though the merit comes mainly from the solid base game, the novelty factor and an irresistible experimentation component help to ensure our fun in an adventure, otherwise, with extremely obvious flaws.

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