Leonardo Faria's Reviews
I actually have very little to complain about Neon Inferno. It’s just an incredibly well-crafted action platformer with amazing visuals, great controls, a tough-but-fair level of difficulty, and some visceral setpieces. Even if cyberpunk games just don’t impress me as much as they used to nowadays, this little gem stands out by simply being one of the most entertaining action platformers I’ve seen in a while.
I can’t say I felt fooled playing a game that is literally called A Pinball Game That Makes You Mad. It’s exactly what it title implies. With controls that work well enough, its nonsensical level of challenge stems entirely from its ludicrous level design. It is beatable, but not without a lot of trial, error, and cursing.
Digital Eclipse has done it yet again. Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is a fantastic compilation of the earlier years of the seminal franchise, not only featuring yet another high-quality documentary for fans to enjoy, but also featuring remastered and revamped ports of almost all of the Mortal Kombat games released in the nineties. Sure, it includes crap like Mortal Kombat Advance and Special Forces, but if you’re to preserve the history of franchise, you gotta give the bad games in the franchise the same kind of treatment. It’s just a delight for fans and gaming historians alike.
Despite not being particular difficult or outright scary, Alien: Rogue Incursion Evolved Edition nails its premise, being a tense, engaging and atmospheric game. It’s the perfect balance between true claustrophobic survival horror (like Isolation was) and outright action-packed shooter (like how Colonial Marines should have been). It’s pretty fun and completely playable on PC, but if you’re given the opportunity to play it in a virtual reality headset, then absolutely play it in VR.
It could have easily been marketed as a brand new IP set in Purgatory; it would have still been generic, the typical game to be released on Gamepass and enjoyed for a month, but it wouldn’t have felt like an attempt to cash in on a dormant franchise’s nostalgic appeal despite having nothing to do with it.
As a game itself, Chicken Run: Eggstraction is fine, completely competent, even if it’s not the most fantastic stealth title in the world. But when you combine its simple but effective gameplay loop (which can also be enjoyed with a friend in local co-op) with some jaw-dropping cutscenes, excellent voice acting, and some lovely British dry wit, you get a game that will rarely make you feel bored.
It’s just an underwhelming cash grab. By featuring dated visuals, unresponsive controls, and barely any connection to its source material whatsoever, there is no way I can recommend this console version of Fast & Furious: Arcade Edition to anyone, even die-hard fans of the franchise.
Ball x Pit is what I love the most about Devolver Digital’s curation: scouting and publishing ideas that sound completely chaotic and nonsensical, only for them to end up working so much better than anyone could have ever predicted. The combination of bullet hell shooters, block puzzles, city management, and traditional roguelike elements are all seemingly random ingredients that work incredibly well together, resulting in one of the most addictive roguelite gameplay loops in recent memory.
Annoying visual issues aside, which I hope can be patched with a future update, I had a great time playing Persona 3 Reload on the Switch 2. It’s an odd case of a Persona game where the gameplay kicks off right away, but the plot takes a while to show up. Once it does, you’re in for a ride.
Pac-Man World 2: Re-Pac won’t be anyone’s brand new favorite game, but I seriously can’t find anything egregious to say about it. It’s a really competent remake of a fun but unpolished gem from back in the day. So when you fix its issues, beef up its visuals, and add in just a bit more content, what you have here is exactly that: a gem.
In theory, doing a thorough explanation of Nicktoons & The Dice of Destiny‘s features, gameplay and presentation might not sound like the most exciting thing in the world. But this is a clear case of a game that is a lot more interesting and fun than the actual sum of its parts, thanks to its irresistible charm.
It just made me smile and feel good about myself while playing, with its adorable presentation, great sound design, and easygoing gameplay. I have to take into account that this is, first and foremost, a family game: it’s meant for kids, and for parents to play alongside their children. In no moment did it feel challenging or complex, and to be honest, that’s totally fine. It never felt condescending, either.
Digimon Story: Time Stranger is everything I wanted from a higher-budgeted sequel to the criminally underrated and overlooked Cyber Sleuth. By upping the ante in terms of plot, length, stakes, visuals, and even gameplay, what we have here is more than a high-quality licensed manga game. This is easily one of the best JRPGs I’ve played in a while. Without a doubt, the best monster collecting JRPG with “Mon” in its name you can grab right now. Take notes, Game Freak.
Yooka-Replaylee is, by and large, the same 2017 game you know and (hopefully) love, with just an extra layer of polish, less bugs, and more content to enjoy. I might not agree with all of its features, as well as how easy the game feels when compared to the original, but there’s no denying that this is still one hell of an entertaining platformer, with some incredible level design, amazing music, and outstanding visuals.
Angry Video Game Nerd 8-Bit is part tough-but-fair NES game, part brand new (and highly nostalgic) AVGN episode. Even if it’s painfully short (again, it’s actually a game that can be played on a console from 1985), and even if some deaths felt cheap, I kept playing it with a dumb smile on my face all the time. More than just cheap nostalgia for one of the most famous and important internet celebrities of all time, this is purely and simply a pretty solid 2D action platformer.
What you have here is a very stripped down basketball game. It’s not detailed, doesn’t look amazing (though it runs at a phenomenal framerate), but for the intended audience, I think NBA Bounce is a pretty good entry port for newcomers and kids. What really matters is that it’s easygoing, responsive, completely devoid of microtransactions, and great to pick up and play.
It might be completely based on Mario Party, but there are enough gameplay elements included in Lego Party to make it feel like an actual proper competitor, and not just a mere clone. To be fair, it actually borrowing a lot of elements from its famous source of inspiration actually made it stand out from the myriad of failed clones released over the past few decades, with just enough of the right innovations added to the mix.
Make no mistake, by no means is Wizordrum a bad game. The game features some good level design, and it’s simply impossible to mess up a gameplay loop inspired by Heretic and old-school Doom. But this is the issue: it’s just a very derivative game, whose main appeal (it being heavily inspired by Heretic) feels less impactful after the release of Nightdive’s Heretic remaster collection.
This could have been an interesting title if there were actually puzzles, goals, and something else of substance for you to do. Instead, what we have here is something that feels more like a tech demo. Minimalist in design; mechanics that are sound and work well, but are never realized to their full potential; a really short duration that, still, somehow, manages to overstay its welcome after a short while.
I still don’t think this is a game changer in the franchise, or in football gaming as a whole, but after years of diminishing returns, seeing the slightest of improvements instead of just more of the same is already enough to make me recommend EA Sports FC 26 over a good chunk of its predecessors.