Leonardo Faria's Reviews
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.
Call it a subversion of expectations, call it a revision on the tired walking simulator genre, call it what you will. Baby Steps is intentonally stupid and, first and foremost, just some perfect fodder for streamers. It’s, admittedly, occasionally funny, occasionally interesting to play, and a bit frustrating at times, though never in a ragequit-inducing kind of way. If anything, I was actually impressed with how the developers were actually able to come up with a halfway entertaining gameplay loop based on something as banal and stupid as walking.
At the end, it’s impossible not to feel disappointed by the end result. I know that not all games by both Suda and Swery are bangers, and that some jank is basically expected from their outings, but Hotel Barcelona could have been so much better. From a concept standpoint, it’s a banger, I really liked the premise. Regarding the gameplay loop, and the roguelike mechanics as a whole, again, all great… in theory. In practice, this game is hampered by framerate hiccups, infuriating input lag issues, and some juvenile humor coupled to some really poor writing.
Formula Legends is a slightly glitchy and unpolished racing game that still manages to entertain thanks to an interesting premise, an addictive gameplay loop, and a truly ungodly amount of content to unlock.
All in all, Otherskin is a game that is more interesting than the sum of its parts. Everything it has to offer, from its setting to its combat and DNA-absorbing gimmick, is… decent. But add all of these elements up, and you get a pretty enjoyable action adventure that doesn’t overstay its welcome nor tries to bite more than it can chew. A handful of annoying framerate-related issues and the occasional bug frustrated me, but that’s nothing that can’t be fixed with a few fixes and optimization patch.
I’m glad that Bubsy in: The Purrfect Collection exists, but only as a means to preserve a handful of (in)famous games for posterity, and not because the content included in it is actually worth bothering. Not a single title in this collection is worth your time, not even for an ironic playthrough, but hey, further generations now have access to titles like Bubsy II for the Game Boy and Bubsy 3D. They can be alerted as to what a truly heinous mascot platformer is. If you’re really craving for some retro platforming with a B-tier mascot spouting one-liners at all times (quite a specific craving, but I bet there’s at least three people out there asking for such), just grab the Gex Trilogy collection instead.
Still, I liked NBA 2K26 a bit more than its predecessors. The locked framerate and predatory monetary practices are, as always, a disappointment, but hopping into it on a portable, playing a few arcade rounds, and listening to what’s possibly the best soundtrack in a sports game ever, somewhat made up for these shortcomings. Is it better than the PS5 version? I don’t think so. Technically-speaking, it can’t even compete in the same terms. But did I have more fun with it than on a bigger console? Yep, without a doubt.
In fact, “not revolutionary, but it works” might as well be Metal Eden‘s overall tagline. Even if the art style is stale, the story is nothing special, and the combat doesn’t feel like it’s reinventing the wheel, it’s got a pretty solid gameplay loop, a really fun mixture of Doom-esque shooting with parkouring, and pretty decent level design.
Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion feels more like a completely different franchise when compared to its predecessor, given how different it is both visually and mechanically, but don’t think that’s a bad thing. By not trying to simply be “Armored Core in everything but name”, it now boasts an identity of its own, with an amazing combat system, world to explore, an addictive gameplay loop, and even a half decent story worth giving a crap about.
Varlet is the perfect definition of a mixed bag. It feels incomplete at parts, with some of its chapters feeling incredibly rushed. The writing isn’t the best, the schooltime activities were pointless, and the setting felt like a cliché. That being said, there was always something about it that made me somewhat ignore its shortcomings and make me want to push forward, be it the charming characters, decent presentation or actually interesting combat section. Yes, it clearly wants to be an alternative to Persona, and that is the quintessential losing battle, but it could have been a lot worse.
So what Fast Fusion really ended up feeling like is an update over Fast RMX, with just a handful of new elements added to the mix to make it stand out as something more than just a remaster or a definitive edition. That being said, it retains a superb core gameplay loop, and once again Shin’en proved they can handle Nintendo hardware better than even Nintendo themselves. As one of the very few Switch 2 exclusives so far (hell, Switch 2 games in general, even), it’s an easy recommendation.
Even if its emphasis on a boring story didn’t catch my attention, it’s hard not to fall for everything else The Rogue Prince of Persia had to offer. It’s a well-polished roguelike, developed by some of the most talented developers in the genre, featuring impeccable mobility, decent combat, and a pretty cool gameplay loop.