Por um tempo curto Metroidvania era o meu gênero favorito dos games, muito por conta de Castlevania SOTN. Eu amo as mecânicas de exploração e a recompensa delas, e além disso o combate se misturando com tudo isso. Por fim, o tempo foi curto, pelo fato de eu acabar enjoando muito rápido do genêro, e até pouco tempo o meu metroidvania supremo era o Aria of Sorrow. Hollow knight eu até tentei jogar na epóca, porém eu como tinha dito estava enjoado do gênero. Eu acabei dropando Hollow knight mais ou menos no ano novo de 2021, e de fato eu acho que precisava disso. Precisava amadurecer mais um pouco para simplesmente me agraciar com o mais novo supremo metroidvania que eu ja joguei.

Jogabilidade[5/5]: Simplesmente perfeita! Moldada da melhor forma possível. Entregando principalmente velocidade e muita mecânica. Acho que essa é a parte principal desse jogo! O fato de que não é necessário você desbloquear as habilidades que te permite alcançar novos lugares, e usar das próprias mecânicas do jogo, mostra como ele foi perfeitamente moldado e muito bem feito.

Dificuldade[4.5/5]: A maior parte do tempo o jogo é bem fácil, ficando mais difícil para o final do jogo. Eu até acabei passando mais dificuldade para o final por que não sabia que dava para melhorar o ferrão do personagem durante a gameplay, então de certa forma, joguei o jogo da forma mais difícil sem querer, e sinceramente não tive tantas dificuldades. Acho que a dificuldade é bem acertada nas DLCs, trazendo alguns bosses do jogo principal mais fortes e rápidos, e alguns bosses novos que são difíceis demais! E eu gosto dessa dificuldade do jogo, não é apelativa e principalmente te força a bolar estratégias e a se acostumar com os times dos bosses. Acho que se não fosse a facilidade que tive na maioria dos bosses o jogo teria sido mais marcante nesse fator.

Direção de arte[5/5]: Hollow knight é maravilhoso de lindo! Acho que nunca vi tanto amor pelos cenários de um jogo. Cenários vívidos, cheio de detalhes, muito bem desenhado, característicos e bastante memoráveis! Acho que nunca me apaixonei tanto pelo cenário de um jogo. Acho que esse é o ponto crucial de hollow knight, o designe dos personagens é marcante e você consegue distinguir cada um, com sua beleza e também o inseto no qual representa. Acho que hollow knight até o momento é o jogo que tem a arte mais linda que já vi até hoje.

História[5/5]: Hollow knight tenta fazer algo parecido com dark souls, porém em uma versão mais light, de dar poucos detalhes da história, que é contada muito das vezes observando o cenário, ou então lendo a descrição de itens, completando o diário do caçador ou as vezes em alguns dialógos de NPCs(os famosos sonhos também). A história as vezes é direta o que torna uma versão mais light de narrativa parecida com DS. E de fato eu curti bastante a história de Hollow knight, apesar de encararmos o boss final como um vilão, acredito que no fim não se tem um vilão ao certo, e sim uma consequência de ações tomadas que gera o estado final que se encontra Hallownest. E de fato, é muito bem escrito e rico em detalhes. Acho que só pelo fato da história se contada de várias formas e visões diferentes enriquece para mim a narrativa de hollow knight.

Trilha sonora[5/5]: As OSTs desse jogo são realmente maravilhosas! Eu amei cada OST principal de cada cenário e suas variantes, além de claro amar a OST de city of tears que na minha opinião é uma das melhores. Cada cenário tem sua OST marcante e muitas vezes a musica ainda fica rebobinando na sua cabeça mesmo com você não jogando o jogo. Que trilha sonora maravilhosa tem esse jogo sinceramente! Acho que as OSTs acabam até amplificando a mistura de sensações que esse jogo traz.

Gameplay[5/5]: Até o momento eu acredita que Aria of Sorrow era o metroidvania supremo, mais pelo fato de que o jogo além de trazer a exploração e recompensa de SOTN, ele também nos a diversão de poder usar os poderes dos inimigos, além de incentivar você a obter a habilidade especial de todos, o que me fez amar esse jogo e não conseguir parar de jogar ele por horas, além de zerar ele diversas vezes. Porém, hollow knight hoje, apesar de não trazer grandes revoluções no gênero, ele traz até o momento, balanceia perfeitamente a recompensa por exploração e combate, fazendo com que toda Hallownest seja marcante, seja por conta do cenário, inimigos, bosses, musica ou a própria dificuldade de exploração com trechos plataformer. Por fim acho que toda essa combinação faz com que hollow knight tenha sido para mim até o momento o Metroidvania perfeito.

Conclusão[4,916/5]:Acho que Hollow knight se tornou para mim o meu jogo mais favorito atualmente. Eu nunca me senti tão apaixonado por metroidvanias e além disso, me marcou com seu universo rico em detalhes e beleza. Acho que por um bom tempo não terei um jogo tão divertido quando Hollow knight foi e ainda é para mim. No momento da review ainda estou fazendo o panteão para conseguir o 112%, então de certa forma, eu ainda não consegui largar hollow knight. O fato de eu estar fazendo tudo o que da pra fazer no jogo mostra o quanto me apaixonei por ele. O metroidvania perfeito, que me fez viciar em seu universo, algo que não sentia a muito tempo. Estou ansioso para Silksong, e espero que novamente possa sentir o quão maravilhoso é esse universo.

He's a freak out the sheeeets and the other guy gets his own cinematic with dramatic lighting just to spout "Moshi moshi?" to the fairer sex. It's time to get acquainted with- wait, what? Oh, it's a common entry point for the series. I'll try not to bring up content from the other games. That said, most of the major players from Yakuza 3 to 5 were still not brought back. I'm satisfied with the substory cameos, though. People were fucking crazy in the late 90s. They had more money and adult entertainment than they knew what to do with. They do know, actually, but I don't think I'm strong enough to give the deets.

After Yakuza 3... this is a strong contender for best story, so far. 3 had tourists, kids and pets roaming the streets of Japan and it's kinda weird they stopped existing afterwards, but now stray cats and dogs can be found again. Fittingly, Majima doesn't sport the role of the straight man that Kiryu has wink wink, actively splashing fuel to the fire. Though when push comes to shove, this Kiryu can be less straight...the man.... less man straight well it's Yakuza bruv when you kill a man he dies and when you give him backshots your name is Mr. Shakedown.

I played Kiwami, but I was glad to see the combat again here. We are eating! But is it good? This is more confirmation that the moveset never was the problem. We were warned, this is what happens when you give a chimpanzee a machine gun. The random super armor on enemies was especially egregious this time around. Is this how disco forged our men? I have that crazy theory that Kiryu can only sprint in this game because he's... under 30 years old! Supposedly. But then he kinda rember in future entries. Never tell him to take a hike, because chances are, he's in Beast style and will actually grab a hike and maul you with it.

It's weird thinking of this Majima as one people may have gotten to know first. But they are very unlucky!! That is the peak of his career. His styles also have nada to do with the true dawg of Shimano. A bat and dance moves? Can't I use a knife and ninjutsu? What's the point in showing the watermelon flashback if not to instill in the player's head that he must be an expert knife user that can fruit ninja irl. Riddle me this. Why is Kiryu's real estate better than Majima's real dump of a club? Because an eye for business has less worth than two forced to commit yubitsume that's enough yakuzing cya next entry or my name isn't goror majimer, the Apex Predator named Princess.

Eu nunca pensei que existiria um Remake do primeiro Mario Vs. Donkey Kong já que eu nunca vi muitos motivos para ele receber um Remake, além disso Mario Vs. Donkey Kong não é a série de Spin-offs mais popular mas apesar disso o jogo original de GBA foi um dos primeiros jogos que joguei na minha vida e um dos primeiros que joguei em um emulador (pelo o que eu lembro) e ver um jogo da minha infância recebendo uma versão HD é bem legal. Eu ainda preferia um Donkey Kong novo? Com certeza absoluta mas um Mario Vs. Donkey Kong não é ruim.

A história do jogo continua a mesma idiotice de sempre. O DK está assistindo TV até que ele vê um comercial do Mini Mario, por algum motivo ele gostou tanto do Mini Mario que saiu de casa e foi comprar o Mini Mario mas infelizmente estava esgotado, aí o DK teve a maior ideia de todos os tempos, invadir a fábrica dos brinquedos Mini Mario, enquanto isso o Mario como um bom burguês estava fazendo porra nenhuma até que ele vê o DK fugindo da fábrica e o Mario resolve ir atrás dele, assim começa o jogo.

Diferente de todos os jogos da série, esse aqui é um jogo de plataforma com puzzles, ou seja teremos que resolver quebra-cabeças. Nada de pisar em Goombas ou Koopas, ao invés disso é pegar chaves e caixas de presente e salvar o Mini Mario. O começo é bem simples e fácil mas com o passar dos mundos a dificuldade aumenta gradualmente mas nunca ficando muito injusto (isso vale para o original também).

Uma novidade é que agora é possível escolher a dificuldade do jogo, temos a dificuldade Casual e o Clássico. O modo casual é para quem quer uma experiência mais simples e relaxada, as fases possuem Checkpoints e você pode morrer várias vezes enquanto que o Clássico é uma experiência mais próxima do original.

Cada um dos 8 mundos principais apresentam 8 fases, 6 delas são fases normais e as 2 últimas são do Mini Mario e a batalha com o DK. A fase do Mini Mario consiste em levar um grupo de Mini Mario para uma caixa enquanto coleta três letras para formar a palavra TOY. Já as batalhas do DK são simples mas cumprem o papel porque além de divertidas usam as mecânicas apresentadas do mundo.

Após terminar o jogo, 8 mundos bônus serão liberados dessa vez com "Plus" no nome, dessa vez são apenas 6 fases por mundo, além de serem mais difíceis agora você precisa levar um Mini Mario que está carregando uma chave para terminar a fase, você precisa ter cuidado com o Mini Mario porque ele não pode morrer, ele será a mecânica principal da segunda metade, apesar de serem mais difíceis pelo menos são mais curtas.

Além da "parte 2" existem as fases Expert, são mais parecidas com a primeira parte porém mais difíceis, são 16 níveis Expert no total e para desbloquear todas é necessário ter uma estrela dourada em quase todas as fases mas eu explico melhor isso depois.

Falando dos mundos em si, são eles:
1- Mario Toy Company
2- Donkey Kong Jungle
3- Fire Mountain
4- Merry Mini-Land (Novo)
5- Spooky House
6- Slippery Summet (Novo)
7- Mystic Forest
8- Twilight City

Enquanto que antigamente existia 6 mundos agora foram adicionados mais 2 mundos novos sendo Merry Mini-Land (um parque de diversões) e Slippery Summet (uma montanha de gelo), as fases são tão boas quanto as antigas, elas apresentam novos conceitos e usam coisas de outros jogos como as Caixas de Teleporte do Super Mario 3D World.

Uma grande mudança na gameplay foram os controles, o Mario é propositalmente travado e frágil e os pulos precisam ser mais estratégicos porém algo que tiraram no Remake foi a morte de queda, no original se o Mario caísse de uma altura alta ele morria porém no Remake nada acontece, deixando o jogo mais quebrado pelo fato de facilitar bastante comparado com o original mas ao mesmo tempo eu achei bem divertido porque o Mario é mais "livre".

Outra coisa da gameplay são as caixas de presente, elas são os principais colecionáveis, existem 3 delas em cada fase e para ter a estrela dourada você precisa coletar todas elas, não são obrigatórias mas se quiser jogar as fases Expert precisará coletar quase todas elas. O jeito de obter as estrelas douradas foi alterado porque no original existia um sistema de pontuação, resumindo não era apenas coletar todos os presentes, o tempo que demorou para concluir a fase também importava.

Uma grande mudança foram as Fases Bônus, no original essas fases eram liberadas após você pegar as três caixas de presentes e podiam ser dois tipos de minigames, o primeiro que era trocar a caixa com vida para o DK não esmagar ela enquanto que o segundo era parar uma seta de rolagem em cima do presente que continha vidas. No Remake agora é uma mini fase que precisamos pegar uma chave voadora para abrir um baú, eu pessoalmente prefiro mil vezes a fase bônus do Remake, além disso em todos os mundos o Level Design é diferente!

O modo Time Attack é uma feature nova e muito bem vinda, após completar a campanha principal e o pós game você poderá jogar todas as fases no modo Time Attack, basicamente você tem que completar a fase o mais rápido possível em um tempo pré determinado pelo jogo.

Os gráficos receberam um grande upgrade, eles são BEM melhores que o original e as cutscenes também estão animadas ao invés de serem um monte de imagem estática, no geral o jogo é simples porém bonito. Meu destaque fica pelo Donkey Kong que ele está muito bem feito (uma pena que não foi usado para um jogo dele).

A trilha sonora é muito boa como sempre, gostei que não é um simples remix novo, eles mudaram o estilo da música dessa vez sendo mais Jazz o que mudou bastante comparado com o original, para um jogo mais lento achei que combinou bastante. Minhas músicas favoritas são:
-Title Theme
-Mini-Mario Level
-Mario Toy Company A
-Mario Toy Company Boss
-Bonus Game
-Twilight City B
-The Final Battle
-The Real Final Battle

O jogo é muito bom mas ainda assim eu tenho algumas críticas. A primeira delas e a principal é o preço, ele custa 50$ ou R$250 aqui no Cusil e pelo o que oferece é bem caro... Eu não sou o cara que acha que quanto mais horas de gameplay mais compensa o preço mas Mario Vs. Donkey Kong é curto e apesar de ser bom não é a obra prima do século, ainda mais que é possível jogar o original de GBA em qualquer dispositivo e o tempo de duração não será muito diferente.

O segundo problema é que mesmo 20 anos depois do lançamento do original ainda não tem o modo de criar as próprias fases, ele era pra estar no primeiro Mario Vs. Donkey Kong mas foi cortado e esse modo só foi aparecer nas sequências, eu acho que seria INCRÍVEL se esse modo fosse introduzido para o Remake como se fosse uma espécie de Super Mario Maker, você poderia postar sua fase, jogar a fase dos outros e etc. Pelo menos pra mim só isso me motivaria mais para jogar o jogo.

O terceiro é que apesar dele ser mais bonito que o original ele meio que "perdeu o charme" em algumas ocasiões, por exemplo os diálogos do Mario foram simplificados, a maioria das animações de morte do Mario foram cortadas (sendo que estão nos arquivos do jogo!), a animação exagerada do Mario entrando na porta foi simplificada, a falta do sistema de pontuação deixou o jogo bem mais fácil de fazer o 100% que antes e até mesmo o dano em queda que foi cortado (apesar que esse em específico não acho que foi tão ruim assim), diferente do Remake do Super Mario RPG que tudo é fiel porém melhor, aqui no Mario Vs. Donkey Kong têm algumas coisas que estão melhores e outras que foram pioradas.

E por último é que mesmo o Time Attack sendo divertido não há nenhum propósito em terminar ele, você ganha literalmente nada ao completar todas as fases nesse modo... Acho que podia pelo menos dar uma tela de parabéns ou sei lá, esse modo é bem secundário mesmo.

E assim eu termino a análise de Mario Vs. Donkey Kong, apesar de eu ter criticado algumas coisas eu ainda acho que vale a pena ser jogado se você gosta de plataforma com puzzle ou se é fã do Mario.

OBS: o modo multiplayer é algo novo do Remake mas eu não falei dele porque eu só joguei sozinho.

16

(Contains spoilers for the ending, but you probably shouldn’t care).

Far Cry... a franchise looked down upon in today’s current gaming landscape for its ongoing repetitiveness and obstinate nature—for its outright hellbent refusal to evolve and grow into something that isn’t a blatant map-marker simulator. I was curious to see what Crytek cooked up with this first entry before it became the thing to hate, and if you’ve never played this one—you might be asking the question of how it compares to its successors and whether it contains any of the aforementioned stuff? Well, not quite. But it certainly has its fair share of issues—to say the least—unrelated to Ubisoft’s modern spin on the franchise that I think are worth talking about. And yeah, you read that right… Crytek developed this first game—not Ubisoft (although they did help in publishing); which means it’s relatively free from their common open world trappings. No longer does it take the form of a sprawling sandbox FPS with RPG elements; but rather a linear (despite the lead producer saying otherwise) FPS with a level-based structure akin to something like Call of Duty but slightly more varied in its gameplay design. (Side note: I’m judging Far Cry as if it was made today, because I don’t like experiencing games through an “objective” lens nor would that review be anywhere near accurate to my true feelings—and thus I would feel like a fraud for endorsing a game because it was revolutionary for a time).

Firstly, can I take a moment to gush about the cover for this? It’s so irrefutably iconic. A bloody Jack Carver emerging from a clear-as-day river set on a tropical island of sorts wearing that vibrantly ruby Hawaiian shirt with a massive gun sticking out the water with explosions—well, exploding in the background? Sorry for my language, but it’s peak. There’s nothing like it, although I’ve always associated this pure display of testosterone with the third game… for whatever reason those two are linked in my mind, perhaps it’s the similarity in location? I think I may be experiencing the single-person version of the Mandela effect, either that or I’m a complete idiot (the latter is far more likely). I wish this at all contributed to my score of the game, but alas—it does not. I wish I liked the game as much as I fucking adore its poster. But you’ll see throughout this review that it’s the only thing I’ll ever be caught singing its praises for (besides the visuals)—because I’m sure as shit the game isn’t worth any of that.

What do you think of when I mention… “Far Cry”? Is it the facade of a living, breathing open world? Is it the bombastic or often stealthy ”do what you want—how you want” nature of its gameplay that gives the player plenty of options to utilize? Maybe it’s the memorably spine-chilling, meticulously crafted villains? It could even be the very tainted name of Ubisoft itself? Either way, you will find exactly zero of those characteristics here. Never have I seen a franchise so detached from where it eventually winds up, except maybe with Assassin’s Creed—funnily enough that’s also another IP that has become synonymous with Ubisoft’s mishandling of franchises, but I digress—that’s a topic for another review (maybe an Assassin’s Creed Valhalla one (eventually 👀). Although with having said that—you’d probably expect to find absolutely no semblance of its later identity here… right? Well no, the two separate entities actually share quite a few similarities, even if most of them are comprised of half-baked ideas that only really blossom into their full potential later down the line. Some of these staple Far Cry systems are widely known as: the glider, binoculars, stealth—and in turn the machete, enemy patrols, and first person driving (surprisingly similar to modern Far Cry’s); in many ways it’s a completely different beast… but in some you can still see that untapped formula waiting to get exploited into oblivion. And so it walks—or should I say falls face flat—into one end of a line that consists of systems being underdeveloped vs overtly “perfected”, I’ll let you take a guess on which end it lies. This shouldn’t come as a shock—I mean of course these systems are inferior, what did I really expect going into a 2004 game? Definitely not the visuals. It might be a hot take to say that Far Cry is the most stunning game to come out during its release and a few years after—at least from a fidelity outlook. You can almost feel its warm breeze flow through its densely foliaged jungles—of which there are many; saturated colors of emerald-greens and sky-blues directly contrasted against the fallen blood of your foes. It’s that distinction between the two that I find so captivating; it’s paradise… yet you’re faced with the worst of what the world has to offer: genetically mutated monstrosities. I’ve always been curious about why that is, why this franchise decides to choose these remote locales that strip away your connection to the outside world. I know the answer for the latest entries is to give the player that sense of isolation—to drop them into danger incarnate and ask them to survive and adapt at their very basic instinctual level; to go from being the hunted to the hunter, albeit with a few modern twists via guns and explosions. But why did they decide to go with a tropical island here? Well I would’ve hoped for something as thematically potent as what I just described… but no it was because an outdoor environment had never been done well before (I’ll be referencing this interview throughout the rest of my review since it’s the only one I could find). This was disappointing to hear for a multitude of reasons. For one it makes Far Cry seem like a tech demo—granted it was one at the time, but for modern day audiences this will do nothing to make them engaged because its priorities were presentation over everything else. Themes are a central part of experiencing art and can make an otherwise boring game worthwhile, where Far Cry falters is that it has no messages apart from a senseless commentary on privatized science and genetic engineering? But these elements are given the weight of a feather and hardly seem intentional—more like a by-product of the story.

An ex-military soldier (Jack Carver) has washed ashore a tropical island—or an archipelago if you want to be accurate—after getting his boat blasted with missiles by paid mercenaries. Our objective you ask? Well it changes from scene to scene… but at the beginning? To find Valerie Constantine; the journalist Jack Carver was with before everything went to shit. And so the nightmare begins (for me, literally and figuratively). The opening cinematic this game opens up with is a mess. An unbridled, disjointed, awful mess. I recognize this could be the point… it very well could be! Oh those pesky predictable ambushes!! You hate when those happen, right!? Those never happen. Obviously it’s meant to be unexpected to all, but that scene being paced at 2x speed while events happen in reverse—and then back to normal order… was certainly a choice. I don’t think anyone would quite understand it on their first try unless they were paying godly amounts of attention; I had to rewatch it after the fact to even understand what was happening (might be a skill issue). It exemplifies that classic “BOOM POW BANG” structure that every game from the fifth/sixth console generation was dipping their toes into. It was all about “Action! Action! Action!” no substance—maybe some if there was enough room! You gotta hook those players in, man! Well of course; shooting, explosions, carnage, destruction, parkour, it’s all there! Did it hook me in? Nope. From that point on I knew exactly what type of game this was. One of nonsensical narrative. If we’re to look at the story as a whole… it’s clear that events happen for the sake of the thrill & moving the plot forward; one thing is resolved, another is introduced—literally from moment to moment. And bad pacing is the product of this; to the point where ¼ onwards feels like the third act. Just continuously action-oriented, and nothing else. I understand that resolving and introducing plot points is sort of the way narratives work… I’m not an idiot, but its hasty nature makes it hard to pinpoint exactly where you are in the story, and so the result is fatigue... from experiencing the excessive dumping of monotonous objectives. Some of you might say… “It’s an action game! That’s the point”. Well, sure. But what about variety? I can’t find the fun in shooting a bunch of samey—annoying enemies for the 300th time while going from room to room in a dull laboratory. And I know what Christopher Natsuume (the lead producer) said when he was asked “Does that mean that there will be none or only few in-doors environments?”. Supposedly the majority of the game is set outside, and he’s not lying—that’s true, but I counted up how much time the player spends indoors vs outdoors; and the gap isn’t as huge as he probably wanted you to believe at the time. You spend roughly 35-40% of your playtime indoors shuffling through dark and drab corridors; going from an underground section to another old-boring warehouse. His answer about players not wanting “to stay indoors the whole time” in a game set on a tropical island is very true! I don’t. So why did he make me do that for a huge chunk of the game? For variety and contrast he says! My counterpoint: There’s already enough variety with the numerous jungles that are present here. Like—I love the beginning location of this game! It’s so vibrant—with life galore, birds in the sky—chirping, fish in the waters, sunrays beaming through copious amounts of thick leaves. The affectivity this game possesses is bewildering… in the opening hour that is. But then… you’re going in and out of open/enclosed spaces every 10 minutes and it gets tiring. And that’s before it devolves into monster slop. I’m not trying to say “ban indoor environments”, they’re fine in sparsity for this type of setting, but 40% of the game? That’s way too much. I've started to notice how obsessed the 5-7th console generations were with adding monsters/genetically mutated humans in their narratives as plot devices, or is that only me? Either way, from the second quarter onwards it becomes completely unrecognizable from the franchise’s later entries. Trigens are introduced as a lazy attempt at enemy variety… and the game instantly plummets. It was clearly chasing the trend of wanting to be a pulpy blockbuster B-movie. No real artistic value (in my opinion). No subtlety. Predictability and all. It’s almost comically unreal how expected everything is. Like of course we have to add a betrayal in there! And an entire fucking nuke at the end! How else could Far Cry possibly conclude its story—after one-upping its ridiculousness scene after scene (in a bad way)?

“Your ass is grass!”

Luckily we have a protagonist that matches that energy. Protagonists have never been Far Cry’s strong suit, besides Jason and Ajay I’d argue—but even then they’re severely complimented by their respective villains (less so Jason, but you get the point). And you know that common complaint thrown at the protagonists in those two games—how them handling guns, blowing up and killing people right-left-and-center makes no sense? Well that’s not really an issue here. Like I mentioned before—Jack Carver is an ex-military soldier. But that’s almost a double-edged sword. It completely omits him from an interesting arc! The satisfying thing about Jason was that he was virtually a frat boy who went from being an entitled brat to an overwhelming force of nature; he was badass, confident, and a compulsive killing machine. It allowed for attachment and at least a little bit of intrigue. With Jack it’s more like you’re living through him, projecting yourself onto him because he’s such a blank slate and devoid of any defining characteristics—besides his whole macho ordeal. I did enjoy his wacky, hammed-up personality at the beginning, even if the acting was… questionable at best, and comically awful at worst. It works for what the game is trying to do but I found myself getting irritated with him near the end—his voice got borderline grating, but I think that was because I was starting to hate what I was playing? It could’ve been that or the fact that Jack started to sound more and more like a whiny toddler. I was convinced he was a schizophrenic in all honesty too, sounds weird—I know, but he talks like a campy 80s action hero despite everyone else speaking fairly normally. He says crazy, out of pocket shit, and I honestly felt like he was exaggerating his sentences for an imaginary audience at every turn. It’s either that or he’s off the walls fucking insane (maybe he misses his glory days???). On the opposite end of “normality” we have Valerie and Doyle. It’s 2004, so I wouldn’t expect much from side characters apart from one-note archetypes charading as to having characteristics. Valerie is a damsel in distress—but simultaneously capable at times? Which is odd. It doesn’t make much sense since she’s a CIA agent. And Doyle is a scientist who speaks in an overtly monotone, disinterested tone, with money being his big motivator by the end. That’s pretty much it. I’m sitting here thinking about those two, and I can’t come up with anything to say. There’s nothing there. Boring stuff! Let’s move on.

So, I think the biggest shock that came to me when I started playing was how military this felt; something the later entries completely abandoned. It seems to me like that’s a product of its time though, since a myriad of games were doing that when this released. I don’t know why this has to be focused on militarism, I find that nobodies arriving or landing on islands/secluded regions are far more compelling to me. But regardless, this aspect is evidently shown through almost every aspect of the game. The score takes a more drum-heavy approach, boasting for marches and… drills—you can almost hear the stocks of guns hitting the ground. Carrier - Combat and Menu-1 seem to be the most glaring examples of this. If the rest of the tracks aren’t more of this, then they’re either very quiet & calm pieces (I’ll explain why later), or jungle themes since Jack is—well, practically lost in countless jungles throughout the game! That’s all I observed about the score since a lot of it is repetitive, generic, and not that exciting. But since this is indeed very militaristic, the combat also compliments that; it takes a semi-realistic approach rather than an arcady one. Guns have proper recoil, their size affects movement speed, you even have a stamina bar… would you believe that? Suffice it to say, I’m not a huge fan. When the game is already a chore to go through, it doesn’t help that I have to carefully observe how much I sprint and jump. It creates tedium and prolongs the game, and I’d say it’s one of those useless game mechanics akin to something like “item weight” in an RPG. What is its purpose? It’s never been done well before, unless it’s at the forefront of an indie game built around movement or something. Shooting is wildly inconsistent too. Headshots are your go to in Far Cry, but some of the hitboxes are placed awkwardly so you’ll sometimes one-shot enemies, and other times have to hit their head multiple times. Anything else—like shots near their higher/lower bodies is entirely redundant. I also encountered a bug that made my sniper scope keep glitching out, so I couldn’t really use that comfortably either. I was rocking the suppressed MP3 for half of my playthrough because it’s easily the best weapon for stealth… which is a bizarre oddity in and of itself.

There’s no point to it. Systems literally don’t work around it. This wouldn’t be an issue if the game didn’t actively encourage it throughout almost every level, but they do (which is why most of the tracks sound that way). So there’s a couple parts to this. One, there are only two silent weapons—those being, the previously mentioned MP3, and the machete; but the thing is, the MP3 isn’t introduced until later in the game and the machete doesn’t kill enemies in a single hit (even from behind), meaning… they’ll detect you in an instant if you attempt a kill which will then alert your position to the other enemies. The second part is that the baseline of your presence in this game is undetected, that is huge; whereas in your typical Call of Duty game, it’s detected. So the funny thing is, Far Cry presents you levels with particular objectives that are stealth oriented, but on contrary places AI in those levels that detect you in an instant—that you can’t kill stealthily, all while developing no systems whatsoever that actually allow you to maintain that baseline. There is no way for you to complete these levels stealthily—at least early on, it’s simply not possible. It’s a weird aspect of this game that I feel wasn’t even thought about during its development? Since characters will react disappointedly to getting detected in a level… but, what does it want me to do? It’s peculiar. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game that wants you to be stealthy, but doesn’t actually create systems to make that possible. I’m baffled by this, seriously. I don’t get it. This is a huge reason why I dislike this game so passionately. It’s not fun because there’s only so many ways you can go through a level causing destruction and carnage.

Some of these levels are beyond confusing too. It’s something older games used to do for the sake of it I guess? It’s not at all clear where you’re supposed to go at times, since the minimap glitches out; but it’s also because the levels are laid out in a convoluted way. One example comes to mind, it’s when you’re driving through a series of very small islands separated by rivers made up of lava. You’re supposed to reach an area by jumping over several hills with your vehicle, but there’s many curves, many ground imperfections, you can’t see anything, so you’ll randomly drive into lava and die—which results in trial and error gameplay. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Just all in all not a fun time. I hope this franchise starts to pick up with the second game (since I’m playing through the entire series). It’s probably the one I know the least about? So that should be interesting.

(This isn’t a part of the review). I’ve been so busy recently I haven’t had a chance to write more of these, which is a big shame… I had a lot of fun with this one though. Not my best work but this game fucking sucks balls, man. Next one should be on Uncharted 3.

Playtime: 8.9 hours

Every Game I’ve Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
Ubisoft - Ranked
Far Cry - Ranked
2004 - Ranked

You’re trying to tell me these are mechs? They look like potential rayman characters

One of the last games released for the famicom during the shift to the super famicom in Japan, joy mech fight was nintendo’s last attempt to create a fighting game for the famicom (like what they did with urban champion). This game was actually never brought to the west until Nintendo switch online a year ago so uhh…good job Nintendo. Good to see the game finally got a localisation! Oh wait-

So because I can’t read what’s going on, I’m currently going off of what it says on the Wikipedia page. Dr. Emon and Dr. Walnuts create these really cool robots until walnuts steals them and plans world domination. Thankfully, Emon brings a robot called sukapon and turns him into a military robot to fight back against Walnuts and all his robots. Pretty simple plot.

Gameplay is your typical fighting game, though it has quite a lot of charm to it. In the story mode, you eventually get 36 available fighters, each with their own abilities that you can use. These can also be played in the multiplayer modes, and some are extremely easy to master. The story mode consists of beating 7 fighters per level until having to face a boss at the end. After finishing the boss, you move onto the next level.

Overall, whilst not the best game on the famicom, I must admit that joy mech fight has a really nice charm to it. And as one of the last famicom games, it has a really nice presentation that I love and it doesn’t feel stiff at all. It is probably one of the best fighting games on the famicom, but whether it is on a similar level to that of street fighter 2 or tekken is possibly a very big stretch.

Fun gameplay, really nice presentation, neat music, rayman if it was a fighting game

Não sei bem como começar sem parecer hipócrita ou óbvio kkkkk
Mas resumindo: gostei dos minigames nos fliperamas, mas toda a parte de simulador e ter que "trabalhar" pra progredir, é muito chata e repetitiva kkkkkkk

Acho que como um passatempo é bem interessante, até merecia uma nota melhor, ficar de bobeira no sofá jogando Arcade Paradise pela Cloud ou num Steam Deck enquanto sua mulher reassiste Friends pela quinquagésima vez pode funcionar muito. Mas dedicar atenção integral pra esse jogo soa como perda de tempo na maioria das vezes.

(IMPORTANT NOTE: This is a review for the extra chapter introduced in The Ultimate Doom: Thy Flesh Consumed. If you want to read my opinions on the base game and my in-depth thoughts on the original three episodes, you can check my review here. )

''Hey, remember how for Doom we made a really cool artwork that manages to represent the game and look quite good?''

''Yeah, why?''

''What if, and hear me out on this, for The Ultimate Doom... we put a funny looking smiling demon?''


And that's the story of how someone made the single best decision in the entirety of ID Software's existence.

Before I even played DOOM, one statement that was echoed a lot by people when talking about and even some friends of mine was how the only really good episode was the first one, ''Knee-Deep in the Dead'', and the next two, ‘’The Shores of Hell’’ and ‘’Inferno’’, where kind a bit of a downgrade at best and a dip in quality at worst, and after beating the game myself, while that's a sentiment I'm totally able to understand, it's not one that I share at all. ''Knee-Deep in the Dead'' is indeed an outstanding first chapter, it doesn’t stop at simply establishing the basis for the rest of the game, it also goes above and beyond and delivers some spectacular level design; I totally get the love for it, specially since it’s probably the chapter that the most people have played, but I just can’t get enough of both ‘’The Shores of Hell’’ and ‘’Inferno’’, the former explores what the first episode set and expands on it in brand new interesting ways, and the latter experiments with brand new ideas that result in really challenging and interesting maps. The only thing I can really say that the two last chapters fail in comparison to the first is both the feeling of surprise (which is kind of inevitable) and the bosses (turns out that two Hell Barons are way better final bosses that one that can one-shot you and the giant enemy spider), because otherwise they are all on par when it comes to greatness. So, suffices to say that after finishing the game, I really wouldn’t have any complains if there was even more of it, and when I realized that The Ultimate Doom included a totally brand new episode, let’s just say… I acted appropriately…


Thy Flesh Consumed didn’t need to exist, the original game was perfectly fine on its own and while of course more of it is always fine, that necessity was kinda filled by Doom II, which came out just a year after the original, but still, they did it, yet another year after, the re-release under the ‘’Ultimate’’ banner included a brand new 9-map episode, and it set in being one and one thing only: both a way to connect better DOOM with Doom II and to give players harder, more challenging almost purely combat focused levels. On paper, that’s a fire idea, not only it experiments on yet another layer that DOOM’s formula can have, not only it's a really nice addition to an otherwise two-year old game that gives it a bit more life as it finally released on a physical retail format, but also, if it had the same level quality as the three original chapters, we could be witnessing a even greater package that was already excellent… but you probably can imagine where I’m going with all this…



Thy Flesh Consumed is, for all intends and purposes, competent, and I wanna make that clear; it doesn’t devaluate the overall game by any stretch of the imagination and having even more content is nothing to scoff at, but still… I cannot but wish it tried to not do more, but that it made things differently. As I said, it’s a collection of more challenging maps, and it’s not like DOOM was a walk in the park in the first place, but the idea of more difficult level is a prospect that I think few would dislike, and my problem isn’t that at it’s basis it’s pretty much just that, but rather the execution. The first three maps are hell on earth (pun VERY intended), while in this episode you get your fulll arsenal much sooner than in any previous part, it’s still takes some time for you to be fully arm, double if you miss some secrets, and when in the first time, at which point you’ll only have the shotgun and the gatling and very little ammo, you get thrown hordes upon hordes of Imps, Pinkies, Specters and even a Hell Baron thrown in for good measure.. you might start seeing the problem. That alongside the incredibly claustrophobic level design, filled to the brim with narrow passages and poison pits, and you get a map that’s way more frustrating than anything else, which it’s a sentiment that also goes for M2 and M3.Things do get better M4 onwards, some challenges are very interesting and there are segments here and there can be fun… but that’s only a select few. Overall, I just get this overall feeling of… apathy, nothing on these maps really speaks to me aside of those few stellar moments of pure satisfaction, and in some aspects it just feels like they went ‘’Random bullshit, go!’’ with the enemy placement, none feels particular inspired; it’s as if the ingenuity of the first game was almost completely gone, like they forgot why they decided to do certain things or to not include certain stuff, ‘cause even if M4 to M8 aren’t as consistently tedious as the previously three maps, the dark maze full of invisible pinkies, rooms full of enemies opening on your back and the entire second half of M6… well, made me react appropriately..

It’s just a bunch weird decisions that sometimes borderline the absurd, like, the final boss on this is even more anticlimactic and weird than the final boss of the original, which it’s kind of an accomplishment considering they are the same boss! And do you know the worst part? That the only reason I’m able to say all of this and be this flabbergasted is because not only the three previous episodes are fantastic, but because I still had my fun with this collection of maps; this new addition really has some fun moments and surprises, but I can’t say in good conscience it was an experience I’d be glad to go back to: it is done, I’m fine with it, but I very much doubt I’ll be revisiting it. It’s fine to ask for perfection on my end, it’s fine to try to make some extremely impressive challenges, it’s even fine to do a bit of trolling to the player if you want! But ''Thy Flesh Consumed'' crosses certain lines that do not make it ‘’the hardest DOOM experience, but just the more tedious one.

It’s a shame that this will be now the black sheep of the episodes for me, ‘cause I really, REALLY wanted to love it as hard as I love the rest of the game, but in the end, too many things stopped it from achieving that level of greatness, at least for me. But hey, it’s very much still DOOM, and I at least got to partially avenge Daisy, so it was all worth it.

There is one more thing I have yet to do before I’m fully done with the original DOOM, one last rodeo brought by one of the makers of the game ,but for now, I just have one last thing to say… PLEASE ID Software do the funny demon in the cover more PLEASE; you kinda did it with Doom 3 ’s expansion and Doom VR, but still, I need MORE!

For those who are familiar with first-person shooters, you would know that it is a genre that is pretty easy for developers to take advantage of. I mean, most games simply just have you, some random dude, be given a gun, and you then go off and start blasting every single thing that moves around you, until you ultimately succeed in stopping the force you are fighting against. That in itself is easy enough to replicate, and it has been used time and time again to make plenty of titles over time, but this then comes with an issue: most of these games are insanely generic. Yes, they can be a bit of fun at first, giving you the proper amount of excitement and adrenaline that these titles should be giving you, but most of them at the end of the day don’t really show any signs of creativity or innovation. You just shoot guys, and that’s it, which is enough for a lot of people (including me, in some instances), but it doesn’t evolve the genre any further from where it already is. Truly great FPS games, however, manage to do that while also keeping the base game fast and fun, such as the case with one of the best and most important FPS games ever made, Doom.

I have played many different FPS games over the course of my life, ranging from generic ones to the more experimental ones, but out of all of them, the Doom series is, without a doubt, my favorite set of FPS games ever made. They may not have the most creative gameplay over all of the other games, and some of them just flat out aren’t that good, but let me tell you, there is nothing more satisfying and cathartic then the feeling of just taking a shotgun and blasting off the faces of many different demonic freaks in a slaughtering frenzy, which Doom usually manages to nail perfectly. With that being said though, I am more so referring to the modern Doom games when it comes to my complete adoration of this series, with Doom Eternal in particular being not just my favorite FPS of all time, but one of my favorite games in general. As for the original Doom games though, I still love them to an insane degree, and in terms of the original Doom, the one that started it all, it manages to be a pretty great time even to this day. At its core, it is very similar to other FPS games from before and since, but it manages to do so much with seemingly so little, while also innovating the genre more than any other game at that point in time.

The story that we have here is one that is primarily kept out of the game, because most people just usually settle with “demons are here, go kill them all”, which is all anyone needs to get going, but when you take the time to check out the story, it is pretty good, the graphics are incredible for the time, and while future games would take what was done here and make it look much better, the original still holds up supremely well even after almost 30 years, the music is amazing, with so many rocking tunes to hear throughout the entire game, and if you try to tell me that you don’t at least like the At Doom’s Gate, then you are a fucking liar, the control is pretty great for this game, and while it does take some getting used to, you can take full advantage of it to kick some demonic ass, even if movement can be pretty wonky at points, and the gameplay is classic FPS action in the best way it possibly could be.

The game is a first-person-shooter, where you take control of an unnamed marine that we all collectively just call Doomguy, go through plenty of different stages through abandoned research facilities on Mars and even Hell itself, use whatever equipment you have to mutilate and destroy any demonic scum in your way, whether it be by shooting them to bits, slashing through them with a chainsaw, or even ripping through them with your own two hands, find plenty of different weapons, health, armor, and keycards throughout to help you proceed forward and deal more devastation, and take on more demonic forces that get bigger, badder, and more aggressive, even though at the end of the day, the only thing in these facilities anyone needs to fear…… is you. As you could probably gather, the main gameplay itself doesn’t differ too much from other FPS games at the time, but it manages to innovate and be exciting in many other ways, such as with the graphics, the music, the levels, the puzzles, the annihilation at hand, and many more.

There are a lot of video games out there that are all about starting at the essentials, getting better through getting stronger and getting new equipment, and being able to thwart any evil force that stands in your way, and Doom is one of the best examples of this that I have ever seen. You start out with a mere pistol, which is enough to handle what is thrown at you at the beginning, but as you keep going, you find more weapons, more ammo, more powerups, and enemies everywhere you look, and if you play your cards just right, you can end up absolutely decimating hordes of demons with the right tools, and it feels oh so sweet whenever you do so. In addition, the weapons you use are just as sweet as the gameplay itself, with there being many you can obtain like shotguns, rocket launchers, a plasma rifle, a chaingun, and without a doubt, the best weapon in the game, the BFG 9000, or as we all know it as, the Big FUCKING Gun. This baby can be used to absolutely obliterate enemies and it makes bosses absolute jokes, and that is why I will forever love it until the day I die.

Aside from the main campaign though, there are several multiplayer modes that you can try out as well, such as the co-op gameplay where you and others can run through the campaign together, and your typical deathmatch, where you can fight against a group of friends until you or one of them comes out on top as the ultimate Doom Slayer. I myself don’t typically play multiplayer modes in FPS games, except for FPS games that have nothing but multiplayer modes, but hey, if you ever wanted to experience classic Doom with your friends, there you have it.

I really don’t have any huge issues with the original Doom, or at least, none that bring down the game as a whole. Even from the beginning, they had a solid formula that could be improved upon further and made even better in future games. But, if I had to get extremely nitpicky, I guess you could find the gameplay to be pretty repetitive. There isn’t much else that you will be doing through the entire game other then going through these levels and slaughtering demons, which is all good in my book, but if you are the type who wants more variety in their games, and different guns and demons just won’t cut it, then you probably won’t get too invested in this. In addition, obviously, future games would take what was established here and improve upon it even further, which does make this game feel somewhat hard to come back to, but the core gameplay is still solid enough to the point where I don’t really even care about that. It is still classic Doom at its bloody, demonic core, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Overall, despite being repetitive and not having too much over other installments, the original Doom is still an incredible FPS from the early 90s, and a great way to start off what would become one of the most iconic and legendary FPS franchises of all time. I would definitely recommend it for those who are Doom fans, as well as fans of FPS games in general, because if you somehow haven’t played this game yet, then… what are you waiting for? Besides, it's available on all modern platforms, and not just video game consoles either! You can play it in your car, on your smart fridge, on your microwave, and you can even play Doom INSIDE of Doom! Hell, I would say that, if you managed to somehow implant a screen into the palm of your hand, and you managed to load up the game in there, you could play Doom on your hand as well. That is just the magic of Doom, folks.

Game #399

Um clássico absoluto.

Doom é um dos jogos que me introduziu à tecnologia. Praticamente aprendi a mexer no computador só pra jogar Doom.

Apesar de hoje ser conhecido apenas por ser o pai dos boomer shooters, Doom deu início à popularização do gênero FPS, e também à comunidade de modding pela internet (há novos WADs até hoje).

Quem está acostumado com os FPS atuais pode estranhar a ausência da mira vertical e também do ADS, mas pega o jeito rapidinho e ainda é divertidíssimo!

O fator terror continua presente mesmo hoje em dia. Jogar os mapas que têm corredores escuros usando fones, é susto na certa.

A música da primeira fase é um dos melhores temas de todos, que delícia de track.

Parece que esse jogo nunca vai envelhecer.

And on the 7th day, god gave us the resources to make sure doom was on every single thing with a screen and buttons because he’s just chill like that.

Doom definitely lives in one of those sorts of times where it has become so respected, some people just can’t live without it. It stands alongside games like final fantasy VII, Super Mario bros., and Tetris to become one of the most beloved titles of all time, a title that wouldn’t have had such a sick ass name of it wasn’t for Ethan Hunt from mission impossible himself. It’s certainly the game that truly coined the term first person shooter, and a game that has inspired countless after it.

You play as doom guy (or doom slayer or whatever the hell you want to call him) as he is posted on Mars and is forced to fight off a bunch of demons. It has a bit more to it but I can’t really be bothered to get into it. The game consists of 3 episodes, and an extra fourth episode, which are filled with simple levels with enemies and secrets to find and shoot.

Gameplay is pretty simple but it makes sense. You go around these simple maps, hunting down aliens and finding keys to open up new areas until eventually you make your way to the end. It’s pretty simple honestly but it definitely set the staple for how other fps games would work and build off it. They had quite little to work with so it makes sense why it seems so minimal. The music also works well with the levels. Some of it makes it seem so liminal and I think it works wonders with what the plot is trying to go for and meshes so well. My only complaint would probably be the lack of enemy and level variety. Most of it seems very similar and it kind of lowers it for me. It’s still a good game but it just slightly misses that variety that could’ve made it excellent.

So does doom still hold up? Surprisingly yes. It’s still an excellent precursor to most fps games and can still be enjoyed today. There are a few parts that stop it from being a masterpiece in my eyes, but it’s still a really solid game.

Good gameplay, excellent ambience, decent weapons, them bosses…