Divertidíssimo, com uma pixel art belíssima e uma excelente trilha sonora, faz você surtar e amar o jogo ao mesmo tempo.
A história... bem... confesso que não entendi porra nenhuma, estava ocupando morrendo e voltando pra morrer de novo, então vou relevar.
A dificuldade do jogo depende se você se adapta fácil ou é um ruinzão (assim como eu).
Tempo de jogo: 31 horas

O jogo com um dos melhores modo online de mundo aberto.
A história de GTA V não fede nem cheira bem na minha opinião, mas a jogabilidade continua muito divertida até hoje, pelo menos até um certo tempo.
Seus gráficos e visuais se mantém excelentes após mais de dez anos desde seu lançamento, com uma atenção incrível aos detalhes.
As missões secundárias são meio chatinhas e repetitivas, principalmente as do modo online.
A maior diversão em GTA V é sair descendo bala em geral fugindo da policia e explorar o vasto mundo aberto num carrão fodástico roubado, coisa que os cariocas chamariam de "quarta-feira", mas para mim, que moro no interior de São Paulo, é bem excitante a correria.
Tempo de jogo: 30+ horas

Indika is a very short (~4hrs) walking game filled with puzzles and thought-provoking dialogue. Oh, the brilliant voice acting in this game... I loved the emotions that the 'narrator' put into his work. The ending leaves you hanging with questions in your mind. There are many scenes where you can't get what's happening because it's confusing or because it happens too fast.
I also want to state that I dissected the game and they animated every scene; characters are moving even when you don't see them in cutscenes or in the game. And the demon is also a part of some cutscenes, but you can't see it. They put real effort into this game. It's sad that it was short.
The downsides were pretty much the optimization and some less-polished parts of the game.

Why must there always be a tragic hero in the third row? Ok, I know I'm late to this party again, having played my old pinball simulations for ages, totally ignoring what's happening more recently. I also have to admit, that I'm not investing enough into PC hardware to keep track with the state of the art in general and I actually don't have to, because most games I'm interested in are old enough or not very performance hungry. I did know of the Pinball FX family though and have heard of other projects, but Zaccaria Pinball wasn't amongst them.

Could be because it still seems to be early access on Steam, which makes me wonder why I found Zaccaria Pinball on Nintendo Switch recently, but having not seen Pinball FX/FX3 or Pinball Arcade pop up on the e-store as well when I was looking for the genre, I'm wondering about the quality of my searches in general anyway. With any of the three platforms coming with at least one free table I was having a blast nonetheless and having fun with the HD rumble on my pro controller and the OLED screen in vertical, I was also beginning to buy DLCs.

And here's where the tragic journey begins, the reason I'm picking Zaccaria Pinball as my review subject at this very moment, but let's please emphasize first that it's actually me spending dough on a free platform to buy everything extra for. Yeah, that's not me, except for deals on Capcom Arcade Stadium for instance, because I did find some sales for Pinball FX3 and though I don't see me buying individual tables for bloody 15€ to use on the recent Pinball FX, I just had to spend another tenner on the FX3 Williams three-pack containing Attack from Mars, the machine I was doing two hour train rides to play back in the nineties.

Given that favorite pinball tables can be very autobiographical, I actually appreciate at least a split to affordable bundles, but on the other hand I would maybe be interested in more tables, would I have the option for a demo that the Switch versions of both Pinball FX and Pinball Arcade don't offer. It's another huge problem Pinball Arcade lost a part of their licenses, so my only chance to access the AC/DC table for instance was ordering the Stern Pinball Arcade package sold individually. I still hope the code in box version will work when it finally arrives.

However, Zaccaria Pinball did impress me instantly with next to the two free tables every other installment is playable as a demo. They have nothing to hide and that's for a good reason. Zaccaria Pinball is a simulation dream. You've got everything essential from the competitor's systems,but you can go much deeper by setting ambient light or wear on the table next to physics and camera. It can take minutes to study the possibilities before even thinking of playing and the attention to detail is plainly awesome. Having played, you get statistics for each ball's points and the distance they rolled. You immediately recognize Magic Pixel Games love what they're doing.

I'm willing to believe simulations of their signature tables are authentic in design as much as they are in physics, but here starts that issue because of which I'm not dumping all my money into Zaccaria Pinball right now. What they do have is fifties to sixties style retro tables I'm not sure existed. Then you've got the original electromagnetic and solid state Zaccaria tables from the seventies and eighties I can't remember having played, though it's possible long ago at a bar or something. I just don't have a relation to those tables with typical themes from sports to space etc. and as much as I love pragmatic old school designs, none of them catches my attention enough.

Whilst you can set the gap in the middle to a more modern narrow spacing on the old tables, Zaccaria Pinball actually offers remakes of their popular themes not like fantasy tables by Zen, but more like an authentic built as if the company had released them at the beginning of the nineties when their production had ceased. Those tables use elements that could just work as well as a real table and they're really fun to play. Same goes for deluxe versions that are comparable to Pinball FX interpretations of cabinets like Fish Tales, where you have digitally animated figures enhancing the design.

It really seems like they're doing everything right, having something in store for any generation of classic pinball fans and though they might not have the captivating music and knocking on the remakes, they still manage to add more familiar elements without denying typical leveled structures for instance. I appreciate this a lot, but do they want to be a sleeper like that?

Licensing is a very big issue in this segment and on one hand Magic Pixel Games are my heroes for creating their own level of simulation, but on the other it was very brave to enter competition just with one catalog available. I'm sure there are ecstatic fans who are very satisfied, but in this niche of gaming, Zaccaria Pinball occurs to be a whole niche on its own, for that alone I'm willing to spend a few Euros.

They're not even asking too much, I think. The contents of the packs between 5 and 10€ still appear generous, even though single tables can be purchased for between 2 and 3€ each. So what Zaccaria Pinball at least is doing is showing how it's done to the other big players Pinball Arcade (who need to really be revived) and Pinball FX who are going in the wrong direction right now.

But of course right now I want to play tables I've once found in the wild or I'm still looking forward to. It so happens I have a huge history with cabs from the Williams sets on Pinball FX3 and I've just played the Ghostbusters table in the Stern pack a few weeks back at the Dutch Pinball Museum in Rotterdam. I'm still looking for Data East stuff as a simulation, especially the Batman 1989 license that I visited a local ice cream parlor for after school as a kid. But I doubt Zaccaria Pinball will ever go that direction.

So in conclusion this is probably the best game I'm not going to play very soon, which is sad, but Zaccaria Pinball seems like built on a limitation from the start being nothing but an impulse as a great example maybe, but I don't feel the table have enough charisma to carry the game on their own. It's great for fans and except for slight bugs of caught balls on at least one remake, which might actually rather add to realism, it looks finished enough to me to play it. On Switch that is, of course.

I don't know if we can encourage Magic Pixel Games to just use the same engine on a follow up simulator for other licensed tables, but we should at least honor them with a purchase or two. As soon as I'm back on budget I will start buying everything just to enlarge the collection and send my thanks for an operation that doesn't seem to make a lot of sense but that they mastered anyway. It's maybe only adding to the variety of my tables, but when I'll start Zaccaria Pinball, I'll sure enjoy it.

Perhaps you like other of my related backloggd reviews like
Psycho Pinball
Stern Pinball Arcade
Pachinko Challenger
Puzzle Uo Poko

It's not a secret Stern are dominating the pinball business of the last 20 years, so giving them their own treatment just like Farsight did with Gottlieb and Williams wouldn't seem weird, if Pinball Arcade wasn't in-between. That framework for plenty of awesome pinball table DLCs did the job and tied a brilliant arcade together, well, until they started losing their licenses, which now makes Stern Pinball Arcade a great opportunity, so hear me out.

I've mentioned in my Zaccaria Pinball review that I'm again late to the party, so I've missed Pinball Arcade's golden era and though Zen did something right at sometime, I'm not entirely convinced by the recent Pinball FX plus they're missing out on Stern so far, even doing their own licensed versions of the same franchises and it might be a matter of taste if you prefer Zen's fantasy tables. I rather like simulations of existing pincabs with fundamental physics.

Anyway, noticing some previously released Stern tables missing from the eShop versions of either Pinball Arcade and Stern Pinball Arcade of which I at least wanted the missing AC/DC pincab, I understood why the retail version of Stern Pinball Arcade was actually a good idea to conserve those contents beyond the DLC availability. This also causes the Nintendo Switch cartridge to be offered between 45 and 110€ though, so I was willing to experiment if an Italian code in box version would work for me as well.

Good news is it does, so for 16€ shipped I got all the 11 tables of Stern Pinball Arcade unlocked as the retail version, which I think is a splendid deal considering Zen asks 15€ for the Indiana Jones table separately. The question though is, if it's something you'd be happy with as there are many gaps ranging from Lord of the Rings to Metallica or more recent Deadpool, Stranger Things and Godzilla that will probably never be available. I for sure would trade these against the Harley Davidson or Mustang licenses from this package and even Star Trek in a way is just a poor man's Attack From Mars, though all of them are entertaining for at least a while.

The highlight of this collection undeniably is the still available Ghostbusters Premium pincab, which is as challenging but fun as found in the wild when still running the unrevised 2016 code. It's a perfect representation of how Stern at best teaches you how to pinball these days, because it's easy to lose the ball without ever touching a flipper if you've got no idea how to play, but if you do, you'll hit over 100 million in bonus on one ball alone. It's a journey to activate the stages, toys and wizard mode, so don't be discouraged as an inexperienced player. Pinball is a game of skill after all and Stern learned to embrace that for the enthusiasts, making the games increasingly rewarding rather than just producing unfair moneymakers.

Best advertisement is probably Farsight giving away Frankenstein with the free download version, so you can already try one of the top titles. The remaining tables are Phantom of the Opera, Ripley's Believe It Or Not, Starship Troopers, Last Action Hero and High Roller Casino. The latter is a bit odd, incorporating the gambling aspect pinball was criticized for, but despite the chance element the real table is a joy with its toys and the representation gives a good impression.

Being based on the aging Pinball Arcade engine, Stern Pinball Arcade does the job quite nicely, though for vertical play on the Switch screen I'm missing my favorite angle from Pinball FX3. It's also unfortunate the B button is used for the angle and as well to exit the score screen, so don't press too early in an impatient rush or your settings change between plays.

You could of course argue if the ball physics are really 100% accurate or if there should be more precise hd rumble, but Stern Pinball Arcade on the other hand is far away from detailed settings available in Zaccaria Pinball anyway though it's also not as keen on challenges or upgrade systems as Pinball FX3 is, that I've learned to love as my sole key to play Bally/Williams classics on my Switch. There's a rudimentary challenge mode nonetheless and table achievements as well, but I'm not yet very interested.

In the end it's a substitute until I will be able to revisit some of the original Pincabs on my next arcade trip in a few weeks and for that it does the job perfectly. I'm not a kid that's got to be lured into playing pinball by things I wouldn't find on the cabinets. Gee, I'm old enough to have enjoyed Space Cadet on Windows as a welcome throwback to my past, when despite not thinking of myself as a pinball wizard I still frequently found sponsors paying credits to watch me play.

These days I really want to play, but it's gotten even harder to find any pinball machine in the wild, so either Pinball Arcade, Pinball FX3 or Zaccaria Pinball are the closest I can get and all of them offer me basically the same satisfying use of the Pro Controller I'd like to add. So much at least, that I'm thinking of how to padhack the rumble into my planned pinball controller, something I hadn't considered when randomly buying leaf switches to add to an arcade stick project before even finding out all these games are available on the Switch.

Whilst I love building those controllers, it's not an ideal world for being a pinball aficionado due to those licensing issues that make the standalone Stern Pinball Arcade relevant at all, because the tables should just be available to one of the engines, not even dreaming of having a single framework to feature all pincabs ever produced. Right now it doesn't look like the virtual situation for Stern is getting better, so to purchase this set is the only chance to still get them.

You maybe want to at least have Attack from Mars and Medieval Madness before expanding into the cabs featured in this selection, but with AC/DC as a representation of a decent rock license and Ghostbusters as one of the best recent Pincabs plus a nice selection of other fun tables Stern Pinball Arcade is a must have package for any good pinball collection.

It's always been a niche with the best sales for a real table more than often produced in Chicago being hardly over 20k units, more commonly 3-6k, usually at a price of a couple of thousands bucks and even if I wish, I'm not amongst the collectors having space and money for a manager man cave, so I'd sure love to add Metallica as my favorite music pinball or look forward to a coming Godzilla adaptation to Stern Pinball Arcade, but this is as good as it gets until maybe things sort out - possibly for a newer platform to come.

Perhaps you're interested in other of my related backloggd reviews like
Psycho Pinball
Pachinko Challenger
Puzzle Uo Poko

It's your same old Larry and it's not. I see the Lounge Lizards being a classic some people want to play it in a modern way and backed with Kickstarter Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded did happen. But it's not worth mentioning to me in more than just a few words.

See, the VGA remake of the original that already was sort of a remake of a text adventure called Softporn, did that job quite nicely though it might still be too old school for the kids. I, having played the original over and over, especially when it was installed on a school computer, would still prefer the parser version, that gives the game something truly mysterious and therefore adventurous no remake can offer.

In case of Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded, that I like the general art style of, but can't familiarize with the digitally brushed close ups, I also sense a big difference in tone. It's basically the same story with slight changes that won't stop you from finishing in four hours even if you try out all the possibilities. But it's a lot less innocent, more like unnecessarily nasty.

Leisure Suit Larry Reloaded doesn't display the protagonist as a clumsy charming creep that can use your help and that might actually help you finding out a few things not to do if you're still an adolescent looking for love yourself. To me in Reloaded Larry isn't much more than a creep anymore and you don't have to try what phrase could cause something funny to happen. You just click through the icons looking for an effect that usually isn't played out anyway.

The magic has worn off, so despite the modern voice acted Point'n'Click outfit it's probably frustrating if you don't know what to do and a rather boring chase if you do. It wasn't as exciting as letting Larry finally score in the original, because the setting, that also doesn't punish your failures anymore, doesn't even allow for it. The original was short and not the best game after all, but it kinda drew me in having goosebumps whenever I could make Larry advance in his world. That's gone. Even more than in the VGA version.

I've always raved about Broken Sword to be one of my favorite point’n’click adventures which to me was the peak of the classic genre, hitting me just at the right time with the right topic to skip school for a couple of days on release. Despite that, I've never actually played any older games by Revolution Software, who started their Virtual Theatre Engine on Lure of the Temptress followed by Beneath a Steel Sky.

You can find a lot of the personnel on Lure of the Temptress already. David Sykes, Tony Warriner, Dave Cummins, Stephen Oades and Charles Cecil, they're all there, but the game, at least in retrospect, is a catastrophe and so it took until the release of the sequel Beyond a Steel Sky to find my motivation again. And even finally starting my 7 hour playthrough of Beneath a Steel Sky in perfect timing for its 30th anniversary in March 2024, it still took me two months to attempt finishing it.

I'm not angry at all at the old games, because GOG gave them away for free and I think they're no charge ScummVM games these days anyway. Revolution probably know very well that they might have a history with these programs, but they didn't age all that well. Beneath a Steel Sky though is still worth looking into, if you're prepared for what to expect.

Beneath a Steel Sky starts with digitized comic cutscenes that of course are a little pixelated given it's 1993/94, so it does make sense to include basically the same panels by Dave Gibbons in print form with the original release. The story is about a wasteland citizen stumbling into an amnesiac urban neo noir family affair that nicks elements from Mad Max, Blade Runner and Star Wars so elegantly it would create false anticipation to use them as an actual description. But you'll understand the references when playing.

Have you played Broken Sword? You'll notice the pace in storytelling is quite similarly fast, whilst some puzzles can drive you insane by having you use items multiple times and having you stop looking for pixels as there rarely is a lot to discover, until you finally are required to use that one little spot that will reveal itself by a mouse over on a minimal hitbox. The fully dubbed version of Beneath a Steel Sky could be so nice, wouldn't it have its quirks that might still have looked like a good idea back in the day. Let's say the music by Dave Cummins isn't on the most pleasant side either.

Beneath a Steel Sky seems clearly to be a child of its time, when tabletop role playing worlds like Cyberpunk and Shadowrun kept the Neuromancer tropes alive in the nineties until we finally got movies like Johnny Mnemonic and The Matrix. Virtual Reality was a big futuristic thing as well, though contemporary peripherals had been cumbersome and ineffective. It was enough hype to have New Line Cinema implement the topic to their new interpretation of an old Stephen King short story with The Lawnmower Man in 1992.

Those very enigmatic cyberspace episodes were rather complicated puzzles to solve for me in Beneath a Steel Sky either, especially when showing the more uncomfortable attributes of the game, which aren't in the controls as much as within the fact you can fail. Having to reload your card into the terminal here is just as much a waste of time as having to restore the game after dying, so prepare yourself for timing issues and constant saving to avoid consequences.

On the other hand Beneath a Steel Sky identifies as a cynically written story though and having a robot sidekick to upload into several shells is adding to the humor just as shady surgeons or factory owners. It's a future dystopia just right up my alley, but at a certain point it was just running around for a couple of hours more or seeking help in a guide. Unless you want that from an otherwise short game in 2024 you'll probably understand we've had some evolvement in clever writing and programming, so the experience can still be challenging but less frustrating in modern graphic adventures.

Given the zero costs that's alright, I guess, especially with Broken Sword on the horizon, which was another improvement for the Studio. Compared to Lure of the Temptress, Beneath a Steel Sky was a gigantic leap forward and that's still something to honor in retrospect. I might sure have thought differently of Beneath a Steel Sky back in the day, quite possibly as a Revolution like they named themselves.

As an adolescent, the alienation within a rather bizarre civilization could be something relatable. I'm not even sure the vision is that far off, maybe not our exact present, but a society based on a computer network with district restrictions and employment for rather pointless activities to keep people occupied is close enough. And there's a certain nostalgia for lower resolution pixel graphics as well, so there's a chance you'll feel at home playing Beneath a Steel Sky today. Have I said it's free?

Square and Nintendo are a match made in heaven for this RPG. The combat is super simple compared to Square's other RPGs of the time, but I think that's what makes this so accessible and such a genre entrypoint at the time. The timed attack and defense functionality in combat adds an extra element of active play to the encounters, that makes this far from a passive experience. I loved the puzzle and light platforming elements of the game worlds, which cement this as a really special game that plays between both of its influences. Of course the music is fantastic, and the 3D-rendered graphics make for a Mario that looks totally unique. After the more intense RPG playthroughs of Final Fantasy 4 and 6 (5 will come later), this was a welcome, light experience that certainly earns its warm reputation. I'd love to see Mallow and Geno back for a future game!

Totally exceptional environmental storytelling that presents The Oldest House as a place that breathes, pulsates, and shifts as if irritated. The shooting is fairly fun, but I wish it had given me some more abilities to make it really fast and zippy. The ashtray maze is one of the peak moments, and the rest of the game doesn't quite reach that level of forward propulsion. The story also goes out of its way to be overly obtuse, and I feel like a more straightforward emotional throughline would have had a heavier impact.

Man, I dunno.

The game makes an excellent first impression with creative art direction that immediately pulls you in. The characters are solid, balancing what we know from the MCU against a unique take on the guardians. But seriously, this thing is paced torturously at times. The ability progression is stretched really thinly across a 17-hour playthrough, which means you reach the apex of your arsenal with ages left to play. It means the tail end of the game becomes a total drag gameplay wise, which is a bummer because I think there are elements of the climax that are genuinely great. It just sucks I was already worn down by the experience by this point. It either needed to be shorter to have a more sharp experience, or more enemy variety and ability combinations to make it feel more concise.

Still, I can't ignore how much I loved the design of every location in the game. It's a fantastic example of aesthetic appeal carrying much of the experience, for better and worse.