If I were to take FEZ at face value, then my thoughts would be pretty brief: it’s a damn good puzzle-platformer game with a hella strong core, taking a 2D interconnected world and twisting it and turning it to achieve greater heights. It’s never particularly difficult or challenging, but it’s fun; reaching new areas is intriguing, and getting the cubes is ultra satisfying, and in a way, I’m kinda glad it never tries to have really hard sections or some sort of final challenge, because even tho I’m sure that’d be cool, and I would really love to see this dimension-shifting mechanic taken up a notch, I also think the way that it is makes the world feel much more organic than it otherwise would, and sells the idea that this is an experience more about the act of exploring than traversing perilous sections.

However, taking FEZ at face value is impossible, or at least it is for me. FEZ is the jumps and beautiful sounds and sights of its adorable ruined worlds as much as it is the secrets that lie within.

I have talked about my fascination with the ancient world and the mysticism and desire to learn that comes with simply witnessing it, whether it is the remnants of a bygone civilization or the remains of an animal that walked the earth hundreds of millions of nights ago. FEZ has a ton of the former and not much of the latter, but what it shares with both of those is that feeling.

The feeling of stumbling upon something you shouldn’t even be able to understand, of seeing the carvings in the wall and the very code that holds reality together and finding answers behind it—it’s satisfying to beat a platforming challenge and get to a chest with a key in it, but it’s equally, if not even more fulfilling, to fit pieces of the puzzle hidden yet in plain sight.

Spirals of purple marble endlessly repeating, secrets to be revealed by feathered friends or written outside of the game itself, tongues that can be completely translated, and moments like what happened to me where I solved a puzzle by complete chance by just fucking around moving some blocks; connecting the deepest secrets of the world through the addition of the Anti-Cubes alone was an amazing decision. Even after pulling apart layers on top of layers to get some of them, I still feel I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s in here, what can be found, like an excavation that just has begun.

Every step is a new discovery, and making it to each of the main hub worlds opens a new horizon, from the oldest depths to the stormiest peaks, and it’s all so… tranquil. The wonderful, beautiful pixel art mixed with the outstanding OST, it compels you to keep going, to see juuuuuuuuuuuuuuuust a lil’ more, to keep going a bit further, only to be met with a teleporter, going back to the hub, and repeating that process over and over again. It says a lot when, in the year 2024, a game that uses QR codes or 4th wall breaks to solve puzzles doesn’t make me groan; on the contrary, in fact, it manages to fit into that secret uncovering process tremendously well.

There are pieces that don’t quite fit: the fact that quite a few of those more hidden puzzles end up being a combination of LT and LR inputs is a bit disappointing and misses the mark on what other Anit-Cube quests accomplish so well, and there’s some even weirder stuff like annoying void squares that appear randomly and aren’t anything more than a dumb annoyance or how entering doors may just crash to desktop randomly, which isn’t part of the experience, mind you, and it takes you completely out of it sometimes. It only happened once to me, but this being a problem present years later is a bit disappointing, to be honest.

It's a cube quest that a few times can be a little disappointing or frustrating, but that’s something I can easily look past when the rest of it is so stellar that the act of opening doors is the most exciting fucking thing ever. It invites to wonder and imagine, and there’s so much to be solved and found that, after hitting credits, I feel like the exploration can go even further…  Oh, and also, Gomez’s design and name is the best fucking thing ever and there’s no contest, the most basic-ass lil white dude and I love it, look at his smile!

Adventure is out there, and it carries mysteries with it, it’s about time someone solves them.

Pra mim jogos devem ser analisado como comida, e Hollow Knight é o melhor exemplo pro meu ponto.

Tem jogo que é um fast-food cheio de químicos, que tu devora em quinze minutos e pode tanto te viciar como tornar o banheiro mais próximo em uma área radioativa. Tem jogo que é um degustativo caro que você mal tem o prazer de se deliciar por levar em conta o preço. Tem jogo que lembra da tua avó, com aquela comida caipira que você jamais vai conseguir replicar. Tem jogo ayahuasca, tem jogo doce, jogo salgado... A única coisa que não existe, objetivamente falando, é jogo fora da data de validade.

Hollow Knight é inicialmente aquele banquete de Natal que torna todo ateu em um católico devoto, mas lentamente se revela um pirulito com bombinhas suspeito demais pra ter aprovação da Anvisa. É tão doce que queima o céu da tua boca, e tem como cliente fiel aquela criança catarrenta que está destinada a usar cocaína no futuro, sempre voltando pra mais um tapa de glicose que cerra os olhos e estica a língua.

Mas por que isso? Por que esse jogo é um pirulito de bombinhas? E por que tanta gente parece enaltecer ele como um caviar?

Não sei.
Poderia ser a apresentação profissional que humilha até hoje qualquer AAA fuleiro? Talvez a grande exposição que o jogo conseguiu ter? Talvez por Hollow Knight ser, em imagem, um grande aglomerado de tudo que moldou a oitava geração, por consequência uma geração de gamers?
Não sei nem se cabe a mim digerir isso, e estou certo de que não importa muito.

Ponto é que esse jogo não seria um pirulito se ele fosse metade do que é. Esse é um exemplo concreto de “muito pra comer” numa estrutura que tem uma “boca pequena demais pra mastigar” e uma “goela fina demais pra engolir”.

Quero dizer que o conteúdo, em grande parte, é diminuído por como ele é apresentado tanto em gameplay como em estrutura. O simplismo de certas mecânicas não se beneficia do level design, o backtracking é mal distribuído por entrar em conflito com a progressão. Metade do jogo é uma busca incessante por uma velocidade de movimento e por um pequeno aumento de força que acaba nivelando o late game pro mesmo nível do early game.

Não é uma questão de balanceamento ou espaçamento, simplesmente falta espaço no estômago de qualquer pessoa que não esteja empanturrada de propósito.

O começo é o ponto mais forte, com a lentidão inicial sendo contida pelo pequeno escopo apresentado. A sensação de que coisas grandes virão é tão óbvia que te cativa a ir cada vez mais afundo, mas tanto o aumento do escopo em gameplay e level desing decepcionam e não caminham juntos, ficando até o final em um duelo pra ver qual consegue ser mais mal cozinhado.

Áreas como Fog Canyon, Queens Garden, Howlling Cliffs, metade de Crystal Peak e Resting Grounds são exemplos tão gritantes do jogo sendo mal espaçado que uma sensação de perda de tempo é inevitável sempre que é necessário passar por lá. Quebram o pacing como um palito de dente no meio do sanduíche. O jogo acerta muito em sessões mais diretas de plataforma e desafios labirínticos, provando que Hollow Knight é muito melhor como jogo de ação do que como Metroidvania, e talvez um aperto maior de seu mapa apenas o beneficiaria a longo prazo.

O combate acaba no mesmo problema. Há um nítido desconforto em assumir a simplicidade apresentada, mas ao mesmo tempo tenta-se extrair mais do que se pode. A sensação é de que nenhuma abordagem foi abraçada com total segurança, caindo numa repetição de chefes e padrões de movimento que não te cativa a desfrutar dos diversos chefes, se é que há o que ser extraído de tanto açúcar jorrado num suco já doce. Há exceções, como Crystal Guardian, Grimm, Hornet e Hollow Knight, mas o gostinho de “mais um fantasma pra desviar e bater” não vai embora.

Meu maior elogio vai pra arte. Esse jogo é incontestavelmente um dos mais lindos já feitos. Não tem nem o que dizer sobre, é simplesmente espetacular em todo sentido, faz com que tu queira ignorar todos os defeitos pra só admirar cada salinha e cada detalhe.

Enfim. Fica aquela sensação de que você começou a comer um prato muito gostoso, que se revelou gigantesco e cheio de uma massa pastosa que tem gosto de tofu. Você come até onde dá, acaba sufocado de tanta comida, e ainda se sente em partes mal por não ter comido até as bordas, pois sabe que foi um prato feito com muito amor e carinho, fora que tem um cheiro tão convidativo...

Hollow Knight é um pirulito de caviar com gosto de pistache e milho, mas basta?

Minha barriga dói.

I thought my Metroid marathon was done but I saw this in the store for 10 dollars and I remembered I had a 3ds and that can play ds games. So I got it and physically played it on a physical 3ds which was really cute of me to do that. Every aspect of this little demo thing is cute + precious. The controls are giga fucked tho. U can move with the stick or the d pad or XYAB for some reason, shoot with the bumpers, and move your camera by dragging ur finger across the bottom half of ur ds. to jump u tap ur finger on the bottom half of ur ds twice and to change to missiles u press a button on there, to change to morph ball bla bla u get the idea. There’s not much to do here but i had fun for like 5 mins. Worth 10 dollars and digging out my 3ds for? Absolutely fucking not. But tbh I feel I’ve been overlooking the 3ds. It’s more portable than the switch and i can comfortably take it on the bus with me and not get robbed. I’ll play Samus returns I guess. I did see it at the store and it was still $60 tho so… yea u understand why I haven’t really ever been much of a Nintendo fella. Even tho I’m replaying mgs4, my Metroid marathon will continue to march forth. I’m still not gonna play other m though.

Tenchu can be a difficult game to get into since like many games of the PS1 era, it makes basically no attempt at explaining its core mechanics to the player in the game itself. However, if you're willing to stick with it and watch a guide or two, what you'll end up with is a deeply rewarding experience that I'd consider to be one of the best games that the PS1 has to offer.

Now I'm no expert on stealth games, my experience with the genre starts and ends with MGS, but what I can say is that I had a ton of fun throughout basically the entire game. Playing Tenchu can be a slow burn with how much waiting is involved but that's what makes the game so enjoyable, having to wait from a safe distance, analyze an enemies movement pattern and find your perfect moment to strike and then get rewarded with a sick looking takedown animation never got old. This is also helped by the excellent level design, there's only 10 of them but the game does an excellent job in forcing you to mix up how you approach a stage from traversing primarily on rooftops in mission 1 to being forced to do all of mission 3 on foot to then having to deal with the uneven terrain of mission 8. Missions are usually short and concise and it's not always clear on where you're meant to go but with how well designed the stages are, I didn't mind it, instead I was happy to spend more time than necessary if it meant I could secure a couple Grand Master ranks and unlock more items. Speaking of items, there's a ton of them here from shurikens, caltrops, poisoned rices, land mines etc and they do an excellent job at giving the player a number of options to diversify the way you tackle a mission.

As I already mentioned, there's a lot of downtime when playing Tenchu as you try to get a view of the enemies while putting up with the game's terribly aged rendering system, luckily though, this game has one of the best OSTs to any game I've played so there's always a tune you can latch onto while waiting around. Seriously, it's insane how good the music is here.

Now I've been singing the games praises and rightfully so, but even I can't deny that this games got some flaws. Aside from the fact that the game doesn't explain its mechanics and the draw distance often leads to instances where you try to slowly nudge yourself towards an out of sight enemy but once you see them they also see you, there's also the fact that combat here is really janky. This is fine for normal encounters since combat is something you're meant to avoid so it wouldn't make sense for it to feel good, but the game has a lot of bossfights where you're forced to deal with the janky combat and they're just not that fun. I just cheesed them with items usually since I didn't want to risk having to redo an entire mission from dying at the boss. Also, replay value could've been better. Replaying missions to get Grand Master ranks was fun but more could've been done with the fact that the game has two playable characters. Rikimaru and Ayame basically both control the same and go through the exact same missions with the only difference being their dialogue in cutscenes which doesn't really warrant playing as both of them.

So yes, its not perfect but what game is. What matters is that It succeeds in all the areas that it needs to and even though I tried bringing up some things wrong with it, I'd be lying if I said any of it really impacted my playthrough. It is a fantastic game and the definition of a hidden gem

Definitely has a more interesting backstory than game itself tbh. So Sega made those Astro City-style arcade cabinets in Japan that are designed to be a one-size JAMMA machine to throw whatever PCB into to play games on. Thing is, there's a law in Japan which mandates that all arcade machines come with at least one game, so this game was made essentially to comply to that law and be the default game that comes with every interchangeable arcade machine made by Sega.

Because of that, this game was designed to be as cheap and disposable as humanly possible. You get NO sound hardware, NO colors, 256x192 resolution, it's literally just a head-on clone using the most primative graphics imaginable. I will say that compared to head-on, there's at least some sauce in movement as you essentially have free movement in any direction (except backwards) and the AI isn't as hell-bent on smashing into you to make juking enemies out more possible. I wouldn't be surprised if the AI programming follows a seemingly random path with as little lines of code as possible though. There are also no continues, or even credits to begin with which is honestly a bit surprising, if you were a cheapass arcade owner that couldnt afford any actual games for your cab you wouldnt even be able to make any change back on just dottori-kun.

It's certainly fascinating to see a game designed with the purpose of being replaced. Sega told their team "don't try too hard with this one" and they followed through. It's mid by design, but i guess in that case then mission accomplished? It also kinda makes this game extremely rare out in the wild, since the only way you'd be able to find this would be if an arcade operator fucked up and didn't actually put an actual game in their machine, or if its intentionally left inside a cabinet as either a historical curio or gag or something. I do appreciate how it is included in the astro city mini cabinets, giving people at home the wonderful experience of playing something that you'd really rather be best off playing anything else over.

Nunca pensei que daria nota 2 pra um Kirby

É.. assim, eu gostei do DL 1 e do Adventure mas o Dream land 2 e 3 realmente foram minhas maiores decepções, até cheguei a achar que o 3 melhoraria um pouco mas pra mim só piorou, o Kirby ficou muito lento e o jogo cheio de puzzle e quests chatas de se fazer pra saber o final verdadeiro (que obviamente, não fiz), as fases dele achei legal e sua trilha sonora também me encantou, mas isso não foi o suficiente pra fazer eu curtir o jogo por inteiro e me divertir pra caramba com ele

Muita gente elogia o Dream Land 3 e alguns consideram ele como masterpiece e tudo, mas pra mim ele é totalmente o contrário e espero nunca mais encostar nesse jogo novamente

Nunca uma missão secundária foi tão chata

Saints Row sem dúvida é uma franquia com a qual eu já me diverti, pois me lembro de ter bons momentos com o 3 o 4. Agora, pegando o primeiro game pra conhecer eu me frustrei DEMAIS.

Sério, quem teve a brilhante ideia de fazer com que as “missões” secundárias fossem obrigatórias? E eu coloco entre aspas pq elas são verdadeiros minigames né. Eles até colocam ali um contexto pra situação, mas nada faz jus, pq é puramente galhofa. Além do que, para fazer missões principais vc precisa de encher a barra do “nível de respeito” aí se vc enche ela 3 vezes, vc consegue jogar 3 missões principais e por aí vai.

Acontece que se vc completa as missões principais vc não ganha nenhum respeito. Cara isso se contradiz tanto com a proposta de gangue do game pq vc mata outros inimigos, prejudica rivais e não ganha “respeito”, mas ai vc ganha em um minigames - missão secundária de ter que ficar se jogando na frente de carros para pontuar sendo arremessado longe (esse é só um exemplo de uma missão secundária).

No final o seu “respeito” é consumido através das missões. Então a perspectiva de ser membro de uma gangue não existe uma vez que o respeito é meramente uma barrinha do quanto vc pode ou não seguir no jogo. Fora que todo o plot tbm se perde quando o personagem passa 99% do tempo mudo (até onde joguei ele DO NADA falou uma parada em uma missão e foi algo pra ser cômico pq o GAT toma um susto).

A franquia é galhofa afinal temos invasão alienígena e inferno em títulos futuros, mas eu imaginei que aqui as coisas fossem ser mais roots ou “normais” e divertidas. Perdi total minha paciência em ter que quebrar o ritmo de gameplay indo fazer missão secundária chata. Pq das duas uma: ou tu vai alternando secundária com principal ou tu mete um grind nas secundárias logo de início. Mas tipo, se tu meter um grind tu vai ficar papo de umas 4 horas só jogando coisa totalmente aleatoria pra aí então ir pra gameplay e história que “vale a pena”. Pq tbm tem isso, a história é fraquíssima. Até onde joguei a parte da gangue do King foi o ponto alto (única gangue que conclui).

Resumo: jogo chato, sem amor, sem graça, longe de ser cômico e divertido igual os futuros e com uma obrigatoriedade de gameplay completamente sem sentido. Quer saber sobre a história? Joga não, prefira ler um resumo com spoiler por ai, pq é oq eu vou fazer.

Duas estrelas só pra não negativar tudo tbm, pq a história msm que ruim tem um ponto alto como eu falei, o combate é tosco, mas funcional e o jogo funciona de forma minimamente fluída.

After getting my Switch on launch along with Breath of the Wild, I was excited to see what games the console would have in the future. I bought Master Blaster Zero and eventually The Binding of Isaac for the third time, but a month and a half later Mario Kart 8 Deluxe came out. Now look, this may be a rerelease and all but it was for a portable console. Mario Kart 8 was great but I could only play it at home and with a game like Mario Kart, its more fun to play it on the go with friends. When this came out, I was nearing the end of my Junior year in High School. Let me tell you, me and my friends played this all the time during the span of the rest of my high school experience. We played it in lunch, we played it in study hall, we even played it in class whether it was sneaking it or just when we had free time. This was THE Switch game to play when it came to my friend group alongside Jackbox Party Pack 3. It's just a ton of fun and while I said it was a rerelease, it's not just a lazy port. They not only included the DLC tracks, but they also added some new characters and revamped the battle mode.

I said the character selection was a bit lacking in the original game but the ones they added here are all good. Bowser Jr, King Boo and Dry Bones are all good additions that were in past games. The completely brand-new addition tho is Inkling Girl/Boy. Now, I was a huge Splatoon 1 fan before this so I was hyped when they were added. I mained them a lot when I first played and honestly, they're a perfect crossover addition just cuz Splatoon was originally supposed to be a Mario game which I found funny. This isn't even getting into the characters they added from the booster course pass. Most of those are also great, tho I haven't used them myself since I don't own the booster courses. If you do though, easily the best roster in the series.

The other thing they fixed of course is the battle mode. Easily the worst part of the original game and the worst battle mode I've played, it's really good here. Not as good as Mario Kart DS since there's still no option to have it be elimination rules, however you're not forced into teams like Wii and there's a whopping 5 modes this time around. Balloon battle and coin runners are classics of course. Shine thief makes a return and it's also pretty fun here. Bob-omb blast apparently originated from Double Dash and that's also fun tho definitely the most chaotic of the bunch. The brand new mode this time around is renegade roundup and its basically cops and robbers. Pretty fun mode as well but the real reason these are all actually fun is they gave us battle courses again THANK GOD. The old courses are great and some of the new courses are awesome too like Urchin Underpass. Love to see a little Splatoon representation since it didn't get a race track.

So there you go, the character selection was expanded and while not my favorite battle mode, the battle mode was made actually fun again. The only other thing they added, and they added it 5 years after deluxe came out, are the booster courses. Now I don't own them but my good friend Quent has the expansion pass so along with him and my friend wheatie, we played a bunch of online races for this review and I was able to play pretty much all the courses I wanted to. I didn't play them all but I can see the course quality varies greatly. You have some really half assed tracks and then you have really great ones like Yoshi's Island or SNES Bowser's Castle. A lot of the returning ones are Wii courses which is a plus too. Obviously most of these are just straight up ported from Tour and the visuals on a lot of them are pretty unacceptable compared to the base game but, if you don't care about then then the value of 48 tracks for $25 is great. That's basically 50 cents a track plus the added characters. Not only that but they added the ability to choose custom items, plus a music player in the main menu.

With the slightly better character roster and the MUCH better battle mode, I can say this is definitely THE definite Mario Kart. Though I may end up liking Wii a tad bit more now due to it's wacky physics. Either way, definitely a must have as a Switch owner and as a Mario Kart fan.

Well, that's the end of the Mario Kart marathon everyone unless I end up actually playing Tour lol. Been playing Persona 3 FES this whole time alongside these games and I'm in December now so I think I'm nearing the end of it, stay tuned for that review!

uma clara evolução do primeiro jogo em tudo

a gameplay ficou bem confortável em comparação ao anterior, novos modos de parkour, habilidades e uma excelente progressão de personagem. Infelizmente o combate do jogo não é dos melhores, contra humanos comuns até que é de boa mas as lutas contra chefes são horrorosas e bugadas, fazendo elas ficarem mais difíceis doq deveriam, mas o desempenho do jogo até que ficou melhor em comparação ao original, menos lagadas e quedas de FPS frequentes

quanto a história, a evolução foi inacreditável, tudo foi extremamente melhorado, foram incluídas cutscenes com os modelos dos personagens e não só aquelas feitas em quadrinhos, a química dos personagens ficou muito boa e eles continuam muito interessantes e cheios de vida, o enredo teve um bom e emocionante encerramento pra eles, inclusive a dublagem do jogo não é de todo ruim

eu realmente curti pra krl esses jogos de inFAMOUS pra ps3 (ainda vou jogar festival of blood mas nem canônico é), vou sentir saudades da dupla do Cole e Zeke e dos outros personagens dessa duologia, espero que os games pra ps4 mantenham a qualidade