2015
This is by far the game I’ve spent the most time playing, ever. Absolute fun all the time.
2013
My favorite 2D platformer ever. Totally brilliant.
Absolutely fantastic platformer. Perfectly designed for the VR setting, and with great levels and bosses.
2019
I had lots of fun with all 126 Nintendo-created levels of Story Mode, even though the “story” is super shallow. But I guess that’s on par with Mario games.
I personally don’t care much about the 3D-style levels, but the 2D ones are fantastic. It felt like playing a new version of SM1, SM3, and World.
Didn’t have that much fun with the online part. Super lacking feature-wise. Endless Challenge mode was the best part of online for me, but it can still yield trashy creations.
Overall a great way to go revisit classic Mario.
I personally don’t care much about the 3D-style levels, but the 2D ones are fantastic. It felt like playing a new version of SM1, SM3, and World.
Didn’t have that much fun with the online part. Super lacking feature-wise. Endless Challenge mode was the best part of online for me, but it can still yield trashy creations.
Overall a great way to go revisit classic Mario.
2018
After watching the latest Game Maker Toolkit’s video about Celeste, I felt the itch to re-climb the Mountain.
This is such a wonderfully and excellently designed game!
The music, the mechanics, the story, it’s all fantastic.
Challenging, but far from impossible, and oh-so rewarding.
This is such a wonderfully and excellently designed game!
The music, the mechanics, the story, it’s all fantastic.
Challenging, but far from impossible, and oh-so rewarding.
2018
I loved the first Unravel and was very excited about the second part. And while it improves on the gameplay mechanics while maintaining impressive visuals and beautiful music, the “story” doesn’t have that emotional impact and charm the first one had.
The ending also felt somewhat rushed to me.
Still, great fun, specially with the new challenge areas. Very rewarding overall.
The ending also felt somewhat rushed to me.
Still, great fun, specially with the new challenge areas. Very rewarding overall.
2016
Yakuza is great and crazy fun. This one is not as big and seemingly-endless as Zero, but the main story is very good and gripping (specially knowing the events of its prequel) and the fights are fantastic and rewarding.
Absolutely fantastic experience!
Very high production values; the visual style, animations, the environments, the music. It’s all top-notch excellency.
Challenging but never frustrating and super rewarding.
And best of all, it takes less than 11 hours to fully complete it (on normal difficulty). Perfect length for a game, in my books.
Very high production values; the visual style, animations, the environments, the music. It’s all top-notch excellency.
Challenging but never frustrating and super rewarding.
And best of all, it takes less than 11 hours to fully complete it (on normal difficulty). Perfect length for a game, in my books.
2019
I finished this one in a single. Which is an indication of both its length (around 4 hours) but also how gripping its story and presentation is.
Good puzzles, great music, fantastic visuals, and a deep and somewhat disturbing and touching story.
Good puzzles, great music, fantastic visuals, and a deep and somewhat disturbing and touching story.
2019
An uniquely bizarre, technically and visually stunning, tense and fun, and ultimately rewarding experience.
This is Hideo Kojima unchained, for better or worse.
While there were some minor, mildly annoying things -like some UI animations taking too long and otherwise requiring too many inputs to skip, and some heavy handed and a bit shallow dialogues and exposition- the excellency and depth of the gameplay, the rewarding asynchronous social networking mechanics, and a engaging group of characters makes the whole thing so brilliant it outshines any of those minor issues.
One of my favourite games of this generation. I'm so glad such a different and experimental game exists on the high-calibre, Triple-A level.
This is Hideo Kojima unchained, for better or worse.
While there were some minor, mildly annoying things -like some UI animations taking too long and otherwise requiring too many inputs to skip, and some heavy handed and a bit shallow dialogues and exposition- the excellency and depth of the gameplay, the rewarding asynchronous social networking mechanics, and a engaging group of characters makes the whole thing so brilliant it outshines any of those minor issues.
One of my favourite games of this generation. I'm so glad such a different and experimental game exists on the high-calibre, Triple-A level.
2016
Short but sweet campaign.
I’m not a bit FPS person; they really have to be extraordinary and offer something unique or fresh. This one does that.
I’m not a bit FPS person; they really have to be extraordinary and offer something unique or fresh. This one does that.
2017
Love how great the cities are to walk through and enjoy. Really had fun with the combat and specially the side stories. The Cabaret Club sub-game is addictively fun. And the main story is filled with great characters and absurd but fun moments.
The overall package doesn’t have as much substance as Yakuza 0, but it’s still a fantastic experience.
The overall package doesn’t have as much substance as Yakuza 0, but it’s still a fantastic experience.
Overall, a fantastic package, with one of the games being among my top 5 favourite of all time.
Symphony Of The Night is a great here as the PSX version, with some changes here and there, most notably different voice acting - which while technically better in terms of delivery, lacks the charm of the original, cheesy one.
A big addition is the option to play as Maria once you finish the game once.
The fantastic OST, expansive castle and fluid gameplay still shine.
Symphony Of The Night is a great here as the PSX version, with some changes here and there, most notably different voice acting - which while technically better in terms of delivery, lacks the charm of the original, cheesy one.
A big addition is the option to play as Maria once you finish the game once.
The fantastic OST, expansive castle and fluid gameplay still shine.
2019
The presentation- amazing pixel art with great and fluid animations, and an interested setting that takes from spanish catholic symbols and themes and twists them to creepier highs- was what pulled my attention to this game.
After getting the "true ending", 12 hours later, I'm satisfied with the experience, mostly thanks to the aforementioned setting and presentation.
Gameplay-wise, there's nothing really outstanding about it, for better or worse. The platforming sometimes felt a bit uninspiring and unpolished. The combat was fun and tight, and the progression felt good and rewarding.
Indeed, the most memorable moments are the boss fights. Visually stunning, twisted, and creepy creatures that provide the biggest challenges, all backed up by this religion-gone-super-creepy imagery made for a very good experience.
Just wish the rest was better polished.
After getting the "true ending", 12 hours later, I'm satisfied with the experience, mostly thanks to the aforementioned setting and presentation.
Gameplay-wise, there's nothing really outstanding about it, for better or worse. The platforming sometimes felt a bit uninspiring and unpolished. The combat was fun and tight, and the progression felt good and rewarding.
Indeed, the most memorable moments are the boss fights. Visually stunning, twisted, and creepy creatures that provide the biggest challenges, all backed up by this religion-gone-super-creepy imagery made for a very good experience.
Just wish the rest was better polished.
TLoU2
- An impressive technical achievement. How the acting and the animations bring the characters to life is so incredibly good.
- The atmosphere is perfect. So tense, dark, scary, hopeless.
- I love Seattle (one of the few US cities I’ve visited), and seeing it taken over by nature and decay but still so recognizable was very cool. Wonderfully done.
The “mini open-world” section of Downtown Seattle was great. Not so big that it could be overwhelming but big enough that it felt rewarding to explore as much of it as possible.
I loved the open-ended design of the encounter locations. So good to be given so many ways to approach the encounters in terms of the layouts of the levels.
The “Naughty Dog polish” is ever present here. The little details, the casual conversations and quips throughout, the well-crafted interiors of the countless houses and apartments - all felt so realistically unique.
Loved the new characters. Fan of Dina. Fan of Lev.
Loved the story. I read someone saying that it’s impressive how the game takes you from hating and raging againts a character at the beginning, to having compassion for them at the end. I couldn’t agree more. A great storytelling achievement.
I’m Team Abby.
On way too many occasions, the editing made me think I had reached the end of the game. The cut to blacks were a bit over-used, I felt.
I think it was a reflection of how gripped I was by the story that I wanted to reach the conclusion so bad - I wanted to know how these characters’ arcs would end - that at some point I started thinking that the game was too long. Looking back, I can see that given the ambitious story they wanted to tell, and the character explorations they achieved, I appreciate the time it takes for it.
I guess by the end I was already used (maybe desensitized) by it, but I remember being very shocked by the oh-so-detailed, graphic, and seemingly realistic gore and violence of the game during the first hours. It’s a testament to how excellent is the overall execution of the acting, animation, and visual development.
The guitar playing! Oh my. As a guitar player myself, I loved how the guitar was such an important part of the story itself! And of course, the level of detail of the guitar-playing sequences was fantastic.
The musical work, unsurprisingly, was masterful.
Maybe it was simply because I was always scavenging every corner, nook, and cranny of every place I went though for crafting materials and ammo, and I tried to be as stealthy in the encounters as I possibly could, but I never ran out of ammo for any of my weapons. (Also, I played on Moderate difficulty so that probably helped).
- An impressive technical achievement. How the acting and the animations bring the characters to life is so incredibly good.
- The atmosphere is perfect. So tense, dark, scary, hopeless.
- I love Seattle (one of the few US cities I’ve visited), and seeing it taken over by nature and decay but still so recognizable was very cool. Wonderfully done.
The “mini open-world” section of Downtown Seattle was great. Not so big that it could be overwhelming but big enough that it felt rewarding to explore as much of it as possible.
I loved the open-ended design of the encounter locations. So good to be given so many ways to approach the encounters in terms of the layouts of the levels.
The “Naughty Dog polish” is ever present here. The little details, the casual conversations and quips throughout, the well-crafted interiors of the countless houses and apartments - all felt so realistically unique.
Loved the new characters. Fan of Dina. Fan of Lev.
Loved the story. I read someone saying that it’s impressive how the game takes you from hating and raging againts a character at the beginning, to having compassion for them at the end. I couldn’t agree more. A great storytelling achievement.
I’m Team Abby.
On way too many occasions, the editing made me think I had reached the end of the game. The cut to blacks were a bit over-used, I felt.
I think it was a reflection of how gripped I was by the story that I wanted to reach the conclusion so bad - I wanted to know how these characters’ arcs would end - that at some point I started thinking that the game was too long. Looking back, I can see that given the ambitious story they wanted to tell, and the character explorations they achieved, I appreciate the time it takes for it.
I guess by the end I was already used (maybe desensitized) by it, but I remember being very shocked by the oh-so-detailed, graphic, and seemingly realistic gore and violence of the game during the first hours. It’s a testament to how excellent is the overall execution of the acting, animation, and visual development.
The guitar playing! Oh my. As a guitar player myself, I loved how the guitar was such an important part of the story itself! And of course, the level of detail of the guitar-playing sequences was fantastic.
The musical work, unsurprisingly, was masterful.
Maybe it was simply because I was always scavenging every corner, nook, and cranny of every place I went though for crafting materials and ammo, and I tried to be as stealthy in the encounters as I possibly could, but I never ran out of ammo for any of my weapons. (Also, I played on Moderate difficulty so that probably helped).