donkey kong country 2, man. i hadn't played any of the donkey kong country games up until recently, in february of 2023, i decided to give them all a crack, and while every game was a blast, this game in particular stood out to me the most. so much so, that is the only game on my entire backloggd profile i feel confident giving a 5/5 rating to, it quite literally is basically flawless in my eyes, and i'll elaborate on that in this review.

this game is such a massive improvement from the first donkey kong country, it is insane; just about every single issue i had with the first donkey kong country game was ironed out in this game, making for a blast from start to finish. like i said, i concluded that this was the best game in the franchise and called it there. i wouldn't touch the franchise again until just about a week ago, when i decided to replay DKC2 from start to finish, whilst going for 102% completion. i won't lie, i was slightly nervous because what if the game wasn't as good as i remembered? well, literally within the first world my fears were quelled, as the game introduces fun, unique, and difficult (but fair) platforming from the rip.

both diddy and dixie control amazingly, i do prefer controlling diddy since he has more spring to his jumps and such but dixie is amazing at making those precise jumps. the 2 work in tandem better than diddy and donkey, or dixie and kiddy ever could. as i said, right from the rip the game introduces fun and engaging platforming, not only is the platforming excelled by the tight controlling jumping/moving, but diddy's roll makes for a fun way to replay levels and discover routes you may have not discovered in previous playthroughs (dixie's roll to a lesser extent).

throughout the past year or so, since i played DKC2 in february, i would listen to the game's soundtrack on loop, literally every song in this OST is a hood classic, i'm not sure if there is a single fucking miss. and upon this replay going for 102%, i have found even more newfound appreciation for some of the tracks i would play less than others. picking favorites among this soundtrack is a difficult ask but if i had to choose between 3, it's probably: forest interlude, mining melancholy, and snakey chantey. all 3 exude fairly different vibes but they all fit so well in the levels they're placed in and just make me float man. easily the best video game soundtrack of all time, in my opinion. and i know that's not exaclty a hot take but it's impossible to talk about this game without bringing up the OST accompanying the gameplay itself.

the sprite work in this game too is something else man, how they got this shit onto a SNES is beyond me, that combined with the music makes for a more visually-pleasing experience than most modern AAA titles provide me, honestly. it's honestly kinda jarring going from any 1 of the 3 DKC games to another SNES title as these games are just beyond the system's limits. this game in particular has incredibly striking background and foreground work though - there's a reason the background of bramble blast is as iconic as it is.

back on to the topic of difficulty, it is extremely fair and i remember the difficulty curve being way steeper than it actually was. now, that may be just because i was more familiar with the game this time around, but i struggled far less generally than i did my first time through. the difficulty definitely goes up around gloomy gulch or so but it never gets outright unfair or ridiculous. there is ONE instance in animal antics (a lost world level, so you have to go out of your way to play this one), where a checkpoint seems to be placed kiiiindaa soon and not in the ideal spot, which i believe was rectified in the GBA port, but it never actually frustrated me, since the stuff that came after the checkpoint was, again, incredibly fair. animal antics made for a very great send-off to DKC2. every challenging level felt great to beat and... yeah, i want even more of this game. DKC3 provides that but, if i recall, it just isn't as consistent.

going for 102% gave me even more appreciation for this game i already love so dear, truly, this is the one game i can give a perfect score to, if i had to really, really nitpick, some of the DK coins and kremkoins can be hidden in some pretty far out places, but cranky does provide some genuinely useful tips and it's never a bunch of bullocks, so finding them without the help of the internet is definitely doable.

if i haven't made it clear, i love this game dearly, and if you haven't played it and are for some reason reading this very long review, please do yourself a favor and play it. it really is unlike any other 2D platformer i've played. and if you don't play it, that's fine too, i just hope everyone can have a game like DKC2 to them, cuz it's really something connecting with a game like this. definitely a game i’ll be replaying every so often.

Right off the bat, the entire time the game was being developed, it was credited that it would play like the old N64 wrestling games (WCW vs NWO Revenge, WWF Wrestlemania 2000, and WWF No Mercy) and that was what brought me into wanting to play it. Did it succeed? Well...es and no, but mostly yes.

I honestly would say the gameplay is much closer to something like Def Jam Vendetta mixed with the base controls of the WWE 2K games before they got overly complicated, which to say the gameplay actually feel pretty good, mostly. I'll definitely take these controls over anything WWE has been doing to their games over the years.

Aside from just the controls, the gameplay has the different types of matches, most you'd expect out of a wrestling game and a few that are odd, but arcade-ish which kinda describes the game as a whole.

The selling point to me besides the controls was the Road to Elite which is the career mode. This allows you to use any of the wrestlers and go through a career mode or use your own created wrestler (male or female) and go through the story and build up your stats and title collection. The create-a-wrestler is actually pretty decent. It's not very robust, but it does the job enough to not overwhelm newcomers and still give a smooth experience.

At first when the game was being shown off, I thought the graphics were ugly, but seems it got polished and looks good to me, it's somewhere between wrestler toys and close to realistic, if that makes any sense. I really like the design of the characters, although to be fair I don't know but maybe 10% to 20% of the roster, but for what was shown they looked good.

I gotta say, the music shocked me...after years of hear EA and 2K choices of songs in WWE and boxing and other sports games, I feel like AEW chose some really amazing music.

Now this game does have it's flaws, but it's like everything good has a "but" to it.

- The controls are good as I said, but I felt they tried to hard to make EVERY button do something, when some actions could have been condensed like Irish Whip and Run could have just been the same button like every other Wrestling-ish game did.

- It has plenty of match types, but I think road to elite does a poor job of explaining stipulations or even showing you the match type after you got into it.

- Road to Elite has abysmal writing...some characters talk like their real counter parts do, but some of them have awful writing, that or if they REALLY talk like that...ugh... also my own character's dialogue was awfully written.

- As much fun as I had with it for the time I had played, I kinda felt the game needed more to it.

For AEW's first attempt at a game, I think they did a very good job for what they were going for. If what I read is true and this is just a test run to an ongoing set of games or ideas they wanna do, then they got my support, just as long as they take what they did here and improve on it, the next game could be promising, but like the company itself, it's a bit of a diamond in the rough.

Mesmo estando ciente de todos os problemas que envolvem Resident Evil 3 Remake, preciso ser justo com minha própria experiência com o jogo. E partindo do ponto de vista de alguém que não tem ligação com o original, devo dizer que me diverti bastante com o que experienciei.

De início eu realmente tive a impressão de que as coisas estavam acontecendo rápido demais, sendo até difícil de acompanhar e digerir, mas logo o ritmo se tornou mais agradável nessa curta campanha de mais ou menos 4 horas.

A jogabilidade se manteve extremamente satisfatória, com pequenas adições que mesmo não tão impactantes, agregaram bem ao conjunto.

Dessa vez, pude conhecer uma nova protagonista, que me fisgou sem grandes dificuldades. Jill Valentine é incrível, e sua reimaginação visual ficou impecável.

Junto ao Nêmesis, a dupla de caça e caçador tomam o brilho do jogo como um todo, sejam nas perseguições ou até mesmo nas bossfights.

Consigo compreender a revolta e decepção por parte da grande maioria dos fãs em relação a esse remake, principalmente pelo conteúdo cortado, mas como mencionado, acredito que ele funcione muito mais com novatos na franquia do que apreciadores de longa data.

Abrir o jogo e me deparar com a frase: "alguns tipos de Pals podem ser montados" me fez ter certeza de que eu não tenho maturidade alguma e estou para sempre preso na quinta série.

Brincadeiras a parte, é assustador o sucesso que Palworld alcançou mesmo tendo sido lançado apenas em early access, os números assustam, chegando a mais de duas milhões de cópias vendidas no primeiro dia e mais de um milhão de jogadores simultâneos.

Mas o que causou tudo isso? Qual o motivo desse grande sucesso?

A resposta parte do gigantesco e até mesmo questionável trabalho de marketing feito desde seu trailer de revelação. Naturalmente, uma premissa de "Pokémon com armas" iria atrair a atenção de todo mundo, e tendo em vista tudo que foi prometido e mostrado, o jogo em si se vende dessa forma, o que pode ou não ter sido um problema.

Posso dizer que faço parte do grupo de pessoas que não esperavam uma jogabilidade tão estruturada em sobrevivência e crafting, praticamente aos moldes de ARK por exemplo, que por sinal são gêneros e um jogo que eu não consigo me prender por muito tempo, mas acabei me surpreendendo.

Acontece que Palworld tem algo que nenhum outro jogo no estilo tem, "pokémons", e a progressão de aprender a construir novos itens que interagem diretamente ou indiretamente com os monstros que você captura pelo mundo, que por sinal são muito bem desenhados, é muito divertida.

Jogar em cooperativo torna a experiência ainda melhor, principalmente se jogado com uma pessoa com a mesma mentalidade que você.

- "Ei, Herbert, olha esse Pal gigantesco."

- "A gente precisa de mais fluido de Pal."

- "Meu Deus! Dá pra fazer carinho no Pal!"

Por estar em early access, era de se esperar que haveriam muitos problemas de desempenho e otimização principalmente, mas o conteúdo presente nesse lançamento é muito positivo pro futuro do jogo. Palworld pode chegar ainda mais longe.

I would describe Lies Of P as “serendipity”, a “happy accident” - and by that I mean Lies Of P and its success as a Soulslike are almost certainly an accident.

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I have been annoyed at Lies Of P’s choice of source material for a long time. I think theres 2 reasons for this when I reflect on why:

1. On the face of it, I find any media trying to intellectualize Pinocchio as a bit pretentious and maybe even facile. “What It Means To Be Human” is a theme that has been run into the ground in 40 different directions, especially in gaming where most designers are fixated on choice.

2. In the background, the Soulslike genre has been struggling greatly in trying to measure up to Fromsofts Souls output, and it felt incredibly frustrating that Lies Of P might have been sabotaging its chances at being compelling by focusing on something gimmicky.

Fortunately, Lies Of P has managed to be a very engaging Soulslike, but I also feel like Lies Of P definitely did as much as they could to jeopardize that outcome. In fact, it sometimes feels like Lies Of P is a bit of a clustered mess that manages to work together by sheer luck.

Some questions to ponder: why are puppets fighting like samurai, with intense sword counterplay? What does lying have to do with difficult combat? Why pair deflection-centric combat (aggressive-leaning) with a need to constantly sharpen your weapon (passive-leaning)? Other things are also just very unrelated: so many of the NPCs have 5 minute long disposable feeling “questlines”. Theres like 20 different sub-systems (you likely will not use). Ultimately the antagonistic force is something not even related to Carlo Collidis story and it often (often) made me wonder why they didnt just write something completely original. Why the hell does Gold Coin Fruit work the way it does??? Even when it comes to lying, the game often uses “lie” as a surrogate for the good guy or bad buy answer, why is lying so inconsequential and thoughtless when the game is called Lies Of P?

For the record, these arent things you can levy against Fromsoft. Everything in Sekiro supports the speed of the gameplay. The aggression in Bloodborne is supported by the fact youre a “Hunter”. What the hell do you “stalk” in Lies Of P??

Soulslikes tend to commit a grave mistake: they overcomplicate themselves. I can only guess why they do this, maybe they feel like they need to “innovate” on the formula but the issue tends to be that they dont even understand the formula at default. From where Im standing, Lies Of P didnt really avoid this - it throws just as much stuff at the wall to see what sticks, stuff that doesnt necessarily pair well or harmonize with each other either.

So then how does Lies Of P manage to be so good?

Im gonna be honest: I think its almost exclusively because of the boss design (and maybe by extension, the miniboss design). I think by doing that part right, all the dumb stuff on top of it doesnt matter quite as much. Neowiz deserves all the credit there, without attention paid to that singular aspect, Lies Of P would end up discarded on the pile of middling Soulslikes just like its contemporaries. They got the important thing right and it does alot of work for them. I love boss fights, I probably derive alot (maybe even most) of my enjoyment of Lies Of P from them. Theyre very good, and they elevate all the parts of the game surrounding them.

However Im not content with this, cuz this kind of feels like rewarding bad habits. The bloat and lack of focus arent good things. The Pinocchio thing wasnt a benefit, the liability to the work never seems to be truly offset. I think if Neowiz understood what they were doing when they got The Good Thing right, that that understanding would extend to other aspects of the game - which suggests to me that they didnt understand it very well. It seems likely to me that Lies Of P might be good by mistake, that what they got right might not have been entirely on purpose.

That would be an ill omen. How can I expect anything of Neowiz’s future output when I cant even be certain theyre looking in the right places? It certainly reinforces all the wrong lessons to other devs observing Lies Of P’s success. And this would be immensely frustrating to me, cuz its been so hard to finally get the ball rolling on non-Fromsoft contributions to the genre.

It would be a shame if the first engrossing Soulslike in a long time was just serendipity. Just a happy accident.

um clássico icônico do PlayStation 2.

lembro de ter jogado bastante esse aqui quando era criança. nunca cheguei a zerar, no entanto.

agora finalmente, joguei novamente depois de mais velho e pude zerar o game.

a batalha contra o Colosso de Rodes continua épica como sempre.

as Asas de Ícaro são maneiras e funcionam bem pra desafios de plataforma, admito.
o Martelo do Rei Bárbaro é uma arma bacana. e o design na Lâmina do Olimpo é foda. já a Lança do Destino é meio whatever, infelizmente.

o poder de desacelerar o tempo é bem encaixado aqui.

tirando alguns puzzles bem específicos e o momento do corredor da morte antes de chegar à última Irmã do Destino, o resto foi desafiador na medida certa.

tem umas duas ou três cutscenes pré-renderizadas bem feitas até.


não é a minha história favorita da franquia (até por ser meio que um jogo de transição entre as origens no 1 e o desfecho no 3), mas executa bem sua temática e consegue ter momentos marcantes.

What a ride.

In my eyes, Red Dead Redemption 2 is an absolute masterpiece - and I hardly ever use that word! It has everything I could possibly ask for in a game: an unique and memorable cast of characters, catchy soundtrack, enjoyable gameplay and my favorite story in a video game.

There's many great things to be said about this game, so I'm starting with the immersive world, the scenery and sheer amount of detail put into just about everything. I expected the open world to be as generic as a Far Cry open world outside of the cities, but was pleasantly surprised. Not just in the sense of how it looks in terms of graphics, but also in terms of structure and pathing. It's just a joy to explore and you can always find something new on a trip. Whether it be a random encounter or change in weather, the game will keep you entertained while riding from A to B. Speaking of the weather, I absolutely love the many different weathers in the game. Ranging from a thick fog to a heavy sandstorm, there is a lot of variation in the weathers and not just the "standard" sunny/cloudy/rainy/stormy weathers present in most games. You know your game looks good when photo mode doesn't do it justice and seeing the scenery in-game is just a better experience overall.

As I mentioned before, I believe Red Dead Redemption 2 has one of the best written narratives in gaming and is my favorite story in a game as of right now. The characters act natural and the relationships between gang members also come off as pretty realistic to me. I like that unlike in other games not everyone got along with each other, just because they're part of the same crew. In terms of best written characters in the game, I'd say Arthur and Dutch easily take the top spots. I've also really enjoyed the characters of John, Sadie and even Micah. Arthur is just an amazing protagonist in general and Roger Clark really delivers his lines and the emotions within them. Then again, I believe all voice actors did a really good job for this game; I don't remember even one voice sounding off for a character. And they certainly had a lot of fun recording the lines, you can feel that.

Now onto some other positive tidbits about the game. The customization is great and you've got many different outfit parts to mix and match. Honor as a mechanic is also well done, because you indirectly influence some parts of the game depending on your good and bad deeds. Having high honor will allow you to get discounts in shops and new outfits, while low honor will make NPCs dislike you and you'll get worse loot from enemies. Also here I'd like to add that (in my opinion) there's hardly any real filler content in the game and everything has atleast some meaning to it.

But what about the gameplay itself? Hunting and tracking down animals, fishing and playing cards is a fun way to spend your time, but what's important in a game like this, is how the gunplay feels - and I believe it feels really good! Thankfully the revolvers have a certain power to them already, but rifles are also great to use with their extended zoom.

If I were to mention flaws about RDR2, there really wasn't anything major things that bothered me, just two little things that got annoying at times. The worst offender by far was "Mash A to run/boost horse", which just exists to give you thumb pain for no reason. Second point is the game forcing two weapons on you before any big fight, spoiling the surprise already. I also believe having two large guns on your back looks silly, but as I addressed earlier, this can't really be called an "issue", since it didn't hamper my enjoyment of the game overall.

Personally, I believe I have made my point clear - I like this game! A lot actually. And that's because it is a good game and I would recommend it to anyone looking for a world to just get immersed in. Now excuse me while I go think about Arthur Morgan again.

Jogabilidade e comandos simples e atrativos, você não precisa decorar os golpes e combos para ganhar a luta. Com os gráficos totalmente exagerados o jogo tem uma pegada "arcade", o que faz lembrar dos tempos de WCW x NWO no N64. Pelo ritmo do jogo ser mais "arcade" os golpes e movimentos acabam ficando repetitivos rapidamente. Também temos pouca quantidade de lutadores diferentes no jogo.
Isso tudo, mais os loadings excessivos e uma criação de personagem limitada torna a experiência do game bem mais atrativa em amigos (no famoso x1) do que sozinho.

Kojima be like: "Cês querem mais MGS? Então toma mais MGS ae. Só que tem um detalhe... não tem mais MGS pra dar"

Esse é um jogo que me deixou triste... tantas coisas boas, mas falhando exatamente onde ele precisava acertar, pra ser digno do nome da franquia...

O melhor ponto de longe é a gameplay, primorosa no gênero, abrangente demais, cheia de rejogabilidade, responsiva, fluida, e o mais importante de tudo: divertida no geral
O level design acompanha muito bem a base do gameplay, sempre te permitindo realizar as tarefas de basicamente qualquer maneira que tu quiser. Esse lado do jogo merece palmas, pois com certeza ensinou muito sobre stealth pros que vieram depois dele, e também tornou as minhas horas no jogo menos cansativas. A história poderia ser um desastre, mas o gameplay tava lá pra me consolar...

Falando em história, que porre, ein?
Enquanto eu não ache a história em si, objetivamente ruim, ela é no mínimo diferente e fora do padrão de qualidade da franquia, com personagens chaves sendo muito fracos na escrita, momentos importantes entregues de forma muito simples, detalhes passando em branco e tendo que ser explicados via arquivos de áudio... uma experiência longe do que eu esperaria de um título numerado da série

Agora, uma coisa que eu julgo sim ser objetivamente ruim é o terror que é o pacing da história, e a progressão do jogo num geral. Basicamente, são 5 missões filler pra 1 que avance significantemente na história, e geralmente tu ainda corre o risco de não entender esse avanço na hora, pq né,
é MGS

Isso se alastra por toda a duração do jogo, e eventualmente, por mais que a gameplay seja realmente divertida, as coisas não se sustentam. Tu tá lá, ansioso pra ver o próximo pedaço de história, a próxima cutscene, pra ver se tudo finalmente começa a fazer sentido, mas o jogo empata a foda e te manda ir resgatar fulano não sei das quantas lá no cu do Afeganistão pela terceira vez consecutiva, com a fraquíssima desculpa que ele conhece alguém, que também conhece alguém, que provavelmente pode dar um avanço ao plot geral. Muito, mas MUITO broxante, ao ponto de que eventualmente nem as fitas de história, pra ouvir entre ou durante as missões, te entretém

A gameplay é boa, mas eu nunca joguei MGS pela gameplay, ela sempre foi OK, as vezes um pouco melhor, mas no geral, longe do foco. MGS existe pela história, pela alma/personalidade, pelo storytelling... e nada tá aqui.

Falando em alma, um dos fortes de MGS sempre foi o humor característico. Nesse aqui, não tem nenhum codec engraçadinho, nenhum guarda fazendo bobice, NENHUM dos personagens principais sendo goofy, tudo e todos sendo o mais sério possível, passando a impressão que esse é só mais um jogo de stealth padrão, com uma história extraordinariamente doidinha.

As coisas não param por aí... além da inflação de horas pelas missões filler, o jogo parece ter uma inclinação muito grande a te fazer perder tempo... a animação de helicóptero inicial das missões demora demais, tu larga o controle por tempo demais, o mesmo pode ser dito pra chamar o helicóptero (mesmo depois dos devidos upgrades) e depois que ele chega, ainda tem uns segundos de animação... se tu pegar o heli em um ponto da base pro outro, tu tem que ver tooooooooda a viagem, o que é simplesmente MALUQUICE pq são 1-2 minutos do personagem parado, olhando pro mar, enquanto o heli avança. Um loading demoraria 20 segundos... Enfim, não é frutífero se aprofundar em cada cantinho do jogo aqui no Backloggd, o site não foi feito pra isso, IMO

Falo de novo, eu saio desse jogo consideravelmente triste, teve ÓTIMOS momentos, o início, a parte do hospital africano, a parte da pandemia, Sins of the Father, a Quiet, os Diamond Dogs... mas simplesmente não conseguiu se sustentar. Eu tentei gostar, as primeiras 10 horas foram promissoras, mas o resto... o resto é história.

Eu pretendo volte e meia voltar nele e ir fazendo umas missões, talvez até ir atrás de uns troféus, pq, de novo, a gameplay é muito boa, mas aos olhos do nome Metal Gear Solid e tudo que ele representa, esse é o mais decepcionante dentre todos os jogos "principais". 😕