Recent reviews by Martinuz_64

I won't bore you with the details.

Yeah, this is my all-time favorite game. Ever. Not really a nuanced take, and there's no real point in trying to explain WHY I love this game because, as always when talking about this game... SPOILERS!!! <3

I adore this game, to the point that it's genuinely made me excited for whatever these guys cook up next, but I do have a word of advice: Don't force yourself to like this game. Don't try to marathon it from start to end in one sitting. This is a game that thrives when you stop playing and work on other things. It sits in the back of your head, always present, always making you reflect on what you could possibly do next to progress. It gives you that "itch" that makes you anticipate the next time you'll get to sit down and see your ideas come to fruition (or not).

Absolute gem, that despite the praise it gets still could never get the recognition it deserves. 11/10 <3

I'm amazed this game isn't more popular.

It's a full blow metroidvania, pretty short and sweet but plenty fun. I'm the first advocate of not rating games based on their price-to-length ratio, I think that fun can make up for that plenty enough. And I'd say this, right here, is the pinnacle of the pinball genre. It's not too difficult but engaging enough, looks visually really unique, and it even includes a built-in randomizer which is a blessing for replayability.

Again, highly recommend, the "Overwhelmingly Positive" reviews are not lying. As of writing this review the game is even -90% off, and I'd say it would even be worth the usual 19.99€, so absolutely check it out next time it's on discount <3

Okay nah, this game's reviews are DEFINITELY getting botted.

Look, despite my hours in this game (which WILL keep going up despite everything, because I'm stubborn and want to platinum this game regardless), this really is just a 'weekend project' with barely anything in it. It wouldn't even be worth 1$, let alone... 39.99$???!?!?!

NAH, STEAR CLEAR OF THIS! I DON'T EVEN THINK ANYONE WILL SEE THIS REVIEW, THAT'S HOW DEAD THIS GAME IS, BUT PLEASE DON'T. EVEN. CONSIDER. BUYING. THIS.

ty <3

If a game makes you want to 100% it, it's a great game. If a game then makes you want to come back to play it EVEN MORE, it really is a masterpiece.

This is true for lots of sonic games: they're really quick to speed through, but infinitely replayable. But I feel like the tremendous music, awesome visuals and artistic flare pumped into this game, and the (truly) fast and addictive gameplay at the core of all Sonic games, all really peaked with this one. I can't say much else, as this really is the quintessential Sonic game and... that's it. It doesn't really offer anything "new" necessarily to the experience, but damn is it good.

Maybe some other games can surpass it in terms of story, length, scope and whatnot, but Sonic Mania simply excels in the one thing that really matters: it's REALLY fun. I suggest you pick it up, and if you somehow don't like it you're completely in your right to refund it <3

Now listen, this game is objectively great, I just did not enjoy it as much as I'd hoped.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the game, and it's also extremely polished. Movement feels AMAZING, and the visuals are stunning, but these seem to sadly be the only great things about Ori. This game is a metroidvania, which means that exploration is given an enormous priority, and that felt great as well... at first. But the game has one fundamental flaw: the skill tree. I cannot state how easily this game could have turned out better, if only the skill tree was given less of a priority.

For example, as I said ,exploring should be at the forefront of this game. And yet, one of the very first upgrades you get is a tracker, which tells you exactly where every collectible is found on the map, INCLUDING PLACES YOU HAVEN'T VISITED YET. So, very early in the game, you're basically shown the entirety of the map through these collectible locations, and you're no longer incentivised to explore as much as you should, since your experience with the game turns into a simple matter of opening the map, checking where the next closest collectible is, go there directly, and repeat. Exploration is no longer relevant, because you're constantly given a direction to move towards. And this is only one of the problems with this skill tree, although I feel like I've rambled enough about it already.

The thing is... tuning slightly these systems would have improved the user experience tremendously, and it's such a shame that such a polished game was built around such weak mechanics (except for the movement, that's still awesome).

Sorry... I would not recommend playing this game... but you do you, hopefully I'm just wrong and you'll enjoy it :)

What's great about this game is simple: it does not expect you to win.

More than just a game, this is a sandbox, that allows YOU to choose how much to push yourself with its difficulty. I personally never even got close to beating the game, but it still felt challenging for the little time I invested in it, slowly getting better and better at keeping up with more and more mechanics felt really motivating, and it's a shame I had to ultimately give up playing.

Would recommend (+ it's free, so...)

It feels weird to recommend this game, since I objectively don't feel like it's worth its cost. And yet, I somehow can't help myself but feel like I loved my time playing the game, simply because of the outstanding atmosphere it creates.

Even though the map is quite barebones, it still felt atmospheric enough that I simply didn't mind its emptiness gameplay-wise. It just felt amazing to roam around the island with no clue of when the enemy might show up. I actually enjoyed roaming around so much, that I wouldn't mind if the map simply was not there, as it would just add a much needed level of complexity to exploration. And especially since Charles doesn't show up too often, it feels even more threatening when he does show up, keeping you in a state of constant unease as you wait for his next inevitable encounter.

Objectively a relatively bad game, but I would still 100% recommend it.

This game is... disappointing.

It definitely has some great ideas, with the main framework for a great game definitely present here somewhere, but it simply does not show. The map is expansive but not used to its fullest extent, and quests also feel incredibly repetitive. Collectibles take a large chunk of playtime, but they are scattered everywhere just for the sake of filling up the world with pointless checkmarks for players. I can definitely tell that a more seasoned Harry Potter fan would enjoy this game a lot more simply for the spectacles it constantly throws at you, however I cannot say that I enjoyed my time with this game, after the novelty wore off.

Still, I absolutely would not request a refund even if I could, since I want to praise the programmers for doing the best they could with what little they were given, but the creative team really should have brought some more fresh ideas at the very start of development, for this game to feel worthwhile.

A short but incredibly charming game.

This game somehow manages to make its relatively small map feel really expansive and fleshed out. To me, experiencing this game for the first time felt so good that I just had to 100% it. MULTIPLE TIMES. And after that, the built-in cheat codes really helped with speedrunning the game, and somehow kept me playing for a total of roughly 15 hours, even though the game can easily be beaten in less than 2 hours. Definitely enjoyed my time playing the game.

Great game, that somehow both has an incredibly in-depth gameplay loop (I would genuinely buy a real Inscryption card game) & also manages to subvert your expectations in the most out-there way possible.

For what it's worth, I'd highly recommend giving this game a shot.