Quando terminei Veilguard, minha primeira reação foi simples e direta: "Paia" (perdoem o linguajar). A resposta do meu amigo foi sutil:

"Você é burro. Não, definitivamente, você jogou no modo burro. Eu peguei um final incrível, e você pegou o final burro."

Talvez ele tenha razão...

Leia a review completa aqui!

figured this would be another casual revisit that I wouldn't have much to say on after like a day but even after sleeping on this, I still had a pretty noxious feeling that was hard to shake

If riders had a huge failing it would be in how little it explains itself when first jumping in, not even the manual talks about how to grind on rails normally but the ai knows it like the back of their hand. the overarching idea of that game being punishing isn't completely off base but I imagine if riders had a separate section to explain the bare fundamentals to players then it would probably have gone over better and zero gravity might have manifested differently than it is here. Zero gravity bends the opposite direction by taking time to discuss the bare fundamentals thankfully and not all the streamlining attempts are foul such as flying being much more in control than the first, but it circles the drain really hard and capitulates itself into a much blander and less engaging experience despite the riders format still being the most fresh a Sonic racing game has ever been.

replaying riders and zero gravity back to back, races go from tense series of clashes and mastering (and occasionally failing) the track layout to overly automated, much more lonely loops around the courses. I can't speak definitively on this but the tracks here feel more homogenized in design with the mechanical changes made here. The gravity mechanics introduced do contribute to sections being more automated but even the AI is less confrontational than before that you can get away with winning first place while opponents trail distantly far behind. there's still various alternative pathways you can take at least but the balance of input mastery and set pieces is drastically undercut where it felt less satisfying to even win several of these races.

The gravity control and dive aren't terrible ideas on paper and do serve as interesting divergences from drifting and boosting. Some curves in the first game did have a tendency of being too punishing with how fast you move and the drift being neglected with some collision jank, but it still felt rewarding and easy enough to pick up on that it almost becomes a non-issue with time. Drifting and boosting is completely removed in zero gravity for the gravity mechanics as you can slow time and 'boost' to make it across curves and open corridors without the huge risk of losing energy and jeopardizing your run but two issues do arise from this: the mechanics feel too situational with tracks having the very obvious signposting and limited application to use either of them with the shift itself acting the same as the drift with a bit more reliability but much less punch that I'm not sure justifies the latter's removal. Gravity dives only succeed exclusively in one straightaway section of the tracks that provide fast boosts when colliding with objects; it's visually neat and flexes some power on the previous game but the gravity shifting never felt fully realized with as cool of a gimmick it is. Even worse impact of these new abilities is the diminishing experimentation and interactivity these mechanics possess compared to what came before it.

more nitpicky territory but the gears are so sauceless now. instead of distinctive hoverboards of the first, zero gravity's look like stubby thumb drives with less visual flourish outside of the cute gear changes that relegates them more in line with their specific gear class. they do fit more with the visuals and art direction of this game being a bit more desolate and dystopian with the setting and atmosphere but I suppose the overarching art style feels less evocative and unique to me when stacked up with riders. The ost feels like the only thing that met the assignment on this shift with angstier vocal performances and electronics hmms and hums that evoke a more fraught and frenetic feel. Despite being so down on the gravity shifts, I love the dynamic music shifts whenever you execute them with the final tracks of crimson crater and security corridor being outright favorites. not sure I'd say this is more memorable than riders 1 ost but I was humming a bit more with how isolating the races are now.

no notes on the narrative really. personally feel it meets the same end result as riders 1 but also falls a bit less interesting. riders 1's thin story had some fun with the rivalry of sonic and friends with the Babylon rogues before the funny, out of nowhere boss encounter to cap it off. zero gravity goes instead for a more fundamental pressing threat of robots overtaking the world that motivates their actions rather than just being rivals. the campaign plays around with the urgency of the story with some tracks requiring to complete them in a decent time-limited trial. the stories feel weirdly unfinished like two tracks or so were missing somewhere in the middle or end in elevating the world building a bit more. The cinematic are pretty gorgeous tier with Unleashed's, but the animations in the real time cutscenes looked a bit stiffer than the last game, though it could be for tonal reasons rather than budgetary.

complained a whole lot in this but at its core this is still a fun time with friends and not self-imploding like free riders, but can't shake the slight deathblow here with how strong and visionary riders 1 was in spite of how first game syndrome that game can fall into. I have to imagine many of these changes were made to alienate audiences less and try to serve both sides of freaks (like me) and casuals, but the stew is pretty flavorless and it seemed that this direction didn't really light anyone on fire with its mixed reception. can't really say its better afterwards with the Riders series still in dirt but there's renewed interest in having the boards back in Crossworlds but it's still too early to tell if they're bringing the sauce back or not. if you can't cartoonishly collide into electric fences and demolish folks with silly attack animations, it might be truly over.

I played this as part of the Backloggd Fellas Game of the Month event. Be sure to check out the updated list and all of the fellas reviews.

Honestly can't talk about this game without first giving a shoutout to my friend Yuzrnaime. The only reason I even heard of this game was because of her so thanks for letting me and the fellas know of its existence! Anyways, I'm not really good at shmups so I really sucked at this one but overall, it was fun.

It's a pretty run of the mill shmup, and it doesn't really pull any punches when it comes to the bullet-hell so I had to use a lot of continues. 32 to be exact, but something this game does it lets you give yourself a continue anytime you want. So, if you just care about playing and seeing the end of the game, that's really nice. I honestly might have liked the game even more if I didn't suck and have to resort to this. I will say though, the bullet hitboxes are SUPER forgiving. Like they must be almost half the size of the bullets..its crazy. Also, I didn't know how to use the bombs until the end of this game due to the button mapping being weird, that probably would have helped a ton considering they erase an entire screen full of bullets.

The best thing this game has going for it, and it's really good, is its art style and cartoony vibe. The pastel color palette and just super cute vibes give the art style a very distinct and it very much feels like a 90's cartoon or something so that was pretty fun.

Overall solid time that, again, I'd like more if I didn't suck at shmups. The game is literally like 20 min long so give it a try!