sqykly's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dreams Chapter One]

There's a fine line between casually experimenting

and taking WAY TOO MUCH ACID. Don't ask me to draw it.

This is what happens when the Mario brothers (a la their GBA game) get together with Doctor Seuss to watch Fear and Loathing!

But seriously, there are some really neat, and completely original, mechanics here, and you get many, many points for that. The view switch in battle for the different characters I have never seen before. The timed turn system vaguely reminds me of the WORMS series, but is unique in its implementation. Like some other reviewers have noted, I did feel that there's a lot of un-tapped potential there for more interaction between characters. In fact, I was a little disappointed when I didn't have to blow the boss's mask off with the bomb shot combo before I could damage it with the hammer. I also agree with the other reviewers that the controls felt a little awkward. The WASD/mouse thing is in right now, but when you throw in character switching and different views, it just feels like there must be a simpler way to do it.

The art, man! I can't get over it. I've never seen anything like that, not even when I read Dr. Seuss all the time!

The bottom line is that you've got something unique here, and I think I speak for everyone's curiosity when I say that I want to see it developed further. With all the creativity in these environments, characters, and gameplay, you can definitely go further with the mechanics you've introduced. I want to knock stuff over with the hammer, use the gun to drop a chandelier on the giant worm's head... blow the mask off the boss's face! If you can make something like this, then you can definitely make something where I can do that.

LordDF responds:

Wow! Yes I felt the same way when I was developing the battles, but it's also a huge challange for me, since Im not a programmer beyond what I learned to make this game.

Development for Ch.2 started in January, and it should be out by fall 08. Its a much larger game!

[Momentum Missile Mayhem 2]

Aces!

I'm not sure how to effectively convey the virtues of this game. Let me start out by saying that I downloaded and played the first game extensively. If HTML was allowed in reviews, 'extensively' would be in italics. I also should mention that I can count the submissions for which I've voted 5/5 on one hand, and that this game makes the list.

This game plays into a very primal drive, deep within the human psyche: the urge to smash things and make them explode. There are plenty of games where you can shoot stuff with a rocket launcher, or wreck buildings as a giant lizard (I can actually only think of two, now that I think about it). This game starts out playing like a pool table at war, and as one's tech level rises, one has sooo many innovative, original tools of destruction that the player has virtually limitless possibilities in answering the central question involved: how do I want to smash all these tanks?

Should I bounce them off the wall? Should I drop them on top of each other? Should I send them flying off the screen? Should I vaporize them with antimatter? Should I nuke them? Should I manipulate gravity to implode them all into one big pile of exploding, mangled metal?

Should I mow down a whole line of them by inching the enormous war machine in front backward with a slow moving, unstoppable projectile? Should I dismantle the huge (or 'hueg', whatever) tank's navigation at just the right moment for it to careen right into the side of another? Should I set up a trap to bounce them into another trap that will hold them in place, right within the opposing orbit of massive projectiles I've set up, consequently knocking them into the first trap, bouncing them back into the second, and so on and so forth?

I could go on and on, but doing so would make me want to play this game, and I have to finish this review first. My point is that this game turns the raw satisfaction of smashing things into a creative process. It's addictive, it's fun, it's completely unique, it's wasted countless hours of my time. Put a 3D version on the Wii, and the whole world is doomed. Congratulations.

[-Telepath RPG Chapter 2-]

Quality!

I can count the submissions for which I've voted 5/5 on one hand, and this game joins that list today. The graphics are better than they need to be. The plot is original. The dialog is fresh, grammatically and syntactically perfect, and gives the player an array of options uncommon in most commercial RPGs I've played. The setting is detailed and well developed. The training system and multitude of characters allow the player to customize the team to develop unique strategies for battle. The battle system is very well done, if a little standard fair for a tactical RPG.

A few things in the battle system bug me, but they're minor enough to be considered quirks rather than problems. The inflexible turn order and formation (the formation options never worked for me) often led me to block certain characters off from where I wanted them to be, especially on battlefields with narrow walkways like the bridge scene in the caves. It must have taken me five turns to get my non-flying characters into battle because the last guy to move was always blocking the way. I usually found ways to plan around this in most situations. Also, the 'turn' button is fine, but it seems like there has to be a better way to target one's attacks.

Overall, this is a level of awesomeness that far surpasses the first installment in the series, as well as the vast majority of flash RPGs out there. I knew this was going to be great when I played the demo, and you delivered.

[Simpleton]

Great!

With a few bothersome quirks. I'll go over those in a moment, but first, I reiterate, this is a really great game! The reason I think so that sticks out the most is the oh-so-rare quality of balance. The weapons and health are spread out just enough in hard mode to keep one perpetually on the brink, although I tended to have an excess when I got to the boss and had all my weapons disappear. The enemies were just strong and fast enough to make it challenging without making it frustratingly difficult. The way enemies would suddenly bust down a door or pop out of the ceiling where I least expected them made me feel like I was playing the original DOOM for the first time; the selection of weapons and the rampage mode helped this analogy along. Man, I hope somebody on here is old enough to know what I'm talking about here! Finally, the spotty graphical details were balanced by the fact that the dead enemies tended to realistically fly or go limp, which was really cool.

Now the annoying quirks. I didn't find anything all that difficult to understand, except for the boss monster the first time through. In a future version or episode or what have you, you may want to at least come up with some half-assed excuse for the player losing all his weapons. The way the weapons were switched was too distracting, especially when one's rampage is running down and you need to be using something other than the chainsaw, fast. I recommend using the mouse wheel or E/Q for switching weapons instead of the number keys, as a general rule. The enemies, while challenging, fun to kill, and surprising in their location, did not keep me guessing about how they would try to kill me, so a little more variety there wouldn't hurt. Really, I was almost surprised when the zombie soldiers didn't have guns.

My last criticism is that this was way too short. The ending didn't really leave me hanging on for a sequel, so I'm going to assume there's nothing planned, but I want more.

[Feudalism]

Solid Concept, but...

I like the idea. Conquering is fun, quests are fun, armies are fun. Good deal. Furthermore, I have to give you credit for your ambition. This is a big, big project, with room for many strategic angles, and it's massively open-ended. This I like to see.

This game drops the ball, however, on a point big enough that most of us aren't going to be playing long enough to appreciate the game's vision: the BUGS! I played this for five minutes before I invaded a big town, died, and apparently went to hell, where someone else (not me, I'm dead) leveled up repeatedly as miniature armies continued to clash in the foreground. When I loaded my game (after reloading the flash to get rid of the battle still raging on the menu), I found that, while I could complete quests, I wasn't being rewarded for them, which makes them more like favors.

Fix these bugs, and I think I will like this game a lot.

[Forever Click 2]

Umm

The blob was right. I probably should have stopped clicking. I'm not sure this is really a game. It does have a button, but since it's linear, it's sort of like hitting a "next" button over & over.

Furthermore, I'm not really amused. I bet you can tell.

Try making something that's more like a game. Or more like a movie. It can be either one, you just have to pick.

[Robo Slug 2]

Well done, but not interesting

This is clearly a well-done game, and it's obvious that a lot of work went into it. However, there are a lot of little things about it that bug me, and it doesn't really bring anything new to the table for its genre. In fact, it's sort of bland for a side-scrolling wasd+mouse shooter. It just doesn't have the depth or atmosphere of classics like Abuse, nor the fast paced insanity of similar flash games like the Thing Thing series, nor the challenge and variety of the prototypical Mega Man series.

The specific things that bugged me follow. It is entirely possible to evade enemy bullets, in many cases indefinitely, by running in the other direction. Most of the enemies lacked a 360 degree firing arc, too. These facts combined mean that the vast majority of the enemies posed almost no threat to the player. In fact, I don't think I took any significant damage until the spheroid boss, which essentially covered the entire screen with bullets. This brings me to my next point, the fact that there is no continue option. I got all the way through a slew of tame robots to lose to this boss, the first point in the game that wasn't forgiving in the extreme, and I had to start over.

My last gripe is the weapons. Most of the upgraded weapons seemed like mere augmented versions of the default gun, without any quirks or specialties. The ones that did act differently, the C4 and the flamethrower, were pretty much useless.

It's apparent that a lot of time & effort went into this; it's relatively polished, it's bug-free, and its presentation is pleasant. I'm sure that it's really hard to make a game like this. However, I would have liked to have seen more of that time & effort go into gameplay, variety, and balance.

[Artifission RPG chp1]

Good, but very buggy

I like this. The plot is unlike most RPGs. The system is well organized, easy to understand, and very slick. The graphics were simple but were put together very well, with excellent use of scale and parallax in the map scenes and very good battle animations. While some battles tended to consist of either trading blows or tactically using the shield command, especially once the main character is built up, there were enough enemies that behaved differently to keep you on your toes. The system might have more depth if one could change weapons during a fight. I found myself switching from the shield to the pistol as soon as I ran into the bugs that counter with poison, only to run into one of those six-legged gorilla things a few steps later and regret my lack of shield.

The only thing I found to seriously detract from the game were its bugs, and a few pesky nuances. Several times when I used curative items in battle, the game froze. Once it happened with an Energizer, once with an item that cures poison & panic. Once, it happened before I reached the first save point, which was really irritating. If you can't fix this bug, definitely throw in more save points or a key to skip the intro. On the third map from the very beginning, there was an item box that regenerated after I fought a battle. I picked up the item at least twice, after which the box appeared to be closed, but did not yield an item. There were many chests throughout the game that appeared unopened after I got the item, but couldn't be opened again. Finally, no matter how many times I tried, the workshop would not give me the Shock Fist weapon. I had all the required items. The other items worked fine.

I think this is a really good game, but these bugs need to be addressed, because they detract from the game's polish.

Fickludd responds:

Thank you for the honest review! I'm happy someone appreciates the combat/equipment system :D.
I'm really sorry about the bugs, they didn't show on my computer but i think I've gotten hold of them now anyway.

[ZomG Zombies!]

Good, but...

...there are some fatal flaws which will prevent this from becoming a real classic. The most significant is the controls. They're so unresponsive that you might have to press a button three or four times to throw a grenade or switch weapons. There's always a delay between pressing a button and accomplishing anything, if that anything happens at all. The all-keyboard scheme makes buying stuff very awkward, especially combined with the fact that you have to avoid getting killed at the same time.

The hit detection was spotty for bullets, and it's possible to shoot directly through an enemy and hit nothing. For the enemy, though, the hit detection was way too inclusive, especially for the vampire's sword, which covers a huge swath of screen, but shouldn't realistically hit you when you're six feet to one side. Also, it seemed like there should be a post-injury invincibility period for the player, since the creeps can swing several times before you can get away.

Also, the AI sort of sucks. The monsters either don't notice the player & just walk around aimlessly, or they walk toward you, that's it. Aside from speed and range, nothing makes them different from one another.

Overall, this wasn't bad, it just could have been a lot better. The graphics were stylish and well animated, and the idea is solid.

[Deconstructor]

THIS = AWESOME

So about how awesome this is. This is retro to the bone, not just the graphics, which conjure 8-bit flashbacks without sacrificing polish. The epic backstory is skimmed right over on the way to the fast-paced, super frantic violence and indiscriminate destruction. The difficulty and curve are also reminiscent of the brutal NES days. The English of the text is obviously non-native, which feels right at home, if perhaps unintended.

The gameplay elegantly infuses the classic mayhem of Rampage with the advancements that have been made to the overhead shooter genre since Smash TV. The popular WASD + Mouse scheme a la Crimsonland is intuitive and effective. The enemies' friendly fire and collateral damage to buildings adds a tactical element to the chaos, forcing the player to decide which buildings to destroy in the name of advancement and power ups, and which to use as cover. The enemies are challenging and numerous, and while the AI is relatively simple, the variety of strategies they employ is impressive. Did I mention that this is awesome?

I'm not giving this a 10/10 because, while all the retro generally adds flavor and fun, there are some aspects of it that were vestigial traits of the 8-bit world, which have since been abandoned for a reason. When a weapon powerup is retrieved, the old one is abandoned, including all its ammo. This can be annoying when it happens accidentally. The powerups also disappear so quickly that it is impossible to grab them all after a large building is destroyed. The backgrounds sometimes lacked detail and became monotonous. Finally, while the music was decent, at least one of the jazzier tracks sounded a little out of place.

These few faults can be forgiven, of course, because this game is awesome.