stezie's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Crystal Story]

Some of NG's Finest - Still, room for improvement

This must be the finest flash reincarnation of an RPG I've seen for a long time, and it's so obvious to see all of the influences from the RPG world: gameplay from FF, dungeon theme from Summon Night, loot system from Borderlands, and the story. Yeah about that story...

I won't spend too long on what's great about the game, that won't lead to any improvment. And it's mighty obvious as well:
Beautiful aesthetics - graphics, animation, art style
Great Sounds - Music, and SFX
Perfectly Emulated Gameplay - Combat, Skill/Class System

First, however, let's tackle this story issue head on. This is a grindy game, no denying that. FF was grindy as well. The difference between these two games? FF made the player grind to get to the next story point. The story was a reward for the grinding alongside the character's development (both plot and skill). Overall, there's no point in having a grindy game with a grindy story with it, and three repetitive stories (counting sidequests) in a game of this calibre is inexcusable.

Next, let's tackle gameplay issues, the biggest being the skill/class system and how that hinders the character development.

Now it's great that there are so many skills available, and that the skills generally differ from character to character, but when broken down, all the classes are the same (except for healer). It's like, when you sat down and put pen to paper, you said, "each class will have: a basic special attack, a more advanced special, a single de/buff, a group de/buff, a single status attack, a group status attack, and a couple of devastating attacks to round them off". And that's how I viewed every class: as generally the same thing, and overall "meh". They're all the same thing, but with different animations, status effects etc. And of course, there's breaks from this mould. Like comparing Fighter Tristam to Rogue Kaeli: Tristam doesn't get any status or group attack spells. This sort of variance adds to defining characters, in the sense that all the characters must serve some special role in the party, but at the same time it detracts from the characters, since they all end up as pretty much the same thing by the end-game due to the level cap which forces taking up multiple classes. An idea on how to fix this problem would be to actually reward players for taking multiple classes. Like, skills for having AP allocated in both Fighter and Mage class.

And another point: redundant classes and skills. Sure, it's nice having, say, Phoebe as a dedicated healer. That was my plan from the get-go. However, her role as healer quickly diminished: no where in the early game did I really feel like the healer could truly do more than just potions. And with the pure abundance of money in this game, potions were NEVER a problem to obtain. And in the few cases where I felt a healer was needed (say, a devastating attack on all of my characters at once which would've needed a group heal), my healer had too low magic skill to realy help out - I knew the healer was redundant, but balanced strength and magic stats so that they were actually useful in combat. And in the off chance they were needed, I was punished for trying to make my characters all-round useful. This situational usefulness extends to pretty much many of the status effects of the game as well. Most of the time, the enemies I'd use status effects on were actually immune to them! Of course, there were exceptions, but it was so much easier whittling away bosses with just spells and attacks. One way to make these skills and classes more useful, is to simply up the ante on the effects. Poison is too slow to do lasting damage: make it stronger so I'm FORCED to heal the poisoned. The game's combat is too fast paced for slow de/buffs: make them truly noticeable and scary enough that I'd WANT to dispell them. And other ideas along this line.

I'm sure I had more I wanted to say, but my character limit is on the fritz here.
Overall: Amazing effort. I'm giving a ten, ignoring the gripes and issues just because this is simply truly a spectacular piece of work.

Lan14n responds:

Thanks. Story was a last minute thing I did lol. I decided to make it a joke, since there is no way I'm going to pull off a serious one. I am no writer, and English is one of my worst subjects.

[Shitty Fucking Art Game]

Gold. Absolutely gold.

Hell, I know I don't give out easy 10s in my reviews, and this surely isn't a masterpiece in terms of being a game. My understanding of an art game is a series of interconnected elements that create an interactive experience, much like how meaning from art can be derived from its use of colour, line or symbolism etc, a the central concepts and ideas hidden in a game are brought out by such elements like game mechanics, visuals, music and so forth.

So even though this piece parodies art games, it IS the perfect representation of an art game... in my perspective of course. And this is from someone who might have given a higher rating to an art game than it deserved only a few hours ago.

You've manipulated all of the worst things I've come across in art games: unnecessary pixel graphics (with the obligatory 8-bit music), really wanky quotes, and especially the times where an art "game" just isn't any fun where I absolutely KNOW I'm being brainwashed to think differently through interactive means. However, I know that the experience derived from this game isn't solely based around solid game elements, rather I'm sure everyone who comes across this flash is only here because of the lovingly crafted title, and further enticed by the pretentiously hilarious author comment.

Right even before the game loads, the audience knows outright that this is a giant kick in the balls to art games, and even though the game did get a little boring at times (yes, the signing papers "minigame"), I honestly KNEW that was there simply to bore us, like what else could be more boring than signing papers? If you take two artworks: one with a red rectangle that supposedly represents oppression, which sells for a million dollars, and another of a red circle satirizing the absurdity rectangle, I honestly believe that the red circle should be worth more.

Now I could go on about the hidden meanings of every gameplay element or I could just let all the readers know that they should absolutely play this to the end to get to the text dump rant and then start really redefining what an art game ought to be.

So thank you, Mr Arty McArtson, for making a great game with a great statement and I sure do hope to see actual art games, but of this caliber, from you in the future.

[Everything Start to Fall]

An interpretation and analysis

I enjoy playing artsy games that actually delve into subject matter deeper than blood and guts, it's a fine distraction.

My first impression is of the beautiful consistency in the bleakness of the pixel art style alongside the grim music in the main menu. I have this massive bias, however, against text based instructions.

After actually playing the game, I stand by my previous bias that it would have been a much better stylistic decision to incorporate the first "level" of the game, as well as every time a new element is added, as a tutorial. It would work better, since it would feel more like the a mother/teacher/boss giving the player new skillsets as they progressed through life. That said, it made no apparent sense to me as to why the middle-aged man learns how to move boxes, since I wouldn't expect a person who has been funneled through life that way to pick up anything new that far in.

The correlation between scrolling-upwards platforming to represent the futility of life is certainly not a new concept, but one which has both added and detracted to my interpretation of this game. Firstly, the pacing was just right in certain parts. In childhood stages, everything felt like such a rush, simply because the road to adulthood is both society's pressure for children to grow up, as well as a child's desire to explore the world. The scrolling forced me to keep going, as well as my curiosity as to what came next.

The teenage transition was implemented nicely. I did enjoy the split, and the dead end room (although that was surely unexpected). The split only reinforced the fact that all roads ultimately lead down the same path, which is the artistic comment I take from this game. The title is misleading however, because even when the scenery was littered with drugs, the character still had to keep climbing, there was absolutely no falling whatsoever.

And of course, there's the lonely ascent into death (or heaven). But with a title such as "And everything started to fall", I could only anticipate that the character was going to face some form of demise. And yet he didn't.

Nicely crafted game, lots of stuff going for it, though a couple of stylistic elements didn't integrate with the central concept. An art game isn't created by slapping together life moments with a bit of basic platforming, it's made by ensuring that every aspect (art, gameplay, and music) all merge into one single experience to get the core message across. But, art is art, and is always up for interpretation so bleh.

[-Epidemic-]

Simple, fast-paced and all-round great!

First Impressions:
Clean, nicely polished, spot of colour, simple music: you've instantly established the overall mood for the game, and it's one that suits it completely.

The Good:
Visuals: Simple and unconvoluted. The collectibles, enemies and "player" are all easily recognisable. Also, the changing bakground colour spices things up every once in a while.

Gameplay: Nothing amazingly special here, being an avoid game, but your extra little touches give this game it's unique edge. The 10x combo powerup is always something to anticipate, and knowing that I would be rewarded in this manner kept me constantly striving for the powerup, to just clear the field, creating a very addictive experience. The difficulty curve is fantastic: just as I thought the game was getting too easy, after about 8 levels on normal mode, the difficulty is finally noticebale, and really kept me on my toes. I also loved the intuitive enemies and how they merged to create new ones: very clever.

Music: Fast paced and edgy, just what I need to keep the adrenaline up.

Minor Gripes:
Sounds: Although the sounds were overall well-fitting, the sound of the powerup too often sounded like another synth in the music track, and I would completely forget I even had the powerup on!

Combo Timer: The timer is well situated, but it is way too small and thin, and it was a bit tough checking how long I had, although, with the powerup (and when the timer went by much faster), I found myself just shaking my mouse across the screen anyway, so no biggie.

Difficult Recovery: On normal mode, once I died, it was very difficult to get my combo anywhere near 10 again, since by level 15, the board was swarming with enemies, and there was no way I could possibly have gotten close to a yellow thing. May I suggest implementing a 2 or so second invincibility or a respawn with a shield?

Overall:
Pleasant, fast paced, well polished, simple, addictive and extremely fun. Apart from a tidbit here and there, well executed, and I hope you continue making games of this quality in the future.

[Warchar2 -DRAG and DROP]

A step up from the first, just not by much

Might I confess; I did play the first one, just never had the chance to review it, which is a shame considering I could have improved this greatly (excuse my ego). Then again, this is an obvious step up from the first but I still cannot find any remotely good points about this game.

My Criticisms:
Graphics - Always the first thing I notice when I view any flash. I realize that my next comment undermines the whole game's concept but please, bear with me: I dislike the fact that letters/characters are the focal graphic. They are plainly colored and I see no reason why you could not substitute the letters for simpler shapes like circles. Also, the middle of the checkered background was lost due to the the bad gradient effect.

Music - Sure the quality of audio is good, but what really annoys me about your choice of music is that is is WAY too high pitched, forcing me to mute the sound. Good to know, however, that there was a mute button. Unfortunately, being forced to mute music makes any game much less enjoyable. Also, before I muted the music, I noticed that it looped awfully, leaving a huge silent pause.

Gameplay - This is one of the most challenging games I have come across; not because of my lack of skill, but because the game is too flawed. It is simply too slow; it gets very boring, very quickly to sit and watch the 'A' close in on the worm, only for it to make a sharp turn in the other direction. Also, only one bullet is allowed on the screen at any given time. Another boring, time consuming element. Finally, there is only ONE life! Genius idea to give players only one life on an already boring game. Mind you, I only replayed it in order to find out what the other bonuses (like the undead and magnet) were, but I never reached a high enough level to unlock those. On a good note, I was extremely pleased to know that I had at least some control over the shooting.

How to Improve:
Concerning Graphics
- Even though this would require a name change, please replace the characters with a more simple graphic. The characters are just too much of an eyesore.
- Redo the background gradient to something darker, like the pause menu, which allows the whole checker pattern to be seen clearly.

Concerning Audio/Music
- Fix up the music looping so that it loops smoothly
- Even though the music suits the game completely (simple and slow), it is way too high pitched

Concerning Gameplay
- Allow more bullets. Perhaps integrate this as a bonus/upgrade.
- More lives.
- Increase speed

Overall
With the lack of proper reviews on Newgrounds, I understand that it can be difficult to obtain valuable criticism. I've realized you've dished out this game relatively quickly, so I would suggest slowing down to achieve perfection.

MajorMilizii responds:

Thanks for your time and for your review.
One moment - did you try do drag worms at theirs heads (I think it's make the game more breathtaking)?

[Weirdvil]

For a first, this is much better than I expected!

Seeing all the crap on NG, along with all the horrible first flashes, I have kept amazingly low expectations for all firsts, but this is one of the few exceptions I have come across. Congratulations.

The Good:
Graphics - By all means, your art is not the best I have seen; every single component on its own is rather amateurish. What I love, though, is the union of all these elements, especially when coupled with your apparent skill in animation. However, the font color choice in the instructions menu probably wasn't the best choice as the blue was a little hard to read over the dark background. Changing it to the blue in the credits page would be easier on the eye. Another thing I picked up is the lack of an icon which would be the real hook point for a new artist like you; where your name can't help, but the icon graphic may be enough to pull in a few more players.

Animation -Even though there wasn't much of it, I found your animation very nice indeed. In-game, I first noticed that the phantom's wriggling wasn't actually that smooth; what I liked about them, though, was their exploding animation which was simple but easily conveyed the message that it was exploding. Also, I really liked the animation for loss of that beam/ray.

My Criticisms
Gameplay - Honestly, after being wowed by the graphics, I thought the gameplay would lack severely, which it did. This is obviously understandable being only <40kbs and being your first. Something else I noticed was that sometimes, the phantoms could spawn just outside of the window on the far right, which obviously created an impossibility. What I did like about the gameplay was the fact that the beam was not exploitable (which I thought it would be); that kept me on my toes, although a refillable "ammo" bar would be a little more appropriate. Finally, I found that the health bar was not necessary as the "damage" done would always be the same. Lives would have done the exact same thing, and you could have drawn something cool for them too.

Music - Or dare I say, lack of. Music is a defining aspect of almost every flash as it sets the atmosphere of the game along with the graphics and the lack of music removes much of the whole feel of the game. Might I add; use music that completely suits the atmosphere of the game, not some random techno on the NG Audio Portal. I would describe this game as being fun, unsophisticated with occult/dark undertones; so the music should have those characteristics too.

Sound - The only places that I find need sound effects are firing the beam and exploding the phantoms. Just make sure when selecting sound effects that they do not convolute the music.

Story - An unnecessary addition to a first, but an addition needed for any second. If you do choose to make another game along these lines, please do explain the following: the "weirdvil's" need to destroy phantoms and the phantom's need to destroy the "weirdvil". Also, adding a storyline could easily make for level based gameplay which would be a great addition.

Overall
This is a fantastic start; where many fail and get blammed, only to give up, I hope that you continue to make flash. Your art style is great, your animation suits; all you need is to clean it up a little and continue making flashes. Welcome and good luck; enjoy your stay in the flash world.

[Blue Ball V2]

Who knew that bouncing balls could be so much fun?

Opening Comment
After completing this game, I decided to play your first (which would be pointless to review considering that this is V2), and must I say; what an improvement this is!

The Good:
Art - It's good to know that your art style has greatly improved; from bland and generic to cute and dynamic! I also love the graphics of the ball hitting the walls, floor and ceiling as well as all of the game over graphics; they enhance the cuteness of your art style and make the game all the more fun to play. Unfortunately, the stat box retained that generic look from your first game. For any other installments, do your best to keep the same art style for as much of the game as possible. Also, I appreciated the simple background; early in the game, I thought it was bland, but later, I realized that a complex background would clutter up the screen.
Gameplay - Bounce around, collect gems, avoid bombs, find powerups. All those are boring on their own, but together and with the ability to upgrade stats, which is uncommon for a game like this.
Difficulty - The difficulty curve in this game was excellently created. The inclusion of the stat upgrades ensured that the game was never unbalanced but at the same time, the difficulty scaled at a reasonable rate.
Music - Fun, simple and repetitive. I love a game with music that wholly complements it.

My criticisms
Sound Effects - Each of the sound effects, on their own, are perfectly fine. However, with as many as ten bombs going off at once, the sound heavily convoluted the nice music, making it inaudible in later stages. I would like to see mute buttons for both music and sound effects in later additions.
Instructions - Or more precisely, the lack of. Although any gamer could have easily worked out the arrow key movements and other miscellaneous buttons, I would have liked to see a page detailing the powerups which I still cannot figure out.

Concluding Comment
The point of a second version is to clean up the first. And I hope that the third can clean up the second.

silverwar responds:

thanks fot the review its helpfull.
dunno if im going to work on V3 lot of school work :(

[Super Murray Fun Game]

Thanks for the generic, boring experience

Honestly, this game gives me the impression that you have simply copied some actionscript from a tutorial site and applied it to your 'Fun Game'.

The Good:
Music - I must admit, the music completely fits the mood of your game. And that would be silly and nonsensical.

My criticisms:
Story - Unfortunately, collecting a power orb to fire at sheep stealing foes is not a good story. A simple story like this would have been good if all the elements listed below were of a good standard.
Controls - Even though it is extremely obvious what the controls are (arrow keys to move and spacebar to fire, for those who don't know) an instructions page still would have been handy.
Visuals - The gradient effect on ALL the platforms does get very boring. Try having a colourful background instead so you can keep the platforms simple.
Gameplay - It's a platformer. Not that I dislike platformers, I just long for new and inventive platformers. Running, jumping and collecting got old a while back if you hadn't noticed.

Overall
If you could add an instructions page, a replay button, a background and if you could remove the horrible gradient on the platforms when you come around to completing this game, I may consider having a look. Good luck and please don't just give up on this.

[Ant Trail]

Don't expect this review to be nice

Snake clones never cease to amaze me, they seem to be the classic starting game for people new to flash and this one, like all the others, isn't very good.

My criticisms:
Choice of font - The font just isn't reasonable considering that this game has no references to the medieval or grunge (that's just my interpretation of the font). A plain simple font, even though it would've gone unnoticed, would have been more appropriate for this game.
Shoddy rendition of Snake - Snake actually made vague sense; eat pellets and grow longer. Ant Trail doesn't; eat leaves and get more ants. Also, the boulders were a challenging addition to what would have been an unchallenging game but the added an element of luck which is simple not good for a game you have described as "skill".
Lack of sound and music: Sounds and music are an integral part of the whole gameplay experience and without them, the game is extremely boring. Simply put, music would have made a boring game slightly less boring. However, if you do choose to put music in later submissions, please make reasonable decisions; trance and electronic music, no matter how enticing, don't work for every style of game.

Overall: Congratulations on having a crack at the flash world. Note where you went wrong and use these criticisms to create more and better quality games.

stefisdeadgood responds:

Thanks for your review. :)

I do admit that snake is a very generic first game but there is a reason for that. The tutorials are very easy to find.

I started off with the very basic one. Draw this, draw that, copy this code. After doing this I realised it was just rubbish so set about actually having a go at learning ActionScript 3.0 unlike most of the "shoddy renditions of snake" out there.

Font - I just liked it, simple as that.

Ants - Again, thought it'd be more fun than two different coloured squares.

Boulders - This was more to give me a challenge. I'd never programmed anything before this so I tried to figure out what bit of code did what and make it do something different. I listed it as skill mainly because that's where the collect section was. Collecting food being the main aim of the game. :)

Sound - I realised by the time I'd finished writing the game that it's just snake so it wasn't worth spending any more time learning how to put sound to it, which would also mean learning how to mute the sound. I refuse to write a game without a mute button!

Again thank you for your review, it wasn't as bad as you made it out to be. :P