A-Wahl's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Toss the Turtle]

Very nice!

Well, let's see... Your game is not original, but you guys bring a lot to the table. Sure we've had toss games before, but never with as much expandability, medal, as many Newgrounds references, and flipping awesome art! I can tell that this was a heartfelt, thought out production.

---GRAPHICS
Gonzo's art style is beautiful and funny; the details are amazing, and they made me wish you guys hadn't disables the regular right click menu (I wanted to zoom in!).
The turtle get getting hurt with each landing made me lul; it was a nice touch. I also love the multiple backgrounds.The art is what really sold the game (that isn't to say that the code was bad :D).

---Sound
For games, one can't really go wrong with maestro rage! Nice selection.

---PLOT
No plot here, so I can't talk about it.

---OVERALL
An incredible game. The art, the music, and code, the everything was nicely wrapped up in a fun, sporadic package. Nice job gaiz!

THINGS THAT MADE ME ANGRY FAIC >:(

-The medals did not register properly on the first load
-The GOLD STAR medal showed up every time I clicked during gameplay on the first load
-Sometimes I got killed by the ground spikes even though I landed in front of them

[Kees' Adventure 2]

It's getting there

Well, I'm very endeared by DIY pixel-sprite flash games; always have been, especially when people pull it off well. Your game was short, and lacking in depth, but I can tell you are capable of making a great game! I'm going to go on to gripe about what I found wrong, and how you can improve, so here we go. :)

Many of the things in this game seemed static (ei the non-changing backgrounds and lifeless characters). While you had variable conversations with other characters availible, these were few. There weren't many items to collect, and the method of collection was linear; in other words: you pick up and item, give it to someone, get an item in return, repeat. The story was also didn't really leave a meaningful impact on the actual gameplay, in other words, because the story lacked meaning, one would not even need it to get through the game.

But all that is okay because you are still practicing.

To solve the graphics issues, I suggest you study regular drawing and other, already established pixel games considered good (pokemon, most stuff on the gameboy, and a lot of stuff on NG). Sprites are hard to make well, and I understand that. Also, try to be a little more consistent with the size of your pixels. Uniform pixels can have a profound impact on the professional feel of your games. Also, always try to be consistent with the coloring, too (for pixel games, mellow, mild colors work best).

Like I said, the characters were mostly invariable; always standing doing nothing. If you could stick the effort and make some animations for them (could be just a little thing that they do, like kicking some dust or fiddling with their hands), it would be sweet. The same goes for the backgrounds and item collection: be creative! :D

Now, the story... Well, the game was so short that the dialogue had no time to leave any impression at all. It felt to me more like a waste of time (I mean that in the nicest possible of ways). I don't know your writing process, but you should sit down, brainstorm quick ideas, jot them down, pick the ones that work, and then finalize them... All to ensure quality. ;-)

I think I covered everything(?)...

As an aside, I'll just point out some things that bugged me.

-Pick a different font for dialogue, and give the text more contrast against the background. I'd suggest a pixel font that you can find on the net

-Use whatever variable that holds the position that the main character is facing, and make it to that you can only talk to someone it you are facing him/her

-Better walk cycle plz? Contact me if you want help with that, I can't provide the links to good tutorials here.

-I noticed that transitioning between rooms is laggy. Look at the transitions a couple times, and you'll know what I mean. Characters float for a split second.

---GRAPHICS
They're good, but need work. See above.

---PLOT
Also needs work. See above.

---SOUND
The music was alright, but I think the game itself could do with some sound effects.

---OVERALL
This was a good game, but the series has a long way to go. I'm confident it'll get there!

Peace.

kcnh responds:

Wow! Thank you so much for your review!

[nanoTank]

A solid game

This is not a concept that is new. Roll around as something small shooting stuff and solving puzzles. It's a challenge and an overall decent game. Were I find that it falls short is the amount of space there is to expand upon the main idea. Not that I could do any better, but I just found the game a wee bit repetitive after a while.

But I did enjoy the physics, which is what you guys brought to the table to make the game more unique. I really would have liked to see better use of the physics that were already in place (seriously you guys could have gone wild with that!).

---GRAPHICS
The graphics were cool and obviously stylized. Though this is a matter of personal preference, I generally like the animated hand drawn style better, but I won't take any points off for that. :)

---PLOT
No real plot, though I would have really been impressed if you managed to make one. ;)

---SOUND
The music was the kind of music I like to refer to as "zoning out music" and that's good for games.

---OVERALL
Like I said, the game is solid overall and compact, but it gets monotonous.

Games these days seem to getting less and less planned out to be huge and more and embeddable. I'd like to see that change. Still, I should say you guys did a good job, keep it up! :D

[Das PÜzzelspielen]

A very good game!

I love puzzle games, and this one hit the sweet spot between difficulty and and learning curve. It's simplistic visually, but that's good because we don't need a bunch of crap flying at our faces when were trying to solve a damn puzzle. I found it great how you wrote out the rules step by step instead of giving all to us at once, which turned this game, which could have otherwise been a pain in the neck to figure out, into an easy to learn, easy to play spectacularathon! Hoovay!

The only suggestion I have would be a turning the music off feature.

---GRAPHICS
Not many (lol). That is good, though. Simplicity is nice, especially in a puzzle game.

---PLOT
Not really an adventure game, but I really enjoyed the German instructions :3

---SOUND
The music choice was good, but I'd rather play without sound, which could be remedied by turning off my speakers, but there should be an in game option.

---OVERALL
Did I forget to mention this game was fun? I really enjoyed it, and I'm looking forward to more puzzles from you!

TerryCavanagh responds:

Glad you liked it! You can press M to mute the sound, actually (I guess I probably shoulda wrote that on the title screen somewhere).

[Sketch Rider]

I was impressed

My first impression before I played the game was that it was going to be an average lame old line riding game, but I was surprised with how smoothly it ran a worked. Everything pretty much worked the way it was supposed to.

But I did not really like how often you had to restart a level after flipping over. If you make a sequels you might want to program in a few seconds before the game over screen comes on.

The aesthetic choice was pretty interesting but I had a hard time figuring out what was happening sometimes. You also may want to consider adding to power ups if you make a sequel (floating would be a useful one).

Other suggestions:
ability to jump with the space bar
option to turn all any sound off

Over I thought it was pretty solid. Good work, keep it up! :)

[Tutorial Time 2: Preview]

Nice

Very informative, nice graphics, aesthetically pleasing. Can't wait for the final version. One question, where did you get that preloader?

[Boxhead: More Rooms]

Alot better than the last two

The last two were still friggin awesome but this one was a lot smoother and a bit more fast paced. Good work!

[Stick tutorial (two-lan.)]

Gewd Stick tut

Now I'll go make a stick movie of my own! :D

Flashmovieboy responds:

Its great that after watching this you want to practice your skills or whatever :D

[Keyboard Hero]

Really cool

That was really cool you should make another one with as election of music the the user can select and mabey a highscore board thingy. It could go real big! Good work! :)