Bezman's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Rocket booster]

object, but it didn't

I loved the voices and cheers, alongside the way you use the variable sound volumes to indicate when we're slowing down.

The 'fast' tune did get a bit dull after a while and even when the blue bar was at the top, I felt like I wasn't moving as fast as I'd like. I reckon maybe you could've had more major speed-ups at the start and allowed them to boost you beyond that point, wherupon you'd zoom to crazy speeds. Or maybe just make the x-speed faster all the time. It wouldn't make the game any easier - only harder if anything, as we'd have less time to react.

I think I'd have personally enjoyed it a lot more if the acceleration was faster (in the y-direction). I felt like often, if the speed-up was on the other side of the screen, even if I immediately started moving to it, I'd still miss it. Staying in the middle is not always an option, with the rocks.

Also, with certain formations of rocks, I felt like the random number generator was more at fault for my performance than any actual decision I'd made or whatever.

Maybe if the speed-ups were always in the rings, that'd help eliminate the feeling of chance, as we'd have more of a 'warning' about where it may pop up. Although that may make it too easy...

I did notice that folk have gotten 3x my score and I'm not sure how much is due to skill, how much due to perseverence and luck, but I'm guessing a majority of the latter.

==
Fun for a while, with great use of sound and voume control of the sound object, but it didn't have as great a sense of speed as I'd like and felt like my failures were often the fault of the RNG and the sluggish controls.

[.:Firewall:.]

t random numbers rather than intelligence

Played 4 times. I think I got 75,175,550,300 or thereabouts.

Anyway, it's a simple enough idea, nothing new, but I've not seen this particular way of executing that idea before.

I liked the tune.

Found the lack of diagonal control a tad irritating - surely you could've had some diagonal movement, but just halve the speed so overall velocity remains the same, if that was the issue? Not particularly hard to get used to, but just seemed a bit odd and unnecessary.

Keeping fire just seemed to be a case of tapping the button rather than holding it.

I personally felt it would've worked better with more powerful mines. I didn't realise that the green things destroyed the mines but blues diodn't until I spent 30s experimenting. You should've mentioned that in the instructions. Personally, I'd have it so the mines just remain for a while. Maybe even have them blast out a smal radius when they go.

We have few enough.

I think it'd be cool if you put in a few visual rewards, maybe just a 'wave XX' sign, maybe with some flying particles, every so often.

Also, a few times, the fire power-up kinda appeared with half of it off to the left of the screen. Seems a bit bastardly.

==
It's a competent game, but the lack of fresh content as I played and the feeling that the enemy patterns weren't particularly interesting, with just random numbers rather than intelligence behind their layout, helped put me off.

I had a modicum of fun but got tired of it.

fuzz responds:

Acctually you got 550 :)

But i see your point, thanks for playing and the helpfull review

[Path Of A Hermit Demo]

Flawed mechanics, but the upgrades added humour

Seems kinda unimproved since Path of Akuma.

I found that the best 'tactic' again was to simply hold 'A', use my right hand to draw or whatever, then once I'd gained around 35 points, just continuously do specials...

I felt it'd have been good to know our next opponent's stats and also the amount that each stat would increase before we spent our upgrade on it.

For some reason (maybe because of my procrastinative nature), the very presence of an upgrade system compelled me to keep playing until I'd gotten enough points to defeat anyone before they even landed a hit! It was kinda fun to watch after a few games for the unintentional humour. Then my walking stat went too high and my punches no longer connected, so I closed the window.

==
Flawed mechanics, but the upgrades added unintentional humour.

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I'd love to try and make a similar game with better mechanics. I hope you won't mind...

skein responds:

no i don't mind. and why should I? I got inspired by sinjid battle arena anyway.

[Mario kart mini-game]

lacks a spark or a purpose to make it really fun

This reminded me of racing games on the game gear, that basically operated like this. The way the track approached and the general way you dealt with bends were really well implemented!

I felt the objects approached a bit too quickly for us to be able to react in time if we are in the wrong place.

Also, I felt that when the track turned, it should maybe move you over more (but also make it so that when the tracks turning you move the cart faster if you press the other direction). So that we actually need to 'turn' and don't just line ourselves up then forget about it.

After I 'beat' the game, it just sent me back to the start!

You need maybe some scores to beat or something... maybe make it so it's like the aracde Sega Rally games (time counting down and we need to stay on the course)... just now it really feels like there's little point in it, few rewards.

==
Well made game - the way the track approaches is fairly impressive. But it seems to really lack a spark or a purpose to make it really fun to play.

tank2tank responds:

Yeah good review- but it's worth me pointing out that this really isn't a 'full game' and more of a tech-demo, sorta thing.

I'm currently experimenting with an F-Zero themed game based around this, and i'll take your criticisms into account, thanks!

[Last Survivor]

Not much fun for me.

It took me a couple of goes to get used to this, learning to change my gun and which crates blocked the fire...

After I went to the 2nd area, I was impressed, and hoping to see more places.

The way we got shot by enemies from off-screen really annoyed me.

Also, the way we could walk outwith the screen seemed sloppy. Maybe zoom out a bit?

I did like all the graphics, music and the physics of the way the crates moved around were somewhat impressive.

I just felt after my 2nd attempt (70,000-odd points) it'd started repeating and it wasn't really much fun in the first place.

==
It felt like I was lumbered with a shitload of controls to learn that didn't really matter and thrown into a game with overly repetitive mechanics.

[Escape from Brighton Pier]

Is there gonna be another this year?

Top game!

I loved how I could get through it all without a big understanding of the mechanics, but could then start to do extra things like heading the balls and actually realised I had to duck for the birds and couldn't header them...

The tune is great!

I really think you should have added a message at the end to let us know that we'd actually finished the game and hadn't somehow lost our last life through failing the can-shake. That was confusing at first.

I see there was one in 2006 but nothing announced for this year. Well, it's not as if I live near you anyway...

I personally would have preferred it if it had a couple more levels. If each level is meant to be a different night, maybe add in a 'congratulations' then show the date after each tardis event?

==
Great game. Definitely got me interested in the event. Is there gonna be another this year?

As for the game itself, I'd have preferred it if there were a bit more to it. But it's got a wicked sense of humour and a great mix of styles.

[HomeRun!]

Nice graphics, but the mechanics seem overly repet

I personally find the game mechanics tedious. A simple game of timing stretched beyond breaking point. And the signals of when we need to swing etc. seemed a bit woolly. Occassionally it'd look like the bat was swinging through the ball!

I got to level 2 of 'difficult' before failing a level. After completing that and failing the final level, it wouldn't let me retry the final level, sending back to the one before!

The music is beautiful, but seems unsuitable for this game.

The 'homerun' audio got annoying quickly .

The inclusion of the jump is baffling when it only hinders us from achieving the goal.

On the flipside, the graphics were well drawn, animation smooth and I love the style with which you show the blur of the bat as it's swung. Also, some sweet colours for the background.

==
Nice graphics, but the mechanics seem overly repetitive and the signals 'woolly'.

[Hewitt]

me for the mo

The graphics were great! Really sharp lines and smooth animation.

Great voices.

I liked the intro too - great spin on the classic 'voice telling you to get a girl' that's become a recurring theme on NG.

I found navigating your world a bit annoying. I'd much have preferred it had there been arrows showing where we could go to. Near the start, I got pretty stuck and eventually resorted to your walkthrough, after which I learned that I could walk left from the school entrance. It took me a few attempts to work out how I went from the cake-seller to the back exit or school gym. I got tired of forcing my body around all the corners and clicking on absolutely everything, to be constantly greeted by that message.

Maybe it'd have been cool if the objects we could pick up or should talk to occasionally shimered. Like, say, after 15-30?

I had a bit of a problem with the dinner lady. For the record, I read the guide at 4 points. Here I read I had to give her the tickets and I'd already tried doing that. Just because I hadn't tried talking to her yet it didn't work... doesn't make much sense to me.

When I ended the game, I immediately restarded, just to replay the first few minutes, maybe trying different things out, and when it got to the tutorial of how to combine things, the keychain toy wasn't in my inventory! So I was stuck on that screen...

Anyway, there's some great characters here. I felt sorry for the fat bully when he was complaining about the food - I'd have given it to him as a favour! But then I realised he didn't deserve my pity... the bampot.

I also really liked the detention puzzle - entirely logical and yet the large number of steps made me really chuffed with myself for working that bit out.

The end was marginally unsatisfying. I'd have liked to see the old man from the future say something - maybe Hewitt could have had a dream, or something else could happen to give the plot some finality and have something happen in the final movie that isn't pretty much a given.

Maybe - off the top of my head - we could've flashed forward and seen some of the future, or Hewitt as an old guy, married and telling his kids, "...and that's how me met." A bit obvious, I know, but so is everything in the current ending (even more so).

==
Anyway, cool game for the most part - great graphics, fun to play with some logical puzzles - but a couple of tiny issues with your signals (lack of knowing where exactly we could go, mainly) would keep me from wholeheartedly reccommending it to others.

[Crazy Shuttle]

great production values; terrible mechanics.

You really were an agressive guy. Glad you got someone to give you a good hug.

Intro was cool, as was the way the truck turned red. First time the folk threw out of the window, I probably chuckled (back in '02 or whenever).

It's got a dark sense of humour with incredible production values for the time (and good even now) but the mechanics are terrible.

The fact that they're so easy to throw out the window, along with the whole scoring system, that gives us points for the kills, means that the best tactic is probably just to use all your boosts right at the start and speed in one direction.

I got 6006 points.

I can see it's in the name of humour, but I remember getting frustrated at the time, trying to play it like the game it's inspired on and finding the window-breakages horribly annoying.

It's not my style of humour, I suppose.

[-Fortified defence-]

you've developed

Did you just choose that title for some cheap views?

I liked the boss graphic - I remember him from your sketchbook piece.

Not so impressed with the main character.

I really hated the fact that objects had no 'z'-value and it was simply a 2d hitTest. If you're gonna let us run 'into the screen', we should be able to go 'behin' and 'in front of' projectiles.

The coding's kinda buggy. 2nd time I played, I won after hitting the ghost once. Replayed, then after I hit the ghost this time, I went onto a field where no enemies appeared until I hit the ghost again.

I personally felt the music matched the offensive mood of this game well.

==
I do like the graphical style you've developed. The game mechanics seem broken and overly repetitive though.