Bezman's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dream Catcher 2]

Great game. Seriously awesome.

Thanks to the better-signalled scoring system and nicer graphics in the bg this definitely beats #1.

I like how the multiplier system increases the feeling of tension when it's in the 50s or even the 100s as I had it in my 2nd game!

I played 2x for a highscore (coming 2nd in my 2nd attempt) and once for a lowscore. The latter table doesn't seem to be working though (I'm directed to rankz.armorbot.com/dreamLow/ ).

I like how the game changes a fair bit - with a lowscore, it's optimum to get everything - even if you pick up a few dreams in order to get the nightmare. With a highscore, avoidance and keeping the combo going become the highest priority - missing a few circles doesn't damage the score as much as failing either of those objectives would.

I personally would have liked a slightly shorter song, as well as more variation between sections. I liked the sprays of stars and the differentiation between, say the part with Os and tails and the parts where the nightmares were raining. I'd like to see further development and differentiation though.

The music was a cool pic.

The graphics could be further refined somewhat - the foreground action has a cool style, but the bg could be further cleaned up.

I did like the difficulty throughout - I never felt like missing a combo was the fault of your design - it was always seemingly possible to keep the combo going and breaks were - for the most part - my fault alone. (I would argue that the stalactites appearing with no warning can seem unfair on ocassion.

I would like the colour of our avatar to represent the time left to keep the combo rather than just pulsing with the music.

Also, I'd like an sfx for whenever the combo's broken (if it was over, say, 10 - to prevent it getting annoying) as well as an on-screen flash to signal our failure.

Great game. Seriously awesome. Could use a bit more refinement though...

Skeik responds:

The new armor bot system apparently doesn't except negative scores :/

Negative scores where invented like a week after the first dream catcher came, when people were saying that they couldn't get more then 0 points.

Everything you said, I'll take into consideration when and if I make a last version. I'll do a lot more signaling of things, especially the negative points spikes, and there'll be a lot more refinement. I have to say that this was a rush project.

[BOOMBunny07]

Not enough interesting things to do...

I kinda liked the design of the skeletal robot bunny.

Some of the graphics could have been a lot better - specially the fire. Also the bunny itself could have used some shading.

I liked the explosions though.

You really need to work on your button hitboxes. Make filled rectangles in the 'hit' frame so it's easier to click.

A bit lacking in stuff to do but as I said I like the designof the character.

Just work on brushing up on your drawing style now.

KidneyThief responds:

This is exactly the kinda criticism i was looking for thx. =)

[Newgrounds Levels]

My fave was Stamper.

The modified staff pics are awesome, as are the voices. Great humour and very skillfully executed - at first I didn't realise the pics were different! (The first one I saw was MC).

My fave was Stamper.

Though you show the gold auras, which the FAQs don't do, I didn't really see much point in regurgitating all the B/P and whistle icons.

I also liked the credits animation.

The staff page is awesome, but the regurgitated sections let it down.

Fierras responds:

Yeah, I know what you mean. There were some parts that were planned. Others I just started changing them to make it more fun. Still, I do think new users will appreciate the effort.

I'm also glad you liked it, makes the time spent making this worth while. :)

[Tur3t Duhfenz]

Almost as shit as the inspiration.

Cool game, DEF.

Well, the text made me smile anyway. I liked the graphics for the book.

The game itself was pretty boring, as could be expected, and I decided after round 4 (I think) that to play any longer would be a waste of my time.

Maybe you could have made it even more annoying and shitty?

DingoEatingFuzz responds:

Thanks, and thank Photoshop for the book. Just a few clicks with some grunge brushes, some swipes with the burn tool and a couple overlays and a boring book gets interesting.

As for the annoying piece a crap value, I didn't want to go so over the top that it became a piece of crap noob flash. Or else it would have been even more pointless to make.

[Flunk-combat: Swat (game)]

Think more carefully about your next game.

The first two rooms are lousy games of chance. Confusing - doesn't really explain what you did wrong after guessing the wrong weapon.

After failing the 2nd question of the quiz a couple of times, I gave up.

I'm not interested in either learning about guns online, nor in rewatching sub-par animations before getting another chance at trial and improvement.

Before you start your next game, decide whether it's a game of chance or skill. Broadcast this to us and try not to mix the two to begin with.

And generally, don't force people to replay long, uninvolving secions.

I did like the music and the sound. The graphics weren't terrible, just nothing special - they aren't enjoyable to watch over and over. Also, you seemed to have some good ambitions, but it just didn't gel together.

Wyattfilms responds:

Thank you.. Ive realy changed my whole flash style since then.. im doing my best to fix these little things

[ReflexCursor]

work on your mechanics a bit

The basic idea of the game seems interesting and good (there aren't many pure reaction-based games online). The first time I played it, I didn't bother reading the controls. Took me a few lives to realise I needed to click, but it was easy to pick up, thanks to your clean presentation.

You did make a small typo in the instructions.

The mechanics seem overly reliant on luck for my tastes - as the positions are randomly spaced, we can lose due to a circle popping up right next to the 'enemy', then maybe another pops up right beside it, making us lose a few lives in a row. Maybe the enemy could be reset each time?

The rankings seem to be totally messed up. Game 1, I got 7pts - A. Then I got 27pts - E. I played a few more times, to see how the rankings worked and it just seemed a bit random.

==
More reaction-based games are a good idea, but you need to work on your mechanics a bit (and also maybe tweak the presentation further).

2/5

TheGriffenFreak responds:

ok i will thx. and the rankings goes by time, theres a hidden clock, it doesnt go by the score

[Ball tower]

it still needs work done on it

Played a few times, failing level 3. I persevered more through dogged determination and to see if it'd continue, than anything else.

Eventually got to level 4, where the moving saucers were a kinda nice change. I died, slightly after the bomb. I think the two saucers never really got close enough...

Music is awesome.

Graphics are a bit horrible and overly rough. You could really put more effort, maybe give them some detail, try and think about the colours you use a bit more...

The game was mildly fun. The basic rules of the game are solid.

I felt the bombs were a bit unfair - being killed when jumping, by something we can't even see, just seems unfair.

Also, the jumping motion itself seemed a bit wrong to me. It may have been the way we 'wobbled' when on a platform and also the way that if we held down the jump button, we'd kinda jump straight off each platform as we touched it, rather than landing, then jumping (if you understand what I mean).

You're off to a good start, but work on the level design... add some more variety... don't force a complete restart after each death...

Keep working on it and it could definitely end up as a fun game, but just now, it still needs work done on it.

Patacorow responds:

Thx for the information, I'll try to fix all things you are telling me about at version 2. Oh and about the music, by Cypher! All my games have unless 1 of his musics. He rocks man!

[Toast: Game]

movement just feels unnatural

I liked the graphics for the mountains in the background.

I hated the way the main character moved - it just seemed to move too fast for my liking - both when jumping and also when just moving around. I think that should be slowed down a tad.

Also, make it so a jump is more of a curve than an 'up, stop, down'.

Whenever the little toasters exploded and went on fire, the screen seemed to lag for a second or so, which was a real bitch on level 3, where I would often get myself in trouble thanks to that bug.

Level 4 was easier than 2 or 3 imo. I gave up at level 5, mainly because of the 'twitchy' movement.

The level design seems OK, so if you sorted out the movement, it might be an enjoyable game.

==
Currently, the movement just feels unnatural and that really breaks the game for me.

Hacker12 responds:

Thank You for your input. ^^

[Mazes]

focus on variety and fun

Level 4 was pretty cool.

The other levels kinda seemed a bit run-of-the-mill though.

I hated level 3, as that was just a case of trial-and-improvement.

The final level seemed to automatically kill us when we got to the round black spaces. Horrible.

Graphics could be prettier.

==
It's a start and with level 4, you've shown some creativity. The difficulty level isn't too aggravating - some folk really go over the top.

However, with a lack of ingenuity elsewhere and the auto-deaths, this seems like a sub-average offering in an over-populated genre.

Try to focus on variety and fun for the next version!

Billyhomeboy responds:

Ya the third level was not supposed to be hard or anything, The purpose of that level was to help everyone understand the final level. Im not sure many people figured out the last level but since im getting so much confusion over it I will tell the secret, take the mouse outside of the window to the left and bring it back in on a different trail. The correct trail gives you a check mark.

[Lost in dimensions]

I enjoyed this game.

I don't normally use the old system of +/- in reviews any more, as it took effort and seemed to confuse some authors. But as you liked my other reviews, I'll return to that system. It's just a vague indication of how much a like/dislike each element.

First, the report of my play-through. I completed the main game on my 2nd attempt, then played the highscore game a few times. I did quit a few attempts, when I died in the slalom-ish fire-level. After dinner, I had one last attempt on both normal and highscore modes.
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--- Music starts before we press anything. GAMES SHOULD BE QUIET UNTIL I TELL IT TO START!

- Music can kinda drown out the witch's voice

++ Nicely 'screechy' voice

- The broom really didn't look like a broom to me. I just felt the end-bit (the side where the straw should be) could have been a lot better drawn.

---- I personally found the menu a bit confusing. The graphics for the coins, etc. initially looked clickable.

--- Also, the way we needed to wait for the messages to pop up and explain each mode kinda irritated me. I think such things should either be on the screen, or be near-instant.

-- I found the status bar a tad confusing. In my first game, I thought the level number was the number of lives remaining (it was the first time I'd really tried to work it out, amongst all the clutter) and so was surprised when I failed after failing a level one more time.

+++ The rotation and 'lag' of the broom sorta differentiated it from all the other mouse-avoider games.

--- I actually hate that system of moving, where the object moves a certain fraction of the distance towards the cursor. I just think that the broom should have a maximum speed and it should generally move at that speed whenever we place the cursor a certain distance away.

In this game it seemed less annoying than usual, but I still disliked the system.

+++ I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the moving obstacles.

++++++ Some of the levels are fairly ingenious in their basic design. Specially the ones involving the 2 sets of moving spikes and the slalom level in the time-trial mode.

-- I did feel at times that the hit-box of the broom seemed a bit odd. I never felt entirely confident in how close I could go to the spikes and was never fully sure of whether I'd pick up an item or not until I actually did so.

I kinda think you should make the hitbox for the former smaller and the hitbox for the latter larger.

As I've been working on Skears 2 for the past 5 years, I don't want to give many suggestions when I play similar games. I'd like to release my own game first. Hope you understand.

I do think your levels could be a tad more memorable and maybe you could introduce a few more features to add even more variety, but on the whole, the design is good.

==
I enjoyed this game. I may not return to it, but it was great fun to play and I just wish it was longer with added variety, or there was more competition in the highscore table.

There's a few things you could improve in the presentation, and the design can always be polished further, but it's a solid game. Fun!

Congratulations in making an enjoyable game! It may not have the innovation of your other titles, but it's a solid, fun game.

I'm looking forward to seeing your skills improve further.

~~~~~Review Request Club~~~~~~~

Abs55 responds:

Thanks very much for the constructive review. I had hoped you would write such a review and you have. You have shown a lot of things that I could improve on, if and when I make a sequel. Thanks.