Bezman's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Help The Snowman]

abandon all hope

+ Pleasant music.

++ highscore table encourages replay...

+ Wintery

--- Collision detection is dodgy. Maybe you're testing the bounding boxes rather than the shapes? We die, sometimes when I think we shouldn't.

----- The part where two trees come from the right as one emerges from the left seems almost impossible to bypass. We have a fairly easy run until then, then wham!

------ Score follows a nonsensical pattern.

==
I must have replayed the game 10+ times, purely because I thought I'd better get a higher score before thinking I could judge it.

Then I noticed - the score increases in a crazy way. I noticed that on later attempts, I'd get a higher score, even if I died at the same point. Soon, I got 230 where before I got 93 for dying at the same point.

That was what made me decide to abandon all hope for this.

Keep working on it.

[Packing machine mania]

nothing

++ Nice use of that Mario tune. Sounds Christmassy in the context, with nice frantic sound.

----- Speed is way too slow. I found myself getting tired, waiting for stuff to fall...

--- Derivative gameplay.

------ RNG can cause losses - sometimes due to the distance in x and proximity in y of falling presents, we're literally unable to catch both.

==
A flawed iteration of an old-hat mechanic that adds nothing new.

[LePussé Christmas Capers]

ot tir

+++ Great music (though it's starting to be a tad overused now)

+++ Great graphics. I specially like your colours and clean lines.

++++ Great hit/miss noises.

++ Gets tricky (eventually) despite clear-patch for birds.

+ Fairly intuitive gameplay.

---- If we rise to the top, no birds ever hit us. Seems a serious flaw.

---- Not enough feedback. I didn't notice that the birds actually took off 2 things until paying attention. a '-2' sign would work well. Also, a '+30' (or whatever) when going up a level.

--- It annoyed me when a parcel would hit the corner and count as a miss. It seems that hitting a wall should be a hit.

-------- Little variation/slow increase in difficuly. Overly repetitive.

==
Played a couple of times when UJ. Played a 3rd time just now before reviewing, getting over 300 pts.

It really got tiring.

I think with slower bird-movement and birds that move all over the screen, it'd be a more skilful and enjoyable game.

[Ball Game]

pleted lev

++ Fairly intuitive.

+++ Motion works well (way that the ball reacts and we control the platforms) on some platforms.

- I found it irritating how all the platforms behaved differently, with no indication of that in their looks. A simple circle for the 'rivet' where it rotates around could have been good.

- I think in-game, it could be expressed clearer that getting all the stars is a requirement.

-- short musical loop got aggravating.

----- Many levels require either trial and improvement, a lot of waiting, or luck to complete. All 3 being bad things.

---- Having to watch the intro each time was frustrating.

--- Finite lives seems to have no reason or value. Only adds frustration.

==
After playing it a couple of times as it went through judgement, I came back to try and get to know it and review. Got to level 4 on maybe 5th attempt. In frustration, I realised the rclick-play cheat and after 'scouting' the future levels ahead, I completed level 4 after a few more goes. Level 5 just got too aggravating for me.

[NG Gallery V1.0]

work

+ Cool music.

++ I rather liked that bg.

+ I rather liked seeing the few front-page characters.

+ Some nice colouring in the circular dudes.

--- Most of the NG stuff is easy to see. Apart from the animation for being the one to blam a submission and the bug, we can see all of this either in the FAQs or through normal use.

--- A lot of the art (the smily and movie come to mind) seemed just like quick scribbles and rather detracted from the fuller artwork.

??? As ~x~ inferred, it'd be nice to organise these things. Keep NG stuff seperate from original art. Work out a better navigation system, allowing us to jump to sections, or just work through it all.

==
A few vaguely interesting pages and some appealing art brought down by poorer artwork and terrible navigation.

Bertn responds:

L0l... Thanks for the review BTW, but I don't understand why you gave me a 3. But Thanks for the Review!

[.dot 1.1]

a fun, balanced

++ Funky music

+++ Stylish graphics. I specially liked the 3D letters and the cursor.

----- White border around goal can be confused with barriers.

--- high speed of barriers in some sections can make success feel too 'flukey'. To exacting.

-- somewhat unimaginative level design.

----- Having to constantly replay levels seems unreasonable.

--- terribly difficulty pattern.

Level 1 - OK

Level 2 - 2nd set of obstacles move too fast - when I got through, it felt more like a fluke than skill.

3 - I like the 'surprising' obstacle. It's boring to go through all those bits though...

4 - see level 2

5 - again, seems too fast. I refuse to believe anyone could really draw a clear path around those teeth that quickly.

6 - ridiculously easy compared to previous levels

7 - enh

8 - too easy

9 - too easy

10 - ditto Specially being the final level.

==
I got through, trying most levels a few times, but cheating to avoid replaying and to get through a couple (5 and 7) that I never did properly.

I think the level design is the a problem here. Instead of focusing on making a hard game, try and make a fun, balanced one.

This just seems aggravating.

[--Keep Up--]

feeling guilt

+++ simple to pick up.

++ Funky music

-- The 'win' comes suddenly and seems somewhat arbitrary. You could have at least stated the goal before the game.

- fading text is just annoying.

------ The motion of the ball just seems kinda annoying and unnatural. I found that once the ball was in the air, it was too easy to keep it in a straight line and when the ball falling, the way the motion depends on the timing over such a short period of time makes it all feel slightly random and frustrating.
Hard to put my finger on why - above are just hypotheses - but I basically don't like the motion at all, whereas the classic keepy-uppy game works quite well.

??? If the shadow changed size, relative to the button's height, that'd make for good feedback.

==
Beat it on maybe 6th attempt. Replayed, beat on maybe 4th attempt.

In a way, my favourite thing about this game is that the end meant I could stop playing without feeling guilty.

UnknownFear responds:

Thanks for the review. Sorry you felt guilty while playing it.

-UnknownFear

[- up -]

replaying this game

+++ Wonderful music.

++ Fairly refreshing gameplay. Took me a wee while to realise I was just playing a platformer wih hitTest on the hands! Shows what a difference a 'skin' makes!

----- The falling rocks don't really give us enough warning, so getting hit by them or not seems random and unfair.

--- I think we start losing energy too early in the jump. Or your levels are designed badly with this in mind. Probably both. You force us to jump to areas the same height as the place we came from. Make it so we only take damage when going lower than the starting point.

--- We lose no energy if we slip off an edge and fall far - only if we jump off. This seems silly and incongruous.

-- Link opens up in current window. Have target="_blank".

??? Make it so you tell us our scores for each level individually. After completing a level have the old/new final scores. That'd help us understand how to improve.

?? Maybe also show us some 'world record' for each mountain? Just a number that you consider the best possible score.

??? Show us the score needed to unlock the next level.#

?? Have some facts about the mountain we'll climb, shown just before we do. Maybe a stat-sheet (height/location) with a brief paragraph.

==
Played level one, played level 2. Completed it a few times but failed to open level 3. Decided to quit.

Really, I'm probably not gonna play again. Too much about this game irritated me.

When I clicked for help though, I did really like your 'flavour text'. That encouraged me to try one last time before giving up.

It was mildly enjoyable, but not enough to do all the replaying this game requires.

I wanted to suggest you change the mechanics in some way, but couldn't think of any suggestions that don't involve ragdoll physics.

PARAGON-pvp responds:

Wow, I really appreciate the length to your review and how in-depth it goes. I would like to answer all of the problems you had but I really am limited to how much time I have for writing this review as I have to leave soon. I'll write a PM follow up if I feel needed.

To start off I am thinking about re-submitting a 1.2 version with the following things fixed:
How you lose so much health when you jump, I find you'll think Mt. Kilimanjaro was much better in that sence because you're climbing down into a mountain, if you need help getting to it go to the cheat bar and type in "killa" all small with no "".
I was going to change it so the rocks are slower and let people know that where they fall is a fixed position so if you see a rock falling in a certain area you best avoid it for it's going to come down again within the next 10 seconds or less.
More detail on how to play each level before you actualy start the level in each game,,, Mt. Everest had some detail but it was hardly any at the same time (lvl cheat for that lvl is "everwin")
I would like to add more detail as far as graphics are concerned on the mountains, I feel they could have been done better.

In responce to your comment on slipping off and losing no health, this is actualy not true it is just because you start gaining fall speed faster when you jump, you still will lose health but it will take more time.

I will do my best to send you a PM going further into your review later on in the day. Thank you again for your review, much appreciated!

PARAGON-pvp

[-=STEALTH=- [X-MAS]]

less leeway

+++ Cool music

+++ Some level took a modicum of planning to complete.

--- Most levels practically require you to lose /some/ energy. I think it'd be a stronger game if you made it very possible to complete with no energy loss and gave us far less to begin with, or made the bar deplete far faster. Maybe even ask us to repeat the level as soon as we're spotted. That way, you could maybe start making levels that require actual skill and planning rather than letting us just rush past their fases.

--- Why can guards see through walls? Seems illogical and incongruous.

??? After failing a stage, perhaps allow us to just restart that stage.

??? Back button, or maybe 180-degree turn button?

?? Make field-of-vision thing slightly more visible.

==
After failing the second stage (1-2), I restarted and got through all the levels, with a little bit of planning. It was mildly enjoyable, but I never had to really put as much thought in as I'd have liked.

Maybe develop it further. giving us less leeway and making better-designed 'puzzles', but keep the guard movements simple, like now. Don't require us to watch the screen for ages to learn the patterns.

Stay funky!

Axlenz-FlashElite responds:

THanks mate!!!

Those are some very detailed suggestions, and i will make sure to fix them soon, whether in the form of a sequel or an update.

-Axlenz

[Winter Fantasy]

central mechanics

+++ Great music.

+++ Well-drawn background and pieces.

------ Overly repetitive tasks.

---- Difficulty 'curve' is rather aggregious. I mean, level 1 has us waiting a while before anything happens, then from level 3 onwards, it's a frantic rush. Maybe have it start with a few pieces already on the board and the difficulty of level one a tiny bit higher?

--- When 2 tiles are on top of each other, problems ensue.

==
Played 3 times, with a highscore of 52. Other times got around 30 and 40.

To be honest, I think the central mechanics would need some changing before this'd be genuinely fun to play.