Bezman's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Being a Helpful NG'er]

Like most tutorials, a bit dull.

Like most guides, this suffered from being essentially just a lot of text with no interactivity and few images.

The examples of reviews were a nice 'break' from reading your voice all the time.

In 'method 1' of how to write good reviews, surely listing things you disliked and things that could be changed are almost synonymous? Here, for example, I'm stating that I disliked that element, implying that the two 'steps' should have been merged together.

As long as your disliked are clear, the suggested course of action should be easy to infer.

I was disappointed to not be on the 'great reviewers' list. :-(

It was generally easy to tell what was a link, but you could improve your hitboxes. the 'hit' frame shouldn't be empty or just the text again - instead have a rectangle so we can still click on the counter of the 'e' or between the stems of 'M' (for example). They could sometimes feel tricky to click.

Heading typography could be improved - between the two bgm icons, it doesn't stand out as much as it could. Perhaps an alternate font?

I like the icons by the way - they fit with the geometric font.

The 'good posts' section seemed really sensible and fairly well written.

The NGDD account is 'closed'. Linking to it seems pointless.

To be honest, I still have no idea what any of those clubs DO. After checking out their threads, I came to the theory that chit-chat is the bulk of activity and nothing particularly 'helpful' or influental actually happens.

The RRC seems like it deserved a link.

I was suprised to see 'animation' credited. I mean, I saw graphical work, icons that were drawn and basic typographic choices. But no animation. :-/

Anyway, this suffers from being nothing more than 'linear' text and was a bit dull. More pics, more exciting typography... these little touches would have helped.

As far as tutorials go, though, it was fairly well written and you give a quality overview of everything.

-Review Request Club-

RohantheBarbarian responds:

Thanks for your criticisms. I will take them on board, however please note that the NGDD account closure occurred AFTER the making of this flash.

Thanks for reviewing.

[How to write good reviews]

A typical 'guide'

I didn't really expect to learn anything here, but watched it out of curiousity and a willingness to learn your opinion.

The bulk of the text - in which you talk about your personal style of reviewing - doesn't seem all that potentially useful. Once you reveal that you split up your review into those sections, there doesn't seem much reason to elaborate so much and give examples. It's self-explanatory.

Showing examples of helpful/unhelpful/abusive reviews was really cool though - works well as a quick aid. Maybe that should have gone at the start?

'drawings were done pretty good' is grammatically incorrect. It should be 'done pretty well'

in the paragraph immediately below, you say, 'proves it's point' where you should say, 'proves its point'. Remember: 'it's' means it is. The posessive form is just 'its'.

When a flash is basically entirely textual (as this is) it might be an idea to double-check such things. Or ask someone to look over it before you submit.

I really liked the forward/back buttons - kinda like the old NG buttons.

The music was cool, but not really conducive to taking in info - something slower paced would have been preferable imo - and I'd have liked a mute button.

Not a bad tutorial as far as tutorials go, but after your 'how to help NG' guide, I was hoping for more than just text.

Why not let us guess whether a review is helpful/abusive/unhelpful and then let us check whether we were correct? Or bring in interactivity some other way...

-Review Request Club-

[Newgrounds Helpful Guide]

Better than your average guide.

I played it, got 35, read the 'explanations', checked the max. score (50), then answered again, deciding that my reviews probably count as 'long' and that the RRC probably does 'succeed' at helping. Got 40.

This works both as an ego-boost for those of us who help out a bit and also as a tutorial for those who don't, getting them to consider things they could do differently when answering and spelling it out in the explanations.

However, spammers are still unlikely to pay heed.

Regardless, this was actually slightly fun - something I can't say about other tutorials or 'guides' - mainly thanks to the interactive questionnaire format.

I love the music. Classic NG.

Featured Item works well on any NG game. However, it's quite a decorative font - to improve readability, keepin 'Featured Item' to headers and titles, using a simple sans serif for the body text, would have worked well.

The instructions are specially hard to read - white against a light bg? - and the end rankings and 'explanation' text could have been better organised for readability.

Maybe with a simpler font, the end rankings could have been split up into a few rectangles with icons beside each and the explanation could have been squeezed in beside smaller options, without overlapping them (but of course, the options would be darkened).

The NG-style 'windows' also work well as does the starburst.

Besides a few typographical complaints and the fact that the music resets when we restart the quiz, I have no complaints. Good job.

- Review Request Club -

[HappyLand Valentine]

Original and fun.

Died once at level 3 - thought I had to kill the boss using chains (like the elves) - once at level 5, twice on level 7, maybe 5 times on level 8, got 191s (33.5k) on survival.

The chaining of normal items has really turned the game around. distanced it from the shooters it could previously be easily compared to and helped it become a unique blend of a chain-reaction game with a shooter.

I felt that by starting off with both directions, you missed a trick - introducing enemies from the left was a cool twist to witness in the original game and helped add variety within levels.

When I killed the boss, it felt odd for the level to just carry on - maybe if it continued - with a time bonus for time remaining - it'd feel more ike an occasion.

Speaking of occasions and celebrations, I was a bit disappointed at the lack of any ending animation after the king.

And I still think you should slow the pace a bit, zoom out, but make each hit take off maybe 1/3 of our energy. And make Fuzzy Elf's expression change.

The controls also started to feel a bit cramped - personally, I'd prefer the option to use a and w.

The new rocks were a cool addition and really encouraged me to stay alert. I also liked the way that the king now bounced around and needed to be avoided.

The chaining added aleatory elements but there was still skill involved.

The medal system could have been explained a bit - I assume it's based on life left, but am not sure. If I'm right, maybe it could have changed colour from blue to bronze to silver to gold as the bar 'measures itself' at the end of each stage - changing colour as it passes each threshold? And pop up the relevant medal at that same time?

Its existence means that when I return to this, I'll have another goal to play for.

A fun game you've got here and I think you should return to the concept sometime, with a few tweaks and maybe a couple of twists.

I'm only criticising it so much because it has potential.

ChromeShark responds:

Thanks for the detailed review. I'd really like to make another HappyLand game one day, possibly for next Valentines day, so your comments are very helpful.

I considered having a level before the current Stage 1 with only one direction of enemies. I guess I thought it might be a bit boring for players of the first game, and the chaining didn't really work well with only one direction.

About the controls, if I remember right then W and S caused problems on some keyboards, hence be using Q and A.

Medals are mostly based on health left, they also take into account chaining and a few other factors. I'll make this clearer for the next one. Like you say the medals were more of an afterthought to give players a bit more life out of the game.

For the sequel I'm probably going to change to forwards shooting as a lot of people have requested this. The chaining system will need quite a rethink after that.

Thanks again and see you in January!

[-HappyLand-]

Happy indeed.

I generally enjoyed this.

The start seemed ridiculously simple, but I liked the twist on level 4 and level 6 actually killed me once or twice. Level 7 killed me about 5-7 times and I beat the elf king in 3 goes.

I liked the twist on a normal shooter - both in the direction of projectiles and also with the elves that we need to avoid hitting.

However, I felt that it all seemed a bit flukey for my tastes - with the frantic pace, but the generous amount of 'health', we're almost expecting to be hit loads of times and so each time we get hit loses its feeling of importance. If the game were slowed down a bit and maybe the 'camera' zoomed out, to let us see everything ahead of time, with an accompanying decrease in the number of times we're allowed to be hit, the game could be just as hard, but each time we're hit would be more of an occasion and the deaths wouldn't feel so chancey.

Maybe change the face of the main character - like you do with the king - to reflect his lack of happiness. And maybe the king could have some attacks implemented.

The game was fun despite these gripes - the graphics were jolly, music fun and the gameplay had a suitably happy vibe.

ChromeShark responds:

Thanks very much for checking out my games and leaving reviews! I'll leave more of a response for the Valentine review : )

[Clear Vision II]

Slow cut-scenes and lacking in gameplay.

I felt really disappointed by this.

the actual gameplay is seriously lacking - apart from a couple of instances (namely, the wire-cutting and the bit with 3 targets by the car), it was simply a case of recognising the target and clicking on them. Next to no brainwork required - just basic reading comprehension. No challenge at all.

Even with the wire-cutting, it's again just a case of reading comprehension and the bit with 3 dudes is just a case of picking of the final target in a smaller timeframe.

The cut-scenes seems way too slow moving and though the plot had a couple of interesting moments, it never really rose above an absolutely generic tale.

I did like some of your angles - like the low angle as he steps out the car - and the sunset at the end was cool. The music choice was also generally good.

I just wish it had more involved gameplay and cut-scenes that didn't drag so much.

[gimmeMore-s01e06]

a novel spot-the-difference game!

I enjoyed the nature of this game - one picture, but lots of differences. It's a pleasant, more sedate version of the typical spot-the-difference games.

I didn't find the shot particularly beautiful and the image seemed to be of slightly low quality.

However, the complexity did let you hide away loads of differences.

I started to struggle at 20 and at 23, decided to cheat so I could get some sleep. Started clicking away, then returned to the main menu.

I assume you have some limit on how many times we can click, to avoid cheating, but if you feel it necessary to do that, maybe have a counter telling us how many clicks we have left, or at least give us the reason for our return to the main menu.

In the end, I started again, cheated to 25 (using Photoshop to overlay the pics and quickly find the missing differences) and was dismayed to find there was no congratulatory screen.

Not that I deserved it, but the lack of it made the game feel slightly less complete.

I like the idea of this game, but feel like you need a couple more screens and a better-quality pic.

[gimme5 - toys]

Fun while it lasts

I found the difficulty level fairly scattershot - some pics have simple shapes and are thus fairly easy to suss out, whilst others are loaded with visual noise and complexity.

On my 2nd game, I was disappointed that only around half the stuff I saw was new and all the differences were always in the same place.

On my 3rd game, I beat it.

I like the way that the differences are always high-contrast and when it's a lengthening/shortening, it's noticable enough when you see it. In some games, even after using the 'joker', the difference isn't obvious - not a problem here.

The pics were all great - sharp and nice colours.Where were the images sourced from? I assume you didn't have all these toys lying around, ready to photograph?

The editing was perfect - in some cases, I couldn't tell which was the original image!

The lack of randomisation in the differences was a disappointment - that'd keep it enjoyable even after completion.

Some music would also be nice.

Regardless, I had fun beating this. Good job.

[Bouncy Bob]

Fun game. Consider more levels and better tutorial

I like this game. Quirky mechanics that seem original. Maybe a few tweaks and more levels (in the form of a sequel?) could help it realise its potential.

I loved the starting graphics, with the big shapes and lack of black, but got slightly disappointed when I saw the eyes with their thin black outlines. Couldn't you have used a dark green or greeny brown?

The first level really had me stumped the first time I played. I just imagined it was a normal platformer, so rolled left, tried to jump up, saw it was too high, rolled right, rolled left... it may sound dumb, but it wasn't until I refreshed to check I hadn't missed anything, rolled left, jumped then happened to bounce up because of my momentum that I 'twigged' what the game was about.

Maybe a second signpost giving us a hint would have been kind. I can imagine a few folk getting confused and heading to another game - had I not recognised your name or been impressed by the quality productions, I'd have guessed it was broken. before reading the reviews and presumably realising otherwise.

After that, it all seemed pretty easy and sufficiently explained. Up until the end of level 8, it seemed like plain sailing and I never felt in any danger - as long as I paid attention.

Level 9 was actually tricky, killing me 3 times. Even after finishing it, it felt a bit flukey. I worked out how I was meant to do it on the 2nd time I played through the game though.

level 12 was my 2nd favourite. I died once, but it seemed like a puzzle - once I stepped back and thought about how to approach it, it was soon obvious and felt rewarding.

In level 13, the tall column on the left with the alcove gave me a bit of trouble - took me a while to realise I had to low-jump there. The low-jump I had to do at the top was obvious, but I kept messing it up and it was really unforgiving - any mistake resulted in a crappy bounce to death on spikes. In the end this killed me.

I started a 2nd game, got to the same point 'scouted ahead' by jumping forwards and taking one damage. Didn't manage the low-bounce. it wasn't until my 3rd game that I finally beat it - on my 1st go!

To be honest though, I didn't feel any fiero for some reason. I just felt mildly annoyed at myself that I hadn't done it before.

Level 14 was tricky but I managed to complete it 2nd time. (1st time, I messed up with the splash jump)

Level 15 was, suitably, hard. I liked the way that it didn't have one really tough part like level 13 - instead, it had 3 sections where I felt in danger of being hit. I liked the way I had to react quickly at a couple of points.

I still hadn't worked out how to make the final jump without taking one hit, but I felt super-satisfied when I beat it - 2 lives left.

It was a fun game. Enjoyed it thoroughly in the end.

Having to restart was pretty annoying but the levels were short enough that it wasn't too aggravating. I'd have liked an option to continue but lose your points, though. Or maybe continue but go into an 'unscored' mode.

The scores could be better explained for those who care. Maybe a text display showing 'bonus' that goes down, to reflect the bonus we'd get if we completed the level that frame. And maybe show the scores the cherries give us when they disappear. And maybe explain why we sometimes get extra lives. Is it after X cherries? And the gold ones are worth multiple reds? It's currently a bit obscure and making it more transparent might encourage more score-attackers.

I'm still annoyed that the 'splash bounce' doesn't keep bob going up at the same height - if he can somehow gain velocity from bouncing upwards, I feel he should be able to have no loss of height when bouncing in one spot.

Also, I found a bug at one point - the hit-boxes seemed to be 'pushed left', so I'd penetrate a wall by maybe 50px, then bounce. After death, it sorted itself out.

As I said above, it was a fun game despite my crit. - though level 13 annoyed me a bit - with good progression, great graphics and a jolly tune. Definitely deserving of a sequel now that you've done this.

ProfessorFlash responds:

Wow, nice long review!

It's great to hear how you played the levels, and where you had troubles. I love watching from behind how my friends play the game. As being the game creator and having a lot of testing and overall playing of the game on my belt I take some things granted. So it's really nice to see or hear how other people deal with the levels and the game.

I can tell you how to make the last level without any hits. When you are in front of the second spikes, you go backwards a little and do the low bounce of the small wall and then you splash bounce right away when you hit the ground in front of the spikes. Keep holding down and you splash bounce again until you reach the outer wall, then quickly change to Super bounce (hold Up instead of Down) and Bob bounces perfectly right in front of the portal. Voila! :)

I discovered that 'combo' quite late in the development of the game. I hadn't planned it to be completed like that. Because you could go the conservative way and don't do the second splash bounce and just do a super bounce at the last drop. But it's always a bit risky to get through it without getting hit so the combo-way is better since it's safe every time :).

Yeah the showing of the score from the cherries is a good idea. Another thing I took for granted as the game creator :). It was so obvious for me that the red cherry is 400 and gold cherry is 5000.

The splash bounce turned out like that because of gameplay purposes :).

I'm brainstorming for ideas for the sequel (with myself :)). I've had some great ideas on how it will be but I haven't started the development yet because of being a bit busy with other things. I can tell a bit that the sequel will have completely new engine and 'new way of bouncing'. The old bounces are gone, and it will have a different playing mechanic. But it will still be a level based platformer. No promises though on how long it will take me to make it. But I'm excited to get it started and see how it turns out.

Thanks for your great review :).

[Piggy123s NG guide]

there's no reason for people to read this instead

If the AS to make a button into a link didn't work for you, you should have asked in the BBS for help. Everyone else can work it out, so if you persevered you could have too.

You need to sort out your capitalisation and punctuation - it's currently really hard to read.

Don't use 'u' and other txtspk, use commas, full stops and new lines and capitalise proper nouns and the first word of each sentence. Seriously - these little things go a long way in setting a good impression!

Some of the info, like the 'warnings' and 'voting' section seemed so self-evident as to be redundant.

The info in the staff bit was mostly copied and pasted and going straight to the source is always a better option.

To be honest, I don't really see the need for another 'NG Guide', but this didn't do itself any favours with the issues it had.

I liked the sentiment and the music was generally cool. The buttons worked.

But in the end, there's no reason for people to read this instead of the official FAQ/primer.

piggy123 responds:

the link work now i just do not update it right now.