Bezman's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[TicTacToe]

noughts and crosses (or 'tic-tac-toe'

+++ All works well

+++++ Computer seems flawless on highest level

+++ difficulty levels

------ Inherently limited nature of the game

-- Shitty-looking front-end

+++ Good song

overall
=====

Nice work, but dude... it's just noughts and crosses (or 'tic-tac-toe' as you yanks are wont to call it)! Totally limited.

Does what it does well though.

Maybe spruce up the gfx a bit.

themoviejoker responds:

... xD

[Stickicide 2]

a play-through. I think

Played 2x. Got 10120 on 2nd go.

++++ Varied animations.

+++ Presenting these deaths in a simplistic game form is an original twist on the subject matter.

-- If we just wanna see all the deaths, it can take a bit longer than we may like. Maybe it'd be cool to have a map or something in the corner? Maybe a bonus for getting every trap in the game?

--- Time limit seems a bit long.

-- There seems no easily understandable logic to the spawning points.

- Deaths could be more varied and graphical.

Overall
======
Worth a play-through. I think it'd be cool to have little clips of each death as an extra after finishing. Maybe show points necessary for ranks.

[Ultimate Newgrounds Quiz!]

questions. Could be a

Checked out a couple of extras. Played the 2 working quizzes. Lost maybe 5 times.

+++ I like quizzes about NG.

-- Having questions about how many submissions some random user has or what #39 was on such and such a date (though I got both right) seems retarded. It's better, I feel, to have questions that are/will always be true and is about something (relatively speaking) of some importance.

--- I hate the 'make a mistake, go back to q1' format. Better to maybe have a score or whatever?

--- No pre-loader?

+ I like how you've got extras. The ad was voiced too slowly and I didn't bother watching all the crazy page. But it made me feel like you cared about this.

------ You've got a question wrong. 'New Ground' was the name of the fanzine. For the original website, 'the final decision was "New Ground Remix"' (from the lit.)

---- Non-working button leaves a bad impression

overall
=====

Some decent questions. Could be a lot better though. Hardly ultimate.

Kronzo-Productions responds:

Thanks for the long review. Sorry that I got that one question wrong.

[Plankton Life 2]

here that haven't been

I played until I got to the 2nd boss. Then bored and closed it. Had been wrestling between my wish to give it a fair chance and my wish to not spend time playing the same 4s over and over with no variation, other than during boss bits.

Played it 2nd time after reading in the comments about shooting. But you didn't really seem to explore any of the possibilities that opens up.

+++ Nice, clean gfx. Nothing breaking out of the cute style you've set. Good font.

+++ Quality music.

+++ I really like the musical sfx.

--- It'd be nice if we could turn down the music to better hear the sfx.

--- You don't really mention the shooting in-game.

------ Really repetitive gamplay. In between bosses, we see no change really.

--- Random placement of enemies. Sometimes we have no through-road. Sometimes our failure feels like it should be attributed to the random elements - never a favourable aspect.

overall
=====
Just way too repetitive and boring. There's a lot of possibilites here that haven't been explored. Work on the level design.

I found it dull and not at all entertaining.

[Ultimate Vector Challenge]

the game to

Played. Won. Played as other character. Won. Played as first character and intentionally lost. Experimented to see if there were more than 2 animations. Then lost as other character.

++++ Smooth movement.

+++++ Full of personality. Worried eyes. Aggressive stances.

+++++ Nice high-contrast style.

- Gameplay is very limited - measure of timing. Win or lose.

-- 'Perfect' implies to me that there's more states than just perfect and lose. I'm basically saying you lead me to believe there'd be a non-perfect win. You kinda built it up to be more than it was.

--- I think you should have an English option for the text.

overall
=====
Really awesome gfx/animation but the game structure is way to limited. I'd like the mechanics to maybe repeat, the game to keep flowing...

[How does your garden grow]

I found it

Played. Got frustrated after rose level. Decided to just end it. Didn't bother starting next level.

++++ Gfx look slick. I like the sun and all the details.

---- The basic game has very little strategy.

------ It's more a battle against the controls than anything. It seems kinda jerky. Probably too processor intensive for my PC. I think you should let him move through passages more easily.

--- Takes a while to begin each level.

--- Music loop gets annoying.

-- Not enouch broadcasting. Maybe have objects flash when they're about to disappear.

++ You let us change the controls.

overall
=====
I found it dull and annoying.

[MetalStorm]

a lot of

++++ No bugs. Normally wouldn't mention this, but this game is pretty complex...

++ A lot of options. I like that we can select these things.

---- Though I actually feel too many. I doubt many will play through the 60 combinations you have. Maybe offer some guidance as to what you feel is a good mode. Or maybe have a story mode, where we work through some pre-defined levels.

----- I don't like the basic gameplay. To me, it felt mostly down to luck. Victory was hollow. I'd rather bullets did more damage but moved slowly or were somehow 'announced' so we could dodge more through skill than just running around and hoping they don't hit us.

+ textures.

overall
=======
Looks like a lot of work went into this. But I didn't find it any fun.

[Flip It!]

out a decent

Played it. Completed it.

I'm sure I'd played this before. Ah well. Probably didn't review then.

Anyway:

++++ I like the basic game mechanic.

-- Seen it before on the experimental gameplay project website.

+++ You have some interesting levels. I like how your levels are designed.

----- The scoring system sucks. You could have maybe made it so we got bonus points for time remaining. Maybe 10 for each second? And maybe we could get 10 points for removing a tile, but lose 11 for making it return?
That way we'd have to think a bit and try to do the levels in min # moves for a better score...
Also, have an actual penalty for dying.
As is, everyone will get the perfect score.

--- No high score table.

++ Decent music

overall
=====
Cool game. I vote you keep developing it. Add levels. Sort out a decent scoring system. If you add a lot of levels, maybe have multiple modes (for different game lengths).

Nick responds:

Thanks for the great review. Yes, I've taken into account most of what you've said for the sequel (which I started about two weeks ago). So far it's looking good.

[Cosmic Fozmik]

sort become a

Played it maybe 6 times before I completed it. At first I was expecting little (the presentation gave me a bad first impression for some reason), but when all the stuff was bouncing away and then the screen turned into an x-ray style thing, it was so awesome and I was just digging the vibes.

+++ Still original.

++++ All really nicely synched.

++++ Great decorations - bouncing blocks and stars to beat were awesome. I also liked the 'skin' half-way through.

I kinda like the fact that the enemy positions seem to change, though I'm not keen on random numbers contributing to a loss. (I think they should only affect things that don't affect the difficulty.)

---- When I stayed at the bottom, the boss only ever used the upper-arm attack. The first time I faced him, I was trying to pre-empt the attacks and kept getting killed. When I stayed at the bottom and he only used the one attack... that was a bit shit.
I think you should maybe forecast the attacks a bit, somehow. But mix them up a bit.

+++++ I really like the fact that we have lives.

overall
=====
Enjoyed it apart from the boss. I'd maybe like some more variation, but it's really cool. I'd like to see games of this sort become a trend.