Bezman's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Capt. Low-Rez: Blastopod]

Brilliant game.

I played this many years ago and it still entertains as much as it did then.

The shield system is brilliant, if maybe a little over-lenient in my opinion. It's a wonderful idea though - shoot x successful shots, then get a chance to reclaim some energy. Adds a little bit of strategy to what is a very simple game.

It is unfortunate though that at times, losing energy seems almost unavoidable. But the presence of the shield reminds us we never need do so and being able to reclaim energy makes beating the game in one life a fairly realistic proposition, once the basics have been mastered.

The idea of the blastopoids providing an objective is an interesting one, which helps ensure the game provides a slightly differing angle to most 2d 'schmups'.

The levels are nice and short, with bosses proving nicely varied, with simplistic attacks reminiscent of the age you're parodying. The graphics were pretty smart I thought, with nice colours used for the explosions and everything managing to look fairly pretty in its own style.

Sound was groovy with nice voices and a pumping sound track that never got tiring. The short messages before the bosses helped amuse as well.

Brilliant game with some great design.

It just leaves me yearning for more. Maybe some final super level if you beat it without losing a life, or maybe some more elements to explore.

The shield as it is is a great deterrent for overly passive players, but maybe it'd be nice to be able to skip the health-restoring process in exchange for a bonus, maybe another mega? Or maybe we could see some even more ridiculous weaponry from the bosses. What was there certainly got rather incredible, but didn't seem to push the envelope as far as possible.

Anyway, great game.

My favourite online 2d schmup.

[Ball Revamped: Metaphysik]

125 levels? Not really...

I was rather disappointed that so many of the 'levels' were simply repeated attack patterns we had to overcome. And worse yet - they remained the same for far too long, only giving us 3 variants for the 25 levels.

Doing the same task over and over that number of times simply isn't very much fun.

The game is awesome though, and I love the way each world is themed around something. The walls were a bit hard to see in the green level though and some of the other levels seemed to have a bg too similar to the walls too.

The fans were an excellent idea, but it would have been nice to have had some graphics showing which direction they blew in. Maybe some small semi-transparent white particles moving in the direction of the blow?

The progression of difficulty was well guaged for the most part, although there were maybe a few that stood out as being particularly tough compared to those around them.

And the boss wasn't the mother-of-all tests of your mastery of the game, the way I expected it to be. I'd have hoped it would at least have been the hardest of the levels, but the last level (the very last attack) was maybe only harder than 9/10 of the remainder.

It's a brilliant game though, with many levels, a good selection of different obstacles, some excellent music, some fairly nice graphics and some nice level design.

I liked the controls for changing volume and quality, although being able to change sfx and bgm seperately would have been nice.

Anyway, apart from the possibility of some nicer levels, maybe thanks to more rigourous play-testing, cutting and replacing; and the slightly disappointing final boss, the game was brilliant. An impressive number of levels too.

Oh, being able to save would be good though, as would some extras for beating the game without saving in a faster time or whatever.

As it is, there isn't really any replay value. Although this could also be improved by having even more element and ideas thrown into the level design. Even in this version, there were a few levels that really seemed a bit too similar for my liking.

[Braden's Kitchen (Game)]

Not that well designed.

The pause at the top of the screen made it fairly easy for me to kill every fly before it get below the top 1/8 for the most part.

I managed to do this until level 23, when the first fly reached the hot dog. unfortunately, in the time I went to kill it, another fly reached that point and thus I struggled and lost as they came as fast as I killed them.

True, it got to hard for me eventually, but the play until it happened wasn't particularly fun. Instead of having one fly appear at a time, maybe have them start to appear in 2s or even 3 at a time, simply to have a change in rhythm. Personally, I'd have them go down the screen slower, but have their speed constant.

Also, maybe add some random movement in the x-direction.

It's a nice idea, but the concept could be better implemented.

Final score

level 23
score 117775
hits 322
swats 340
% 95

I didn't feel like playing a 2nd time.

[Ball (Original Demo)]

A quality first version.

It's a really good first iteration of a game and most of the problems have been sorted by the latest version.

Anyway, having just got to 'level 46', it was fun but occasionally felt a tad too unforgiving.

Level 44 was a real bitch - never managed to beat it - just got a power up to skip it eventually.

That's actually something of an interesting point to my mind - you could use power-ups as a way to allow folk to skip levels after a certain amount of time has been spent and a number of lives lost.

Maybe have 2 colours of power-ups - 1 for negative effects, 1 for good effects. Then maybe the first time you play a level you have to dodge or cope with the negatives, then if you're having trouble, the game may eventually reduce the size of your ball or even allow you to skip it.

The walls that you could go through in levels 27 and 41 (I think) seemed incredibly unfair, reducing those levels to trial and error and it seemed inconsiderate to ask us to realise that we could pass through the walls then avoid them in every other level.

I still don't understand what the 'forgiving walls' thing did.

The up key seemed rather annoying the way it behaved - too big a jump when we tapped it and holding it didn't work for a moment, then a stupidly massive leap upwards.

Thankfully, that's sorted for the latest version.

I do really love the way the ball rotates, varying with the speed of the movement on the x-axis.

Another gripe I have is that some of the levels were too similar - specially level 25,26,27.

These problems have all been sorted for the latest version, although I notice you've totally abandoned power ups (only got to 26 in the latest version though and I don't like reviewing games until I've finished them) which seems a shame.

The one thing I'd suggest for this game that you haven't added (apart from the suggestion with power-ups) is to have cookies saving your level, or maybe a password system.

Affer all, it is a very long game and they get far longer...

jmtb02 responds:

Wow, megareview for such a weak version of the game. Thanks!

First off, you are right, abandoning power ups is one of the things many people have been asking me about. They seemed to be pretty cool in this version. I tried putting some in the newer version, but they just detracted so much to the levels. The levels were hard enough as they were.

Forgiving walls lets your ball move partially through walls, but not completely through. It just makes the game easier.

Yes, levels 25-27 are VERY similar, I did run out of ideas, haha!

But either way, thanks for the review. This review did not only help this submission, but the one I just submitted! Thanks!

--jmtb02

[Powerfox V.3]

Fun to play.

You've made the weapons even crazier than before here, with the addition of the chopper.

It's a nice little add-on and adds a bit of diversity. The only problem I have with it is the random nature of it falling - maybe if only 'normal' projectiles fell but then one that offered invulnerability could be called upon after filling up a bar or something that may be a better system.

I don't like the way we can't punch bombs out of the way after picking up a weapon. They seem like something of a missed idea - it would be nice to have them play more of a part.

Overall, I'd say this is great - far better than FA anyway - that to my mind was just a tiresome RPG clone with hentai making up for the gameplay flaws whereas this is actually a fairly inventive fun hyperactive game. Discarding close-quarters combat from console fighting games, you've simply gone for some surreal enemies with the game being now a question of position and almost something of a boss-shooter.

The bright graphics are great and the sound works well too - although optional music would be nice.

Very much breaking new grounds.

[Gravitized Pong]

Got boring.

The music was far too repetitive, becoming annoying within a single game and forcing me to turn off my hifi. If you're going to have such a short simple loop at least allow folk to turn off music and sound in-game.

The game itself seems a nice combination of bat'n'ball and those 'catch-falling-things-whilst-avoiding-other-falling-things' games.

However, it too got tiring, perhaps due to the game not really changing as fast as I'd like.

At well over 200 points, I seemed to be doing much the same thing as I had been at the start - there were maybe a couple of more balls, but then that just increased the chance that 2 would land at the same time, making failure seem like the game's fault rather than mine - never a good thing.

Personally, I'd have liked to see some more variables, such as more speed being introduced and also have the balls stop between levels to have a better feeling of 'levels' or 'waves'.

Still, I liked the way you indicated how much time was left till a ball exploded and the basic concept seems decent.

[Powerfox V.2]

Fairly fun but a bit repetitive and short-lived.

The whole thing was good in a zany sort of way and I really liked the announcer.

The opening screens were quality as well and I liked the amusement brought upon by the weapons.

But the after seeing them a few times, the weapons became just another tool to use and after working out the tactic to beat the opponent, it seemed that too long was spent just doing it.

I was looking forward to seeing more opponents and being forced to employ some real strategy as opposed to just staying in the safe spot. Well, I suppose I'll have to revisit this in a few weeks and hope you've added to it. :-)

For the next opponent, I'd really like to see some beast which needs a strategy to beat - dodging various attacks, getting in... proper old-school boss-style stuff.

Still, it's your game and I'm not sure if that's the direction you're wanting to go.

Btw, I'm sure that after you add a few more folk, my mark would increase. But just now, it's ever so slightly closer to a 6 than a 7.

Stay funky,
Bez

[Cursor Thief live]

Great idea, if a bit limited.

It truly is a nice, simple, idea executed really well.

At first I thought for a second my cursor really had been stolen!

I love the little details - the jumping if the cursor is above him and the sequence for the cursor being below.

The PHP connection really impressed me.

Adorable and cute as it is, it didn't actually make me laugh, nor is it really worth watching again once everything has been seen, I think.

But it certainly made me smile.

[Clock Legends]

Not sure what to say...

Some of the platforms and stuff were pretty nice-looking but I hear you ripped them off some other flash author and that's not really cool at all. (I lowered the score for graphics for that reason, but not the overall.)

Anyway, the whole movie is just a bit silly but the silliness didn't result in a giggle from me.

Despite you apparently being a clock fan, you have Strawberry act very much out of character at the end just for the hell of it.

Also, the audio was a bit quiet and subtitles may have been nice.

Mhhh.. I'm not sure about this.

It's a slightly crazy idea and I like it when folk play with the 4th wall (like your screen scrolling) but it didn't result in much hilarity here.

cableshaft responds:

Hey

I'm really sorry about my review for your game - Clock Legends - on NG.

That review had been meant for the clock movie that stole your graphics, but I got mixed up... really sorry man.

Anyway, here's my thoughts in case you're interested and they help at all.

Basically I thought it was a really nicely made game both art-wise and technically. I really liked the slightly rotating platform right at the start - luverly AS.

However, I thought the general design could have been better. It was a very hard game and to not have any save points just seemed incredibly frustrating. The bit just before the first rising grey thing can't be gotten past in hard without using a kamehameha from what I saw as you can't jump high enough. The controls should be able to be skipped past and you should be able to see them again after quitting.

The kamehameha should be explained a bit more, as it wasn't until I read the author's comments and played around with it a while that I worked it out.

I can't really see any difference between easy and hard other than the higher score.

It seems a decent game, but it's far too frustrating for my tastes. Being killed by the 10th major obstacle, then having to go through the previous ones again for the umpteenth time isn't very much fun. Maybe you could have made it marginally easier, with the creatures as the challenge for those who want it. Also, maybe have it so that the peewees act as save points? Maybe have a 'training' mode which allows for that?

Anyway, graphics and coding both seem awesome. It's just some parts of the design I felt could have been better. And it's a shame that despite the excellent coding and graphics, I just didn't enjoy it that much.

Overall 6/10

Sorry again for that and I hope my words were somewhat useful.

Sorry.

Stay funky,
Bez

[Tricky Clicky Ball 2]

Too many game modes - dilutes the main experience.

I found that having all those extra game modes really added nothing. It just added a short period of trying them all to see what they were before settling on classic on hard for a couple of goes.

There should be messages when you get a bonus - with the exception of the freeze, I was never sure what I had recieved. I lost in classic when the ball was over the top of the screen, even though from what I understood, that wasn't meant to lead to a loss in that mode.

Actual game idea was OK but really nothing special. I didn't find it that much fun.

I did really like the way you could customise the ball though and the bg was fairly nice too.

Stay funky,
Bez