Bezman's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Demonic Defence 3]

Core gameplay needs work.

I feel that 'Defend your Castle' was a superior game, thanks to it's nice stick-man flicking. You try to incorporate that here, but your characters lack inertia when being flung around and so the gameplay itself isn't quite as satisfying.

There's little encouragement to use the magic spells and the cost of runes is a real put-off. It may have been an idea to simply have some sort of MP that were constantly replenished.

Although most things can be worked out easily enough, it would have been nice to see more help - explanations of stuff. Also, after clicking on 'next page' it would have been nice to be able to go to the 'previous page' rather than just the 'main menu'.

The gameplay just doesn't change much and it isn't enjoyable enough for that to be the case.

Also, the graphics could be better.

On a more positive note, I felt the game was fairly solid in terms of coding and seemed an achievement in itself.

The fact that upgrades start to cost more is a sensible move, and I remember it being an omission in DYC.

The spells could set it apart a bit (although if you want them to be a more significant part of the game, having MP which replenish might be a good idea, as I noted above).

Overall - very impressive game. I can't imagine the amount of work that must have gone into this.

But, from my viewpoint, your work hasn't paid off... yet. With a few tweaks, I'm sure it could surpass the inspiration.

[Futurama Comic Maker X]

Very lacking

I may be missing something, but it seems more of a 'futuruma comic panel maker' as we can only make one panel at a time.

There is some nice scripting and stuff in here, but it needs some help system explaining controls and the ability to make multiple panels.

[Yoshis World Beta 2]

Too buggy to be submitted.

Seriously, this isn't worth people's time to play. We should be able to expect finished projects, or at least things worth playing, not simply being enlisted as unwitting beta testers.

Since I'm nice:

- no collision detection in x-direction (able to walk through walls etc)

- collision detection very shitty (able to fall through rising/falling platform)

- why an enemy if no interaction?

That's some stuff to be getting on with.

I did actually like the graphics. But then, they weren't yours...

Bofred responds:

"I did actually like the graphics. But then, they weren't yours..."
Hay, i'm Yoshimoto from Nintendo ;)

[The Legends of Hiro]

Brilliant point'n'click action.

The whole game is awesome and if it was a little longer, wouldn't be totally out of place as a fully fledged budget PC game.

The graphics are excellent and I specially liked the movement of the main character. Some puzzles were a little obscure (red food) but for the most part, I managed to work it out myself and it felt extremely satisfying doing so.

Dialogue was fairly witty, with the jokes never ruining the atmosphere thankfully.

The ending did seem a bit of an anticlimax - after the buildup, I thought I'd have to do more than just click a button - but it was a great game and I seriously look forward to future instalments.

Although I'm thankful that you found someone to translate it all into English, it may be a good idea to have a native English speaker check through it all as I spotted a few errors. Proof-read it and do some 'adaptation' after the translation, if you will.

I'd be happy to do that for the next installment if you like.

There really are so many things to love. The secret, the witty responses when you try something in error, the peaceful melody...

I just felt that having completed the initial task set, a final challenge should have been provided as a finale.

Seriously though. Awesome game.

Truly deserving of its score.

Stay funky,
Bez

[Balloon Duel]

Very impressive character customisation.

It seems a great game and I really admire all the customiseable costumes, which are better than most dress-ups. Seriously, the character creation puts this on a par with some console wrestling games!

The random character selection and ranking idea seem to work nicely, though I find little difference whilst playing between the lowest and highest ranking enemies. Also, the duels seem overly long.

The weapons are an obvious idea but there's a nice imaginative selection offered here.

The graphics and animation where it occurs are really nice and I quite liked your little explanation about the savefiles.

There's a lot of care lavished on this, no doubt about that.

However, I found the game dragged on after a while as the fights varied little from one to the next and the only point of interest was trying the various weapons and being able to play the extras.

Balloon trip mode was fairly nice, but I found one 'life' rather stingy. Didn't the original give you 2? Also, having a pre-determined stage which becomes more difficult seems more appealing to me than having a randomised stage.

The soldier training level had a nice 'back to basics' feel though.

A few niggles exist - some English mistakes ('we'll' is used instead of 'well'), the messages when you lose don't fit into the window, the announcer states you fought a stronger opponent after you lose to a weaker one...

But despite my few complaints, I can't help but be impressed by what's presented here.

The shine is impressive.

[Avoid Posidon's Wrath]

Seems buggy.

If you jump off the left or right hand side of the screen, the game doesn't end and you need to rewind or reload.

On more than one occasion, I'm sure I passed through a platform.

The game itself is an alright premise, but the lightning sounds gets annoying fairly soon and the whole thing could have been refined a bit more.

The speed seems to advance, but only very slowly. Having a more noticable change in the challenge would encourage me to play further on and help it be more exciting.

Having 2 come up at once is an interesting idea, but seems to be badly implemented. Once, it did that within the first 5 seconds.

It should maybe start happening after a 'warming up' period.

My suggestion is to have the single geyser for a while, speed that up faster, then introduce 2 waves at once or a different danger accompanied with a slowdown. The game would then speed up again slowly.

Graphics were fairly nice and I was rather fond of the water and the lightning graphical effects.

[22222222222]

Lacked a spark for me.

Lacked the spark of games such as Squares.

It's nicely made (although I've seen the exact same play-mechanics before) but the lack of any real urgency doesn't do it any favours, I feel.

Btw, you tell other people to zoom in, but that doesn't show the full screen. You should make it larger.

Submit a larger version over this one mebbe.

Shows you've some coding ability, so well done for that.

Stay funky,
Bez

[squares 2]

Brilliant.

10225
107

I can go to sleep happy now

10784
98

Okay, seriously. I'm going to bed now.

The power-ups definitely increase the element of luck to the game but do make it slightly more interesting.

I approve of showing both scores on the main screen although I note that my 2 complaints of the original remain.

The music is brilliant. With the bass always present and the drum coming in when playing... though I'm guessing over 400k were the sounds?

Worth it imo.

11321
107

right, I'm really going off to bed now.

The bonus items definitely make it easier than before and whilst this is less 'pure', it's probably this one I'd return to.

I like the idea of being able to wait to get a 'mini square' thing to make it easier on myself.

Also, I'm not sure about my earlier comment regarding the text.

I saw an earlier reviewer said this was a rip-off of Skears DX. I am constantly saddened by folk who can't accept that 2 people can have the same or a similar idea indipendently... besides, whilst your game is all about an endless score-based challenge, mine was level based. Very different imo. And in my eyes, your game is far more 'perfect' than mine.

Anyway, after my current big project (an animation for a song) I'll mebbe get working on Skears 2. You seem like quite a coder, what with those power ups and that evil squares bit...

Fancy teaming up? I'd appreciate an e-mail either way... be good to chat mebbe.

[squares game]

Very, very good game.

Just for the record skears/rol-ovir wasn't inspired by this. I hadn't played this until earlier this year.

Anyway, this really does the endless collecting/avoiding thing brilliantly. Movement is at its most basic and there is a small element of chance later on, but the scoring is immediately intuitive and works brilliantly whilst there is a risk/reward factor associated with going to the edges.

9703
105 squares

It really is elegant in its simplicity. 4 squares of each colour at any one time. One moving in each direction.

The score in grey in the middle. The cursor acting both as a gamepiece and also as an illustration of the colour to be collected.

The font (verdana?) works well, although I'd change the serif font so it's all sans-serif.

The two ways in which difficulty increases work brilliantly together and the presentation of the 2 different scores allow for different playing strategies and different objectives.

9468
102

The way you have the each square worth more points than the previous one is a good move and helps keep the squares a viable source of points later on, whilst the single point added on every so often really does open up the doors for multiple strategies...

9260
101

One thing I've noticed is that black squares go over red ones. It seems it should be the other way round - it seems unfair to hide a hazard from your eyes.

Still not managed to get over 10,000 as I hoped to, but I've been playing for over an hour now...

It's a brilliant game.

Sort out the blacks going over reds and it would be nigh on perfect.

Removing any serifs within the text would make it all conform to the elegant simplicity which flows throughout the whole game.

Well, I suppose the crown of 'top level-based selectively-collecting-things-with-the-mouse game' is still up for grabs...

Stay funky,
Bez

[A boy and his ballz]

Fun for a few seconds.

It was fun, although maybe the number of balls could be increased or the idea expanded for more fun. As it is though, it's enjoyable 'working out' the behaviour for a few seconds.

The graphics really add very little to it.

Amusing toy, though one that will be discarded soon for another.