Bezman's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Friday the 24th]

Slick

The animations are amusing when first seen and everything here is very slick indeed, specially the intro with the blood uncovering letters.

The moves are nice and it's interesting to try it out, but there doesn't seem to be enough you can do with the elves.

You can't even kill 2 at once, even if they're within a few pixels of each other! I'd suggest you incorporate more moves, such as throwing the elves, being able to kill multiple elves...

But as it is, it may be fun for a few goes.

But despite some slick presentation, it's merely average to me.

CreativeFetus responds:

There was supposed to be a double kill bonus, but we didin't get the time. By the way, it IS possible to get 2 at once. It's hard, but I've done it.

[Sparks]

Fun diversion.

1660/2000
1990/2000 (1 mistake made)
1970/2000 (3 mistakes made)
2970/2000 (no mistakes made)

Obviously a bug.

It is a fun game and whilst it is all about trial and improvement - Simon Says, as you admit yourself - it's presented in a fun way and from stage 6 onwards, the element of timing gives it an interesting added element.

I enjoyed the simple concept and the game was probably about the ideal length - any longer and it would have gotten tiring unless more things were introduced.

The music was pretty funky to begin with, but an option to turn it off may have been nice. Also, I'd have liked an explanation of how the score was calculated, maybe with a hint at a secret to be unlocked.

Whilst the graphics were really simple and a photoshopped bg may have been nice, I liked your tweened arrow button and the text that expanded and faded away. Functional, but still a little bit of flair.

[Maganic Wars Final]

very impressive

Parapet, dispel opponent and the way that poison works ('6+2'? meaning what exactly?) should all be explained.

Instructions should be more comprehensive and accessible from within the game.

Despite buying an item to stop being affected by poison, it didn't seem to work.

I couldn't seem to die. At 0HP, any damage simply was done, but the game carried on.

I was very impressed by the game coding, graphics and sound, the attempt at a stat-building element and the fact that there is some strategy required. (although the sound for the final transformation was a tad annoying)

However, later on, it proved a bit too limited. I couldn't work out exactly how the score worked and there is too much luck involved I felt - not getting an offensive cart for 10 turns really messed me up.

Still, really, really impressed generally speaking.

[Flash Tips 1-3]

Useful tutorial.

Although I don't have Flash MX 2004, or even Flash MX, saving and protection (specially protection) are 2 things I want to implement in my work.

Thanks for helping me a bit along the way.

Some code could have been explained a bit more fully, but I managed to work it out and it was explained better than most tutorials.

One thing I'm unclear about - what happens about the 'http ://' bit, as that can be left out? Also, how do you check for either having a 'www' or not? Do you need to have 4 checks to allow for these 2 variables? (If it's not NG - I assume on NG as it auto loads, it'll always open it up on that exact thing?)

Audio was funky, but got annoying after a while. Glad you had volume control and on/off switch. Peachy!

[Superfishing]

Fairly good fun.

Seems like something that Ferry Halim may have made.

It has the same simplistic charm and the same 'one-step-over-the-obvious' factor with the linking.

However, it's just too limited and really should have more of a difficulty curve. The difficulty doesn't really seem to increase and at 65000 points, the game seems no different from when you start. It's just some random variables playing a factor.

I really feel strongly that there should be a noticeable increase in difficulty. Maybe start off with just one type of fish, then slowly add the different types to make linking a challenge, then the rubbish and finally the cloud. As time goes on, more rubbish would appear compared to fish (up to a limit).

Controls are really nice though and I like the limited audio.

Quality game and I can really see why it's on the front page. As I say though, it really needs more of a difficulty curve.

[Blob Farm]

Fun idea

It's really nice to play to begin with, but by the end I found myself unwilling to retry.

It's good fun with a nice simple, intuitive interface and it's nice how new dangers pop along after a while.

However, these new dangers stop promoting any new strategies after the first 3 and it's really the high number of blobs that increases the difficulty - the difficulty remains pretty constant after a while.

The fact that we are allowed to lose only a certain number just doesn't make sense in the game context and whilst it's fair enough to have that rule to make a better game, it'd be more understandable if, say, we got a new blob every X seconds and as the game got more difficult, it was more and more difficult to keep at least one blob (losing all would mean losing the game).

Music gets tiring. Sound effects are great though.

Fun to play at first and it does all look really slick.

Good luck with your paid projects.

STay funky,
Bez

[Addiction - Game]

Too hard to begin with

It's a really nice idea, and the way you make the needle hard to control, combined with the vector 'blurs' make this fairly atmospheric in the way I suppose it's meant to be.

Sound is quality.

You've really taken a simple idea and made it your own.

My only gripe is it's limited appeal and also the fact that it's too hard to begin with.

The first level should have you pretty much 'sober' with a fairly motionless arm and easier to control needle and the blurring and moving should start for real on the 2nd level. It should build up, not just have the bar a bit bigger each time.

It is a very funky and stylish thing though and really atmospheric for a while.

But as a game, it's not all that fun after a while. Failed on level 1, got to level 5 on my 2nd go and I've got little inclination to carry on. New stuff and new challenges (rather than doing the same thing but making less mistakes, trying to do a harder thing as well would be more fun) are always good.

Very stylish though.

Amazing for a short while.

[Bouncy The Ball]

An enjoyable little game.

Some gripes/suggestions:

- when you lose, there should be an option to continue. Why force us to enter the password every time?

- th block that disappears is a little 'mean' - when half-faded, it should really be solid rather than letting you fall through.

- Likewise with the blue line I feel. I just think that when something's fading, it should always be in your favour to prevent any confusion and unecessary frustration.

- in the falling bit, it's possible to go off the bottom of the screen.

- in level 5-4 (the one with 3 steps and fire) it's impossible to not take damage. Likewise with the boss. It's just my opinion that in a good game, someone should be able to - in theory - beat it without taking a hit. Unavoidable damage isn't cool.

I liked the game and some of the variety you put in. Some ideas were funky and it was all fun to play.

Good work!

[Blur & Trails Tutorial]

Good advice

Good simple advice.

I'm also irritated by the spelling though and reading through the trails tutorial is a little confusing. More screenshots may help.

[Mini-Game-O-Rama 2]

a bit boring

Duck Hunt Classic - too familiar. Out of ammo system is questionable. But it's a really good job with graphics and sound, recreating the original.

Letter Shake - great idea, but ruined by only having 2 levels and then flipping over to DHC.

Political WAM - too familiar and too long. We need a count-down, not a count-up!

VBSS - nice idea. Nice level. Enjoyable to play and good graphics and music. Maybe have it constantly flying to make it more exciting though.

Pong - having a 2p game in a game with loadsa 1p mini games seems a bit too incongruous. Should be made for single-player.

Jail Break - needs more than 1 restart point. Nice idea and fun to play though.

Balloon Popper - why can I not fire when jumping? Balloons should be a different colour. Some good noises.

Archery Club - Ok idea. A bit /too/ hard though. Also, it'd be nice if the arrows went in a position relative to the position of the meter.

Alphabet Madness - why only allow pressing when the letter is in the soup? This combined with the slow pace made for a tiring game. Though it seemed to speed up slightly, I still had to wait for the letters to fall before pressing anything and I couldn't see it becoming tricky... Have more than one letter at once. Have a penalty for hitting it too early.

Lemmings - a lot of hard work went into this, but it's too slow to be much fun! Waiting for them to walk distances is just horrible. The arrows should continue holding the screen when you hold the mouse over them. If you made it faster, it may be fun. I lost on level 2 and couldn't bring myself to try again and suffer the long pauses.

SAF - decent game. Needed some music and maybe some more interesting fly patterns, as with the Mario Paint version. Not asking for new enemies and all that - just maybe flies that move a bit faster and appear faster after each one is killed. Does get a bit tiring before time runs out though - maybe a shorter time limit or different enemies.

BB - a bit overfamiliar and a bit slow.

The Chase - fairly fun for a bit, although the orange ball seems a bit too sluggish. Combined with the fact that the blue balls' movement seems almost random, it often feels like a loss isn't your fault. With the default 3 balls though, it's far too easy. Needs to change over time.

TWE - 3165. Fairly fun, although I've no desire to play it again.

Overall, there's some decent games here. However, most of the time I was playing was spent simply going through things I felt indifferent about, often being slightly bored. There were a few fun moments, but these were far outnumbered by the mundane.

If each game was condensed to last a few seconds and they played in sequence, it may be a quality offering.

However, this collection did seem lacking. Some - specially Lemmings and DHC- seemed long enough that they should have been released individually.

Not that enjoyable an expenditure of my time.