Bezman's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ballmaze]

an obstacle rather than to entertain us.

I could only be arsed playing through 'normal' mode. I felt that the earlier levels were a bit too samey - having no traps other than static walls - and though there were some great ideas - I loved the 'frogger'-type level and the idea of the circles that unlock things - I kinda felt there were too many levels that were just put up as an obstacle rather than to entertain us.

Maybe it's just not my kind of game, but I'd like a bit more variety in levels I play and more emphasis on varied fun rather than 'hard fun' as it were.

Also, a record of lives lost and time taken would be cool.

The levels actually looked rather nice when you introduced the circular walls, but graphic design could have been far improved.

About half-way through, I got really frustrated and just cheated through the remainder of the levels.

The tutorial 'broke' when I first hit a wall - the circle started appearing INSIDE the wall and I needed to restart the game. Trying the classic mode on pro proved too hard and I needed to restart to try an easier difficulty. Trying on Noob, I couldn't work out how to win (I collected all collectibles and nothing happened...).

You've got some good ideas here, but I think you need to polish it all a bit, maybe make the game more player-friendly.

Kalimor responds:

Thanks for the advice, and I'd agree with you on quite a few points there:
1) I wanted to make a record of lives and time - the code is actually in there, but I couldn't quite get it to work (yes I know this is really basic stuff - probably just a missing word in the code)
2) I would improve the graphics, but the entire game took me over a year (not all at once lol!) to make, and my skills improved so much after that time that I honestly couldn't read my own early code and just wanted to get rid of it, and start anew.
3) The broken tutorial is because of the scaling problems
4) Noob mode not working is probably for the same reason
5) Pro mode is too hard. I am the only person who has ever completed it to my knowledge.
6) I made Classic mode long before I made any of the rest of the game, (hence the name) so everything there is much more messily coded, and less imaginative. As this is my first real game, I only really focused on the normal mode, as I had no real skills to speak of while making Classic mode :)

But thanks for the advice - I'm planning to make a sequel, and it will be taken on board.

[Burger Queen]

lack of choices

I feel this game's seriously lacking in interaction and any interesting choices.

During the 'day', there seems no reason to do anything other than switch to another window whilst the events unfold. For a while, I tried lowering the price of burgers to lure in customers, just raising the prices once they arrived... but I really found little discernable difference between what happened.

If the choices we make are to be interesting, I feel more data must be given to help us make those choices in a more informed manner.

As the game goes on and all the items are bought, no objectives exist other than those we create for ourselves. Finding the 'secret formula' just seems pointless - the only method I can percieve for finding it is to try all 81 permutations.

There's a bunch of minor criticisms of the menu system but really the main complaints are the lack of choices to make at any given time, the slow 'days' and the lack of information to make any choices actually meaningful.

On the plus side, some of the drawings at the start were cute and fun, even if the animation was terribly limited and overly simplistic.

The problems don't arise just from the short development time or lack of resources - they seem to come from a real lack of understanding of what games actually are and what they are capable of.

[FUN Mouse Avoider]

seriously flawed

bug - real man mode doesn't register a %.

flaws - The jumping doesn't really add much to the game, just nullifies the importance of your actions for most of the time.
- the end (after 96%) seems too random - it seems like we don't have enough of a warning to stand any chance of beating it on our first go, so I felt a bit cheated. And playing repeatedly to die at the same point is aggravating.
- the congratulations messages only change depending upon your chosen difficulty. Dying immediately on 'real man' shouldn't result in a (misspelt) congratulations message.

I did like the homer simpson pic though and you seem to have put a modicum of effort into the level design.

Just keep honing it all.

Ultimately, this is curently a tiny step above the average mouse-avoiders by virtue of its changes but remains a seriously flawed game imo.

[Monster Master]

Impressive!

The game isn't as good as Magic - the Gathering. But to chide it for that fact would be like chiding any other game for not being as good as Mario 64 - comparing it to the best CCG in existence seems hardly fair.

Still, some sort of resource system (like lands in Magic or energy in Pokemon) would have made deck-building more strategic whilst increasing interesting in-game decisions. Also, some method of pushing us to use groups of cards (5 colours or energy types in Pokemon) would have given the game a bit more variety.

You didn't really do anything that couldn't have been done with paper, but the number of tokens and dice-rolling necessary would make a 'real' version of this game unplayable.

I felt the game was a bit lacking in interaction - it'd have been nice to be able to do things during your opponent's turn. I liked the emphasis on swords, poison and effects - maybe push that a bit more?

Either make the points mean something more - maybe having a story-mode with points limitations in certain matches - or get rid of cards that are better than others in every way.

I'm not sure how I feel about all the dice-rolling. CCGs always have some luck thanks to shuffling and drawing, but here it felt a bit excessive.

Graphics could be improved.

Maybe have more cards or rules - like the 'necromancy' and 'combining' cards that encourages us to play certain groups of cards.

The necromancy card seems way too swingy though - the fewer you let us have in our deck, the more luck-dependent it becomes.

Really, I've not seen any other CCG 'emulators' in flash and so seriously commend you for this. However, a few rule-changes making it less luck-dependent would help it be closer to the strategic game it seems to want to be.

And a story mode would totally rock.

If you shift about

[Kill Old Man from Zelda!!]

Marginally disappointing.

Sword, boomerang, food, bomb and raft were all rather predictable.

I loved the old woman though - she was hilarious!

I liked the pixellated blood from the sword. Shame the pools of blood weren't similarly pixellated to fit in the theme.

Really, I was hoping for a more intereactive game - maybe something where you chase the old man around as link. Though disappointed to find it was an 'interactive movie'-type affair, I did at least have a chuckle in the end with the lady.

[A Walk in the Park!]

Sort out the speed.

I like the concept. Though it reminds me slightly of Chaotix on the 32X and 'Save the king' on globulos.com all it really shares is the link (leash) between the two characters.

I enjoyed the simple guitar music when the game began. But why did it end?

The graphics are lovely. Specially the trees that look like ice-cream cones.

What really brought this game down for me were the level design and (more importantly) the speed of movement and everything.

It may be that the game is too processor-intensive for my computer, but if that's the case, the least you could do is have quality toggle or just not disable the right-click menu. And with a 2Ghz processor 512MB RAM it seems idiotic that such a simple game should lag.

If it's a design decision, please increase the speed.

The level design did seem kinda uninspired. Though I enjoyed hanging below a platform using the leash, I felt you just didn't make enough use of the leash in the level design. And perhaps if you'd had better physics (instead of the dog's jump arc being unaffected by the weight of the wheelchair) you could've had some cool puzzles with extending/shortening leashes. Getting the guy to sit on a button whilst we navigate to the exit, extending our leash as we go, until we reach the end, is one idea that pops into my mind.

I would have liked it if we'd been able to zoom into the level previews - sometimes we can lose a level and trial and error is required unless we study the preview closely. Unfortunately, thanks to the colours and the magnification, it's hard to see where the bones are and almost impossible to make out what the various items are. A more icon-based map for a preview may have improved matters.

Ultimately, I'm sure I would have played through, enjoying it nominally and rating it 6/10 had the speed been OK. Despite the flaws, there was enough variation in the level design to give me some slight hope for the forthcoming levels.

As is, I gave up after finishing level 6. With the speed it was, it felt tortuous, frankly.

[Color Ball 2]

Gets tiring...

I really liked how the 4 colours had a vastly varied 'feel'. Each posed its own challenges - the blue was hardest when I had to line up colours on top of the 4 bg circles, the yellow option was fairly inspired (though collecting yellows on extremities later felt actually impossible) and the red was probably my favourite.

Though I liked the changes, I did find it annoying when on level 12 quickly alternating top/bottom balls on yellow felt kinda unwinnable.

Also, I felt the game took too long to get faster and I'd have liked some variations later on.

I had 21 'lives' at level 11 and though I could have probably performed a bit better (I ended up losing at level 12 with 28k points) I felt vaguely bored by the end and wouldn't play it again.

Add more variations as the levels progress and this'd be awesome.

[Button Masher]

Time-leecher.

Despite the twist you implemented (we lose if we stop clicking - nice stuff) this really has no element of skill, any high score seems just a measure of how much time we're prepared to waste.

Personally, I despise these games with neither challenge, nor any 'juicy' responses. It just seems like a chance to leech our time, giving us no new experiences.

If you maybe had a meter to show how long we had before another click AND made it so each click had less time before we'd lose AND you sorted out the highscore problem (as soon as we click submit, take the movie to a new frame where the button isn't present) then it'd maybe be a mildly interesting test of button mashing.

Currently, it's just a measure of how much time we're prepared to throw away.

aquaticmole responds:

All games are really a test of how much time your willing to throw away. :7

As for this game. It was just a little project I decided to make just for the hell of it.

Thanks for the review, and remember. Stay classy.

^___^

[Quest - Level 1]

Dull

The alien killed me, then on my 2nd play the 2nd appearance killed me.

Sending us back to the start at that point seems stupid. I really couldn't be arsed repeating all the errand-work.

I did kinda like the way various locations open up.

You need a better opening than simply a guy asking you to go on a quest. Set the scene better - who are we? Why're we listening to this strange dude? The dialogue you have seemed needless - he might have just woken from a coma and it'd be better, though cliche.

Also, the graphics could be better - spend a bit more time on them.

It's a decent basis, but you need to continue workin on this to make it a good game.