Bezman's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Bomb-omb Blast!]

increase ove

Got 753 on my 3rd go, when I realised that they switch direction (to a seemingly random direction) every so often.

I enjoy simple mouse-avoider games but felt the patterns here were too random and the fact that the difficulty didn't increase over time turned the thing into a joke.

No explicit suggestions.

Stay funky.

mooseisloose responds:

psssssssst, it's not random, learn their patterns ;)

[How to Make a Bad Flash]

it's good to see you expanding

+++ Great typeface in intro. Seriously, I love it. Can you tell me the name of it?

++ Fairly clean presentation.

--- no 'back' button.

----- Didn't amuse.

+ mildly informative.

==
I was really hoping that this'd be a spoof, maybe telling us how to get colours that don't go together, maybe games that are stupidly unbalanced, using gradients and making it all look messy... I was hoping for that kinda humour.

Instead, it's all about how to get the bad Flash past judgement. You don't really go into the creation at all.

I am disappointed in you.

But it's good to see you expanding past soundboards.

Frenzy responds:

First of all, the typeface is called Homoarakhn, and it's basically the Spider-Man font. I downlaoded it off of some sight, I forgeet which one. :)

Thanks for the great review, and yeah, this was kind of suppsoed to be a 'joke' flash.

Thanks again!

.frenZy.

P.S. Yeah, I'm trying to branch away from soundboards for the time being. :)

[Newgrounds Jigsaw]

least it's more

Reading your response, I decided to check out another submission of yours.

+++ I like jigsaw puzzles. Not many on NG.

+++ The logo is a pic we all know and love.

++ Piece-dragging works as it should.

---- I really think the pieces should 'click' into place when close enough. Yeah, I know that this is annoying to code and each piece will need seperate coding. But it makes it far, far more enjoyable as the final pic will be properly aligned. It's far easier to fit pieces in real life than when the other edges are only virtual. Compensate for this.

--- No ending screen. I only know this through my cheating. Could be done by changing a flag on each piece and advancing when all flags are set.

==
I did about half of it, then got bored and got annoyed at the messy-looking pic. I didn't want to bother finishing it when the final result wouldn't look good.

At least it's more original than a dress-up game.

Chindamo responds:

Oh god... Of all the submissions you could've checked out... Believe me, I had NO IDEA what I was doing back then. This is like, what, my second submission, and I really am not very proud of it. If you want to look at some of my submissions, I recommend: Space Revenge 2, Race Master, and =Mars Patrol=. Have a good one mate.

[Hunchback Harry]

on longer tho

Completed. Lost 9 lives (all but three on level 16) and finished with 36632 (I think) points.

+++ Some genuinely interesting level design.

+++ Short levels - motivates us to keep going and encourages constant change.

-- The gradient platforms were a turn-off. Maybe go with a bitmap texture or something you scan in or whatever?

---- The way he falls - speeding up, then suddenly slowing down for the final stages of his descent - just makes no sense and never feels right.

--- It irritated me on the occassions that I died , then died again instantly (from a superman-style enemy that had flown to my starting position).

--- The main character moves too slowly.

- No indication of # of levels. I like to get an idea of how long I'll be playing a game for.

--- The hittests for enemies seems to be based on the rectangular box around us. Instead, base it on actual pixels. It's kinda odd.

++ Fairly pleasant bgm

++ The various enemies were kinda interesting to behold when first encountered.

==
Despite all the negatives I stated, I did kinda enjoy this for the few minutes it lasted. Had it gone on longer though, the falling quirk, and slow speed would have started to irritate me.

It's a good game you've got here.

I have no doubt though that it can be improved. Keep going and I'm sure you'll make far better things, given time.

Stay funky,
- Bez

Chindamo responds:

I understand and appreciate what you're saying. The slow descent was a concept I quickly added to make jumping over things possible, as it seemed easier to change one code on the main character than to go and change all the level designs. This may have been slack, but I definitely will remember to never do this again. The hittest was really the best that I can do, I'm not very fluent with hittest at the moment, but I will remember your point that hittest is alot better in pixels, and will design my games like that from now on. I thank you for your appreciation, and hope you stay funky too.

[Fight Me!]

there's nothing really

Played and beat easy. Played and beat normal, taking a wee while to get used to it.

Played hard, beating it on my 3rd try.

+++++ Unique method of filming tiny sections and making a game out of it. I've never seen that before apart from in those videoed FPS shooter games.

++++ All the transitions were really smooth.

+++ Soome nice camera movements, adding to the visual excitement.

+++ nice voices. Sounds like SF2.

++ The bgm set the mood and tempo perfectly.

--- Merely a reaction test... - no strategy and kinda limited in nature.

--- What we need to do is slightly odd for the setting. I mean the way that one punch isn't blocked and the others are.

+++ Works well and is intuitive as a game mechanic.

+++ The 3 modes feed us in nicely, getting us to understand the stimuli well.

==
Basically, it works brilliantly. Apart from the limited nature of the style of game, there's nothing really to complain about.

Maybe it's better this way - rather than try to stretch it out with multiple opponents, but perhaps struggling to keep the game as focused as it is. This is kinda what's great about the internet - the opportunity to have tiny games like this that just entertain for a few short, sweet minutes. Minutes that will reverberate in my mind for a while to come.

I wanna play Super Punch Out!! now.

Wonchop responds:

Hyees

[DS Dragon Quiz]

o the beg

Beat it, making a few mistakes along the way. After doing so, I went back to see the responses I hadn't already seen.

+++ Lovely BGM

--- Doesn't loop. Set it to do so.

++++ Some genuinely interesting facts. Wawel Hill? I'll have to go there! Also, I never thought Komodo Island would be a real place!

++++ SOme interesting responses given for all answers. I like how you really customise the responses, even for the incorrect answers, giving facts on that name or book or whatever.
When I got a question wrong, I didn't feel so gutted as I got to generally read something interesting.

++ The voice for reading out the questions is rather soothing.

++ The voices for win/loss add personality.

--- Though those can get annoying.

---- And they all sorta carry over, meaning if we're replaying bits we've already done, we'll end up with a horrible mash of voices. Maybe you could set the voices to stream, have a stop button at the end.

- boring bgs

==
I enjoyed this quiz, surprisingly (to me). Normally, I dislike quizzes that send you back to the beginning, but as this had such excellent responses, I didn't mind terribly.

It did exasperate the problem with the voices running into each other though.

IceDragon64 responds:

Thank you for your detailed review. I am sorry I don't understand all of it, though, you seem to be using some kind of 'b' code?!?
I find it amusing that people have such strong, opposing oppinions on the voices, but yours fits my own expectations.
1. The music didn't loop because I don't yet know how to make off buttons and I hate loops you can't stop.
2. they run together because I haven't, yet learnt how to stop it doing so.
3. You are the first person to compliment me on putting in info on wrong answers, after all that work! I really belive that sets mine apart from a lot of quizzes.
4. Please do explore my other quizzes etc. You will find a similar style, culminating in DS Halloween Quiz, which has our top score and is in this years Collection. I replay to all reviews and all submissions will continue to be improved.
5. When DS Dragon Quiz is fully inproved it will be resubmitted, aiming for over 3/5.
Please PM me with any further thoughts.

[Pedestrian]

in some way

Played once. Died straight away as I tried to work out the controls. Played again. stayed alive until the screen was lagging terribly with the souls (so bad in fact that I clicked 3 times to shoot and it did so maybe 4s later).

------ having more 'souls' on-screen doesn't make the game harder, as they clump together. It just makes it laggy as hell.

---- Minimal tactics required to survive indefinitely. walking round and round the souls really wasn't a problem.

++ I liked the idea of lining up shots.
Maybe you could give bonus points or something for that? Maybe give us less ammo and see how well we do with it? Maybe instead of battling against a lowering life, we're battling against our ammo, which is running out constantly?

++ The walking animation looked decent.

==
I had little fun here. If we were actually challenged in some way, it may be fun.

Delop responds:

PENIS

ur computer sucs!

[Icon tutorial]

ho's still ha

+++ Fairly clear instructions.

+++ I like how you give tactical pointers, like suggesting folk actually watch it rather than just screening the first image they see.

-- at the start, I know it's not essential, but I was curious to read the text. Having next/back buttons for that section would be nice (along with a skip for the intro).

-- The method of making a new image to paste in your square cropping is unnecessarily complicated. Instead, you could suggest people just go to image>crop.

-- Having the french text may confuse a few simpler folk.

+++ Some great examples of icons.
Is the pic with the topless cartoon girl from the old 'fuck you gently' tenacious D vid? I actually tried searching for that and couldn't find it...

==
Cool tutorial.

I'd personally dispute the '60-an-hour' measurement - I think simply watching them will often take longer.

But your tutorial should help anyone with photoshop, who's still having problems.

I guess now a tutorial needs to be made for a free program, like GIMP.

Shall I do so, or will you?

Myst responds:

Thanks for the very nice review, there aren't enough people making such good ones (myself included, saddly), seriously, I really enjoyed reading it :)

For the weaknesses you've pointed out, I apologize once again for the french screenshots, but I can hardly do any better right now, I'll update the movie eventually though. For the introduction text, eh, I might add some navigation buttons, but I'm not quite sure it'll give a good effect, may be I'll just put it the second time you go by (when starting again).

Now for the "creating a new document" stuff, I have to say you made me doubt myself eh ! At first I just didn't know why I haven't proposed that instead and even wondered why I always used the make a new document + paste method, but after thinking a little a realized that method was faster than going through the menu with our mouse. It's a good point though so I will probably add it to a further update.

For the icon you asked, it is the devil girl from Fuck you gently, and the animation that featured it is "Dress a devil BETA" (took me time to find the right icon dammit :P) and the URL is http://www.newgrounds.com/por tal/view/281105.

Eh ... the 60 icons/hour thing definitely isn't possible if you actually watch all the movies and you're true, I should mention it and modify my tutorial a little. It's (higly) possible however if you don't. As you make many icons, you'll realize most of the time the best shots for icons are in the very beginning of the movies (often in the preloader ironicaly). I just didn't mention it as it would probably make people create bad icons. Of course, it means I also make some bad ones in rare cases, but it's a little price to pay in comparaison with all the time I save (700+ icons right now, I couldn't have done it if I watched 'em all) and if I compare it to the extra time it fordes mods to take to pass through the few bad icons I make, it isn't bad really :)

And finally, for the free-program tutorial, eh, I don't really know them, so you're free to do it yourself. However, we can co-make it if you want, it'd be a pleasure :)

Feel free to PM me if you have other questions :)

[Z Ball - Phase4]

a lot further

Played for a while. Got a combo of '6' at one point, though I never used the spirit sword. It was only after selecting that, geting '5' again and noticing it appear then vanish that I realised we need to use it in that instant.

Didn't get very good at it.

Played once with normal ball, once with heavy. Didn't really notice the difference.

Played with light. Got a 26 combo. Tested out the first couple of special moves.

+++ The basic idea of the game seems cool and somewhat original.

-- I found it annoying that if I wanted to play without the bot or wanted to change the ball weight, I had to go back to the menu. I think there should maybe be a button at the top (where we're unlikely to click) to change ball weight and one to disable the bot again.

!! - When we press 'q' from the first move, it goes to the 'special 10' one instead of the '30'.

--- Too little to do just now. It'll be a lot more fun with enemies, I'm sure.

-- The text is necessary, but it's kinda annoying how it's presented. It'd be cool if there was some sort of extended tutorial and we had to pass a series of minor challenges. E.g. - first we just kick the ball, then keep a combo of 2+ with ourselves, then kick it against targets within time, then we need to perform the special moves... and as we're doing so, text would come up between 'levels', explaining the next move. And selecting the ball weight wouldbe part of it to help us appreciate the difference.

++ Fairly fluid gfx.

++ Cool sfx.

-- Though what I think are grunts from the enemy seem really wierd as it's a robot.

+++ Great bgm - blends really well!

==
Looks like it's gonna be great, but there's a lot further to go.

KynetiK-27 responds:

TY =D
Your issues;
There are enemies, just not for this version, last version has less moves but has a working Arcade Mode, might as well give it a bash.
The special attacks rely on your current cobo score, not your max combo, Specials act like finishers, intended to be used on your enemy. As i have closed off arcade mode in this version to overhaul it, this tactic isnt really presented. Veteran Zballers get the idea though, and this was a mixed presentation to the experienced and unaquainted. Remember, the games about domination - if you keep the ball charged and dont get hurt, you wont lose your combo score.
Remember the options are universal, putting BallWeight in Practice aswell is pointless. Youll notice the heavy ball needs more oomph to get it moving, and if i had arcade mode open, youd notice it does double-damage. You will appreciate it more against an enemy, but the change in the balls gravity is fairly obvious i think.
The bot is activated on contact with the ball. The bot is deactivated whenever you tag the ball, or the ball simply has no energy. so simply dont hit it - think of it as target hitting/dodging training.
There are no grunts, or sounds for that matter, coming from the training bot...its -you- making heeyaa noises when you do high power attacks.
When we press 'q' from the first move, it goes to the 'special 10' one instead of the '30' - shit didnt notice that, i thought i told it -not- to 'scroll left' from the 1st move, anyways ill easily fix it.
I would do a tutorial that way, but it takes so much time and with the way my fla is structured atm its just not practical. Theres plenty of info to figure it all out, and its not like you cant go back to the tutorial. Im not designing a challenging game for idiots, so its not gonna be my focus making it 99% idiot proof.
TY very much on the gfx and bgm =D makes all the time spent drawing and composing worth it

[Armor Blackjack]

for a blackjack

+++ Nice, subtle sfx.

++++ Aurally pleasing bgm.

++ GOod selection.

----- But too short. I feel you really should've chosen loops.

+++ Really clean gfx. Table pattern was lovely and all the card shapes nicely drawn.

---- Game of pretty much pure chance - very few strategies indeed.

--- You say 'we cannot double or have blackjack'. Why then is there an option for the former? When you say there's 'no blackjack', I assume you mean that the payout remains the same? You should make that more clear.

--- No explanation of high score submission.
This really annoyed me. I actually found the box (whilst checking up a rule) but I see no reason for that system of score submission. Why not just have a box to submit the score at any time?

-- No bgm title in-game. Why?

--- Confusing buttons. When I first started, I couldn't work out how to play again - tried the 'next' symbol first, then the 'M'. Only after a couple of games did I realise that I was meant to click the text box (which doesn't transform the cursor into a hand, as most buttons do).

-- 'repeate'? (typo)

==
Lots of nice features, but a few niggles let it down a bit. Nice for a blackjack game, but nowhere near the standard of NG hold-em.

fs-studio responds:

Thnx a lot for your comments!

- Nice, subtle sfx.
+ Thnx:)

- Aurally pleasing bgm
+ Thnx :) Gwave is a genius...

- Game of pretty much pure chance - very few strategies indeed
+ I'm sure there are many who won't agree with you but I think you'r right. But anyway, aren't nearly all of casino games about chance? And aren't nearly all of casino games popular - even in virtual, highscore only, form?

- No explanation of high score submission.
+ Sorry for badexplanation. Including a highscore was actually quitedifficult. You are asked for submission after 5min of play cause if you would have the option to submit anytime you want it would be more profitable to play longer, and so unfair to those who don't want to play too long.

- No bgm title in-game. Why?
+ There is a bgm in-game. Are you sure you didn't clik the mute button?