Kwing's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Katawa Shoujo Lite]

Way too hard. I love the graphics and sound - it's a hilarious parody of Katawa Shoujo, and the Castlevania spin only serves to make it funnier. The biggest problem is just the way the controls work. Kenji moves way too slowly, his attack doesn't last long enough, and most of all you have to hold down the jump button far too long to get the full height out of the jump. I wasn't able to get past the first boss' second form and I'm not really interested in trying again. I'm sick of losing repeatedly in slow motion.

[Dungeon Deadline]

Excuse me? I really can't see the appeal in this game... The graphics are nice (not yours, obviously) and the general presentation likewise, but there's really no gameplay to speak of. You run around and shoot stuff for three second intervals. Jesus, did you seriously not consider what a pain in the ass that is? At least let me rewind the timer like Half-Minute Hero.

I also don't like that the upgrades are paper thin, the game is incredibly short, and nothing really has much meaning or purpose. After you beat the game, you aren't given a score or a grade for accuracy. You're running around inside a dungeon map, but as far as I can tell there are no Easter eggs. Come on, you can do better than this.

[Break the TV]

I know Newgrounds has seen other games like this before (Dynamic Systems), and this certainly isn't the best recreation I've played. The graphics and sound are modest, and the gameplay feels in many ways somewhat uninspired. The different devices seem just a little too similar to me, what with the birds, cannons, and guns having almost the exact same functions.

What really bothered me, though, was how the puzzle element of the game played out. I beat a lot of levels just by having a few mechanisms triggering and shooting at nothing. Other times I noticed that something like a falling domino might trigger a bird but not a cannon. Inconsistencies like this gave the game depth but seemed pointless and didn't make a whole lot of sense.

I will give you a 7 because the physics worked quite well, and because I really enjoyed some of the level design, which was mostly well-done. I got 15 levels in before calling it quits - perhaps if you'd allowed players to play sets of four or five levels, unlocking another set after beating the majority of previous levels, it would have been less frustrating to get stuck.

EggysGames responds:

Yeah you make good points, it was definitely not the most well executed game I've done. The game idea had some major flaws.

[Heli vs Tower]

Hmm, seems kind of like a cross between Tyrian and Pursuit Force.

Really good game, I enjoyed just about everything about it. My only real complaint is that you should be able to strafe by holding down the Shift key (useful for backing up and firing), and also the difficulty and different types of enemies should increase a bit more, the only new additions I noticed to later altitudes were tanks. Perhaps some kind of mobile enemies that try to dodge attacks would have been cool, maybe even some boss battles.

Also, the entire game does feel a little lacking. As others have said, more types of helicopters and items would have given the game lots of variety. As it was, the special was basically a matter of waiting for a bomb, holding onto it for as long as you could, and then clearing the screen. Ejecting was a matter of waiting until you were low on health and then ejecting straight into another helicopter. More variables in the items and helis would have deepened the gameplay.

EggysGames responds:

Never played them two games. Glad you liked it. Yeah for a suqual I'll definitely do upgrades.

[Dry Fire Reloaded]

This is a good concept, but it feels like there's a lot that could have made this better. The gameplay as a whole reminds me a lot of the turret minigame in Wpnfire, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but turns out to be in the end.

The two biggest issues with the gameplay are the small size of the screen and the panning camera. Much of my time was spent staring at the borders of the screen so that I did not accidentally click outside of them. It would have been nice if you could have just shown a zoomed out view of the screen so that my cursor never had to pan so close to the edges. On the topic of clicking, my Flash player actually crashed the second time I accidentally clicked the Stickpage logo. Was there NO WAY for you to simply remove it? Crazy Jay didn't even help make this game. The logo is hardly necessary.

Next, I appreciate the colored enemies, but because of how simple and easy switching colors was, I found the mechanic to be somewhat of a waste. I suppose if I had gotten far enough into the game for there to be four or five colors of enemies I would have appreciated it a lot more, but I simply quit at a certain point because of the above issues. Without that damned camera, this game would have been entirely different.

Last, I'll go into the shop, which I only visited once, since I didn't feel like restarting the game when Flash crashed. My first criticism here is just how damned long it took to get there in the first place. There are far too many waves between levels, and it makes the game pretty mundane. Second, the upgrades are frustratingly expensive. Personally I might have made the upgrades weaker and cheaper so that players could fine-tune their decisions a little bit more.

Overall I did enjoy the game. The graphics and music are also great, and stick figures once again save the day when it comes to eliminating lag. Just that damned camera...

[Ending]

Really interesting. I got about 40 levels into the game until the complete lack of an explanation threw me completely and I was unable to continue. I really like the graphic style, as well as the simplicity of the gameplay and just how deep it is. Also, the contrast between set levels and what seems to be randomized levels really gives this game a deep feel.

Again, I just wish this game had a more detailed explanation. Right now I'm kind of fumbling around in the dark.

[Shooter 2]

This needs a lot of improvement. Your biggest problem is that the game is simply too slow. Increase the speed of the ship and especially the speed of the bullets and you might be getting somewhere. Second, the collision is pretty buggy. If the player were a bit faster, they might be less inclined to get up close and personal with the flying diamonds.

Other than those flaws, the game also lacks anything original to keep it interesting, and the black and white, while charming, doesn't put enough on the table to keep things interesting. It's kind of like a watered down version of my ASS game.

[Pretentious Game 2]

Okay, I get it. You're making fun of platformers like One and One Story. It wouldn't have hurt to have made the parody a little funnier though. As it was, I sat through a bunch of dull dialogue playing a game slower than molasses only to find that this parody had no punchline or commentary on the games it's making fun of! It simply aims to be a worse game than the ones you're criticizing, without having any redeeming humor value of its own.

[Silly Chicken]

Now that's cute. The graphics are really nice and the controls are solid. I noticed you used some of the sprites from Smithy's Quest, and the cows look quite familiar too. I really wasn't a fan of the sound - the effects were repetitive as hell and the music likewise.

The gameplay was pretty solid. As I said, the controls are smooth, although I wish there was a small indicator to tell players when they could set another bomb, and also a timer on the bomb, since I screwed up a few times because I couldn't time the bombing quite right. The game did get pretty hard, but I liked that you could respawn every level, making it much easier. It also felt kind of like a puzzle game as a result.

The minigames were a mixed bag. I thought the typing minigame was hilarious, but the Pokemon battle was lame and simplistic and the final boss pissed me off because of how horrible the controls were. It took me way too long to figure out I was really just tapping left and right and firing constantly.

Overall this game is fun, but considering how short it is, it could stand to have a level editor, and perhaps a bit more polish. For a 2013 game, this seems quite dated.

EggysGames responds:

I like your reviews on all my stuff Kwing. Some of the graphics are being reused a bit lately because I'm having trouble getting new artists :(

I'm glad you liked the chat bit, wasn't sure how that would go down.

Cheers for the overall review.

[One Chance]

Interesting. I think the monotony of the game and the inevitability of how each day brings you closer is what really draws the player in. What I wasn't quite as charmed about was the incredibly slow pace of the game. I understand that the permanence of the player's decisions and the slow pacing are supposed to make the player's decisions sink in, but it also makes the game kind of boring. The music was the only thing that kept my interest as I continued to play.

Since I originally saw PewDiePie's Let's Play of this game, I admit my perspective of this game may be a little tainted since I already had seen one of the endings. I tried skipping work as much as possible and then going to work on the last day to see if I could work on the last day and fail (I did). Of course, since I don't really care about human or animal life on the planet, it's unsurprising that I took a more unconventional route through the game.

Ultimately I think this game is really neat, and has the same depth as a lot of these types of games. However, I skipped work twice and never got to see how the protagonist actually spent his time when he skipped it. I got my days mixed up and forgot to take Molly to the park on the penultimate day, but somehow I doubt I'd have seen much of a visual of them playing together if I had. The lack of a narrative in the decisions the player makes takes away from the gravity of the decisions you make.

Still, a good experimental game.