Kwing's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Perspective]

Decent. The graphics were really good, and the gameplay was interesting. It reminded me a bit of Time Fcuk, although I was expecting something closer to Echochrome from the description. The puzzles were challenging, bot bordered closer to frustrating than fun. I figured them all out without a walkthrough, and yet despite finding the game to be obnoxiously punitive, once I beat it the game somehow felt too short. The music is decent as well but gets repetitive way too quickly. I also felt like the plotline made very little sense. There isn't really enough to keep the player captivated, to be honest.

[Amoeba Amoeba]

Pure genius. I can't even remember how I found this but it's hilarious, the graphics are amazing despite being obnoxiously bright and a little pixelly, the animation is great, the sound effects are good, the music is really fitting, and the voice acting is top-notch.

The gameplay is a bit of a weak point given that some characters just have huge advantages over others; for instance, Granny's crouching punch attack has a huge range and is super spammable, while Butcher's cleaver has very little range. The addition of unique character endings is really great, though. Even if it's a twisted game. I guess one other problem I had with the game was that it's so short you can't get a very good feel for the control scheme. If you added one or two more characters that would have been resolved completely.

[One and One Story]

I can't believe it's not Eli! You've got a really good game here. Fun puzzle elements, nice and stimulating without being too hard. I liked the graphics and Carney did a great job with the soundtrack, as always.

My only real complaint is that the plotline lacked originality and had all of the depth of a Linkin Park song with all of its abstract droning about pain and heartbreak. Fixation's tale of murder wasn't exceptionally creative, but the dialogue and the very detailed plot made it so much more real and concrete. I would have liked to see some dialogue to draw us to these particular video game characters rather than just allowing the players to associate them with themselves.

Because the plot was rather watered down, I also noticed the game itself was really short. Even bonus mode only lasted a couple minutes. Perhaps it would have been cool to have full control over the level selection and ruleset in order to allow players to try every possible combination of every level, whether it was with the characters walking together, inverse, etc.

[Fisher-Diver]

Fun game! The graphics were really nice, and I especially loved the concept of shooting each part of a fish only once. This made taking aim really crucial and the gameplay interesting. Although it lagged once you started going deeper, I feel like you still could have done more to make the game a bit longer, especially with the journals. I liked the fusion of Motherload and flOw, but some upgrades just didn't feel worth it, especially the harpoon, since I had practically beaten the game by the time I got it.

The story was interesting, but I don't feel like it was up to the quality standards of your other work. The hunter becomes the hunted, okay, we've seen that before. Maybe I'm missing something. I feel like Carney could have done better when it came to the music, too. Somehow the mood of the game didn't really capture me the way your other games have.

Even so, this is a very original and fun game!

[Utopian Mining]

Could it go any slower? Honestly!! Boring Motherload clone with tile-ish graphics, a giant map, and a ridiculous depth limit, but worst of all, a game that runs so incredibly slow you could fall asleep while playing? Please, this robot should be moving at least three times as fast as he is, even if he uses up that much more gas. The boredom level is unbelievable! Be grateful I only took off a star and a half for this, I should have docked you twice as much.

[Naos]

This is so boring... The graphics would be nice, with the hand-drawn style, but it's sloppy to the point of almost not being able to see anything. The controls are sloppy and you move annoyingly slow, plus the drawing application is awkward to control. The music was somewhat repetitive, and the concept was not nearly as developed as it should have been. I understand this could be more of an experience than a game, but the dialogue is so sketchy it's really hard to make anything out of this. Plus the font makes it difficult to read.

Seagaia responds:

Ah, sorry to hear you found it boring and unpleasant in most (or possibly all??) aspects. I can't do much about that I guess. But from your medals I'm glad you stuck it through till the end (and wrote in detail as well!). It was a jam entry and I was playing around with the drawing idea, which was new for me (and led to the weird graphics style/etc.)

[Self harm : the emo game]

What the fuck?! I don't even know what to say about this... From an objective standpoint the graphics are dull and boring, the blood is colored poorly, the 'gameplay' is boring and repetitive, and the music is unfitting and obnoxious.

But making a self-harm game like... I mean, what is this, honestly?! Not only is it incredibly disturbing and thoroughly pointless, but I don't really see why anyone would play this, and it could be considered offensive by some.

I'm giving this a 0 because ti looks like no effort was put into this, and because it really doesn't have any redeeming qualities.

[Bouncy The Ball]

Too simple for its own good. The graphics look appealing due to having a nice, thick outline, which is the same reason people love the LocoRoco graphics. However, even with the simplicity I think it still could have had more, especially for the menus and such, as that wouldn't have interrupted the gameplay at all.

The music sounds great, but could have used some better sound effects.

As for the gameplay, I have to say it's a little annoying how boring and uninvolved it is. It's way too easy, and all you do is collect coins. Nothing too special there. The boss battle as kind of nice, but a lot of the levels were obviously the result of someone trying to lengthen the game by giving it something unique. The falling spikes and bomb are a good example of that.

[Fixation]

Stunning. The graphics, while simple, are a huge upgrade from this game's sequel. I would have liked an option to switch to low quality, though, since the particle effects have a tendency to lag really badly (I wouldn't have minded switching back to high quality to read the dialogue). Another thing is that I accidentally finished a bunch of levels too quickly, before I had read all of the dialogue, when boxes popped up just as I was about to beat a level. An option to reread dialogue would have been nice. Other than that this game looks great! The textures look spot-on and the sound effects are satisfying, too. Working your ass off for that satisfying clicking noise that means you just hit the right switch makes it all worth it.

The gameplay is excellent and reminds me a bit of Spewer. Implementing the mouse for both sprays and for smoke rings add a lot of replay value, especially with the whole teamwork thing. The difficulty curve is nice and smooth, albeit with a couple bumps, and I found this fun to play and experience.

One thing I'd point out (and I'm sure people will complain about this a lot) is the brutal difficulty. I think it might be nice to be able to skip certain levels (and see the dialogue so you don't miss out), and then be able to go back to it later. Perhaps a simple system like allowing one skipped level at a time would have allowed players to get better at the game in order to go back and solve puzzles on their own. As it was, I did have to look at a walkthrough for 5 or 6 of the levels.

I'd also like to congratulate Carney for composing great music once again! Both the original pieces and rehashes sound excellent and really drew me into the mood. You've got a brilliant storyline going here and this prequel did not disappoint. This easily deserves a 5/5.

FreeAsANerd responds:

What a nice reviewâEU"thanks a ton.

Yeah, I was a little iffy about letting people walk out on conversations, but I just made sure to not allow it for important story points (like at the end of the first chapter, for instance). In the end I figure that some people might decide to play it again because they knew they missed a few chat bubbles, and maybe in their second playthrough they'll understand more of the minor conversations in context and feel all smart about it and stuff.

Having a "level skip" button never seemed appropriate for this game, especially now that walkthroughs for Flash games are so common. After all, it can't be a story about somebody's hard times if it lets you skip the bits that are too tough!