Kwing's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Crush The Castle 2]

Fun Game, Lacking in Strategy

It's really neat to see so much work was put into this, but it really could have been better. The 'storyline' was so bland and forgetful I forgot each sentence before I was even finished reading it, and I would have preferred none at all. However, the graphics, animation, physics, and movement were FLAWLESS and looked beautiful!! However, they did look almost tile-based when tons of the same animation played at the same time. A simple _rotation=random(360) would have made it look mush fresher, and it's a simple line of code, too. Although they did lag pretty badly, just watching it all was a treat, especially watching fire spread and decay the wood. The music was also catchy, high quality, and well-composed. Sound effects were very fitting and also high-quality.

The gameplay was where it got kind of hairy. I loved the first Crush the Castle, and this one was good too, but at the same time it left a lot to be desired. I would have liked a panning option that would have allowed me to survey the castle before launching my projectiles. This would have saved me many-a-shot. Also, the castles are way too weak. The gold requirements (or par, as I like to put it), was way too low for every single level. When every level can be taken down in 1-4 hits, there isn't a whole lot of need for strategy. Not only that, but you could go back to old levels and use new weapons on them. While this makes things easier in a good way, it also cuts out a lot of the strategy of annihilating people with older, more primitive weapons, and thus, much of the challenge is taken out of it. But if a castle took a dozen hits... Maybe even several dozen to take it down, it would get a lot harder. Planning which weapons to use when, and where to aim them, would be exponentially more stimulating. Of course, this would prevent lag, which brings me to my next point: MAKE LOW DETAIL OPTIONS! Being able to turn a complex, rugged piece of wood into a simple brown rectangle, and turning the complex explosions into an opaque red fading into transparent yellow would have made the game run very smoothly. Some of us prefer smoother gameplay through simple graphics, and you could have easily implemented this.

And when it came to weapons, I didn't like how you were just given the weapons in a linear fashion one after the other. A more complex system involving ability trees and unlockables would have suited my style more. Perhaps you could have gotten points for every castle crushed, with the payout decreasing each time you repeated an individual level, and you could spend points to get the next tier weapon (logs, stones, bombs) or for upgrades (triple shot). That sort of mixing and matching would have also lead to super powerful weapons to use, such as triple acid projectiles. But if weapons were made this powerful, you might want to add something such as 'platinum' completion, awarded for using weapons of more limited power.

I suppose what I'm trying to say is there are a lot of directions to go with this, especially if you had made the game less graphic intensive, and it would have given this hours more replay value.

Also, when it came to multiplayer, options for difficulty, rating, and plays would have been nice, as opposed to omitting difficulty. Time Fcuk used this feature and it was an excellent indicator, especially when inexperienced players marked down levels that were too hard. Other than that, I had no problem with the user-created levels, and implementing limited weapons was a great feature too. The level editor was also VERY, VERY, VERY slick!! The layout was very similar to Flash, which I thought was really neat, and the simple interface made it easy to make complex levels. All in all, I that bit was perfect and ran quite smoothly.

What you have right here is amazing, but it needs a few simple touches to reduce lag and allow for tougher, more robust castles, because as it is, the levels you get are spoon-fed to make you specifically use your latest weapon, and it needs more strategy than that.

[Maze Gen Challenges]

Very Neat Concept

Plus the fact that this is less than 20 KB, and programmed and published in 2004 counts for some big points as well. I really love the different shapes and also the diversity of random mazes. And unlike the first version, it looks as if you've tried to add in misleading paths more, due to the fact that certain shapes force 'choke points' on certain areas. My only complaints are the bland graphics (which still looked kind of nice), and the fact that the Move Count didn't reset when you started a new game. Also, a minimum number of moves would be cool, although it's too easy to move too many spaces in a direction.

[Kill CRAZY JAY]

Mixed Thoughts

Most of the clips were really smooth, but some weren't. Sorry to pin the blame, but Spazzy-Z and Bloodshot didn't have good enough animations to be in the same collab as the rest. Other than that, though, the movements were very smooth, although the different stick proportions contrasted a lot with Crazy Jay himself. Also, the clips were TOO SHORT. Even if there are going to be a bunch of them, they should be a little longer.

[Seed of Destruction]

Awesome

I played this ages ago and can't believe I never reviewed it! The graphics and animation are AWESOME and I totally LOVE the cel-shaded look!!! Cool, cutting gradients are replaced with a splotchy, hand-drawn style that looks very natural, and it's amazing. The music is strangely fitting and it adds to the comical and lighthearted nature of everything. The way the tail moved was great, and I really, really like all of the sound effects. The gameplay was freaking amazing!! I loved deflecting projectiles and ramming into stuff! I really wish there was a scoreboard so you could compete with other people.

The only real problem I had was how big of a difficulty change there is when you're bolting high up in the air to recover health and when you're getting down and dirty with a zeppelin, two tanks, and several helicopters. It's too easy to flee from a section that's too hard. Plus deflections should give more points if you do several within a certain timespan. It's hard to deflect tons of projectiles when you're being shot at from all over, and credit should be given where credit is due. Also, I liked the minigames, but in certain ones (like Grenade Juggler) the automatic acceleration of my sperm caused me to lose a lot of potentially great combos.

Still, I really, really enjoyed this game and the minigames provide a lot of entertainment too. Seeing a more drawn out console version of this would be incredible. Fresh, original gameplay!!

[PRIOR]

Pretty Good

Loved the music, but the graphics were SO minimalistic, and the gameplay was boring. Running around on a wild goose chase just doesn't do it for me, and this stuff about drugs and kidnapping was really the exact same plotline as Reverb 1 and 2, and Inculcation. Nothing too new or interesting. I only found one ending (far left), and I would have gone for the other two if I didn't have to restart FROM THE BEGINNING! Make it so you can restart from where you were before you entered the last room! X_X

From what other reviews say about other endings, it doesn't sound like I'm missing out on much either.

[Super PSTW Action RPG]

Funny

Nice joke. The song selection, voice acting, and terrible graphics added a lot to the scheme you were trying to portray. For a parody, it could have used a bit more, such as accidentally stabbing your ally when he was about to say something (You were supposed to hit the spacebar to cast a heal spell on him! Instead you hit the spacebar and attacked him!) or some other cheeky joke. Right now it's an extension of one joke, essentially. Also, because sometimes you're required to press the spacebar quickly, I missed a lot of dialogue because I pressed the spacebar too quickly to read it. Because of that, I'm docking a couple points due to lack of presentation. You can't spring a joke and not give people a chance to read it! Shame on you, Rhete D:

Still, pretty funny. A great tongue-in-cheek 'game'.

[TANKMEN: Battle!]

I Wanted to Like This Game

The graphics are nice, the presentation looks a lot like Newgrounds, and the layout is simple and easy to use, but I just couldn't bring myself to like this game. The sound effects are repetitive, the animation is tweened rather poorly, and every battle is the same strategy! Attack, Barrier, Rocket until out of SP, Attack. I only died once, on an earlier level, and that was because I forgot to use Barrier. Way too easy, and it would have been nice if enemies charged up a super attack so you had a use for Defend. Maybe some overdrives as well.

As it is, the game is extremely bland, although I love the customization options. The stats also barely affect anything. I also noticed that the game equips strange weapons for you when you try to equip two-handed weapons when you're holding two one-handed weapons, or vice versa. This game needs way more levels, maybe a plotline, and more depth.

[Newgrounds SIM v 1.2]

My God

Boring as hell! I can't believe how much praise this has gotten! The graphics are simple, oftentimes Print/Screened, and the buttons don't even look different when you roll over or click them! The music gets extremely repetitive extremely fast, and the whole system is just clicking, clicking, clicking. It's not fun at all! Not even any minigames! This reminds me of some of my oldest submissions, but none of those cleared a score of 2.10, yet this submission has twice that! And no, the date of submission doesn't get you out of hot water; Powerfox came out in '03 and it was loads better than this! Boring, repetitive, albeit well-presented. TRY HARDER.

[rS Tower Defence VER3]

Pretty Good

The graphics are simple and need an upgrade. Worried about lag? Just replace the graphics with Bitmaps! It'll keep your game looking pretty whilst keeping lag at a minimum! It kind of needs sound, too. As for the gameplay...

It's fun at first but gets old quickly. Not enough tower types and every single tower is a waste except for the Water/Ice towers. Fire towers suck in both damage and range (also towers need firing speed, critical hits... You need to expand on all of the game mechanics), Ice towers have great range and damage, Earth towers just barely pass up Ice towers in damage but fall back horribly in range, and the Armed towers cost way too much for way too little damage and range. All you really have to do is place tons of Ice towers in the middle. Like I said, fun at first but needs loads of improvement.

[Power Fox 4]

Holy Crap, I Never Expected This

I played Power Fox all the way back in 4th grade, and wow, I did not imagine another one would ever come out! :OOO Can't believe it's been 6 years already!

Let's see... The cartoony art style is back, although the graphics are a little more high-end. Sadly, the explosions and distractions were a little overdone, and it's kind of hard to see what's going on. This also creates some lag, and the game keeps setting its quality to high. I also don't remember the earlier ones being quite -this- offensive o_o; and I miss my "lifetime supply of hookers".

This game also seems to be a bit harder and longer than the old versions, taking away the fast-paced action of previous installments. The weapons last longer but there are fewer of them (in selection and frequency), again taking away the hectic nature of Power Fox. I found myself playing on Easy just because the rounds were so long.

However, all in all Power Fox is still pretty damn good. Short game and long battles detract from the gameplay, and the jokes get kind of stale when you insult the same culture repeatedly, though. I prefer the old ones (who didn't love fighting Hitler and Killer Bonzai?). I find that this is still worth a 7, though, and most of all I'm happy to see Power Fox on the scene again. Talk about nostalgia!!