Kwing's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Motherload]

A Diablo-themed Rock Raiders Funfest!

Really great game you've got here! The graphics are great and don't look like they were done in Flash... They've got an interesting 3D look to them, and there's a neat steampunk thing going on as well. I also like how as you dig deeper and deeper, the transmissions suggest something dark at the bottom. The one problem I did have with the graphics, though, was that the background behind the tiles seemed to cycle the rainbow and the soil stayed the same color. At the same time, it was just a plain gradient and didn't look like there was soil behind what you were drilling, so it looked kind of odd.

The music is nice and the sound effects are as well. As with all XGen games, the music is techno and loops well, with nothing eye-catching. Sound effects are nice, and I really like some of the roaring near the end. It would have been nice if there were more than just three songs, though.

The gameplay has more than meets the eye. For one, the entire map is right there, giving you the option to mine however deep you want. This means the difficulty curve is chosen by the player, although you got to risk it to get the biscuit. The tile-based system and the way you drill also adds a puzzle element to it, making it key to think things through. As you progress, the danger is shifted from your tiny fuel tank to the gas pockets you encounter in the late game, and I really like how later on you have to choose between drilling through a lava pocket that deals a little damage or risk drilling through dirt that might contain a gas pocket... Or might not. Pile on the rocks, risks, and minerals, and the game has a lot of depth, pun not intended. Also, while the game gets harder each time you play through it, keeping the player on their toes, it's nice that the dinosaur bones, treasure chests, etc. keep their value, giving players a chance after they've played through 5 or 6 times. Dynamite, plastic explosives, and teleporters add yet another layer of depth, although the matter transmitter is kind of useless and overpriced. The only other problem here is that you can exploit the game by reloading it, filling the soil with minerals again, yet by the same token you have to drill a new shaft again, which is annoying and unrealistic. There's also a glitch where you can get sucked into the wall, or where you can 'snag' on walls, landing on them and being able to set off explosives there. All in all there are kinks that need to be worked out.

I also like the theme of Mr. Natas bringing out human greed. Very fitting, in my opinion. The concept and style are top-notch, and you really get a weird feeling as the game goes on and on. Mr. Natas is creepy, but even moreso the transmissions of pods that get picked off are eerie. You get a sense of accomplishment from each upgrade, as few upgrades are negligible, and the player gains a certain pride in that compact little pod.

Great game!!! I've played through it 5 times and I can't wait to see how the difficulty progresses!

[YouFindYourselfInARoom]

Interesting

Nice music, very interesting concept, and for once it's a typing game that you don't need a walkthrough for! Not too hard, maybe a little too easy. I really like the 'voice' of the being and all that, and inputting commands was really simple. The only thing I didn't like was that you couldn't scroll up to see text that had run off-screen. I need a scroll button dude! The graphics were also minimalistic but I couldn't see myself enjoying it more had they been more detailed.

[Gretel and Hansel Part 2]

Wow!

Way different from the first, I can tell you that. The first was funny and wonky and messed up. This was just scary as fuck... When I looked at the house with the glasses it sent goosebumps up my arms. Graphics are great and have a really nice hand-drawn style to them, the animation is quite nice especially in the FBF category, the music is absolutely PHENOMENAL... The one thing I will have to criticize is the gameplay. With puzzle games like these it's pretty tough to beat the game if you get stuck. Point and click games like these are alright, but once you get stuck it's very hard to find any hints or progress at all. The difficulty curve just doesn't do it for me. I used the walkthrough just a few times at the beginning, but as the game went on the game's difficulty, my impatience, and my curiosity as to where the story went left me dragging on the walkthrough the whole way, and I had to rewatch both parts of it just to find out where the coins I was missing were. Some parts were too hard, some were too easy, although for the most part you could figure out what to do. One last complaint I have is that although the storyline is extremely dark (in a good way), and tantalizing and fun and all of that, the ending was unsatisfactory and didn't explain anything! I really love the approach you've taken with an unspoken storytelling method, and the mirror thing was totally awesome, even if it was a total rip from Coraline, but the ending... What the hell just happened?!

Overall great work, seems like it was cut short at the end, although I can't blame you, looking at how big the filesize is.

[Achievement Unlocked 2]

Overproduced

The graphics are minimalistic, the music is repetitive, the sound effects are poor... The game just doesn't look too appealing, yet the gameplay isn't all too bad. A subtle change not too many people may have noticed is that you can hold down the up key to jump higher, a feature that I welcomed very much. There are tons of achievements which were nice, but one thing I didn't like was how obscure some of their names were, although some provided hints. I thought the whole system of buying levels and the different mechanics you put on the floors were a really nice touch; playing a piano and fussing with a slot machine spiced up the game a lot. Sadly, this game seems to have little substance and drags on pretty badly at the end, which was unfortunate, as I liked most of the game. The sense of humor was nice and off-color, but again this deterred near the end. Another thing I didn't like is just how... Desperate this game is to give you medal points. I understand that was part of the humor, and I did enjoy the rasterbating elephant, but it was over the top.

[Diablo TETRIS]

Could Use Some Work

The graphics are very nice, although they're ripped from Diablo, obviously. Sound clips as well. I guess that means the only thing for me to really review is how you put it all together and scripted it. You did it nicely, don't get me wrong; but it seems to be missing something, and the game is also way too easy. You should make it so the items do something; what if you gained bonus points for completing lines with all bows, or all swords, or all staves? Or at least mostly one of a particular kind? What if instead of just dying when you got to the top, you got damaged more and more as you filled up more lines? What if you got health back when you completed a line with a health potion? What if you used WASD instead and could cast spells learned from completing lines with books to influence the items given to you, or to eliminate objects, or to create an object at a certain point to complete a line? There are so many directions you could go with this and there's so much left undone!

[Rune Hunt]

Great

Everything about this is pretty top-notch. The line of sight/lighting effects are top-notch, the 8-bit style is great, and despite the pixelation, the lighting and glow effects are executed stunningly. I also like how the game automatically pauses when the browser isn't focused on the Flash; very nice. There's a really fun puzzle-like quality to it, and the suspense is well done, as well as keeping the player intrigued. The music is quiet and atmospheric, fitting the gameplay perfectly. There are a few quirks however; for one, the dialogue gets pretty cheesy at points, and also the gameplay is a little tough; I don't mind difficulty, but if I want to see where the story goes it gets very tedious, especially if the portal sets me back far. I also noticed sometimes the butterflies would go past me even when I shooed them the other way, and sometimes the enemies would follow me into the light. On top of that, I was annoyed when my lanterns went out while I was reading dialogue, and sometimes I snagged on a wall and could only go in the opposite direction of that wall. I bet you could get completely stuck in a corner too. One last thing that kind of ticked me off is you never get an explanation for anything. What the hell?! Why did I even play this?

I really liked it but the end pegged it down a point.

[Make My Next Game]

Sub-Par

The graphics are nice and have a cool 8-bit style to them, and the music is fitting, but the game is boring, slow-paced, and ridiculously bugged.

When I start the game it won't take any commands! In fact, even refreshing it won't fix this. I think I have to wait several seconds before inputting anything which is ridiculous. This also makes it extremely obnoxious to do without a walkthrough, as the first thing I typed was "open flash" and nothing happened... So of course I decided not to try it later on... That is, of course, until the walkthrough told me to. I was incredulous that out of all of the possible commands, I had entered the right one and still a glitch prevented me from entering it correctly. The thing I realized next after that was that when you add code, you can type in ANYTHING! What the hell? I get no special medal for entering some REAL ActionScript? That's blasphemy.

The game is severely flawed, and despite the difficulty still manages to be boring.

Afro-Ninja responds:

you're the first person who has reported 'having to wait several seconds before inputting something' so I'm not really sure what to say about that... are you sure your flash player wasn't out of date?

as for not getting a medal for typing real actionscript... I hope you didn't really expect me to build a miniature AS parser inside of this game :p

[AN Escape Series #3]

Alright

I liked the minimalistic graphic style and the sound quality was really damn realistic, but what pissed me off was how stupid the gameplay was. It started out great but then got ridiculous.

Night5? How are we supposed to know that's a password? Sure it looks like a hint, but why would we find it there? That's pretty stupid. And why is Gush7 on the light? That makes no sense either! The only thing you find in those lamps are dead bugs... What a stupid gameplay quirk. I think it's also stupid you have to write down Arch as 2724, as multiple letters go to one number, meaning it would be more prudent if the telephone service rigged it up to some kind of street number. And then the words scrawled on the fountain. Who the hell did that? Why would that release a key?

By the time I hit the minigame I was incredulous. This game is so unrealistic it's not even funny. You can't even call 911, which would obviously have solved the entire puzzle in all of about 30 seconds. Next time maybe make it so either 9 or 1 is missing, and so that instead of passwords you have some kind of emergency hotline maybe... I don't know, but this game is wonky and surrealistic and it pissed me off. I really liked how the phone booth was such a cozy little place containing so much gameplay, and yet it was all ridiculous.

[Noob Cursor Tutorial fix]

A Nice Tutorial

I really like the layout you have. Nice, simple graphics, nothing too showy... Although I wish the buttons had been a slightly different color than the text, for a bit of clarity. Thankfully you got rid of a lot of the distractions lots of authors put in their submissions and you kept it simple. I would have liked a mute button though. Also, on the maze tutorial, you could have reduced the memory on the example maze, as right now it looks pretty rough and bumpy, which I find unappealing.

As for understandability, the screenshots are high-quality and explain things very well, and the Extras and Script buttons were helpful. However, it bothered me that you didn't explain the script for the watcher or chaser. When you break down the script, things such as radians and atan2 aren't noobish at all. These are the kinds of things you learn in trigonometry, which is pretty complex material. Even a simple explanation would be helpful. Also, there are four lines of code on the watcher script that aren't necessary at all; they just assign values to variables that are never used.

[Flash Rpg Game]

Wtf Did I Just Play?

The graphics are... Terrible. Just circles and squares, and no real animation aside from a simple tween. You can buy the same thing in the shop twice, which wastes your money big time. There are no sound effects, and the gameplay is just awful... But let me go into the gameplay more:

You can buy weapons which increase your strength and you can increase your stats. Since I'm assuming your damage is based on a multiple of your strength, increasing your strength is infinitely better than increasing your health points. The problem is you can buy weapons over and over, wasting money, and you can only use your mana for one magic attack. This means all you need to do is magic, attack, attack, magic, *attack, attack, attack, magic, repeat from asterisk. In fact, after a little while your normal attacks are stronger than the magic attack as well.

Next, some enemies give out the same amount of experience. Because of that, you should always defeat the weakest enemy that gives the most experience... Aside from that, this game is just pure click-mashing and grinding. And each time you level up it takes twice as much experience to level up again! That's unheard of! You can buy bombs which should deal lots of damage, but I found that my normal attack was actually stronger, so the bombs are a waste of money.

Overall, I found the best 'strategy' for this game is to repeatedly fight a monster weak enough for you to kill without using magic (Battle 7), so you can just mash one button, then repeat the battle over and over until you level up, at which point you dump your stats into strength and then repeat. The equipment increases exponentially, so you can just skip buying weapons until the last one is available.

I finally settled for Laser Spikes and beat the boss without magic. I kept grinding to $15,000, though, just to see the last weapon's graphic. Most of the time grinding I was tabbing the whole thing, so I had to hold down the Enter key for less than a second to win a battle. The "Epic Wep" was not as epic as I had hoped, although it was pretty strong, admittedly.

Overall... I didn't like it at all. If you don't understand why, re-read my review.