JettComic's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Star Serpent]

Meh.

Decent concept and basic gameplay, but then, the same can be said for a lot of fourth-rate Flash shooters. Serious points docked for several reasons:

BORING AS HELL: But wait, nothing's more fun than fighting palette-swapped versions of the same enemies over and over again, right? Especially when you pick up the one decent weapon in the arsenel (the yellow one, for anyone who cares) and mow them all down before they even get to fire a shot.

GLARING BUGS: Exactly why did you release a game when it is impossible to complete the second level? That combined with the random invincibility and the tantalizing but broken save feature...really, this isn't even what I would call a decent "beta" version.

HAM-FISTED POLITICAL INNUENDO: Next time just put "BU$H SUXX" in your preloader (or "AMERIKKKA SUXX" if you happen to be non-American and prefer to judge us en masse). That would be much classier and leave room for you to make a game with a less sucky premise.

[. : Sword of orion : .]

Classic blunder

I'm really surprised that this isn't common knowledge among Flash game programmers by now: You can't make space bar the fire button. It makes it impossible on most systems (it might be a Windows thing) to move up-left diagonally and fire at the same time. Guess how I died most of the time?

I also could only ever get two powerups to drop, and only very close to the beginning of the level. It's not very clear what causes them to drop either; it's clearly not the classic Gradius "kill every member of a wave" thing. It's frustrating to see the enemies all get tougher as time goes on and not having any way to adequately kill them because I lost my double-shot and missile three minutes ago and can see no real hope of getting them back.

I'll give you props for some cool 3-d graphics and explosion effects. With easier powerup grabs and a remapped fire button this could be a pretty cool game.

[Tri-achnid]

Wow.

This game is truly amazing, and I'm really looking forward to a full version. There's so much I want to say I think I'll break it down by NG's rating categories.

GRAPHICS: Excellent in-game, but the cutscenes seemed a little simplistic and at times made it difficult to understand what was happening.

STYLE: Really sets this game apart. I love the little details like Tri-achnid's subtle emotional reactions to events. The environment and creative creatures are very detailed and surreal. It reminds me of the Carious Weltling series a bit, without all the gratuitous disgustingness and bodily functions.

SOUND: I'll agree with some other reviewers that the music gets a little repetitive at times, but overall it's very unique and contributes to the atmosphere of the game.

VIOLENCE: The only real gore comes from eating Gloms and the final battle. Even then it's mercifully not gratuitous. I guess the "fighting" that takes place in the game is a little, I dunno, too much like everything else you do. For example, you kill Gloms by grabbing them and dragging them to your mouth, pretty much the same way you interact with a lot of other objects in the game. I think there's potential with this physics system to, say, kill enemies by throwing rocks at them or by throwing the enemies themselves against walls (which might already be possible, I guess; I haven't tested it thoroughly).

INTERACTIVITY: Obviously this is the game's high point. The physics system is very creative and versatile and makes for a very open-ended game. Some aspects get irritating to work with. For future installments, I'd be thrilled if you'd add a key to prevent your legs from automatically sticking to walls. Trying to rappel, use a Plumie to fly, or "jump" can become a real pain in the ass when your legs are swinging around and sticking back to the wall as fast as you're pulling them off. Also annoying is the fact that you can nearly kill yourself just by swinging a leg around too fast and overstretching yourself, which can make the simple act of walking hazardous if a player gets his/her timing off. The fact that Tri-Achnid automatically "reels in" slack in his/her/its webbing is handy for the most part, but also can make it difficult to stretch the web from wall to wall; maybe a button to momentarily turn off this feature would help in future versions.

Overall, though, I have to chalk up the problems to being intrinsic to a gameplay system this revolutionary, and I'm working with the assumption that you'll be addressing them as you work on the full game, so your interactivity score remains a 10.

HUMOR: Not much to speak of, obviously, but I do want to mention Tri-achnid's subtle facial expressions again. Reminds me a bit of Grommit's expressive eyes in the _Wallace and Grommit_ cartoons.

In conclusion, I want to congratulate you on a truly unique creation. I think this game has great potential, and it's something I think I'd be willing to pay for if the full version expands enough on what's already here. Good job and good luck!

[3d logic]

Awesome puzzler

Managed to clear it. Only level that I got fed up with and looked for help on was 16, but it was nice and challenging.

You know it's a good game when the only complaint I have is I WANT MORE. If you could creata a version that uses all six sides of the cube you'd REALLY be messing with some heads. If you could somehow work out a random puzzle generator I would die of starvation, because I would never get up again.

I like the concept, I like the execution, and for the most part I like the learning curve. Nice job!

[Dragon Wizard]

Very good overall.

This game has a problem I've seen in other top-down shooters. Namely, you can't shoot and move up-left diagonally at the same time. I think, based on other games I've played, that making Spacebar the fire button is what does this. Try mapping one of the letter keys to firing instead and see if that solves the problem.

Other than that, good graphics, and it's a very challenging game no matter what weapon you decide to use as your "primary." I like some of the changes you've made to the earlier levels since your first release, i.e. the appearance of catapults and things earlier on. I think it would be cool if you added one or more boss battles to the game. It would break up the monotony the game seems to fall into towards the end, especially since the last two levels are almost identical to each other, both in environment and enemies.

[gogo Happy & Smile]

I don't get it.

I honestly don't understand why this game and Alien Hominid are so popular. Granted, the graphics and animation are great and it's stylish as hell, but the gameplay is ludicrously difficult and counter-intuitive. It has the same learning curve and overall enjoyability as trying to ram a sea urchin up your ass.

Seriously, what is enjoyable AT ALL about bosses with virtually unavoidable attacks, so you can only damage them during your brief moments of invincibility after respawning from your last inevitable death? What's fun about futilely hacking away at gigantic crowds of enemies one at a time?

Nothing, that's what. That's why this breed of shitty sidescroller died along with the 80's. For God's sake, leave it dead.

[Rufus, the PieLauncher]

Nice Flash skills, bad game :(

I'm a bit beside myself here. I actually bemoan the fact that you made this really slick interface, these smooth animations, AND a level builder, and then you went and chose such a monumentally boring premise for your game.

I'm not trying to be mean-spirited, but let's be honest: it's a generic cannon shooting generic pies at generic targets, using generic Worms/Tank Wars ballistics. It's a veritable smorgasbord of unoriginality, and the gameplay gets old real quick.

I hold out hope that you'll take your obviously wicked coding skills and make your next game much, much more interesting than this. Best of luck.

[Rainbowsphere]

Pretty good, but could be better.

I actually love the concept. The game does a good job combining puzzle-solving and platform-jumping ninja skills. Just a couple things I'd like to see tightened up:

A respawn delay. There are times when I literally kill myself three times before I realize I've done it at all, simply because I was holding down a direction that rammed me right into a dangerous wall after the instant respawn. Take a second or two and maybe add some dramatic sphere-y death effect so the player knows when to quit mashing the keys.

Pause/save feature. I say Pause mainly because of the rising lava level, and Save because, as you yourself said, it's a very long game.

Inertia. It's very difficult to control a ball that doesn't accelerate or decelerate when you start or stop moving, especially in situations where I only want to move over a pixel or two and end up throwing myself off a cliff instead. Giving the ball a sense of mass would really improve the "feel" of the game, and reduce this inexplicable urge I have to go on a tirade about your VERY unforgiving collision detection. I'm sure it wouldn't be easy to program, but it'd be well worth the effort.

Note that I gave you a 0 for Sound because I'm currently in a situation where I can't turn my volume up. I can't say at this point whether your game even HAS sound, much less evaluate it, so just understand that I'm counting Sound as a N/A and not giving you a bad rating.

[Sinjid: SotW]

I like.

Awesome. Gameplay is excellent and well-balanced. I'm looking forward to the next installment.

The only thing that suffered was the sound. The music is kind of boring and makes some pretty abrupt transitions when it loops (talking about the music itself, not the quality of the sound clips). It's also disappointing that there are hardly any sound effects at all.

[Turbospirit]

Wow

Very nice, and exquisitely programmed. The screen tilting during turns gets a little unsettling, though.