b-random9's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sheltered]

I feel like you should be able to make some kind of impact. I understand you're trying to convey that difficult feeling of not being able to do anything and just wasting your life away, but being forced to do that implies there's nothing that can be done about it, which isn't true.

I'm not saying it should be easy, certainly not, but I feel there should be a way that with enough trying, something changes. Perhaps I missed something. I tried unplugging the computer but it just told me "clothes" -_-. I tried mashing space over and over at the door to no avail. Tried again and again to pickup the clothes but nothing.

I liked that if you play on the computer with friends but then don't play afterwards you regain life when you sleep.

Also, why does your life only sometimes go down, there seems to be no reason?

Overall, it's good to see a game that embraces being art and it's pretty well polished, the clock ticking was a strong touch, but it doesn't seem to be saying much besides A."Depression and anxiety sucks" and B."There's nothing you can do about it". Perhaps I missed something, I played til day 42 but since nothing was changing I stopped. Is there an end? How do I know when I've ran out of content?

Xelalanana responds:

Hello there! The hearts/lives are only lost at the beginning. You start with 2 out of 5 hearts and it goes down as the days pass, this was to convey that you've been stuck in the room for quite some time now (even before starting the game) and "eating" will help replenish back one life!

Others have mentioned getting stuck at this part too, but after regaining life from resting (after playing with friends), you'd get a dream-sequence where it's only the Door and Mirror. Once everything goes back to normal, try interacting with the other objects in the room such as the Mirror, Clothes, and Pizzabox. You might have to "rest" first before you can do anything with them, but afterwards, try interacting with those same objects again.

Once 5/5 lives are filled you'll be able to get through the door!

Hope this helps! If you have any more questions or need help with anything, please don't hesitate to message us! :)

[The march of the blobs]

Really like the improvements that have been made to this game. The changes help and the new "another mode" has some really great puzzles and the new blobs are fantastic. Loved "the blob is a lie" and the "inverted castle".

I think my biggest criticism is how unlenient "another mode" is. I'd spend 15 minutes on a level only to discover that one tiny mistake and I'm screwed. Playing the teleporter on the edge in "the spy" is such a difficult task and yet I lose plenty of time for messing it up once; worst part being I don't know that until later when i can't do anything about it. Difficult puzzles are great and the more skilled focus bits work well in moderation but I don't think being heavily punished for taking only 2 tries at getting a precise part right adds anything to the game. Besides raising the limit, I'm not sure the "delete a blob" and telporter need to cost as much as they do. If I mess up a teleporter I have to not only pay to delete the existing one, but also for a new plain blob and the modification to replace it. In other words, if my math is correct, replacing a teleporter costs 9 blobs.

Criticism aside there's really not any issues left with the game. I guess it could be clearer that the number besides the blob refers to their cost in blobs, rather than that's how many you have as I mistakenly thought but that's about it.

Perhaps a change in music for the different modes would be nice. As great as the game is, after playing for a long while it gets quite exhausting and new music might help with that.

Overall, great game and great improvements. In the end I had to give up at Zen as this was ironically what broke me.

joqlepecheur responds:

thanks for playing and criticism :)
Quick tip on "the spy": it can be finished with 36 blobs with a particular ruse

[Fling]

Nice game, whilst simple the nature of learning to fling yourself works well.

However, after playing up to the "Swing a few times w/o falling" tutorial I couldn't get any further. I did exactly what it said then nothing happened. I have no idea what the game wants from me. What exactly defines "too close" and where am I swinging too if there's no goal. Why not design a challenge or mechanic that specifically is designed around having the player "swing a few times" or something. Forcing the player to do something vague destroyed the game for me. Like is there not a reason you couldn't have the player need to swing multiple times over spikes to the goal? That way the objective is clear, there progress is clear, its just how far they are from the goal. As is I have no idea how close I am to beating it.

Also, the first level didn't feel like a first level, you'd think there'd be a ceiling to latch onto given your just being introduced to the mechanic. Having to tug myself along the floor is a little too annoying to start and isn't a great introduction to the game.

AlienPlay responds:

Hey b-random9! I really appreciate your in-depth review!
In the 4th level/swinging tutorial you need to swing 5 times or make 2 full oscillations, and when you're too close to the hook the tutorial text will appear again and restart your progress.

[Rocket Run]

Quite a nice game. A simple to understand mechanic mixed with a strong atmosphere. Controls well too.

By biggest criticism of the game is that the difficulty feels rather...wonky. I died lots from getting hit but never from running out of fuel. Even if I constantly boosted the incredibly punishing "bash a wall and get hit" mechanic that seems to always kick in even if i'm going slow means I'd probably still die from losing my hp. Furthermore, the eyes feel far too aggressive. Their fast speed basically means if I mess up once, I get shot down half hp before I can readjust. All in all, whilst it is quite tricky, my issue comes more from where the difficulty comes from rather than the simple fact that its difficult.

Moving forward, it would have been nice to see something new each level. I beat the first two but felt no motivation to continue when it seemed I'd seen everything.

Few nitpicks:

-Not immediately clear whats hp vs fuel, given hp is usually priority I'd assume it was the top one.
-Items could be a bit more flashy so I don't mistake them for part of the world.

Overall, pretty good.

[Galaxy Shooter]

I couldn't get this to play in chrome, firefox or edge.

[Ghost Gal (fixed demo)]

Whilst the idea of possessing enemies isn't original, mixing it with the metroidvania genre is and certainly has potential. However, RN it really doesn't make much use of that potential, rather than having interesting challenges that revolve around the different monsters abilities or interesting puzzles there's....nothing. I found half way through that there wasn't really much reason to fight or take over the enemies, I could just skip them and had more than enough hp to tank some hits. At that point the long bland hallways just felt like filler.

The bosses were alright. Neither had any real problems and the 2nd fight had some interesting twists, though I think it could have varied beyond the 1 attack. Furthermore, it'd be nice if some of the bosses took advantage of the possessing mechanic in some way. Perhaps a pair of bosses where you use one to damage the other, or even a boss where you swap with it and have to fight yourself.

Credit where it's due, the character sprite was well drawn and animated.

Overall, whilst there's a solid basis here that could be built into something great, it's not got that yet. I know this is just a demo but it doesn't give me a taste of what could be done with the game which is surely the point of a demo.

Moving forward, I'd personally recommend thinking about where you want the challenge/fun to come from. Platforming challenges? Puzzles? Furthermore, try not hide behind the "it's just a demo" defense too much. Now, early on, is a great chance to get that critical feedback.

Bangiras responds:

Thank you for the feedback! I really liked the idea of the bosses. And yeah, the level design needs a lot of polishing. Since this is a project we (the programmer and I) made for university we had short time and had to keep it simple. We could have made it shorter but more interesting though, but we are going to continue polishing it so your feedback is really useful, you have some interesting ideas there.

The "it's just a demo" thing in the description was ment to warn the player about the duration of the game more than anithing btw, I'm sorry If we didn't make it clear enough.

[Tower of Zooon]

An interesting idea here, but whilst its fun to go fast the game punishes me for doing so as I can't really stop when an obstacle appears and just have to hope I make it past or play slowly in the first place.

[Maverick's Fury]

Nice little retro platformer, fairly well made all round. That being said I don't think there's much going for it. Up until the boss there wasn't really any combat challenges. Enemies are very rare and their fights slow. The only time they really presented any kind of "challenge" was when they'd suddenly appear and shoot at me after the screen scrolled which whilst this never got me killed, it feels like quite a cheap way to present challenge.

Were the enemies to eventually team up to some degree of fight you on more difficult terrain I think this would present a better difficulty curve. I think you should consider where the challenge is coming from. Is it from taking out enemies in interesting platforming scenarios like Megaman or more reactionary challenges like in Contra. As is it feels stuck somewhere between the two, never really committing to sort of style.

In terms of weapons they never really felt more useful than the standard weapon. The flamethrowers short range and slow speed felt more like a hindrance and it was gone before I had a chance to even really try it out.

The boss was pretty good. Basic but effective. My only real criticism there is that I think you should be able to damage it at any point. It wasn't really clear what the indicator was for if I could/couldn't deal damage. I think were the player able to shoot it at any time this would keep the player more active and reward skill, TBH I kept doing this anyway even when not dealing damage because it felt more natural.

Finally, after I died to the boss, I threw a grenade at the guy next to the checkpoint and he shot me, at which point the game froze up, constantly playing what I think is the death sound effect. My guess is that if you get shot whilst doing the throwing animation it freezes.

Overall, there's nothing really wrong with the game. I'd say it succeeds in all categories and the music goes beyond. But at the same time, it feels so bland and safe that it lacks any feel or personality.

Also, I couldn't find a pause button. Perhaps I missed one but it would be a nice addition if there isn't one.

Fred-Oliveira responds:

Excellent feedback, I registered to make the correction of the bug and improve the difficulty progression of the game for the next updates.

Thank you very much

[Poseidia]

Despite looking like a game made in MS paint, it does a good job of being kinda atmospheric. I think the darkness mechanic could have been introduced a little slower though.

[Post Apocalyptic Techno Nation]

The game looks alright and the gameplay, whilst basic, works. However, the whole "spam x to win" thing is rather infuriating. I'm guessing this was to make the players more active, but there are other less annoying ways to do this. I think with some re balancing just holding x to shoot could be fun, as is I guess it provides its own challenge but its a challenge separate form the dodge/shoot gameplay that stops any immersion. Other than that, seems fairly polished.