b-random9's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[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.

[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

[Taiga Escape]

Combining an auto scroller with sword combat is an interesting idea and some potential clearly shows. However, I think the game needs a fair bit of work before it's genuinely fun.

For starters, the combat is very awkward at first. Suddenly stopping and starting really breaks the flow. Then, actually fighting the skeletons is confusing. When I would just go up and attack it often felt random as to weather I got them or they got me, not to say it is but each time I'm confused as to what went wrong/right. This is exacerbated by the fact that Skeletons have 2 hp with no clear indication of it, so at first I wasn't sure why I'd always fail because I wasn't aware that I had to strike twice.

Credit where its due, after a while I learnt to fake out the Skeletons and go in for the attack and this did feel good to pull of an I imagine it's what you're going for, but to have a complex enemy be the first you encounter is quite overwhelming, combine this with having to use the awkward stopping and dealing with the 2 hp and it means most encounters became a repetitive fake out then spam click exercise.

I think there's a couple of things you could do to help this. For one, make it so you can't attack the Skeletons directly, and have that be very clear. Perhaps this was intended as a quick kill method for skilled players but for most it makes it confusing and feels like more of an exploit to kill them directly. Secondly, I'm guessing there's a reason they have 2 hp, so assuming you want to keep this perhaps have the player be able to pull of a combo. So rather than spam clicking hoping that one of my clicks lands as soon as the first strike finishes, maybe give a little window of opportunity where the player is still stationary but can be called upon for the second attack, or allow players to double click and que that second attack.

As for the sudden jolty stop start, some degree of sliding (acceleration and deceleration) may help here. I'm guessing you might have already tried something like this but if so i really advise you go back and try to working something of the sort in so movement isn't so stiff.

Finally, one other unrelated complaint is the vertical scrolling. It feels quite out of place. At one point I fell into a spike pit I didn't know was there because of the camera, even if I had seen it the spikes don't really stand out. I'd say maybe remove that weird grey box on the screen to give me screen space but I'm not really sure why it's there.

Complaints aside, there's certainly some cool ideas and the fake-out combat is quite amazing in how it uses the auto-runner nature to actually enhance combat. I just think the game needs a fair deal of polish before it reaches it's potential.

rgs-dev responds:

Thank's b-random9, for your feedback!

I'll keep make changes to improve the game.

[Rainbow Night: Extreme]

Seems good but I really can't get into it w/o sound. It seems a real waste to have an otherwise polished game lack any sfx or music.

Edit: It worked the second time I played this. First time I played I did load up another newgrounds game to check my sound was working and it worked fine so I know the issue wasn't on my end.

bloomgames responds:

Sorry for the bug, the sound should be working. I'll try to identify what happened. Thanks for the feedback!

[Super Maria Dash]

I think you forgot to reset the score. Unless this was intentional, in which case is there any reason to not die? Doesn't seem like it. Similarly, the super dash seems really pointless since the game doesn't seem to measure distance or anything.

Plays alright and looks alright but w/o any steaks or anything to work towards it gets dull quickly. Also I'm not sure a dash is the best fit for an autorunner, would often use my dash only to have an enemy quickly pop up whilst I'm sill air borne, hence I was unable to do anything which felt unfair.

emrys95 responds:

Hi there! This game is still very much in development so I do agree there's not much to work towards as an end goal, and it's more meant as a "snackable gaming," sort of game.

The score does reset but not the amount of Candies you gather. This plays into the 'Continue" button which only activates after gathering 50 Candies that pops up when you die. I shall include that in the instructions until I can create a better way to let the user know how it can be used. Thanks for your feedback, I appreciate it.

I'm hoping that players will realize that spamming your Dash whenever just to go a little bit faster does not always work out for the best, especially in a fast-paced game. It takes a little bit of strategy to combine these mechanics. Furthermore, the SuperDash mechanic greatly increases your score, even though the game is not based on distance but on time-ran.

[God Mode]

This may be an odd thing to start with but whats with the story? For starters it uses that weird method of story telling where text boxes are played over gameplay but the two barley interact (IE gameplay never really has an influence on the story nor does any story change up the gameplay). The exception to this is how the setting shifts as the game goes on which is nice, but it's still equivalent to just reading a book separately whilst I play. Then after a while it just stops existing.

Well whatever. The gameplay is what matters most in a game like this and it's good. I was a little confused as to how jumping off of blocks mid air works (still am), I'd assume I'd have to press jump again when a blocks below me yet I spring off anyway and I'm confused as to why, was it because I went in "god mode" holding jump or because I came out holding it? Either way, whilst a little confusing this is a really great mechanic. It feels like it evolves the concept in is done in such a way that doesn't make it a pain to do which is impressive.

My biggest problems lie with the challenge. It feels like easy sailing all the way and then suddenly challenge. The final levels were welcome for their difficulty but a nicer ramp up would be nice as the early game often felt boringly easy. Most stages didn't take too much thought and I still had boxes to spare! When I reached the level that required me to delete the platforms to make the red blocks fall I though "aha, I bet I have to delete them" and figuring this out felt great, finally it was a nice ramp up.

And then,

the game straight up tells me "oh by the way just a reminder of that core mechanic encase you were finally starting to actually solve the puzzles :)" ruining all satisfaction I got from figuring it out. I get this is a slightly new mechanic but it uses established rules so I don't think you have to spell it out to the player, I guess it feels condescending but I was really just pissed that I had the satisfaction of solving the challenge taken away from me.

Going back to the limited boxes thing, as I said earlier most stages, including the last, can be beaten w/o use of all of the boxes. Perhaps this is to accommodate struggling players but the levels already felt fairly easy. If you reward players for using less boxes that might make it feel like I'd actually earned something, else it can feel tedious.

Lastly, a few nitpicks:
-Arts alright, but isn't really nice to look at.
-Being able to jump offscreen and die sucks. Did it accidentally one level and since it hadn't really presented a challenge by that point I was tempted to quit.
-Level 18 was incredibly easy. I didn't have to use any of blocks at the bottom of the level and only had to use one of my two platforms.
-There's little feel or polish. No sound effects, no visual effects like sparkles when I pick up the key or anything like that. Restarting suddenly happens and feels disjointed. No fades in or out. Only polish I really saw was highlighting selected blocks and the door's glowing lock animation. Granted, besides the highlighting selected blocks this isn't the type of game where such polish is vital, hence why its only a nitpick, but I think adding that sort of flair would help the games feel.

Overall, whilst the difficulty is a little wonky, by the end it had introduced an interesting mechanic, built on it and finally challenged me. Technically I didn't notice any issues and as confusing as the block jump is it works well.

tareyza responds:

Thanks for spending the time to write so many comments, we appreciate your feedback!

[Bio Evil 4]

Firstly I should classify I've never played RE4.

Starting off, this is very clearly a well polished game, the great art, music, SFX, little effects like the enemy knockback all go towards creating a great feeling game. A puase button would have been helpful (especially for taking notes on my thoughts on the game) but aside from that there wasn't much of an issue.

The issues come more so from the gameplay. The very contra-esque gameplay is quite fun and the game introduces new enemies and obstacles at a good rate. The big problem for me is that the game doesn't take into account a new players perspective very well. So much of the game feels like it would be fun and challenging if you know what you're doing, but when it comes down to actually playing it and learning the challenges for the first time it feels cheap. I have to die learning the strange ins and outs before I can then die actually trying to beat it. I like challenge but at this point it's not fun and challenging just tedious.

I'll break down some examples.

First is the axe throwing enemy. Whilst not a bad enemy in itself, it doesn't fit with the fast paced gameplay. It's the type of game where thinks happen very quickly and you need to be able to respond quickly, but then the axe guy comes along and you have to figure out he has a very slow 3-cycle. Not out of place in say Mario, more so here. Then each subsequent encounter I can't tell at a glance where he is in his cycle, unless I've already played the part several times before I have to stand around and figure it out which is incongruent with the game's "GO GO GO" nature that's key for survival. At the point past the bridge collapsing I stopped to take care of threats which didn't directly screw me over, but this lead me into a situation where the axe guy, bear trap and stabby women combined to make a situation that was almost impossible to get past. Then I'd die and come back, only to discover I was meant to just keep going non stop, else I'm screwed forever. Perhaps if everything was better synced up or the stabby women spawning had some consistence I could figure this stuff, but so much of that information is pretty much invisible to the player.

This brings me on to another couple of this. The first one is probably a little controversial, a wider screen width. I get that you wanted to be NES faithful and fast reaction is part of the game but it does go towards keeping info from the player that they'd only know had they played the game before to a wearing degree. Even Shovel Knight, known for being strongly NES inspired had 16:9 res. Keeping the box-like resolution reminds me of that Yahtzee Croshaw quote "It was like going to the renaissance fair only catch the bubonic plague and have the kind shag your wife".

The second issue being the lack of recovery. To go back to the Contra comparison, in contra (Super C and Alien Wars at least) when you get hit you disappear before you come back flashing, giving the screen time to clear. Here, if you get hit once then even if you come back flashing you're already overwhelmed by that point and are likely to take a hit again.

Overall, I should clarify that the game is really well made and the gameplay is fun when you know what you're doing, but a lot of it feels like if you try one approach but it wasn't the "intended" approach then you're screwed without even knowing it. It's almost bad adventure game like in that you need to know the one intended solution and any other seemingly valid approach falls apart due to lackluster information provided.

Gypopothomas responds:

Whoa! Thanks a lot for taking the time to write this up. There IS a pause button. It's return. But I s'pose I could have said that at some point in the game. Haha!

Aye, I see where you're coming from with the Contra comparison. I'm thinking of going for lives instead of health now.

I had the game running in 16:9 at one point, but I didn't like it. It felt weird to me. I think it's 'cause the game was designed around 4:3. But maybe in the future, I could meddle with the width again.

Hmm... There's a lot to think about here. Thanks again for the feedback. It's gonna really help.

[The Chain]

The idea of alternating between shooting and pulling back is quite a creative and unique. Having two elements tied together elegantly can be good design so this drew me in. However, I'm not sure it works too great here. Rather than creating a combo of mechanics that aid each other, they feel at odds. It feels quite awkward to go between combat and slowly and tediously pulling back the bar.

Not personally a fan of the controls either. I'm guessing the heavy floaty feel was intentional but I'm not sure why, feeling so tanky doesn't flow to great with fast paced shooting. Additionally, the slide-y movements make it hard to be accurate which feels rather obnoxious when not wasting shots is so important here.

Whilst I focus on mechanics, there's clearly a lot of effort been put into the art and feel. The way the monsters jiggle and explode feels very life-like but when combined with how floaty/slippery everything is it makes the game feel jelly-like; everything's so wobbly and wavy that I feel like I have so little control in a game that demands a lot.

All in all, whilst there is smart design on play I don't think it's used effectively or appropriately. A lot of elements just feel contradictory, which may work in a different setting where creating a struggle is intentional, but when trying to create something fun it feels jarring. It highlights an important point that you can throw in interesting design ideas and lots of juice but it won't necessarily create an experience that's good if the elements aren't carefully chosen/curated.

PaperCookies responds:

Thanks for the write-up and honest review of my game! I really do appreciate it. I have a tendency to make things jelly-like. The impact this gives on the feel of the game is indeed quite backwards with the gameplay elements, I'd agree. It's definitely something I hadn't taken into consideration as of now. I am very passionate about game feel so I can't stress enough how much I appreciate your feedback.

[Lava Maze]

The first thing that stands out is how awkward everything is. I'm not sure what changed but nothing seemed to work at first, no countdown, I couldn't move. It was strange. Then, when everything does get going, there's no room for pause. It feels awkward not being asked to continue or change the parameters, instead going to the next level, pausing, changing the parameters and then starting a new level. Come to think of it, why even start before the player makes the first move, you could have it begin when they take their first step.

Then there's the thing where numbers only appear when you press the buttons. Why, why not just have them constantly display like "Size:6"?! A reset button would be a welcome addition as well.

I think my biggest hurdle is that there's no structured challenge. A game is often at it's best when everything ramps up over time, when there's an overall feeling of progression. Give people the ability to adjust the numbers w/o providing a default progression means they run the risk of screwing themselves over. I would appreciate customization as an addition but not in place of a structure challenge.

Now that I've complained for 3 paragraphs straight, I should probably say that the game is good and fun. There's a constant feeling of pressure that makes it compelling, and the character controls fittingly quickly without any issues (besides the finger death).

So whilst the core gameplay is fun, this feels very bare-bones and unpolished. Lacking structure, menus and any form of sound. Perhaps an addition in mechanics would help too. I get that you probably wanted to focus on a compelling core without any extra elements (which you succeeded at) but those other elements are vital to creating a truly compelling game, without these you have a proof of concept, a fun proof of concept, but still not really a complete game.

VincentLagerros responds:

Thanks for the feedback, this really helps :)

As you say, this game is not really polished (No sound ect) and that will be changed. This is still somewhat of early access.

A can see where you are comming from, but some things exist for a reason. The instant start is to give the player a feel for speed and not make them wait. Can be made to a setting if you want it so.

Also, there is no reset button in the menu, but pressing "r" will reset it. I can change that today if you want. :)

EDIT: Added reset and start when move buttons