Zir0's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ben Snow mobile]

Hey.

Expecting to play an "Adventure - RPG" game, it's actually a "Sports - Racing" game.

Nonetheless, the controls are smooth, but the physics are a little sensitive. For example, the rider flips over just from going up a ramp. However, I do find it easier to control by not trying to go over the ramps at full speed, and easing off the controls.

I would prefer sound effects instead of a song that neither fits the theme of the game, nor loops very well. However, I do like the option of muting the song.

After crashing so many times, my game was over, which implies a limited number of chances (lives). Please show this to the player.

When the game is over, if the audio is muted, it will start playing again once I return to the Level Select screen, although the audio button indicates a mute status. When I click the button, it makes the audio play louder, and I have to click the button again to mute the audio. It seems that the game is remembering the visual state of the audio button, but not keeping the audio itself silent.

Lastly, the explosion graphics don't fit the style. Apparently, a series of sprites (raster) images were used, while the remaining graphics are all vector. I recommend removing the raster explosion, and replacing it with a vector explosion animation instead.

Good skill.
* salutes *

_________________________
- Ziro out.

[ToneDefense]

Hey.

Nice musical game.

I like how it challenges you to tone recognition, as I imagine someone who perhaps has perfect/absolute pitch would be able to breeze right through this.

Being able to save your progress is cool, too.

Some suggestions:
- Add a "sudden death" mode, for those who want to get 100% accuracy without messing up once. One mistake ends the round, and they don't have to keep explicitly quitting.
- Add a "freestyle" mode, where you can play any not just to listen to the notes, without actually playing the game (no bombs).
- Consider allowing the ability to change the accidental sign from sharps to flats and back.

Perhaps in a future version, you could expand this to chord recognition: major, minor, dominate seventh, augmented, diminished, 9th, major seventh, suspended, etc. Perhaps experiment with chords and/or scales.

For a real challenge, you could even combine the two, where players would not only have to recognize the chord, but also the root. That could be brutal, though, but I'd try it. (:

The game isn't polished, nor is it graphically appealing, but it gets the point across. (:
Good job.

_______________________________
- Ziro out.

[Don't Get Blammed!]

Hey.

Game Needs Lots of Work

=========================
Graphics
=========================
- The background is too busy, and it takes away from the foreground (all the game's entities, player, enemies, projectiles etc.) Consider using a softer background.
- The flame projectile looks like it is a ripped sprite. I recommend looking up Lost Garden, and checking out some of his legit, free graphics. Also, since your theme is Newgrounds, the flame doesn't fit as a projectile anyway. You'd be better off using a simple orb-like projectile.
- The flame animation is tacky.

=========================
Gameplay and Design
=========================
- A Flash icon isn't the most appealing graphic for player to look at. Perhaps replace it with a Normal whistle.
- Add some power-ups or special abilities to the player's "ship". You could use some of the EXP icons as items. What's a shooter without special powers at some point in the game? You could even use the bronze, silver, gold, and deity whistles (assuming you considered my previous not) to display the player's ship as it got stronger.
- Add more enemy types with different behaviors. There's the notorious troll face looking thing, which pops up in lots of spam Flashes. Maybe you could even use the garbage whistle as an enemy.
There are also the 0-vote icons for audio and art, too.
- Add health to some enemies, building off the last note, so that they all don't take one hit to destroy.
- Add a delay to the player's firing, so all the projectiles don't come out as an continuous stream.
- When you die, don't just abruptly reset the player.
- Add sound effects for firing, when you hit and destroy an enemy, and when you get hit and destroyed.
- Select a song that isn't so short, so the loop doesn't get monotonous so fast.
- Add the ability to mute the music (and sounds too should you add sounds to a future game).
- Add a HUD that shows lives, and score (assuming you add a scoring system).
- When the game over text appears, don't use bland fonts (times New Roman, etc.). Either (1) find a custom free font, and embed it into your Flash; or (2) draw your own text labels.

=========================
Controls
=========================
- Add the ability to move diagonally. Controls are otherwise solid.

Unless you are really good and confident in your abilities, you should _never_ release your first game to the public. This is the type of work you'd want to upload to your Newgrounds Dump, and invite some friends to look at it first, before releasing.

Best skill, and hope you improve on your game design and coding skills. And YES, it IS a lot of work.

___________________________
- Ziro out.

[60second Space Amazon]

Hey.

I think it's quite a bit of intricacies jam-packed into 60 seconds, with the two characters, and the different weapons. It's fairly easy, except for the red guy - he's kinda hard to beat.

So you've added your voice. Probably want to have each voice play once when you're going through the menus, and maybe turn down the volume on them a bit. You added every voice except a "time's up!", haha!

Regarding the moves: In your full brawler games, I tend to mix them up a lot more, but in 60 seconds, I'm pretty much just mashing whatever I press to attack, and not worrying to much about key combinations (prolly why I'm having trouble wit the red guys. (: ).

I also like how the characters turned out, and the animations. (:

________________________
- Ziro out.

AcetheSuperVillain responds:

Thanks.

I'm surprised you find the red Boxer Robos to be the hard ones. I definitely find them to be the easiest since they don't shoot.

Yeah, I did mean to add "time's up" but I forgot. Like I said, tired.

Regarding the moves: I think it's not just the 60 second limit. These characters aren't as well planned as usual, and since I've been mostly struggling with image sizes and timer codes, they haven't received their due post-planning attention either.

[Monkey on a Pogo Stick]

Hey.

Nice, simple game.

The fact that it gradually speeds up, also adds to the challenge, too. Graphics are ok; could be a little better, but with a simple game mechanic, you can get away with it. (:

Game controls are pretty smooth, and I like your attention to user friendliness by adding pause and mute options.

A few things to consider:
- Adding a quick warning when the parachute is about to expire (make the parachute blink or fade out, for example)
- Getting rid of the short music loop. I find short loops in Flash games, especially ones that don't loop seamlessly, to be a bit annoying. Since there are no sound effects, this would make the game completely silent, so I'd add some sounds (see next item).
- Add sound effects when you collect bananas, and when you use your parachute. You _might_ also add a sound effect when you bounce, however you'd have to be careful on this one if you did. Since bouncing is the main mechanic and it happens often, you'd probably want it to be several (maybe 2 or 3), similar-sounding, subtle sounds, so it doesn't become monotonous.

Also, just before the game loads, I get this Actionscript run-time error message:

TypeError: Error #1006: value is not a function.
at code::Document/adFinished()
at MethodInfo-238()
at MethodInfo-26()
at Function/http://adobe.com/AS3/2006/bu iltin::apply()
at SetIntervalTimer/onTimer()
at flash.utils::Timer/_timerDispatch()
at flash.utils::Timer/tick()

It seems to play normally afterwards. Using Firefox 13.0, and Flash debug player 11.3.

Otherwise, nice game.

__________________________
- Ziro out.

[Galactico: Save the Earth]

Hey.

========================
Game design:
========================
- The first thing I noticed is that game elements can obstruct the HUD. I highly recommend keeping the game view out of the HUD at the bottom; it shouldn't get blocked by in-game entities.
- The explosion sound is way to dramatic. Select a smaller, softer, explosion sound.
- I do like how you can mute the audio. however, I'd rather be able to mute just the music while keeping the sound effects.
- The music is a bit annoying and doesn't fit the game.
- The icons used for mute and pause don't fit the theme of the game. The font, however, looks really cool. (:
- Focus on a solid game mechanic before tackling something like an upgrade system. The enemies should be challenging. Also, try introducing a new enemy every other level or so.

========================
Controls
========================
- Since you can use the mouse to aim, please add the ability to shoot your primary weapon using the mouse button. This is much easier than trying to press the spacebar key to shoot (keep the spacebar though; some may prefer it). You may also want to include the arrow keys as movement keys also, for left-handed people (I'm right-handed, but that may be easier for lefties).
- There is some inconsistency with where the mouse lines up with the crosshairs as you move the mouse around. The center of the crosshairs should line up with the mouse pointer. Furthermore, it lines at at different points.

========================
Graphics
========================
- The explosion used for the enemy ships is too faint.
- The player's ship looks too bland. I would recommend looking up Lost Garden, and trying to fit some of the graphics there into your game.

Quite rough around the edges, but it's a start for your first game.

__________________________
- Ziro out.

nitokov responds:

this will be my list for next update, thanks you save my time... and Earth :D extremly helpful!

[Sea cleaning beta (dutch)]

Hey.

Nice, simple shooter.

The graphics look good also. The main drawback is no sound effects. You could add sounds for firing bubbles and hitting targets, but make sure that each type of target (cans, ate up apples, etc.) have different sound effects. If you really wanted to go farther, you could even add sounds for missing, and when the subtle foot steps for the crab walking around.

Also, on your intro screen, consider changing the text field that says "Click here", so that you can't select it with the mouse (the mouse cursor changes to the I-beam). You may want to consider just removing this screen altogether; perhaps it was a requirement for the project?

Is the difficulty increasing over time, as you hit more targets? Could just be me, but there seems to be a subtle increase. If this is true, then that's great. (:

Maybe consider adding a "special" target that makes rare appearances. Something that is really small and/or moves fast (basically, hard to hit). If you hit this target, you could give the player more points for it, or maybe it gives back two shots instead of one.

Of course, these suggestions may not be applicable if this is just for a project, and you may not want to work on it anymore. (:

Other than that, it's fine. Seems like it could target little kids well.

_______________________
- Ziro out.

Nikey007 responds:

Well I can make some adjustments it's only due tomorrow~~

[Super Cyborg demo]

Hey.

Nice shooter game.

Game design, mechanics, and polish:
- While I get that it's inspired by Contra, I think it's a bit _too_ much like Contra, and would have liked to see some new concepts in terms of mechanics. Basically, it lacks some originality here. In addition to the classic weapons we've all come to like, I would have also liked to see some new weapons. Maybe there's more in the full game? (:
- The sound effect used for the explosion of henchmen could have been a better selection, however.
- The controls were solid, and I like the ability to remap the keys. I would have liked the ability to remap the controls during play, perhaps as an extra menu on the pause menu.
- Your presentation of the various UI was also good.
- I don't agree with all the statistics being monitored and shown at the end of the level, especially the regarding to shooting. This being a shooting game, you're going to be shooting a lot. Also, I don't agree with rating someone's time, especially when you are forced to wait at certain parts, like for the boss to expose itself so you can shoot it. The player has no control over that. I feel like I'm being punished for playing this genre the way I feel it's supposed to be played.

Graphics and sounds:
- The graphics and music are awesome, as were the sound effects. I do sincerely hope that none of the graphics or sounds were obtained from ripped sources, or modified versions of anything ripped.

Performance:
- No bugs or FPS drops encountered. Performance was good. Using Flash Debug Player, 11.1, Chrome.

_______________________
- Ziro out.

Leftiy responds:

Thank you for detailed review!
There will be laser gun in next levels. It's much improved comparing to Contra laser, so it can be considered as a new weapon:)
This game takes inspiration from the Contra series, but all levels and enemies will be different as well as the bosses and enemies. But at the same time it pays tribute to the Contra series by using some gameplay elements to make some kind of flashbacks to the player. It's hard for me to explain in english, but you will see for yourself, when the game will be released.
About game statistics: so now i see that some players likes monitoring their statistics, and others don't. I think only way to solve this is to make 2 game modes: play with statistics or without it, just like on NES.
Graphics and animations was drawn by me and I worked really hard to make it look good. And using 8-bit NES color palette makes it much more difficult. And sound effects were made in Famitracker. So as those are 8 bit sounds , you may find them similar to sounds from NES games, because Famitracker simulates NES chip sound.

[KG : What Do They Eat]

Hey.

Nice game for little kids.

You should make the feedback of the UI better. Add a "happy" sound that plays when you get the correct answer, and an "unhappy" one when you get it wrong. Also, you may want to give the player an extra chance or two. When the wrong choice is made, displaying "WRONG!" (especially in all caps like that) seems abrupt and not too friendly. You could combine the suggestion I mentioned about the extra chances, say something like "Sorry, please try again".

You should change your text fields, so that they are not selectable, and the I-beam does not show up for the cursor.

There is a typo in the English version. The question should read, "What does it eat?" There are some types in the Author Comments section of the page, also.

After I made a choice, I was sitting there for a good 20 seconds before I decided to just try clicking to advance to the next round. You should consider either providing a visual cue for the player to click anywhere to continue, or make it a timed delay.

I do like how you randomize the order of the questions, though.

As a game targeting such a young audience, you probably want to make it very warm and friendly.

__________________________
- Ziro out.

[Destrocity]

Hey.

Nice game. Reminds me of Rampage, although I wish you could eat people to regain health and/or energy. I find myself quickly running out of power, and then just running around, saving up just enough for one more power slam, I feels it's just too limiting in the beginning of the game.

The controls are solid, and I having multiple controls for the same actions. The graphics and sounds are also done well, even throwing in a few subtle sounds for some extra polish.

Along with running out of power so quickly, my biggest issue is the collision detection between the military's bullets and your character. The will still hit you, even if you're not lined up horizontally with them. You probably don't need the 3,2,1, intro at the beginning the game, either. Meteor mode is a nice add-on, but it gets boring too quickly.

________________________
- Ziro out.

FlashTavern responds:

Eating people was something I had planned on putting in the game but later didn't end up doing. I'm reconsidering adding this feature, though. Or something to help keep your stamina up.

I'll look into the bullet collision detection! Thanks for playing and reviewing!

--- edit ---

I have just added in the ability to eat people! Simply walk up to a person, press the E key and let the feast begin. Thanks for the suggestion!