Zir0's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Abobo's Big Adventure]

Cool Game!

Hey.

I LOVE your preloader. Yep, that's how we had to do this back in the day, blowing the cartridges. You left off jerking the cartridge around a bit while inside the NES.

General
The graphics look very good. the only letdown was the use of riped media. However, you DID include LOTS of amazing original art as well so kudos. Include an option to mute music and keep sounds. I know that wasn't a standard NES thing, but some accessibility was still desired, even back then.

Double Dragon
One thing that's annoying is when you're attackig, the enemy just breaks out and hits you. Abobo should be able to toss enemies. Donkey Kong's bombs should be able to hit enemies also. When you kill a spy and pause the game, his death sound keeps looping.

Underwater
This is interesting. It combines Yoshi style of play with SMB1, plus the characters from various other games, as expected. The Typhoon attack is also pretty cool. You should include a move, such that, if you keep an enemey in your mouth long enugh, Abobo will swalloy it, and you get some health and/or a medal for it.

Urban Champ
Nice to see Alex in the shop taking a break.

Zelda
Nice remake here, too. You forgot to implement that music glitch that occurs when you leave an underground passage, to return the the normal dungeon, and the music resets. I do like the ability to attack while standing in a doorway. When you are in the room where you fight the ghosts and the moving spikes, the two at the top don't move vertically. One of the the Metros got stuck. It was in the room, just north of the room with the master key. You should have made the controls, such that you can change your direction while you are attacking. Thus, you can hit two enemies from differect directions at once (an ADVANCED move for the REAL Zelda players ;-)) Flurries can only move like that on ice. (: Why did you make the pushable blocks sparkle? Don't do that; you're giving the noobs too much help! Do enemies drop fairies when you kill them?. The Old Man boss was kinda annoying, but not too tough once you figure out the pattern. I don't like the tease at the end of finishing this, where it shows an inventory. Would have been nice to have some of those to play around with.

Balloon
This is like an advanced underwater level, as far as controls are concerned.

Wreslting
I never liked the Pro Wrestling. The computer spams you too much. I think I beat this level off luck, because I had no clue what I was doing.

NegaMan
Haha! Abobo looks retarded in a Megeman suit! His head is way too big, lol. The drop rate for health pellets is too low, and large health pellets don't refill enough. The first time I see extra lives is near the lazer guns (if there are others in earlier parts of the game, I missed them), and you tease us not once, but twice. The animation of Robobobo morphing into Mechabobo is awesome. When you use your rage attack on Robobobo, it doesn't even interrupt him. He just keeps going like it was nothing...

Contra
I would have preferred the original laser to the Lemmings. At the same times, it figures you'd keep the original F. That was the lamest weapon in Contra, lol! I do like how you added auto-fire to the guns. The waterfall boss... you pulled the ol' bait 'n switch. Should've known. (:

Punch-Out
It was kinda fun, despite Mac and his psychic AI. Both rages are sweet. To me, Big Mac was easier than Little Mac.

Conclusion
I did finish the game. Soundwave was in it!? WHERE!? There are some games I would have preferred to play though: Metroid in place of MegaMan. Actually no; Mega is too much of a classic to skip, so ADD Metroid, lol. CastleVania 3 or Rygar in place of Urban Champ. Life Force / Gradius in place of the Balloon stage. Zelda II (fighting the Shadow Link - that was a WAY fun battle) - in place of Punch Out. But, but, but, you guys left out an RPG. I can't believe you didn't put FF1 in here. Dude. (: Overall, it's a nice collage of MANY games. You guys put LOTS of time into this. (Now where's that sound test, lol)

_______________
- Ziro out.

[Island Dress]

Just some suggestions

Hey.

You can consolidate those two audio control buttons into one button. When the music is playing, have it display the upper image image (with the sound waves). When you click the button, it mutes the music, and displays the lower image. Clicking the button again resets it.

On your selection UI, consider removing the requirement to click the actual item to equip it on the girl. It should do this when you're using the arrow buttons, as I feel it's an unnecessary click.

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Girl on right
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Hair
Having different colors is good, but consider having different styles of hair also. You'd also need each of those styles in each color also. Think of it as a table, where rows are hair styles, and columns are colors.

Eyes
Same as hair. The colors are cool, but have some different types of eyes which indicate different expressions.

Shoes
Same as hair and eyes. Need more styles to go with the colors.

Shirts and Pants/shorts
These suffer the opposite of eyes and hair. You have different styles, but only one color for each. (:

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Girls on Left and Middle
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You have the right idea with having different shoe styles. All their other clothing items have different styles; they, just need more colors. the accessories are fine.

You should also consider limiting the number of characters that can be entered for the name, so that really long names don't obstruct the view.

Not too shabby for your first dressup. Just needs more options.

__________________
- Ziro out.

[Alien Fist Mini Game]

Has Some Glitches

Hey.

The glitches are mostly in the collision detection and response. you can jump "into" the rocks and then fall through the floor.

Also, when you die, don't suddenly restart the game. Give the player some lives, so they don't go to the title screen also. Make a smooth transition. Include sound effects.

The graphics look alright, and I like your parallax scrolling you have going here. Very nice.

I think you were a bit too eager to release the game. This probably should have been in the NG dump for testing before releasing it here first. That way, you could invite some friends to test it out before releasing it to the masses.

_____________________________
- Ziro out.

[Revenge of the Laser Gang]

Alright Game

Hey.

The graphics look fine. I can't help but notice they tiles ripped from an NES game. If they're not, then you're a good 8-bit pixel artist, assuming you made the art yourself, that is. (:

The music was extremely annoying. You have a mute option, but I'd like to mute the music and keep the sound effects, instead of muting everything.

Movement is too slow. You have a run, which introduces another key to use, being Shift, which is awkward. I know I'm not the only one having difficulty holding this key while trying to move with WASD keys. If I use the right-shift key, then I have to take my hand off the mouse, so I can't aim. Drop the Shift to run altogether, and consider replacing it by allowing your player to double-tap a movement key to run. Or you could just include both ways of running. It's just another key that gets in the way.

To add insult to injury, there's a stamina for running. _On top of that_, I can't run if it's recharging, even if I have stamina left.

The battle system isn't too bad, but the game tends to run a bit slow. I'm not sure if it's a performance aspect or this is by design. I think your genre is a bit misleading. You have "Action - Shooter - Multidirectional", but it's way too slow to be an action game. This is more like an RPG.

_______________________
- Ziro out.

malec2b responds:

Thanks for the feedback. Also, I made the art myself, so thanks.

Also, I switched the genre to Adventure-Other. I really wish there was an Action-Adventure category...

[Blockodo]

Alright Game needs some Work

Hey.

Graphics are too simple. I recommend one o fthe following:
1) Learn how to draw;
2) Collaborate with an artist
3) Find suitable FREE art on the internet, don't use ripped sprites from commercial games

Same goes with sound effects. You can barely hear your turret shooting, and the sound it makes when you hit something isn't all that engaging.

On the level select, there is no point in showing the entire level grid, if you can't select previous levels to play. This may come in handy, say if the player wanted to farm a bit to get stronger, as as the gold gains per level don't seem all that encouraging.

Consider awarding bonus Gold when clearing a level depending on the player's performance. Some quick ones that come to mind are passing the wave
- without taking any damage;bonus awarded if your hit accuracy exceeds a certain percentage;
- with a certain accuracy to shots fired to enemies hit
- clearing wave in a certain time.

One thing I do like is that you don't have to worry about ammo, sometimes, it takes me many tries to finally hit a square with these tiny bullets. However, it does get a little easier when you buy the Bullet Spread.

I think the biggest challenge to your design is that it's not very engaging in the beginning. The tiny bullets will be a turn off to some, despite the power up (that costs 500, and the player can't get this anytime soon, by the way). It needs an edge to bring the player in more. I'd also consider introducing new enemies quicker, and don't 10 waves with the same ol' enemy.

__________________________
- Ziro out.

[Super ball LK 28]

Game Design Needs Improvement

Hey.

Pinball games should be full of gadgets, bumpers, bells and whistles to knock the ball around. Consider adding "mini-quests", where you need to collect certain "lights" or hit a certain sequence of bumpers in order to unlock other areas of the table or award extra bonus points. Sound effects and graphics should be more engaging, as well.

I presume the "More Games" button should direct the browser to another site, but when I click it, it doesn't do anything.

You may be using Stencyl to simplify your development workflow, but there is no substitute for good game design. The mechanics of your game are good, and the physics seem solid, the game just needs a well thought out design to make it shine.

Good skill. (:

__________________________
- Ziro out.

[Force LK 28]

Needs Some Adjustments

Hey.

The height of you game play area is too large, considering the fact that you can't move up and down. Player's ship should be placed closed to the bottom of the game play area; there's so much unused space. Sound effects should be more engaging, as should explosions. Enemies could be better, too. Consider adding more enemy types.

When I die, there is a glitch in your game ending transition. The game play area appears to reset, but then fades and presents the to the high score UI.

Consider taking a look at Lost Garden's free art for better graphics, lots of different projectile sprites, and various enemy ships. Those should fit your game nicely for what you are doing.

Good skill.

_________________________
- Ziro out.

[Zombies In Your Backyard]

Cool Shooter

Hey.

The first half of the game is a bit frustrating, due to the fact that zombies will eventually muscle up on you, as your guns aren't strong enough, and the slow reload times. The most frustrating thing was the collision detection. There are times when I was nowhere near touching the zombie, and I got hit. This is especially true when you're trying to jump over them.

While I feel the M16 is the best gun, it runs out of ammo too quickly. I do like how various guns affect your movement and jump ability too. With the minigun, you're basically a rock, lol. However, this gun also makes the game too easy.

The pixel art graphics were done well. One thing I would have liked to see was the progression of the day from day to night as the level goes on. The music and sound effects were good too.

The game does add a little bit more to the traditional fixed shooter, as you're not entirely restricted to a single spot, as you can move and jump around. The zombies do get too repetitive, especially in the later waves, with so many of those smaller zombies coming at you. It seems like it would be difficult to expand upon, due to the limited space available.

Otherwise, cool game.

____________________________
- Ziro out.

[The Visitor Returns 2011]

Cool

Hey.

The graphics, animations, and illustrations are stellar in this game.

Gameplay and Design:
At first, it took me a while to get past the first level, but it wasn't too difficult. The biggest help is the fact that the mouse changes to the hand cursor when you move over items you can interact with - otherwise, the game would have been much more dense.

The final scene was the best, as there are several ways to win, and several ways to lose also. Perhaps take this concept and expand it to more areas of the game for various ways to solve each scene.

Overall, great game.

__________________________
- Ziro out.

[William and Sly 2]

Cool Game

Hey.

The game was put together very well. The graphics are outstanding, and they, along with the music, fit very well with the theme of the game. Controlling the fox is also solid. The animations are very fluid, and the particles add a nice touch of polish. I also like how the music tends to come and go as well.

One thing was the game seemed a little slow, in regards to moving the player. It's not pertaining to performance; I just felt the player's fox moves in slow-motion _just_ a little bit.

The challenges lie in the overall concept. I think there should be more to the game than just the "easter egg hunt". Finding pixies is cool, and when I demolish rocks, I would think it would perhaps open a passage underneath (which hopefully, wouldn't just lead to more mushrooms, or another key), other than revealing another entity that I apparently can't do much with at the time. Discovering hidden passages to find mushrooms is fine, but unlocking a chest just to get three of them was just silly. That tends to take away the incentive to keep going each time. What I enjoyed most was racing to free a pixie with the fire, as that puts a little action into this platformer, that is otherwise "Platformer - Puzzle", rather than "Platformer - Other". (:

When you rescue pixies, I like how they follow you around. However, they get to jump in mid are and jump through walls. I wanna do those things. T_T (lol)

I presume your reasons were it makes the AI easier to keep up with the payer, and you don't have to deal with the issues that games like Sonic and Tails had on Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (if you remember and played that game).

I also like how you can control your character while having the map open. That's especially helpful when you're backtracking.

Overall, a very nice game, a very cool game, soldier.
* salutes *

___________________________
- Ziro out.