Zir0's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Super Defense Force(Derp)]

Cool Game

Hey.

This game is pretty good. The artwork looks great, as do the animations, and music, and I also like how you can change the colors of your player. Some of the sounds could be better, especially the impacts, but they're fine. The characters would have looked better if they had actual running animations, instead of the sliding effect.

The controls are the biggest challenge for me to get used to. For the most part, they're pretty good and the player is responsive. It guess it takes some getting used to attack someone behind you, as your player takes a step back to allow time to do the "reverse" attack. More often, I'd rather just turn around, and do my normal attack instead of the reverse. I don't like the jump attacks, though. Martialalist tends to float, and Majokko and Ravedge do a little bobs when they attack. I'm sure this was by design.

Martialalist was my favorite. Needs some kind of throwing attack though... toss an enemy into other enemies. >:)

You gave him the Hadoken? Actually, that's cool, but you shudda gave him the Dragon Punch, haha (:

I was hoping the hard mode would actually have smarter computer AI, rather than simply increasing numbers and spawning stronger enemies more often, but oh well. Normal was more enjoyable. Good seeing "You dead" too, although I knew that one was comin'; was expecting the voice though. (:

Sandbag mode was a good idea. (:

By the way, I've never had problems using Escape key in any of my Flash games, and it worked well here.

Nice game, Ace.

_______________________
- Ziro out.

AcetheSuperVillain responds:

Ah, the good ol' Ziro report. Most of things you picked up on are things that I plan to fix once it's really "finished" and not a (Derp Test).

As for turning around, I used that method because i think it feels odd when you and your opponents can turn around instantly. In a realistic situation, you'd want to try attacking from behind or guard your blindspot, but this is useless when they can turn instantly. It also gives me more potential move inputs, and thus more potential moves.

I would love to add throws for all characters, but I'm not 100% sure of what really happens with the game objects during a beat 'em up throw.

As for Dragon Punch (I know it as Shoryuken) that will appear when I get around to doing aerial attacks.

Hard mode's AI starts with 0 reaction time. Normal mode will go from 20 to 0 over the course of play, so once you have beaten about 20 groups in Normal it is exactly the same as Hard. Hard basically just a shortcut to the "fun part".

I can add the "You Dead" voice back if you miss it. Usually people just complain about it so I didn't bother.

[Path-o-Gen 1.1]

Cool Shooter

Hey.

Graphics, animation, sounds were done very well. Good job to you and your team.
The overall gameplay and design were also done well, there are just a two things I didn't agree with:

- Recording accuracy. If this were some sniping game or otherwise placed emphasis on skill in aiming with the mouse, then yeah, recording accuracy would be neat. However, this seems more like a shoot-em-up, bullets flyin' everywhere type of game (not that there's anything wrong with those, by the way), and I can't help but feel just a little punished for being a little trigger happy. I would have instead like to see some other type of performance-based stat, say how long you can go without getting hit, or how quickly you can kill the Fat Bacteria or something like that.

- Having to start from the very beginning each time. I know it's endurance and all, but I never liked having to do that unless I wanted to. Some checkpoint system would have been nice. Of course, you probably have to design a system that accommodates for this, so that it can't be abused.

Onto some other aspects I liked:
- Ability to adjust volume for music and sounds individually. I love this in games.
- Ability to pause. On top of that, since the game controls are keyboard-based, I can actually unpause the game using the keyboard as well, instead of having to take my hand off and use the mouse. (Although it sorta falls apart with the menu, though. This is a challenge to try and rectify in Flash games (: )

(Basically, game is quite user-friendly)

- Smooth controls and two sets of movement controls. While the spacebar was fine for me for shooting, maybe add another key for shooting as well.
- Going the extra mile to draw all the various effects and poses for different actions, such as moving N/S/E/W for the player, taking damage (player and bacteria), and nullified projectiles.

Again, great job, soldiers. Keep it up.

* salutes *

_____________________
- Ziro out.

WSquared responds:

Thanks a ton for the feedback! I dig your ideas for the different stat recording bonuses. As for starting at the beginning, if this were a game that consisted of different levels I'd be all for checkpoints. We're actually working on a different project that will incorporate this. We terminated development on Path-o-Gen prematurely to jump on some hot leads, else this would have been a much more robust experience. Glad you enjoyed it!

[Dino Extermination]

Nice Theme, but has some Errors

Hey.

Nice game; I like how you gave the player some defense instead of just another avoider game. You may want to consider allowing the player an easy way to skip the intro. Add a skip button, hit some key or something.

I receive several ActionScript run-time error messages throughout the game.

- When I click the Back button from the INstructions screen I get this:
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
at DinoExtermination_fla::MainTimeline/g oback()

- When I click the Play button on the title screen, I get this:
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
at DinoExtermination_fla::MainTimeline/s peel()

- During play, when destroy a comet, this message shows:
ArgumentError: Error #2025: The supplied DisplayObject must be a child of the caller.
at flash.display::DisplayObjectContainer /removeChild()
at DinoExtermination_fla::MainTimeline/m oveChar()

- Lastly, when I click the retry button, I repeatedly get this message:
TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
at DinoExtermination_fla::MainTimeline/c heckdood()

Using Firefox 4 and Flash Debug player 10.2.

I think the level is just a little too long, and perhaps consider allowing the player a way to regain shots, Maybe replenish one after some time interval, add an item.

Other than those, it looks fine.

_____________________
- Ziro out.

j-enom responds:

Yeah i thought about recharging the ammo and i also had a shield which was a half dinosaur egg shell on his head... these things made the game too easy though and i would've had comments about how short and easy the game was, this just adds up to the challenge.

About the errors.. Yeah they appear in my output pallet in flash too, but since the game worked i didn't really bother to fix it, i don't really know how actually.

Thanks for the review :)

[zOMGies 2]

Very Nice Game

Hey.

If you're into a side-scrollin', zombie-shootin', action and skill game, _this_ is the game you want to be playing.

- Graphics, animations and effects all look nice.
- The sounds and music fit nice too. The voice acting was good. I like when he says, "Get off me!". Would have liked something like "RAWR!" in there, especially when you're on a roll.
- I like how to took the extra time to actually draw a different pose for the player when he is aiming behind, instead of just rotating the arm and being done with it. (:

Weapons
- In the early levels, the "bullet-based" weapons are enough. In the later levels, they become pretty much obsolete, which is understandable.
- The aim radii are nice too and I like how they vary for each weapon, even changing size on the same weapon.
- For most of the game, I found the combo Machine/Chain Gun as primary weapon + Flame Thrower as secondary weapon easiest to beat most levels. In the end, Flame Launcher + Mine became my weapons of choice.
- In my opinion, weapons like the Ice and Telsa have cool effects, but are mostly for comic relief and didn't help too much.
- The Rocket Launcher is way powerful, and seems more like a Rail gun, balanced by it's slow rate of fire. I like the fact that the shot doesn't count if it wouldn't have hit anything.
- I like the Sniper Rifle. This one is obviously easiest to get headshots with. My only problem with it was its rate of fire is too slow. I'd rather have this weapon fire manually as you press the mouse button. When I use this weapon, I feel like I just want to target LOTS heads and blow them off as fast as I can, but this can't be done in the later levels, because you get swarmed.

Gameplay
- My biggest issue was the player's running speed. Just a little too slow. It's pretty much impossible to tey and catch an item if it's already passed you.
- I like how you award headshots, and unlike other shooting games, your shot doesn't have to be pixel perfect in order to get a headshot.
- Various zombies with different strengths and abilities. Those little ones look like miniature Homer Simpson zombies, and they remind me of the Toms from Kung Fu. (:
- The vehicles are cool too. You ramped up the zombie rate when in a vehicle, which makes sense, and I also like how you handled what happens when your vehicles is gone: those zombies that were part of the "vehicle-raid" will just drop off the screen to the left and you don't even have to worry about them.
- Seems that most side scrollers go from left to right. A right-to-left direction on some of the levels might have been interesting. (:
- Ending left a little to be desired, although I never used the Nuke. I'm guessing you get better endings with better progress throughout the game?

From the art, to voice responses for various events, to weapons and combat, and overall gameplay this is a very nice game. Keep it up, soldiers.
5/5
* salutes *

_____________________
- Ziro out.

Jimp responds:

Thanks for the fantastic review! Glad someone appreciated drawing the guns at each angle, it was a pain :)

[Cretaceous Reserve]

Not too Shabby for a First Game

Hey.

So, I'll get straight to it (long list) - you may want to get a coffee (:

1) In your comments:
"... sometimes you fall through platforms, this issue is purely caused by lag and can be fixed by turning the quality to low... "

Are you using vector or raster graphics? Also, what is your rendering method? I presume you are adding the entire level to the display list. If you're having performance issues, I recommend checking out 8bitrocket.com. These guys wrote the book (literally) on optimizing rendering. (:

I could see if this were a network game, some performance issues might be expected. However, for what you're describing, you shouldn't be passing the "solution" off tho players. That's ultimately the responsibility of the developer/programmer.

2) Consider allowing the player to move with the WASD keys. Since most people are right-handed, the arrow keys and mouse are both on the right side of their keyboards, and this makes control awkward.

3). I notice that this game allows you to play before it has finished loading. When I do this, no music plays, and when I click on the dinos, they won't talk to me.

4). The dino dialog is a bit hard to read. Consider adding more of a contrast between the text and dialog window colors.

5). When you talk to lore-osaur, he says this:
"Whenever a dinosaur has children, they eat most of it's young..."
There is a subject/verb disagreement. Either change dinosaur to "dinosaurs", OR change they to "its". Also, "it's" should be spelled "its".

6). When you talk to the dino that tells you about the ladders, that word is misspelled. It should be "ladder", not "latter".

7). The dino that says this:
"... when you level up, you get can increase..."
I'm guessing "get" was put in by accident. (:

8). On the attributes HUD, get rid of the generic font used for the TextField objects that show the attribute values. Use the same font used for the "Jump height", label.

9). The player dino climbs ladders way to fast.

10). This dialog:
".. the rumors of a revoltution..."
Revolution is misspelled. Also, in the same dialog, insert a space between "of" and "the", at "... one of the winged...".

"...beeting up some dinosaurs..."
lol

11). I like the BGMs you used. They really fit. Just fix up the loops a bit. I also like how you can mute the music. (:

12). Add some sound effects, especially when battling. Also, when battling, I would implement a less punishing battle system when taking damage, instead of making enemy dinos simply drain your health when you collide with them. A more elaborate system would be nice, like maybe biting or ramming. Perhaps some dinos are vulnerable to ramming, some to jumping on, and some to biting. (:

13). Level design - Eliminate those giant "leaps of faith", where the player can't see where they are going, unless you _always_ put some kind of indicator (like the first arrow you did).

14). When the player dies, don't just instantly restart the game. Add some kind of effect and a short delay. It's disorienting and feels punishing.

15). The collision detection needs a bit of work. I could be _behind_ a dino, barely touching him, and his attack still hurts me. You'll need to do more that mere hit tests.

16) When in the carnival, fix the bouncing logic. It seems to instantly put the player in hte air, and he falls from there, instead of actually performing a "bounce".

17) When you die in the carnival, I think it should put you back at the carnival start point.

18) If I die when the music is muted, it's set back on on the next life. It should stay off.

I'm sure there's probably many more issues I could find, but I think you have your work cut out for you, Again, not too shabby, just rough around the edges.

Good skill.

* salutes *

_____________________

- Ziro out.

Aarlon responds:

Thanks, many of the things you covered (such as all the combat stuff) will be included if I make a second game. I was was aware of both the trampoline and music problems, but I can't really help that. For sure I'll fix any and all typos you mentioned. As to those "leaps of faith" you mentioned, I'd love it if you pointed the ones I missed out. As the developer of the game, the game, it's a lot harder to spot them since I know where everything is. Anyway, I really appreciate the in depth review. The best I got on kongregate was "this game suks i hav no faith in humanity" .

[Hungry Fish - Touch]

Interesting Game

Hey.

I get this Actionscript run-time several times throughout the course of play:

TypeError: Error #1009: Cannot access a property or method of a null object reference.
at Events::CEventProgram/handle_Event()
at Objects::CExtension/generateEvent()
at MethodInfo-3902()

It happens when:
- I adjust the audio controls
- the game is over
- restarting the game

Using Flash Debug Player 10.2, and Firefox 4.

Music didn't seem to fit, but I like how you can turn music off and just have the sounds.

There are times, when I can't seem to outswim a bigger fish, thus I wouldn't stand a chance, no matter what I did.

Other than that, the game is fine. (:

_______________________
- Ziro out.

SoftWarewolf responds:

thank you :) i am using a runtime and don't really have control over those bugs, i hope they are not making the game unjoyable in any way.

to avoid the big green: keep to the bottom left, outsmart him
to avoid the huge one: play faster so you can go to the next level before he eats you!

[Silentium Universi]

Cool Game

Hey.

I had fun playing this old-school game. (:

Graphics:
- The graphics overall looked pretty good.
- I thought the explosions should have been a more ominous.

Controls:
- Nice, solid controls. It's great that you provided both mouse and keyboard. However, for me, it was keyboard for the win! >-)

Audio:
- I think this area of the game needed the most improvement. There are enough sound effects, and the player shooting and explosion sound gets a bit monotonous. Also, sometimes, I notice that the player shooting sound tens to "double up" if that makes any sense. After a short while, it returns to normal. Not sure if that's intentional or not.
- While I though the music loops sounded awesome, I thought they were a bit short, even for loops. Nonetheless, I really liked the boss song. (I had to look up bebeto, and find that track [loop018.wav, lol]).

Polish / Other:
- Needs more sounds. Things like:
-- collecting power-ups (different power-ups would have different sounds)
-- perhaps changing the player shooting sound as your weapon gets stronger
-- taking damage
-- bad guy deaths - try not to give just one explosion sound to each bad guy
-- boss death should be much more engaging
-- damage effect when you damage bad guys
Just a few ideas.

- I REALLY like how, not only can you remap the controls, but you can also assign more than one key for most actions.

- Would have like to see a better weapon system. Strengthening the existing weapon system is good, but I'd like more types of weapons, and maybe some super weapon you can charge up or something, and maybe a special shield that can reflect projectiles back.

- I like how you can adjust the volume of the music and sound individually.

- I might suggest removing the countdown timer for resuming play for "advanced" players. Maybe have that as an option, too, but perhaps enable it by default.

- Stages were a bit short, and I would have liked to see a few more bad guy types. (:

You and your team did a good job here, soldier.
* salutes *
|-:

(That boss music gonna be in my head all night. Dangit!! lol)

_____________________
- Ziro out.

redjag responds:

Thanks for the well-thought out review, I really appreciate you taking the time to do that. I agree with most/all of your points, too. Sounds are something that I have absolutely no skill with.. when I hear a sound effect I can tell you whether or not it fits but not much else. I found the majority of the sound effects on freesound.org and then played with them in Audacity but again, I have no skillz :P Anyway, thanks again for all the feedback/suggestions - if we do a sequel or level pack I will definitely keep it in mind.

[Cruz]

Nice Old-School Game

Hey.

First off, glad you were able to fix the loading issue I PM'd you about. I don't vote on games (especially voting them down) just because they won't load. Actually, by the time, I read your reply, I had already visited your profile, found the link to your website, and played it there. (:

Nonetheless, on to the review.

- Regarding the fonts: The fancy font is a little had to read.You definitely have the room, so I'd make them a bit bigger, or use a different font altogether. The dialog text (what the player says): Use something other than a "normal" looking text. This being an old-school game, it probably would look better if all the fonts were bitmaps, and blitting was used to render them.

- When you unpause the game and it zooms out, is there a way to undo the zoom without moving your character or using items?

- Sometimes, it's hard to locate your character at the start of a zoomed out level without taking a hit, using whip, etc. Maybe add a bigger visual notification or something like that.

- Unless I missed it, consider adding an option to mute the music, while keeping the sound effects.

- Consider allowing the player to save use a SharedObject instead of a code, or at least add the option in addition to your current saving design. Not that the music sounds bad or anything (it's good), just makes a more user-friendly game (some players still might to mute it for whatever reason, though).

- I like how you can use the mouse to navigate your player. Just curios, what path-finding algorithm did you use? (:

- Would have like to see the screen seamlessly follow the player.

Overall, cool game, soldier. This will definitely keep someone busy for those who are really into this. (:

* salutes *

___________________________
- Ziro out.

Appetite4 responds:

Very helpful, Zir0! This is good feedback, and I'm glad you didn't give up entirely due to the loading issue (resolved within 10 minutes of upload).

Unfortunately, lots of folks sounded off within that first 10 minutes, before your bug report!

I will say, I'm upset the alternate URL wasn't posted anywhere on the NG portal submission guidelines. I had tested cross-domain loads before uploading to NewGrounds, but there was no information that would lead me to believe newgrounds.com wouldn't be the source location. Well, you live and learn.

Path-finding? Well, it's similar to Diablo II, with these exceptions:
1) Player doesn't follow direct line-of-sight shortcuts; usually not a big deal.
2) Two types of traversal assessments: "safe" and "hurried."
3) Gravity considerations in "sideways" levels. This one was tough, having the player know when and where to climb. And admittedly, it needs some work.

The full version of Cruz awaits!

[Alloy Tengu]

Nice Game

Hey.

===========================
Gameplay
===========================
- Overall, it's a nice game. Like your previous game, Fortress of Fantasm, it lies just on the borderline between challenging and frustrating.

- The two transformation modes are a cool. Seems like the ship can fly faster, and doesn't take so much damage, but the humaniod mode can turn quicker, and can move quicker in reverse. However, I spend most of my time in ship mode, because the quick some enemies are really aggressive, and stay on you. Even with the faster turning speed, it seems I can't move out of their line of fire, turn and get a few shots, turn and move away again without getting hit.

- The AI allies are cool, too.

===========================
Graphics
===========================
- The pixel art looks really good.
- The only thing is, the font you used for the title, "Victory", etc. While it looks great, it looks like vector art.

===========================
Controls
===========================
- The modified Asteroids-style controls take some getting used to. (: I still wish I could strafe, though.

===========================
Audio
===========================
- Music sounds good.
- Explosions could be a little louder to make the game more engaging.

===========================
Notes/Polish/Other
===========================
- Are the enemies randomly generated? The highest level I made it to was 24. Some of the levels seem really hard, while other times, when playing the same levels, they are easy.

- When you die, the "you dead" text looks weird, because it's not in the center of the screen. Same with the "victory" text. Not sure if that's by design or not.

Again, cool game ya got there, soldier.
* salutes *

As you were.

_____________________________
- Ziro out.

AcetheSuperVillain responds:

Thanks for extensive review (I'm surprised they allow them that long). Glad you're enjoying it. I'll address some key points:

- Unfortuneately, challenging, frustrating and too easy are not universal concepts. I prefer to air on the side of too hard because I HATE action games that are too easy.

- I'm glad you think the ship (fighter mode) is more useful, since I find myself favoring the humanoid (warrior mode). I was worried because if one mode is too superior, it defeats the purpose of having a transformation system in the first place.

- The freshbot font has been Alloy Tengu's title font since 2005, so sorry, but we're stuck with it. (I think it is a vector now that you mention it) The other fonts and title bg are more retro looking than I would usually use.

- I thought about allowing strafing by holding or toggling Ctrl, but I feel this would be choice overload. In the last game, 2DX, you could drift and auto-target, which were good for many of the same situations, so you might see those return instead.

- The enemy groups are indeed randomly generated. The general quantity increases each round, so you can theoretically keep playing this version forever, but the lag would kill you off before you got too far. Future games will not duplicate this, unless it's an extra mode or something.

Thanks for playing, and thanks again for the feedback.

[Sub Hunter]

Reminds me of Atari's Air Sea Battle. (:

========================
Controls
========================
- Here's my main issue of the whole game: I found it quite difficult to actually move enemy projectiles with my fish.

- I would have preferred the controls where I could use W to increase speed, and S to slow down (from the WASD scheme). When neither key is used, your ship would return to normal speed.

========================
Gameplay
========================
- The graphics are fine for a first game. Just get rid of those gradients in your next game, should you decide to do vector art again. :-)

- I like the idea that the fish can move projectiles without setting them off, killing itself, lol.

- It might be interesting to play with the idea of the fish causing a little mischief. Maybe, if the fish touches an enemy projectile, it could move it so that it would hit another enemy sub, and blow that one up, lol! But then, you'd have to get your fish out of the way, so he isn't blown up in the process. (:

- On some levels, perhaps make your ship come from the opposite side (left to right).

- Maybe add some power-ups for your fish. One could increase speed. Another one could make the fish a little bigger. This power-up could also make it easier to move enemy projectiles around, justifying how difficult it currently is to divert them.

========================
Audio
========================
- Consider adding a few different explosion sounds (similar of course), so the game won't sound so monotonous.

- When I use a nuke, and takes effect, the explosion sound plays sound over itself a bunch of times (I'm guessing once for each enemy ship). You should probably just make a unique sound play only once for this effect.

========================
Other
========================
- This on is regarding the help screen. When I bring it up during play, I was unable to dismiss it. Neither the icon, nor the F1 key worked. So, I had to keep restarting the Flash.

- On the "Login to access your MochiCoins wallet" window, when I click the Cancel button, it doesn't do anything.

- Add some bubbles! Everyone likes bubbles! :-D
- Add sound effects for when power-ups appear and when you collect them.
- Add a floating UI that briefly shows how many points you got for blowing up each ship.
- When the level ends, don't abruptly end it. Perhaps add a little beep or something during the last ten seconds (beeps once each second), then when the level ends, add a delay, and add some message. It looks more presentable and user-friendly.

Nice game.

__________________
- Ziro out.

framiq responds:

Thanks a lot for all the feedback! :-) I'll definitely have all that in mind and do a few updates ... and probably I'll even do a version 2 for the changes regarding the game play and fish itself.

By the way, I have just sorted out that bug (yes, my fault) with the help screen: it didn't occur to me that people would hit F1 again to dismiss it and it was putting the game into a bit of a help loop, ups! :-( Now you can dismiss the screen with F1, Esc or the button.
I have also increased a bit the area of influence of the fish when moving torpedoes as people were finding it a bit too difficult.