Zir0's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Glass Fish Rhythm]

Pretty Good Game

Hey.

=======================
Audio
=======================
- Chiptune music for an old-school style game. Your compositions are pretty good. (-:

- I'm especially glad you chose not to make something that wasn't all Techno, Trance, or Drum-n-Bass... I'm so sick of hearing those.

- Only issue was, I would have chosen a different type of music for the Haunted Ship level. Ya know, something a bit more "spooky" if ya know what I mean.

- Yes, you're right. Sounds MUCH better with headphones! :-D

=======================
Graphics
=======================
- Again, nicely done old-school pixel art. Your artist, rossthesauce, did a good job, in my opinion. Lots of intricate details. At first, I thought these graphics were ripped. :-P

=======================
Controls
=======================
- I don't see why so many people are blasting the controls. there is NOTHING wrong with them. There was obviously a "friction" system implemented here. I presume some people were expecting the character to instantly move at full speed as in typical games. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the friction makes it more challenging, this being an avoid'em type game.

=======================
Gamepley
=======================
- Not the most original concept, but I can assure you: a game doesn't need to have an original idea or storyline to be a FUN game. (-:

- Only two big issues here:
1). The game is way too short. Sure, it took me several tries to finish each level but the game really wasn't that hard. In fact, it was a bit easy, once you learn the obstacles on each level.

2). I personally don't agree with giving awards that encourage poor performance in games, such as dying. Getting squished, eaten by sharks, weren't all that appealing to me. Getting an award for merely pausing the game wasn't satisfying at all, and the "Noob" award felt like an insult.

- I really like how you synchronized the events in the game to the music, even the "beat" of the player's fish! :-D

- Building from the previous two notes, it kinda felt like I was rehearsing, especially when you keep dying and have to start over. Eventually, with practice, you'll make it. (-:

=======================
Notes / Polish / Other
=======================
- The placement of the wizard in his giant whale machine seems a bit off. Check it out, especially when the whale's mouth is closing. It doesn't look like he would fit in that space, lol.

- I noticed this when during the dialog just before you fight you the Wizard at the end. If you click the Skip button while he is using his lightning on that other fish character, the lightning gets stuck.

Overall, nice game, soldier. Pay no attention to the haters - those who blast our works without providing any real, constructive feedback.

* salutes *

______________________
- Ziro out.

[Memoir: Text Adventure]

Nice "Game"

Hey.

Good text game. Your stats affect the outcome of the decisions you make, and decisions affect the stats, which was good.

The slideshow was distracting, so I turned it off. Also, the text on the buttons, especially the red one, was hard to read, especially the top line of text in the button. The top of the button and the text color were both white.

Having different music as the life goes on would have been nice, too, but I like how you can adjust the volume of the music. Not a big deal, though.

I also thought that some more jobs could there, such as professional athlete, or VIDEO GAME MAKER!! Woot! :-D

But alas, there was no video game maker... T_T

:-)

My biggest thing was, I didn't always agree with the outcomes of decisions (or the list of decisions presented for a given situation), or even the decisions presented for that matter though, but that's just me. :-)

Made it to age 110, heh!

Good game, soldier.
* salutes *

______________________
- Ziro out.

[Battle System]

Still a W.I.P.

Hey.

While a finished product would be preferred, here are some notions I highly recommend for the finished product.

=====================
Graphics
=====================
- First and foremost, please remove the ripped sprites and use 100% freeware art or original artwork.

- For the limit attack, stick to one type of art for a consistent look. It's obvious that the planet and moon are not sprites.

=====================
Gameplay
=====================
- The attacks and spells are too weak, and the Limit attack is too powerful.

- The Limit attack is waaaay over-dramatic, and something like that should have killed both you and the dragon, regardless of HP.

- The game speed it too slow. I hope it will speed up in te final release.

- I presume you'll have multiple characters to use, as well as multiple monsters to battle, as well as making it non-turn-based. This one-on-one, turn-based, can't-see-your-own-player is so Dragon Warrior 1.

=====================
Audio
=====================
- Same as graphics - drop the ripped sounds and music.

There is much work to be done. You've got big shoes to fill if you're going to make a game of this caliber.

I wish you good skill on the project; you've definitely got your work cut out for you.

_____________________
- Ziro out.

Psyreaper responds:

I'm aware a finished product would have been better I just wanted some opinions on this first.

- since when were ripped sprites an issue? you see megaman and all sorts over the place here.

- too powerful? you are dropping the moon on him you know, thats gonna hurt.

- The limit break isn't to be taken seriously, there are several similar things which would easily kill others nearby in other games.

- of course multiple monsters will be available in a finished thing, real time battles are a bit out of my scripting knowledge though.

- Ripped audio shouldn't be a major issue either, though your want for original content is understandable

I'll do my best to balance it out and make the battles faster, thanks for the review.

[Sharp Shooter Part-I]

Needs Lots of Work

Hey.

Gameplay - Nothing very engaging here. Include different types of weapons, powerups. Perhaps, include a health system or something. Monsters go right through you.

Graphics - Needs lots of improvement on monsters and backgrounds.

Controls - Probably the best aspect of the game. Very simple controls. Just point and click.

Audio - Only one sound effect from what I can tell - the gunshot, and it gets monotonous and annoying. Include some sounds when the monsters get hit and die, but due to such limited gameplay, there's not much to improve upon until the gameplay itself improves.

Notes/Polish/Other - Your Mochi preloader is glitched. The loader bar des not reflect the actual amount of content loaded, and then it disappears well before the bar has reached full.

_______________________
- Ziro out.

[Medieval Rampage 2]

Nice Game

Hey.

Very nicely polished game here. (-:

==================
Gameplay
==================
- Nice smooth arena-type, shoot-em-up, however, I think a more adventure-based game (large areas to explore, etc., as opposed to the arena type would be better.

- IMHO, it isn't much different than Cell Warfare though. :-P

- The enemies could have had better AI. They should be able to go around things, and not just make a B-Line for the player each time. Yes, some enemies have ranged attacks, spells, death conditions and what not, but the AI is still pretty simple, and it gets a bit repetitive.

==================
Graphics
==================
- Nicely graphics. The UI looks and in-game details look great!
:-D

==================
Controls
==================
- While the player's character responds well, the game should allow the player to reassign some of these keys.

- Since you can press the I key to access the inventory, you should probably also press this same key to close it, instead of having to use the mouse, unless I am missing something.

==================
Audio
==================
- The sound effect were alright, however, they just didn't do this game too much justice. For example, the screen shaking was a nice effect, but the sound should be a little more ominous to reflect that.

- I think having a few different pices of music to reflect the environment would have been nice. I eventually muted it.

==================
Notes/Polish/Other
==================
- Achievements: Having them in a game is fine, however, you should focus on quality over quantity. Getting achievements for things such as walking in goo, pausing the game, play for 5 hours, reaching a dead end, and things like that were pointless. Keep the achievements for accomplishing real tasks; things that require actual in-game skill, and something that would really take some observatio, and make the player feel special after doing it. Same with medals. I was not at all impressed just for slaying my first enemy. I think Newgrounds user illwillpress expressed it best with his movie, "Achievements":
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view /489815

- When switching weapons and what not, it would be nice if you could "swap" them in one move, instead of two.

- The game should allow the player to mute music and sounds separately. I wanted to mute only the music and keep the sounds, but unfortunately, it mutes both; thus I was playing in silence. )-:

- The Bestiary and level editors is a nice touch.

- Regarding game performance: I am pleased to report that I encountered no lag or ActionScript run-tim error messages :-)
(I use the Debug version of Flash when evaluating Flash games).

- There was obviously a lot of time put into this, and it's quite polished. Being the type of game it is, why not implement a "2D" sound system? The volume and panning of sounds would be adjusted according to how far away, and which side the source of sound is, relative the player.

Overall, very nice game, soldier.

* salutes *

___________________
- Ziro out.

[TMNT: Double Damage]

Good Game. Needs a Little More Tweaking

Hey.

Pretty good platform game. Don't see too many of these anymore. And you were "approached" by Ubisoft!? Not bad.

Gameplay
========
- It gets a bit repetitive, although I finished the game. There needs to be more content. The Turtles, while they have the special attack and the "shell attack", I think they should've had an the ability to toss some Shuriken or something. I also think they need some kind of upward-based attack, when those flying machines are coming at you from an angle.

- The AI of some of the enemies could have been better. Later in the game, you can just spring one of those "trap" platforms, and watch them all fall down to their doom.

- I think the ability to wall jump was introduced a little too late. Furthermore, this is where throwing something would have come in handy. When wall jumping, you're basically defenseless.

- The game was a little slow in my opinion. I'm not talking about performance (it ran well); I mean it was just poking along... needed to have a little more "action", if you know what I mean. Kind of goes with the lack of content note made earlier.

- The wall-jumping was nice, though. Felt like I'm play Ninja Gaiden!

Controls
========
- Could have been better in this area. It's difficult to attack enemies when they're on both sides, because basically, your Turtle is "frozen" while attacking. You should at least be able to get _some_ kind of movement, or speed up the attack animations.

- You should mention Spacebar for jumping, unless I missed it.

- Having variable-length jumps would be nice, too. Holding the button down longer would make your Turtle jump higher, while a light tap produces a small jump. I saw a few places in the game where that would have been helpful, such as on Lvl 13.

- When your Turtle is moving down a slope, or lands on a platform that is moving downward, he should stay "attached" to it, instead of making those little jumps. That didn't feel right to me. Hope that made sense.

Graphics
========
- Very nice retro-looking artwork here. Kudos to the Wendorf and Janes.

Audio
========
- Sound effects could have been better, especially when destroying machines. I expected a more ominous mangling of metal parts and explosions, instead of those simple "pops".

- The music was ok, but gets repetitive after a while. I eventually muted it. The compositions were alright.

Notes/Polish/Other
========
- The advertising was excessive, and in my humble opinion, once is enough. Definitely a shameless plug here, but I'm guessing you had no control over that.

- There are a few glitches that I experienced with muting audio. In the menu, there are separate options for muting music and sounds individually (which I think is a GREAT idea - I wish more games did this), there is only one mute icon in the lower tight corner of the game, and things get kinda messed up:

1). When I mute the music, I can't unmute it;
2). When I change the options via the menu, the icon does not reflect this change.

So, I'd say, either create a second mute icon, and have one for music, and one for sounds, or just remove the icon altogether, and fix the "unmute music" issue.

- There is also a collision glitch with the orange ground that you're supposed to avoid. Try this on Lvl 13. If you stand next to it and jump straight up, you'll get hit. Doesn't seem right to me. A similar issue occurs with the trap platforms. If you touch one from the side, instead of landing on top of it, it'll open.

- I also did't like how the position of your Turtle is instantly "reset" after you fall or touch the orange ground. There should be a delay of some sort, and/or have the screen actually scroll back to the "reset point", THEN place your Turtle. Hope that made sense.

- There is a glitch with Shredder on Lvl 15. When he did his jumping dash attack, he got stuck, and I beat him with a simple 34-hit combo.

Again, good game. Just fix up the glitches and rough edges! :-)

Whew! I got 81 characters left.

____________________
- Ziro out.

[Roof-Top Ninja]

Needs More Work

Hey.

Nice side-scroller fighting game, but it's very rough around the edges.

-------------
Graphics
-------------
- The graphics are ok. Not the best I've seen, even for simple graphics, but they're ok. The player's ninja doesn't seem to have the influence of running like a ninja. He should be leaning forward more. When he is running, he looks like he is on that Gazelle exercise tool.

-------------
Controls
-------------
- Quite easy to make the character execute.
- I would introduce variable jumping height, so the player can perform small jumps as well as large ones. I see that you can press the down arrow to sort of "shorten" the jump, but the player shouldn't have to press an additional key to do this.

Make it such that, when the player jumps, as long as they are holding the jump key, the character will continue to ascend, until the max jump height is reach. Should the player release the jump key before the max height is reached, then the character will begin to fall.

- Give the player the ability to do basic punch and kick attacks while in airborne.

-------------
Gameplay
-------------
- Is there an involved plot at all, or you're just jumping from rooftop to rooftop, with random fighting? When I reached the far right end, there was an arrow telling me to go left. o_O

- Can you regain health or no?

-------------
Audio
-------------
- The music is annoying and doesn't fit all all. Consider making it different for each of the different weather conditions.

- The sound effects, especially the impact sound, were rather rough and monotonous. With no way to mute and/or adjust volume for sounds or music, I just turned off my speakers.

-------------
Polish/Other
-------------
- When changing weather conditions, you may want to make
the clouds slowly fade out, instead of instantly vanishing.

- Regardless of the current weather or time of day, when I fall off the buildings, it changes to the cyan-colored sky. :-P It should stay the same color, for example, if I fall off the buildings at night, when the scene changes to the close-up of my ninja falling, the sky should stay the dark color.

- Give the player some sort of defense ability. It doesn't necessarily have to be blocking.

- As a ninja, I would think that he can somersault or something. I can see him jumping the way you have him now, if he jumps from a stationary position, however when running, consider changing that to a somersault. Then, assuming you added mid-air attacks, the stationary punch/kick moves could look different that the ones coming out of a somersault, and the somersaulting ones could be slightly stronger as well.

- Enemy ninjas can damage me just by running into me, lol For example, one guy had his back turned, and I touched him, and I got hurt. Since the characters in this game actually have attack frames, damage should only be taken when characters collide on those specific frames.

- Sometimes, before I turned down my speakers, I would hear the impact sound when no one was fighting. What's that all about? :-D

- The most useful move in the game was the basic punch, because it was the quickest. The extra moves weren't very helpful, and seemed more like embellishments. They could at least be stronger than the basic punch and kick. I didn't try the Flip Kick, because the game simply didn't keep my interested for that long, sorry.

So, I think there is _much_ work to be done, but it's still a good start.

Good skill, soldier. (-:
* salutes *
_________________
- Ziro out.

[Ultimate Tactics]

Cool Game

Hey.

Very nicely done game.

-----------
Controls
-----------
- No real issues with controls, but they could be smoothed out a bit. See below notes.

- When navigating the menus of places you visit, you could remove excess mouse clicking by allowing the player to return to the main menu, instead of exiting the menu altogether, then having to click on the location to enter again. Actually, you should have both choices available for all menus for which it applies.

- Another way to perhaps reduce excess mouse clicking (and again, this is for people adept at the game), is you could have the game use "most recent actions". For example, say you attack an enemy using any arbitrary attack (or spell). The game would "remember" this action. On that party member's next turn, if you want to repeat the action, all you'd have to do is click on the enemy, and as long as all the prerequisites are met (MP, range, etc), the member will execute.

- Another mouse-click reducer would be to simply make the Save dialog automatically disappear when the game saves successfully. Only keep it up, say, if there was an error during saving.

- A keyboard-based control system, especially in the battle systems, would be faster, at least for me. I suspect that I'm not alone on this. You should include mouse and keyboard support. (-:

-----------
Gameplay
-----------
- I'm sure there are many playera who are familiar with this type of gameplay (Final Fantast Tactics, etc.), and are quiet adept at it. For them, I'd recommend including an option to adjust the battle/UI speed. The transitions are a much too slow, and I feel like I'm playing in slow motion.

- While in battle, consider allowing the player to view the stats of any party member, even if it is not that member's turn.

- Is there a way to escape battles?

- Can you parry or defend? Say, you don't want a party member to do anything for the turn, so youcould just put them on defense or something.

- The lock picking is a nice touch.

- The Inn cost of 50G for starting out is a quite high, though.

- If you make a mistake during a member's turn, perhaps consider a "redo" option. For example, say you wanted to move into range then use a ranged attack, but you miscalculated, and your out of range by maybe one step. So, you want to cancel the move, and maybe move away from the target, or move fewer steps closer, so even when the target moves, it still won't be in range to attack your member.

- Takes a bit long to level up, especially with such a slow battle system. :-P

-----------
Audio
-----------
- The music and sound effects provided are fine.

-----------
Graphics
-----------
- The graphics look all right good and the isometric tiles well done very well.

- I'd make the tiles look more seamless, though, so they don't look like obvious tiles (unless that is what you were going for). The use of several different tile types to reduce monotonousness is a good touch. However, this is not true for the trees. Include a few different types. (-:

- Consider changing the background of the battle scenes. Anything looks better than simple gradients. :-) Of course, this would have to be something subtle so that is not too distracting.

-----------
Notes/Polish/Other
-----------
- The design is quite polished and seems to have been thought out. From the menu transitions to the UI, it's pretty good. ;-)

- Some additional polish would be to have characters and enemies make little sounds when they move around. (-:

- Consider including an option to adjust the volume and/or muting music and sound effects separately.

- You should include some dialog before Kage joins you. You visit the town, and he suddenly joins your party. :-P

- Include sloping tiles for tiles on higher and lower depths, instead of blocks. Hope that makes sense.

Very good game, soldier. (-:

________________
- Ziro out.

[Rocky Rider]

Nice Game

Hey.

This being a monster truck-type game, I would have focused on smashing things rather than simple racing, or at least, have some AI trucks to race against or _something_.

The graphics look fine.

The controls seem a bit too sensitive. For example, the truck flips over too easily, even when going at slow speeds.

I found that you can press P to pause and unpause the game. This is good that you have a key to do this, as the game is keyboard based. So, please include this in the How to Play section as well.

There are a few grammatical errors in your "How to Play" section. Let me know if you to go over them, and I'd be happy to help you correct them.

The game is _very_ weak in the sounds department. It needs more sound effects to make it more engaging.

At first, I didn't notice the "Finish" indicator at the end of the levels. I'd make that stand out more. Furthermore, consider slowing the truck to a complete stop, instead of suddenly exiting the level.

Consider adding support to mute the music and sounds separately.

Why is the game almost 10MB? It doesn't seem like it should be that large based on what is presented. Perhaps your media could use some optimizing? Are your songs very large, or perhaps there lots of level data?

This game seems more like an exploit of a physics engine than anything, and almost everything else was an afterthought.

Other than those, it's a nice game.

_________________
- Ziro out.