shinobody's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Stickformer [DEMO!]]

A) Get some music and sounds (from NG Audio Portal, or Freesound.org)
B) Make sure that players die if they fall (surround the map with trigger that kills you and restarts the level?)
C) Make sure there is some way to know which objects are fake. Having to guess "which block ahead is fake" with no hints or logic behind it is no fun. It's tedious.
D) Physics (collisions) suck to the point where game is unplayable.
E) Don't respond to criticisms "it's a demo". We know it. People tell what is bad in the game so you'll know what to fix in the full version.

hamza62240 responds:

OK, I am working on the restart box, more levels, bug fixes, fake object hints and more.

But sorry, i cannot fix the sound one cause i do not even know how to add sounds and i dunno why, YouTube is banned in my country O.O

[Slender 2D]

Buggy, slow, not scary, characters look too silly to be afraid of them, and rather than searching for free sounds and soundtrack (e.g. on FreeSound and NG Audio Portal) you ripped them of proprietary sources, and you didn't even even credit author of original Slender (Mark J Hadley, aka AgentParsec). So, you rip off someone's game - badly - and don't credit these people. Fuck this crap.

[LToE]

Well, this wasn't fun.
Reasons:
- game consisted of a chore of trying to get enough experience for next level. Except upgrades are too weak to give player feeling they are accomplishing anything, getting more powerful or making any progress. Basic difficulty of the game - being able to shoot (on autofire, so even without choosing *when*) only single bullet, with huge cooldown, and improbable aiming due to weird controls (was it hard to go with Asteroids scheme?) , and dying in one hit, is never nullified by any of the genes (except faster gunfire). You can't upgrade damage you deal, your hitpoints, amount of projectiles you emit, accuracy - you aren't really getting adjusted to your environment, which kinda defeats the idea of "evolution". Your accuracy is nil, so bigger or faster bullets won't help much - visibly increasing fire rate, allowing more bullets at once, manual aiming or homing bullets or just increasing damage could counteract this - but we get oversimplified boring linear upgrades instead. Bad graphics (it doesn't fit minimum to call them "minimalistic") and nearly nonexistent annoying sound are just final nail to the coffin.
I urge the author to play DN8 to see a GOOD shoot'em up with "evolution" theme.

[Kill those Ponies!]

Not bad game. Couple issues though:
- Show accuracy. While RD's hair changes nothing (except being kinda lulzy that character with "Rainbow" as a first name has nothing to do with rainbows) , but the fact that the yellow one is actually a pegasus would actually add more flying targets, adding more variety to the game.
- Weapons. Problem - Machine Gun is too useful, with rapid fire and 100 bullet mag, while Shotgun shoots too slow to be of any use. Grenade too, since you can't switch without going into cover. Deagles are best balanced weapon, IMO. Actually, cutting down SMG mag to 50 bulets, and allowing quickly switching weapons (e.g. with number keys) would possibly be enough.
- Difficulty. Game should become actually harder later on, but nothing changes - there are as many bronies, as many ponies, they are as quick. After some time games stops being a challenge and gets repetitive. Only problems I had when a brony spawned at the very edge of screen, but that didn't happen often enough to lose.

[Play By Heart]

It's funny that people complain about "gayness" when Dirk<3Jake is canon in Homestuck.

[Tequila Zombies 2]

Pretty racist, pretty sexist. Apart from that, not a bad game.

[A Tale of Colours]

The ending hints at sequel. It better be, because I haven't seen such lighthearted and cool metroidvania in a while. Honestly, this is a great game, even if it could use some polish.

[Eleventh Hour]

So, excuse story, bad gameplay, poor collisions, average graphics, bad timer coding (slower computers will get less time to finish), nothing really new, even the idea.

[Retriever]

AI is bad. I had no idea when I was noticed and why, enemies sometimes shot at me, sometimes they didn't. I was able to easily get through all the missions up to (and including) a train without firing a shot. And the reasons why I wasn't able to make that one - it seems Marines override normal rules of the game, since sometimes they shot me despite I was behind them, or immediately turn around and counter-attack while being hit (!). This makes them "challenging" in a bad way - going through them is pretty much luck.
As much as I like style of game, and it definitely has lot of potential - this game, in this version is average at best.

[ir/rational Redux]

Good idea, but leaps of logic are horrifying. How does protagonist even knows a) he's actually alive b) he's actually human? It kinda defeats the point of making game about person in state of philosophical uncertainty - protagonist's stance is heavily ignorant, too much relying on what is familiar, and complete inverse of philosophical one.
Also, there seem to be problems with controls, especially with the buttons and dropdowns. Honestly - people (amateurs) out there are making games with split second ten-button-at-once-pressed commands, and you fail at making a goddamn dropdown, interface standard that's been used in software since 90's? And we're in 2010's? That's a fail.
Also, I'm disappointed at the story. Or more like, lack of it.

tjubert responds:

Agreed. The sequel will be better!