EpicMooCow's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Greenie]

I thought this was kind of an unexciting platformer. One of the main issues I had with the game was the fact that moving gave you very little momentum, which resulted in boring movement. It also meant that you had to time your jump perfectly in some situations, which was incredibly lame.

This might just be me, but hidden blocks are not a good thing to add to a game. It just makes your game more about guessing and luck rather than actual skill. Hidden blocks are not puzzles, they are just annoying. It actually made me quit level 10. That's just lazy design.

I would also recommend adding WASD to the controls. I don't mind using arrow keys, but it's always nice to let the players play the way they want. The music is nice and with some work this game could have been much better.

Letmethink2 responds:

You can edit the controls to wasd in the controls menu

[Only One Chance]

One of the better Ludum Dare games I've seen. Considering this was made in 72 hours, this is pretty good. People underestimate the power of comedy in a game, and I feel like that's really what reeled me in this game at the beginning. I'd just like to commend you on that before I get started.

Considering the fact that there were two people in the game, you missed a lot of opportunities to take advantage of that. There were only two short situations in the game where the fact that there were two people was taken advantage of, which was disappointing. Adding more stuff to do with two people would have been a good idea.

Dialogue was made pretty poorly. For the most part, it went by a little too fast and it was kind of difficult to read. What was even worse is that with the amount of movement going on, I couldn't read what they were saying at all because the dialogue would just kind of overlap with each other. If you had placed the dialogue at the bottom of the screen instead, for example: "GIRL: I'm saying dialogue!" then it would have been a lot more convenient.

You had a pretty good story, which is pretty much the only way you can make a good game in 72 hours. However, the story could have been so much more. There was really no interaction between the two characters. On rare occasions, they would say a few words to each other, but other than that there was really nothing. So I didn't really feel any connection to the characters, which is something that's important to have, especially in a story-driven game. Let's be honest, this was a pretty basic platformer, so you need to have a good story to back it up.

The ending was terrible. Probably the worst ending you could have had, to be honest. Maybe it's because I didn't look for a secret ending, but you're just dumped into a box with music playing. There's no depth to it. The least you could have done was just a bit of dialogue between the two characters. You know how kids are forced to eat their vegetables for dessert? This is the equivalent of forcing kids to eat their vegetables for like an empty can of beans.

Beyond this, it was a pretty good Ludum Dare game. If you had added just a bit more dialogue, placed it at the bottom of the screen instead, and added a better ending, this would have been a five star game. Nice job, though. If this is something you can accomplish in 72 hours, I'd love to see what you can do given a few weeks.

johnfn responds:

Hey, thanks for the fantastic review, EpicMooCow. You've certainly given me a lot to think about, and I really appreciate you taking the time to write all this out. Such an excellent and thoughtful review kinda reminds me of Step from the audio portal's audio reviews, perhaps you are his alter ego (or he is yours!).

I'm gonna take all of this advice to heart. Thanks again, and sorry for the bad ending hahaha

[The Everloom]

- CONTAINS SPOILERS -

I came to this game ready to butcher it because it looked like it was another typical game with poor graphics and a poor story. I got the exact opposite. Phenomenal game all the way across the board. Great story, great music, great game play, great graphics. You completely nailed it, which is extremely hard to do with a flash game without action that is driven by story.

The game felt a little bit too linear. It was kind of just "take this item to here, get a new item, which you take over to here." You pulled it off, but I noticed it and it took away from the game a little bit. For a game that had the world open, it didn't feel like you had much opportunity to really explore. The game was just straight down to business the whole time and lacked any fluff for fun. It's not necessary, but it would have added to your game a bit. Adding a mini-game or a side mission here and there just for the sake of the player's entertainment would have been nice.

The very end was really disappointing. This wasn't a hint towards a sequel, this was a really cheesy shout that there will be a second game. For such a great game, that part just seemed a little half-assed to me. Rather than telling the player "HEY MAN LOOK I'M MAKING A SEQUEL LOOK AT THIS I'M DEFINITELY MAKING A SEQUEL SEE" give them a hint based on the story. For example, if something occurred within the story that would clearly bring the main character back into a dream.

Other than that though, this was a great game. If you're making an Everloom 2, I'd definitely keep that open world feel in mind. You're in a floating paradise in the sky, so make the player feel like they are free to do whatever they want.

Kajenx responds:

Actually, "The End...?" Was supposed to be a reference to what the Sage said about how there are no endings, haha. I'm not sure if there actually WILL be a sequel, tbh. Though, a lot of people are taking that to be what it means, so I'm sure I'll be getting hate mail in a year when it's not out. >_>

[Apocalypse: Survive it]

While it's an interesting experimental concept, this game really wasn't that great. I can't give an honest review though, because this is experimental and this was following rules for a contest, but this game was just disappointing. If the voice actor had better delivery, especially considering the fact that it's a game that's pretty much based around game play, you would be looking pretty good. Something along the lines of the Stanley Parable would be ideal. Unfortunately, this just felt boring and slow. Also, using subtitles would really come in handy next time. However, I have to recognize the fact that this was for a contest, and I have to recognize that the rules were pretty much followed appropriately, so I'm giving it three stars.

Kolumbo responds:

Thanks. Look out for the bigger & better version soon-ish.

[The Gentleman]

I decided to give up on level 35. This game could have very successfully have been a fantastic game. However, the way you designed everything very poorly. There's a thin line between enjoyable and frustrating when it comes to puzzles. Allow me to explain.

If you give your player the opportunity to blame the game for their death, you're doing it wrong. If for any reason, a player has to die during a puzzle to learn how to do it, you're doing it wrong. Examples:
"Oh, the umbrella doesn't make me float down when I'm on the ceiling."
"Oh, there was a switch there."
"Oh, that portal brings me there."
"Oh, a giant bat kills me here."
I found myself blaming myself for dying very few times. Most of the time I was blaming the game engine.

Level 35 absolutely killed the game for me. That entire boss was a giant middle finger to the player. Explain to me why jumping on a guy wearing nothing but hat instantly kills me? Where's the puzzle element to that? Now after about five tries, you finally manage to dodge his jumps just to have him throw a whole bunch of canes at you, which takes about another five tries to finally learn. After you've gotten all that down, he just runs at you and stabs you. Do you have any idea how frustrated your player is at this point? Now, for those players who are iron-willed enough to keep playing repeating the level until they can finally attack the boss, the boss will just jump up into the air and kill you again, before repeating the exact same sequence. This is not even mentioning the fact that if the boss tries to stab you, but you miss his head, you do no damage and he gets to repeat all his attacks. Seriously? There's no way you were thinking when you creating this boss fight.

On the bright side, you had some great music and art, but it's not enough to carry your game to success. 3 1/2 stars is actually sugar coating it. Imagine if somebody handed you a cheeseburger, but the patty was filled with wasabi and horse radish. You're like "Oh, awesome, a cheeseburger." Then they bite into it and realize that whoever handed the burger just completely screwed them over. This game is that feeling times a thousand.

SoulGame responds:

Loved the cheeseburger analogy :) I'm affraid you're right ! My beta testers were definitely way too much hardcore players (Imagine that before uploading the game, I lowered the lvl 35 difficulty a lot !) We'll work on making games both hardcore and casual and we'll try to prevent the frustration you describes.

[Jimmy's Resurrection]

Alright, let me just start off by saying one thing: There is nothing memorable about this game at all.

For one thing, the story doesn't make any sense, and it confuses the player more than anything. How can you be killed by a window? Somehow that fails to make sense to me. Also at the beginning of the game, you take it that this will be a fairly serious game, but in reality everything seems to be kind of silly. For example, the villain is a saxophone-playing colossal? When you reach the end of a stage, you pull your pants down? I was confused what was going on. Is this game supposed to be funny? Because you definitely didn't put me in the right mindset for it, and because of that nothing in this game was humorous at all, but rather just annoying.

You did a fairly good job with the music, but I can tell when it loops. That's a problem that you might want to fix.

The controls can be fairly confusing when wall jumping and gripping onto the walls. Also, the difficult hop from level one to level two is far too extreme.

I could say more about this game, but there's nothing worth saying. I would channel most of my effort into creating a reasonable story next time. I can't tell whether you put effort into this game or not. The animation is pretty smooth, and the music is good, but I just don't see how you could have failed that hard with a story if you actually put in the effort.

3kliksphilip responds:

Well, thanks for the detailed review, even if it wasn't too favourable. From what I've gathered there's nothing too wrong with the game, your main gripe is with the story and that it was possibly too difficult because you didn't try it for long. Which is fair enough as well. I assume you're American since we British have a more bizarre and eccentric sense of humour in general. It is possible to be killed by a window (defenestration- Jimmy died in the first place because we loved that word and had to include it in the previous game where he died. Kind of unfair to rate this game down because you can't imagine it happening!) and who's to say what happens after you die? Why can't there be a heavenly sax man forcing you through portal-style traps again and again? Where's your imagination?!?!

Oh and he pulls his pants down in an abstract celebration. In the final stage he pulls them down and reveals that he has finally become a man. Once again it's not something I like to say because I'd rather people would encounter it by themselves and interpret it in their own way, but you forced me to this!

Just out of interest, what would be a better story? Why does there even HAVE to be a story in an arcade-game? Annoyingly I've made more story-led games in the past and people have clicked past it to get to the action. I guess it's lose-lose in the world of flash games.

[Deep Space Dash]

Awesome game, I really enjoyed it. I really want to see more games like this. Only thing is that this is a little short, there's no real variation in the music, and getting Money Bags is a real pain. Looking forward to a possible Deep Space Dash 2?

DoodleBin responds:

I'll look into it. :)

[Orborun]

There's a thin line between enjoyably difficult and frustratingly difficult. Some of these objectives are just far too hard, and eventually it just gets annoying and you don't want to play the game anymore. I quit after level 4, just because the game was really starting to get boring for me. Maybe it's because I was trying to get all objectives before I went on to the next level, but either way, it was just a really frustrating game.

There's not enough 3D flash games out there, so this was pretty refreshing. It was fairly basic though, you attempt to get to an exit and collect things along the way. There's no story line to it, it's just bland entertainment. This would work much better as a game for an iPhone or something.

The controls felt kind of weird. They were somewhat smooth when you were on the ground, but when you were in the air it was kind of odd. I would consider adding an alternate control scheme in which you use the mouse instead of the arrow keys, I think that may fix it.

Other than that, this was a somewhat decent game, but the fact that it's too difficult removes all entertainment value from it. Essentially, the game becomes less about how good you are at it, and more about how lucky you'll be when you make that jump. I've had times in the game where I would just do the same thing over and over again, never changing a thing and sometimes I would get it and sometimes I wouldn't. That's not fun.

Invenis responds:

You can find this game for other platforms like android, mac, linux and windows on our IndieGoGo campaign here: http://www.indiegogo.com/orborun/ (look for the links at description) and iOS build will be available soon (lets hope) :) thanks for the feedback anyway ;)