GreatBigFish's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Zombies, Inc.]

Really solid game with a nice learning curve, although there were a few things I found hugely problematic.

Number one on my list is the random event that disables selling for two days. I mean, I know beating the game on hard mode is supposed to be tough, and even more so if I'm aiming for the 60 days medal. The problem is that reaching the latter goal is infuriating when you have to play very close to your chest with funds, especially when randomly, 40 minutes of gameplay is shot down completely. If I wasn't sado-masochistic, I would probably have a much bigger problem with the issue, but as is, it's just an annoyance.

Really fun overall, though. Good job.

[Checkpoint]

Yo.

This game could be a lot of fun, but as is I was only in it for about 10 minutes.

First off, I like the look of it - visually straightforward, not distracting, and smooth. I don't necessarily expect revolutionary graphics in every game I play, and what was presented fit the bill... although at the same time I'll admit there's some room for creativity.

I liked how this game verged on more puzzle-esque aspects at times - honestly, I usually hate this 'die-many-times-to-continue 'game style, but this was easy enough that I hung in there for a bit longer. What I'd suggest here (and my wanting this didn't necessarily hinder my enjoyment of your game), is that you emphasize the puzzle aspect - my favourite moments were when I was going through different rooms or dealing with buttons. I feel like a bit more that versus straight up skill would make this stand out for me, and I understand that might not be the direction you want, but... it's just what I felt while playing this, and it's not a complaint.

Controls, as mentioned by others, are a bit slippery when it comes to running. When you release the button, I feel you should stop running. The slight momentum was more of an annoyance than an added difficulty. I'll also suggest that when you're against a wall, pressing down causes your man to slide downwards until you jump off or hit the floor.

I also found slight issues with the platofrms - sometimes a platform would appear slightly too high too reach, but when jumping from the correct spot the hero would reach it anyways.

I found the text hilarious at times, but honestly just kind of tuned it out after awhile. Not necessarily good or bad, just a comment.

And finally, the reason I stopped playing and honestly why I probably won't come back is because the game was too easy and too monotonous. There's a seemingly total lack of a difficuly curve - at ten minutes in I was going through most levels with 0-2 deaths, and the most deaths at 4 for any level. Also, the levels were really short - this coupled with the lack of increasing difficulty made things a bit bland for me,i.e. just zooming through solving puzzles that didn't vary too heavily from each other... Make things a bit challenging. That's the type of game I come back to.

And yeah, that's it. Good luck on anyfuture games.

[Castaway 2]

Ok.

Alright, this is a solid game. I've been playing it for a good while (maybe 4 or 5 hours), and the fact that I've kept going is a good sign. Overall it's a fun time. But there are some really irritating flaws, mostly cropping up at later points in the game.

First off, make a more detailed map. Like other users pointed out, it's a BIG pain in the ass trying to figure out where you're going, and occasionally it turns out you're running in circles or in the wrong area completely. That type of thing is very annoying and could be easily avoided.

Second, I've only played through this game once so I have tested out different ways to organize your stats, but I poured into agility and magic while upgrading my lightning spells first. This sets you up for an automatic win against virtually every boss you meet - all it takes is a thunder dome and maaaybe a lightning strike to completely annihilate whatever boss is in question.

Another issue with the magic: I found the fire sprite spell is completely useless. I thought the sprites would attack the entire screen, which would make sense since the other level 3 spells affect a wide area as well, but they require you to basically run into your enemies at a huge risk of self-harm for a tiny damage off. Also, a minor glitch - I died in the same room as I did when I upgraded my fire sprites and used them for the first time, and when I respawned one of them was still around (though eventually went away). In yet another fire-related issue, I found the fireball would pass directly through enemies which would likely cause me to get hit. It's really a luck of the draw situation using that spell, so often I just didn't use it all. Freezing or stunning enemies wouldn't help either.

Another big issue for me was the lack of smoothness of the ice world. At this point the game was hard enough that I felt I should only have to worry about the monsters, but the ice movements are jerky as fuck and resulted in MANY deaths for me in that area, despite the crazy strength of the lightning spells mentioned above. This was mainly the thing that made want to stop playing the most - I feel like the difficulty takes a big leap up and should be kind of smoothed out. Another glitch here as well - it's hard to tell exactly where it happens, but sometimes when walking back on solid land from the ice, my pet (I kept the initial loomis) would tightly follow me, and I would move very very slowly until I walked on ice again, when the loomis would 'unstick' and I would be able to walk at normal speed. Really, the icy areas were hard enough without having to deal with stuff like that.

Also, the sheer amount of gold you get by the ice stage is kind of nuts. It's not really a complaint, but there's nothing to use all that gold on once you buy all the toughest armour and your agility is high enough. I'd recommend having stronger items available for sale at later points in the game, or maybe even have gems shards available at a reasonably high price, since it could be really frustrating trying to find them in the wild when you needed them to complete a crafting quest.

I hope I don't come off like hating on your game. Like I said, I enjoyed it, and I'll probably finish it now that I've made it this far. Hopefully you can improve on the points mentioned above and turn a pretty good game into a fantastic one. Cheers.

[bloXplatter]

Yeah

Fun game! Definitely kept me working to get those medals (but yeah, who the hell will ever manage to get that fitness medal?). There is a bit of a learning curve, and it took 4 or 5 tries before I managed to get good enough curving blocks and not dying to beat the game, and I like the challenge!

My main suggestion would be to make it so that when you die, you don't have to re-mute the music - that's something that should only have to be done once, and when you're playing individual levels it can get somewhat irritating.

ThinXIII responds:

Yeah I must have missed about that problem. Thanks for the review and glad you found the game fun. :)

[DN8]

Yeah!

Cool game. I really liked the gradual difficulty curve - at first I though "Meh, boring", but sticking to it had some nice payoffs in enjoyment and difficulty.

What REALLY bothered me was the fact that you put the Redrum bar at the bottom of the screen and made so your ship flies under it. In any bullet hell game I've played, moving to the centre middle is often the best strategy, because the bullets are most spread out and you have some leeway to move left and right This was eliminated by that Redrum bar, which made gameplay awkward at times (along with the fact that you can't move your ship to the very top of the screen either, which I kept thinking was possible by accident).

Also, I haven't played through the other mutation pathways yet, but having sidepods makes you virtually invincible against anything coming from the side, which ends up being a pretty big number if you use em right. I'm not sure if this was intentional and everything else is balanced appropriately, but yeah.

anyways

Squize responds:

Thanks for the excellent review mate, I could have done with you beta testing.

Screen real estate was always an issue. I deliberately made the screen small to make it seem busier with less sprites, but that caused issues when it came to adding to the HUD. There wasn't a combo counter on there for a long time, it's only when people highlighted the need for it that I had to add it, which ate into more space.

As to the sidepods, the bottom path with the shield is easier. I wanted to balance the game so most people can complete it, it's meant to be 15 mins of fun that hopefully you'll go back to to see the other paths. The power-ups you get should always be more powerful than you actually need, I want to empower the player so that you always have the tools you need to complete a level ( That's why the Super RedRum is so over the top. It's basically a smart bomb, just pushed that little bit further ).

Thanks again for the review.

[Armor Mayhem]

Yeah

Great fun, looking forward to whatever you get up to next .

To zscheck: there is a difficulty option, check the menu (at least there's a difficulty option in custom game mode... I'd assume it's there for campaign mode, too).

[Tentacle Wars]

Yeah

Fun game, very challenging at times, shorter than I'd like it to be. A small tutorial would've been nice, and level 19 is far far harder than level 20 imo. Well done.

[Puzzling War]

Pretty good

I agree with bleedingwings' review. The issue of not being able to actually see the units attacking might just be an intrinsic issue of the game though. I can't really think of an easy fix other than the idea of a 'deploy phase', but I'm not even sure exactly how that'd work out.

An issue I found here was that this game is WAY too easy. I managed to beat all but the last 4 levels (where I stopped to write this) by upgrading my mage once and my berserker twice, never buying any of the swords or shields. Not only did this let me win games, in let me do it constantly with perfect health. Maybe I stumbled on the perfect strategy on my first go, but I feel like games are much more enjoyable when I find an ideal strategy through trial and error instead of powering through like a maniac (berserker?).

Adding more elements to the game might contribute towards improving it. Maybe introducing weaknesses and strengths for each character? That way investing in non-unit upgrades can benefit in sticky situations. On top of this, cases where you have more tiles wouldn't involve mindlessly selecting triple-combos to get throw more soldiers out there, but instead, you'd consider which moves are best and work towards them.

Overall: entertaining game, but there's room for improvement.

[Gravity Duck]

Yeah.

I enjoyed this a lot. Straightforward gameplay, cute graphics, absoultely 0 lag, challenging, fun. All I want after playing this is more of the same. Well done!

[Sticky Blocks]

Yeah

Hellish tricky at times, but enjoyable overall. I'm stuck on level 36 with all but one star levels, looking forward to beating this thing completely. Keep up the good work