thatbennyguy's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Blop-a-gotchi V5]

Kinda cheap

Hey up-a-notch,

--Production--
Graphics are kind of cheap, animations are little if any. I have a feeling this game isn't really about the usual "gaming" experience that you get from it, but rather just a fun way for bored people at work to be reminded how unfortunate work life is. The choices of a hamburger, Wii, toy bear, and TV don't really make any difference to how the game is played except for arbitrary stats "smarts" and "food".

--Experience--
There is one mechanic to be explored within this game, and that is you earning money to buy several upgrades. I reckon if at least you made more purchasable objects, then this game would be a lot more fun. In fact, make at least 20 purchasable objects, ranging from pitiful to fantastic, a broken glass to HD TV surround system home cinema set. Heck, even a Victorian villa by the sea, while you're at it.

--Style--
The avatar of your picking sways his head side to side and now has customisable hair and body color/style! I would work on making him seem more cute, maybe even simplifying it, such as in the real Tamagotchi. I bet if you altered the settings and gameplay, you could make something far better than that thing.

--Wow Factor--
I wasn't particularly amazed, because most of the features in the real Tamagotchi weren't employed in this. For example, a receding hunger bar, dying if you have no food, a 'fun' meter, etc. The graphics weren't particularly amazing either, but you have the core of something that just might work, if you polish it.

--Personal Tilt--
In all honesty, it's a middling-to-crap game, but with a lot of potential. If you want ideas on how to progress this game further, you can PM me if you like, because I've got some wacky and fun ideas for a game like this. Thanks for letting me play.

--Production-- = 9/20
--Experience-- = 10/20
--Style-- = 10/20
--Wow Factor-- = 8/20
--Personal Tilt-- = 9/20

OVERALL SCORE: 46/100

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

up-a-notch responds:

Thanks man i will PM you

[Riddles of Renaissance]

Very artsy

Hey mrty,

--Production--
Pretty slick and fast moving. I like how the puzzles aren't overly hard to become boring. The artwork is pretty well selected, with some riddles using actual facts from myths and some using facts gathered just from observing the paintings. That's how it relates to more than just one type of player.

--Experience--
Looking at all the paintings you get an eerie feeling of being in the past. Analyzing these paintings makes you feel like someone important, rather than just some quiz about flash stuff. (Impossible quiz much?)

--Style--
This is a unique and special game that has a certain emotional component to it. I didn't notice any of your grammar or spelling mistakes. You must have proof-read very well. The whole thing is polished very much so into a final game.

--Wow Factor--
The paintings themselves lend to our amazement. I'm not one who regularly looks at Renaissance paintings so the whole thing is new and special. I enjoyed going through finding different stuff about the gods and stuff by answering questions. It lends to the experience when you don't know some stuff at the beginning of the game, and at the end of the game, you've learnt some stuff.

--Personal Tilt--
I was pleased with this game, even though I was playing it at college and there were some naked paintings of girls on there and I felt a bit uneasy so I scrolled down every time somebody walked past and I'm pretty sure some of them thought weird of me. But good game.

--Production-- = 16/20
--Experience-- = 18/20
--Style-- = 17/20
--Wow Factor-- = 16/20
--Personal Tilt-- = 16/20

OVERALL SCORE: 83/100

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

mrty responds:

A review from Review Request Club? Wow, thanks!

[Droid Grids0.17(Outdated)]

Flip loadsa potentism.

hey glider521al,

--Production--
A metric ton of structural work has gone into this top-down 2d shooter, and do you love to show it. Slews of weapons, abilities and features, Droid Grids Beta plays like an ambitious pitch for the commercial market rather than a mere flash game. The overall reaction I have from playing this game is that if it works - it'll be a smash hit. And if it doesn't - it will droop under the weight of its own ambition. Only time can tell.

--Playability--
At present, the menu screen is cheap and horrifying. Since when do you press "Start Game", and the default option is "Back"? I'm sure the menu will be reworked and made smexier by release, but even in beta things should be relatively pieced together. Fix the menu. And also, enable a low/med/hi quality button, because this game can produce lag in older computers (such as mine).

--Genius--
The amount of effort put into this game is recognized just by looking at the description, wait, better yet - the title. Version 0.17.6? Will this thing EVER be released? If you are an ambitious man/woman, (and I expect of you highly), this game is a thing to look out for. The only thing is it could use a lot of the "prettying" department. Hire some good artists to beautify your highly intelligent system.

--Flair--
It's definitely something that is not done before on this scale for Newgrounds. It reminds me of DOTA for some reason: multiplayer, spawn points, walking around, fighting, walking around some more. If you could make it addicting enough, then it might be a hit. Heck, why not make it online while you're at it, you've got the guts.

--Tilt--
Obviously I just spent a short amount of time playing a very deep and intricate game with zero polish that looks and feels like a drag. Now I'm not saying that this game is bad, I'm just saying that I just hope you finish this, because if you don't, then the world has just missed out on something special.

Thanks for letting me play.

--Production-- = 12/20
--Playability-- = 11/20
--Genius-- = 20/20
--Flair-- = 20/20
--Tilt-- = 11/20
OVERALL SCORE: 74/100
VERDICT: Getting great. [B+]

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

glider521al responds:

Hey thanks for the feedback.

I found that its actually the dynamic text that takes up more memory than any other graphical feature, resulting in a fair bit of lag at the start of each round/wave.
I'll probably fix it by replacing it with images.

I've had several people tell me that the menu needs a heck of alot of work and I aim to fix it (along with other features to be placed in Beta 0.18 which will warrant a resubmission).

I know the graphics need polish too, but refining, and adding in most of the remaining gameplay features receives priority for now.
Many artists on Newgrounds, as I understand it, want their work to remain on Newgrounds. The conflict arises when I port the finished version to other platforms (e.g. Java).

I would like to have online multiplayer too, but that's a fair way off :).

Thanks for noticing that I'm taking a big risk here, by trying to make a complex game for Flash.
I chose to program in Flash AS3 instead of Java because the platform is more widely accessible.

[Running Cycle Tutorial]

Quite excellent running tut, simple easy.

hey MonoFlauta,

--Production--
This is a well-produced tutorial on running cycle, easy to navigate. I found the diagrams simple and easy-to-follow, the buttons smooth and polished. There was a sense of usefulness as I read this, even though I probably will never use it.

--Watchability--
It is nice to see how you animate running, and this adds to the 'education' factor. One of the downsides is that it is too short, leaves the animator wanting to learn more than just how to make people run.

--Genius--
It's a very nice animation of running, not just average. The diagrams are explained succinctly and you use it to good effect. It would be nice to add some more examples of how this run cycle has been used in your animations/games.

--Flair--
It's a good thing to have tutorials for animators at NewGrounds, helping to make this place better. That's why it gets thumbs up for me, because you care about the next generation of animators enough to pass on the knowledge. I love people who do that.

--Tilt--
So generally this was nice to watch, served its purpose, and is useful. You have made it in a useful, short and easy format, which is all it needs. Well done. Thanks for letting me watch.

--Production-- = 17/20
--Watchability-- = 18/20
--Genius-- = 16/20
--Flair-- = 17/20
--Tilt-- = 16/20
OVERALL SCORE: 84/100
VERDICT: QUITE EXCELLENT! [A-]

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

[Hoshinofuru 2]

Slightly good

hey MonoFlauta,

--Production--
The art is very simplistic to the point of off-putting. However, your choices in the game are wide and varied and add to the entertainment of the game. The music is smooth and seductive, nice choice.

--Playability--
Combat is difficult; you're not sure what moves do what and there's not much sense of progression. Going out into the town gets complex, and then the map is even harder to navigate. I'd recommend making the cursor at least highlight something when it moves over it.

--Genius--
Nice ideas, but there's no learning curve: you need a tutorial to explain this early confusing game. Hoshinofuru 2 would benefit from life and energy bars, to get a visual representation of where your health and vitality are at. I wasn't sure what a bush of roses meant in combat either.

--Flair--
Great variety of monsters and attacks, but battles are both overly long and boring. Nothing really new is introduced in this game, it almost copies Pokemon. Normal attack is useless and it takes about 50 hits to kill the 2nd monster if you don't have any energy potions. Which is frustrating because i didn't know where to buy energy potions in the first place.

--Tilt--
Overall, disregarding PlusFoar's kind walkthrough, this game is too busy and confusing to understand. You need to let them into your world slower. There needs to be at least a hint of a storyline to connect us to the pets of ours. Thanks for letting me play.

--Production-- = 13/20
--Playability-- = 13/20
--Genius-- = 15/20
--Flair-- = 10/20
--Tilt-- = 10/20
OVERALL SCORE: 61/100
VERDICT: SLIGHTLY GOOD! [B]

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--

[Crossroads:2D]

Lots and lots of lost potential.

Hey kcnh,

--Production--
My first instinct is that this was going to be an awesome RPG filled with fun and adventure. The graphics were clean and crisp, the controls responsive, the music quaint. The production on this title was pretty amazing, with very few flaws (no jumping animation for over cliff, double space bar when interacting makes the cursor disappear).

--Playability--
But a few minutes later, I was sorely disappointed. What could have been a fantastic game - winning, even - turned into a hard chore. Long story short - this game is verrrry slow-moving. I mean, I would appreciate some slack of pace in more current games, but this goes way beyond the limit of my tolerance. The fetching quest is cliche, not to mention boring. We want some action near the beginning of the game, go fight some trolls, kill the bad guys! Not.... get bread for your grandma. Whoop de doo, how fun.

--Genius--
The idea behind the game is fine, but there are too few details and the maps are far too empty of objects to be interesting. I also noticed that the graphical scheme was very similar to that of Pokemon. The cut skill for trees, the long grass, jumping over the cliffs. There needed to be at least a storyline to keep us interested. Because that's what made Final Fantasy the greatest RPG ever made. Not so much gameplay, but an epic storyline. That's what I'd like to see on NewGrounds.

--Flair--
Since when is an axe not a weapon? Alright, I walk all the way to the troll to find him because I found that axe... then it says you need a weapon? Duh! An axe is a weapon! And when your axe disintegrates when you chop the tree, you're gutted. Tip: you need things to have multiple uses to feel useful, like in Pokemon where you repeatedly "Cut" trees everywhere you go. It feels nice.

--Tilt--
I swear a RUN button would make this game 4-5x better than it currently is. I was spamming buttons to see what the run button might be if there was one, and I pressed 'r', and it returned me to the menu! I mean isn't 'escape' for that? (I didn't read your comments until later. Remember, nobody really wants to read the manual.) Simply because it took about 5 minutes to get from place to place I would put this game in the category of 'Boring-but-had-tons-of-potential'. And I mean it. I just hope you heed these, because then I might be seeing you at #1. And then I'd cry.

...

Anyway thanks for letting me play. Have a good one.

--Production-- = 18/20
--Playability-- = 07/20
--Genius-- = 13/20
--Flair-- = 16/20
--Tilt-- = 10/20

OVERALL SCORE: 64/100
VERDICT: Slightly good.

Benjamin

kcnh responds:

Thank very much you for your review!

[The Powder Keg V2]

Nice production, slightly repetitive and annoying

Hey ugolegend94,

--Production--
The stylistic art of the game is very nice. The pixelated retro feel of the game is complemented by intuitive control and wonderful music. I love it when games take music off the audio portal, it's just that much more fantastic. The trumpets are hauntingly beautiful.

--Playability--
As a trial-and-error retro pixelated maze game, it succeeds. However this type of game also brings along with it a degree of frustration, which may lead to the bad ratings. In other words, the difficulty is too high, and not particularly fun in all honesty.

--Genius--
The maze in this game is an ingenious blend of traps and gimmicks. However the feeling you get when you find yourself trapped in a hole is horrible. It turns me off this otherwise fantastic concept for a game. I would consider tweaking the gameplay to avoid boring repetition.

--Flair--
A new type of game, unique in style and content. I love those timers that you see scattered throughout the maze. However, I do not like the fact of these timers resetting; I would rather see the timer just keep counting down as you go along.

--Tilt--
In my opinion, this is a nice, fairly well made game, which is frustrating and gets boring quick. This is a frank review, but it might be a needed one. Tweak the gameplay a notch and this may be a hit! Thanks for letting me play!

--Production-- = 8/10
--Playability-- = 5/10
--Genius-- = 7/10
--Flair-- = 8/10
--Tilt-- = 5/10
Overall Score: 6.6/10
Rounded Score: 7/10

Verdict: Getting Good!

Benjamin

--REVIEW REQUEST CLUB--