Score: 6

"Good, except..."

submission: Star Island

date: May 16, 2007

I like the graphics, music and sound effects--they all seem very professional, if cartoony and simplistic. The gameplay is good, except that the game doesn't seem to consistently register it as an attack when you jump on enemies. Half the time, it seems you just get hurt. This makes the game way more frustrating than it ought to be. Fix that, and I'd say you've got a winner on your hands!

Score: 8

"Ha ha ha"

submission: Toast of War

date: May 16, 2007

Nice--I like this game a lot. The controls are nice, the gameplay is simple but fun, and it's all very funny. I like how the entire game is a piece of toast trying to survive an onslaught of giant sticks of butter (and...uh...butter bats, I guess.)

The one thing I'd like to see in this game (besides, of course, a final boss in lieu of the "out to lunch" sign) is the occasional power-up to restore your health a bit. Obviously I made it to the final boss without any, but still, just one or two would be nice. Maybe a little floating container of bread crumbs or something. :)

Score: 5

"Well-made but not especially fun"

submission: Pico & the Mental Menace

date: May 13, 2007

The graphics are nice, the animations look good, there's a nice shotgun sound, the music fits well, and it's a good idea over all, but the game play leaves a lot to be desired. For the first level, all you do is shoot, then duck, then shoot, then duck, over and over. The sheer predictability of it makes the enemies too easy. But then you get to the first boss, who is WAY too difficult (in my opinion). Dodging his lasers is easy, but you can't seem to avoid being stomped on. I died without leaving so much as a scratch on him, and frankly, the game play is boring enough that I don't feel like getting back up to him to try again.

You, on the other hand, SHOULD try again, because with a little more effort and playtesting, this could be a fun game!

Score: 7

"Not bad"

submission: Pico of the Dark Ages

date: May 2, 2007

This is a pretty good game--the graphics are nice, the music is well-chosen, and the theme is amusing (though I have to say, those bad guys don't look even slightly goth to me.)

However, there are some flaws that hurt the gameplay. Here are some things you can do to improve it:

--Have the player not take damage when he blocks. I mean, really. There's no point to blocking when you're not even going to avoid taking damage with it. (Aside from which, the enemies don't seem to take damage when they block--why should the player?)
--When you jump-attack an enemy and they poke the air below you, this should not count as them having hit you.

BTW, for people having trouble: running back and forth, stabbing enemies and then retreating, is by far the best way to get through this game without taking much damage, especially since blocking is less than useful. Also, run-jump-attacking the boar commander is the way to go. This strategy got me past the first level pretty easily--blocking got me killed two enemies in. You be the judge.

Score: 5

"Great engine!"

submission: ThermoStorm

date: April 28, 2007

I think your engine has a great deal of potential. It runs smoothly, looks nice, and has great physics. However, I have one really big, fun-killing beef with your demo: the grenades are a huge pain in the butt to use. They go WAY too far when you throw them, and they bounce off walls like freaking flubber. You have to back up to like two screens away in order to have a prayer of hitting the thing you're throwing them at. Either the grenades need to be easier to control, or you need to give the player way more of them (like, 40 minimum). It would probably be more fun if you just dramatically lowered the velocity at which the grenades are thrown, or made another key that lets you softly lob the grenades instead of hurling them at 300 mph. I just shouldn't have to work that hard to blow up a wall right in front of me.

Score: 6

"Kind of annoying, honestly"

submission: Diamond Well

date: April 11, 2007

Here is what annoys me about this game: monsters seem to spawn seemingly at random, and your pipe doesn't move quickly enough to retract and gobble up monsters who spawn at the top of the screen when you're down near the bottom. And even the weakest monster can destroy your pipe in a matter of 2-3 seconds. Thus, whether you die or not near the end of any given level seems to be more a question of luck than skill. I don't like that. If you can figure out a way to balance the gameplay better, I'll give this another try. For now, no dice.

Score: 9

"Very cool!"

submission: Gateway

date: April 7, 2007

Having just played Gateway II earlier today, I had to go and see what number 1 was like. Let me just say, the puzzles in this first game are much, much easier than the puzzles in the sequel. Gateway took me about 15, maybe 20 minutes to beat (compared with Gateway II, which took substantially longer).

I am pleased to see that the excellent engine, crisp graphics, and generally slick production of Gateway II are borrowed from its predecessor. Though this one feels much more trivial by virtue of the lack of plot, the gameplay holds up nicely. Good job, sir.

Score: 7

"Nice job"

submission: Bloons

date: March 28, 2007

This game was a lot of fun, but dear sweet lord, why did you have to make level 11 so hard?

Score: 8

"Pipi, now on Wii?"

submission: PiPi The Jumping Bubble

date: March 26, 2007

Seriously, what is it with games and game systems being named after urination nowadays? PiPi? Wii? What's next: Piss Puddle the Game?

Okay, just kidding. Seriously though, this is a neat little game. It's fun to send our little urinary hero vaulting through the air by popping bubbles (though it would be nice if they made a more full and satisfying popping noise). The controls leave a little be desired--Pipi is rather sluggish as far as following the mouse, and given how quickly his rises and falls, it becomes awfully easy to slip up and miss a bubble. Considering that there are no checkpoints and that you have to then start over, this makes it somewhat frustrating to keep playing.

Anyway, good work. What can I say--this game was a piss! :)

Score: 7

"Very nifty"

submission: Attractors 3

date: March 25, 2007

This a fun little gadget you've created here with a wide variety of options. I had fun fooling around with it for five minutes or so, but it loses its interest fairly quickly, since there is no objective to accomplish. If you can find a way to make this into a game, you'll have something unique on your hands.

The NG audio jukebox had the potential to hold my interest for much longer than the gadget did on its own. Unfortunately, it seems to only be capable of playing one song--a MIDI piano track with a nice melody but amateurish sequencing (there seem to be no changes in tempo, and every note sounds like it's being played at 128 velocity). If you can find some way to make it play other tracks (or, better yet, browse the audio portal) you'll have my 5.