Score: 9

"This is awesome!"

submission: Kingdom Fire Demo

date: February 9, 2007

This game is like a little Flash Diablo, though it actually reminds me more of AD&D in terms of how the game mechanics work. Anyway, bottom line: I loved it. The graphics and animations are great (with one weird exception: characters jab sometimes when they're wielding a war hammer), the engine runs very smoothly, you paid a LOT of attention to detail when designing your engine, there are a wide variety of items and spells...really, there's a lot to like here. It's just a shame that you're going to abandon a fantastic engine like this after only making a short run-through with it.

Score: 4

"Barely playable"

submission: Tested On Animals 2

date: February 5, 2007

This game is a little like a supermodel: it's a visually attractive, polished game with very little to offer beneath the surface.

What's so wrong with the guts of this game, you ask? Mostly, two things.

1. The controls. I think 95% of your reviews so far mention this, but in case you didn't notice, I'll say it too: the controls are god-awful. A short press on the arrows sends your plane careening uncontrollably towards the sky or into the ground (or, more often, into another plane). You really need to ease up on the inertia variable in your engine.

2. The gameplay. There's really remarkably little to recommend this game as far as the actual experience of playing it. This is a mini-game, really. All you can do is move up and down. That's it. And the controls make even this extremely limited play concept an exercise in frustration.

Score: 8

"Pretty but dull"

submission: Mobile Weapon

date: February 4, 2007

It's clear that you put an incredible amount of time and effort into this, and you deserve congratulations on the fruits of your effort. You've done a great job. Unfortunately, this game is a bit like Murloc RPG, in that it's a gorgeous, professional-caliber production with absolutely, stupefyingly boring gameplay. Allow me to explain.

Graphics: extremely well done, and frankly, the best thing about the game by a long shot. The GUI is slick and professional-looking, the backgrounds are GREAT, and I love the overworld map. You get near-perfect marks for this. The character portraits leave something to be desired, though, and some of the enemies look downright goofy (like those things in the jungle that look like giant, moldy slices of swiss cheese with arms).

Engine: also very slick. It gets great performance even running in Firefox browser, and I like that most things in the game can be accomplished in two ways, by either clicking or using the keyboard. The tile-based movement is nice too. One very minor complaint--why can't I use space bar to exit the Victory screen after combat?

Sound: passable. You have some good sound effects, though I question whether you made all of them yourself (the enemy dying noise sounds suspiciously similar to the enemy dying noise in certain Squaresoft games). The music ranges from inoffensive to somewhat annoying (the combat music is in the second category).

Gameplay: this is where things get a little dodgy, in my opinion, which is a shame, because this is really where the heart of every game lies. You get points for letting me customize my character to my liking, but lose them when it comes to the combat and pacing of the game.

Many of us (including me) have been guilty at some point of deriving our combat systems from Final Fantasy, but in a game of this quality, it's really a shame that you couldn't spice it up a little more with a unique spin on things. If anything, though, the battle system in MW is even more simplistic and dull than a straight FF clone. I get only two attack types, and neither of them is at all interesting. As for the pacing, the game just moves way too slowly. If I have to spend more than 30 minutes at the beginning of the game running around and killing things over and over and over without some compelling plot justification, there's a problem.

So, to recap: this is a very professional effort, and I'm very impressed with the quality of the graphics, engine, and general production values. I just wish the gameplay itself were more enjoyable.

Score: 10

"Holy cow, this is great!"

submission: Drakojan Skies Aco (Full)

date: January 25, 2007

I'm really incredibly impressed with this game. The graphics are positively superb, there's a broad range of enemies and weapons, the controls feel just right, and the gameplay is spot-on. I don't know how long you took to make this, but it feels to me like something of near-professional quality (the drawings of the pilots are kind of anime-ish and cheesy, which is the only thing that feels at all amateurish about this).

What can I say: this isn't perfect, but it's darn close. If an effort like this doesn't deserve a 10, I don't know what does. :-)

Score: 8

"I love dark humor"

submission: Daisy

date: January 20, 2007

That made me laugh. A lot. Granted, I knew something bad was going to happen to her when she went to pluck the flower--everything weas justa little too cutesy up to that point. Anyway, the poem at the end was classic. Your tech teacher is a fool. :-) This gets a five out of five from me!

Score: 7

"Not bad"

submission: Snake with Balls

date: January 20, 2007

It isn't an original game design, obviously, but considering that it's a remake of a classic game...

1. it runs quickly
2. the graphics are decent enough--I especially like the background
3. nice relaxing music
4. it remembers your high score, even if you close the window and come back later

Nothing amazing, but it's not bad either. I give it a 7. :-)

Score: 4

"Um"

submission: Interview With Zero

date: January 19, 2007

That was below average, in my opinion--hence, a 4. The biggest problem, in my view, is that you need to think of jokes other than calling the characters gay. It just isn't that funny. Sorry.

Score: 9

"Nice work!"

submission: Defend Atlantis

date: January 17, 2007

This is a very well-designed game with an enjoyable (if simplistic) game mechanic. What more can I say? Everything about this says "quality," and it's fun too!

One quibble: is there any reason to ever use the normal bubbles instead of the steel ones? Maybe the steel ones could use more air or something. Just a thought. Anyway, great work!

Score: 8

"Nice job!"

submission: Max Mesiria Chp1 RPG

date: January 16, 2007

This is a nice, solid RPG. Here are my thoughts on the graphics, sound, and gameplay:

Graphics: really nice! The whales and icebergs drifting past during on-ship combat were a great touch. I especially love the hand-drawn style, though I thought the speech bubbles looked a little wonky, and the water in the beginning looked just slightly radioactive. :-)

Sound: not bad. The sound effects were generic, but they did the job. The music was generally pretty nice, though I found the battle music repetitive and not entirely appropriate (the boss music was a little better). Also, a hint: import your tracks to the library as .wav files and let flash convert them to mp3 itself to avoid that little pause at the end of the track where it's supposed to loop.

Gameplay: generic RPG battles with a single character, and no control over your character's advancement (either skill-wise or plot-wise). Clearly there's not a whole lot of versatility here, but for what it is, it's well-done. I don't know what your plans are for the next chapter (and indeed, you say it's already nearly done), but if you haven't already done so, I recommend adding in a greater variety of abilities, other characters, and/or a more flexible system of advancement. Any of these would boost the interest level of the gameplay considerably.

Anyway, good work, and I look forward to seeing how this series progresses. :-)

Score: 5

"Good, but glitchy"

submission: ORB bouncer

date: January 16, 2007

This game would be an easy 4 or 5, except for the fact that the small orb has an unfortunate tendency to simply pass through the big orb every now and then when I'm trying to intercept it during a fall. Needless to say, this ruins the gameplay, much as you'd expect a broken flipper to ruin a game of pinball. Fix that, then you'll get a better review. :-)