MalTheDestroyer's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Defend Atlantis]

Nice work!

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!

[Max Mesiria Chp1 RPG]

Nice job!

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. :-)

SnailsAnimation responds:

Thank you for the good review!
We are currently searching for some music for chapter 2 (a lot of people didn't like the music of the small battles)
Thank you for the tip! It really makes the track loop perfectly. :-)
CHP2 - There will be a real statistic system (STR, END, INT, SPD, DDG (dodge)) and also the ability to change equipment.
New party member joins in chapter 3 (the story goes that way)
Hope you will like it! Chp2 should come out next week! (only the sounds/music and some sketches to add)
:-)

[ORB bouncer]

Good, but glitchy

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. :-)

[Swords and Sandals 2]

Doesn't load.

I've been sitting here for five minutes, and it still says it's Loading Game Info. Sorry, but I just don't have time to wait for this thing any longer.

Anyway, assuming that this game is the like first, it's unique and interesting but not really (in my opinion) all that much fun. That's just a matter of personal taste, though. These games are certainly well-made, and I know people have enjoyed playing them.

If a game is good enough, I don't think there's anything wrong with charging for a full version. I'd never post a game online that you couldn't complete or save, of course, but having another version with higher quality sound and graphics, more characters, battles and weapons, etc. for a small price is perfectly reasonable. Games like this aren't exactly easy to make, and there's nothing wrong with seeking a little compensation for your time and effort.

[Fancy Pants Adventures]

Wow, this is superb

I found this game through the History of the Portal page. When I saw a stick-man platformer on there, I admit, I was more than a little skeptical. Boy was I ever wrong! This game is wonderful--the animations are smooth and realistic (so much so that it actually doesn't bother me that the main character is a stick figure with billowy pants), the controls are close to flawless, and the gameplay is like a winning combination of the 2D Sonic and Mario games. That, plus the really enjoyable background music, make this game a lot of fun to play. Just by exploring, I've gotten three of the trophies so far, plus the secret wall jump move (which takes some getting used to, by the way--I find myself sticking to walls now when I don't want to be).

The only thing I'd like to see in a sequel is a slide attack. As it is now, there's never a reason to duck or slide while running (that I've seen, anyway) and this game isn't as forgiving as the Sonic games about the angle at which you jump onto an enemy. If you could knock off enemies by sliding into them after going into a run (M. Bison-style), that would be incredibly cool, and would enhance the fun factor even more.

Anyway, enough rambling--you've done an excellent job here. :-) This is already on my favorites list, and deservedly so.

DrNeroCF responds:

Hey that's funny, I just put a slide attack in World 2 a little while ago... you should be proud :D

[Uber Techno Sphere]

Very cool!

The action is fast-paced, the grpahics are good, and the controls are responsive. I also like that you can jump between edges of the screen--that's a fun tactical ability to have. I also like that you don't "die"--you just lose points from being hit by the enemies.

My one complaint: it's hard as all hell to see where you are when you're moving around because of all those "expanding ring of water" effects, and doubly so when you're moving and firing off a stream of shots. I found myself totally unable to locate my character on more than a couple of occasions. Fix that, and this will be the perfect time-waster. :-)

[-=STEALTH=- [X-MAS]]

Not bad!

Reminds me a little of a certain flash game I made and submitted here a few months back. :-) I think that a lot of this is much too easy. What would increase the interestingness of it and boost this game's score is if you could add new elements to it: for example, different lighting levels throughout each area. If you're in the shadows, your stealth meter depletes as usual, but if you're in an illuminated area, you're dead the second they spot you.

I can also tell that you did what I did in making the levels: you motion tweened the sentries to set them on a loop. Now I can't program AI for the life of me, but if I were trying to make a game where it was all about outsmarting guards, I'd want to have some sort of AI to interact with. Maybe you could give the player some things, like a limited number of coins, to drop and figure out a way to make it "distract" the guards. Or, alternatively, maybe there could be certain "triggers" throughout the level that will attract guard's attention, or cause new guards to appear if the player walks over them (security cameras, perhaps, or maybe just something noisy).

Anyway, this has a lot of potential. I'd like to see what you do in the sequel!

Axlenz-FlashElite responds:

wow thanks for the insight, i'll be sure to incorporate that in my next game

[Dragon Fist 3]

Simply an awesome job!

This is easily the best one-on-one fighting game on this site, and probably in flash anywhere. This is like Samurai Showdown, but better. The customizability of it is awesome, but so are the array of characters, moves, fighting styles, etc.

The character models are not exactly breathtaking, but they're good enough, and considering the array of moves you have them perform (and the fact that even my brand-new system sometimes slow down during gameplay), I don't fault you for skimping on the detail a little.

You know what would make this game even cooler? Online, multiplayer one-on-one matches. I'm sure that it would be a huge pain in the butt to program, but it would definitely be worth it if you could. :-)

[TheAdventuresOfGuy:RPG]

Nice work!

Nice things:
-the animations are imaginative, if a little too cartoony for my taste. I like how the sponge explodes when it dies! :-)
-the gameplay is simple yet fun. I particularly like the Paper Mario-style battle system.
-you can keep track of how many stones you've collected in each area--that's a nice touch.
-I like the variety of equipment, and the fact that you effectively "specialize" in physical combat or magic.

Annoyances/Suggestions:
-no plot, only three characters in the whole game, and no real character development.
-sometimes I'll accumulate 100 experience points and it will just decide to "skip" the whole leveling up process and send me back to 0 experience points anyway.
-there is one stone in the Cliffs area that you simply cannot get. Not that I actually need to. But still, I collected every single other stone, and it kind of annoys me that there's one that's inaccessible.
-with some enemy attacks, it's too hard to tell when you're supposed to press space to dodge. A lot of the time you can figure it out, but there are some where I still can't.
-getting stuck in the scenery. It's really not that bad, though--it doesn't happen too often, and when it does, reloading is pretty easy (it could easier, though--have you considered making a load button for the backspace menu?)

Overall, good job!

[Osiris II]

Not Bad.

Everything about this game is above average, but there are things that could definitely be improved upon (hence, the 7s):

-The engine. Pretty cool, especially given the level editing capabilities. The scrolling is nifty too, though it's annoying when the character falls faster than the camera follows and she ends up off the screen until the camera catches up. Also: the controls feel very sluggish. I have a new computer with 2 GB of RAM and a Core 2 Duo processor. Starcraft FA 5 runs at 93% on my rig. So it ain't because I need to set it at low quality--there's something up with the code itself.

-The graphics. Good, particularly in terms of the environmental detail, but as others have pointed out, the main character moves stiffly and looks quite unnatural.

-The sound. The sound effects are serviceable, but not much beyond that. The main theme music is very good; I wasn't too crazy about the music in the Temple of Bast, though. It was a little too "in your face" without actually energizing me.

-The combat. Annoying. The default weapon is awful, and you can't really do much running and dodging because you just end up rolling straight into traps.

-The puzzles. Very simplistic. Not even as complex as the "find the key card for this door" puzzles in old shooter games.

There are many areas here where there is room for improvement, but on the whole you've done a good job with this release. Keep working on it! :-)

ChromeShark responds:

Thanks, that's a really helpful review.

The slow falling was pretty hard to get around, any faster and she sometimes fell through platforms. This'll need a rethink for chapter III.

Not sure what causes the sluggish gameplay, I've played it fine on some PCs. I'll have a play about with it.

If you play the first chapter you can see that the main character movement is much better than before, but I'll admit there is still room for improvement. Jumping and falling in particular I think are quite robotic-looking.

I'd have liked to have had the atmospheric music throughout but it was pretty hard finding enough that fitted, so I went for heavier tracks on the boss levels.

I'm not to thrilled with the combat either, although it's improved since the first chapter, for chapter III I'm tempted to try something very different (hint - no mouse, no guns).

Although I will try and vary the puzzles up next time, I don't want to make anything that people might get stuck on, because that can be really irritating.

Thanks again, I'll certainly use this review to help when I get round to making chapter III (got another game planned before that one though).