MalTheDestroyer's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pandemic: EoM]

A mediocre spin-off

This game is almost exactly like your (very original and quite excellent) game that you submitted here maybe a month ago, but with a substantially uglier in-game GUI, way fewer mutation options, and more frustrating gameplay. Why, I ask you, would every region of the world begin working at breakneck speed to find a cure for some nonlethal, not very contagious new virus the second it pops up anywhere in the world? And even if they did, why would Africa remain only a few turns behind the U.S. and Europe in their research? I mean, just look at what the president of Gambia did recently, telling people he could cure them of AIDS if they would stop taking antiretroviral meds and instead rub herbal banana paste on themselves. Africa isn't exactly a continent brimming over with medical experts.

Anyway, this was disappointing, and in my view, a significant step down from your first game.

[Kimblis the Blue]

Wow

This game is simply brilliant. It took me only 20 minutes to beat, however, which is a shame, because I'm sure this must have taken forever to make!

Pros
--the graphics are very good, especially during the cut scenes.
--the music is excellent, and the voice acting is superb as well.
--combat is challenging, but once you get used to the controls, not too difficult. The puzzles, also, are clever but ultimately not too hard to figure out.
--the in-game engine looks good and runs very smoothly.

Cons
--the controls are quite hard to get used to. I kept expecting to be able to walk and drag the girl along at the same time, but of course whenever I tried that I'd end up walking towards the little girl.
--magic is extremely inconvenient to use in combat compared with simple (or for that matter, enchanted) sword swiping. The first wind spell you get, especially, is really really lousy. What can I say--it kinda takes the fun out of playing a wizard when your spells are cumbersome and largely ineffective.
--this game was nonstop action for the most part, which meant that it was quite entertaining, but I admit, I found myself missing more traditional RPG elements like a persistent world to explore, items, and player-initiated dialog and character interaction.

Anyway, enough rambling: the bottom line is, you've definitely earned your 5 out of 5 for the day. Great job on this, and try not to keep us waiting too long for the sequel!

[Max Mesiria Chp2 RPG]

Very good!

Good stuff:
--The graphics are just awesome! The most impressive stuff this time around is the scenery, but I still think the characters are very well-drawn and animated. I especially like the animation for when you "pop" a ghost pulse, and when one of those little shadow thingies attacks with its blade arms.
--The music is vastly improved from the last one. The creepy night music in the beginning, in particular, is just beautiful. One sour note: the new battle music is kind of annoying, though at least it sounds like battle music now. :-)
--Puzzles in the train are nice and challenging. Good work on those. (SPOILER: The trap chest was a nice touch!)
--Nice job adding a save function and an in-game menu.
--Character advancement doesn't feel too slow--you become noticeably stronger with each level.

Annoyances:
--The electrocution noise has a popping sound at the end that bothers me.
--You still can't customize your guy when he levels up.
--You can't spend any of your money until you beat the first boss.
--Consequently, you have to "build up" to beat that boss. One of the things that was nice about Mesiria part one was that you could (and did) progress without deliberately walking around in circles in a given area fighting things over and over.
--The opening sequence, while cool, was obviously modeled after Phantasy Star 4. Points lost there in the originality department. :-P

Anyway, bottom line: this is huge improvement over part one. You guys have won yourselves a place on my favorites list. :-)

SnailsAnimation responds:

Mesiria is a tribute to games like Phantasy Star, Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Lufia.. We're actually glad some people noticed the resemblance in the opening sequence. (We're going to improve it in chp3) The "specials" system is also inspired by the "skills" in that game. And in the chapter 3 there will be combo attacks :l But aside that, there will be nothing to much like the ps series. There will be a Alchemy system for humans(a bit similar to Secret of Evermore *since you know old games, I'll throw in some examples like that :)*) You're gonna be able to see the enemies in the dungeons, but in the overworld, it's going to stay random battles. As for char. customisation, I'm unsure of what you mean. If you mean adding strenght, it will be possible, but only with special items like "Power milk" or like "Life bread" in Shining Force :-P, because there will be other characters in chapter 3 and the rest. And we did so because you could end up having characters with the same specs. (we want every character to have it's unique strenghts and weaknesses) Of course, in chapter 1 & 2 you're alone and if the story was to stay that way we would have used a system like that.
About the music, we would really like to have our own musician.. anyone willing to donate his talent and be a part of Mesiria, you let me know. The popping sound might be the sound of Gustave taking a hit, I'm going to check that.

Thank you for the great review!
I noticed that you made a game, I'm going to try it! :)

P.S. Screw Sega for not making Phantasy Star 5 and ruining the series by making a mmorpg out of it!!

[Linion RPG]

Great job!

This is a very well-made RPG--I definitely have enjoyed playing it. It isn't perfect, though. Here is my break down of the pros and cons:

Pros
--the battle engine is flat-out awesome. I love how you have to time your attacks and strategize, and the way party members are implemented is great--they just do what you want them to continuously without you having to tell them to.
--on a related note, I like how enemy difficulty is determined not just by their hit points and how much damage they do, but also by the timing of their attacks. It puts a nice spin on an old formula.
--the animation. I love how there are frame-by-frame animations for just about everything. Clearly, a lot of work went into this.
--customizable layout of battle buttons. This was a nice touch, and it definitely added to the playability.

Cons
--way too many random battles! It gets very annoying when you get thrown into a battle every few steps. Since there usually only 2 enemy types in any given area, it becomes repetitive very quickly.
--too easy. Because there are so many random battles, you advance in level very quickly, and end up facing enemies (and bosses) half your level who do 1 damage per successful attack. It totally takes the challenge out of it. (It took less than 2 minutes for me to kill the goblin twins by the time I reached the end of the sewers, and I think I suffered a total of 3 damage from the experience. Sheez.)
--there is no sound. I can't think of any good reason for this other than perhaps keeping file size down. Still, having no sound effects or music detracts from the game.

Anyway, I see from your site that you're making a sequel. I'm sure it will be good--just make sure you learned from the problems in this one. :-) Good luck!

[GreenCastle: DoubleExodus]

Below average

I am rating this 4 out of 10 because it is, simply put, below average. The sound and graphics are sub-par, the control scheme is cumbersome, and there is nothing to do except roam around and fight FF-style battles. And even there, this game is sub-par: all you fight are eagles, you get a single uninteresting attack to use, and the healing (er, self-repair) ability is so weak as to be essentially worthless. Even worse, there is very little in the way of character advancement. Not to be mean, but I really don't see how a game like this could end up with a higher score than Kimblis the Blue, Savage, or even The Adventures of Guy.

GreenCastle responds:

If you couldn't get out of the first area, you are sub-par at RPGs.

[Kingdom Fire Demo]

This is awesome!

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.

Nemo responds:

Thanks a bunch! I'm really glad you enjoyed playing this. On the surface, it does appear very similar to the AD&D engine and that is probably because the biggest influence I had in making this game was Neverwinter Nights (which, of course, IS the AD&D engine). Actually, though, when you get down to the actual mechanics of the game it's more or less original. Either way, I think this game needed some vast touching up before I submitted it.

Thanks again. I really appreciate the review!

[Tested On Animals 2]

Barely playable

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.

[Mobile Weapon]

Pretty but dull

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.

TylerProjects responds:

Ok, to prove we made the dying sound, I shall reveal the process!
1. Get the free Audacity sound editor.
2. Grab a suitable noise sound as a base. (Trial around with a few)
3. Apply the "Phase" effect.
4. Done!

:p

[Snake with Balls]

Not bad

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. :-)

carborundum responds:

Thank you 7 Is a nice Score.
Runs quickely problem me not realising most the coding i do about 12am-3am as i normally working
Graphics are pretty simple I still getting used to flash drawing skills the background was made in Photoshop and imported in as a bitmap image.
I am glad the music was relaxing that was what i was after though i could not find the perfect piece i spent the last 3 day searching for the music.
The High scoring system is a simple 18 line actionscript you can paste in at the start of you script its basically uses a cookie to store the score for you computer if anyone wishes for the scoring code then just asend me a message

Thanks for the review.