MalTheDestroyer's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Platform Tutorial AS2]

Kinda hard to read

It's really nice that you've put this together for people, but the black text against dark green background makes it almost completely illegible. I'd change the background color and re-upload it.

Kwing responds:

I thought it was actually easier to read... The dark green makes the black text more mild. What isn't easy to read is when I made some of the text on the right bright blue.

[Anaksha: Female Assassin]

Wow, very good!

First of all, great job on this game: the art is fabulous, the engine runs smoothly, it has a great control scheme, and I love the ragdoll death animations.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way: why on earth are you apologizing for the feminist slant in this game? It's great! It gives the game emotional weight. It's a hell of a lot more interesting to play a character with an emotional backstory and a motive than to be some nameless stick man with no purpose, like in the Tactical Assassin games.

Listen, you need to ignore reviewers like ZombieBob. Feminism is about equal respect, opportunity, and treatment for women, not about man-hating. If this were just a game about man-hating, we'd be capping every guy that walks across the screen rather, not picking out the men who treat women like garbage. Trust me, dude, you're fine. No need to change things just because someone who knows nothing about feminism starts whining about your game's pro-woman stance.

ArifRocks responds:

Thank you for your kinds words. I'm glad you understood the game's theme. And believe me, if a sequel comes out, yes I will add female targets as originally intended, but I'm not going to remove the destroying of "social parasites" or the feel of the game just because one or two people accuse me of creating some feminist fantasy. I stand by my principles.

[Artifission RPG chp0]

A good base to build on

I like what you've done here. Your choice of music is very good, for one thing. The menus look nice. Also, the engine (both battle and overhead movement) is very well-made. The graphics are well-lit/shaded, well-animated, and get the point across well. I like them, personally.

In other words, I think what you've got here is pretty good. But there are some things that could use improvement:
--No in-game menu? Really? I'd like to be able to save, heal myself outside of battle, and just generally keep tabs on my character. That's a pretty important feature for any RPG.
--Too many random battles. In particular, I don't like that I can be attacked while simply standing still. Since there's no menu, this means there's really no way to "pause" the game.
--I'm given no introduction to the compound I start out in. As the ambassador's bodyguard, there's really no reason for me to be wandering aimlessly around my own compound looking for the guy I supposedly spend all of my time protecting--except, of course, to make me fight a bunch of random battles.

Anyway, fix all of that stuff, and I think you'll be in very good shape for Chapter 1. ;)

Fickludd responds:

Thanks for the review!

The things you mention will be included in chapter 1. How is your collab going? Hope to see that and Telepath out soon!

[Mardek Rpg: Chapter 1]

Much better than I expected!

When I first started playing, I had some doubts about this game. It didn't seem to take itself seriously at all, there was only one enemy type, the music was so-so, and the dragon fight was taking forever. The more I played it, though, the more I really liked it. I won't give away plot spoilers or anything, but I like where things went right after the dragon battle. ;) Very cute. It explained the weird dialog at the beginning, at any rate.

Things I like about this game:
--the graphics during battles are fantastic! (I especially like the flying fish, for some reason.)
--the in-game menu, the multiple save slots--just the GUI in general is very well done.
--the "hit A to do extra / avoid damage" system, while not exactly new at this point, is still a nice plus that makes battles more engaging.
--the plot is pure, classic FFIV, with a little Phantasy Star thrown in for good measure. Much better than I was expecting!
--The sprites in the exploration portions of the game remind me a LOT of the older Final Fantasy games. While they didn't really mesh too well with the battle graphics, they do their job, and make me a little nostalgic. That's a good thing.

Things that need work:
--having to select things with the mouse in combat is a little annoying, particularly since you have to immediately use the keyboard afterwards to bonus on damage. It would be much better if you simply used the arrow and A keys to select everything.
--the dialog. Some of it is funny and clever, but townspeople make knowing asides just a little too often (e.g. "Don't let the bed bugs randomly battle you!") It's amusing, but at some point it just takes you out of the game.
--the music is a tad inconsistent in its quality. Some tracks (like the music for the grove when going to find the fallen star, and the battle music in that area) are actually really great. Some of the other tracks, though, aren't too catchy, or seem to meander a bit without purpose. They're not bad or anything, but the quality of everything else in the game surpasses them.

Anyway, over all, this is a really, really well-made and enjoyable game. You get my 5, and I look forward to seeing what you plan to do in subsequent chapters!

Pseudolonewolf responds:

Why does everyone like the Forest Fish? I've had so many comments on that! o_O

But hm... I suppose I realise now that the beginning segment wasn't the best idea in the world; people (not you, but others) are judging the entire game on that and not getting to the *actual* plot at all... Good to know some people have though and like what the proper plot's like!

Ah, I actually think make it so then you use the arrow keys in battle rather than the mouse... Probably. I meant to do that before, ages ago, but I must've forgotten.

Hm... I like my games to be amusing and light-hearted rather than too serious... But I suppose a lot of people don't share my mode of thinking. Most of the plot dialogue in all the chapters is probably serious for the most part though.

And... interesting. I consider the music in the forest to be the worst track in the game, and really like a lot of the others (I mean, I DID compose them myself; they are my childrens!) but it's, well, interesting to see how peoples' opinions differ!

[World of Dreams]

Pretty good

This game was pretty cool. I liked the dreamy, fantastical setting, and the Boss Hog was pretty fun (though easy). You get a humor of 7 for the bouncy pigs and the flipping gnomes. :D

Only one thing really got on my nerves during this game: if you are standing on a spinning platform and you use the sound attack to spin another platform next to you, unless you're standing on the very outer edge of your platform, it will spin yours also, and drop you. This was merely annoying in the beginning, but when I got to the room with the rising spike floor, it got me killed. This really obnoxious part of the gameplay got your Interactivity score bumped down to a 5. I strongly recommend you fix it.

Paranoia responds:

But where's the fun in making it so easy? XD

[Caravaneer]

No save feature? Are you kidding?

This is a really fascinating game you've produced, a little like the offspring of Fallout and The Oregon Trail (clearly, you've been heavily influenced by Fallout, at the very least). Unfortunately, the tutorial you've put up for this game is entirely inadequate. I spent about 10 minutes trying to get everything I needed together for a trip out of town, only to find that I was "over weight" and couldn't leave, despite not having bought certain essentials. I tried again, this time hiring someone and buying him a scimitar...except that I apparently didn't equip it, so he went into combat bare-handed.

Once I've figured it out, though, it's actually rather fun. There's only one problem. Gameplay is very slow. Clearly, this is a game designed to reward people with patience. I'd be okay with that, except that there seems to be no save feature! This is a big no-no for a game that takes so long to get going in. You can't just use a "high score" method of charting progress for a game like this, where you have to play for a minimum of 30 minutes before you get anywhere at all.

If you'd included a save feature, this game would have easily made it into my favorites. My advice: add one, then re-release this.

D-mah responds:

As was said in one of the next reviews, the save feature exists. You even have 5 save slots. However, it doesn't work very well. I'm working on the bugs it has.

You are ABSOLUTELY right about Fallout. The only reason I created a game like this is because I'm a BIG fan of Fallout, and most of my RPG gaming experience has to do with this game. If I wasn't a Fallout fan, I would create shooting or breakout games with 100 lines of code.

As for The Oregon Trail, I've never heard about it. It's a pure coincidence.

[Newgrounds Rumble]

Very, very impressive

This is an extremely well-made game. Here are the many, substantial good things about it:

--The game runs extremely well, and the engine is one of the best ones I've seen in flash for a fighting game (if not simply THE best).
--The graphics and animation are extremely good. (Then again, with two of the best animators on the site working for you, they'd better be!)
--Good, well-produced fighting music. 'Nuff said.
--Nice combos, good play balance.
--Cool interactive levels worthy (in my opinion) of Super Smash Bros.

While this game easily earns a 10, there is still some room for improvement: in particular, in the area of character selection. I haven't heard of probably half the cast of characters here (Alloy? Samurai Asshole? Huh?), and some obvious choices are missing (Bitey of Brackenwood comes to mind).

Also, the AI is a little...erm...not challenging...on default. Playing with a long-reach character like P-Bot, I barely have to work to kill most enemies. (I don't think anyone has deal more than 55 damage to me in a bout yet.) The obvious solution: make a multiplayer version of this game! :D

NegativeONE responds:

Alloy and Samurai Asshole are definite NG icons, they're just from further back. Hell, look at the icon for the fighting game collection. That's Samurai Asshole ;) I would love to have Bitey in the next one though. We'll see.

[Toast of War]

Ha ha ha

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. :)

sinaiman responds:

Hehe, sounds like a good idea, we'll see what we can do :) Glad you enjoyed it!

- Reza