PoisonHeart's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cathode Raybots]

i wanted to writethis review before the game gets jam-crammed full of them. I will admit that while the options for doing up your Raybot are extensive, they seem to be lacking on the Human side...making for generic humans with no variety in weapons or looks.

HOWEVER, my favorite part of this game was the presentation and overall atmosphere in addition to the level to which you CAN customize the Raybots. I mean, that voice was perfect!!!

I think my biggest complaint is just having to go back and forth between the mouse and keyboard.
Also, somewhat disheartened that there weren't many options to customize your human and they can't shoot up or diagonally... however, this is a moot point as it seems like the Human/Raybot modes were tied together extremely well.

out of 10...

gfx - 10 (sets killer atmosphere, psyches you up)
sfx - 9 (awsome sfx and voicing, but songs get repeatitive)
design - 9.5 (overall impressive, but maybe lacking more features)
gameplay - 9.5 (a lot of fun, good controls, many choices)

overall, a killer game that showcases what Newgrounds can do. Awesome sense of doom the whole way, and fast-paced gameplay that runs well even on my 512kb of RAM...I think I will be playing Cathode Raybots for a long, long time!

TomFulp responds:

Thanks! I should consider adding keyboard controls to get through the human menus... For the Raybot menu it's pretty much inevitable that you need to use the mouse.

Multidirectional shooter was considered but the focus was more on the classic restraints - when you can only shoot left or right you have to make specific decisions while fighting the boss and there are less opportunities to just get under or over them in a safe place.

[Go Farm IV]

addicting in its way. however, i only feel like this series has become more about internal updates than new gameplay or features. the art is cute, and the option to pick characters is neat. i understand the dynamics of only being able to upgrade something once, if not the semantics.

however, this offers little departure from an already established formula. few will notice the tightened screws here or there, and re-balancing of progression.

out of 10....

gfx - 8.5 (clean, simple, friendly)
sfx - 6 (music is fun at first, but grows ridiculous...no mute button)
design - 5 (compared to other "Go Farm" games it's better, but nothing new)
gameplay - 6 (the game breaks down quickly)

overall, this is an alluring game. however, it offers little departure from its previous versions. diversity is the spice of life, so they say, and this has little in spite of itself.

rhys510 responds:

Hey thanks, theres a mute button in the options at the top right of the screen and thanks for commenting! :P

[Stick Dress-Up]

nice use of onPress & startDrag properties.

NOT!

i hate dress-up games. what i hate more than that is lazy programming. what i hate more than that is lazy drawing. it is nice that you are learning, good luck! but this is terrible, dude.

think about it: white background = boring, painful. use of only 2 VERY BASIC AS methods = boring, bland. drawings that look like they were made in 1992 under MS-PAINT = boring, painful.

keep working at this and you'll get it.

out of 10....

gfx - 1.5 (you didn't even use the "smoothing" property for your brush!)
sfx - 0 (no tunes, no sfx...weak!)
design - 2 (poorly planned, terrible to look at)
gameplay - 1 (drag 'n drop, sorting files would be more fun)

overall, this hardly constitutes a game...the level of interactivity is extremely low. often i see this same game uploaded with the defense of "oh, it's my first game, be gentle". NO! up that framerate, use smoothing, magnetize the clothes, practice your drawing, add sound fx, add a background, don't draw stick people, DON'T MAKE A SEQUEL! instead, update this to sterling quality...at this point, making a "sequel" entails more than likely more of the same.

and very most importantly, good luck and don't let pompous douche-bags like me drag you down!

eastereggy responds:

Ok
Thanks for a review
BTW I use Flash MX 2004

[Demons vs Fairyland]

thank you for abandoning newgrounds in favor of $$$, making sure that your game only arrived here after everyone has already played it on Kong a month or two back.

poor showmanship, no review.

StormAlligator responds:

The game was released on Kongregate today (the same day as on Newgrounds).

[Fat Boy Dress UP Mega]

the lack of effort put into the "programming" is almost shameful. "derrr, i can makes a movieclip drag, derrrrr"
You didn't even magnetize it. Then again, this "programming" comees from a fella with a butt-face for an icon, so too much can't be expected.

Who gives two craps about "fat boy". Would be really surprised if the version before this "update" was any different. The nazi symbolism is tasteless, and I could whip up better costumes in my sleep. There is almost no content here, and to be honest this game isn't worth the 2 stars it currently has.

Considering that %99 of this games size is the cruddy "ambient" music, I'm really not in the mood.

out of 10...
gfx - 4 (ugly lines, uninspired costuming)
sfx - 2 (irritating song you can't mute)
design - 3 (makes Clock Crew look like gods)
gameplay - 0.3 ("derrrr, i can copy-paste code from tuts")

overall, a very poor first effort. I wish you luck, and hope you are able to take criticism without being crushed or going agro in a review-response. You both have talent, and potential, but this sucks.

GPEPICNESS responds:

We are both new at this. Drawing in flash is kinda hard. Since we are in high school i understand our lack of knowledge. In our country we go in high schools to learn something specific like programming or something else. Since i was not able to go to an Art school since it is in another city i went in another school to learn programming. I respect your review. If you want you can check out my deviant art:http://gpepicness.deviantart.com/ . We will try better next time. I promise.

[Purple Suit Man Jump]

sorry to see that in spite of good controls and decent collision detection, this game has 2.30 stars. Yeah, the graphics could have had more effort, but the rotating head on his idle cycle is really a nice touch.

A good sense of height and danger is also established, because you know you'll fall either back to the beginning or death. X_X

One thing that was sort of tacky was the painted "thanks for playing" at the end of the stage. Would have preferred a different screen altogether. Also, his jumping is a bit...jumpy, not sure what you need to fix there.
Also, a consistent interface goes a long way, even on the simple stuff like not having to click start, but rather using the keyboard...since that's what controls the rest of the game.

out of 10...

gfx - 6 (decent, but more effort could have been used)
sfx - 7 (good song choice, sfx would have been nice tho)
design - 7.5 (thoughtful planning, but perhaps poor interface)
gameplay - 8 (quite fun, despite the length)

overall, this is a decent effort and I am glad to have played it. Good luck on future submissions!

MidgetSlap responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I do agree that this was more of a half-finished test, and to be honest I had no idea that it would get over 1K plays at all. I will take to mind the tips that you gave me, along with the rest of the feedback here in future projects.
Thanks again.

[Cool Story Bro]

Well, to be honest, I stopped playing shortly after entering the Desert town "Gisbee". The retro graphics fit well enough, and I really did like the story...maybe I'm just too tired now. I will say that this feels more like an interactive short story than an actual game. Given the title, I guess that's to be expected.

Let's see...first, I didn't like the font or cheesy glow around the options. Modern font is out of place, and glow didn't blend well. Codeman38 made some cool retro fonts some years ago, http://www.zone38.net/font/

And, if game mechanics affect story...then I must say that the way the wizard followed you around was sort of awkward. I felt more like I was "swinging" him around, dragging really, rather than he was following me. Could be that he doesn't really have a walk cycle when following, or that he is literally grouped with the player MC or whatever.

Too many tunes, dude! I don't think most people will notice, and it just takes up more loading time. Side-comments include the running speed could be somewhat quicker and I don't really understand why a seperate button is needed for "auto-next". As someone with large hands, this is easy enough for me, but others may be frustrated by the awkward tedium of switching between distant keys and mouse.

i feel uncomfortable giving a rating to this one, as I didn't play it long but still wanted to provide feedback...so please know that much...

out of 10...

gfx - 7.5 (good style, some confusion)
sfx - 6 (good BGM choices, just too many)
design - 7 (pacing could be quicker)
gameplay - 6.5 (didn't feel immersed)

overall, this isn't bad...in fact I like it! Perhaps it's just not my speed, or preferred style. I do not feel engaged, lack of items....lack of puzzles....it's just point-a to point-b, and most of the multiple choice pathways seem fairly linear.

An excellent second title, tho, and I think it would be very popular amongst more avid readers than I.

jdproductions321 responds:

Thanks for the review! I'll see what I can do with those proposed fixes.

[Super Bike GP]

It's like a suped-up version of Rad Racer for NES, which was just a suped-up version of the old sit-down version of Pole Position if you remember it.

I really like the effort you put in as developer. The upgrades are effective, the game maintains a good pace, and there is a definite retro-feel to the game. So far, my only gripe is that there aren't more crashes. I used to love the Road Rash series for this, which I think this could have borrowed from for more variety. Additionally, at times the pacing seems a little slow just because it usually takes more than one race to get another upgrade and the checkpoints are somewhat far between.

The 3D landscape combined with pixel-art bikes works really well. Sense of speed is convincing, without the controls going sloppy. I like the additional racers, road-signs, UI graphics like the neon bike in the upgrades screen, and other small details.
Definitely like the parallax backgrounds, and the variety of the levels.

Good music, here, and the sound effects aren't annoying. Loops play smoothly and are energetic. I like that each different menu screen has different music attached, as well do the races.

I think that if anything, I would have liked more customization or bolder features like ramps and the ability to grapple/punch-out other racers for more depth. Maybe additional bikes, or just bike colors, as well as specific "parts" upgrades rather than generic "speed/accel/turbo" labels. Also they could probably be cheaper.
Also, your position during a race is not shown...which could be handy!

out of 10...

gfx - 8.0 (elements work well together, crash animation "jumps" back to track tho)
sfx - 8.5 (good compositions and variety)
design - 8.0 (some depth could be added, but it isn't confusing)
gameplay - 8.5 (good arcade-style, solid controls)

overall, this is a great game for fans of old-fashioned arcade racers. I would estimate a play-through would take about 30 minutes, optimally. Seems perfect for a flash game: lite, fun, and a little nostalgic.
Definitely recommend this to ANYONE, not just racing fans, as it doesn't demand a large investment of time and is pretty radical just overall.

chrisError responds:

hey I know this comment is over a year old, but I must have missed it first time around, thanks for the awesome review, really so helpful and encouraging!

[SANDY HOOKS SHOOT EM UP]

Here we have a game that is blatantly offensive. luckily enough, the creator is such a bad artist and hack programmer, that none of that offense comes across as even remotely believable. It is not recommended that YOU even write a review, as you will undoubtedly spend more energy on it than the creator put into this game.
Besides having terrible colors that weren't even ATTEMPTED to be pulled together, there are no instructions. The controls are little more than buttons...and the "programmer" was such a loser they couldn't even figure out this simple script.
Appears that someone pulled some AS code from Google, added an annoying song, and then they couldn't draw well so they called it "Sandy Hook" in the title to get some views.

If the tool who created this game considers themselves an artist or a programmer, or even just a designer...they should stop. No talent is present in this, not even the slightest inkling. There is only the inane rambling movieclips given the most BASIC code...on top of which, the creator was such a slob that they couldn't even figure out how to make hi-score tables.

Once again, in case it was too subtle, this is NOT a review of the game's theme. It is apparant the creator suffers from a number of issues...anyone that would hate not only the last stronghold of art, but also choose to spend X number of hours of their life commemorating the brutal and vicious murders of toddlers who wanted nothing more than to go home and watch Beyblade or whatever...is obviously having trouble in their life. Perhaps they suffer from fatness, or deep-seated anger. Perhaps they are merely mentally retarded, and should be pitied, rather than despised.

out of 10...

gfx - 2.5 (doesn't even qualify as "amateur" artist)
sfx - 0.5 (stolen song, no sfx)
design - 0 (offensive theme is obvious gimmick)
gameplay - 0 (controls fail, pointless game)

overall, if the creator thinks they are an artist....or if they draw often....then they should stop. It's apparant that the creator DID NOT purchase Flash, as the quality is so bad that only a child of 8 years old or the mentally handicapped should be able to put forth something of this quality. As is. this reviewer can only find it...droll.

I wish the creator all the best of luck in whatever they pursue in life...it obviously isn't art or game creation. They will probably never enjoy the satisfaction of a job well done, something I'm sure future romantic partners will tell them when the creator discovers they have been cheating on him with the buff guy from Quizno's.

ZabuJard responds:

BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

oh my, oh my. You sir, have made my night. Thanks for that heart warming review champ! Ill keep up the good work, just for you! I owe you at least that much dont I? :)

[Symbiosis]

Beat this one over at another Flash game site, and have been wanting to review it for some time.

Somewhat disappointed to see not only a lack of reviews and overall views for what is honestly a very good game. However, also somewhat disappointed that the developer has shown such a lack of support for his own, very ambitious project.

To start, it is a cross between Tower-Defense and a rapid-fire board game. You plant seeds, which grow into plants whose ultimate goal is the destruction of the EVIL CRYSTALS. I'm unsure how people like "playman5" down below me here are able to think this is a direct rip of Kingdom Rush. Considering that the monsters ARE NOT ON TRACKS, you are NOT BUILDING A VARIETY OF BUILDINGS, and in fact THERE ARE ONLY TWO KINDS OF CHARACTERS.

The gameplay doesn't grow stale and frustrating, in fact once you get the hang of it after beating the main missions...it's somewhat easy to collect the "special medals".

At the same time that this is a casual strategy game, it doesn't overwhelm the player with fourty-million dumb abilities, or redundant unit-leveling-into-other-units. The plants and crystals just grow, and it's about getting the advantage.

Game takes place on a tiled field, and as your plants grow they become more powerful. You can chain them together, pumping all their strength into one unit to push through enemy lines or lay a solid defense.

There are skills and ability upgrades, but they make sense and have a dramatic impact on the overall course of the game. To be honest, throughout the main missions I did not feel that I was going through repetitive levels in the same way I felt with games like "Kingdom Rush" or standard path-based Tower-defense games.

NOW! I have a major bone to pick with the developer. I beat this game, then I went back and got all the golden plants and trophies for every level. My reward? NOTHING! Not a victory screen or a cinematic, just the main map where I select another level....

out of 10....
Gfx - 9 (bright, descriptive, and fun)
sfx - 8 (reasonable variety, somewhat forgettable)
design - 9 (fresh gameplay, lack of closure)
gameplay - 9.5 (exciting, ambitious, refreshing)

Overall, it's always very nice to see a game that covers all it's bases. Upgrades are solid, the gameplay stays fresh, the concept is VERY original. As I said at the start, this is more like a rapid-fire, action-oriented board game than it is a run-of-the-mill Tower Defense. I think that by giving that genre, the developer didn't think it was anything special, even though this one definitely is.
I got all the in-game trophies, the only time I've ever gotten %100 on a game. Disappointed that there was no reward for that, so I don't recommend it.

HINTS & TIPS:
-Stick to the main core upgrades (HP-regen, attack-up, defense-up) at first.
-Don't waste time trying to get all the golden plants and trophies, waste of time.
-It's better to reset a level than try to beat it for an hour, get the jump early!
-All missions can be finished in under a minute.

jarofed responds:

Thank you for such a detailed feedback and great suggestions. I'm happy you've liked the game. And I'm currently thinking about creating level pack to this game with some improvements. I will definitely add the end screen...

And again, thank you for completing this game.