vest816's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Basic Training]

It's kinda slow. Pace could use some adjustment.

I honestly find this game to be quite boring. You're hitting targets, and the only opposition you have is a limitted supply of ammo. So it doesn't have this urgency, this fast pace to it. Here's what I would have done differently.

Give the illusion of a much bigger playing field. I don't feel this sense of accomplishment if I'm hitting a target 10 feet in front of me. In fact, it makes me feel retarded when I miss that target. I don't like it when games make me feel retarded, lol.

If the original character was drawn a heck of a lot smaller, and the missiles were also scaled accordingly, I would actually feel like a crafty baller if I could nail a target at what looks like 500 feet away. And why a painted training target? I want to kill JEEPS! I wanna blow away some BUILDINGS! Let's give some lovin' to some TIGHTLY PACKED GROUPS OF HIPPIE DIRTBAGS!

I would also kill to see that missile give some more boom. Really kick some dirt around. I'll let you in on some secret information in my Flash business. We're working on a game that in a couple weeks will be uploaded to NG, and it has what we have lovingly called "eat shit physics". We measure the impact of an explosion, and how much of an "ooooooooh!" reaction it can create. You're shooting down planes, and what's really driving the gameplay is that the planes don't just pop like a cherry bomb. They roll, they break apart, they burst into flame, they explode into many little flaming bits. So if this game had a much stronger punch, I would get a much greater degree of satisfaction while playing it.

Oh, umm, the preloader doesn't work. I see that you left room for one, maybe you just have to adjust the scripting on it. Or my computer's (more likely) gone bonkers.

Overall, it has some drive to it. Graphics definitely needs a bit more polish. The gameplay needs to be sped up (maybe include a timer?), and the game doesn't have a lot of "kick ass" mechanics tied to it. So it's definitely a "preserve", but it should become a living project where you continue adding features to it. Because it's definitely not as complete as it could be.

[Super Mario Platforms]

Gameplay could definitely be better.

Graphics: I can't give this one anything that high, because these are unfortunately not your graphics. It's just a policy of mine. There wasn't enough original material to warrant anything that great.

Style: Same with graphics, it's not an original style. It accomplishes the essential gameplay elements, but hardly introduces anything new regarding gameplay after the first couple levels. Just becomes a continuation of all the same stuff.

Sound: Not your sounds. So they get points for being properly implemented in the game, but they don't get anything beyond that as they don't have any originality.

Violence: Mario dies and goes boom. He can fall in lava. But I don't see the boom. I don't see him erupting in flames when he falls into the lava. So, violence doesn't get that high of a score.

Interactivity: Okay, here's where you score big points. You have a game, and it's for the most part bug free. So for having a functioning engine that allows you to churn out a ton of these levels, you're definitely going to get at least some good marks out of this. Maybe the repetetive gameplay and very unoriginal game world will be detrimental, but to gameplay buffs like myself, just seeing a functioning script like this in the works is excellent. You might want to check Mario's hit states, and make it a little more generous in where he can land, because I found that even if he's not touching the lava (visually), Flash still registers the hitTest, so he dies.

There's also a HORRIFYING bug. The second mushroom (or third, don't remember the count) gives infinity lives as it doesn't trigger to disappear when I hit it.

Humor: Nothing much for humor. Just another game, another day, and uses some cute characters that unfortunately you don't have creative license over.

Overall: I enjoyed it for about a minute or so, but realized that every level is just the same game over and over again. No real combat, just jump, avoid, jump, avoid, get mushroom, jump, pipe, next level, repeat. So as a gamer, I found the experience very short-lived, and quit out much sooner than a game of this potential should allow. It's one of those titles that needs a lot more gameplay-wise, as it has enough to warrant it a classification as a game, yet nothing much else.

Final Grade: C

[Shaolin Dodgeball]

I just didn't find it to be that fun.

There seems to be just two kinds of bits to dodge, and the game only has the mechanic of dodging/surviving. It starts out painfully slow. If there was a feature to choose what the starting level is, just so I don't have to sit through such an uneventful first couple of minutes, it would make the game really awesome.

The character movement could be better. It's clumsy to me, and doesn't have a really fluid motion that I could get into.

Good visual presentation, though. I think that this one will do pretty well, too. A green label, at minimum, just because of the looks and solid fast gameplay after the first minute or so. But as for my own personal taste, it's just not fitting.

ReklessCreati0n responds:

Thank you for the review, The movement is quite solid, if the quality is in low. Yeah I do agree it starts out slow.

[Crazy KeepUps]

Definitely got me playing it.

Well, I'm not too keen on the whole "Keepy-Uppy" thing, even though I'm guilty of applying similar game styles in my own work. I guess it's just one of those things that's fun to program. However, as this one has powerups, I definitely give it good props for that. Just to make gameplay more interesting. Yet if I recall, didn't HomeStarRunner do something strangely similar to that where you got pick-ups, but with the ball itself?

Ah wait, it was a tire.

Well, I like the game, but I can't really give it strong marks for originality. Yet it still maintains a strong visual presentation, and it kept me clicking for a good ten minutes. 245, people. Can anybody 'round here beat 245?

Final grade: B

[DTZ World Cup Keepy Ups]

Nice presentation, but gameplay is quirky.

I think the gameplay in this one is kinda slow. It's just keeping a ball in the air, and then getting to a place to score a goal. However, getting the timing of the goal wasn't as much a challenge as it is more of a frustration. I didn't know where to hit spacebar as the ball would droop to a stop either above or below his foot, but I could never get it quite on the mark.

Oh, no wait, I get it now. I'm American. I just naturally suck at Footie. Nevermind then. I'm sure there's gonna be some Brazillian kid reading that and wondering "the heck is that crazy Yank goin' on about?"

Graphically, it's cool. Love those backgrounds. Interface design is solid. Can't judge sound, as my speakers have gone kaput, but if it's as good as the graphics, then I'm going to give it the same score.

Pros: Strong visual presentation. Well themed. A heck of a lot better than the other World Cup simulator on the frontpage.

Cons: Gameplay is kinda slow. Not so challenging, more frustrating, thus the nature of the game. Some of the 3d character animation can be quirky.

Overall: A very well crafted game, worth the download, worth a shot, but probably not for a casual gaming demographic. B+

[Denzean Knights]

It's a tough endevor, but very clumsy.

I'm having a few issues with this game. First of all, even though all the quality is, by default, set to low, I'm still getting a horriffic unplayable gameplay on this. Maybe it's one of those "too prestigious" kind of titles that gets over the developer's head. The movement is also very choppy, and difficult to maneuvre through the level. That is both coupled with the framerate, the unresponsive nature of the game, the slow movement, and the collission detection.

I don't really know how to describe the collission detection with the platforms. It's like it works half the time, and half the time, the character just slips through an invisible gap in the solid ground, and gets wedged ankle deep.

Maybe I just didn't get it...but there were two attacks? One attack button? As slashers go, I love it when games go beyond the basic attack and establish really elaborate combos. So, it fulfills the slasher status quo, but it doesn't break any ground.

So overall I recognize the vast amount of work that went into this, and it's still quite impressive to look at. But as I start playing, there are little quirks that are obliterating the gameplay experience, making it less fun and more frustrating.

[Classic Rock Quiz 6!]

Pretty cool.

While on long roadtrips, I take a particular pride in my circle of friends for knowing quite a lot about rock from the sixties and seventies. But this one really pushes it, and I'm glad it's not all just a bunch of "How do you spell ACDC?" retard questions. These ones are really challenging, and quite fitting for Jukebox Heroes like myself.

I hang my head in shame, for getting the year Jimmy Hendrix died wrong. And even moreso for knowing right off the bat the very year Yes was formed, and also knowing that the lead singer, John Anderson, originally began a rock career in The Warriors in 1963, and that Chris Squire was in Syn since 1967, and they both met while in a club and wanted to do a single collab together, and had Bill Bruford and Alan Keyes (later replaced by Alan White and Rick Wakeman) as well as a real douchebag of a lead guitarist (later fired and replaced by Steve Howe) come together. And somehow I also know that Yes never won a Grammy, was only nominated for a reward for "Cinema" in 1985 for best INSTRUMENTAL (take THAT John Anderson), and that when Anderson temporarily left in 1980, he was replaced by the lead singer of the Bugles for the "Drama" album, who later wrote a song that became Yes' only #1 hit Owner of a Lonely Heart but gave it to John after hearing John sing it during a sound test. YET I DIDN'T GET THE YEAR JIMMY HENDRIX DIED! *cries*

Allright, umm, let's see here. The guitar for the pointer isn't working too good for me. It's kinda clunky, and with an interface running at what looks like a default 12 FPS to 24 FPS, it's slow and jittery. I also couldn't push myself to give very high marks in graphics, because it's just a bunch of text and pictures from the Internet. Yet everything else should do well as I found this entertaining nonetheless.

Nice job. A solid conclusion to a good quiz series.

KyleDaFox responds:

Thanks, we all make mistakes sometimes, and in your case, you didn't get when Jimi Hendrix died. It's OK. I had the FPS at 15, I just wanted the intro to move faster. I liked the guitar pointer, I thought it'd be a cool addition. Thanks for the great review!

[RPS-25]

I FOUND A BUG WHERE DO I COLLECT MY PRIZE!?

Seems there's a faulty variable in the RPS-15 mode, where when I select devil and computer selects man, the text reads "DEVIL undefined".

Unless it's supposed to say that, to which I hand my head in shame, and insist you just pay attention to the numeric score I give instead.

Dave responds:

Fixed, and thanks! We had to hard-code this fix, too, since there's an anomaly between RPS-15 and RPS-25. In RPS-15, Devil tempts Man. But in RPS-25, because of the way the game had to be laid out, while Devil still Tempts Woman, Man now has the ability to Exorcise Devil! So a gesture-reversal of sorts, a bit on the unforgiveable side, but necessary to side-step literally octillions of possible game matrices.

[Extreme Worldcup Sim 2006]

Unfortunately, I don't think too highly of this.

Maybe the learning curve is a bit obnoxious, maybe I'm just mentally deficient, but in all honesty, I found this game highly frustrating, choppy, and not comfortable to play. I had no idea just what was going on, and just gave up after three failed rounds without progress.

So, I'm sorry to say, but I can't rate this one too highly just because the gameplay is outright infuriating to me.

[Time Waster 3]

It is a time waster, but not a waste of time.

I really like it when people decide to cram a game full of little mini-games because that guarantees there'll be something in there that they'll enjoy. When people go with just one gameplay mode, they're really limitting themself and taking a huge risk. If it's not any good, then all the time they put into that one massive game mode goes to waste. But if there are a lot of different modes, you can hit a broader audience, and this one does just that.

Beating the box was probably my favorite, just because it's...well...beating a box. Take THAT you insolent hunk of insignificant cardboard!