TheWanderingShadow's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Stick Fighter RPG]

Slick presentation and a satisfyingly functional fighting system. However there's are some significant flaws that make the fighting system much less complex and enjoyable than it could have been. You understand some cool mechanics that make fighting games interesting, like guardbreaks and hyper armor, but you threw other mechanics in there that make them essentially pointless. The biggest offender in this regard is the dodge. The dodge in my opinion robs the potential from this fighting system because it's the absolute optimal defense to just dodge every attack. Blocking is useless without a shield because the user loses more stamina than the attacker AND it can be guard broken. Why block when you can simply dodge through the attack spending only a hair of stamina? The only attack in this game that is difficult to dodge is the dual wielded combo, which is part of why it's the most powerful weapon class. On top of that, the dodge can get you behind the enemy, which lets you potentially completely avoid even more damage. The two handed weapons are incredibly satisfying, but the only reason one can land a hit is because the AI lets the user trade hits with them. You just have to fight a two-handed weapon using enemy in the game to realize that the only reason you should ever be hit by one is missing a dodge.

To a lesser degree, the finishing move is also pretty disappointing because
1) the small health pools of the enemies means that you'll often kill them before having a chance to use it.
2) It gains charge off of hitting a blocking enemy (another reason not to block)
3) It's completely uncounterable except for one option which is -- you guessed it -- the dodge.
In my opinion the finishing move would be a lot more interesting if you were able to charge it faster by blocking or dodging. That way it could be used as an equalizer rather than a way to win more than you already are. This is how it works in most fighting games. I figure it's the way it is now because you'd like to discourage turtling, but that can be done by making turtling more difficult to do than dodging a bunch.

Once I found all these issues with the fighting, it left me with not much reason to keep playing the game. The unlocks are (as far as I can tell) random, which really made me feel restricted when I had to wait for a random drop or character spawn just to try other weapons. There's no story motivating me to progress. In fact there's NOTHING motivating me to progress. With no indication of what I need to do or how far I am to unlocking the second adventure there's nothing to do but grind One Day and Survival for unlocks that don't feel like they make a significant difference in gameplay.

Just know that I only have so many criticisms because I see so much potential in this game. My time with it was still quite enjoyable, and I wait excitedly for what you have in store next!

ExtinctionGames responds:

I really appreciate this. You've put forward some of the best ideas I've heard from the comments section so far. So thank you for this.

[Super Zooming Cyber Cars Game]

It works, I guess. Somewhat interesting, but nothing really compels me to play very far.

yurgenburgen responds:

if you get one million points there is a special prize at the end

[Cell Madness]

Between the constantly overlapping music tracks, the imprecise controls due to the scrolling camera, and the fact that the "retry" button takes you to the damn level select screen instead of the beginning of the level, my few minutes with this game was extremely awful.

casltegames responds:

go play something where brains are blowed off and blood is everywhere, make me that favor

[RPG Director Beta]

Cutesy little short game. It seems you had fun making it, which is good.

One major problem I had is with the advertising segment-you should be able to undo an option you've chosen.

There's also very little feedback on what your game did well or didn't do well besides how much money it spent on marketing, and the game doesn't continue after making the first game, so it didn't feel like any of the decisions I made mattered.

The rpg battle was very uninteresting- it was luck based and was exactly the same regardless of which boss you chose. The game seems like it would be open to expansion, or at least continuing past making a single rpg.

There's also the matter of all the stolen music. Even though this is Newgrounds, there is still a bunch of awesome free music you can choose from, some of which is here on Newgrounds!

I did enjoy the few minutes I spent on your game. I hope you take your love of rpgs and either expand this game or move on to a more fleshed out one!

Avant-Garde responds:

Thanks great review.

[Ragnarok: Iridescent]

You never stop gaining my respect for your consistent attention to detail, dedication to high production values, quality writing, and understanding of interesting gameplay. Please don't stop doing what you do.

Now get off your ass, I need that report on my desk by Monday!

ShadowWhoWalks responds:

Before we get to that let's shake hands

[Idle Web Tycoon]

It's formatted extremely similarly to Cookie Clicker, but I think there's enough of a different theme here to still make it interesting. What I would have liked is for you to have gone further with the theme, letting us pick from different annoying ads to place on the website and to read comments and such complaining about them.

HThomson responds:

As with a lot of idle games I found the initial inspiration after playing too much Cookie Clicker which is why the format is pretty similar.

I quite like the idea of selecting your own ads that option hadn't occurred to me. I'll try to add it in the next update along with some other customization options.

[Watch Dogs]

For shame, there's no way to hack the game to alter the number of dogs. Also, I get the feeling you downgraded the graphics for PC.

Aprime responds:

I had to downgrade graphics for PC because I wanted it to work on lots of users computers. Not everyone has a gaming PC. Soz

[Rhythm Doctor]

Man, I almost feel like you put in TOO much effort into that boss battle, it was that well crafted!

Well, there's not much new to say about this one. It's still an excellent achievement both technically and gameplay-wise. It really nails the strict timing and yet excellent feedback of the rhythm heaven games. Congratulations on your GDC win and I hope to see what else you come up with in the future!

fizzd responds:

Oh if you think this is too much you should check out Soundodger+. They have got pretty much the equivalent of this, but for every one of their songs. thanks for playing our little game though !

[Final Slam 2]

When reading the comments waiting for the game to load, I knew it was the flash game I've always wanted to see. The game did not disappoint. The art style and animations are not that impressive, but they're consistent and get the job done. Besides, they allow for the amazing character creation. Seriously, the variety and amount of content you put in there blows my mind. The ability to adjust the ai of the characters is well implemented. The mechanics of the engine itself are very solid and allow for significant depth as well. After I worked out how to do those special moves properly, it was great fun to fight. It makes me so happy to see a solid fighting game on newgrounds, especially one with such love, effort, and fighting game "feel" in it. I am excited to see what you plan to do next!

josh-tamugaia responds:

I agree with you. The art style and animations are not that impressive in order to allow for the character creation. Since I needed to literally chop up the body parts so that they could change, instead of drawing nice SNK/Capcom style sprites that only allow color-swapping. But! What I plan to do next is to make this creation mechanism work with even nicer artwork. Plus more power moves and game modes. Hopefully in the next sequel. Thank you!

[Fireworks]

It would have been nice to have better feedback like a sound when you are placing a firework, because mashing x too fast while touching two firework spots often gets you started on the next firework when you'd rather be trying to get out of the way or punch someone. Besides that it's a fun and frantic game with a nice amount of content added by the upgrade system.

Schulles responds:

Yeah, there is a very quiet sound that somehow drowns between the music. Thanks, man! :)