SubNoctem's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Poseidon shoot]

I wish I could be more positive, but there are quite a few problems with this game.

First and foremost, everything seems to be pushed to the left side of the screen. There are very few enemies that show up on the the middle/right side, unless it's a large wave, spanning the entirety of the screen, and they only appear in the first few levels. Throughout the game, there are even enemies that are mostly obscured by the left side of the screen because they are pushed so far to the left.

There are some waves of enemies that seem like they should be appearing from the extreme left or right of the screen, but suddenly spawn near the middle with no warning, causing damage to your player. This seems like it is linked to how offset the game is to the left side.

It is nice to have two modes of attack, but having one destroy bullets (wave) and one only damage enemies (trident) makes one far superior to the other, especially when they seem to deal the same amount of damage. I used the wave through the entire course of the game for it's obvious advantages, rendering the trident completely useless. Also, the power-ups seemed to have only worked twice. With the trident upgrades, you receive a (slightly) left and right angled shot after collecting two upgrades, respectively. With the wave, you get get simultaneous left and right shooting balls that get bigger with the second upgrade collection. After that, the upgrades seem to stop working. This is also another advantage to the wave attack, seeing how you get both a left and right attack upgrade, further rendering the trident useless, as it upgrades slower.

Another one of the more major problems with this game is that every single enemy only dropped one coin. Small enemies, big enemies, bosses; every one only dropped one coin. This, coupled with the fact that the upgrades were disproportionately expensive turned the game into a boring grind, especially in the early levels. I had to repeat the first and second level several times to upgrade my attacks enough to beat the second boss.

You certainly have some potential, but this stuff needs a lot of work. I hope to see more of your work in the future!

[The Evening of the Son]

I love your work Hyptosis, but this game has got some serious problems.

First and foremost, not enough water. I worked out a few times in the beginning, and regretted it for the rest of the game. It seems like finding water while searching for food is more rare than finding it while traveling, so I spent most of the game resting for 4 energy a few times, just to travel, and repeat. It wouldn't be so bad if there weren't bugs that stop you from getting the majority of your water; If you kill the crazed man and take his things, you should get 10 water, but it does not register. If you tell the man to drop his backpack and then take it, that water does not register either. It seems like a few other numbers reduced drastically when they were supposed to increase, but I can't be sure. The fellow traveler and safe-house water seems to work fine though. I ran across a few other bugs, like when you find the woman crying, rocking back and forth, I tried to help her, but the screen goes dark and the same choice reappears over and over again, forcing you to run away. Now, running away is probably the correct choice, but the choice itself is missing.

This game has all the quality, artistic style, and quick fun that your games are known for, and while I was able to get to the end, it definitely suffers from these serious bugs. I also thought you should know that the medals don't work, but this had no influence on my rating.

I really hope this gets fixed soon, I'd love to play the game for what it's supposed to be!

[Mutants! Defense]

This game was really fun, but is marred by some bugs.

The flags don't seem to work properly sometimes. It looks like if they are too close to their respective shelters, the defenders cannot seem to find them (sometimes). During my game I have experienced my soldiers circling houses to no end, or running into other shelters and staying there, with little to no response to passing monsters unless they nearly ran into them. This problem was fixed by moving the flags further away, but some levels really require strategic flag placement.

Level 3 was exceptionally difficult, and being that it is an early level when little to no skills are active, it was a bit of a road block. Now, I enjoy difficult games, and after a few tries it was beatable, but the rest of the levels were easy in comparison, especially the last 5. This is where the game seems a little broken. I think the drop in difficulty comes from the type of defenders available. The hazmat pyros are definitely overpowered, and any level that they were available was easily 5-stared in one try. Having said that, part of the fun of this game was the number of different defenders available, and learning how they worked together, but there really weren't enough combinations to keep it challenging.

Lastly, as the other reviewers have pointed out, most of the medals don't work - This has not affected my rating of the game, as I see them as a bonus, I just think you should know that they don't work. However, another problem I've run into is that no matter how many times I perfect the last level, it will not register as 5 star completion, or any star completion for that matter. It is always stuck at 0 stars, leaving me unable to collect the last skill, and therefore the last in-game achievement, etc.

Despite all of that, this game was really fun. You have a really cool art style that is seldom seen, and the game play was quite unique as far as tower defense games go. I can't really think of another TD game where the actual attacking takes place around the towers, and the towers themselves only provide upgrades and movement restrictions, so that was really cool. I think with some serious updates (or maybe an improved-and longer-sequel?) This could easily become 5 star, front page material.

Well done!

[Carve n' Share]

Some awesome art! A fantastic homage to a great game. I really wasn't expecting this one, that's why it's so good!

[Neonider 3]

Neonider 3 is certainly your best entry into the series. Polished Geometry Wars-esque graphics, solid controls, and the addition of missions was a plus. Though, being the third in the series, I would have liked to see more variation from the previous installments. There are also a few problems I ran into.

First off, the power-up collection missions took way too long, especially as they starting reaching a goal of 30. By that time, most of the power-ups are upgraded about halfway, and they take a bit of time to expire. Being that you can't collect any while one is active, this eats up far too much time without there being any kind of progression in the game. Even waiting for only health powerups takes forever. I think that making health power-ups drop every once in a while no matter what is active would have been helpful.

I also ran into somewhat of a bug, or at least an inconvenience; While the coin magnet is activated, if any part of the red collection field goes over top of the pause button in the top left corner, you cannot click it until you move it away. It's like the collection field blocks it. When you start getting larger and larger fields, this can be quite annoying. I know you can hit "p" to pause also, but sometimes you can't really stop to hit it while your avoiding fast moving objects.

Finally, I'm dreading that the first secret medal is to reach 1 million points.

Looking forward to what you have to offer next!

RedRain responds:

Thanks for the helpful comment :)

[Tiny Evolution Adventure]

This game looks like it was influenced by the SNES game 'E.V.O. - Search for Eden'. Same concept, gameplay, (minus the ability to choose your evolutionary trait) and similar graphical style. That being said, E.V.O. happens to be one of my favorite games from way back when, so this gave me a pleasant feeling of nostalgia. I always wondered why the style was never really used again, in console games or otherwise. Anyway, your tiny adventure was short and sweet, and never got a chance to become boring. Great work!

[RAPTUS]

This was amazing.
Fantastic pixel art, I especially loved the lighting effects. Great story, it really took an unexpected and exciting twist. Really just a great production all around. Loved it.

[Relic]

There's a lot to say about this game.

First off, it was an enjoyable JRPG experience that felt true to the genre with a few minor qualities that set it apart. Coding was solid, the artwork was great; I especially loved the character avatar while walking around an area map, it brought back some nostalgic memories of games like Final Fantasy, Chrono Trigger, and Tales of Phantasia (or pretty much anything that was released on the SNES). At first I didn't like some of the timing details of the combat system - enemies attack no matter what, getting into combat without moving - but after coming back and playing again, I felt that it really helped to speed things up. However, with mechanics like that, it would be advantageous to have some kind of pause function in case somebody has to divert their attention (i.e. bathroom break). The story was good, which is a bit surprising. There are very few flash RPGs that have enough depth to keep me interested. The character bios and cut scenes helped to brew an interest in the characters, rather than just having them be a faceless mage/warrior party member.

There are a few aspects of the game that seemed arbitrary, so get ready for some nit-picking. First off; no back buttons. Early on when I was unfamiliar with the character battle action rotation, I would accidentally tell Cinnecat to attack, when I wanted him to heal. There's no way to fix an action once it's been taken. I also noticed that an enemy's exp. output was directly affected by the player level. Their health and difficulty would stay the same , but it would always take about the same amount of battles to level. On second thought, I think I'll add this fact to the plus side; nobody likes grinding. I also noticed that the potion prices were all off. It's actually cheaper to buy a bunch of 75hp healing potions than 100hp healing potions (also applies to mana pots) since the price between the two is doubled. If you use 2 or more of the lesser potions, you've already saved money, rendering the higher pots pointless.

I've also run into a fairly severe bug. If I have Fjor use her Snap Freeze ability on the 'leader' enemy in the top left corner at any time during the game, the enemy that appears in that position will remain perpetually frozen throughout the rest of the game (ironically this served as my 'pause' function). This certainly made the game easier, but I wasn't looking for easy. I've reloaded the game several times and this exploitation is repeatable.

Bottom line is; You've shared a wonderful game with the NG community, and I enjoyed playing it. Cheers!

[Memohuntress]

As far as I'm concerned, this is quite a groundbreaking game. I've never seen anything quite like this. You guys have really set the standard for image hunting.

The multiple fore/backgrounds made for some extremely challenging yet incredibly enjoyable game play. Each stage sprung to life with the bustle of fantastical activity. The music was well composed, the voice acting was solid, and the art style was very aesthetically pleasing.

I enjoyed a lot of the minor details as well, like the tiny side stories happening everywhere. Such as the ninja stealing the berries, and only until you've circled the map do you find out he's taking them for a girl he obviously likes. I also liked the voice recording bear. Even though there really aren't any similarities, for some reason it reminded me of Zoe's robot bear-thing from the game Dreamfall, don't ask why. But the point is I really liked the idea of it.

Some of the level based story lines were a bit vague, but after getting around a bit they became a bit more apparent. The most frustrating part for me was by far the ninja stars. It would have been the easiest level were it not for those accursed things.

This was a great experience, definitely something to be remembered. I hope you guys keep working together in the future.

[Nihiltopia]

Beautiful and thoughtful

I really enjoyed this adventure into the realm of existentialism and philosophy. It gives me great hope to see others that ponder the charade of life, right and wrong, nothingness, somethingness, what it is to be, or not be, and the interactions with ourselves through others.

This was simple, artfully executed, and teeming with wonder. Bravo.
I hope others can see.

"We are simply star stuff looking at itself."