SubNoctem's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[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 :)

[Koht:MEM0R315]

Not bad, but needs some improvement

First of all, You've got some good artwork -i liked the background and variety of enemies a lot- and solid programming skills. I also enjoyed your music choice for the first stage, what was it? Also, the combo/special system was very nice, and I was surprised to see a feature of that caliber in this game, I've found 4 different special attacks, very impressive. But, as I'm sure you're aware, there is room for improvement.

I think if you had some solid "lane" definition, this game would be much better. It didn't matter if I was on the top or the bottom of the screen, an enemy arrow would hit me as long as part of it was flying past the main character's body, I realize this is a difficult feature to program in flash, but it's the first thing I noticed.
The controls were a bit sketchy, If i were moving to the right, then up, I would have to let go of all the buttons before the game would let me move to the right again, and you can't move diagonal, but this was a minor setback because it was kind of nostalgic of old beat-em-up control schemes.
The character's running motion was a bit slow to justify the speed he would travel. It looked like he was flying through the air rather then bounding across forest and building landscapes. Having said that, I really liked the hero of this story and his animalistic features - like running on all fours, it fit really well with the special moves.
Also, some kind of health power-up is essential, I could not beat the game, and I wanted to see the rest of the story, but maybe I'm just not that good.

Great work overall, I'm looking forward to seeing what you have to offer in the future, you've definitely got some talent.

famtio responds:

thanks for the feed back it is helpful to know where to start making the improvements! to answer your question I made the music in garge band.

[Hell (is)]

Fucking Hilarious

Took me about 3 seconds to figure out what was going on, but as soon as it clicks you just can't help but have a hearty laugh, and I don't get too many of those from flash anymore. Really funny, original stuff, and the fact that you added a scoreboard really brought it home. Thumbs up.

kaolinfire responds:

Thanks :D I almost added an actual score, like how many seconds it took you to die (or how long you survived), but decided that cheapened the experience. :)

[GOBTRON]

Original and fun.

You've created a great game here, very interesting idea. Excellent balance of power-ups, difficulty, and variety. It's really the perfect storm of a game. I have no complaints other than a glitch I encountered on the second to last level. I used the mystery morph power, and sometime during it, the enemies just stopped coming, and one rocket-copter was left on the screen, but it doesn't damage me, and I can't damage it. Thus I'm at a stand still, and had to close the game. No big deal I guess because of the saving method, just thought you should know it's there. Really good work guys, it was a pleasure to play your game.

JuicyBeast responds:

In fact, we've noticed this glitch while re-playing the game on NewGrounds and we're working on it now ^^
Thanks alot for your comment, it's really useful!!!

[Grid16]

Brilliant Game

This game is nearly perfect. It is a shining example of what micro games should be; Fast, frantic, and fun. Not only does your game neatly fill the above criteria, but it breaks open the boundries with rampant ingenuity.

I loved the grid layout and elimination style games, forcing you to focus on the games you're good at (providing you've played them more then once and know how they work). The seamless continuation of a game was the greatest challenge and my favorite feature. It forces you to remember where you left off and makes even the simplest game incredibly difficult. I thought I could bounce a ball around in a circle forever until I forgot which direction it was going in and lost it to a resounding sigh.

The final scoring method acted as the knot to tie this delighfully sporadic game together, giving it reason. It tested the most basic and ubiquitous aspects of nearly every game out there, scoring your core ability.

I do have a few minor complaints. When the game began to get really fast, somewhere around speed x5, some of the games became drastically easier. For example, the ball falling through the floor literally fell through the floors. I'm also not sure exactly what score is put onto the highscore table. Is it the combo score?

That's really all I can complain about. This is really a great game, and a perfect addition to Newgrounds.

jmtb02 responds:

Thanks for your sincere review. I really appreciate it!

-J

[Pixelville Pensioners]

Superb

I found this game delightfully fun to play. It brings wave after frustrated wave of memories from those classic games, which if you have played, really tied into the experience. The subtle references were plentiful and somewhat rewarding to find, and I absolutly loved your sarcasm on B - for I always hated that. I congradulate you on this ZX remniscent masterpeice. Great work.

gavD responds:

What do you mean sarcasm? (heh heh heh!)

Thanks for the review! That's exactly what I was aiming for; the full-on nostalgia kick!

[Flash2Back: Elevation 2]

A Wonderful Reminder

Playing this game brought back memories of my old Amiga and the great games that came with it, like the game you've based yours off of and "It Came From the Desert". This was very fun, with superb use of the old graphic style and fluent animation. Great work.

SD-Syndicate responds:

Cheers Vampire, Hehe Cant Believe You Meantioned "It Came From the Desert" That Was A Great Game :D "The Desert..... Unchanged For Millions Of Years..." Lol - Glad You Like The Game, As Im Improving I Think With Each Game, Im Starting Not To Rush My Games Now And Hopefully Its Paying Off, This Ones Defo Gonna Have Time Taken On It :)

[if i ruled design]

Incredibly unique

Arguable the most unique game. Though a pretty boring, repetative fighting game, I have never seen popsickle stick puppets used so well. You even learn a bit of history, which won't be appreciated by basically all NG users. Nice work though.

chickenking responds:

thanks...
but you know. that jan tschichold is a scary s.o.b. so watch out. and paul rand is pure evil. if you dig this, check out "paul rand is a sock monkey" in the etcetera section of my site. it is a completely dynamically generated piece. not terribly pretty or anything, but mesmerizing in its own way.

[Space Caverns]

I've played that other flash game

Are you refering to the helicopter game which is most similar to the green level? If so I'd say the helicopter game was better, but this has things that one doesn't, for instance, to different kinds of levels. You should add sound, and a meter for how far one has gone, like in the helicopter flash, unless of course these are limited levels, instead of randomly neverending ones.

KentuckyJones responds:

Yeah that cool helicpotor one is were I got the idea. The levels have an end unlike the helicoptor one. I would have added sound effects if I had any relevant ones but the file size got freakishly big for what it is anyways.
Thanks for the review.