Yatsufusa's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sci-Fi Runner]

There seems to be no preloader. Newgrounds lets authors download and use their preloaders for free if you can't write one yourself.
The resolution of your game is HUGE, but yet the help texts are so tiny that they are barely noticeable when a player starts the game for the first time. The next few tries he has to focus on the 'new' help text and will most probably die while reading them. Why didn't you just add an "Instructions" button to the menu? You could have easily fitted all those texts on a single screenshot of the game.
There is no indication that your gun needs ammunition. "This is your energy indicator" is open to interpretation - especially since the ammunition is mounted to the lifebar...
Having the 'jump' and 'shoot' buttons on different far ends of the screen means nobody will use the option to click. I'm guessing you have a reason like android application or something, but for a flash game, I don't really see it.
In some other countries the "Z" and "X" keys are not right beside each other. An option to configure the controls would have been nice. (And No: I wouldn't want to use mouse AND keyboard for a game that utilizes only two buttons...)
The player doesn't get any information about the 'other' upgrades (gained from running a certain distance) actually do or that he could get upgrades by covering a certain distance. The screen is HUGE: Why didn't you fill in some headlines and informative texts?
You could have included a highscore board. Newgrounds lets authors use their highscore servers for free.
You forgot to include your story from the author comments in the game itself. Speaking about the story: It seems rather short and you should think about expanding it. Maybe explain where the machines came from or why the character can't stop running...
During gameplay the character isn't recognizable as female (having a ponytail and no beard doesn't make someone female) and there seems to be no screen where the player could have a good look at her face. Thus, describing the character as a "sexy female clone" in the author comments seems like a huge exaggeration.
I needed just a few lousy minutes to make all these observations. I'm guessing making this game took you several days. You should really pay more thought to creating games.

I found no bugs in the gameplay or controls themselves, so that's a plus.

In summary, 'Sci-Fi Runner' is a 'Canabalt' clone where the player can shoot robots and earn upgrades. It has okay controls, average mechanics, decent graphics, a poor tutorial and offers only little long-term motivation. I wouldn't play his again and wouldn't recommend it even to hardcore fans of the genre.

Hazneliel responds:

Your opinion is very constructive, thank you very much explaining the points that I need to fix to make it a better game. I will work soon on fixing it.

About the preloader, when I load it it has a loader screen with the game´s logo, I dont know what preloader you cant see

[Flappy Corgi]

One thing before I really start: I HATE 'Flappy Bird'. Bad controls and needlessly narrow flight corridors ruin that game completely. And don't get me started on that retarded looking blob of a bird.

That being said, 'Flappy Corgi' is NOTHING like 'Flappy Bird'!
You created a game with great BGM, fabulous choice of colors, hilarious setting, progress rewards, unusual controls, introduced a HP-system to the universe of 'Flappy' games that actually makes sense and to put the cherry on the cake: The player controls a flying corgi that shoots hearts and rainbows at cats in UFOs...
Not only did you create an enjoyable experience, but you made it even real fun. You created a 'Flappy Bird clone' that is FUN to play... My mind is blown!

If I was desperately searching for something to improve: A Pause function and a hotkey for mute would make the game even better, but wouldn't be mandatory. Maybe add the story in the game as well. However for this great service to not only the kingdom but the whole world, there can be no other rating: 5/5 and 10/10. Hell, I would even award you 'The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire' if I could!
Great game. Great innovations. Keep up the good work and thank you for making this. I'm just so happy right now...

sournote103 responds:

I can definitely work on adding a pause system and a mute hotkey when I get time. Thanks for the suggestions, and I'm really glad you enjoyed the game!

[Drop Off]

I'm sorry, but I would say you created a game of chance rather than a game of skill. Which bar-segment comes next seems to be determined solely by the rng() rather than some sort of formula. Because of that, a player could (for instance) receive 3 bar-segments with the longest possible distance at the start, making it impossible to pass them in time or get 5 identical bar-segments right from the start, giving him or her a huge headstart.
Because of this, I see this submission rather as a exercise in programming, rather than a challenging game.

Also on the game design front, it takes the players forever to reach any 'upgrade' - at least in the game's current development-stage. Making the color-options hard to reach doesn't add to the gameplay-value.

Now for the technical part.
Having the same default color for both ball and bars isn't a good combination. A silvery grey as default color for the ball would have been much nicer.
All functions and menus are mouse-based, but the actual game is keyboard-based. It's not a 'big' deal, but focusing all controls on the keyboard would make it look more integrated.
You implemented a pause function, which is great. But you didn't implement a hotkey for it (like "P", "Space" or both). Since there aren't any other buttons in the 'action' part of the game, simply clicking the screen would have sufficed.
The mute function is hidden in the options and can only be reached from there. "M" as a mute hotkey would have been nice.
There is only one choice for the bgm. Maybe you could add at least two others for players who aren't into such electronic tunes.
The Newgrounds highscore board only seems to update when the player actually presses the corresponding button in the game. Other games update the highscore board every time a higher score is reached. Newgrounds has so much daily traffic, I'm sure they wouldn't mind a few more updates to their highscore database. (While I type this review, only 3 players found, or at least pressed, the button.)
What I really like is that the backgrounds aren't bland and chance randomly every time the player changes the screen. I wouldn't have thought of that and it really makes the game easier on the eyes. Whatever you are going to change, you should keep that. ;)

Overall, you've done a decent implementation of an already existing game concept. But you gave away the chance to make more of it. I came up with those ideas in a few minutes, and I haven't even touched game-changing topics like upgrades, different terrains, different balls, different game modes...

Again: I'm sorry, but because of that, your (possibly) beloved work just makes you look a little lazy in my eyes.

ErLuiSS responds:

Hi!

The game has these bugs because my main objective was publish it for mobile and now i fix this bugs :)

Thanks for the comment :)

[Randy Qurush Saga]

To make a classic LL/CC quote: "wat."

You youngsters... Always with the psychoactive drugs... ;)

I like the extras and the theme very much and I don't even care that I don't recognize the faces you used (although I wonder). Overall it has great (but also somewhat amateur looking) style, the same CC/LL work sometime has. It has a certain class to it - a personality of its own, so to speak. Your effort shows in the solid mechanics, the power-ups and that it's not purely 'smash those blocks over there three times'. The very smooth scaling of object sizes with depth made it feel more real and you made it mouse controlled - like it should be.

But the places where you rushed it show as well. I'll try to structure the points where I see room for improvement:
Instructions – There is no menu and no ingame-instructions. You made a few remarks in the author comments, but until I throw my expectations at the game and start to experiment, I don't know anything about it. "Randy Qurush Saga" -> "Play" -> the game starts. Sure "It's 'Breakout'", but there's always that new player that doesn't know this. It's also unclear that the player can move the 'bar' vertically as well, unless he finds out by chance. Even a 'quick and dirty' game doesn't have to look that way. That goes for Jam games as well.
Story – There's no line about the author or what the story is. Who IS Randy Qurush, anyway? If even the author doesn't think it's important enough to explain, why should I think it's important enough to look it up? A story can add much to the player's experience.
Performance – The game starts to lag once you set things in motion. There are a whole lot of photos used where they don't need to be. The best examples might be the ball and the bar.
Level design – The game is the level and the level is the game. I was able to beat it in just a few minutes (the lag was beneficial in that way), but after that the game is 'done'. If there had been at least 2 levels before this one, with a level select-screen and saved progress, it could have been much 'more'. In its current form most players will forget about it 5 minutes after finishing.

I happen to know you can do much better if you want to, Jack. Loose some of the images, keep most of the crazy, add some text as well as a few levels and this game could be good for 30 to 45 minutes of delightful gaming experience. It's a good, solid game - but it could be so much more and it's a shame that it isn't...

jacklehamster responds:

Yep, I have to admit some parts were rushed. Thanks for the insightful comments

[Runner]

You should add a mute button and improve the controls. Your game is 'hard' not because the player needs some sort of advanced strategy, but because the controls are so... bad! It's some blend of laggy controls and a far to short time spend in the air.
A pause button would be nice as well.
There's also no background story. Is the character running towards something or is he running away from something? Why are ladders an obstacle? Why should I care about this nameless pixel person that's obviously too stupid to slow down or stop before running into a wall?

I hope you're getting my point and my rating. Right now what I see before me is a poor-quality Atari game. (Sorry Atari...)

Remynfv responds:

ok... (Deep breath)...

I am working on fixing the controls (thanks for pointing that out). Mute button coming soon.
also I am not changing the air time of the player(Sorry). Pause button should be out soon. Background story is good but not that important, think about it, the impossible game has 0% story I mean your just a jumping cube! (btw those are fences not ladders).

I hope that makes it better!

[Super Filly Adventure]

"Let me just over-analyse this..." ;)

The game has a good bgm, great pixel-art, the instructions were easy to understand and the controls were smooth. Right-click cheating was disabled and I didn't run into any bugs or stages that looked like they were rushed, even when I looked for them. You took your time and clearly did some testing before you published - the result reflects this well.
You avoided all those horrible, horrible newbie-errors Newgrounds sees day after day which on itself is already quite an achievement.

However there were some minor flaws:
- Before the game starts there's a brief introduction to the whole cutie-mark topic for those who don't know about their meaning in the pony society. But the majority of the players will hit space before they even know it's there. Maybe a little menu with <Start> and <Story> options would help players to notice the additional contend.
- The cutscene-art seemed rather off compared to the rest of the game.
- There were no puzzles. Since it's labeled as a role-playing game I expected a little more obstacles, but I guess it's appropriate for your target audience.
- The boss of the Warrior Ending was really easy to beat but he took forever. Personally I prefer more challenging patterns. You could draw some inspiration from looking at bosses from the Mega Man series. A more complex pattern and shorter live-bars would make the boss-fight more interesting.
Since I played the game several times for review-purposes, I noticed both yours and the boss's firing frequency went up, once a fair share of life is lost. While that evens out the odds, the fight still takes very long if you don't get hit that often. - The game was over too soon. I had fun playing, but felt it ended rather abruptly. I know, "Good game. Make it longer." is a common review these days which perfectly underestimates the effort this calls for. It is hard to just extend a story while keeping it from going bad and while I prefer a short and solid story over a long but far fetched one on any given day, it just felt a little bit too short.

About the different endings:

Warrior Ending: I would imagine most players will get this. While Physical conflicts and "Eat this" don't fit the theme of the original series very much, I liked what you had done with it anyway. Whether the brony-scene will agrees or not, time will tell.

Muffin Ending: Players who have seen the series will figure it out rather fast. The Ending itself was rather wacky but likeable.

Bank Flank Ending: I don't want to spoil too much... It can only be found under certain conditions which might be a good thing. While you certainly worked out some interesting new ideas, there are several things in it that don't fit to the canon. I'm pretty sure bronies won't like it, so I encourage them not to look for this ending. Trust me on this.

Yet Another Ending(?): If there are even more endings I wasn't able to find them. Yet. ;)

All that being said, the above statement is still true: You did well and created a fun game that definitely has replay-value. Thank you for doing so and best of luck for the upcoming Contest.

Jay6 responds:

No, there are no other endings than those you mentioned. Thanks for commenting that you got them all though! :D

With all of the ideas I had for this game, the Dragon boss was kinda... last. The Muffin ending I thought of first. I had no idea what I'd do for the good ending until just about a week or two ago. If I was given like... 6 months for this contest, I'd probably think up a better story, and make it a bit longer with some puzzles perhaps. Thanks for your input!

[Brony text adventue 1/10]

false advertising

First of all, this isn't a text adventure. Look it up, maybe even play some and you will notice this is nothing but a quiz. I've taken into account that you explained that the player slips into the role of a pony that has to take a quiz before any story begins, but there's no freedom in decision and certainly no adventure. None of the answers can be found inside of the game and anyone who doesn't have a good memory or didn't see more than a few episodes can advance without a lot of trial and error.

"Please ignore the grammar and spelling mistakes" Now you're just plain lazy. You could have just used a spellchecker but instead you chose to submit an unfinished game. You should also work on your attitude. Calmer fans of the series might not care that much when the second season is aired since they will see it eventually, but don't feel the need to rush. Not really a reason to verbally abuse other fans who just wanted to play a game.

On a more technical side it could really have used a mute button. I'm also wondering how you managed to reach 4.8 MB with so little contend. There's no reward, no gallery, no special insight on future MLP:FIM episodes - just a lot of blaming the player if he doesn't get every single question right. You should consider just adding a score-counter and showing the result at the end, since some of the questions are awfully specific.

To round it up again: It's frustrating, insulting, lacks reward and takes unproportional long to load. I'm sorry if you might feel like I'm tearing apart your masterpiece, but in my eyes it's plain horrible.

who-of-who responds:

Well, I know that I got lazy with the Spell check. But it's going to be a text adventure.. And it's 4.8 MB because the song is big. Also, it's just explaining the story.. Oh and Btw, it's a better flash then you have made. I'd like to see you do better. Also. If you're pissed about it not being a text adventure yet.. I'm having troubles atm.

[Letz Maek A Flash Gaem]

Surprising!

I will be honest: I came for the medals. At first glance I thought "Meh... Yet another simple game with medals and a highscore. Let's get this over with..."
Then I read the help... and smiled. I played... and now EVERY SINGLE ONE of my fingers hurts! :D
But it was awesome! Really awesome! I rarely encounter a game that's so much fun and I wish I could find better words to describe it.

You just have to play it!

thinking-man responds:

This is one of the best reviews I have ever gotten EVER!

[Crack Sim Date]

Interesting...

Okay, the title (atm: "Crack Sim Date") is a little misleading; the graphic is crude and the story childish.
But: It's funny and I enjoyed playing it.

Add a smooth background-loop from the audio-portal (don't forget the mute-button), use an actual font instead of painting your text, make the story-development less random (just a little), practice drawing some more and you could be on the Newgrounds-frontpage.

canarycharm responds:

I'm still learning flash and I don't know how to put in sound yet. But thank you for the review either way.

[Hidden Cursor]

Mediocre

Your game is okay for a skill-game, but not very interesting. After a few levels I simply lost interest and looked for bugs.
And found one: A player could cheat your game fairly easy by clicking right.

That being said, I find it rather difficult to hit your "Next"-buttons, because you have to hit the text. I prefer buttons with a background.
Also you shouldn't use green and red. I'm not colorblind myself, but I can imagine it might be rather offsetting for someone who is. ("Stupid game: everything is red in red...")
Background-music and clean lines might be a good idea, too.

Brizzel987 responds:

You said this: "Also you shouldn't use green and red. I'm not colorblind myself, but I can imagine it might be rather offsetting for someone who is. ("Stupid game: everything is red in red...")"

My older brother is colorblind and he has no trouble whatsoever with this game. He's actually rather good.