HerbieG's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Evolvo]

The game is great, that dodging at the beginning of a game is really challenging! I got one question though: does this game makes it possible to get medals after entering a cheat code? I entered the endingvolvo code in one game to get the first medal and check how does it work, obviously the game ended and when I selected the hardest difficulty next time during the game I got the Xpert medal. I beat it anyway, finally eating all the possible fish, but should it work this way? I think it is rather some kind of a bug.

[PAWZ V]

Ok, you probably remember the earlier version of this game, even I admit that it was a bit impossible, while this one is definitely playable, you only need to fully understand its logic.

When I was a kid I played a board game, it's title was Master Mind, try googling it. In this game one player was setting up a "code' composed of 4 "pins" with different (or partially same) colours. The opponent had to guess in a certain amount of tries what is the code. When the second player was submitting his/her proposition, the "coding" player was "saying" whether the code was correct or not by using small black and white smaller "pins". One black "pin" meant that one "colour pin" was in correct position, while the white one meant that a "colour pin" is in fact in the code, but in a different position. And this is how this game is also working, obviously with some changes.

What I am missing here is the ability to "ask" the game with my own submitted words, not to be forced to choose between the clue words that sometimes aren't very helpful, at least not necessarily fit with the letters I would like to currently "ask" the game about. This is my only half-star drop for this game.

It would be also good to have a version of thinking-only game, without the time pressure, it would be good if you are planning to submit versions with longer words.
I must admit that this game can be a serious pain for people not so familiar with English language, few times even I was submitting words that I did not know what they mean, but the letters fit perfectly and the word was correct.

The game is also partially luck-based, since in the first choosing you can get a word with 4 letters in place as well as a word with only one letter in position or even none, with only 1-2 letters not in position. In this situation if you don't get/pick a good word from clue-words 2-4, you're rather screwed. This could be eliminated by my abovementioned proposition of allowing the player to directly "ask" the game about the words/letters.

There is one difference between this game and the Master Mind, sometimes it seems that after picking all the "clue words" there can be more than one answer possible. An example:
The base word was hoist with 4 letters in position.
I "asked" the game about some letters and all my logic thinking told me that the answer should be moist (there was no "m" in clue words, so it was impossible to determine whether this letter is in the word or to exclude it), while the game considered it as being incorrect and took some points from me.

Only one thing: the way in which the Doge's "hints" appear are completely unclear for me, I don't get it when they appear and what are they trying to tell me.

Whoa, that was long ;-)

jemcy responds:

Thank you for the good review. I also think Master Mind was a fantastic board game for teaching and building logical skill and am happy you see the connection.

This game requires both logic and vocabulary skills to reach the highest levels. Although many of the puzzles can be solved with either pure logic or brute lexical memory, the ideal is a combination of both. It is nearly impossible to recall words as pure letter combinations, and it is nearly impossible to remember every word you might need short term. The idea is to exercise brain circuits that actively produce words by engaging both logic and memory for optimal efficiency. Most people need to strengthen the logic skill. In your case, it seems you may benefit from more of the memory practice to solve at least some of the puzzles most quickly.

After briefly trying a rule change that would allow for a penalty free first attempt at the answer, I found that players did not respond well to the idea. It seems that it is better to leave the game simpler than to add such additional complication. With build 1080, the game again penalizes every wrong answer. Like many other memory games, you must play the odds best to win. If there is no instance of a single letter in any of the clues, then chances are it is not in the solution because the game screens every crossword clue to contain at least two correct letters with at least one in position. Nevertheless, there are no guarantees and luck does play an important role for the game.

I also experimented with starting the clock later in the game, with the second clue, but again ultimately decided against it because it too easily allowed for cheating using scrabble cheating tools. Furthermore, I again determined that the game is simpler, fairer and therefore better without such a change. The clock now starts with the selection of the first clue. However, because you know that each of three choices is pre-screened to contain a minimum number of letters you will need, you can (and should) take as long as you want (no time pressure) to think about likely target answer words based on the letters you see in the choices before starting the clock with the first clue.

The doge-hints are just a way of tracking / marking expired time (with some pre-credited puzzle points removed with each doge-hint) and are used for posting a few synonyms near the end of the countdown time to possibly jog your memory like a regular paper crossword game. Every time the dog periodically speaks (barks), the game takes back ten of sixty points advanced for the round. The doge-hints do not actually show (print) until after the player selects all the available crosswords. The first doge hints are intentionally broad and cryptic. The doge-hint "such do" for example, just indicates that the answer word is primarily a verb. The solution is obvious (revealed) with the last doge clue.

Players may currently use this game without time pressure by choosing when to end each round. Simply wait to select “show answer” to see the last doge clue until you really want to give up thinking about solving the puzzle by yourself to better practice and build your logic / memory skills with practice games.

I have found that if you let the user submit specific crosswords, every puzzle is normally too difficult to get started without using a significant number of guesses, and people immediately give up trying to keep track, therefore the current presentation has proven to work better.

[Cyber Rush]

I would give this game 4,5 stars, because it's a great thing, but I can't because of 2 issues:
1. When I turn off the ad-block the game gets extremely laggy and I could effectively earn only the "first death" medal; before earning any others the game freezes for a moment and is not sending the achievements to the NG system;
2. When I turn the ad-block on I turn off the lag as well, but cannot earn medals.
I PMed the author about it months ago, but got no response. I hope that I will get an answer to the review.

[Monochrome Obstacles]

After Roomryder I must say that I am a bit disappointed ;-) It is clearly some kind of a flappy bird mechanics clone, c'mon, enough of these! :-) As i see the subsequent obstacles are random and it makes sometimes impossible to pass some segments when in one obstacle the free space is near the down border and another one just the opposite - totally up. It is not possible to get there in a such short amount of time. Also about the direction change: when you are just hitting the spacebar when it happens it is an instant kill. Sometimes it even happens just before reaching the obstacle. Maybe make the spaces between obstacles a bit wider or slow the game down a bit?
On the other hand the game has very nice and relaxing music :-)
And there is something in your games that makes the player want to try again and again! ;-)

rawb1t responds:

To be honest, the concept wasn't planed to be like another Flappy Bird. But I had to face the fact, that my original concept was totally shit. But I definitely wanted to use the monochrome design and the changing gravity, so it became a little clone of FP. But that was definitly not the first intention.

About the difficulty to reach the gap on the top of the game, if the player is on the bottom (and vice versa): It is possible, to reach the highest possible gap, even if the player is on the ground. I tested especially this issue very often. The only thing is, that you need to be fast at the Spacebar. ;-)

If you reach an obstacle, which switches the gravity, just do nothing! Thats important. If you jump, you will crash into the obstacle, as you could see. ;-) I know, it tooks much time to get the controls right, but difficulty is the core of all my games, isn't it? ;)

[Guitar Hero]

Hey, I like this one! And I am really not disappointed that it hasn't got anything to do with the Guitar Hero "game" (rather happy of that), besides, it a good small word play :-) Still cannot figure the location of the record, but will find it! The smart location of secrets are good, the game is short but neat, there is only one thing: sometimes you can jump out of the screen and cannot be able to come back, so the only thing to do is to reload the game.

Munguia responds:

Thanks for the comment and the bug report, the jump out of screen is already fix, thanks.

[Attack of Crazy Folks]

Looks like my review will be the first :-) You definitely know how to make games. The graphics are great, the physics and controls work 100% fine for me. Being able to crash all of these crates - priceless. like Duke Nukem would say: "He he he he, what a mess!" ;-) I only didn't like few things:
1. Probably the worst thing: the information board about the boss near the boss zone, when the camera zooms in and you partially lose control of the shooter. I even got killed once because of that. You can leave it, but without that camera zoom.
2. I also have a feeling that for few seconds after the board (this one or initial) is being shown, the game works slightly slower.
3. I don't like the fact that most of the times when I have to jump down I don't know anything about what is waiting for me, what opposition will there be etc.
4. Make found hearts collectible only when the health is partially depleted.
5. I assume that it was intentional to make the player unable to kill all the enemies once and for all since they respawn, but it irritated me when for example one guy respawned just in the place where I was currently standing and costed me a heart.
6. Sometimes I will really wish that I could run fast & shoot at the same time.
7. Maybe besides upgrades, enable also some legendary guns to buy? Like Peacemaker, or maybe Dirty Harry's Mr Smith and Mr Wesson (if I remember that correctly) :-)
Anyway, good job! :-)

Cutepop responds:

Hi HerbieG, thank you very much for the first review! Thank you for your creative ideas and we would definitely consider them for our future projects. Thank you for the great ideas.

[Word Play - 5 Differences]

Despite the bottle, there is also another error on the last screen: there are actually two differences when it comes to the plant in the top right corner. I tried to click it, but it only costed me an "error point". You need to fix it.

[Stairway to Heaven Highway to Hell]

I played most of your games and I must say like somebody already wrote that it isn't the best of You. I managed to get all the medals, all of them worked for me without any problems (about the one after getting to hell to the ones that did not get it: maybe you rage-quit after seeing the highway being fried and no medal popping up, you've got to click on continue button), but I got some remarks about the gameplay:
1. On the heaven part the movement is maybe even too fast while on the hell part it is a bit too slow (highway has the gravity on it's side after all ;-) );
2. I especially didn't like the heaven part, it looks a bit like a vertical Flappy Bird;
3. Why is it harder to get to hell than to heaven? With all these sins, crimes committed and so guilty conscience they should welcome you with open arms! ;-)

[Sneaky Scuba Escape]

Ok, the game is great as always, the graphics are awesome (I wonder where is this place located? Could you give any info? :-) ). The puzzles when you find their logic and/or find a clue don't seem so difficult anymore. Finding coins is another nice "side-task". Only one thing can be a bit deceiving: I thought that I was supposed to get the scuba medal just after picking it up, while you get it after entering the water. I thouught that something went wrong with the game and reloaded it and I still don't know why when I clicked on "play", not "new" it just kicked me to its very beginning.

selfdefiant responds:

Thanks! The game might seem easy if you have played my other games. You get better and smarter!

[Urban Rally]

At first I thought I will like this game, but after playing it a while I have to put some criticism about it:
1. The levels aren't loading smoothly. Especially when I have to replay the level I have to wait for a while for the level to reload. This also inflicts the loading of medals after completing a level.
2. Not so rarely this reloading causes some game error and after it occures I only see flickering buttons and a yellow screen (new version of BSOD ;-) ).
3. The music - initially good, after a while gets somewhat boring or at least repetetive, the loop is too short.
But probably the worst part is mechanics. Three things:
1. The location of checkpoints: sometimes they are placed in a way in which you don't have enough room to speed up enough to jump over further obstacles/pits.
2. The car behaves rather like a rock bouncer than a monster truck, it is veeery bouncy. C'mon! These vehicles are really heavy!
3. The physics: in many situations after I reached a certain speed I was also able to climb the hill, but in the same situation, I think the same speed I was just ramming into this hill like there was an invisible obstacle causing the car to stop/fall forward to its back. The movement of the truck is sometimes really a surprise. Also the acceleration is sometimes weird.
Not to be just critical: what I really like about this game is the graphics :-)