HerbieG's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dream Eater]

Hmm... where to start... I got extremely mixed feelings about this game. The story is well-made, the game surely builds up the atmosphere, making you want to discover what exactly happened. But. There is one major But. As one of the reviewers mentioned, that shadow in the tree house is a game killer. It makes the game excessively too long for no particular reason. Under one of the reviews you promised to update the game with necessary adjustments, but I think it did not happen. There is a method to avoid the shadow, but especially when you need to return from the second part of the house to the first one you are likely to get stucked between those looped shadows that always run from the side that you currently need to go. One important thing: being tired of fighting that loop yesterday I decided to continue today-and that was a very bad idea. I left the game near the door separating both sections of the house and when I loaded the game the shadow instantly appeared exactly in the place I was standing, so... animation, color light flashes and... the game threw me back to the very beginning! And as I was already at dream 5 you can imagine my rage and how much I wanted to murder the author at this moment. Suggested solution: disable saving after opening that door and an advice to all players: never leave the game when standing there. As for other advices: sneaking is completely useless. No matter if you sneak or not the shadow can appear, even just in front of you, which is another thing that makes the game unfair to the player. Despite the whole idea of those shadow loops which serve of completely no purpose in the game other than infuriating the player.
By the way, contact me when you will read my review, because I accidentally found a major glitch in the game that cannot be mentioned here.

[Reincarnation - When death calls]

Short but great! And I fully support the message against those dogs breeding farms!
As for the detailed content, the part with the dog could use the "Who let the dogs out?" track and the cat stage - which I liked the most - reminded me of an old cartoon in which a black cat was helping a white cat by causing bad luck to a dog chasing it. Hey, you could make a game about a cat with such super powers!
Just one more thing: I don't believe I've ever seen such a HUGE Newgrounds medal ;-)
Good luck, I hope your game will be appreciated and awarded.

[Bomb Factory]

The game is quite good, I like the fact that you can set the time after which the bomb will explode, but you definitely need to work on the issues with medals. Probably many people already should have the "electrocution" medal since it is very easy to get, also few people more should have the 9000 score medal. Consider making the game check the NG highscores and unlock the medals if necessary. Also the play with a friend one is definitely not working. As for the last one that I just unlocked: where exactly are those "checkouts"? I can see only some crates in the game and I don't quite understand why the game gave me that medal.

Rictus25 responds:

Thank you for your feedback ! As this game has been created in 48h, and not for NG, the Medal feature is actually really weak, I will work on it in the future, but wasn't really necessary for the Jam

[Endless Blocky]

This game is terribly coded. Lots of times the second jump just fails to work. You got a feeling that it is some kind of a "special skill" that needs a cooldown after you land.

[Witch Hunt]

The game itself is good, you need to think how to plan the usage of certain spells against certain enemies, but one thing is unforgivable: the dumbness of the key medals. Mindless and endless grind is NOT a challenge. You gave only 25 points for beating the challenges that require the player's skills and planning, while the grind medals are worth 50 points and the final medal depends on them. For how long would I have to play it to get 10 000 kills or earn 1 000 000 gold? The cost of the current upgrade for one of the runes is now 100 000 gold and there are still some 4 more to buy. For how much? A million? All these issues completely ruin the game... it is just totally dumb.

[Unfriendly Skies]

The game is promising, but there are some things that could be improved:
1. It seems like the hitbox for hit detection is much bigger than the box for catching a power up, many times an egg just flies through me, but I do not pick it;
2. The power ups you get by reaching higher scores should improve your combat abilities rather than decreasing them. After unlocking the lance the game became worse, because in comparison to the rings of fire the lance is pretty useless.
3. Lots of times the game places the birds in the places where there is no possibility you can reach them, for example right inside the cloud or just next to the jet fighter;
4. The birds themselves should appear in more regular time periods. Sometimes I fly a really big distance without meeting any of them while last time I met 2 in a row, the second one just seconds after I hit the first one.
Think about expanding the game, maybe with a story. Check Sky Quest here on Newgrounds for inspirations ;-)

ben-giantsquid responds:

Thanks for your review! I made adjustments to the game. This is a work-in-progress and I will tweak it whenever I have a chance to. I may not have complied with everything you mentioned exactly due to game design, but it's coming along.
1. The eggs are designed such since 2 eggs are always emitted by the bird so having a delay allows the player to see the eggs and choose between 2 weapons. I tried different things but this seemed to work out the best since he has multiple weapons.
2. I adjusted the power-ups and swapped the Lance for the FireWheel power-ups. I made the SawBlade power-up grow to a larger size to make it stronger than the previous. You can actually kill the jets with a lance by positioning yourself (in the perfect position) in front of the jet. When you acquire the chainsaw, it is the same, but much easier to do.
3 and 4.The birds may be surrounded by an enemy but one should be able to shoot or kill enemies surrounding it since the birds come out at the same intervals now. Birds appear just before a power-up will expire. The player should be aware now and be able to shoot down enemies surrounding the power-up bird.

[Coffee Warz]

Very good game! A nice variety of weapons, I especially liked the fact that I can hit somebody with a cactus! There is only one flaw: picking and using the ranged weapons - spray and fire extinguisher. If you press x with too much strength you may accidentally lose some ammo. The same is for a bit inconvenient use of left click as an attack button. If somebody would like to check if the medals are unlocking then to be able to move again you have to click on the game screen - again: making you lose ammo.
Speaking of medals: I have to take some points away from the game because I reached and beat floor 20, but the medal did not unlock. You should make the game store the medals data or the number of the highest floor reached, so nobody would have to replay the game if something like this happens. My score of 21 was also not posted.

[ZS Dead Detective - Murder Case]

Another day at the detective's work! And another great game with interesting plot. Although it has several flaws and bugs, mostly happening at the Lurr's farm:
1. There seems to be a problem with leaving the rooms fluently. When going out of the location with One-Eye after clicking on the exit Margh moves, then stands still and then after you click again the transition animation of the screen getting dark etc. finally happens;
2. When you try to leave the location near the stairs, where Acka is standing you click on the right part of the screen, Margh moves there and disappears, nothing happens, then you click again and just before the screen finally goes black you see a speaking bubble with the text "I don't think it is a good idea" or some other text like that.
3. A bit funny: when you return to the dead brain's cell Acka is still talking to you (as a ghost? can a zombie become a ghost?) despite she is no longer there. You can even click on the place she is standing while being invisible.
4. A minor issue: for some reason my score was not posted at the first time.
One remark: this new deaduction system - everybody noticed the pun? ;-) made this game a bit too easy. It shouldn't be too hard to combine all the clues in your brain, it hasn't been eaten ;-) Additionally I had a feeling that this game is easier than the previous ones.
By the way, this game gave me some thoughts:
1. If the zombies cannot die again then is the "murder" crime present in their Penal Code?
2. Would the "murderer" be charged of his crime because he murdered a brain or because he caused some financial losses to the Lurr's farm?
3. If the Zombie Society is "farming" people like people are doing it with animals then how would it be handled generally? Maybe we would come to a conclusion that zombies treat people in a more humanitarian way than we treat the animals?
Hmm...

Muja responds:

Thank you a lot for your review - and for your detailed feedback, it's very appreciated!
I've just uploaded a new version of the game that will fix all the bugs you mentioned.

As for your other questions:
1- Murder crime is present in their Penal Code because even if zombies cannot die, living humans can, and
2- killing a living without eating him is considered a big crime, as it's a waste of brains (a very rare resource nowadays)
3- Living humans are raised with the utmost care... until their brains have matured enough and can be extracted. All in all, I'd say that's very similiar to how we treat animals in "classic" farms.

[Ambidextrous 0]

An interesting combination of levels, but with 2 bugs, including one pack of major bugs, without them I would rate it with 5 stars:
1. The smaller one: at the platformer stage lots of times you are getting stucked on the floor while trying to go left/right. It's like you met an invisible wall there. The same can happen when you are trying to push a crate. You cannot just go back and forth hoping to finally get through, you have to jump over that place to continue.
2. The pack of bugs during the pong levels:
a) the ball can bounce in a way in which afterwards it will continue bouncing horizontally from left wall to the right one, there is nothing you can do about it except restarting the level;
b) it can also happen that the ball will bounce between the wall and the paddle and then go straight downwards bypassing the paddle;
c) the most annoying one: even if you move the paddle as far to the right as you can the ball can still bounce between the paddle and the wall. This one is unacceptable and should be fixed.

[Dungeon Grove]

Nice idea, but 2 major complains:
1. The controls are way too sensitive;
2. The map is not horizontal, you can't just stand in front of a rock for example. When you touch it with your head you cannot go further up. You also get stucked on obstacles way too easily.