HerbieG's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Firestarter]

Interesting! But the biggest problem of this game is that you cannot move around the map with the mouse cursor movement, so when you need to burn just a small part you may accidentally destroy entire district.
The game itself is too random. You may want to burn few buildings, but in the meantime they may get connected to another big complex of them, burning the city to 0 and you can do absolutely nothing about it.
Those parts may be even connected out of the screen. It happened to me lots of times and it makes the game simply unfair to the player.
Also a top-down view would be much better than isometric.

SilverwareGames responds:

Its kind of chaotic, yes, but that was the feel of the original game. We are considering making burning too much cost you a heart instead of game over. Also, top down is kind of a tricky POV to do games in, most stuff is a little isometric. Anyway, thanks for playing.

[Impossible Tic Tac Toe]

I beat the impossible after few tries, so... not so impossible ;-)
BTW, I noticed one bug: once when the opponent was the first to move 2 circles appeared instead of one.

StoneForged responds:

If you don't mind could you tell me how you beat it useful information (I may make a patch)

[Vac Jump 2 (Demo)]

Quite enjoyable, but... after several tries the game got a bit "tired" for me and started to lag, making it a bit easier for me to time the stomps at the cost of more difficult handling, but nevertheless it allowed me to get the score I got. However on the game's normal speed some of the medals may be simply impossible, so you should:
1. Optimize the game (or maybe my CPU is dying? Hmm...);
2. Make it a bit slower.
Otherwise people with slower computers will obviously benefit from this fact.
As for impossible medals: I doubt if the pacifist one is possible at the game's current speed considering the fact that you are placed in a very close distance to the upper border of the screen making it basically impossible to react and avoid an obstacle while boosting.
I also don't think that the Vac God is possible at the game's current speed.
I'll believe both are obtainable if you will do it :-)
Oh, if you merged the best things from the first Vac jump and the current one you would get a very good game.

radddbro responds:

I'm going to try to improve the performance asap. Both medals are definitely obtainable because I laughed like a psycho when I finally got them XD.

Thanks for your feedback HerbieG!

[Basala: The Onion]

Very good game. What is only a bit of my concern is that the controls are a bit floaty and sometimes it happens that I am experiencing some frames loss making me loose control for enough time to die. Also there are some blind jumps where you don't exactly know where to go next or confusing situations, when if you want to check one side of the stage you are unable to reach the other one.

hosani69 responds:

Hi there, Thanks for your feedback. Believe me, I saw an 8 years old boy beating this game. This game meant to be simple and hard. I will add some guiding arrows if that will help.

[The Lost Temple 2]

After playing it for a while and exploring the game I think I can already write some comments on it. I agree with the people complaining about that jumping from the lower platform to the higher one. I usually enjoy these kind of jumps in platformer games, but not in this one. And to show the others why these jumps are badly designed, here is a screenshot from a level without that kind of a jump, but showing what's wrong with the character:

https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/3e11eb40441fee15ac9aa43b0fa9b716

As you can see there is even enough space to draw a quite wide white line between the character and the platform to the left. But you still cannot jump from this point because you will hit your head with some invisible obstacle. It most likely means that the hitbox of the character is inaccurate and it is much bigger than the actual look of the guy. And this can also affect the obviously also inaccurate hit detection. Unfortunately the author did not respond to my PM about it. While this can be manageable the next thing should make the author to not only consider but rework the game. Some of the trophies are simply not obtainable. Another screenshot:

https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/9d1410dadf4ba27ae5624c2d0114fac7

There is no way you can enter that corridor, because the character is too wide, too big. I already found 3-4 levels on which such a situation occurs. It also cannot be the exit, because - see the reason above - you would not be able to jump up from that corridor. This issue needs fixing.

Another thing: sometimes if you leave the level with the trophy, but without destroying the totem the game will mark that level as completed anyway, but not add it to the stats. On the other hand I finished several levels without getting the trophy but with destroying the totem and those weren't marked as finished. This leads to a confusing situation: if I would go for 100% completion I wouldn't know now which levels I would need to replay.

So there is some work to do with this game to make it really a masterpiece (there is a good potential for it) and to adjust several things to make the game really enjoyable, not bugged.

JeffreyDriver responds:

Thanks for your detailed review, it's really helpful. The point about the jumps to a platform directly above have been taken on board. Removing them all from this game would involve a huge amount of work, but I'll see what I can do.

As for the hitbox of the player, that's easily sorted and will be fixed in the next update.

The issue regarding the totems being destroyed, but not then registering is confusing me. It's the same bit of code, but it just checks the level name. Is it particular scenes that are affected, or is it (and I really hope not) random?

Which level is it in your seconds screenshot?

[Wacky Wizard Escape: Village]

Good, but too easy this time!
By the way, the score board is not working.

selfdefiant responds:

Fixed leader board, thanks!

[Hell of a Golfer]

Already in this form this is just brilliant! Awesome idea for a game! Now listen up, this is mandatory for you: when you will submit the full version you are letting me know about it!
It's a fantastic mix of a golf game with interesting mechanics, a platformer and a bit of a puzzle game. Only that dragging mechanism could be improved, because sometimes it fails to work properly if the ball is on a higher platform, not on the ground. For example once I could not get any aim upwards.
Cool old style graphics, I also liked the idea that you have to give the coin, probably an obolus, to the death to take you to the next level-course.
I really hope you will finish the game and submit its full version! Oh, and it would be good-if the game is saving progress already-if the full version could recognize the previously saved game, so the players who finished the beta version could continue directly from course 5.

DRWgames responds:

Very appreciated, @HerbieG! I'll take another look at the drag mechanics, I think I know what you mean there. You rule!

[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

[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.

[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.