HerbieG's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sisyphus]

An interesting new installment of Take a hike game with the use of Greek myth, good idea!
There are some things I would like to mention/change:
1. At the later stages you barely got time to put your fingers on the keyboard and if you get caught you are falling very fast, I managed to deal with it by keeping my fingers prepared while clicking start with my left hand using the touchpad, but that would not be a bad idea to give the player some time to prepare, like a board with "3, 2, 1... go!";
2. As I mentioned at the later stages you fall very fast, so it is only a matter of luck whether you will proceed or not. If you will get caught it is almost a 100% fail, because after you will click your way out of it you will be already too low to recover;
3. As for the luck upgrade: the next levels description is confusing: ow wait, I upgraded the chance of getting caught from 100% to 200% and even to 300%? So I actually made it worse for me? ;-)

AlexTheGreatish responds:

Thanks for the review, I tried fixing the things you told me.
1. You now have time to prepare before you start pushing the boulder
2. It now takes longer before you are able to get caught on a rock
3. I fixed the luck upgrade info, no clue why I didn't notice that lol

[Unsealed Door]

Knowing your previous games when I saw whose game it is I knew that it is going to be tough, but this is quite... brutal. Very unforgiving. Welcome to the hall of pain. There is one thing I would actually want to see improved though: at the current state the dash isn't very functional, it would be much better if I could use it while running down and being able to attack at the same time, to make it something like a piercing attack. Also in regard to the lifetime kills medal it would be good if the game had some kind of a counter for this, so the player would for example know for sure that his progress is being continued after returning to the game.

RainbowCemetery responds:

lifetime kills are reported in the web console when the game ends, though that's more something i forgot to turn off than an intended feature. appreciate the feedback

[Block Mystery Crew: Dracula's Castle]

Absolutely brilliant idea of using Lego for creating a game! An advice: to make the areas look similar before and after taking some things from it etc. place a camera on a small tripod. This will help you take another photo from the exactly same position.

selfdefiant responds:

Thanks!! I started using my dslr camera then found my camera on my phone took better photos but had that problem with not being the same position. I will figure it out and make it better next time. I had no idea how lighting and everything can effect the photo! :)

[Lost Temple]

Like JCLV wrote the game seems to be not saving progress at all. I already passed several areas, finished few levels (the water one, the fire one), but had to stop playing. I returned to the game and now I will have to start from the very beginning.

Is it an AUTOsave or do we have to do something to actually make the game save the progress?

JeffreyDriver responds:

Sorry for the trouble. There is an autosave and it saves every time you switch to a new scene. When you come back to the game, 'Continue?' should appear under the title. Clicking that should take you to the last scene you were on.

I haven't been able to replicate the problem, but I'm looking at it.

[Jumping to the Top]

Last time when you submitted this game you accused me of putting a crappy review to your game before you pulled the game out for obvious reasons. As you can check I played over 3 500 games here, being a witness of lots of different and weird control schemes, game mechanics etc., but what the hell, I may know nothing ;-)

Well, your game is still bad, because except adding a small intro you did not change anything significant. Oh: one thing for the bad: you can sometimes get stucked like for example when you land behind that rotating coin to the very right, it is impossible to jump to the left when you get stucked there, so you have to reload the game, because there is even no reset option, button or whatever.

But there is one much more important thing, besides the fact that the controls are overresponsive: your game needs a meter that will show the player how much power did he charge for the next jump. This would make it possible to learn the controls better, but there is even more important reason to this: take note that your controls may work in an entirely different way on different keyboards. One is more sensitive, one is less and the same time of holding the left/right button can result in an entirely different behavior of the jumper.

Add this and I will surely rise my rating of your game.

CitizenGoose responds:

Hi.
Thanks for the collaborative review ;) I have made the changes. Please check it out. And you can press R

[Big Shot Boxing]

I promised myself - and the author - to write some remarks about this game. It seems to be sometimes luck-based, but I admit that there are combinations of punches that can make you win with KO even within the first round. I spent few hours on this and it is possible to develop a strategy. Ok, here go the thoughts:
1. Being able to move forward only by throwing punches is a very bad idea. I mean yes, during the fight the boxers are moving forward pretending punches, but many times it leads to an absurd, for example my opponent is stunned, right? Obviously I want to finish him off, but my boxer just fails to move forward to get in range of any punch. Instead just moves back and forth no matter which keys I press.
It would be much better if you applied a scheme like - moving forwards/backwards - arrow keys, all actions - z, x, c - punches, s - guard.
Your boxing simulator was much better in this matter.
2. Speaking about the guard - here is something I consider luck-based: my opponent breaks my guard much more often than I can break his.
3. Not enough punches and some not effective. Do you think that hits on the torso do not do any damage? That land on the belly for example? Where is the famous finishing punch on the liver? In your scheme it could be down-arrow, in the one I proposed - d or v, seem equally convenient.
4. One thing is extremely illogical: the cash rewards. I mean come on, you get the same cash for beating a punk in some gym or club as you get for fighting with Anthony Joshua, Deontay Wilder etc.? The bigger the fight - the bigger the prize. And if the manager is taking all the cash - I would sack him and beat him up. Or maybe I should beat him up first?
5. Another inconsistency - during the fight. I got full health, chin fully upgraded, had not been knocked down even once during the current fight, but the opponent can hit me with that flash punch so hard that I cannot get up, because tapping space is barely having any effect?
6. Yet another inconsistency: after any of the boxers survives being knocked down regains some health, but the other boxer's health remains the same. I mean both sides are taking some rest during those nearly 10 seconds, right?
7. A bug: between the rounds and even during the fight opponents health sometimes exceeds the full bar much to the left of it.
8. Did you apply the "3 knockdown rule"? I noticed that sometimes the opponent can be even knocked down 4-5 times and the referee is still not ending the fight.
9. A suggestion: for the situation when the player already knows that will lose the fight you could add a "throw towel" feature to prevent your fighter form receiving a massive KO.
I like the added feature that decreases your health/power as you are getting older. Even Klitschko could not be the champion forever.
Oh, I noticed the obvious Macho Man reference :-)

colburt187 responds:

Thanks for the detailed feedback.

1. I wanted to keep the control scheme as simple as possible, I'm actually pretty happy with how it worked out, being able to jab, cross, left uppercut, right uppercut, block, move forward and move backwards with just 4 buttons. If you stun an opponent you just press any of the punch buttons to move forward, the only way you move backwards is by pressing block and you shouldn't be pressing that if you are trying to chase the guy down.

2. The way the guard works is identical for both the player and the AI. Maybe the AI is hitting the block with more power punches and you hit his block with jabs?

3. Body punching would be a good edition, but for now I'm sticking with the 4 button control scheme.

4. True the cash is illogical but I need to balance the upgrades, on certain occasions you get offered a bonus to take a risk and you get more money in title fights. Im not great at designing clever well balanced economies in games so I tried to make it work in the simplest way I could.

5. Getting starched by a punch when you have full health and full chin is rare and unfortunate but not illogical. Boxers get knocked out early in fights all the time, there is never a situation in boxing when you can say "if this guy gets hit with a clean punch he won't get knocked out"

6. Thats a good point, ill look into the settings for that situation.

7. Only in the quick fight mode i think? I haven't really spend much time fixing bugs in the quick fight game mode.

8. yes the 3 knockdown rule is in effect, If you knock a guy down 3 times in a round the ref will stop the fight. It has to be 3 times in the same round though.

9. you NEVER know you will lose a fight, you could win the fight with the last punch of the fight with 1 second left on the clock. NEVER GIVE UP!

[Medieval Village Escape]

I wish you could tell me where was that photo with an outstanding view taken!
Nice game, although with a flaw and an unanswered question.
A question: what are those gold coins for? If they were really golden then they should be worth more than enough for that guy to even sell you the boat.
A flaw: you wouldn't be able to buy that ale with even million liras, because they are now useless In Italy as a currency since this country is a member of the Euro zone.

selfdefiant responds:

I believe the view is in Italy of the village, unless you are referring to another scene. The coins are actually tiny gold coins, they don't have much value. The statue that you find is much more valuable. :) Yes, we are in a medieval village, they accept Lira .

[Fire]

That description: "Absent! Will be added as needed ..." is truly intriguing ;-)
As for the game: simple, but brilliant and addicting.
This is what I can call an elemental Tetris.
For those for whom it is not obvious:
Air wipes out Dirt;
Dirt soaks up with Water;
Water takes out the Fire;
Fire sucks up all the air - ok, Oxygen to be precise.
Only one explanation would be needed: why sometimes the red line is dropping and some of my bricks get removed even when no brick even reached it yet? For example the game gave me a "game over" at the moment when my Water brick was extinguishing a stack of Fire blocks.

BigPixelLab responds:

If you put a brick above the line, then you lose. The line falls to complicate the game. Bricks are removed so that you are not trapped. It will be necessary to add a destruction animation.