Score: 8

"Addictive game"

submission: Crush the Castle

date: May 12, 2009

I've been playing this game for the last few days or so just getting the hang of it. The learning curve that you've put into it is appropriate considering the weapon upgrades that you eventually get after a certain point while playing it. It is rather amusing to see just how easily the "hard" castles that took multiple attempts to destroy are felled once you get hold of more powerful weaponry later on. It's a shame that it doesn't have an achievement system seeing as this is one of the few new games that I've seen that would deserve such a feature.

For those that are interested, here's a creation of my own if you wish to have a go at destroying it.

0~fl_w:1178.35,413.35|fl_w:976.7,411.
65|fl_w:775.35,411.5|fl_w:575.85,413.
15|fl_w:375,415|w_i:287.65,349.15|w_i :326,349.9|w_s:306.5,350.4|w_i:288.35 ,226.65|w_s:306.4,227.15|w_i:326.75,2 26.2|w_i:346.65,350|w_i:345.6,226.8|w _i:383.65,193.75|w_s:366.1,227.7|w_s:
366.65,348.35|w_i:385,350|w_i:567.9,3 51.8|w_i:566.65,193.7|w_s:586.9,346.5 |w_s:584.7,223.3|w_i:605.8,346.25|w_i :605.6,224.2|w_i:624.8,346.25|w_i:625 .65,224|w_s:645.35,345.5|w_s:645.65,2 21.6|w_i:665.65,346.35|w_i:665.5,192.
8|fl_i:476.75,284.25|fl_s:477.1,271.7 5|fl_i:474.7,260.4|fl_i:756.85,280.6|
w_s:857.7,344.4|fl_s:756.2,268.65|fl_
i:756.55,258.65|w_i:840.85,347.4|w_i:
875.9,347.65|w_s:858.7,221.45|w_i:878 .5,195.1|w_i:840,191.65|fl_i:475.7,12 5.6|fl_s:477.25,113.55|fl_i:475,103.3 |fl_i:751.7,125|fl_s:753.35,113.3|fl_
i:750,103.3|fl_i:968.85,281.5|fl_s:96 8.35,270|fl_i:970,261.65|p_t:330,140|
w_i:1060,348.35|w_i:1063.4,195.8|w_s:
1080.15,344.75|w_i:1098.35,346.65|w_i :1119.45,346.15|w_s:1140.1,345.85|w_i :1160.65,346.5|w_i:1100.45,223.45|w_i :1120.35,224.15|w_i:1160.3,223.1|w_s:
1080,221.65|w_s:1140,223.35|fl_i:970,
128.3|fl_s:971.7,116.65|fl_i:970,108.
3|p_t:1123.35,138.3|w_i:685,191.65|w_
i:820,191.65|w_i:900,195|w_i:1045,195 |w_i:404.75,193.25|w_i:548.35,193.05|
w_i:406.65,351.65|w_i:548.35,351.65|w _i:686.7,346.65|w_i:820,346.65|w_i:89 5,348.35|w_i:1038.35,348.35|c_k:988.8 5,371.95|c_q:773.9,371.65|c_p:515.1,3 73.4|c_p:987.5,220.5|c_p:775.05,216.9 |c_s:939.55,369.25|c_s:947.95,222.75|
c_s:725.45,219.1|c_s:725,373.35|c_s:4 45.7,373.65|c_s:450.35,221.65|c_p:496 .8,219.25|

Score: 6

"Good, so far as it goes"

submission: Youda Farmer

date: January 23, 2009

I have to admit that I'm not usually a fan of farm-sim games, thus the reason that I tend to avoid the Harvest Moon series. However, I decided to try your game on the basis of a whim once I saw that its overall score had managed to gain it either a green or blue background. The game itself, I find, is simple to play while still retaining a certain degree of a challenge. Towards the end of the game, I began to notice that it was getting harder to meet the challenges set, but not enough to make it frustrating.

I'm rather fond of the idea of building up the farm over time rather than starting with everything already in place. Again, doing so allows you to increase the difficulty level without it becoming too hard at any one point.

However, I cannot claim to be overly impressed with the fact that, as many people have already said, the game is a demo. Yes, I realise that I should have realised that from the start as soon as I saw Totallygame appear on the screen, but that in itself is actually a shame seeing as it has given you a reputation that I am sure you would wish to avoid.

The other game of yours that I've played through to the end would be World Domination II. While that was also a demo, I found it worth replaying quite a few times simply because it still allowed you to play through to the end of your goal - conquering the world. In that game's case, the extra material that you could gain by going premium extended to more characters, weapons and abilities. This was perfectly acceptable seeing as we were still left with a fully formed and intact game. Essentially, it's the gaming equivalent of releasing a few additional chapters for an already finished book.

Sadly, however, this does not apply to Youda Farmer; there is no justifiable manner in which one could claim that the game was finished by the time the demo stopped. To extend my previous book metaphor, it would be like reading through a good novel, only to find that the publisher stopped about halfway through, and left the rest of the pages blank. There is no sense of completion, and thus, no real sense of replay value either.

I appreciate the fact that you may need to rely on the premium upgrades in order to make a living to some degree or another. However, this is the wrong way to go about doing so. As I said previously, you have acquired a reputation here on Newgrounds for releasing, with precious few exceptions, games that do not allow the gamer any sense of completion or achievement. If you wish to go about the lines of premium upgrades, do so in the fashion of World Domination II. Release games that allow people to actually finish what they start, and then give them the option of additional missions, characters, tools, weapons, or whatever's applicable thereto. I strongly believe that your present strategy will only result in you shooting yourself in the foot financially.

You are capable of making very good games when you put in the effort; by adopting your current business plan, you are only selling yourself short when you could be doing so much better.

Score: 9

"Well crafted"

submission: FlashTrek: Broken Mirror

date: January 15, 2009

Judging from the various reviews found below this one, it would appear that I won't need to go into any kind of detail where cheat codes are concerned, thus allowing me to actually critique the game itself. I've been playing this game on and off for quite some time now, and I find that it offers a great deal of replay value. In the beginning, you're almost certainly going to be going trade missions of various sorts in order to build up the funds for your own projects whatever they may be.

However, I am certain that most people when playing this game will tend to gravitate towards the idea of empire building either for themselves or for their host government. In my case, however, I must confess that I find the idea of fighting against a planet even with the best of ships and a fleet to match to be somewhat tiring, for which reason, I do so using the Borg cube. Speaking of which, I don't believe I've seen anything in the recent reviews on how to access that, so I'll put that here.

When selecting your race for a new game profile, hit the Tab button on your keyboard until it's gone past the various species already mentioned. Once you do so, you'll find that the small yellow box will select three areas in the screen that wouldn't suggest any reason for attention. The first box will be the Borg, the second will be the Dominion and the third will be the Cardassians. To select which one you want, you will need to press the Shift button on the keyboard while clicking to access it. Of these three, only the first two are really worth considering in my opinion.

The Borg cube is the most powerful non-uber ship in the game, and is capable of destroying fleets by itself. However, you are also hated by everyone, so using the "everyonelovesme" cheat at the beginning is advisable so you can get various additional weapons. Additionally, its recharge rate, assuming power sufficiency, is fast enough to make short work of anything you care to mention. Should you decide to use this for empire building, I'd advise simply parking it over the planet in question, and turning on auto-targeting with the apostrophe or # button (I can't remember which); you'll achieve your goal much faster this way.

Playing as the Dominion will also make you hated by everyone, barring the Cardassians, so using the everyonelovesme cheat might be a good idea. I say that this is another option worth considering due to the comparatively unusual weapons available to their ships.

In the game menu, you'll be able to find an option dealing with plug ins; these are specialised pieces of coding created by other users that allow for customised versions of the game; the best being the uber-ship one that allows you to simply buy the most powerful ships - ones powerful enough to tear even the Borg cube to shreds. The plug ins will be found at Vex's website, and must be copied correctly to work. However, I've found that they work much better if you play the game from his site rather than Newgrounds. I suspect the reason for this is due to the game and the plug in coming from the same server rather than two completely unrelated ones.

In short, much to everyone's relief, no doubt, this is a game that will provide an awful lot of replay value for anyone who's interested in this genre of gaming.

Score: 6

"It shows promise"

submission: Battle Gear

date: January 6, 2009

Normally, when I write a review of a game, I tend to do so only after played through it for a reasonable length of time so that I know what I'm talking about. In this case, I've finished the first campaign, and have reached level 43 of the 2nd. In that time, I've been able to see what the strengths and weaknesses of this game are.

First things first, as it were, as many people have said before me, there are various linguistic faults that need to be corrected. Fortunately, they aren't so severe as to impede comprehension on the part of the player, but they are particularly irksome to people who are used to a more accurate language register in whatever they do. In future, I would recommend acquiring the services of someone whose native language is English, and who is well informed of its rules. There are plenty of people whose supposedly "native" English would be considerably worse than what you have here.

As regards the game itself, I would say, as per the summary, that it shows a good deal of promise. I found that it was better to use the defensive strategy rather than the offensive seeing as it allowed you to make your firepower more effective, while remaining out of range of most of the enemies' defences. Likewise, the sheer variety of units available made it possible to piece together some rather interesting combinations. One that worked well for me in the earlier stages of the game was the Heavy Truck, Mortar Soldier and the Gun Copter all set to defensive posture.

I have to admit that I also liked the fact that it was possible to upgrade the various units, not only in the unit menu, but also in terms of more general power ups such as health, range, and attack power. One of the previous reviewers stated that level 33 in the 2nd campaign is all but impossible. Having played through that part, I can tell you that it is necessary to also invest in these other upgrades.

However, I would be tempted to argue that there is too much of the game that relies on pure chance or luck. Whereas the 33rd level can be beaten once your units are sufficiently upgraded, the 43rd, coincidentally another pure air-power level, is posing something of a challenge for me. By this stage, I have every single conceivable upgrade, yet my units are being torn apart as though they were made of papier mâché. Even more confusingly, my total unit count is being depleted even when there are none on the screen.

Likewise, the naval battles are somewhat frustrating as well if you play on defensive mode. For some inexplicable reason, they all have a tendency to fire towards the lower half the screen regardless of whether or not there's anyone there to hit or not. Naturally, this means that anything that doesn't head in that direction will be able to destroy your units at its leisure.

Another point that has proved rather annoying is the fact that your own units can end up killing one another. The ones that deal with explosives tend to be the worst offenders, which is another problem in those air battles for the Russians. It's bad enough dealing with an enemy that can kill you even when you're not present, but to have your own units killed by their team mates is irritating to say the very least.

In short, therefore, any future games will need the following problems resolved:

#1 Better in-game language
#2 Removal of scenarios in which victory is by chance
#3 Better programming on the naval units' AI
#4 Option to turn off friendly fire damage

Score: 7

"Not bad, but a touch too easy"

submission: - The Battle -

date: July 20, 2008

The overall structure of the game is simple, and thus, works very well indeed. I personally reckon that making a game too complicated does no-one any favours whatsoever, which stands this one in good stead. My main complaint, however, would be the fact that after a while, even on the hardest difficulty levels, the game loses the greater part of any challenge it may have had. You said that the game "gets very difficult as the stages progress", but I found this not to be the case.

If you've taken the time necessary to research weapons, the first two land upgrades, and marine attacks, then you can win the game entirely therewith. The air forces aren't required seeing as the laser weapon for your fortress can take them down with a single well placed shot. Likewise, this same weapon practically makes your land forces obsolete, barring the soldiers to capture bases. After this, I found that the fortresses own weapons in conjunction with the battleships to be sufficient for even the final boss.

Were you to make a similar game in the future, I would suggest finding ways to make it that bit more challenging, especially when you own comments would seem to give credence thereto.

Score: 9

"Excellent addition to the series"

submission: SHIFT 3

date: July 17, 2008

Some people have been saying that this game falls somewhat short of the previous two incarnations in the series for being too complicated. Personally, I'd have to reckon that it makes for a rather satisfying addition to the Shift series as a whole. I have to admit that some of the hidden doors took me quite a while to access; I only got one by randomly jumping across the level out of frustration. The only down point, however, was the inclusion of Mel Gibson as the secret character. If you're going to add one, then please, please, please be more creative next time, then you might get a 10.

Score: 9

"Definitely deserving of it's collection place"

submission: Besieged

date: June 21, 2008

While I cannot say that I have played the game through to the end thus far, I would have to say that it does appear to be a very intriguing take on the whole defence game genre. While it is true that the number of buildings may be a touch limited, the fact that all of these are able to be upgraded does balance things out rather well, I believe.

By virtue of the fact that I have not finished the game yet, I do not have anything in the way of a strategy to suggest to anyone wishing to play this game save for the basics of resource and money management. You would be well advised to build more defences than is immediately required so that you are not overrun at the first sign of trouble. Likewise, the training centres will serve you well by ensuring that your lesser used towers will still receive experience, thus allowing them to level up as well.

Your choice in music is rather fitting, I believe; the slight crackling of what appears to be fire is appropriate for the time period that you are attempting to emulate. Far too many people when making these defence games seem to think that loud, discordant music is what is required in these circumstances. By taking this option, you have chosen the superior path.

All in all, very well done indeed.

Score: 7

"Surprisingly close to life"

submission: Belfast Tourism

date: May 18, 2008

I have to say here, that unless you happen to come from Northern Ireland yourself, your efforts at creating a Belfast accent were highly laudable to say the very least. Fortunately, being Northern Irish myself, Jonty's English was no more challenging to me than my own.

Truth be told, I wouldn't at all mind seeing some kind of continuation hereto on Newgrounds. If you are Northern Irish, then I'm sure that you will be familiar with "Give my Head Peace". Granted, most people on Newgrounds wouldn't have an idea about what is going on simply by virtue of their comparative ignorance of the country, as shown by one other reviewer shown herebelow. However, it would be rather amusing to see a well made Northern Irish based flash series.

Score: 9

"Intriguing"

submission: Disputed Galaxy

date: May 5, 2008

I must confess that the first few times that I tried playing this game, I got somewhat frustrated by the apparent slow pace wherein I was progressing through the various situations. However, upon actually registering, thus of course allowing me to save my progress, I have found that things are considerably different indeed.

Once you manage to get beyond the stage of flying across half a dozen sectors at a snail's pace, then it does start to become more interesting. Naturally, once you have acquired the final of the engines, thus allowing you to jump across the galaxy in no time, then the game really starts to take off.

The combat system is very interesting simply by virtue of the high degree of customisability present therein. My own strategy is something of a long range fighter allowing me to soften up my targets before engaging them in close range combat. However, the fact that you are not forced to specialise in one or the other, or indeed in ammunition or energy based weapons for that matter, is a definite strength of the whole system.

I am interested to see how my recent upgrade to a Warship will affect my gameplay seeing as I've been tearing apart ships that size without too much difficulty beforehand. Granted, I've now become a substantially bigger target, but at least it does allow me to use the most powerful weapons in the game including one that is in a class of its own simply by virtue of its capacity to effectively remove everything from even an enemy starbase.

Score: 4

"Acceptable, but meritorious of no more, I'm afraid"

submission: Shadow Ball Z Episode 1

date: April 25, 2008

I feel that I have to be honest with you as regards my assessment of your flash rather than go for the lines of the archetypal "Vote 10 'cos this is da best thing eva" reviewer. I have been going through the reviews that you have received thus far for this entry, and a rather common thread found throughout their analysis was the similarity in plot between your work and that of Alvin Earthworm.

I see from your newly updated author commentary that this matter has already been brought to your attention, and that you are more or less indifferent thereto. However, I would advise you to pay heed to their comments; after a while, you are going to end up with a situation wherein people are going to get somewhat tired of seeing SMBZ in another name. Granted, those hard-core fans thereof who are despairing at the cancellation of their favourite series may latch onto you for a while, but trying to do something so similar to another artist's work will do you no favours.

I strongly fear that you may end up with the worst of both worlds where your work in concerned. On the one hand, you are guaranteed to annoy those people for whom sprite movies are the bane of their lives. Please note here that I am not among their number; were I so, I would not bother writing a review. On the other hand, you are probably going to run the risk of people simply dismissing this as a copy of SMBZ. To be fair, I would be rather hard pressed in my own right to ignore such criticism seeing as the plot is fundamentally the same, at least from what you have shown thus far.

The main differences seem to be relatively cosmetic in nature; the seven chaos emeralds have become the seven shadowballs. Mecha-Sonic has become Mecha Madness. Asides from that, even the partnership between Sonic and Shadow, with the corresponding deaths of the other characters, has been kept intact.

I can appreciate that you may want to do this simply for your own pleasure, however, if you fail to distinguish yourself in any way asides from someone who made an SMBZ clone, then you may find yourself in dire straits in the future.

Concerning the quality of the submission in itself, I must confess that I felt it to be somewhat slow on occasions. Yes, this is only the beginning, but there are ways to accomplish a sense of introduction without the need for relatively pointless exposition. Likewise, the scene in which Shadow and Sonic were running towards the pipe felt overly long, and is quite probably superfluous seeing as it adds nothing to the plot.

A good analogy for future reference can be found in the realm of writing of any serious nature. If a scene can be removed without doing any injury whatsoever to the plot or the argument, then not only can it be removed, it is expedient to do so.

I hope that you will bear that which I, and other reviewers, have said in mind to you concerning your work.