Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Convergence]

There are so many things I like about the game… the tutorial is great (brief, and to the point), shooting enemies is fun, the white/green colour contrast, the final battle with all your comrades.

However, I'm not sure about the story… it feels like I'm missing something. The dialogue at the beginning made it seem like there's a mystery to uncover – but in the end, it's just ‘kill the big bad guy’. The reason might as well be running out of time because of the game jam… but I wouldn't exactly call the ending ‘a satisfactory conclusion’. But the gameplay is pretty good nevertheless.

Edit:
Thank you for clarifying the story. I got that pandemic analogy and the importance of team effort in the end, but as for the rest… I think the main thing which undermines the "alone, hopeless" feel is the radio communication throughout the game. You're constantly talking to an authority figure who is comforting you – so you're feeling neither completely alone nor hopeless.

Imagine this: the main character doesn't have anyone to talk to, the radio is silent (in truth, you're too deep underground to get any signal). He fears he might be the last person on Earth. In hopes of leaving at least some legacy, he records his thoughts on tape (so you can basically keep saying the same things which he already says in the game).
He goes further, but there's no improvement, the enemies only get stronger. Then he runs into "the main boss" and thinks he's done for, but suddenly, reinforcements appear and you defeat it together.
At least that's how I'd go about it if I wanted to make the player feel lonely or depressed until the very end.

VascoF responds:

Thanks for the review, glad you liked it.

I guess my idea for the story didn't really end up being very clear. The idea was that you were supposed to feel alone and hopeless throughout most of the game (which originally was supposed to be longer to increase this feeling), and then at the end the player discovers that there were many teammates in the same situation, and you all came together in the end, and this would be an exciting, happy end. This was all supposed to be analogous to the pandemic situation we're facing now, it's kind of how I feel about it.

Edit: Thank you for the clarification, it's very helpful. I see what you mean; the feeling of loneliness/despair could be stronger. I wanted the radio to tell some parts of the story (and it's also a better analogy to what's happening now), but didn't have time to make a long enough game to space out the radio transmissions more, and have the player play through various days.

[Deal or no Deal]

Yes, it's all right – it's a simple game, after all. I probably wouldn't use bluish underlined links (yes/no and play again options), as they look like plain hyperlinks (which they are) and don't fit with the colour theme of the game, but that's just nitpicking.
However, I think the medals don't work (at least the first one doesn't).

Mocha2007 responds:

I changed the buttons to look like gold bars like the rest of the interface - do you think this looks better?

Thanks for playing :3

[Ms Maks and Adventure]

It's a good start and pretty impressive for your age. I wish I could make a game like this when I was seven.

Having said that, there's certainly quite space for improvement, if you want to work on it further. Some tips:
– (!) If you die, there is no way to restart the game
– (!) Falling off the platforms doesn't kill you (and you're then stuck below the platforms)
– (!) Reaching the final door doesn't do anything (you don't win the game, and you don't move to a potential next level)
– As of right now, the game is pretty short
– The game title icon has nothing to do with the game itself
– The 'Noooooo!' sound may become annoying if you play for a long time
– I wouldn't mix different art styles in the same game (i.e. the photo and cartoonish sprites)
– Don't start the game with the player already bouncing on the trampoline; it's distracting
– The coin and heart image have white borders (use png image format with transparency)
– If there's an icon, you don't have to describe what it is (the numbers are enough)

Again, for you age, this game is quite good, and even though it's not exactly best, it's at least a start – and your future projects will be better, because now you have some experience. Good luck!

[Kartoon]

It's very good, especially presentation-wise (with the backgrounds, trail effects, nice music, turning animations of the driver etc.).
You don't have to be very skilled to win – I kept bumping into everything and still finished with a lot of time left. I'd hope this would only be the first level, and the following ones will be more difficult (the track could include obstacles, or some collectibles, pitfalls to jump over etc.). But since one level is all you get, the game overall felt a bit slow.

[Black Walk]

Yeah, that happens every time I go for a walk. I keep thinking, ‘What if I poked my eyes out?’
Honestly, it's an interesting (and weird) idea, but I kept wondering what will happen next and the ending was unexpected and quite pleasant.
When you pull your heart out, the background goes black which makes it impossible to read the text if you didn't read it before (so it should probably turn white).
Also, your journey should probably be a bit longer and have more obstacles, so it's less of a walking simulator and more of a platformer. All in all, for ‘a tiny idea’, it's pretty good.

[Barghest]

I like it! A nice simple game which gets more challenging over time. Just when I thought the gameplay is getting a bit stale, the enemies started exploding.

Just a little complaint – you can see the ghosts briefly flashing on the screen frequently. I don't know if you're reusing the same objects and snapping them to position, however, whatever is the case, I'd turn their visibility off when you're moving them across the screen. It can be confusing.
Also, once you die, the score number isn't centered on the screen unlike everything else (which is quite noticeable if the score is a single digit).

And there's a bug – if you pause the game with your sword unsheathed, the sword stays where it was even after you unpause the game. Although that's almost a feature – because you can leave your sword at a strategic position, and only focus on dodging while your sword destroys enemies far away from you.

WondO responds:

Yeah the weird flashing when they spawn was a bug i could not fix when i was making the game like 2 years ago, i didn't know the pause one tho, thats like melee's advanced tech.

i wanted some more varied ways for enemies to come up but i really could not figure out how to do that kind of stuff, my abilities were limited then and sadly even more now atm.

also if you didn't notice, the trail gets longer the more points you get, thats probably my favorite detail in the game

[Project sa MADS]

It's a reasonably good game, pretty challenging.

Although that one-hit instant kill quite annoys me. The enemies are fast, and even though you have a vague idea of what exactly killed you, you don't know for certain because the game immediately transitions to a Game Over screen – which you can't confirm to start a new game (!).
I'd show your ship exploding, just so you have a few more moments to notice what happened.
I don't know what's the point of even having levels when you can't restart a level and always start the game from the beginning. I don't know how long the game is, but what about three lives or restarting the game at the beginning of a level?

Also, for first time players, parts of the background might look like enemy missiles (especially the largest red star at the right).

Don't get me wrong; it's a good game… just being stuck with Game Over screen after the very first mistake may be frustrating.
Welcome to Newgrounds, by the way!

[Corona Dodge v2]

It's well made, with nice UI and effects – and I certainly appreciate the viruses don't move along straight lines which makes it less predictable. But all in all, it's also very repetitive; i.e. the gameplay when you start the game is exactly the same as the gameplay after one minute.

The trajectory of the viruses also doesn't even initially incline towards your position, so there can be long periods of time in which you sit in the middle and do nothing. I usually lost because I became complacent after twenty seconds of doing nothing, and then I got one-shotted by a fast-moving virus.
I'm not saying they should all be aimed at you (as that would make the game impossible), but consider slightly (or by a random percentage) tilting their initial trajectory towards your position.

It's a good game to play for a couple of minutes, but there's not a lot of reasons to keep playing for a higher score. Perhaps consider introducing new things later on, or add medals/scoreboard to attract more players and make them compete with each other: https://www.newgrounds.io/

QuanDiep responds:

Thanks for the feed back!!!
Good news!! I just fixed it! Try it out!