Ralix's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hole In One : Rage Fest]

I think the best rage games are games with perfect controls, with perhaps slightly unfair challenge (e.g. ‘Cat Mario’), or just overall very difficult (e.g. ‘Celeste’ or Hollow Knight's ‘Path of Pain’). You might get some inspiration from an old free game ‘A Little Eggy That Could’ (https://youtu.be/zqGCIvG67rg) in which you're an egg, with very precise controls, but it's easy to fall and break, and the platforming challenges get quite hard and eventually, you're flying all over the place.

I had to retry this game more than I could count, but its difficulty stems from the very simple fact that it's very easy to overshoot or undershoot a platform because you can't in any way change your direction or speed mid-air. Otherwise, the game is quite fun. If you take it slowly and carefully, the obstacle course isn't even that difficult – you're just gradually more and more frustrated by the controls.
Perhaps that's the effect you were going for; I'd personally prefer better manoeuvrability which would come with a more difficult platforming challenge (narrow ledges, falling platforms, spikes, fans, invisible platforms…).

MuziksPH responds:

Thats a great idea but i have to make a seperate game for that mechanics

[Space Cat: The Search For Food]

I think the game is quite slow in the beginning, i.e. it's very simple to avoid the rocks and collect all fish, but then it rapidly gets faster and more difficult, and I'd say eventually you get to a point when it might not be possible to *both* avoid all rocks and collect all food onscreen. I died after letting too much food pass by in the span of ~2 seconds, because the food was also being somewhat blocked by rocks.
I don't know the solution to this, but from my point of view, the slow build-up is the more important problem (it's common in arcades to get to the 'humanely impossible' bit, but the game should be fun and engaging from the beginning). You could try adding a little more variety, perhaps powerups; just to give the player something more to do. For example temporarily slowed-down time, a shield (which you can use to crash through rocks), a magnet for nearby collectibles, etc.
All in all, getting and maintaining a high multiplier is more important for your score than being able to last for a long time – but that's perhaps a good thing.

popcar1 responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Your review was very valuable! I'll try making it faster at the start and accommodate for it by slowing down the rate of change. I realize the game eventually becomes impossible but I can't think of a better alternative that isn't a timer. If a round isn't 1-2 minutes long people would just get bored fairly quickly.

[3d cube platformer wow]

It's nice to see a new kind of content from you.
(Does it mean 3D Kim Possible games are coming? I'm scared.)

The cube is very manoeuvrable which makes it possible to skip parts of the obstacle course – which is good, because the last section is difficult and you're going to be repeating the beginning a lot.
I think it really should be possible to rotate the camera (or do it manually in 90° steps) so that you always go *forward*. Especially jumping back when you have no idea what's there is a recipe for failure.
Other than that, shadows would be very useful, too, because in platformers they tell you where you'll eventually land.

ZabuJard responds:

3D KIM! ITS GOTTA COME thanks for review in seriousness <3 i will add shadows to next one soon! and maybe fix camrea as well X_X

[EigenVis]

It's a great game.
I've been meaning to ask about the technical aspects of this game, but then I saw the answer is provided in the comments (and in fact, on the screen the entire time). From the standpoint of a CG student, that's impressive, and a pretty original puzzle game.
I'd reorder some of the later levels based on their difficulty – I think both symmetric and singular levels are easier than those who came right before (diagonal and rotational, I believe).

When writing this review immediately after finishing the game, I caught myself confused as to why pressing right arrow doesn't move the I-cursor to the left, so thanks for that. In fact, you should probably load an FPS game right after the finale, just so the player can see how dizzy they really are.

Thank you for leaving the grey guides in the game, they were very helpful especially in the "rotational" levels when I started paying attention and noticed how the cursor moves.
I'm glad there was nothing like a timer or blocks which you can only touch once, although if you wanted to add extra-challenging levels one day, those would certainly be ideas to consider.

I thought I'd have a hard time deciding between 4 and 5 stars, but then again, I don't see a way how you could improve this further (perhaps consider adding Newgrounds medals, if you can) – and the very end of the finale was just perfect.

[Dark Maze]

Overall, it's a nice game. And I like the gamepad and fullscreen support.

– Starting a level is quite underwhelming. Most of the screen is black, and you see only very little. Especially for people starting the game for the first time, it might be off-putting. If you get hit, you'll see essentially nothing.
(Perhaps add a mid-layer of 50% grey, or a transition, so there's bad visibility, but at least some visibility? Perhaps the walls could be seen in the grey circular area, but not enemies.)
– I'd play the "wind" noise only when the player is actually pretty close (that way, it could also warn you about enemies)
– Being hit teleports you back to a safe zone. Sometimes this can be confusing (especially if you can't see well). I'd honestly prefer temporary invincibility instead.
– Using items to help you is a great idea. E.g. the gas canister in one of the levels. The first time, I thought it's only meant to illuminate the level (and waited too long, until it extinguished itself), but it actually protects you. It probably should have some sort of timer onscreen when you activate it.

I understand limited visibility is an important part of this game, but I feel the game was sometimes tedious – e.g. in every level until you find the first two or so matches. And being reduced to almost-death means you have almost no time to react to incoming enemies, so you'll probably die anyway.
Anyway, those are my two cents. I definitely liked it, though, for the most part.

[show]

It's a great game. The style (music, film grain etc.) in particular makes it impressive.

[Deep Dark Cave]

I don't know.
I like the art style and colour palette, the idea of travelling through a dark cave…
But after a while, the constant flashes started to annoy me (it's hard to watch), and when the giant flying block killed me I lost interest because I'd have to go through the entire game again (and possibly many more times).

For the latter, consider adding checkpoints. Please. E.g. a torch you can ignite.

For the former… I'd recommend you to look at the gameplay of 'Candleman', it's a game with a similar idea about a platformer with limited light. You might find it useful as a source of inspiration (even though it's 3D).
https://youtu.be/HpIihc3devs
Key thing:
– You're never in a *complete* darkness, just bad visibility. So you're not necessarily forced to turn on the light just to move around. (your previous path is even marked by molten wax)
Only when you need to be precise in avoiding gaps or see further.

I think it'd work for your game as well – make the lighter limited (perhaps add a collectable refill), but make your close surroundings visible even in the dark (e.g. dark grey). A simple way to limit to "close surroundings" might be with a black png image mask with a transparent hole in the middle enabled/disabled in the foreground.
And to make it easier to watch, I'd try to make the dark→light transition gradual, instead of just flashy on/off.

HiNiceToMeetYou responds:

Thanks for the feedback, i'll be sure to take this advice on the next version of the game.

[A TRUE HERO TEST BATTLE Alpha V 0.0.1]

The animations are incredible and look very natural.

The rest of the game… I mainly had a hard time trying to figure out how to damage the enemy without being hit yourself. He has a longer range, a vaster health pool and hits you almost every time you come close. It might be better if the enemy followed a set pattern which left you an opening in which you can safely damage him. When he's unpredictable, you have to rely on luck or cheesy tactics, which is frustrating.

Shooting from your weapon also doesn't seem to do anything. And you can still move around and jump after your health falls under zero, with no way to restart the game.

And currently, since it's still in development, the environment around the characters sucks.

It looks promising (especially the fluent animations), but so far the game isn't really enjoyable.

batitono responds:

Thanks for commenting!
I will consider everything.