Vert's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[:the game:]

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... really, really funny stuff. I think you nailed down the funny and really hit the sweet spot, if you know what I mean. I'm also impressed with the (relative) depth of some of the humour, aka, they weren't all just "through away" jokes. But let's get to the details:

- The overall graphical quality isn't bad, but it's not brilhant either. I mean, the animations were pretty slick and everything was polished as hell, but the drawings themselves weren't very complicated / dificult to draw or detailed. On the other hand, maybe that's part of the message of the game, so I shouldn't be so harsh on this aspect.

- Music was pretty much spot-on, it fit the game perfectly! The sound effects were also pretty good (kudos for the scream), but the voice acting could have been slightly better. I think that a more "mature" sounding voice would have fit the game more.

- Gameplay... well, the games all worked well and are pretty fun to play.

- Humour wise, that was excellent. As said in the start, the humour here is both really funny and has quite a bit of depth, morew than I'd expect from a flash animation. In particular, democracy the game and prisoner's dillema the game show an impressive amount of (random) knowledge.

You managed to combine slapstick with highbrow with completly random and non-sequitur. That's something that only a few (and when I say a few, I really mean it!) comedians have ever managed to pull sucesfully. In fact, the closest act I can think of is no less a group than the Python crew!

So, overall, this is just a dammed fine game. It's funny, (slightly) provocative, has depth, satirical and very polished, with a few things that could have been improved. I'm hoping a front page happens soon, because it certainly deserves it! Cheers and kudos!

Nutcasenightmare responds:

Thank you so much for liking it, and of course, putting the time an effort into a very comprehensive and helpful review! (And my reply, in comparison, is only two lines long.)

[Draw-Play 3]

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... I've always been a fan of the Draw-Play series, and this final instalment is worthy of carrying the name. It is, quite simply, fun. And I really liked the way you've made the levels into more action oriented ones too. Let me get detailed:

- Graphicly, the game still has that minimilistical style that's both inevitable, but somewhat dispointing. There are one or two graphical improvements, but the series finale could have used more detailed and interesting graphics.

That's not to say that it's bad, on the contrary, I like the minimilistic black and white style you use, but it could have used more details and / or variety. Still, the animation is fluid and since the art style is very clean, it dosen't get in the way of the gameplay, so it's not a big complaint. Oh, and the overall polish and presentation is great!

- Nice choice of music, as always. Ever since the very first Draw-Play, you've managed to select excepcionally well the background music, that's both interesting and that dosen't become boring after a few repetitions. The spearse sounds effects were adequate too.

- Gameplay, I think that you nailed the spot on this version. Mainly because of two things, the way the action plays out with this game, allowing you to simultaneously draw and move, and the somewhat lack of precision (because you're moving the character), puzzles don't work out so well as more action oriented levels do. And the levels themselves where very creative and interesting.

Because of this, this version is extremely fun to play. I felt that the dificulty curve was excelent and the challenge level was reasonable (although easier than previous versions).

The gameplay mechanics of drawing and erasing, however, was a little off. Most of the time, drawing and erasing is easy and occures immediatly, but whenever you try to do this <near> the no-draw zones, it can be a bit problematic sometimes. It's no big issue, but it can be a bit irritating.

- Loved the humourous touches (i.e., some levels and the unlockables) that you've put! They made the game even more fun and were a logical addition to the series. I also liked the "multiple paths" levels select design you put in.

So, overall, this is a fine way to end a fine series. You've added one logical gameplay mechanic, changed the overall feel of the levels and made things as polished as before. The only place I think this game could have been better was the graphical departments, and even then not by much. Cheers and kudos for a great game!

EggysGames responds:

Well I guess we could always argue on the graphics, but I'm not a huge artist hehe.

I'm glad you liked the music, a lot of people hate it. To be honest I was a little unsure for this number 3 but found nothing else that really suited (hmm what does suit a drawing game? :P)

I always try add humour to keep things interesting, I just can't help myself, and I'm glad when people notice my little fun jokes :D

Thanks for the great review

- EGGG

[Look out, Mr Johnson!]

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... this game has some pretty good mechnics, pretty well executed too, but is let down somewhat by the unforgiving nature of certain jumps and actions. Let me explain.

You've taken a not-exactly original game mechanic (I'm pretty certain I've seen the ideia of controling your PC via indirect methods using a mouse before) that can be quite fun and you've implemented it very well. The game is quite responsive to your actions, even if the placement of the mouse can be a bit finniky (a few times, when I wanted him to jump, he would change directions and vice-versa).

Still, the game plays out well and I'm quite impressed with the graphical level of the game. You've implemented things with quite a unique (and interesting!) visual style that's also quite funny (the ghost animations were particulary detailed and great looking!). It, overall, just looks right and you deserve major credit for pulling this aspect so well.

The secrets were also a nice touch, as well as being quite well made and original, and really made you want to "catch em all". This sort of extra helps elevate the game quite a bit.

In terms of sounds, the voice samples were ok, if a little repetitive, as were the music. I'll be honest, neither of them were outstading, but neither were they bad. I think the best adjective here is adequate.

However, the biggest problem I had with the game is that you've put in one too many unforgiving jumps and, sometimes, it's not quite clear what you can cannot interact with, nor how exactly you can get throught an obstacle.

My major hang-up, indeed, I gave up after a few deaths, was the sequence in the castle where you batter a door, have to make a too-precise jump, followed by smaller jump, followed by two sets of spikes. The spikes, the second group in particular, were just too tought to jump over consistently. I'd make things a little easier next time, so that the game dosen't become so frustating.

So, overall, this is polished, well made game (specially the graphics!), with interesting elements and quite fun to play, but with a little too unforgiving nature in some areas and lack of clear "can / cannot" interact for the ghost (despite the cogs that appear). Still, it's quite good, so kudos!

[OENGUS]

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... not bad, but it could use more polish and variety. I mean, the gameplay itself, although extremely simple and not very original, wasn't bad at all. I think you got the speed level of the enemies and of the "hero" pretty much spot on, being neither too fast (in which case the game would become very dificult), nor too slow (which would make it dull and easy).

But the game lacks a little something. There should be more diversity in the "enemies" and powerups, I think, otherwise, although interesting, it will become somewhat repetitve (and given the lack of originality of the game, it really needs something to spice it up!). The overall presentation was also a bit flat and could use a bit more polish.

In the end, this isn't a bad game, just needs more attention and more diversity.

[Mastermind: World Conqueror]

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... well, above all, this game shows how important the baisc design of a game is. Because if there's one aspect that really shines in this game, it's the design. The key word is variety and that's because I think you found a great balance of resource management, strategic planning and "real time combat", in a way that makes the game so dammed fun and interesting. Because, ultimatly, had the design been weak, all the bells and whistles in the world wouldn't have saved the game. But let's get detailed:

- Very detailed drawings all round, plus some pretty slick animation. Although it is very noticeable that you used the same basic molds for all the cut scenes (i.e., the mooks are always the same, it's only the "details" like the backgrounds and heads that change), there was no way you could have achieved the level of quality found in the animations and drawings otherwise, without making the game about five times as big and requiring five times the effort.
The base surroundings, while a little sparse, are probably intentionaly done so, otherwise the battles might get confusing, right? In any case, the soldiers and mooks more than make up for that.
Oh, and the overall character design was awesome! You managed to take the basic cliches of "heroes vs villains" and really make them your own, while adding a couple of original guys here and there (loved the Tudor!).

- Excelent and non-tiring music (it's dificult to make a song that dosen't sound repetitive after a hearing it loop a few times) and excepcional voice acting. It's true that some voices sound a little too much the same, but that dosen't make them any less compelling. Again, with only a few lines for each character (a sad necessity of using Flash), you still managed to make them shine and seem unique, a fantastic acomplishment.

- Challenging, rewarding and fun! Apart from other game design aspects (as per above), this game feels challenging (even if it isn't very hard) and, combined with the progressive manner in which missions (and other stuff) are unlokced, makes it feel very rewarding. The mission design is great, by the way, couldn't think of anything else a true mastermind might want to do, except (maybe) unleash a financial meltdown!
Above all, the game is FUN (yep, in all caps!). And, again, it's all down to the great, rewarding game design. It's clear that you obviously thought very carefully about how things were going to work and the effort payed off magnificiently.

There's plenty of other things I could congratulate you on, such as the all the clever NG references, the truely unexpected and just awesome ending, the overall polish the game has... but then I'd end up writing something akin to a thesis. So, instead, I'll end with a hearty thank you, and offer a few sugestions of how I think the game could be improved:
- The afforementioned financial meltdown mission.
- A bug occurs when I start a new game now (after I've finished), where an attack starts in the tutorial before it should and never stops (I'm using Firefox and flash 9).
- Someway to fire / kill your #2 henchmen would be nice, so as to make it easier to see all the possible #2's.
- Making the end game slightly more challenging. Moon Base + Flamethrowers makes things a little to easy...

In the end, all that's left for me to do is write that you deserve massive cheers and kudos for such a fantastic game!

[I wish I were the Moon]

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... <english translation below> Me gusto mucho este juego, es muy inteligente y conmovedor. Curiosamente, también es simple, solamente eso no lo hace peor.

En términos de gráficos, esto son simples, pero todavía consigue llevar absolutamente un poco de la emoción. ¡De hecho, pienso que este toque miniminalista mejora realmente la película! ¡La interface es buena, usando el mecanismo de una foto para transferir a la gente, fue muy inteligente!

¡También, Italo Calvino es grandes escritor y es agradable considerar que el todavía puede inspirar a la gente hoy en dia! Le recomiendo leer su libro de ensayos: Porqué debemos leer las obras clásicas.

Total, ésta es una gran idea que fue ejecutada muy bien. ¡Aclamaciones y alabanzas por hacer un juego tan agradable!

I liked this game alot, it is very clever and heartwarming. Curiously simple too, but that dosen't make it any less good.

In terms of graphics, it is very simply drawn, but still manages to convey quite a bit of emotion. In fact, I think that this minimilistic touch actually improves the movie! The interface was great, using a photo mechanism to transfer the people was very clever!

Also, Italo Calvino is a great writer and it's nice to see that he can still inspire people to this day! I recommend you read his book of essays: Why we should read the classics.

Overall, this was a great idea that was very well executed. Cheers and kudos for making such an enjoyable game!

[Megaman vs Ghosts&Goblins]

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... since I never got around to reviewing these games when they first came out, I decided to do so now. And after so many years (and countless playthroughs) I still feel that both your "Megaman vs" games are among the best flash games ever made. And for some very simple (and good) reasons:

- The controls for both games are extremely well done, being very responsive and offering just the right amount of control of megaman.

- The level of dificulty is a bit on the easy side, but feels very rewarding and challenging at the same time. And the games themselves are pretty dammed fun!

- The level design is pretty creative and offers a nice amount of variety. Before you can even begin to tire of one type of design (and challenges!), the game changes things.

- The soundtrack of both games are really good. It's a shame that OCRemix decided to remove them from their site (although I understand why they did it), because I feel they fit the games really well.

- The overall level of polish and presentation of the games is great.

- The sprite ripping and animation is pretty much perfect.

- The replay factor, because of the secret weapons, is just head and shoulders above most other flash games. And even without them, I'd still probably go play them now and then.

So, overall, they're both really polished, fun games that really show off your flash skills. It's quite dificult to find any significant flaws to them or to make sugestions on how to improve them. I'll always hope for a Megaman vs Contra game, even thougth the sprites from the games aren't all that compatible.

Cheers and kudos for the excelent games!

[Pico: Ace Attorney]

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... very, very well executed. You know, after so many Phoenix Wright parodies, I was wondering when someone would actually try to implement the game system in a flash game and you've done a very good job! Added to the fact that you've pulled this off during Pico day and you deserve extra kudos. But let's get to the details:

The game system was very, very well implemented. It's a shame that you couldn't pull of the best part of the system, the whole "objection" part, but it's quite understandble as it's pobably the hardest part of the game to do. The rest was pretty much flawless (for a flash game) and this is by far the best aspect of the game. Major kudos for managing to code everything so well.

The graphics were decent and adequate, but sometimes lacked a bit of polish (the final animation comes to mind). The sound aspect, on the other hand, was quite poor. The music (I'm using flash 8, by the way), despite being reasonable for a game like this, would finish and not begin again, leaving the rest of the game silent. The sound effects, on the other hand, were spot on if sparse.

The story was pretty good. I'm mean, it's no pulitzer, but it was reasonably interesting, albite short. I realise that it's pretty hard to make something corehent and interesting for a flash game of this sort, but maybe a bit more caracther development could have been welcome. The flow of the game / sotry was spot on, on the other hand.

So, 'grats on such a fine game. You pulled off a somewhat tricky game with a good interface and, really, all the game needed was a bit more length and polish. Cheers and kudos!

burningice579 responds:

It means a lot, coming from you. Yeah, I didn't really pay much attentionon the sound and sound quality, but I'll fix the sound looping right away, but I might as well find a better sound./song... you think? Well, anyway, I am really very happy you liked it. I promise to do much better in my future works. Thanks a lot =D

[Unicorn Pong]

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... you readily admit that the code isn`t yours, which means the maximum amount of effort you had was to draw / photograph or find the images used and choose a sound effect. Which means no effort at all. So I`m asking you to please not submit poorly made, boring pong game which took (almost) no effort from your part in the future. If you really want to make a pong game, at least try to be creative.

[Trick-or-Treat Adventure!]

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... I'll be brief, but you guys have produced your best game yet! It's simply amazing, chock full of humour and pop references (including the all important lucasarts classics, i.e., hamster in the microwave!), with excelent and detailed sprites (it must have taken poxpower forever to make them all). And it's really, really big too! So big, in fact, that I haven't even completed it yet! I could go on, how the music was pretty good (and complemented the game perfectly), how I really laughed, how twisted the game is, how etc... In fact, I could probably write quite a few paragraphs of praise! But I'm feeling a bit lazy right now, after all that adventuring...

So, in the end, all I can really say is a heartfelt thank you, for making such a great game! You guys deserve massive kudos and cheers for it!