nacritico's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fixation]

*THIS COMMENT IS PROLLY GOING TO BE FULL OF SPOILERS, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED*
TCOM = The Company of Myself
FXT = Fixation

General:

My hopes were quite low for this game, I was sure it was going to be one lousy prequel to a somehow over-estimated game... don't get me wrong, TCOM is beautiful, but people over-estimate it.

I'm glad to see I was wrong.

Even without being a prequel to TCOM, FXT has merits of it's own.
The idea of using tabbaco-smoke to get over your mental-problems was great. I've to agree with some other reviewers that the mechanics were kind of sloppy from time to time, but I like the idea.
It has great graphics and good music.

Last but not least, the more "realistic tone" of this game makes it actually more coherent than TCOM. This game is not a dream nor reality, is something in the middle, and being on the twilight is awesome. Makes the experience even more deeper.

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Gameplay:

It was good, most complains I've about gameplay have been addressed by other people (like the requirement to explain things).

I've to say I LOVED the meadow chapter gameplay-wise. You get a great the feeling of "cooperation" from it, which makes the connections with TCOM greater. (it shows Katherine feels the same way towards Jim as Jim describes in TCOM).

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Plot:

I usually have a saying: "no matter how CRAPPY an story is, the MOST important thing is the story-telling", and use as example things I love but have crappy stories like "Dragon Ball Z" or "Kingdom Hearts".

For most of the part, you follow that rule. You tell a very simple story (girl meets boy, boy makes her feel special, she falls in love, shrink dies), but it turns out to be GREATLY interesting.

What you really, REALLY need to work on is the ending.
"TCOM had a great ending (story-wise) but the story-telling was awful, making it uncanny.
You should have smoothed a little the translation between "crazy-land" and "reality". It feels really ass-pulled.
FXT not only had a crappy ending (you didn't explain HOW Katherine died, which is important considering SHE was the main character), but the whole ending feels unsatisfactory (you don't even explain how Jack received the news... he is just there, with convenient amnesia).
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All and all good game, you kept me more than 1 hour in a row playing a Flash Game, something that never happens.

4/5

FreeAsANerd responds:

There's a little more to the ending than what you've described, but I can't really say whether or not that's what made it unsatisfying for you. Glad you enjoyed most of the other parts, though, and thanks a bunch for such an in-depth review!

[The Perfect Fighter]

Not bad...

While the SCORE may sound unfair, I've my reasons to do so (which I'll explain further).
I know a lot of Newground users don't like people who think different than them, and since this got in daily 3rd place, I'm very likely to get "useless" in my review for doing some Constructive-Criticism. (which is actually a lot more useful than "lol, gr8 game!" or "I luv it!")

º Sprites:
Re-texturing characters from street fighter 4 is not really bad, since you also changed their attacks. (there is no difference from this and editing sprites)
The biggest issue here is that they look weird in the background and the select screen.
You should edit the backgrounds in order to make them look better.

Also, you should try editing "Ken"'s sprites that appear in the "tutorial" screen. There is a lot of "noise" around him.

º Gameplay:
While the game is not bad, it's really slow. You probably played a lot of MVC or KOF, so you should be aware that dynamic is the basis of every fighting game.
The code is very good, but the fights are not swift enough.

º Sounds: Meh, the music was not interesting. The sound effects were not great. And some of them are very easy to associate with other games ("level 1!").
You should try to work on this a lot more.

ª Layout:
Both, the layout in the intro screen and in the battle look really, really bad. You should get someone to edit them for you.
Also, the mouse buttons are somehow unresponsive.

_____________________________________
__________________

Besides the things that appear above, the game was good.
It's not "a new version" it needs, but "a good polish", so to speak.
In my opinion, you should try to get some "artist" and "music composers" to help you.
There are a lot around the internet, and since this game was released, I guess a lot of them are willing to do it for free. =3

All and all, I hope you keep on making games.

[Escaping the Prison]

Good animation

Wow... That was the lamest thing I've ever seen. The animator must have gotten REALLY lazy or something. I mean honestly that was the probably the dumbest FAIL I've seen in this entire movie! So anyway, what do you think about the move so far? Enjoying it? It's taken quite a while, and as I'm typing this it has yet to be completed. I doubt you'll be able to read this far down unless you figure out a way to pause or do some other sneaky thing. Laaaammmeee!

[Alice is Dead - Ep 1]

Good game

General comment:
It was kind of short... in about 20 minutos, without any kind of walkthrough I could complete it...
On the other hand, this games are not though to be hell difficult, or abridge people could not play them.

GamePlay:
Everything you clicked had it's own text. It's not like those video-games which only says: "You can not do that", or "you can not use that".
It shows lots of works, and I liked it.

Story:
Well, the ending was obvious as HELL... maybe because I think too much XD.
In general, the atmosphere was great, and there was this lovely contrast beetwen innocence (the song and the wonderland theme) and pervesion (alice is dead).

I really liked it.

[Canabalt]

As simple as and great.

With this, you show that something must not be complex to be enjoyable.
The gameplay of this flash game is simple as hell, and yet very well done.
I hope more flash games were like this one.

No bugs, awesome pixel-graphics(very well done enviroment), excelent music, good "blur" effect...

This deserves a god-damn ten.

[Tankmen: Incursion]

It's amaizing...

But you should really hear people on this one.

Your game's graphics are awesome, in the same way your animations are awesome. And the general engine (collitions and stuff) is very well pulled off... but you've a great problem, and that is the camara.

When you are coding a camera, you should try to make the camera code "gentle":
Make it change of size or position only if there is an important change (such as the character moving), and it should be done swiftly.

That's your only mistake, and it was a shame, since your game could have been awesome.... how about you try fixing it, and reposting your game?

[Green Terror]

Good game

but far from perfect...
physics could really use some work.

For instance, the guys shouldn't loose arms or bodyparts unless they are hit by a fast ball. If they don't, they should just fall.

Characters should have better graphics (those sucks), and the game itself should be more challenging. (a limited amount of ammo is a good start)

Besides that, is not a bad.

[Super Mafia Land]

I'm dissapointed

JTMB02, by far, you're one of the most inspirationals coders I know.
Your works is most of time impressive... but this, it sucked.

The game was not only laggy and buggy, but it was also boring.
It fells like you were not able to make it as funny as MARIO BROS 2 was.

Is a shame, because graphics are nice, and the idea is pretty cool, but it's very baddly coded.

I've to say that today is a dark day for all the coders in the flash world.

[Andagel]

I think all this is shame

This game looks as if you have spend hours and hours of your life; is the first flash game I see with such an ammount of work behind, and yet, it sucks horribly.

Good grafics, complex scenarios, but the final product itself is bad, is so bad that playing it is not enjoyable.

I think that the problem in this case is the way the game is played. The actual gameplay is not good or active (you are stucked on a lame first person view, with the only ability to shoot), the dialog are shots, the camara view mode is pretty bad (and laggy) and the game is always the same.

The only thing I like of this game is that it gave me hopes that some flash games might have more elavoration in the future.

[Arachnophilia]

very good game

The game was both: very informative and very enterteining...
it was pretty well-though, easy to play and well done...
I really, really congratulate you!!..
the only problem is that the I.A of the spider (when you click a bug, and the spider moves by it self) starts to be a little bit messy when you have too much web, and it makes you loose some importants bugs. Besides that, I've no complains at all... great game!.