Coop's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[American 9-Ball Pool]

Good game

I like the medals that you can win for this - I've got a few and hope to win a lot more over the next few weeks. Much like 8-Ball pool, I can play 9 Ball to my heart's content.

Yes, the game is based well on skill and I seem a lot better with one of these under my control than a proper pool table. The heartbeat is annoying as usual and not being able to remove that feature from the sound, without removing the sound of the balls and cues is a little bit of a peeve for me.

Trying to get to the 90,000 point mark on the time challenges is proving a bit of a bother, but I feel that I can get there, with a little more practice and the guiding hand of lady luck.

I wish that you'd take the time to draw little caricatures for the opponents that you can face on the table, as I feel that it would give us something else to look at and a little fun between frames, as you play your way to the top of the pub scene.

[Review Request Club]

NipponMonkey responds:

Thanks for the review.

You can turn the heartbeat sound off. It's a little hidden but if you go from the start menu:
[Start Menu]->[Top Scores, Stats & Settings]->[Sound Options]

Then you can turn off "Play heartbeat sound on key shots".

This option is remembered, so when you come back to play again you won't have to turn off the heartbeats again.

I'd love to add caricatures of the players, I'm not a great artist though, if I can find someone to do them for a good price, then I'll add them...

[GTFTN - Lightning]

Decent information

I think that it was a good idea to add the volume control to this piece, as it can show off a nice little addition - this allows people to substitute their own music, or just dampen down the volume, if they feel like it.

With the information on screen, you've done a good job of presenting the piece and overall, the whole presentation is very well done. I would stress one issue however and that is that you seem to have neglected how a book works - you turn the pages from right to left, so conventionally, a "next page" button would be on the right of the screen, with the corresponding "previous page" button would lurk on the left, as if you were turning the pages of a book, magazine or newspaper.

Mind you, if that's the only fault I can find in the tutorial, then you've not done that bad a job and those that you're assisting should be very satisfied with the results.

[Review Request Club]

[Plimpton's Video Falconry]

You even got the sounds right!

Wow, what a fun little game. I can imagine myself having spent hours sat in front of the TV, during my formative years, slowly coming to grips with the finer points of falconry.

The way you've made it and thrown the detailed lampoon on a history in there as well just makes me want to clap you guys on the back, for putting so much effort into writing the piece, before and during the development of the game itself.

While relatively simplistic, I was surprised by the fact that the bird of choice appears to be a NASCAR driver - only turning one direction. This came to be quite a challenge when you control the bird's movements and oversteer on various targets.

I'm going to have to spend some time on here to put this all through the paces properly, because I think I'm capable of beating the game and having a lot of fun. Why didn't you give us a choice of birds? There are plenty of great birds of prey to use, from the tiny, agile Merlin, all the way to the Golden and Bald eagles. That could have given the game a lot more detail (though possibly too much for a 1970s / 1980s title, such as this one.)

[Review Request Club]

TomFulp responds:

It is interesting how they chose to implement a single "Yaw" button, vs multidirectional options in the original game. I've heard rumors of a Golden Eagle being available though!

[Barca Vs Bieber]

Not a bad game

Interesting that you'd choose to launch a game featuring Barcelona on a day when they are attempting to become kings of Europe against Man. Utd. I wonder what you'd have made of the reds in a game like this - Rooney knuckling along like a Neanderthal / Gorilla and Jarr-Jarr Ferdinand in the centre of defence.

I like the way that the game handles, though I am a little confused by one of the levels, when Bieber is in his car, driving all over the pitch and I have a real problem getting out of his way. I gather that you're supposed to kick the bombs back at him, but it doesn't seem that they do much damage and with a time limit, that seems like it's going to take a while to get there.

Still, decent graphics and sounds make up for it and I think that I'll certainly have to come back at some point and check this game out in all the glory again later on.

[Review Request Club]

[Halo series Quiz extensde]

Bare bones

Wow, this is a very bare skeleton of a game that needs a lot of work, to bring it up to scratch.

Let's start with the basics - no-one likes seeing a huge white empty space of a layout, so why not consider throwing in some decent Halo pictures and having the quiz question over that part, with the answers in a sort of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" layout at the bottom of shot?

You could do with some music - head to the Audio Portal and sort yourself some Halo-themed music out. There is plenty and you're capable of making buttons, so add a mute button, while you're there.

When it comes to progressing through the levels, you need to add in "cut off" points, so that people don't get bored and quit playing, before they've seen all that the game has to offer. After 4-5 questions, depending on how long the quiz is, they could do with a breather and a fail-safe, so that you don't have to get annoyed, by clicking through again and again, because you're OCD about finishing the quiz.

I answered the question about the identity of the flood and that did catch me out there - a red block seems to fall from the flood, as you answer, which is disconcerting, as I thought I'd lost a life. If I can't see the reason that it's there, fine, but if it's not supposed to be there, you might wish to do something about it, lest someone else fall into that trap.

[Review Request Club]

Suprememessage responds:

The red block was actually meant to distract you.

[Black and White Mahjong 2]

Not bad

I think that from the traditional games of this sort of Mahjong solitare that I've played, this is the most infuriating - you just seem to make it even harder, by making it that you can't select like coloured tiles together - only in pairs of black and white.

Still, that aside, you've got a very functional little game. Yes, it could benefit from some sort of "Chinese philosophical plot", where the player seeks enlightenment, as he climbs to the top of a mountain to meet an ancient master, or something.

The idea of the levels would be better if you could level select once you've completed a board and go for "free play", if you like a certain layout, but it seems more like a progression, where you have to play through the less interesting and indeed challenging levels first.

Of course, this game is let down a little by the fact that you've got such a small screen, thus the graphics could look better. This can only really be combated, by making the screen as big as possible and this may adversely affect the way that things work and the overall look of the game.

[Review Request Club]

[Dino Jeff Adventure 2]

Not bad

I think that it's a big improvement on last time, thought the controls still seem largely unresponsive. With the way that the gravity seems to work very slowly, the game is less of a challenge than it could be, though you lose out in other areas as well, because it becomes a little tedious, in places.

I think that the graphics have improved and to put us in a place of having a good game to look at, you may wish to consider a blurb at the start of the game, explaining why we have a dinosaur, with a jet pack, seemingly in a space / industrial environment, which has traps from the middle ages within. Continuity based, you're all over the place, but that's something that good writing can explain away.

More levels is the next order of business, since you're already in the NG Medals territory, so make good on your promises with these, so that people reward your hard work. I think the next step for Jeff would be some kind of weapon and mobile enemies, which he needs to shoot, possibly heading to the end of the "Chuk Rock" analogy, by giving him big nasty boss fights every now and again.

[Review Request Club]

[Eluder 1.0 Game]

Very difficult

Wow, the game is very detailed, but I found it incredibly hard to get to grips with. I like that you've put so much effort into it in making it a very detailed game, but there are issues that need to be addressed in later versions:

Building up a head of steam is something I like about the game - it's more natural than some of the other games of this ilk that we tend t see. However, you seem to have neglected the standing jump when standing next to a wall. If I'm pointing at the wall and press space, I can't jump, which is frustrating.

With the controls interface, you let go of the wall, by pressing space without a direction - mistiming the direction presses costs me dearly here, so I'd suggest that pressing something else will let you drop. Perhaps Space and down?

It was a shame that I couldn't get much further, as the game looks enjoyable. I would like to see it slightly easier, so that the casual player such as myself might get a little further. You did have a nicely detailed (and quite challenging) tutorial as well, so that made a difference to getting me integrated.

[Review Request Club]

[The Abusive Review Quiz]

Wow...

Okay, so I guess that some of the things in there we disagree on, but that might be that my opinions of helpful / unhelpful and those that are borderline abusive do kind of blend together under the circumstances.

That said, you've done a good job here - I'd personally suggest that you give people more of a breakdown of why they were right or wrong over each review, thus making it more of a public service announcement than a game, but I still think it would get the message across.

Perhaps you'd like to discuss with me via PM about the specific answers - hell, I may be a Review Moderator, but on balance, there are times when the mods themselves disagree over whether a review is abusive, useless or even helpful, while some people would ban, others would merely delete the review in question, so it is up for interpretation.

I particularly like the new "Endless Handbag" remix that accompanies this game, though the option to have vanilla Endless Handbag should be there.

[Review Request Club]

Hacsev responds:

I'll be sure to contact you once I decide to make a second one. At first, I was going to give an explanation of why it was/wasn't abusive, but I had no time for that, I'll add it to the second one, no doubt on that.

The song at first was the Endless Handbag loop, but I figured I have been using it too much on my flashes, so I chose the next best thing!

[Darts Party]

Not the best, really

I think that the playing interface was kind of unfair to human players, as it puts far too much of an emphasis on a quick shot, even as an amateur. The fact that within a few passes of the accuracy gauge, the target starts to wander off from where you were aiming. This makes the game far too much of a challenge, particularly when you step aside to calculate what you need for an out.

The board is out of line - if you get over the border to the right-hand beds, you'll still be scored for the bed one position to the left. This really needs to be addressed, as I've clearly hit a treble twenty and been scored 3, which is more than a little harsh.

I can see this becoming a popular and good game, it just needs tidying up a little.

[Review Request Club]