Coop's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[PoolMaster]

Difficult to control, but still enjoyable

Overall a good pool simulator, though there are one or two issues with the game itself, that must be addressed. The game itself is nice and I can get used to playing it after a frame or two.

I feel that the controls are set up wrong - why not aim the mouse pointer at where you're going to make contact with the ball, as opposed to where you're making contact with the white. Unless you move that about, you're going to hit it in exactly the same orientation on the ball anyway, with dead centre your default.

I couldn't see or work out how to change the striking point on the cue ball, which was a shame - this limits the mechanics of the game and ultimately lowers the power of the break, as I tend to play them with a lot of top spin.

The music is annoying and the button to remove it is very small - please make the interface more user friendly, as it will help you out. Similarly, sorting the mechanics out will benefit your game, as the cushions take too much out of the ball and committing a foul doesn't seem to have an effect on the game.

Finally, the cue power is lacking somewhat. Pulling the cue back as far as it will go leads to a very tame shot overall. I can hit the ball harder than that and I'm not the most powerful pool player ever to hit the baize.

I like this game, though i feel you can do more with it.

[Review Request Club]

[Mouse Maze:No Mouse 2.5]

Rather annoying, from start to finish

Working out how fast you're moving your mouse from one point to another , with only external references to work on is a good concept for a game, though you're not there yet. You need to first work on your presentation, with better drawing, a mute button to lose that stupid song and possibly more of a plot.

A more difficult level, with Night Vision might be an idea, with really narrow passageways, that you can only see using your NVGs, but for the rest of the level, you must stay invisible, would be a way to take this forward. I think that while I love mazes and I used to really enjoy the electric buzzer maze, where you had to take a metal ring from one end to the other, without buzzing yourself out of the game, I really can't stand these games, myself. Mazes aren't supposed to bite you, so why not have keyboard controls - that's even more difficult in the situation that you've presented us with, since we don't know how far it's moved by the degree of input - just those pesky cannon / cameras to chart our progress.

Glad to see that you closed the cheat loophole, but that does prevent me from reviewing too deep into the game, as I lack the manual dexterity and / or the patience for it, especially with that music.

[Review Request Club]

[Santa Quest]

More holes than Swiss Emmental

I think that this game needs a massive overhaul to be anywhere near competitive in the eyes of a contest such as The Games Factory 2's contests. Some of the fundamentals of the game are missing and procrastination has been your downfall, in this instance.

Had the game been equipped with a way to kill off the cannon and shut the door, there would have been a much better game in itself, so that Santa can progress to new levels, fending off the Santa traps and delivering the presents to the ungrateful little brats, who don't deserve presents.

The scores were completely broken, regardless of the fact that you can't get a global score board up - if you can get the score up in the first place, that's a good starter and from there, work on programming a better scoreboard for the next game.

The art needs some work, as do the controls - the bauble cursor is far too big and the shots fired by Santa are much too slow - you have no chance of aiming, as the projectiles follow strange orbits, especially if you keep dodging them in a non-repeating pattern. Some of the rockets should be able to take out the candy canes and should probably explode after a while, anyway, since that's the way they traditionally work. I'm all for a bit of realism here and there :)

Take this game as practice and move forward with your next ideas, showing us what you've learned.

[Review Request Club]

[Super Brick Duel]

Not the best

I think that you need to make the controls a lot more responsive, as otherwise the computer can beat you at lower difficulties, with ease. I like the way that the two games come together with brick breaker and pong, but you need to work harder to get the blend right.

Try having different coloured blocks and put the powerups in there at random positions - having them float down the board for the players to catch with the ball is ridiculous. Hit a certain block and get multiball, for example, which in a game like this could really work. The other interface thing I didn't like was the fact that you can kill yourself off by missing the ball by a fraction of an inch. Have the ball pass through the paddle on the way back past, otherwise stretching to reach it could be game over.

While I can see the entertainment value of 4Play, that's something that I can't really test as a single player / reviewer. Needing 4 friends to crowd around a single keyboard is nearly impossible, so getting 4 players on 4 different computers would save a lot of fighting, but would cause a programming headache, no doubt.

A mute button would be nice as well. That, or some sound effects for the balls bouncing off the paddles and then different sounds for the blocks etc.

[Review Request Club]

JPB responds:

Controls: are you sure your keyboard is working? :P I guess the speed of the paddles could be bigger
Blend of games/Powerups: I see what you mean, should've thought out the game more, I do happen to be slowly recoding the game (have in mind this probably wont ever see the light of the day), and am trying out other ways of implementing the powerups, I was thinking about making a slot machine for the powerups (a la sonic casino night zone)
Multiball: Why did I forget multiball!!!111!!!1!1!1 that would've been some epic chaotic fun
Mute button: there is one (below the scoreboard, I'm pretty sure you can also press M, I dont remenber if I put this in this game or in another)
4play/online: I looked into smartfox server, NOPE.jpg

Thanks for the review!

[Gravity Bob]

Nice game

A bit of a concept that I've seen done before and a little more basic, if I must say so - the gravity only reverses two directions, as opposed to 4 ways in certain gravity flip games that I've seen before, which, while making the gameplay and the programming harder, they also offer a lot more of a challenge.

I like that you've offered us a plot for this piece, though between levels, it seems absent, which was a shame - the start of the game built so much around there being black holes and this being a quest to get through as many of them as possible, to find the way to the end, so putting a little more in there, perhaps every other level, or even every five levels or so would have given you something much more to pass the time with and flesh the game out.

Nothing makes it stand alone, which is a shame, but the game is there and it is a reasonably accomplished work, of which I'd like to see more from you.

[Review Request Club]

ProfessorFlash responds:

Well from a coding point of view the gravity that would go 4 ways isn't any harder to do, but I felt the controls would get too complicated that way. With two side gravity I can use one button to change, with 4 ways, the changing gets little more complicated from the players perspective. So I didn't wanna tackle that problem with this game.

Thanks for the review, and you will see more from me next year :).

[William and Sly 2]

Fantastic!

Okay, so now I'm going to have to go back in time and finish William and Sly, but that's beside the point. This is a major graphical boost, compared to W&S, since everything looks smoother, the gameplay is sleeker, with the ability to double jump / fly being somewhat prevalent, after you've unlocked it.

Overall, I feel that with the loss of the darklings to divert or distract you in this game, it seems a lot easier to play now, with just the problems of remembering where all of the chests were that you spotted earlier in the game. Because it's only flashed up on screen and I've not run past it, apparently, it won't show up on the mini map, which seems odd. I can understand hiding some of the journal pages, which are in the more difficult to reach locations, but hiding a chest which I've seen in passing about a dozen times, because I can't find enough keys to unlock the chest of the Water crystal spirit from my sight wasn't the nicest of mechanics. I found this odd, seeing as you appear to have made all aspects of the game easier to play.

I love the new graphics and it's really something that's raised the bar in your latest venture. I love the puzzles and that now we can see into these additional cave areas, because that was one part that really got my goat with W&S. Now we can see where Sly is, though I'd have liked to see more of William in the piece. Some of the journal pieces could have been made into some sort of FMV, perhaps with a voice actor to play William, as he narrates it all. Why not have a set journal piece for each location and the story could get jumbled up, as you collect them? Perhaps it's just a piece, illustrated with images and read out at the end, who knows? A special ending for completing 100%, perhaps.

[Review Request Club]

Kajenx responds:

Thanks for the review! Lots of fair points. :)

Also, thanks for getting all the metals, now I don't have to play through for the 10th time today. :#

[Pub Snooker]

Like it, but...

This game is great, with a lot of features, except where it really matters, from my point of view. The game itself has a nice varied play style, with various players graded according to their skill levels. I think the learning curve of the players abilities was set a little high, as by the end of the first tournaments, you've gone from blind players with Parkinson's to some of the world's top 32. People play in pubs and clubs that aren't that good, so why have them shut out of the tournaments by "world class" AI?

When you come to take shots, there are some shots that I wouldn't have attempted in the hall myself, had I been able to get down and look at it from a normal player's point of view. Perhaps the "cue view" is what you need, to allow the player a sighter, in order that you don't try for a speculative red and flick the green in passing, which from above looked possible, but from table level looks so bad, that you really need your eyes testing, had you decided to take it on.

The physics of the table seems screwed up - so many times, I find myself going in off, without there being a natural angle from contact to the pocket. The cushions seem as hard as a pool table's, which is mechanically wrong, taking some of the skill out of the game, because it loses the feel of playing actual snooker.

Maybe there needs to be a few tutorials in the game, such as how to use side, screw and top-spin, to benefit you during the game. I think that this game is one of the best out there, but it really needs to tweak a little to get the most out of it.

Oh and I'd love to see medals in this game, just like in your Pool simulators, as I'm addicted to this one as well.

[Review Request Club]

[Lost Catacombs]

Addictive

Wow, those controls are surprisingly hard to master, considering that they are based 45 degrees to the true planes that you're working along. I was really struggling to get going and then the spike traps really got me on the first run, so maybe I'll come back to them later... much later.

Not that I'm put off, this game is pretty neat, with good puzzles, decent music and pretty funny graphics, which keep everything together, giving a very nice presentation to the final product, which I'm surprised to say has not achieved anything spectacular, with a score of just over 3.5, no medals and all of this despite having medals attached to it! Surprising, to say the least.

If I were to suggest anything major, I'd rotate the screen, so that the controls are easier, because I've played a few games in my time and I think it would make the game easier to play and therefore more accessible to the masses, should they be after a good Indiana Jones / Ancient Egyptian themed game.

Just a quick aside, when you get resurrected, it's almost like you were cuboy, which I found a nice way of flattering Messrs Arbuckle and Dennis, for their aforementioned work.

Keep up the good work, give us more games and medals to play with, I'll be back to see if I can achieve the medals for this momentarily!

[Review Request Club]

SantoNinoDeCebu responds:

Yeah, the 45 degreesness was a terrible idea. It looks cool, and I'm well versed in old isometric games which had these sort of controls Mario RPG etc so its the norm to me, not realising how different it is to control for anyone else...

Rotating the entire thing 45 degrees is easy in code, remove lines and tada, the problem is all of the art assets require being drawn at a different angle so it wont be an update to the game. If there is a sequel however, it will be straight on!

Cheers

[El's Quest]

Limited by graphics and gameplay

Sorry, but I think that you can do so much more with this piece - the game is what I've come to expect from lesser known people making pieces around 100k in size. I know that Tom was able to make a piece that was awesome in that size, but there seems to be so much more involved these days.

Right, the music and sound effects were a little quiet, everything seemed to be just a little slow to react on the controls side of things - it seemed to move in a jerky fashion, as opposed to smoothly, which was something that games in the 80s weren't guilty of.

I'd suggest that you take this further by adding colour to the proceedings, giving the piece something better in the way of music and clearing up the programming issues, to stop it from seeming such a mess. If you take those things out of the equation, it wasn't a bad game, so there is a chance that you can make it better, so stick with it.

[Review Request Club]

[~Strange Thoughts~]

Good game

Okay, while I have isses with the controls, overall, this is a good game, with a good level of playability and the medals just add to the attraction, giving an addictive little aside that people just want to play more of.

The sound is good, as is the opening animation, though without actually having the skill to complete the game at the moment, I lack a bit of knowledge, such as the meaning of life (i.e. the game itself) and the game does throw you in at the deep end, without much of a tutorial. By telling us that W keeps him flying, I had to deduce that A, S and D were used to work as you corresponding controls. I was given no indication as to the meanings of the various things floating by and only stuff like Pizza slices and bottles marked H2O would really give an indication that they would do me good, so it was pretty much a trial and error approach to playing the game.

If I were to work through it, I'd need a more responsive set of controls, a slightly more detailed tutorial and perhaps a level setting, where Mike goes through various different trips over different days of the week. Yes, the tutorial is in the notes, but having an interactive tutorial is much better for the users, as not everyone reads the author's comments (I do, but that's because of the fact I'm a reviewer)

[Review Request Club]