Coop's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Clock Patience]

Good, but limited

While the mechanics of this game are well worked out and it looks and sounds nice, you're basically playing on a 1 in 13 chance that the last card you turn over will be a king. All of the 48 non-kings need to come up crucially before that last king shows his face, which is the crippling factor of the game and it can get old quickly.

Sure, I can understand playing solitaire on the computer, but clock patience just seems like something that you'd just do on a desk with the cards yourself, rather than using a computer for it - after all, you're just one step away from clicking a "play through" button and the game plays itself. Where would the fun in that be?

Still, the graphics are good, the backs of the cards could do with having a few options for changing them and if you could give a mute button for the music, the world would be a slightly better place, as it gets very boring, very quickly.

[Review Request Club]

egdcltd responds:

It's really a game that you can play without having to think too strenuously about, and you don't always have either the cards or room to do it manually.

Actually, there is a mute button, the speaker at the bottom, which you can either click or press m to mute/un-mute. Or you can alter the background music volume using the sound control accessed by the spanner button.

I find sound can easily become annoying, so I do include a mute option, although volume is new.

[GemCraft Labyrinth]

Much better layout

I've had to wait a few days, while I delve into the depths of this, in order to give it the in depth review that it deserves. Clearly there has been a lot of time, though and effort put into not only this game, but the predecessors and over the past few years, Gemcraft has become one of, if not the premier tower defence game.

I love the story behind it, the way that levelling up becomes an essential part of your tactics and that there is far more to this game than just the strategy of placing a tower in the correct place - traps and now walls have come into play, as has a new AI, where monsters can choose which way they run, thus increasing the Real Time Strategy value of this as a game and setting it apart from Gemcraft 1 and 0.

As if 169 levels wasn't enough, you can customise each level a lot more than previously, adding more monsters (more of a challenge for more experience) and making it so that there are features that would make the level impossible for a newcomer, even to Level 1.

The fact that planning your journey now factors into it, as some levels can open up to three new levels, while others are dead ends, this adds a nice element to the game, that I missed with the other maps, because they didn't seem to be the clearest of indicators where to go, while this one is rigid, bordered exactly on the squares and is very easy to follow. With the gems being built up this time, I wasn't a fan of not being able to start with a pocket full of gems, that I can set up some horrific defences, that allow me to burn through 20+ gem bombs, to make it interesting, before the tougher waves come along.

I can see this game becoming quite a time-sink over the next few months and while I do not begrudge that, I would like to see a few little tweaks here and there - Newgrounds Medals, for a start. We love your games here and I'd love to see some that get a bit of recognition for playing them, otherwise I'll just play them on Armor Games, where I can get access to the other features.

I think that this is the best yet - don't rest on your laurels, make another one and see if you can get even better.

[Review Request Club]

[Retro Invaders V.3]

Just awful

Dear god, could you possibly make anything worse? Seriously, the gameplay is awful, it sounds like you're trying to destroy my eardrums with the "sound" that comes out of the speakers, even at comparatively low volume levels and the graphics suck as much as the gameplay mechanics.

Right, where do we start with improving this piece, blank canvas aside. Let's assume that this piece is indeed salvageable, which is debatable. I'm looking at the main menu for the game having better drawn icons - zoom in, even if you're still using Paint, as this will give a better finished product when you zoom back out.

Once the visuals have been improved, the space invaders themselves seem alright - more variation might be required for later levels, but without redoing the game mechanics, you're going to get nowhere. Dropping a bomb from each invader every 2-3 seconds gets old quickly and kills off the defender. Players like a challenge, but not this much of one. One or two bombs at a time, from random locations should help. This will allow you to get a much better output and will give the game much more longevity.

Sounds. The music is great on its own, so kudos for the artist who originally created it - thatcomposerguy, if I recall correctly. That aside, you've ramped up the volume to screamer scale and it puts you off so much that you have to play in mute. It's a travesty to have to witness a quality artist's music destroyed like that and as harsh as that may sound, it's just what you've done. On the menus, the preloader / start screen is fine, then you come the menu, where the tune is louder and much more abrasive.

Finally, we come to the laughable High Scores section. Yes, it's a half decent bit of programming, but I can make a more aesthetically pleasing high score table in Excel. Try some sort of background themed around space and then get a decent font and colour that contrasts nicely with that, so you can display the scores. Little touches make all the difference.

[Review Request Club]

[Super Interactive]

Poor man's impossible quiz

While this piece featured some of the questions that were very similar to Spoopy's masterpiece, yours didn't really measure up to expectations, with how it turned out.

You could have added more reasonable checkpoints, with advancing the game a level being the obvious place to start - just that little touch would make the game much more enjoyable, but it's not the only thing I'd like to focus on.

Adding sounds to some of the parts of the game would make this a much better piece - putting together the plane could have used tool sounds, the explosion was there, albeit muted, so adding the obligatory noise there would certainly have helped. The tune that you used was annoying, but I guess that was the point, in all honesty.

Some of the drawing was a little too sketchy, possibly in homage to Spoopy's work, but it seems that you've made too much effort to make your piece identifiable with his - taking the time to make your own well thought out quiz would have been a better use of your time and it would have yielded a much more enjoyable experience for all involved.

I'm happy to say that since this has been released, your work has improved greatly, so perhaps revisit this and make a special edition of your quiz, perhaps?

[Review Request Club]

[Fly And Blast]

Very interesting

A somewhat engrossing game, based around other similar games that I have come across on my time on Newgrounds. Still, it is entertaining and the engine still comes up with these instant classics, as I like to call them.

Yes, the medals being historical figures from Polynesia was a little out of touch with the game, but it did still add a certain something to the gameplay. The vehicles are developed well and the instructions are clearly explained, allowing for people to progress through the game and an increasingly frantic pace, while trying to get the medals unlocked.

When you refer to the numbers of kills, I was a little confused, as I could have sworn that I killed a lot more than 20 in Level 5, but my kill total only seemed to climb by the 20 units. Perhaps that wasn't explained well enough, but if that's the only complaint, then game on!

[Review Request Club]

argene responds:

Hi Coop... Thanks for the positive review. It gives us inspiration to strive hard to improve on our future games.

[Harvey Brawl]

Not the best, but not the worst.

As with most games, there are good points and bad points. I'll start with the good, since focusing on them would be beneficial - the musical diversity is good, with the wealth of Audio Portal Submissions you've used. So many different artists as well, to help out the community. Free plugs for you, I know, but it's good to get a good spread.

The animation style was quirky - I particularly liked the fact that the characters reminded me of FancyPants Adventures, but with a photo or a traced image of a face over the head. Just something to make it your own, I suppose.

The biggest part to work on would be the engine - the controls lag a little and while the moves list is simple and reasonably effective, it doesn't help that you're punching your opponent and then he's managed to walk past you, evading the punch or kick.

On that issue, you're hit the deadly no-man's land - the movement is two dimensional, but flawed, since you can run past the other character effortlessly, thus dodging their blows, even while standing in front of them. You can't hit them, but that damages the mechanics of the game. I'd make it so that you can't run past one another and add a jump feature, so you can leap over the top of them, thus increasing the moves you can use. Not necessarily combo attacks, but it would give you somewhere to go.

On top of that, a story mode would be a nice way to get into the characters. Perhaps a few fights in the way of things like Street Fighter; Mortal Kombat or Tekken, just to show some more depth, plus as the difficulty would naturally increase in that sense, the game would become much more of a spectacle to play.

[Review Request Club]

Kwing responds:

The imported heads are meant to looked tacked-on and cheesy. In fact, the flames on the title screen, the horrible expressions, and the voice acting are all meant to be tongue-in-cheek.

I suppose I should have added in some more collision script other than just attacks, though. And the lack of background elements (throwing things, dangerous background elements) took something away from the game... But I still feel it's decent.

And thank you for suggesting a story mode. I'm not a big fan of linear gameplay but I think this requires at least a little.

[Higher?]

Combination of skill and luck

So this game does rely on luck to a certain extent, with a good pretence. The combo bonus can enable you to get very high scores and the concept is great.

Perhaps you could make it 54 and throw a few jokers in there, with a slight tweak to the mechanics that a pair would mean the end of the combo, since 6 isn't higher than 6, nor is it any lower.

A good background, that might be complimented by the animation of a croupier's arm removing the cards from a shoe, perhaps with the face on show, so you could choose who deals, this would give the game more appeal.

Also, difficulty settings would be another way to add diversity to the game - more decks, so a much higher chance of drawing a matching card, but the chance of an exact match, which could give more points, as opposed to killing the chain would be a way forward.

Plenty of scope to take this game forward. Best of luck!

[Review Request Club]

[Tarakan]

Awful game

Am I seriously supposed to like this? Well, there seems to be so little effort in the piece, that I'm not sure, in all honesty.

Single button control really grates on the effect of the "game" and I'd certainly suggest that more time in the programming forum would help you out here. learn how to create more options, such as jumping over low tentacles, which extend out to try and grab you, while ducking under high ones. This would increase the gameplay experience so much and it's really not all that much effort. Powerups might be a better option if they occur and you have to jump or duck into them, just the same, as this requires more skill, particularly if you're trying to dodge tentacles as well. A little animation when you collect a powerup would help - I wasn't sure at the start about collecting the

Why not have a health level, where you can get struck a few times, but still let you get away? Little things make all the difference.

Work on the art - the shitty pink background needs a lot of work, but then again, so does the foreground. Work on the detail, by zooming in and looking at what you can change there - when you zoom back out, it will make such a difference to the pieces.

MightyTarakan responds:

Well it doesn't deserve a 0 does it?
How Is this worse in gameplay than the target shooting games anybody can make?
Instead of just clicking at targets you also get to run away from tentacles.
This is a 2-layer game.
Maybe if I ever get to finish the enhanced version, it will be a lot prettier.

[They Came From Nam]

It's alright

Maybe it's just me, but I found this piece an absolute bitch to control and the way that things stacked up with hordes of enemies attacking you at the Boss Stage kind of discouraged me. The charging after every shot was inspired and easy enough to get, but having to stack charge when there are more than three enemies on the screen doesn't leave much room for manoeuvre.

The graphics are well designed and quirky, the music addictive and effective, while the rest of the piece just really brings it all together. In short, I can see why you placed, but if I'm honest, 3rd seems a little low. Perhaps there were other people like me on the panel that failed while playing as well, who knows?

The plot was well written, though I would have liked to see something with voices at the start, as opposed to a 1980s Streets of Rage style introduction - perhaps a little lip sync along with it would help to give this part more impetus and make less people skip.

I'd have preferred keyboard controls and not having to charge the weapon, though I can see why you did this - to get away from the convention of these things having "auto-fire" and powerups that modify or boost this ability. From where you stand, this makes sense, but I still would have preferred it to have not had the trend bucked.

[Review Request Club]

thinking-man responds:

Honestly, if we placed higher than Meaty Boner or Butchebugs, a mob of pissed off Newgrounders would have descended on the Newgrounds office, and start a riot (as you can see from the reviews) and also, AustinBreed said he "loved everything about this game" so it was probably Tom who made us not place higher or something.