Coop's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Space TileBall]

Simple little game, but shallow

I was impressed with the physics of this game and the fact that you need to develop a great sense of control for the ball to stay on track and get to the end of the course.

I was quite disappointed to see that there was just one track and you didn't even get some sort of fanfare for completing the course. More levels would be interesting, as would potential hazards, like jumps, for example, where you must get a certain speed up to get over them, but then bring the ball to a stop, before the corner appears.

What about a system of lives, or time penalties? Add time to the player's score to get them to run more risks, but punish them being too clever. From there, high scores tables could be developed and without much thought of direction, the game has structure and direction. You've got the concept, so there is a great few ideas sitting around here, so work with them and see what comes.

[Review Request Club]

[ColorClash]

Not bad, but could be better

Right, you've come up with a decent enough game that has some pretty good looking moves and special moves. What I would suggest to make it a better game is to give us some AI to fight against. Most people these days sit behind one computer screen, rather than all crowding around one screen to play multi-player on a single machine.

Yes, you've identified the need for the return to menu button (There are buttons tutorials on NG, if you're stuck). Why not make that into a menu mouse over tab, where it expands if you bring the mouse over the top, so you can minimise what is taken from the gameplay area? More options are usually better in games such as this and while you'll be working on things like additional backgrounds and possibly even a plot for these games, you're going to need to change some of the basics, to increase the game's appeal.

In the game itself, perhaps have the numbers reduced to background (i.e. don't show them to the paying punters) and just have graphics there, instead. With the weapons, perhaps have them take off more than just half a hit point per hit, otherwise it will be a long and boring fight. The critical hits will do more, as will the special weapon, so factor these in proportionally. With the advent of the AI, you can make it best of three, so it becomes a proper challenge.

There is a basic frame here, that probably does require more programming assistance. With that help from the Flash Forum, you'll be able to get a more appealing finished product and from there, you can produce a better finished piece. I look forward to seeing when it's done.

[Review Request Club]

Twisted4000 responds:

Thanks for all of the tips. The thing is that the "back to menu" button would work, but when you played again, the frames would occasionally screw up (example: a character would make an angry face when attacking for no reason).

I'm making a second one and it is going very well, and I'll take all these useful tips from you with it. Thanks!

[Armor Mayhem]

Good clean fun

How much fun can you have with one game? Well, this would be that action game that keeps me coming back for more, be it harsh beatings, when I can seemingly do no right, or the polar opposite, when I'm just untouchable, making all of my opponents bow down before me.

From start to finish, I have found this game brilliant, with the gameplay and the addictive qualities. The differing weapons make a difference to the gameplay as things progress and after that, you've got different armour sets, which are largely aesthetic. If they had something to do with the game, such as they gave you a shield recharge rate that was different, more health, or something similar, I'd appreciate it, though they all seem much of a muchness.

Yes, with the 8 team death match at the end of the game, it does get a little frantic and sometimes I feel that the controls aren't quite as responsive as they could be (walking into walls, pulling the trigger, while pointing the other way, despite me moving the mouse to where I want to shoot, that sort of thing), but I'm still highly impressed.

I'd certainly recommend this game to one and all, as it's a great way for people to enjoy themselves, while spending time here. Now, if you could get multiplayer on this, that would be the next phase...

[Review Request Club]

[Mr Agnry Faic 4]

Incredibly addictive

Wow, the game is a lot better than the previous versions I've managed to play and the fact that you can sustain these games for even longer now just makes things even more enjoyable to play and continue with.

The concept is simple, the graphics good and the whole piece a very pleasant game for all of the family. While it might feel easy in the early going, the increasing speed of the faces and the random nature of their movements is certainly an increasing challenge - what's the highest combo that you can get for a medal? I've managed 50, but failed soon afterwards.

If I made one change to the game mechanics, I'd set it to WASD to change the colours, as having fingers spread across four keys in a row seems just a little unnatural, since PC gaming has gotten me used to those keys over the years. Are the powerups supposed to disappear on Level Up? I found it strange that the enemies disappeared as well, but that can be worked with. However, in other games of this type that I've played, the power ups stay, so that you can recover.

I hope that the medals for this game are approved soon, as this would certainly help you to get more recognition for the piece that you've made here. One week in and we've seen over 1,000 views per day, which is a start, but with medals approved, this could be prolonged.

Congratulations in your Daily 5th and I hope to see you with more awards at some point!

[Review Request Club]

[Blop-a-gotchi V5]

What was the point of this?

I really don't see what the point of this is - I've tried clicking everything and going through the motions to try and make sense of this game for you, but to little avail. What I would suggest is that you give us an end goal of the game - the original Tam-o-gotchi has the goal to make the creature grow up big and strong, so they could either leave home, or keep them dependant, so they eventually die in your care.

I think that the design looks decent and that's the reason behind the stars, but you need to put a lot more effort in to make it a good flash project - without that, it's just another game and a pretty poor one at that.

With the way that you can change the colour of your "blop", that's a little extreme after they are already there. Yes, the hairstyle, I can see, but the colour should be fixed from when it's born, or appears, or however you see it as working.

I've never advocated gaining "smarts" from either watching TV or listening to the radio. Work, by using a pneumatic drill to smash apart some block of wood or stone is a decent way to earn money, but making it a "click as fast as you can" mini game makes it get very old, very quick. Perhaps stimulation could be gained from mini games, such as chess, checkers and so forth?

This piece needs a lot of work, just to ascend to "average", I'm afraid.

[Review Request Club]

up-a-notch responds:

ok thanks

[Riddles of Renaissance]

Assassin's Creed Truth Lite!

Well, this game does show glimmers of the sort of thing you are asked to do during Assassin's Creed 2 and Brotherhood, where you are looking for hidden clues and meanings within the paintings. I think that while you've done a decent job here, there is still room for improvement:

The hint for riddle 13 is a poorly worded. Personally, I would have said that the fountain is the sculpture that shoots the water forth, not the pool, to which you referred as the fountain. Clearing this up makes the hint less ambiguous and overall a better game, as I confess, I had to dig out a walkthrough, before I could move past this part of the game.

Medals are always good and this game is no exception - why not have the pictures tell some sort of story, like the DaVinci code or Assassin's Creed, since there needs to be something that the artists were saying. Obviously, there is a great deal of (mis)interpretation going on around these images and perhaps it would lead you to discover the whereabouts of the Holy Grail (Montsegur, in France is always a popular destination, though that avenue might already have been tried.)

Clearly, it's taken a lot of time and effort for research and so forth, so keep up the good work and I look forward to seeing more from you!

[Review Request Club]

[Skate Forever]

Hipolyta, but for skaters

Not a bad game at all - a decent concept, which was a little tricky to master, even on easy mode, since you had just a little too fine a gap for controls there, until I realised that you could just hold down "jump" to stay airborne for longer.

I liked the simplicity of the layout for the piece - the tetris blocks gave it the look of Tetris'd, plus the music was nicely selected and not annoying, which I thought it might become over time, which was a relief to see.

Perhaps the next step is to incorporate this into some sort of story mode, so that the tutorial is completed as part of that and from there, you can have the character progress, with more rapid fire obstacles, a plot unveiling itself, the further you get and even some other bits and pieces, which I can't think of right now.

Very encouraging, I look forward to seeing more of your work :)

[Review Request Club]

The-One-Banana responds:

Thanks for a very encouraging review! I'll try to make my next game much more engaging with your suggestions.

[Mahjong Ace]

Painful version of a classic

I hate to say this, because I am quite partial to a little Mahjong from time to time. The ripping sound that you chose to use for the removal of the tiles seems so out of place, that I felt I wasn't really in the game and on top of that, the detail of the pieces seemed quite difficult to understand.

Playing with four suits made it difficult, as you had the circles, bamboo and "wan" sets, which all explained themselves easily, then there was a fourth set, which seemed vaguely akin to the flowers and seasons, which in other games can be removed with any other tile of it's kind. Having spring remove summer, autumn or winter, while plum blossom can pair up with chrysanthemum, bamboo or orchid gives the player a little leverage that can change the game.

I noticed that sometimes when I pressed shuffle, the tiles didn't seem to move. Perhaps some sort of programming code is needed to stop a tile landing in the same place? Also, when the number of available moves decreased to zero, the shuffle button should really flash, so that the player knows not to waste time.

Finally, when you pause the game, would it be better to get the game screen taken away, since otherwise players could cheat their way to the top of the leaderboard, by not taking hints and searching for the moves that would most benefit them.

[Review Request Club]

[Worder]

Not bad, but...

I can see room for improvement here. You've got a good scoring system that puts the person's ability to recognise letters and hand-eye coordination to the test, but there were a couple of things that I think could be done to improve it:

1) Have the same grid for all of the words - remove the letters that have been clicked and slide them down, before replacing with new letters from the top. That way people play along with an evolving grid that doesn't confuse them, by making them have to search for the letters which have been shuffled all the time.

2) Throw challenges out there - if a certain letter gets to the bottom, the player loses a life, points or the like. Then it's up to them to spell words with that letter in, or avoid the letters underneath until a word with that letter crops up.

Other than that, you've got a nice game laid out here. Good graphics, good gameplay, slightly annoying childish "level up" and "time bonus" comments, but you can't like everything :P

[Review Request Club]

[Halo Randomness]

It's not all that good, to be honest

I think that the way you stand with this piece, it is pretty fair to say that it's awful. I do not mean this in a spiteful way, but do try a little harder with your submissions, as time and effort reap rewards. We have seen this time and again with flash submissions. Here's a few suggestions for getting you on your way:

1) Cut out your sprites properly. When something with a white background moves over the top of another thing, the white background obscures it from view. Cutting around the outline of the character, item or creature will help here, as you can see them moving and the only background that is obscured is the stuff that the character itself is in front of.

2) Plot - this game is simply "click [open door], click [win game]" and that's it. You've done nothing to warrant actually getting a star, as you've not given the player any challenge for them to earn the completion of the game. A plot of why they are doing something, what they have to do and possibly something to link up the reasoning behind everything would be nice, so that there is continuity there. Do you have to shoot enemies? What key is it? Are you making it into just a movie? If so, take the controls out and just work on conveying the plot.

3) Sound - there is none. Get some sound effects from searches on Google, some music from the Audio portal and you're sounding like you mean it. If your animation improves, you'll have something to work with from there and you might even get as far as learning the ropes enough to progress with your works.

4) Time - there is no deadline to work towards - you have all the time that you need to complete this. No-one is going to hate you for taking your time and making sure you do the best that you can do. Go on the Flash and Games Factory 2 forums to ask questions, where appropriate and get the answers to progress your piece.

The last thing we want to see you do is waste your talent.

[Review Request Club]

Suprememessage responds:

Alright, thank you for all the advice Coop, I dont think that if I didnt stop today on my flash to check out all the reviews it got when it was new that I would have ever thought to use these ideas. Hey Coop. I hope when I do make something worthy that you review it.
Thank you man