Coop's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Shape Defence]

Rather addictive

Well, this game has all of the things required to make a very good little defence game out of it - the setting is decent enough, the graphics and concept are nice looking, if slightly unoriginal. The music is well chosen and applied, while everything seems to fit together well.

I particularly like the bloodstains that you splatter across the battlefield, when you hit an enemy. While I'd have preferred to be shooting things that look like something advancing towards a position on the battlefield, we have to work with what we're given. Shapes remind me of something akin to markers on a WWII battlefield map, where the controllers move the pieces so we can see who is doing what, without leaving the security of the War Office in Whitehall. Walkers, runners, heavy ordinance and the like could have been used instead - this could give a different dynamic of having things that need to close to a certain range, before opening fire on the position. Obviously, this could lead to snipers, who almost always hit, while some troops get very close and hit you 1 in 6 tries, for example.

Certainly worthy of stealing a morning from me, but there's room to take this game further. I'd love to see new versions of this game spring up. Let me know and I'll review them as well.

[Review Request Club]

51lver responds:

Thank you for your review, I'll take what you've said into account and definitely let you now of any sequels to it :)

[My Favorite reviews (BB)]

Needs better formatting

I know it can be difficult to get the piece sorted for when you're publishing screen shots of a game, but there is one major issue here - the larger reviews get all squashed up, thus giving more face time to the short reviewer.

I'd have made the screen bigger, to accommodate the largest review and then used blank space (Newground background colours) for the empty space on the smaller reviews. Spending a little time marrying the review to the standard background could be useful as well, as it makes it look better.

Have you considered a voice actor to read out these reviews? I think that I could do a few voices for these reviews, which would make the experience sound a lot better, so that people can get a more encompassing presentation.

[Review Request Club]

BanglaBoy96 responds:

I'm a voice actor but I thought about reading out the reviews but I guess I left out that idea.
Thanks for the review

[Stealing the Diamond]

Very good

A highly stimulating romp through the world of our "master criminal", who is trying a get rich quick scheme this time around. Many hijinks later, when we find out where all of the medals are, wipe a tear from our eyes and let the dust settle, we look back and see that the game is absolutely hilarious, from start to finish.

From the writing of the little quirky messages on the failures, to the pop culture references of Portal, metroid, Super Mario etc, you've done really well in capturing the imagination of the audience. I thoroughly enjoyed playing it and I'll be recommending it to friends to have a bash at, to see if they are sneaky, aggressive, or indeed EPIC. For the record, I was sneaky.

I dread to think what the next thing will be for this quirky little fellow, but you can't just give up on him now, especially with what he's been through. Where to next is the main thing, to which I have no idea, so it's going to be a real surprise. I'd suspect it might be a surprise to you as well.

[Review Request Club]

PuffballsUnited responds:

This review is awesome! I'll be making a sequel at some point, and I have a few ideas rolling around, but mostly I guess it will be a surprise :p

[Gap Monsters]

Very enjoyable

Well, this is a well constructed little game. Granted, with user intervention and not just the "I want 30 levels which require no thought, because I want my medals" user generated content, this could become a very big game.

From the user levels, I would hope two things. Firstly, that the levels are moderated and the really shitty one creature already in the box, so you win as soon as it's loaded levels get pruned out. Second, that there is some sort of "players pack" of the best levels launched, perhaps incorporating some sort of plot into the proceedings, where there is a Doctor Robotnik style character, that enjoys making little animals suffer and you're totally helpless.

Of course, it could be that a second version of the game would involve choice, making your progress entirely down to the discretion of the player. You could kill the creatures (easy) or save them (harder) on each level. Are you a corporate slave, or a hippie? Who knows, you might just be a corporate slave, but in that camp, because it's an easy life and you can play solitaire, while you should be working.

On the user generated content, you should be able to pick the sounds you creatures make when they die. There was one level I saw with a tune to it that would really benefit from this sort of thing, of course, that's abstract and a little sadistic, so I'll leave that thought hanging.

[Review Request Club]

Nutcasenightmare responds:

My hope was that people who DO want a challenge from GapWorld,
Will click the Challenge tab, to get the most challenging levels as voted by players.

My hope was that the medals would help encourage an intrinsic motivation to solve puzzles.
I only award Medals for playing levels you did not submit to GapWorld, so people don't create 1Block1Monster levels for Medals. So the people who did create such levels, did it because they really wanted to, for some reason?

My hope
My hope

Alas, "Hope goes 'crunch' when squished."

[Kill Pico]

Barely worth two stars

Well, this game is very basic, more like a DVD menu, with a small range of scenes to pick from. The deaths pretty much look all the same, with little to show that Pico gets killed, except for him falling over in some of the shots. With the shotgun, there should be bits of pico flying across a local area as a red mist, while there should be very little charred remains after the nuke - not just of Pico, but of the studio as a whole.

If I were to give this more stars, there would be greater control, allowing the user themselves to move the device and pull the trigger - this would mean more work surrounding the whole piece, when you get down to it.I'm sure you're capable of this, though.

Changeable backgrounds would be a nice addition, as would music, both of which could almost be added as an afterthought.

[Review Request Club]

VioletVulpine responds:

KK, next year I might make a sequal

[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...

[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!

[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.

[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]

[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!