Coop's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pixel Escape]

Interesting, but hugely limited

Well, the graphics are incredibly basic for this game and the concept is so shortly thought through that it's no wonder you can churn these things out at such a rate. I'd like to see a little more effort in the piece, with a little more variation than a 1 in 2 probability that you'll get it right.

Why not incorporate it with typing more than just pressing one of the arrow keys? Left or right is child's play, you said so yourself. I mean, I just managed to get second on the high score table and the only way I can see that you got it so hight is by hacking the high scores, which is lame. Still, if any of you kids out there want to overhaul me, just put one finger on left, one finger on right and press both at the same time, whenever you reach a junction, thus the boat will steer itself, sending you the right way.

Basing your graphics off Atari is no reason not to take pride in your work - they gave us Worms in its purest form and that's a very good reason to be proud of Atari. I was playing on an Atari before you were born and I treasure those games I played as a kid. More variation is required, such as giving more of a level basis than only changing the colour when the "boat" moves off screen, coming back with the same map, but painted a different colour is not variation. Surely the boat can turn when it it steered, as opposed to ploughing forward and "strafing" across screen, as if it were a pixelated crab.

The massive gap between the repeats in the tune was horrendous and could be fixed by linking more than just the one tune in there on a shuffle program or similar. Plenty of work on the Audio Portal would be suitable and people can have the option to skip, as they break records in pursuit of your unachieveable goal.

[Review Request Club]

VioletVulpine responds:

Sure, thanks

[Adventures of Thin Air]

Not all that good

To be honest, I still think that game would probably be horrible even if you had a cursor there, but it was still a very basic little game. You've got one music track, which you have no option to turn off or change - is there an audio credit for this at all, as it was the best part of the piece.

I would have made the cursor visible, but that's the hidden beauty of the game. What you should do is not shift the piece on screen, so people can get a decent idea where abouts on screen they are, since it seems to move independent from the camera. This makes it frustrating when you approach obstacles, such as jumps and you can't "fine tune" them, when you're coming in to land, it's just jump and hope for the best.

Some sort of indication of the controls would have been nice - you haven't shown any of us how to deal with the movement (I'd have also suggested the up key to jump, as opposed to the space bar, since that just feels better from my point of view.) Perhaps also a tutorial, where you can see certain things, such as the size and dynamics of the character you play as, so that you've at least got a running start to the game. I'm personally against getting into the pilot's chair with no experience and then trying to take off in a 747.

Overall, it needs some work, if you're going to make this piece take off, so to speak.

[Review Request Club]

VioletVulpine responds:

The proloader shows the controls, and I like the spacebar but I MIGHT make an option if I'm bored one day. Thanks for an ACTUAL review, sir.

[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!

[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

[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.

[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

[Space Bound]

Decent effort

I think that you're getting the hang of Games Factory workings nicely here, though the game could still use some work, to make it pan out properly.

The stages seem a little long and having to spam press S to fire is a bit of a problem. Consider having some sort of programming that allows it to "auto fire", just by holding the button down. How exactly are you supposed to shoot laser fire out of the sky? I don't know the physics of it myself, but I was doing it with pretty good accuracy.

Some of the powerups, while useful seemed pointless, when there was just the one type. There is no score, so there feels to be no end goal and motivation to progress with the game, so adding a score tracker would encourage people to continue and maybe even to take more risks within the game, so they can get greater score? Higher points for the grey asteroids, as opposed to the brown ones, perhaps?

Keep working at it, you've got a decent concept, so just developing it a bit will be very rewarding for this game.

[Review Request Club]

ninty96zie responds:

I wasn't going to add a score.. as this is an adventure game, and the first part only lasts for about 1 minute and a half, i might however include a score based free play space battle mode, rather than add score to the actual game, thank you for the review though :D

[BubbleLand]

Nice little game

I've seen this format of game before and it's a nice way to kill a few minutes, but the game comes across as aimed at a different demographic than mine. Still, I gave it a shot and there's a surprising amount of skill involved for a game that initially presents itself as simple.

I think that the balance was needed between the music (or lack thereof) within the game was a factor in the lack of an overall experience with it - perhaps consider a soundtrack, which can be muted at the player's discretion. Granted, it makes the files slightly larger, but when you're talking this small, you'd only push it up to about 500kb.

The graphics are of a good standard and I think that with the large variety of teddy bears available on the market, perhaps you could have a small range of collectables that you can pick up during levels (would these give powerups?) and even a small range of different bears available to play as.

[Review Request Club]

gameonade responds:

Wow, it is great review. Thank you for excellent ideas. I'm not sure that I will be able to do this in this version of the game (as it wasn't prepare for this) - but in the some sort of sequel I will definately do different teddy bears and some upgrades to select between the levels.

[Mage Arena]

A unique challenge

Hmm, a very interesting little game that you've produced, complete with a range of various enemies to offer a challenge to the discerning gamer.

While I would have appreciated an indication of how these opponents would come at me, before they actually did and what they could do to me, the simplicity is applaudable. I like the graphics and the challenge of enemies entering through all three doors at once really keeps you on your toes.

I think that a Doom style game where you enter rooms (though keep the top-down aspect) and the enemies swarm you from there might have been a better option, you've still created a very good game.

[Review Request Club]

kcnh responds:

Thank you for your review.

[Waterboy]

Has roots in SMB

A nice little game that, much like the aforementioned Super Mario Brothers, I lack the skill to complete. Still, I shan't let that hold me back.

The main difference between this and the interface for Super Mario Brothers is that you can go backwards - in the Nintendo series, you can only move forwards and once something falls off the left of the screen, you can't go back and see it again. Personally, I like this and wouldn't ask you to change this, though some purists might.

How are you supposed to get up to the additional life points that seem out of reach? I cannot find a way to get these, nor the coins surrounding them, which is annoying. Perhaps it is my lack of experience with these side scrolling platformers that causes me this issue, but I shouldn't complain, unless it is a programming issue.

I liked the quirky graphics and would have appreciated some plot to start the story and perhaps act as a bridge between worlds, just to flesh it out a little. The game is good, but something to bring it all together would have been a really nice addition.

[Review Request Club]

kcnh responds:

The additional life points are reachable if you jump on a shelled turtle, a turtle will retreat in its shell if you shoot a waterball at it. Thank you very much for your review.