Player-03's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Wolf's Bane 3]

Seems Newgrounds has officially outlived Kongregate (as far as web games are concerned). I wonder which site it'll outlive next? Oh right, I'm reviewing the game.

For the most part, this game lives up to your usual quality. In fact, now that I think about it, you've gotten way better at fixing typos since the early days. (You only really notice the presence of typos, not the absence...) I'll need to remember to add a star for that.

Story-wise, I like it. I could take or leave the brutality, but Ada is always fun, and for whatever reason I especially enjoy these plotlines about high-stakes games (the Invidia arc was another favorite). That's not to say you should immediately do more. They'd lose their charm if they came up more than once in a while.

You have "creepy protagonist" down to an art form at this point, and you're getting good at giving each episode a unique theme/focus, while fitting it into an overall plot. I didn't figure out this episode's theme until the very end, but it really tied everything together at that point. I'd go into more detail about that and other plot points, but, you know... spoilers.

Humor-wise, the sudden appearance of "...LOL!!!" got me. I think it was the exact time and place it appeared: just as the drama was reaching a new high, in the journal (which is expected to be serious), and right underneath that clown's grinning face.

My one gripe is that "assume my gender" jokes are tired, and this one wasn't even necessary to the boss-minion banter going on at the time. A different joke could have added more personality. A joke about the minion dress code, or about how the thugs are actually all named "Thug," or about Richill's attitude/personality. The rest of the conversation would work as-is: "...and who is this, Mr. Thug?" "I told you, call me Dr. Thug. Respect the effort I put into (forging) that doctorate!" "Bold of you to assume I give a damn." "Whatever..."

The gameplay was... fine. The darkness in the escape sequence was a bit annoying, but it's always hard to get that right. (I could have turned up my screen brightness if it was a real issue.) Bit of an underwhelming raft puzzle, even compared to similar puzzles from Medieval Cop, but it went fast and so that was fine. In the future, if you want to expand on the concept, maybe try rock-pushing on ice?

The final portion of the escape actually contains a softlock. While the guard was patrolling, I tried entering the room just behind them, and automatically got caught. That's fine, I'm learning. I'll try the rock next. Oh, wait: the guard stopped patrolling! They're just standing there staring at the wall. I can't leave the room to reset it, there aren't any pieces of paper for me to pick up to re-trigger the patrol pattern, and nothing else seems to have an effect either. I should have tried saving and reloading, but instead I just restarted the escape.

I would say that the mystery section takes a bit too much guesswork. I usually have no problems staying above half health, and I can appreciate an episode with higher difficulty, and most of the game managed higher difficulty without actually killing me. It's just... either I missed way more hints than I usually do, or the mystery actually has enough guesswork that the mandatory damage will finish you off. (I was actually at 1 hp by the time I first encountered the mandatory damage.) It didn't help that every character other than Ada was brand new - knowing barely anything about them, how was I supposed to guess who that one NPC was looking at? (The brand-new characters also meant the scene was less interesting than some of your other mysteries. Not holding it against you, that's just what happens.)

And of course, I continue to enjoy the music. The default/background music is simple enough not to distract, while NEFFEX's far more exciting music comes in at just the right moments. Wish I had the audio experience necessary to give more feedback than that, but I don't so I won't.

Story: +2 stars. It's why we're all here!
Humor: +1 star. In a somber episode, well-placed highlights stand out even more.
Gameplay: +1 star. It may not be the focus, but it's not boring.
Music: +1 star.
Length: +1 star. I prefer these slightly longer episodes.
Total: 6 stars. Wait...

Softlock: -1/2 star.
Tasteless joke: -1/2 star.
Total: 5 stars.

Looking forward to what comes next!

[Pixel Grower]

Interesting concept, but not very fun

Essentially, the strategy is to drag the mouse side-to-side until you reach the next level. I got to level 9 and 86,138 pixels before realizing that it would probably take over an hour to get to level 10, at which point I stopped. I could have kept going; I was gaining back any health I lost. I just could not bring myself to do so.

By the way, on level 9, it is hard/impossible to see the falling pixels against light-colored backgrounds. This isn't a big issue, though, as being able to see the pixels has no effect on strategy. You move the mouse left and right, no matter where the pixels are. (Optionally, though, you may move it back and forth over a smaller area when they fall in a thin column).

[OCD+]

This hardly qualifies as a game

The show contestant medal is cheatable (press tab, then hold enter), the pianist can be beaten by copy-pasting (pastebay.com/28024 without the space at the end), the war hero one can be done by leaving your computer on overnight, and the rest require macros. None of them are actually interesting or playable.

[Runes of Shalak]

Really hard, and not in a good way

"Hard" and "fun" don't have to be mutually exclusive. In fact, I've played a number of games that were both. This just wasn't one of them.

Here's why:

1) Poor jumping - jumps are often spaced so that there is around 1-2 pixels of leeway; in other words, if you were 3 pixels from the edge when you jumped, you would die. There should be no jumps like this; find less frustrating ways to make it hard.

2) Odd edge detection - you use Flash's hitTest function for collisions with enemies, meaning that they can hit you even if you don't expect it. They should have to hit a box slightly smaller than you for it to count.
Also, you appear to do collisions with the ground based on four points around the character. This may be the easiest way to do it, and it makes some sense, but you fall past any platform you are more than half-way off of. This is really annoying when there are spikes next to the platform in question.

3) Fast-moving objects that you have to time - the bouncing beams are too hard to dodge. You have to spend a while planning your jump in order not to run into them, which makes levels take much longer than they should.

4) Level 2-8 - this combines all three problems above into one level. You have to dodge two fast-moving beams on your way down, move to the very edge of the platform in preparation for your next jump, jump over the bottom beam as it comes towards you, and, if you fall short, you instantly hit spikes. When you jump across the gap to get a coin, you often don't quite make it and fall into one of the beams because you didn't plan ahead to dodge them because it shouldn't have been necessary to do so. Then you have to make it back to the center without hitting a beam, and then you have to do it again.

5) Level 3-5 - this isn't quite as bad as 2-8 (at least, it didn't take me quite so long), and I can understand wanting to have a really hard final level (I do in my game), but it shouldn't require a perfect run to beat.

6) Respawning time - this should be approximately 0, in a game requiring this many restarts. It should also not require pressing a button that you do not have one of your fingers on during normal play.

Also, I highly suggest looking up "SharedObject" in your help file. It isn't hard to do, and this game needs a save system. This lack of a save file is why I'm missing Clumsy Adventurer; I had to leave the page for one reason or another, and the game didn't save the hazards I'd run into so far.

I'm not saying that it's too hard; I was, after all, able to beat it. What I'm saying is that it's hard for the wrong reasons.

[Upgrade Complete!]

110% complete?

Good idea, but I found a few glitches. First, I somehow got my progress up to 110% (though it is nice to see that you used >= to check for completion; it's a good habit). Second, I accidentally double-clicked the magnet and ended up with two magnets, one of which was under the magnet button and couldn't be selected.

Also, there should be an option to buy a pause button and upgrade the mute button to a volume slider.