Hellmonkey2k's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Soviet Rocket Giraffe]

Good dynamic

Hey J,
I like the game dynamic - kind of like Tiny Wings, but with giraffes. Could have done with some achievements. Perhaps they're overdone but they certainly do add to the replayability

[Solar Strike]

Needs work to be a great game

It isn't a bad game by any stretch of the imagination - but it does leave a lot to be desired in terms of polish and control.

Pros: Credit where credit is due, "first person space shooter" isn't something you see every day. The graphics are well done and the sprites show obvious dedication.

Cons: Unfortunately, I feel the gameplay suffers from essentially looking "over the shoulder" of the main ship - I found myself repeatedly loosing track of my ship even with few enemies on screen. Perhaps a true first-person setup would have increased playability for me. The depth of field also played awkwardly and it was very hard to get a feel for where my shots were supposed to line up. It reminded me of the old Virtual Boy games, if attempted in a 2D medium. I wasn't impressed by the ship's secondary weapons, and there did not seem to be any rhyme or reason for when enemy homing missiles would detonate, making avoidance essentially a matter of luck and pointlessness.

Overall, the Solar Strike is an interesting take on the classic space shooter, but ultimately needs a can or two of polish before I would call it enjoyable.

SantoNinoDeCebu responds:

Yeah, the controls where the main headache through the whole thing.
First you couldn't aim ''control type 1'' then I added the aiming, which effectively breaks the fake perspective. So I guess the judging on the depth and stuff take a load of getting used to. I guess in the end I just gave up as I didn't have any ideas how to improve the current controls without completely changing the gameplay (to fps as you mentioned).

My idea with the homing missiles was shoot them down before they reach you or run but I guess its hard to judge where the heck they are to shoot em down intentionally :p

Cheers for the reviews.

[- Heli Invasion II -]

Not really ballanced

Ground troops were either much too hard to hit, or took way too much damage. Either way, the most annoying part of the game was trying to shoot the little guys.

The graphics were alright, but it was pretty tough to figure out what all the pictures meant on the buy screen at first glance. The red text is tough to read too.

[the Acrobats]

Great style, simple game

Nice, simple time waster with great artwork.

Just a few things, though:

1) What's the deal with the pillow? I can't click on it, nor does anything happen when the critter runs into it.

2) The "Best Score" field on the main menu only displays the score from the last game played when you choose to go back to the menu. I had a score of over 40 for one game before getting a score of 8 the next, and only the score of 8 showed up on the main menu.

Other than that, wonderful!

[Short Circuit]

Good diversion

While not the "OMG BEST GAME EVAR!!!," this game is still pretty fun. Easy to learn concept, fun to play, all that good stuff.

Though it was pretty easy; I beat it on the first try. I agree with others here that there should be a variety of songs to play, kind of like Dance Dance Revolution, only with dodging asterisks.

[Four Second Fury]

Sexy game, but you knew that already

Great concept, that of the minigame... Although you know it would be so much better with more games. Even so, it's still great.

Especially the sound. The music really gets you into the games.

jmtb02 responds:

Thanks, glad you liked it. I know, I know, more games would be slick... but its a lot of programming.

-jmtb02

[Jewel of Atlantis]

Still good

I suppose if you want to make the "argument" that it's a ripoff of Bejeweled, then we can also say that Bejeweled is a rip of Tetris, which is a rip of every other puzzle game since the dawn of civilization. Along that line, Madness and Alien Hominid are just rips off of games like Metal Slug. It's still a well-made puzzle game with its own aspects and innovations, despite the fact that there are other, similar games which came before it. Even the great Tetris itself has spawned dozens if not hundreds of Tetris-clone games, many of which are actually pretty good.

The point is that games build off each other. This is a well made game and should be critiqued as such.

[-the violence tutorial-]

Poorly Executed

You desperately need a tutorial on optimizing your sound. You had a 3.7MB file and about 10 static pages of content. There is no reason why we need to listen to 128kbps Korn songs while watching a tutorial.

As for the "tutorial" itself, creating better gore and violence is a lot more than smearing more colors on the stage. Your "fire" looks awful, as does what you try to pass off as blood. The explosion at the end is rather pathetic as well.

0/5

friend-of-emu responds:

for teh n00bs!

[FHTH: Chapter 1]

Controls could be better

This is by far not the "first, best" 1st person flash game. It certainly looks nice visually and has a pretty good puzzle aspect, but the controls severely hinder this game.

It is really a nusiance to have to click on the arrows each time I want to move or exit something. With the rate of exploring one has to do for this game, you should make it so that messages pop up unobtrusively so that the player can still continue unabated, especially if there is nothing of interest in such item. At the very least, allow the player to exit out of a screen with a simple keystroke.

Other than that, this game really shows promise and talent

[Darkness 2 the game]

Great!

Did you draw this all in script? Would definately explain the small filesize...

Anyway, great game(s). Though I think it would have been better if you had just included both games into one file. It would definately help with continuity, and so that people don't have to hunt down each individual part. Considering your filesize is miniscule, I don't see why you wouldn't want to make one big epic game within the 5MB limit.

But still good. 5/5

mukha responds:

i made these sometime ago. just had the time to submit it now. hehe