csdthegreat's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Punk-o-matic 2]

You obviously put a lot of effort into this.

Punk-O-Matic was probably one of the first games I played on Newgrounds. At the time, it was a fun toy I could mess around in while I was bored. It didn't really stick with me though... it felt sort of limited.

From playing certain other games and visiting forums over the last few years, I noticed it had a somewhat large following. I could understand that, since I had some fun with it, but I never really joined in.

Now the sequel is out, and I was hoping to see improvements to the editor. Well, it has improvements, but not quite how I hoped. What I would've liked is a note by note pattern editor, rather than tons of prerecorded riffs and patterns. (Would that help with file size? I'd think it would, since there wouldn't be as many audio files.) I feel very creative, and I feel let down when I can't make a riff or pattern (I'm going to shorten this to "plxqr". Because I can.) the way it is in my head. I sifted through the tons of plxqr and never found anything like what I was looking for. I half created something, half threw something down to play a concert with something other than covers. Mixing them together sort of works, but it's not good enough for me.

I noticed the plxqr didn't always transition smoothly from one to the other, which is a bit irritating to listen to...

Actually being able to play your songs in a career mode is a fantastic addition. The qweasd hexagon was to be different from other games, right? :P It's not a bad idea, it's been used successfully before, but there are reasons why so many music games over the last thirteen years or so have had vertical scrolling, one button per column: It's much easier to read, shows more of the chart, makes simultaneous notes easier to see, and is familiar to most people. Many people may be annoyed with the setup since it's hard to read by default.

Being able to play different instruments in a Flash music game at different difficulties is new to me, so points for that.

The quality of the game's music seemed to vary... a lot. I could play a song I absolutely hate immediately following a song I like. Song previews would be a good addition to the game. Would it be possible to load user songs into the game from an online database, or is manually loading code going to be the only way?

I like all the little things the people say. It makes the characters seem more like people than "LOL bein a drummre ish fun... hello i is a durmmer... my durms expansive..."

While writing this, my opinion of the game has changed a few times. I've gone from being annoyed with everything, to enjoying it, to boredom, and back through all over again. I'd probably give this game a different score for every ten minutes I spend playing it, so I'll just stick with 7. :P It might be fun to come back now and again, but I'm not the biggest fan, though a lot of people seem like they could be. Good for them.

Misc:

- The lack of descriptions on the achievements list is driving me nuts.
- Nice graphics. I like how the characters actually look like they're playing the music.
- I sometimes missed notes when I hit them perfectly. Meh, that seems to happen with most Flash music games.
- Oddly enough, the lag seemed worse after turning down the quality and animation. Looks like I won't get the 100 combo achievement any time soon...

[Ack, I can't think clearly anymore. Oh well.]

[Aura Braver]

Good idea, anyway.

+ Nice music.
+ Auras offer interesting gameplay mechanics.
+ Clever aura combinations.
+ Challenging.
- No way to upgrade your single-shot starting gun apart from auras.
- Lacks any pause, menu, restart, mute (except on the menu), etc. buttons.
- Not enough enemy attack variety.
- Enemies and their attacks are annoying since they often have no predictable pattern and have small hitboxes.
- I couldn't be bothered to beat level 3. I prefer bosses with awesome attack patterns to bosses shooting in every direction that are nearly impossible to hit. :P
- Levels seem to drag on forever, but that might just be me. I've been hooked on the Raiden Fighters series.

[Abstract: Sea]

A bit too simple for my tastes.

+ Great controls
+ Smooth graphics
+ Music was enjoyable enough
- Repetitive
- Very little replay value
- Too easy for too long
> Add something! Anything! :P
> Why weren't the instructions in the game? Could've started the game a lot sooner if I didn't have to wait for a new window to load... (Lagged because of it)

Overall, the fun only lasts a couple minutes, but it's still worth a play. I can't really drag this review out since there's so little here. :|

[Blosics]

Good game with room for improvement.

+ Good - Bad * Either ! Idea

+ Physics
+ Level design
+ Didn't encounter any glitches
+ Balanced
- Not much of a reason to replay except to get a higher score
* Not really original
* Simple
* Short
* May cause lag?
! Level editor. BECAUSE EVERYTHING NEEDS A LEVEL EDITOR.
! Lasers. BECAUSE EVERYTHING NEEDS LASERS. Could destroy both good and bad blocks, maybe?
! Achievements. BECAUSE EVERYTHING NEEDS ACHIEVEMENTS. Certain score, time, shot size, perfect level, etc.
! Glass blocks
! Glue blocks
! Moving stone/ice/rubber/glass/glue
! Interactive menu
! Limited number of shots (Hard mode?)

Overall, a good game if you have a few spare minutes. Reminds me of Boombot...

[HiRoads]

A great clone of SkyRoads!

Perfect remake of the original game. Most of the time I've spent with this game is in its intuitive level editor. I've submitted quite a few levels in the last couple days. Go to the website, log in, click "Roads", search "csd", play levels, leave comments, make some of your own for me to play. :P Frustrating, fun, and addictive. The only real thing that annoyed me, besides difficulty, was that sometimes I couldn't jump. I've already posted suggestions for features and more on the forums. I'll name a few here:

- Replay videos (Like in games such as Peggle or Raiden III.)
- Time limits on certain levels.
- Editor: Ability to give fire, ice, etc. properties to non-flat platforms.

In case anyone is interested, another great game in the same style is Tasty Static. It's freeware, and has a bunch of different platforms that can turn your player around, reverse gravity, etc. It got me into games like this, and ate up a lot of my time. The Windows version has a very in-depth level editor, too. I think the creator is on Newgrounds, but I forgot his name here.

I think this game would work with some achievements and/or medals. Jump x times and beat a level, play a level entirely under a certain speed, don't use the last three columns on the right/left, play all levels, make a level, beat a level on your first try (Is there any way to link these to user-created levels?), beat all levels, beat all levels at full speed... I could go on and on. In the meantime, self-imposed challenges FTW! :D

[Jellyman]

Oh boy! I'm doing another one of THESE reviews! :P

+ Graphics are nice and simple.
+ Smooth animation.
+ Mostly fun level design.
+ Background music doesn't make me mute the game.
- Level gameplay can be shorter than the restart time on levels with tough obstacles right at the start.
- Jelly physics often resulted in uneven movement, sometimes throwing me the opposite direction.
- I get pissed after failing at the end of a long, hard level because of the above problem.
- Nothing too new to be seen.
!!! Can get stuck in walls. (Intentional?)
/ Would play a *Cough* longer *Cough cough* sequel.
/ Occasional genre switch and a clever boss would be enjoyable and fitting.
/ Would welcome more obstacle variety.
/ Achievements are all the rage, so why not?
/ Different flavors of jelly?
/ Jelly should turn to liquid when melted so it can slip through cracks and be molded into different shapes. You know, because that would be kinda cool or something. Also should be stored in a jar to maintain freshness.
/ Should automatically record your best times.
/ Should automatically record the new episode of your favorite show.
/ No super special secret surprise succeeding success? Aww...

7/10, favorite. Me likey. :3

marmph responds:

Thanks for your feedback! I'll look into your suggestions if I ever make a sequel :)

[A blobs tale]

I'm one of THOSE people...

Yep, one of the people who can't use the boomerang. Intel Mac OS X Safari.

So I guess I'll have to review it based on what comes before that part. There are a bunch of issues with the controls and platforms. For example, sometimes I can't jump, and I keep falling off of platforms when I shouldn't. I don't like the idea of having 20 lives for the whole game, either, mainly because of the issues with staying on platforms. It seems like the type of game where you should just keep going until you reach the end. Plus, there's no way a first time player won't lose a couple lives in places like the first few platforms, which by the way gave me a wrong idea of what the game would be like. I don't see any new concepts introduced here so far. There's no reason to come to this game first if I want to play a few platformers, since other games have done everything and many have done things in better ways.

I like the general style of the game, though. I think if some of the problems were fixed, it could be a decent puzzle platformer. It seems like a style I would use if I made games. Let me know when the game's updated and I'll check it out.

Did you notice what happens when you pull a lever and a rock is on the spot where the platform rises? Might wanna fix that. Also, make the character walk slightly faster. And give us a funny hat option so I can point and laugh. "HAW! Lookit 'is hat!" :P

[Lastman]

Needs work, I'm sad to say.

I thought I was in for a nice challenge, but this is just annoying. The controls took about 80 restarts to get decently used to, for one thing. I'd suggest letting users change their controls. Plus, there are no checkpoints, there is no tutorial level of any kind, the instructions seem incomplete, and the hitboxes are anyone's guess from what I've seen. Ads are kind of annoying, plus a lack of music or more than a couple sound effects. Supposedly there is some way of attacking the crabs, but what seems to work one time fails miserably another. One thing this game just suffers without is some sort of humor to make it worth all the retries. Say, is the whole game one level? I don't know about anyone else, but I prefer a few dozen hard levels over one annoyingly hard one. I say this game could be okay if it was given a little more work to make it hard but enjoyable instead of hard and annoying/bland.

[Red is Bad]

So I was looking through my old favorites...

And I found this. It's hard to say how easy or hard it is, since sometimes dots will be in nearly impossible places on level 1 and sometimes they'll all go right down the middle on level 10. Eventually, and suddenly, the game becomes pretty much impossible. I'd suggest preset dot patterns, variety (Walls, reversed controls, levels that are almost entirely red dots... you get it. OOOOO That gave me an idea for a level that starts out as a forced, twisted red tunnel of dots, then at some point a blue dot appears on the outside of the tunnel and an exit appears in the side of the red tunnel when it's about halfway down the screen. Then you have to get back in and do it a few more times. I should make games...), music, some sort of final level, and maybe a bonus life every 50 points or something. I hope you improve this game, because with those kinds of things it would be my absolute favorite dot avoider.

[Dynamic Systems]

Well done!

Complex, creative puzzles (Though some are easy to cheat past with the right arrangement of pieces... I only used those when I absolutely could not pass the level and the provided solution came up as "WRONG"... heh...) and great physics. I wish it was longer... make a sequel! One complaint is the "WRONG" message... I'd rather restart it manually, since I ended up hitting "START" instead of "RESET" all the time when I tried to avoid getting a "WRONG". I suggest more piece sizes, maybe some conveyor belts, and the ability to pass levels like this one:

S19|267|130|-64,S11|75|45|0,S19|214|1 59|0|F,S4|353|272|0|F,Basket|615|283|
-50|F,Ball|172|135|0|F,
S19|235|185|0,Ball|423|18|0|F,Basket|
185|415|0|F,S4|321|254|0|F,S1|408|86|
-56,

(Which is really two levels designed to go on top of each other. Right now, I can get both balls in the baskets, but the level won't end.)

Oh, and maybe speeding up the playback, since some levels were long and I kept making very slight adjustments to pieces near the end. The graphics are great, the music is nice... it's really hard to complain. I would like to submit scores here and name levels, if that isn't too much trouble. 5/5, 10/10, favorite.