Listen2Reason's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Unfair Platformer]

It's okay

It's an okay Flash take on "I Wanna Be The Guy". Easier than IWBTG, but still pretty difficult.

[Coil]

Interesting...

I enjoyed this game. For one thing, the graphics were excellent. You really felt like you were looking into a microscope at stuff. The graphics really evoked what (I think) you were trying to evoke.) The music was simple, but it fit. No sound, and there were times when some sound might have been nice, but that's a stylistic decision.

The control scheme was interesting. As far as I can tell, clicking the mouse never does anything. If so, I think you should mention that in the "instructions". (I mean, I had lots of trouble going through the screens of text! Eventually I figured out that you just spin the mouse around.) So, moving and hovering is what you need in this game...that's cool. The idea of a game "without instructions" is not truly original, of course, but this one worked pretty well. I think each "stage" was simple enough that it wasn't too hard to figure out what to do. (The most difficult was the one falling down the screen while little things tried to push you back up...I eventually decided that spinning yourself was the way to get it working most consistently. Am I right?)

The one thing that really disappointed me about the game is that it didn't have a conclusion. What is this weird little creature, who is "she", what's going on with "her" and how are they connected? There's no explanation, no closure. That's definitely disappointing.

Still, while it wasn't perfect, I'd say it was a worthy effort.

[Circle Un-Avoid]

Pointless?

I don't understand, I click the circle and it says ".5" or ".4"? Every now and then it says ".8". The circle doesn't ever move, though. That's what I was expecting, the circle to move.

GuyWithHisComp responds:

Sorry for being unclear.
It should be click AND HOLD to play.

[Spin the black circle]

Pretty good

Pretty good. I've seen games like this before, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. This one was well executed. I like how you gave lots of tips on what the controls were and how to do things. (Once or twice it seemed like there were TOO many tips, but you know, it's better to have too many than too few. ;) )

My ONE problem with the game...You couldn't play it entirely with the keyboard. I mean, you DO play it entirely with the keyboard...EXCEPT that you have to use the mouse to press "Next Level". I have my right hand pressing the arrow keys for a while, going through the game...and then suddenly I have to move it over to the mouse for just a moment to get it to the next level, then move it back to the keyboard...Really, it would be much better to have a keypress move to the next level. If you want to "pause" and let them see their score, then make it something like "Press Enter for next level" instead of "press any key".

Anyway, good job.

[Fish Quest]

Meh

It seemed like a good game, nice concept, okay graphics. However, I got to the boss fight and couldn't pass it. I was typing in the commands and I would keep suddenly dying. And I'm SURE I wasn't pressing the wrong commands. And since typing in the commands is the only thing you can do, I don't see what I could have done differently. So, all in all I didn't really like it.

SnowFlavored responds:

The boss has its own attacks. If you get hit by it, it will take a life. He attacks in the same place pretty much every time, so it's easy to avoid. Conversely, you can use the bubble shield. It's ok though, thanks for your input!

[Blood Car 2000!]

Fishtail ho

Talk about your floaty controls, I was fishtailing all over the place. You really need to tighten those up. The basic game was okay. I get what you were going for with the whole "retro" graphics, but overall it just seemed kind of...meh.

[The Domino Knight]

Polished and buggy, if that makes any sense?

It looked like someone put a lot of work into this game, because the graphics and sound were all pretty good...But somehow it was just unplayable. One time I played, I got a bridge of dominoes going all the way across the screen but it didn't work for some reason. The level only ended after I put like three more dominoes down. Also, it wouldn't let me pick up certain dominoes, and I had trouble putting the dominoes down where I wanted. Very strange, and frustrating.

[Vektor]

Too hard

It's okay but it's too freakin' hard. The squares move randomly--and so quickly! They just zip into your mouse pointer before you have the chance to do anything. I think you have a good idea for a game here, you just gotta work on it and tweak it some more.

[Flash Empires]

Okay...

Well, for one thing, there are a LOT of games of this type, but let's put that aside...The actual gameplay was a lot faster than most games, it made it feel like more intense action was going on, so that was good. But I think it would be better if there were some way to buy more towers or upgrades during battle. Most games let you do that, but in this one you just have to keep pressing "Next wave"...

[Sphere Core]

Difficult and pointless...

It was well coded and everything, but I think some of the puzzles were just unfair. I hate those "hunt the pixel" puzzles. Looking through the walkthrough, I noticed that I hadn't found the code and the blue tile...And I STILL had trouble finding them, even with the walkthrough's directions. Forcing the player to hunt over areas of the screen doesn't make for good gameplay.

The other thing that bothers me about the game is that there's very little explanation. In the walkthrough you say things like "The Sphere needs more power to continue", but how is the player supposed to get that when they're just playing through the game? They end up trying random stuff until something works, which means they don't know what the story is.

Anyway, it was a good effort, maybe your next game will be better. ;)

Lazarou responds:

As I said, this is my first flash game, and I did learn a lot whilst making it. When I make the sequal I am going to take on board comments such as these, but I also want to keep the "spirit" of the point and click escape genre. I wouldnt say there are any real "hunt the pixel" cases in this game, its just a case of watching your mouse as you look around the screen. I have only hidden things in places where it would be logical to hide them.

Originally I was planning text comments which would give additional hints on the puzzle, but at the last minute i decided against it for several reasons - I liked the idea that you play yourself, rather than have someone elses disembodied brain feeding you information as you move around. Also I wanted to maintain a degree of difficulty to the game, however the balance of these things is always hard, what one person finds simple (opening the cryogenic cylinder in the corner for example) is infuriatingly difficult for others.
Of course, some things I would probably change, the screws around the wall safe are probably a little small, its hard to tell if you are removing them or not. I think the last part of the puzzle is very confusing for most people, perhaps a little more "direction" would make it smoother. I know what its like to get stuck on a game like this and it does get irritating, although I did try to make this game have very little of those moments.

Anyway, thanks for your comments and I hope that my next game will be more enjoyable for you :)