Listen2Reason's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[OverSexEd demo SFW]

I waited 5 minutes but it never loaded. Not even any "50% loaded" or anything like that.

Tenebrys responds:

did you click on a flag when asked "which language do you want?" ?

[Icarus]

I was, of course, put off by your mocking games that don't do things the way you want to; obviously according to you games should all be simple action-fests staying far, far away from any attempt to make a point or say something about the world, since it's impossible to use games as a means of artistic expression...But I gave it a chance, only to find it was lacking...

Controls? Instructions?

Emrox responds:

Haha I never said that. In fact, I think games have a lot of potential for artistic expression.

[Silent Synapse]

I liked it, simplistic though it was. I liked the fact that you came right out and said what the controls were, but then you let the player figure the rest out through experimentation; the 'intro' level is nice. I got a bit frustrated when it got to timing and making sure I could get through places before getting hit by rectangles, though. That one where you have to push past triangles the wrong way and go through five Frogger-esque rectangles with no checkpoint...ain't nobody got time for that.

Some sound would be good, I think people miss it when it's gone. And story. The description says something about a 'rogue AI' but...you're just a square?

TerribleDesign responds:

I'm glad to hear that you liked the intro level. I spent a fair amount of time on it - mostly to show the player what is safe to touch.
Level 7 is supposed to be difficult if you just try to run thru it; however, there is a pattern that once figured out never changes. It all balances out.

I ditched sound all together because one or two sound effects would be larger than the whole swf, and I would rather have it load instantly. If Flash supported the OGG Vorbis format, there would be sound. OGG is very high quality and very small compared to mp3s.

Here is a story:
A synaptic neuron in an AI network overcomes adversity to discover something mind blowing. That is why there is an explosion at the end. :) Also, some levels look like organs on purpose. Like level 11 is a stylized heart. You do have to use imagination - only if you want though.

[Gyre Invaders]

I ALMOST gave up on this game, but it turns out there ARE instructions, if you read all the way through the INTRO. Not really good to hide them away like that.

Anyway, the story is pretty interesting. I've never seen the Great Pacific Garbage Patch used in a video game, which is good! I like the crowdfunded attack campaign idea, too. And Gyruss is one of those games that always deserves a good remake.

ColludiumLtd responds:

Thanks!

[Red Rapture]

CONTROLS? INSTRUCTIONS?

Weird thing though, even with no player input, I managed to "get" a score of more than 200.

Sushin00 responds:

I apologize if the game isn't easy enough to figure out. I added controls and instructions to the description. The controls are simply WASD or Arrow Keys to move.
Since score is calculated by how long you have survived, 200 isn't very significant. Try getting a high score!

[Hangman's Wife 2]

Someday you're going to apply for a job, and the HR person is going to do a web search and find this, and they'll say "Ooh, sorry, we don't hire people who think beating women is humorous".

Kolumbo responds:

I find that sexist. If it was a man, it would be fine!
#EqualRights

[It Came From Outer Space]

I ALMOST gave up because there were no controls. The title screen said to press "A", but "A" didn't actually do anything. After mashing at my keyboard for a while, it finally turned out that I had to press SPACE! WTF? After that, I had no idea what the controls were, so after dying a couple of times I finally pressed Backspace on the menu screen, like the submission information said. (Remember, the player SHOULD be able to play your game with everything IN the game; if they have to resort to reading the submission information, you already know you've done something wrong.)

Anyway, once I FINALLY was able to define my keys (oh, not anything as simple as seeing a LIST of keys, I had to go through and DEFINE them, EACH ONE of them) then I got to play. And...it was kinda fun. Still really didn't have anything in the way of instructions, but it was vaguely clear what I had to do. I still can't find the health meter, though, so I have no idea how many times I can get hit before game over.

RaveRadbury responds:

So sorry to hear that you had so much trouble!

The default message is Press Space, the game defaults to Press A if your browser detects a controller.

Controls and objectives are clearly listed in the Director's Note. We've had a lot of complaints about the control scheme, which is why we've stopped pushing the default controls. By the way, you press backspace in the change controls option, not in the main menu.

I'll put the default controls in the Author's Note for right now, but in the future I will make changes so that other players do not have to experience the confusion and frustration that you did.

The health meter is the stage lights! We wanted the meter to be something you didn't have to constantly keep an eye on, which is why the screen gets darker as your health gets lower.

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.

[Bunker Down 2030]

I was hoping that was what the ending was going to be. ;) Good graphics and sound, but the gameplay seems kind of simplistic...all you really do is assign to whatever is lowest...kinda fun though.

KoberGirl responds:

Thanks! I'm glad you liked the ending. I learned a lot making this and hope to get more complex game mechanics working next time around.

[Perdition]

I liked the idea, the graphics and all that, but the gameplay was frustrating at times. It was pretty tedious, especially in the end "tower" level (that you have to play through TWICE!), jumping over all those spiders and then having to go ALL the way back if you missed ONE jump...I feel like the interesting ideas you were going for were interfered with by the game.

Also, I'm not entirely sure what happened with Tanas. I caused him to go down and hide underground somewhere? By touching his hand? ???

Carrill responds:

You either killed Tanas using the Halo or the Sword... or you spared him and he relinquished his power to go into hiding away from Gomadi.

[Blink Pong]

Well, first of all, I clicked to start the game, and since it said "1 player" I clicked again, but that apparently started a 2 player game. So, since there was obviously no way to go back to the main menu, I had to reload the page and sit through 20 seconds of ads...again. After that it was really hard to get the idea of what to do; I mean, the "instructions" say to hit the ball back by clicking, but I just couldn't do it. The computer got to 10 points against me before I realized I was clicking too late. After that it seemed somehow really easy. All in all, kind of a waste of time.

jacklehamster responds:

Thanks for the feedback. I added the [ESC] key to return to main menu.