Listen2Reason's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Enigma]

Good!

I liked this, a good idea (yay Metal Storm!) and implemented well. It's not immediately obvious that you can use the mouse to do stuff...I didn't see that mentioned in the help, but it was mentioned in the in-game tutorial, but I guess it's okay. There were just two things that bothered me.

1) The controls change when gravity changes. If gravity is left, then suddenly left is jump. It's hard to wrap your mind around. We're much more used to playing games where the controls stay the same but the direction of play changes.

2) Why can't you change gravity in midair? That was one of the really cool features of Metal Storm.

Anyway, good job!

EggysGames responds:

If you changed in mid air you would be able to fly..

[Noba Minesweeper]

Pretty good...

Well, everyone likes Minesweeper, I think. The one problem this game has (and it's one the original Minesweeper has, of course) is that your first few clicks are completely random. You have no way of knowing whether you're going to click a mine. I got to the fifth level or so and clicked a mine and there was really no way for me to prevent it...But now with your game I have to start all the way back at the beginning when that happens. It's kind of annoying, actually.

Benjaminsen responds:

Personally I find this very annoying as well and even wend so fare as to make sure the first time you click a tile you will never hit a mine!

Still the goal was to make a minesweeper game, true in gameplay to the original, so did not really have a choice for the game dynamics.

[Insurgo]

Pretty fun

I enjoyed this one...yeah, it *is* pretty similar to Tower of Goo and Bridge Builder (also known as Pontifex ;) ), but those are great games, so...My one real objection is that there really wasn't much to do...just make a high tower. You should make one that has levels that have different objectives, like trying to build a bridge over a chasm, or I don't know, building stuff in an existing skyscraper...Anyway, good job for what it was. ;)

VoidSkipper responds:

There will be different game modes in the sequel :P

Bridge Builder and Pontifex are the same thing?

[- Bouncy -]

Unoriginal

Kinda boring, I mean, it isn't anything we haven't seen before, is it? I sat there and had the ball bounce 100 times, then wondered why I had bothered. I kept waiting for more balls, something about the instructions seemed to imply there would be more of them, but they never appeared. I looked at the high scores thing and I can't imagine someone sitting there for more than 600 bounces...

Psycho responds:

You're supposed to click to make more balls appear :/

[Shape-a-licious]

Good try, sort of

Sort of okay, but it had a couple of big problems. First, the controls were so floaty...It was like the star was moving around on ice, slipping and sliding all over the place, really hard to control. Second, I got to a certain point and died. I mean, my life just went down until it was game over. There was no reason for it that I could determine. It just kind of vanished. After something like that I don't feel like playing the game any more.

Oddgoo responds:

You probably left the mouse pointer on a RED area

[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.

[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!

[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 :)

[String Avoider 2]

Difficult, buggy.

It's obvious you spent a lot of time polishing this game, but it's just too hard. Just the fourth level required intense precision, especially with the way the string moves so quickly. Human hands just can't move a mouse that precisely without jiggling it a bit. Beyond that, it seemed to have bugs that made it unplayable. I would just randomly die in a level, and I could see my string's tip wasn't anywhere NEAR a wall. All in all, this game was good for nothing more than a few minutes of frustration.

fwe responds:

I don't understand. Human hands can clearly beat this level as I have, along with every single other level in this game. I wouldn't release this game if it was as buggy as you claim it is. Maybe your 1997 IBM is processing it wrong, or your ball mouse can't handle the precision of such an easy level.

Thanks for the review, though