Knuckstrike's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lost Catacombs]

Very nice

This was also one of the hardest of the requests to review for me.

I liked how the first levels were with scientists and other researchers, and the later levels were with no people. It gives more of a feeling that you're going through a cript on your own.

I did find the puzzles a bit boring at the start. I'm not very good at these puzzle games, but I could just walk through the first seven levels without thinking. After that it got really hard though. So maybe you could make the difficulty curve a bit less steep?

The only real negative point I can think of with this game is the control scheme. Although it's an angle in which you can see everything, I'd rather have a map which let you walk down if you press down, and not that you walk to the bottom-left. Most of the time where failed was because I pressed a wrong button.

It's still a really nice game though, and the majority of the things are just fine. The addition of a level editor is great, and I love the large amount of puzzles there are. I didn't get very far in the game either, but certainly liked the puzzles I did complete.

Review request club

SantoNinoDeCebu responds:

Yeah, I chose the 'isometric' view because it looks pretty and and stuff but in the end it turns out to be fairly impractical as I ruled out using the mouse to click to positions because it wouldn't work on later puzzles (all the ice and sand tiles). It should have just been kept straight on instead of rotated.. but ach well!

Because of this controls issue though we made the first few levels simple so try allow players enough time to get the hang of the controls so it was difficult to balance stupidly simple but still kind of fun at the beginning.

It is a shame I feel that it is the later levels are where the puzzles begin to shine because the more complex elements just can't be introduced in earlier levels or it becomes too hard to fast (which is apparently still present!)

Cheers!

[El's Quest]

Not too bad

But not too good either. There is one thing I liked about this game more than the average game of these sorts, and that is the magic. It's a nice addition, but unfortunately that is the only really good thing about this game.

Although everything works fine though, I haven't passed across any glitches. It would be nice if you got a warning a second before a bomb or circle goes into the screen though. You will have to have an insane reaction time sometimes, for example if you have to go to the right completely to dodge falling rectangles, and suddenly a circle rolls in your screen.

It was a bit wierd how setting a bomb on fire didn't kill you. A nice extra would be that you die if you tried that.

I had hoped for an instruction in-game though. After reading all of the author comments I found out that the rupee-like things falling are worth points. You could've said that somewhere, along with simple instructions.

The high-score function is nice. It gives you something to keep on playing. An additional thing like new levels after a few thousand points would be nice though.

Review request club

[Aura.]

Just one or two things that ruin the fun...

At first it's a very nice game. Though there are not really some sort of instructions, the game is still easy to play. I hoped for a bit harder levels, but that's where I got really disappointed: the levels don't get harder, they just get longer. Instead of some puzzles or a bullet storm kind of game, it became a "search endlessly for one or two squares" game. If you gave an indication where the next square is after a few seconds, it would be fixed. But now it loses its addictiveness after a short while.

There is also not a story, or something else that makes you want to keep playing. The medals are a very nice addition, but a game like this shouldn't focus solely on medals.

Such a shame, because nearly everything else is okay. The idea is fine, and has a twist on other games like this. The graphics are perfect. The abstractness really fits with the game.

I also really liked the idea of the stars on the map shining less brightly if you don't have all orbs there yet. It would be nice if it was explained though.
The map is also a bit unorganized. After a while I had over twenty levels unlocked that I hadn't played yet. It would be nice if there was some sort of indication of how long and/or hard they are.

[~Strange Thoughts~]

I wanted to review this one at least

You kept very close to the Game Jam theme, which is good.
I liked how the graphics changed with the sobriety changing too. It was a nice addition, and I guess that's what makes this game kind of special. A bar not affecting how you play the game but how the game looks like is something I hadn't seen before.

It wasn't really clear what you had to do though. A bit of instructions would be nice, apart from pressing up for floating.

A few additions would be nice too. The only two really different power-ups were health up, and sobriety down. It would be nice to have a powerful power-up, or at least something different. To pull you out of the trance you're playing in for a second.

The enemies had only two set patterns too. Either I didn't come far enough with 2950, or it just keeps on spawning the same kind of enemies.

Overall it's a nice game for making in a few days, so for a Game Jam submission it's nice. But for a real horizontal flight game it isn't diverse enough to enjoy playing it more than a few times. It was really nice to play it the first few times though.

Review request club

[Symbiosis Snake]

I think it deserves more recognicion.

I haven't seen this twist of the classic snake before. It's addicting, and while it gives the same addictiveness as the old snake, it still gives a new kind of twist which prevents me from getting bored.

The graphics are neon-ish, and it really fits into a game like this. The character choice is a bit limited though. Maybe you could just give a small 8x8 or 4x4 character editor. It would give an even more complete feeling, and solve the problem of the limited characters.

A bit more variation would be nice too. A hurdle to jump over sometimes, enemies that you had to dodge, a wall you can't go through or something like that would give less of a feeling you're constantly doing the same thing.

After practicing a bit it starts off a bit slow. Maybe you could implement a feature that allows everything to go 2x as fast, for 2x points.

Those features aren't neccesairy though, since the game is already quite hard. Perhaps something for a next game?

Also, sorry for not writing a review before. I kind of forgot :(

tenentenen responds:

I wish people knew of this game!
Also you can change the speed, and you get more points for higher speed.
The score is calculated per movement, and is based on how fast, and how short the snake is.

Thanks for the review!

[Ballz! Bounce]

Some major flaws

The largest that you really need to fix is that you gain money for clicking the ball, and not for the length or time it flies. This is especially irritating on the later levels, where you get for a ball 23500 above the clickable screen only about 40 money. If I spam click the ball for a few seconds I get more money.

Another is that it takes really long for a ball to reach the ground. Having to wait a minute for a ball to land isn't an exception. With a very boring background, I'd rather play another game while waiting.

It's just too plain and boring to be really enjoyable. If you could cut off the current "throw" it wouldn't be so boring. A button to the main menu would be nice too.

I think it's better to NOT buy some of the upgrades, since it makes the game a lot slower and more boring if you do.
And the tries taken and ball clicks are indeed broken.

Another nice addition would be to be able to edit the background and ball, maybe even with your own .gifs.

Review request club

Gimmick responds:

I like the suggestion ("edit background and ball"). I'll incorporate it into the next release.

I understand that you gain money only for clicking the ball and not for making it go high, whoa, major mistake on my part. I should've known better >.<

I was going to add a go to main menu button, but ah, my memory serves me badly...it's not the first time. Anyways, I will refer back to these helpful reviews to see what I've forgotten, completely justifies the low score, since I didn't plan anything and just created something spontaneously :P

The tries taken and ball bounced...funny, it worked in the internal flash environment...

Anyhow, thanks for the review, it was really helpful!

[Madotsuki's Dream Dock]

Good

I understand now that it's not a point 'n click game, but it would be nice to know that it's just the girl changing form before you start.

Now that's clear, the rest is just fine. The sound is relaxing, and the small "ting" when the girl changes her appearance fits perfectly.

The next step would be that everything moves to the side slowly, and that you would shift between several surroundings, each with different things you can click on.

For three days you did great though, and as a small interactive loop it's just fine.

Pienkaito responds:

The thing is that I can't find an appropriate genre for this. It's literally a point 'n click game, but for the general audience it isn't.

It's funny, that you mention that idea of yours, because that was exactly what I've planned to do. It just didn't make the cut, because of the short amount of time.

Anyway, thanks for your comment on my animation.