Kuildeous's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Talesworth Adventure Ep.1]

Nice and challenging

I enjoyed this a lot. It is heavy in theme and presents a very consistent play experience. The later levels had my brain smoking. I don't often rate 10s, but I think this one deserves it. The graphics and sound are amusing.

The only suggestion I would have (which may knock the score down to 9.5 but not 9) is to make the arrows clearer when they are obstructed by a monster or treasure. Perhaps there could be a button to hide all obstacles and treasures so you can see the board itself.

Good job on this.

[Bango!]

Good puzzle game but too small of a play area

I really enjoyed this game. It was simple, but the puzzles had just enough of a challenge to keep me involved. And it wasn't so hard that I felt like giving up (although the challenge levels are fairly challenging).

I even enjoyed the walkthrough popup, though I could see it coming up only once and then just draw attention to a walkthrough link, especially since the walkthrough for level 11 is on the same video as the walkthrough for level 18. It's rather unnecessary to have a popup all the time. But it can be easily dismissed, and I appreciate that.

There are two frustrating things that prevent me from giving this a perfect 10:

* The upper-left block cannot be seen, even with the title collapsed. Granted, the arrow blocks were easy enough to figure out, but it would have made it easier (and possibly nicer on the time score) if the block were visible right away.

* On the higher levels of blocks, you cannot see where you are jumping. This has cost me more than once.

Both of these can be fixed by enlarging the game canvas.

But I really did enjoy this game and suggest it even for those who aren't big fans of puzzles.

[Super Idiot]

Nice look, interesting concept, bad controls

As others said, the controls were too sensitive. If I had to nudge it just once, it would shift two or three columns over. I would then have to try to reverse that while the ground comes closer. More than once, this placed a piece on top of the tower instead of into a nice hole I had prepared for that piece.

That being said, the animation is kind of nice. The pieces are distinctive, just like the original. I may suggest that the preview for the next piece also be in color. For most of level 1, I thought I was playing a version of Tetris with no preview piece. That's how unnoticeable the bland piece was.

One cannot really comment on originality when it comes to Tetris. It's Tetris; what more is there to say? This was a loyal replica of Tetris. Well done. I was amused that the character's gun would go up to his head the more cluttered it became.

Overall, nice game, but the controls are really the only negative thing I would say. Unfortunately, this is a big deal in a game like this.

[Tower Core]

Excellent puzzles

This game really makes one think, and I like that. I especially like how you rarely have all you need in one room. You have to really jump between the towers in order to solve most of the rooms.

Which brings me to one negative review: Movement is tedious. I could figure out that to open room X, I had to go to room Y. I didn't want to click on numerous doors to get there. If this were rereleased with an option of jumping rooms (even if it's something as simple as "leave tower"), I'd give it a 10. The movements made the game longer, and it's not a compliment in this case.

But, I had a lot of fun. Sadly, these types of games lose their replay appeal once you complete it, but I'll be sure to sic my wife on this. And I can vouch that this game can be solved without hints, but it won't necessarily be easy. I came close to giving up on the six bars above the door. Good thing I didn't. It was very satisfying when the answer came to me.

[-Grid-]

Excellent gameplay and challenging levels

I played up to level 30, and I was not bored. I did have to take a couple of breaks, as my mind was melted from some of the levels.

The one downside is the speed. Maybe it was the background. While the background looked awesome, the loading and unloading of the pages took a while. I would have preferred instant gratification to a fancy background.

But great game. It kept my brain working.

[Mind Cards]

Interesting but clunky

The score doesn't indicate how well one does. It'd be nice to see a comparison or even some arbitrary list.

Also, some feedback at the end would be handy so people can know where they did lose some points.

It'd be nice to set the focus on the input boxes. It's clunky to use both the mouse and the keyboard. I probably lost some points because the first four times I entered the numbers without clicking inside the box.

[Star Stalker]

Fun for a few minutes but no staying power

I don't normally play many cursor-avoidance games, but this one was pretty fun.

For a litle bit.

The biggest problem is that the standard game gets stuck in a rut. Having a score of 50k is just as challenging as having a score of 10k. If it gets harder than "Very Fast," then I just did not have the patience to find it. I had to stop the game with over 10 lives left.

The game could benefit from a sliding scale of difficulty. Some examples:
* Make the duration of the powerups be shorter and shorter as time goes by. By the time you hit 20k, the duration should be half of normal. At 40k, the duration is only a quarter.
* Make the cursor size increase faster. I stopped collecting stars for a little bit to see what would happen. I couldn't tell a difference. I would suggest increasing the cursor by 100% for every 3 seconds. Possibly make the rate of growth even faster as you progress. There are a lot of stars, so it's not likely that someone will suffer too much from a fast increase.
* Introduce a new plus sign that reduces your score by even more. Furthermore, it bloats your cursor by 4. This plus sign comes out in advanced stages.
* Introduce larger hazards. Early in the game, all is fine, but later, you see one large hazard come through every 10 seconds. Then, every 5 seconds. Perhaps every 2 seconds. Then, you may see two, three, or even eight of them at all.

In general, ramp up the difficulty as the game progresses. I had no motivation to continue the game. The only way my game would have been over is when my eyes were too strained to see clearly. That is not a test of one's skill but of one's physiological well-being. I'd rather see this be a game of skill.

But the music was nice, and the graphics were all very agreeable.

Oh, and periodically while in the bubble, I would sometimes have the sound of being hit by a plus. I'm not sure if there's a flaw in the code, but the bubble does not protect 100% (which is actually a nice feature, if it's documented).

[Death Dice Overdose]

Great concept but too capricious

I do like the concept, and I like the idea of things going wonky when you take too many pills. I got to see a few effects but not many.

The reason for this is that the pills don't seem to show up enough times. I was at about 10% white and didn't see a single pill until the bar started flashing red. At that time, pills showed up, but I couldn't get there in time.

I'm all for making things difficult as time passes (faster dice, pills are more and more off the ground, etc.), but this becomes difficult for no good reason. If the random number generator is not kind to the player, then the player loses through no fault of his own. That makes the game less fun.

Regulate the pills so that they are available consistently (even if you have to jump over 8 dice to get to them), and the game is very playable.

[Pillage the Village]

Fun but the pauses were annoying

I did play DYC, and I got bored of it within a few levels. This game did not suffer that drawback. I was engaged and only stopped at level 22 because it's late. Thank goodness for the save feature.

The graphics look nice. Kudos on that. They are very sharp.

If there were one thing that needs changing, it's the menu that pops up after every level. When I'm saving up for a $6000 upgrade, I end up skipping that phase three or four times (or more) in a row. That got annoying. I would suggest having the shop be an option after a level. If you don't have enough to buy what you want, then skip the shop.

Otherwise, pretty fun.

[The Unfair Platformer]

Definitely not false advertising!

Yes, very unfair. Of course, you handle this with good humor, so it's all good. Admittedly, I was almost too frustrated to continue, but over 100 lives later, I did complete the game.

It had a couple of glitches. They aren't deal-breaking, but they did take away from the game. For example, sometimes the invisible blocks would not show up right away. This was common if I was moving quickly. I would run along the bridge and stop moving. But no bricks appeared. I had to stop and press the arrow again to make the blocks show.

Thank goodness for the checkpoints, though.

One suggestion is to allow people to kill themselves after hitting the yellow flag. I focused so much on not getting killed in one level so that when I hit the yellow flag, I went and committed suicide (especially to see if that block I avoided really was trapped). Imagine my disappointment to discover that I had to do the whole level again, even before the checkpoint.

I liked the homage to Mario with the coins. They are so useless that it is basically a Mario/Sonic satire. I especially like how getting coins was usually a bad thing.

Fun little platform game. I'm very stubborn, and I almost gave up on this game, so I imagine there are some players who got fed up.