Galneda's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Madness: Premeditation]

Great idea!

It's very, very trial and error, but it's still a very fun game. AP is pretty slow to accumulate, but maybe that's a good thing.

A glitch, unfortunately, ruined my gaming experience. Y'see, by the time I got to the worm right after the two sentry guns, I died from the worm once for not moving. No lie, on the second try, I sprinted ahead, shot twice behind me, and chucked a grenade in the bottom right corner. The timing was so perfect, that the grenade exploded and destroyed the worm in the bottom right. I had survived, standing on the crate in the middle, boss's health was depleted, explosion animation, sound effect, all that jazz...but it told me I had failed.

...What? I killed the worm and lived to tell about it. How did I fail?

I retried the game from the very start. Frustrated I couldn't repeat my lucky grenade hit, I devoted that 1 AP to the other pistol...and in my continued frustration, realizing I'm having a pretty bad time with the FIRST BOSS, I basically rage-quit. One thing I can't complain about is it's certainly not easy, so the challenge is a plus!

Additionally, it would be most useful if you could remove the targeting nodes after you've placed them, instead of having to restart and maneuver your way around level again. It's a pretty brilliant system, with how it's layed out, and it does a good job not to over power Hank...but perhaps he might be a little underpowered.

The atmosphere, characters, and all-around artistic style looked awesome! Sound effects were all good, and the music was appropriate for the mood, but not very interesting and never grabbed my attention. As far as programming goes, it felt very nice! Hank was reliably weighty, and I pulled off the wall-jump well, the targeting system is accurate, and I suppose disallowing targeting nodes to be close together makes sense for recoil, but they should still be easily removed should the player make a mistake. And what's the deal with those grenades? Was my boss mishap a similar result to SangerZonvolt's (below me) deal?

I'm still voting highly regardless of it because it was a good lookin', good feeling game, with a good idea; it's evident you guys spent some time on this. Happy belated Pico Day! Voted 5.

BoMToons responds:

you can remove nodes by clicking on them after they're placed (then clicking an "x" in the gun assignment menu), I'll look into the worm boss grenade bug, thanks!

[Madness Hydraulic]

It's a fun romp!

You guys are really getting the most out of Bandage Hank! Though the visuals sans the stage are mostly recycled from previous Madness game days, they still work well! This variation handles more favorably, in my opinion, because of the upgrade system. I had speed and health cranked waayyy up, so I was flying all over the place taking pop-shots with a shotgun at pointblank before gliding over to someone else with almost Equilibrium pace. It was pretty damn fun!

The tilting stage was an interesting twist, and it, as well as the zombie rushes, succeeded in breaking up the pace. I like how the gray baddies, agents, and mustard-bleeding spec ops are all there...alas, as I type this I haven't made it to Wave 40, though that could work in the game's favor for replay value! :D

One problem I seemed to have was, and especially in tilting stages, the enemy will group together in, (allow me to whip out Starcraft 2 lingo) a Bio-Ball...or really a Bio-Ball of Ballistic Bullets; with nearly every gun except for the flamethrower, I would be pelting one, maybe two enemies out of a group of eight or ten who would mostly be firing at me with a decent spreadshot because of my jumping patterns. Because the bullets only truly effect the forward-most enemy, the guy in the back has no problem blasting a shotgun from the corner of the room with a guaranteed hit on my player.

Often, if I just wanted to dislodge them of their weaponry, the fists on the ground seemed to do a better job wading deep into an armed crowd, letting out an explosion of guns in the wake of the hit. That is, this would work if they didn't immediately pick them up again the moment they stopped bouncing.

Though Hank's ground punches are weighty and strong, his jump kick is more comparable to a booty sting, allowing a string of singular kicks to be hit upon the same target as they fly into the air multiple times...it would just make more sense if his aerial kick sent them more into a downward slam instead of drifting back slightly, but that boils down to my personal opinion, as usually with any fighting game, I prefer to be more of an aerial combatant...this is usually due to a lack of sprint or lunging ground attack.

The flamethrower did a great job at close-range crowd control, the shotgun was excellent, the M60 was awesome as usual, the P90 was okay, the Desert Eagle was nerfed, the Grenade Launcher SEEMED nerfed, and I kinda wished the starting H&K would make a reappearance somewhere in the game...maybe the clown could be armed with one of those instead of the shotgun?...though, honestly, that shotgun rocked...

...which bummed me out a little when running out of ammunition. After some kills have been layed down, the ground will be littered with a near incomprehensible mass of hardware, that it's difficult to distinguish what you're going to be picking up. I'll see the tip of a shotgun barrel inbetween a Desert Eagle and a Grenade Launcher, I hit "S" to pick it up, and I'll pick up a flamethrower that's a little to the left. It may be more user friendly if the "S to pick up Weapon" icon wasn't nudged off in the corner where we're not looking and it acted more like a Heads Up Display. Like, "S to pick up Shotgun" or "S to pick up Grenade L." right there beneath Hank.

It didn't chop too badly on my end, but there were a few cosmetic glitches; killing random enemies, and their bodies would fly back and die, but their hands and their weapons would remain stationary long after their dead...near the end of the level, at one point, I had a pair of hands and a floating shotgun pointing at the corner, floating hands and a Desert Eagle pointing up, and floating hands and a flamethrower pointing straight all at the same time...the angle they're pointing likely indicative of where the enemy was aiming when they died, but it was still kind of amusing...unless, you know, I WANTED those weapons >:C lol

Also, probably good news for you, I don't think I've ever accidentally clicked an ad link as much as I have today. Having to aim at the bottom middle can do that...lol.

Great job!

[Binary]

Efficient puzzler, but a little tooo short IMO

The first day I played this, I was pretty frustrated at first. With no real direction from the get-go, I felt kind of silly just clicking around on the first door's buttons until I accidentally got them all lit. From there on, the madness continued, but admittedly, the feeling of accomplishment in a puzzle with nothing more than just the puzzle in front of you, demonstrationless, outweighed ANY feeling of pride in a game that required tutorials. It's like, "Fuck yea. I just beat the machine!"

But it was on the first day playing this that I ran into my first brick wall; once you start a puzzle, you can't back out and do a different one in case you feel a little overwhelmed...which was the case when I neglected to remember the symbols inside the first planetoid. I would have to quit the game and do those two puzzles over again just to gain access to the second planetoid...perhaps this is just the puzzles way of providing incentive to "do it right the first time", and maybe the lack of a "back up" function is also due to the fact that there's really not much else to do...after that first planetoid is up and running, what else am I expected to do than open the door on the other side? Without knowing the codes, though, it's just staring at a dead metal surface with an unflinching light and a bunch of glyphs I can switch about while listening to someone warm up or just mess around on their guitar.

The music wasn't bad, it just sounds like something my guitarist friends would half-assedly fuck around with after smoking some pot. It was chill, and kept from being monotonous or too busy while you try to wrap your mind around the puzzles, but some diversity in the soundtrack (or alternatively a mute button in case you wanted to listen to something else) would have been useful. Especially if you wanted to "pause" the game and come back to a puzzle that was giving you a hard time.

Each puzzle seemed to do that to me at my very first impression of them...pretty complex, and at first glance it just seemed frustrating...but after tinkering around and you started to get the picture, they became easy. Not including the two access hatches, that's four puzzles, so I'm grateful they're not all the same with just added garbage to them; that would be unoriginal. Each were different, and seemed to go from easiest to hardest respectfully...but now that I've completed the game (three days after I first tried to conquer it, I should add) I find myself wanting more.

Perhaps in a sequel, our blue-collared techie hops from planetoid to planetoid, offering much creative flexibility to an already creative premise. Perhaps even manipulating a puzzle that regulated the orbit of a cryptic, server integrated asteroid belt, or all kinds of technical astrological what-have you's that could entertain for weeks and months instead of days.

...Until then, I guess I'd be waiting on the sequel. But this game was alright! I had fun with the puzzles, and I felt mighty proud of myself for completing them.

-Still could use a pause button
-and there's no real reason to NOT include a "back" feature in case you had a choice between two puzzles, or you forgot to look at the glyphs inside the first planetoid. Then it's just waisted progress and nerd rage. :P

Keep up the great work! Awesome job. Five'd!

[crushd]

Addictive, Simple, and cool! Great time waster!

I think any added complexity would stave the challenge from this High Score time-sink. I love it for it's retro feel, yet surprisingly intuitive puzzle-like challenge. Just keeping Red from getting crushed is a challenge on it's own, and when it inevitably happens, he seems to want to land on the one spot that'll make him drown...(or perhaps I've been too patient with the water level to rise to that point.) Either way, every error I've encountered through the game was by my own...accidentally trapping the guy, and having to dig him out against the clock, while some other block descends...there's something just very classic and timeless on the premise, though I know I haven't played this game before. It's very interesting how it handles...I like how over time, the Red block will try to force his way out of a tight spot, which can either help things or complicate them.

Loved the game! I'd try talking to Tom about implementing the medal system! It's not necessary, of course, but it would definitely accrue more hits.

I will definitely return to this game, either way, to shave off some time. Again, it's very cool!

MrPiglet responds:

I'm extremely happy to hear you say that. One of the hardest things to do whilst making this was to find ways of balancing out the quirks in my initial concept/prototype to try to achieve the 'timeless' feel you mention.

Much thanks for sharing your thoughts :)

[Exit Path]

Good time-killer!

The soundtrack was pretty awesome, my favorite probably being the Audit stage. It meshed nicely with the environment we get to run through. The environments themselves, were detailed nicely, while the character, despite the added "flair" seemed like just you're ordinary stick-figure.

As a challenging platformer, N-Game sort of came to mind, and how the author of that game took the stick figure, and altered the body parts into geometric shapes to add distinction. I'm all for our stick figure being customized into ANY of the selections from the Flash Color palette...but leg-warmers? lol. I was about to enter multiplayer mode to see what you could unlock for the arms, but it being exclusively an ArmorGames feature deducted on the score for this particular flash.

To elaborate, I'm not going to review a feature that's simply not here; that review would be for the COMPLETE version. If you wanted us to play multiplayer and all that fun stuff, I would prefer to do it here, where you've submitted it on NG. With multiplayer discluded, I feel as if this is a demo, or a half-finished game.

Moreover, there was a missed opportunity to implement the medal-system exclusive to the NG flash gaming community, but with the flair system already in place, I could understand how that could complicate things, so there's no deduction in my score for that lack of feature.

The rewinding vignette with the added motion trail of what you did was a VERY cool feature. Which is good, because we're inevitably going to be dying a lot, and it keeps things rapid. It doesn't disrupt the flow of the game, and the only annoyance experienced was from the actual mistake in dying; not the process of respawning...thank you for checkpoints! lol

By my third run-through, I was collecting signs. One of which seemed impossible to get to (the one where it's an open stretch, a double headed laser cannon in the beginning, and two or three more after it, with tiny blocks to disrupt the laser's tracking. The sign seemed to be up on a floating platform that seemed inaccessible.) and another which I couldn't seem to find at all, but I'm assuming you would need all of them to achieve whatever secret you had in store for us...perhaps just unlocking some more hats, but oh well. By my third run-through, it had become a little easy...yes, segments that involved multiple axes swinging in one spot still proved to be incredibly frustrating, despite identifying the pattern as to when to run and jump, but it seemed to lose it's replay value by that time.

I still shaved off a good sliver of time on it, though...and as a game it was pretty tasty. Still, it just could've used more. More detailed characters (as in, NOT sticks) more interactive environments, more potentially lethal threats, even added manueverability could've helped; there were many opportunities where a ledge grab would've saved my life, or just made things easier. The flow system was intuitive in how you had to have a running start to get that super-sprint going, but I think there were only very few moments where that was actually necessary or helpful to engage. THAT could've been elaborated upon, or even if it allowed the flow system to do something else...like a wall-jump.

Again. Good run-through playing it, but I expect bigger and greater things in an Exit Path 2. Fived!

[Enough Plumbers]

Pretty brilliant, actually.

I began playing expecting an absolutely bland, blatant Mario rip-off that brought nothing new to the table. Instead, it was an interesting thought-provoking Mario rip-o-...err, parody...that brought an ASSLOAD of new to the table.

If Nintendo makes this the premise of their newest Mario game, first and foremost I'll be pissed because I saw it on NG first, but also I would be shocked, because the premise by itself is kind of dark for a kids game. Think about all the lives that were lost just to get to that flag...or that poor unfortunate fool left to rot at the bottom of that pit just to open up a switch...The mental scarring on a child's perspective on the futility of life for a clone could last for ages...

...But to hell with the kids! This game is actually a lot of fun! It may not be 100% original, but I sure as hell haven't played a game like it. Some of it reminds me of Lemmings, which I loved the hell out of when I was a kid, and it also reminded me of...err...what's it called, played it all the time as a kid..."Super Maliable Brothers?" I forget, it wasn't that big of a game anyway...but the inverted mushrooms, the Willy-Wonka soda pop feature, the concrete suit...the powerups are all very intriguing! That, and the trial-and-error the player has to go through always somehow leads to a satisfying end once the stage is complete...I guess it's that cheerful "Yahoo!" as the Plumber Clone flies by.

...which....wait a minute....could any one of those little guys just up and fly whenever they want to? That would kind of make the game pointless and all of those lost lives unjustified. I guess we'll just ignore the superpowered elephant in the room and keep going with this review. lol

While only a couple of medals, I don't think it really needs any more than that. The criteria of each isn't too horribly demanding, but a dedicated gamer could sit down, beat this with 100% completion and move on. That could hurt it's replay-value which could also reflect on it's...ohh I'll cut the bullshit....this game was fun! I had a blast! It looked great! Sounds great! Played great-great-GRATE-great-gret-gloop-gr eat.

If you were to work on a sequel, that would be pretty baller. Voted 5! Thanks for the entertainment!

[SteamBirds]

Phenomenal!

I had a blast with this game! A turn-based top-down dog-fighting strategy game was a brilliant idea on it's own, and this game delivered! Weighing in on a lofty 2.2 MB, it's a pretty breezy load even on my friend's laptop.

Before even playing the game, I have to compliment the musical arrangement. It fits the game like a glove setting the perfect World War 2 era epic mood. On top of that, it cycles out several tracks to provide the player with diversity! Not once did the music get annoying...it's actually pretty intense! Wonderfully arranged.

The premise of an alternate reality WWII is a familiar and flexible one for the gaming community. To hell with the technology that seems to take the challenge and skill out of war; this was the romantic era, with skilled pilots leading pilots against pilots. The way how the stage was set up to look like a map was a good touch, as geographic markers representing mountains provided a nice texture to the game, but didn't seem to represent anything more than a cosmetic feature.

Moreover, in the 1939 stage (I'm going to mentioning it a lot) there's no distinguished border, or indication that you're about to leave the map. Once the selection arrow for your plane extends beyond the map's border, you've lost that fighter. There needs to be some kind of heads-up or method of prevention to keep your fighters in the area of operations.

The game IS challenging...but that's what kept me coming back! Some of those missions are seemed impossible to go through without taking hits, but with experience it IS possible. The only one I can't, for the life of me, get anything above two stars is that blasted 1939; equipped with two shield birds, one U-turn and one boost, against two Darts. The bastards can outrun and maneuver you, and although it is possible to beat the stage, I can't find a way to do it unscathed. I'm close to just accepting it can't be done. The other two I'm working on are the only others I haven't achieved four stars in; the 1946 and '47 missions...I've come close to four stars each time I've tried, but some plane of mine somehow grazes some gas or something. I'll get those two soon, and everything else has four stars (I'm apparently the Marshal of the RAF.) but that DAMNED 1939 MISSION! One day....one day.......

Though I'm frustrated, it's a sporty gamer frustration; programming is solid on my end with little or no bugs! Every once and a while trying to click or drag a selection arrow for one of my guys doesn't want to budge at first, but with persistence gives in, and every once and a while I'll accidentally hit the wrong one because I have my guys fly in tight formations, but all-in-all it's nothing to really complain about. The game is good solid fun.

It would be nice to have the ability to equip your birds with specific abilities, but again, no biggie; having to use what you got is a part of the challenge. I also wish there were more levels available here on Newgrounds. But if what you say is true in expanding game modes, introducing new items, and a MULTIPLAYER (holy shit) I'm eager to try it out for myself!

Still, there's ALWAYS room for improvement why not include:
-Voice Overs
-Altitude adjustments indicated by shadows and unit lighting, or alternatively letters? (L-Low, M-Mid, H-High) and gas could gradually sink after two turns
-Ground fixtures (AA guns, Flak cannons, targets for bombing runs either to attack or defend)
-Bodies of water to mix it up from the OD green
-...which could introduce Aircraft Carriers and Battleships, frigates...a Navy?
-When highlighting a unit, have a highlighted cone or circle that indicates their firing radius? On numerous occasions through my playtime that would've been most useful

I can't stress this enough; everyone involved really constructed a solid, fun gameplay experience. I've told my friends about it and they loved it, we have a blast with this thing. When I eventually do conquer all of the missions here, I'm going to hit up the bonus missions without a doubt. Looking forward to expansions/sequels! Fived and Fav'd! Good job!

[Keyboard Mayhem]

A hit!

I had a LOT of fun playing this. I like to think of myself as a pretty skilled typist, but this game is pretty challenging! I dunno how I beat Skitz after countless retries, but it's kicking my ass with a vengeance now that I'm going after the score-related medals.

It took me a while to connect that the score is multiplied by how much time is left. Hell, starting out I wasn't even aware there WAS a time-limit...yeah, it's right there in the corner, but in my previous run-through I never had to pay attention to it. Just type the words and off you go! It's fast-paced and goofy...that's why the music is absolutely perfect for the feel of the game.

It's a fun rapid typing exercise! I'm ruing the day that I ignored my teacher in using the proper finger for C, X, and Z....but I'm making it by...the highest I've scored so far was 13,985 (I was frustrated it didn't go a little higher) but the medals provide some sort of goal to give it replay value...I've gotta earn me a J. Fox...though just breaking that 14K boundary is hella challenging by itself.

I love how the character throws only the most random shit at our goofy antagonist. This game was just fun all around for me, and that's why I'm giving it a ten, and I'll vote five each time I pay a visit to earn a Marty McFly medal.

Keep up the great work! You say in your description that this game was better than it's predecessor, so clearly you're on the right track!

[Neon Rider]

Very fun!

ParagonX9 always delivers pretty intense video game music, and it felt right at home with the style of the game. Though only by the time I had finished the last level and reviewed tracks that either didn't have time on them at all (for some reason) or I felt I had taken too long to complete, it did get a little annoying. The game's filesize isn't that high at all, so I would recommend having multiple tracks that cycle out to keep it fresh.

Moreover, though the background did seem to immerse us in a Tron-like, cybernetic training grid, it seemed a little boring to me...and I kind of wished there was an environment to back it up. It's not a necessary detail, mind-you, as the two grids in the background did succeed in providing the illusion of movement, but it's something you could do to go one step beyond in terms of immersion.

The bike looked cool as hell! With the color-trails turned on, doing 8x somersaults off a cliff, looks intense! The suspension system on it really gives the player a feel for how it'll react if you lean in certain directions, which help tremendously in handling the very unique terrain in the game. Though I have to complain that on many occasions I found myself terminally locked in an upright position dragging the tail behind, it's merciful that the tail extends that far so you're 90 degrees up instead of a position where you CAN'T recover by leaning forward...that part of the design is great, but sometimes it takes damage rapidly, and other times I'll drag the tail for yards and I won't take anything more than a scratch.

For this, I think if you added a grinding noise or sound effect to indicate when the bike is taking damage. Sometimes the underside will be taking damage and it won't be completely obvious. A sound effect to indicate the damage would only be helpful to the player.

Additionally, there are barely any sound effects in hear at all. The power-up pickup and a few button-related noises and the music...that's it. What about an engine noise? Subtle braking or suspension noise? Tire impacts for when you land hard or glide into the terrain softly? Or to add a dash of immersion, a sound effect indicating color change? Something electrical sounding for each color?

It's a pretty solid game and it's fun to run-through at least once; there's little replay value here. I wanted to see if there was a high score system to see where I stood among the hundreds of thousands before me who've played, but I didn't see any incentive to achieve more and achieve higher than just the player's lone justification. There's no map editors, no customization...just these handful of levels, and that seems to be it.

Though it is very challenging. I was frustrated when I would change in the transition of a different road, and my rear (or sometimes even front) tire would be stuck in the middle, forcing me to die or start over, but that's a part of the challenge. You have to multitask as you go along quick, keeping an eye on the road and an eye on the minimap, and then you find yourself having to memorize the color-switching keys so you can proceed to win. It was very tricky, and it required a lot of trial-and-error (thank you for leaving the legend of the color switch on the HUD), but I'll admit it was fun and exhilarating once I had it down.

I somehow especially enjoyed the boot-up scan reading at the beginning of each stage, but that's the only time we saw cool looking readouts like that. Why not do something similar for damages or stage-clears?

I voted 5. This was well deserving for the Daily 1st, but I would be less hesitant of any weekly awards due to the lack of replay value. Great concept! No bugs on my end. Keep up the great work!