Galneda's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[zOMGies]

Ha! Very fun!

One can never judge a book by it's cover...at first glance, it would seem to be a pretty short-lived run for a guy in pink pajamas sprinting down an open street picking off zombies behind him. But looks can most certainly be deceiving...

...This game kicked a flash-load of ass!

Our nameless, pink pajama clad hero is a totally hardcore, unrelenting Olympian track-star of a Mass Murder Machine. The constant state of motion puts forth a decent edge of tension that's backed by the much faster enemies. The name of the game is "Prioritize your targets."

I hovered between the middle and 3/4th's in through most of my gameplay, keeping an eye out for obstacles and explosives. (Those explosive barrels and ammo cache's were REALLY blessings in disguises, saving my ass on numerous occasions.)

Early in the game, it gets really rough when the crawl runners were introduced. The crowbar was pretty much useless to me, and tolerating the campaign with a pistol wore out it's welcome quickly. The sub-machine gun was a VAST improvement, but became quickly outdated with stronger zombies. The shotgun, naturally, had accuracy issues, and I found myself holding onto the Auto Rifle throughout the game until the Assault Rifle was unlocked. The flamethrower was a waste of time, in my opinion, and the Sniper Rifle was an incredibly effective secondary weapon, almost acting like a rail-gun. The bazooka was a tad underpowered, and the Chainsaw was an ideal secondary weapon for when you're primary has run out of ammo, and you need to get some distance for the reload with a quick swap. The laser was damned orgasmic. :D

I found myself often completely overlooking the pickups altogether, and focusing on the horde and everything else....if they actually DID affect the gameplay somehow, their effects weren't apparent to me.

The limited firing angle upped the challenge in a way, and made it absolutely necessary to maneuver...sometimes it got intense with the way I would have to weave in-between hordes on both sides, selectively firing immediate dangers to avoid taking damage, just for the sake of not getting overwhelmed. Though it doesn't make sense why he can't shoot downstage or upstage, it's not a necessary feature for THIS particular game. More on that in a bit.

The end-stage screen music was pretty cool; I liked it! But the utter lack of any other music was really a missed opportunity on your part. With different stages, I've always come to expect different stage music to accompany the new environment...anything from Metal, to Epic Chase music, Horror music, or even Queen's "Don't Stop Me Now" would've sufficed...but instead, we're treated to ambient zombie groans throughout the level's run.

Incredibly, for as often as it would have to be done, the machine-gun fire and bullet's ripping through flesh sound DIDN'T get annoying. The sound effects for the weapons and explosions were well balanced...but I DO have to complain about the single zombie noise...it lacks diversity....and the Game Over line "Just a Dream" could use some polishing with better quality recording. Still, it wasn't bad enough to deduct on my vote.

The medals were a brilliant add-on to add replay-value for the hardened flash gamer, but by the time I hit the refresh page to see what I've collected, I found it's actually rather easy to achieve most of them...except for 100% Headshots.....that's gotta be worth more than 25 points. lol

All-in-all, I had a blast with this run-in-gun...there were memorable moments of intensity that genuinely required skill to get through, and that's what makes it stand out for me. I gave it a 5!

SUGGESTIONS:
-Music diversity between different stages.
-Flamethrowers should gain distinction from the rest of the weapons by physically setting the zombies on fire and slowing them down to compensate for short range/low damage.
-More special zombies! (Like uncommon jumpers that are hard to shoot, or fat one's that come from stage-right, or even bosses, etc...)
-Diversity in zombie sounds (HIT ME UP, I would gladly do zombie overs for the collab credit!)

Jimp responds:

Brilliant review mate, thanks so much! Really means a lot when people take the time to write an in depth review, Im glad you liked the game!

The 100% headshots is actually pretty easy if you do it on the first level, just kill 1 zombie then dodge the rest :)

[Neuron]

Addicting and stimulating!

ParagonX9 always does a good job giving us that warm, Newgroundsy feel of olde...years and years later, that song is still good, but I would have include an option for the player to choose between a variety of songs; it's strangely only a 1.5 MB game, so it couldn't take up THAT much extra room, could it?

I would also include a bonus for those who are accurate; if you hit, and hit, and hit, and hit, without missing, you can gain combos that intensify your score dramatically, or even unlock special, previously unobtainable perks...you could also see to Tom about implementing the achievement system in this game to unlocking achievements through NG accounts; some users like to collect those.

I quickly found myself opting for speed and rapid power favoring over a balanced health system...I stayed tiny, but when enemies started coming out in suffocating swarms, I quickly upgraded to rapid fire. When I blurred my vision, and kept everything peripheral, I could concentrate on the brighter shade of color as the enemy, and manuever in tight-patterns dodging enemies and blasting only what's nearby until they started to spread thin...I began dying rapidly around the color changing one's (white-to-purple-to-red each time you hit them) because that threw my strategy off.

...Oh, and that strategy also didn't work with the super-fast purple ones. :P

The strafing shooting enemies were interesting at first, but never presented a huge challenge. I kept glancing at my health to see if I were getting hit, and I don't think they landed a single shot on me after their first encounter. There needs to be more enemies with projecting attacks, or even proximity attacks to counter my close-up, or "chase-me" tactics.

The game is pleasing to the eye, and as distinct a noise the data collection "twang" was, it never got annoying for me. It all had a very good feel to it. Since this is an incredibly visual game, I would suggest enemies that could alter or play on that. One's that are two dimensional and seem to flip, to give the illusion that their visibility wanes off and on as they strobe their way towards the player...or flare orbs that emit and abundantly radiant light to cloak other enemies that could be hiding in the aura. Stuff like that wouldn't be too atrociously difficult to add, but could turn the tide of difficulty in the stage.

I think you're on the right track; I had fun playing this! Keep up the good work!

spectre1989 responds:

Thanks for such a detailed review, and I'm really glad you liked it. Those are some great ideas for possible sequels too, hopefully I can really play with the visual aspects next time :)

[Da Pink Knight]

Oh My GOD, what a beast...

It took me five tries to finally beat that ass-goblin, but I finally did it.

The level-down, boss-repair is a really interesting feature; really sets a sense of urgency when it comes to your stamina bar. "Oh shit, I'm getting low...better back off and play dodge-ball for a while until it recharges" because even if you press the crap out of those buttons, you're almost GUARANTEED one level down.

I mostly stuck with aerial attacks, hopping in up and down the stage, and almost never beside him because of that horrifying ground punch he does...and even when he does knock me down with one, I have to move to an area around him and quickly throw up my sheild incase of a cannonball...

...but what really messed me up was that buzzsaw...and holy crap, it has a reach to it...the only thing, ONLY thing that would make this easier is being able to move up or down in mid-jump, as that suits my strategy of attacking him in the air.

Even though this is one boss-fight, it's exhausting...when I found out you have to drain the PILOT'S health after you first break the armor, I shouted "NO!" because I thought I was coming close to beating it, finally...

...nope...not even close...lol

The challenge is refreshing, and I personally think you shouldn't dumb it down. As brutal as this giant wooden mobile suit is, it still contains a lot of comical quality in it through the details; the magic jump when I first did it made me laugh out loud, and the tiny expressions on the knight's face in the background and the pilot's "OH SHI-" draw a grin on my face while I'm intently manuevering and bashing away.

At no point in this game did I get bored with it, or just shove the keyboard away pouting "man, to hell with this game!" I wanted to play it to the end...and even after all that effort, I STILL haven't unlocked all the medals, so it's got some replayability to it.

Great job, MindChamber...and Happy belated Pico Day!

MindChamber responds:

thanks, Im really glad you kept with it, and even happier to know you beat it.

awesome

[EvoCannon]

To hell with all of these nay-sayers.

I haven't been challenged like this in a long time, I think they're pissy that there is no easy way around this.

Unlike many classic arcade games, there IS limited ammo, which means I had to change my play-style completely. The strategy I go with is usually making figure eight's "dancing" around the opponent only popping a shot when I get close, then collecting all I can for the erratic moving enemies later in the game... These enemies later on in the game have movement patterns that throw me off with the way my avatar handles, so this also forces me to rethink my strategy. It's not really frustrating, but definitely challenging.

Luckily, after collecting enough ammo, or killing enough enemies without getting hit, you can recover lives. This helps tremendously due to the game's difficulty.

The only elements that I would really change;
-Have built-in original music that you can toggle on/off (Usually on my computer, I just flip on my Media Player and I can play this at length, but today I'm on somebody else's computer, and lack of music really did have an impact on me...I dunno, maybe that's just me.)
-Make the ammo counter larger, and easier to glance at.
-MULTIPLE DIFFICULTY SETTINGS; (Hell, make what it is now "Normal" and make an "Easy" for the whiney A.D.D. kids below me.)

Either way, I appreciate the challenge, I love the old, retro feel to it, and I thank you for this game: Keep up the awesome work, Josh!

Hacker12 responds:

Cheers!!! :P

[Newgrounds Rumble]

Straight-tens, voting 5; Fantastic craftsmanship!

I believe others before you have wanted to pay tribute/immortalize the NG celebrity in a fun, almost "Super Smash Bros." meets "Mortal Kombat" kinda style, only to have failed in the light of lack of creativity, and slip-shod effort.

THIS PIECE, however, brings an immersive, interesting and (most importantly) new and fresh take on popular, familiar characters without losing their original charm and personality. All were given justice to their own credit (even nifty links to what made them famous for noobs who just look with puzzlement.), I thought. Each ending appropriate, and gave the player an initiative to dive deeper into the game, unlocking with their "Grounds Gold" and what-not.

The artwork was impressive as you get to watch your fighter and opponent walk, jump, crouch, and duke it out on each other. At times, I forgot I was even playing a flash game; and I was oddly reminded of the likes of the craftsmanship of proffessionally made fighting games like Guilty Gear.

The villains were all portrayed differently from the perspectives of character to character. The two exceptions being the menacing Piconjo, and Convict. Piconjo was portrayed brilliantly as the menacing Bizzarroesque counterpart to Pico, wherine I think this game shall have a lasting influence on his persona for quite some time.

The items and powerups spiced up the game tremendously to draw away from incessant strong or weak button-mashing; something that previous attempts at a similar game design have ignored, and ultimately fouled their own game. Air and ducking combo's helped vary the fray at your disposal, and also made the opponent that much more unpredictable...therefore, more challenging. :)

All in all, I loved it immensely. It probably will never leave the top 50, and will be enjoyed by the recirculating NGer's for years to come. Excellent work!

-Phobotech

NegativeONE responds:

Thanks for the detailed review. Just wanted to let you know I read it so you didn't waste all that typing, heh.

[Fire Man - Incoming Storm]

Hell yes dude!

You see, I grew up with Megaman, so you have to understand I LIKE PLAYING MEGAMAN GAMES! This was an excellent reproduction of the game!
Controls: Awesome, 10/10.
Difficulty: Well Done! I couldn't defeat Tengu Man. 10/10
Sound: Well, the music sounded very Megamanish, Everything else sounded Megamanish too, but Tengu Man flying in sounded like an old WWII plane and some of the explosions sounded ragged...but no big deal, 9/10.
Graphics: Everything was great, except for the 8-bit Fire Man. Even though I'm pretty sure it would be hard to find a 16 or 32-bit Fire Man, but still, it's weird having an 8-bit character in a 32 to 16-bit world. Nice job though! 8/10
Style: I love Megaman and it's a great game to play when I am bored, so 10!
Awesome game man, keep 'em comin'. Peace Out!

Phobos Technology, Phobotech.

iragination responds:

For a matter of time I had to use the 8-bit Fire Man sprite. I just could not wait to start programming, and now I can't spare more time on this one. I want to start new game projects :)