Vyzer's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Meat Boy]

Meh

I didn't like this game much. This doesn't really compare to the other platform games out there.

The levels weren't hard. The controls are very slippery and frustrating to use. The collision detection with the rockets and hazards is also crappy. Don't write off your design mistakes as the game simply being "hard", because that is simply not the case here. The controls and collision detection work against the player, which should never, ever happen in any sort of game, even "hard" ones.

The levels lack a certain 'oomph', which made them pretty boring to go through. The tiles were pretty boring and redundant, so I'd work on that. It'd also be nice if you simply implemented some cheerful sound effect for when you beat the levels, since that really motivates people to beat the next ones. Reward your players, dammit!

This game is also very laggy on my sub-high-end computer, which should never happen in a Flash game consisting almost only of sprites. Ever hear of BitmapData? Using it helps optimize and speed up your game a lot. 8bitrocket has a tutorial on how to use it (the Atari 7800 Asteroids one), and I really recommend you read up on it and learn it before making any more sprited Flash games.

[Orange Runner]

Eh.

After level 50 all you have to do is hold down the right button. Very fun.

Maxwelldoggums responds:

yeah, I'll work on it. Thanks!

[Pandemic II]

Far From Perfect

It's easy to see where you were going with this game. The idea of being able to control a deadly disease that has the potential to decide the ultimate fate of humankind is pretty exciting. While it looks like you made a solid effort in developing this game, the way you executed the concept is all wrong (as neatly polished as it is).

Here are my main points of advice:

~ The waiting periods suck.

~ Mandatory 8 minute tutorial videos definitely suck. Try implementing a real-time tutorial or tips so that people can just sit down and play your game. Nothing in a game need be a chore, regardless of how good the rest of the parts of it are.

~ Many people need more short-term gratification than there is in this game. Rewarding people for simple things gives them a better idea of what is good and what is bad in a game, and through that they are able to better guess what direction they are supposed to be going in. Even the toughest and most complex popular strategy games have this.

~ The interface could have been done better. Making a half-inch scroll area on the map is tedious for the player and pointless, as you could have easily fitted the map and everything on it in the dimensions of your Flash. If you did that, then by removing the consequently pointless mini-map and placing the recent news in a newscast-esque scrolling banner along the top or bottom, it'd make the whole thing a lot neater and perhaps free up space for more essential things to the game, like the disease stats and the number of infected and deaths.

~ The map could have been made less bland, especially considering that that's what the player stares at for most of the game.

~ The sponsor spam is annoying. While it's understandable that sponsors are a good way to make money, getting the same ad flashed in your face three times in a row makes your game scream corporate dryness.

The concept of the game is great, and can very well be perfected, but it'd probably require straying away from the skeleton of this game series. Maybe you should try your hand at developing a new disease game from scratch? (Which I doubt has much of a chance of happening, since a third title in a series usually indicates franchise milking.)

Really nice work on the polish.

[The Ultimate Audio Tut]

Holy shit.

The most awesome thing I've seen today! Make one for us AS3 folks.

Jaye19 responds:

Dont worry I am already making one ;)

[.: Blox :. 1.1]

Lol

"people can right click and click wherever the ball is about to land and never miss a shot."

Because just moving the paddle to wherever the ball is about to land without clicking isn't the same thing, right?

[DEATHWORM]

Eh.

Doesn't do justice to the original. You look like you've spent a lot of time remaking the Deathworm engine, but took barely any time to make sure that it's fun. You apparently thought that the concept of Deathworm is inarguably fun, regardless of any other shit you put (or don't put) in it. Nice try, though.

[Domino Frenzy]

Bad..

Sure, dominoes are hard. But video games are supposed to be fun. This is not fun, this is stupidly frustrating. You can't use your excuse that dominoes are supposed to be hard to hide the fact that this game just plainly sucks.

It's actually fun with real dominoes. You get to actually see and touch them, you get to be more creative than in this top-down game with nothing even slightly special, except for obstacles which make the game even more mind-numbingly stupid. Setting real dominoes blindfolded up a hill is actually easier and more fun than this.

But all in all, even though this was not a fun game at all, it was fairly well made.

freeworldgroup responds:

the thing is it's not hard after about 30 seconds of experimenting... but maybe we should lower the bar for difficulty...

[Simple Cursor Tutorial]

Uhh...

Whats with the freakish file size?