The-Great-One's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[ChargeBot]

The Little Roomba That Could

The graphics are simple, but I kind of like it that way. What was drawn as a ChargeBot I see as a little Roomba going on an adventure to stay alive. The sound effects more than convince me that it is indeed a Roomba. The music was good, nothing fantastic, but good. Calming, not in your face, and nice for the puzzle aspect. This game kind of took me back to the "Trapped" series here on Newgrounds, you should really expand on this idea in the future. Unfortunately I was not able to beat this game, I got stuck on Level 11. Just could not get to that 7 Charge Space. The controls I liked having the option with, I chose the arrow keys because it was faster for me. My only nitpick is that when I was taken back to the level select screen I had to choose the next level with the mouse and I could not use the arrow keys, again just a nitpick though. A nice fun game with some love put into it. I would love to see this expanded on in the future.

|| Cheers ||
*Superb Presentation
*Great Sound
*Good Music
*Superb Concept
*Superb Gameplay

|| Jeers ||
(none)

LightWolfStudios responds:

Thanks for the feedback, glad you liked it! :D

[Authentic Octopus Game (Demo)]

Game Boy Octopus

I wanna start off by saying that I love the dialogue in this game. It was witty and fun. Although not always clear as to the characters being here or the ordeal of the area I can excuse this because it is indeed a demo and not fully fleshed out.

The gameplay is fun, but the controls certainly were not. A to jump, S to shoot your weapon, D to switch weapons, and F to interact with stuff were all fine, but why do I need to push a separate button to do my double jump? I like that the double jump also equals as an air dodge that is a very clever idea, but I don't like that it is tricky to full off. Why couldn't I just push A twice?

The music is fun and takes me back to playing a Game Boy. That along with the presentation. I like the part where I am shown the future. It is like advertising your game as well as showing you what is to come. Quite the combo without taking the player out of the immersion. All in all, this was a very fun game.

|| Cheers ||
*Superb Presentation
*Superb Sound
*Superb Music
*Great Concept
*Good Controls
*Superb Gameplay

|| Jeers ||
*Controls - Extra Button For No Reason

squidly responds:

Well the interesting part is that there already IS another double jump that you need to press A to use. The final thing here is that you actually get 3 jumps, with the air dodge typically being your last because it puts you into a helpless state.

Thank you so much for the review!

[Epix Quest - Minigame I]

Heart-Pounding Action

Woo... that had me going for long time. My score was 399 at the end of it. Well let's take a look at it. The intro was nice and gave me a light chuckle. Then I come to a screen where I have to enter my name and I do, which I like the little typewriter sound effect when doing so, a nice touch that wasn't needed, but appreciated.

The game loads up and all I have to do is collect treasure chests. Starts out kind of boring really, but then some spikes appear... which no big deal for me, then boulders start rolling which at first the sound of effect of the boulder rolling and crashing was getting on my nerves. Then we have walls moving and the boulders moving faster at which point I was more than happy about the boulders loud noises to alert me to their appearance. Afterwards chests started appearing on the spikes which had me really tense. I was on the edge of my seat while playing which I can tell you I haven't had a Newgrounds game do that for me in a while. I was completely invested in everything.

The presentation isn't much to look at it, the chests honestly look like doors, other than that though it does get a pass, I know what everything is supposed to be and what is going on so it's a simplistic style choice that has no meaning other than to look neat and that I can appreciate, because there is still a game here, a good one at that.

There is no music to be found here and I can't decide on whether that is a good thing or a bad thing. Ultimately it isn't needed, but at the same time it would have been nice for it to be an option at the very least.

The controls were tight and responsive and the game introduced elements to you slowly overtime so when I died it was my fault not the game's, I got too wily in trying to get that chest and I didn't account for the possibility of a boulder even though I felt like I was in a gumball machine that was being fed quarters by a child with ADHD with too many damn quarters!

Overall it was fun!

|| Cheers ||
*Good Presentation
*Great Sound
*Superb Concept
*Superb Controls
*Masterful Gameplay

|| Jeers ||
(none)

DragonHeadStudio responds:

You got the game! Thank You! :D
(Have some secret easter eggs inner)

[Goomy: to the Rainbow!]

This is quite interesting I'll give it that. The characters called Goomys I must say are quite adorable. The worlds that they're in is also adorable, however it lacks any real depth since each area is nothing more than a pallet swap. The power ups I'm not sure what they are or what they do. Some more clarification would be nice, like perhaps a tutorial level or something in the menu to describe the power ups. There really is no story, just a bunch of Goomys going to the Rainbow Land. Why? I don't know because you didn't tell me. The music is okay, it is bouncy and cute, I think you had some missed opportunities though. The sound effects are nice and fit well. The controls are really tight and responsive which I liked, however the gameplay got dull after a while. When I was going through the 2nd level I just got bored with this game. You have aesthetics down pat, there just needs to be more game here.

|| Cheers ||
*Great Artwork
*Great Animation
*Good Music
*Great Sound
*Superb Controls
*Okay Gameplay

|| Jeers ||
*Bad Story - Implied A Story (Had None)

ShimoneShimone responds:

Thank you for your feedback!
I am currently working on a help/tutorial that will also explains what the power ups do. I hope to finish it as soon as possible. I wish I could create a story (and that was the original planning) but I have a deadline (March 28th) and I am the only person who is working on this game, so unfortunately there was no time to create a story...

EDIT: Game updated with in-game help/tutorial!

[Howmonica]

Redundant, Frustrating, and Boring

First off the presentation is cute, but everything is just so small and it can be straining to the eyes. You don't need everything to be this small for the design of the stages, a lot of them are made simply so you have stuff to avoid. It was so small that I didn't even know what my character was until I read your description and I have to say, that does not look like a bunny. The gameplay is a neat idea and I liked the use of the blocks, but after a while it just turns from a gravity based platformer to an avoiding game in avoiding spikes. It is important to learn that objects like spikes are meant to be obstacles to challenge the player, you don't make an entire room or multiple stages with them as barriers, if you want barriers then have walls. There was a lot of creativity into this idea, but the level design just doesn't support it... it just makes the game annoying. Also for 50 levels the presentation certainly doesn't change up enough. The game just comes off as entirely bland. The music choice and sound effects were pretty good. Controlling my character was easy enough, but without the proper level design there's really no point. The concept is great, but the gameplay and presentation suffer. Not bad, but not good either.

|| Cheers ||
*Okay Presentation
*Great Sound
*Superb Music
*Superb Controls
*Okay Gameplay
*Great Concept

|| Jeers ||
*Presentation - Too Small
*Gameplay - Level Design

TheSpydog responds:

Interestingly, you're the first person to point out on here about the small graphics. Doesn't seem to be a major concern with most people! Fair enough, though, I can see where you're coming from there.

As for figuring out what your character was...I'm surprised that it wasn't immediately obvious. It's the only thing on-screen that's not text, a background, or a block. And it's bouncing up and down. I guess if you were having trouble seeing the images, then the subtle bouncing would be hard to notice. One of my friends said the character looked like a cupcake, another one thought it looked like a bunny. So I combined them, and so it is officially a "Cupcake Color Bunny".

I personally think that the game is more interesting with spike mazes. Walls would be dull! Every object in the game affects gameplay - spikes provide a challenge, blocks are for coloring and for a temporary respite from gravity acrobatics. Walls that just serve as a barrier do not fit in this game.

Thanks for playing and going to the trouble of writing an extensive review, though. Wish you had enjoyed it more.

[Vatican Quest]

First off I have to say the look of this game is beautiful, I have to give you props on the Pope, the Cardinals, everything just looks awesome. The gameplay is simplistic, but gets crazy and fast, the controls are also easy to pick up and learn, I have to say I had a lot of close calls before the media finally got me. The sound effects were nice and so was the music. The only thing I could say is instead of just a survival aspect for a high score, I was hoping for levels and going through the whole Vatican and then fighting the new Pope at the end... that was just wishful thinking though. For what is here it is pretty good. This definitely needs medals, for destroying the Pope-Mobile, to how many children you can get, to getting caught by the media, there is a lot of medal potential here that I'm surprised wasn't.

|| Cheers ||
*Masterful Artwork
*Superb Animation
*Superb Sound
*Great Music
*Superb Gameplay
*Superb Controls

|| Jeers ||
(none)

Kenney responds:

Thanks for your review, really helpful!

[Hit Spit]

This was a fun game and one that really made you multitask. The artwork is pretty basic, which was okay, but it could have been a bit flashier, still it gets the job done. The sound effects were nice. The music although not bad, I would have preferred something a bit better, but this is still pretty good. The controls were by mouse and worked splendidly, the gameplay was perfect, as I have stated, forcing me to multitask. I would have preferred that the instructions be put into the game instead of just in the Author Comments. All in all an awesome game. Great job!

|| Cheers ||
*Good Artwork
*Good Animation
*Good Music
*Great Sound
*Great Controls
*Great Gameplay

|| Jeers ||
*Instructions - Put Them In The Game

MACPK responds:

I am going to include instructions soon. Thx for the nice feedback.

[100% Complete]

The goal of this game is to simply walk through the door to win, however there are many different collectibles throughout the game that you can find to gain 100% completion. It is an interesting concept that a lot of big collection games take on themselves and it's kind of cool to see a game cut out everything else with the sole intent of collecting all of the objects, but at the same time it makes it seem like an incomplete game as well, which was the point here in a way.

The graphics are in pixel form holding with an old-school tradition, here it works well in the collect-able items and your main character, but this secret castle is bland in its presentation, nothing really pops out at you. I understand that the whole castle had to look the same and you couldn't experiment with all the rooms that way it makes the items harder to find, but the coloring of this place could have been better, like combining blue and orange together really would have made this place pop instead of this gray and yellow. The animation is nice, even though there isn't much going on, it is nice. The music was good, nothing fantastic though and it just droned on my ears as I was looking for these different secrets, something a little bit more upbeat would have been nice. Since you picked this track from the Audio Portal it makes me wonder why you didn't pick something to fit this game better. There are no sound effects which was disappointing to me.

The items were tricky to find and get to, but once you got Secrets #29 and Secret #37 things start to pick up and you start to do some backtracking. What I didn't like though was the testing of faith with some of the pits to see if there was another room there, it really got on my nerves when I had to backtrack multiple times instead of a wrong pit just putting me back in that same room, luckily though Secret #24 doesn't make this too big an issue, but still it was a bit nervewracking. At one point I wanted to give up and I did, I just headed through the door since I couldn't find anymore secrets and that is where you put more secrets, I'll admit it is a bit clever to put something after your YOU WIN screen, but at the same time it wasn't exactly the nicest move to make either.

The controls are a bit iffy, getting through small holes is not as easy as it should be, even with Secret #37 I had to take at least two to three tries to get through this opening which I probably wouldn't have even known was there without Secret #29. I got to the point that I just didn't care about the secrets, I just wanted that 100% completion, which is the point of the game, but it just makes putting effort into the designs of the secrets pointless, they could have been a bunch of coins or gems and I still would not have cared.

This game overall doesn't have a grand presentation which is a shame, because if it did this game could have been a bit better and if more of the secrets had abilities for your character it would have been pretty cool. This game does deserve a sequel to it and could even utilize a lot of pop cultural references and/or Newgrounds references as well and be a big hit. As it is though it was a bit underwhelming.

|| Cheers ||
*Good Artwork
*Good Animation
*Okay Music
*Great Concept
*Good Controls
*Good Gameplay

|| Jeers ||
*No Sound
*Music - Something More Upbeat
*Artwork - Bland - Needs More Pop
*Gameplay - Goal = Pointless

NoLanLabs responds:

Wow, excellent review. Thanks a lot.

A sequel could definitely happen; I'll take this review into account when planning it.

[i saw her standing there]

I want to start with the artwork in being very simplistic. It was good, but just way too simple. I know that these were to be used to help tell the story, but a little bit more could have been done. The music was also a bit simple as well, it matches the story well. There were no sound effects which disappointed me a little bit, but I guess this is a game that doesn't really need them. The gameplay however is what is fun here, dodging zombies, trapping your love, it's all so much fun. The controls worked well and fit the game. The selling point here is the story, it was written so well and was not only cute, but funny. All in all this is a very fun game.

|| Cheers ||
*Good Artwork
*Good Animation
*Great Music
*Superb Gameplay
*Superb Controls
*Superb Story

|| Jeers ||
*No Sound - Would Have Been Nice

krangGAMES responds:

Man, "Cheers and Jeers" is and always will be the best damned way to rate a game. Kudos, thanks for the review :)

[ZJ Bagel Quest (Prologue)]

That's The Inside Joke!

Well the music choices were good as well as your contribution to this Jay, kudos on the song. The artwork was very plain, a stick version with ZJ's face plastered on the front, it's like a voodoo doll in a way. The animation was weird, but it did work here. The controls were great and the gameplay was nice, but I wanted more, I mean there was little to no bagels in this. The story is an inside joke and I think it could've been explained a bit better, a nice animator behind you would be able to do this well. As an experimental prologue it works, but in a final project I would like to see more and something neater.

|| Good Points ||
*Good Artwork
*Okay Animation
*Great Sound
*Superb Music
*Good Story
*Great Controls
*Good Gameplay

|| Bad Points ||
*Concept - Good Concept Needs More Though

Jay responds:

Thank you for the review.

I do agree that the concept is lacking. This was finished in a bit of a rush, and it is heavily based on the fact that it is supposed to be an inside joke.

But I think this could be a full project, and maybe if I put some work into it, and maybe get some others to help me out, it could be a decent game.