Froodjakle's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Labyrinth: SoS]

Okay.. I'm going to be hated for this opinion, but I'm gonna be honest with you. This is not a good game.

Let me start with the positives. It has a solid framework, the art looks great and animates fantastically, the music is decent (JUST decent - not amazing, it does get old), and it overall has the potential to be a great game. Unfortunately, the actual GAME part is where things fall apart.

This is an extremely shallow game. You can 'finish' it in 5 minutes, get all the power ups in about 10, and have literally nothing that can challenge you anymore. Despite this, the designer expects you to play on for a long time, because apparently things get much more challenging, and all of these overpowered upgrades they give you actually become necessary rather than overkill. The problem with this lies in the way the game is designed. The levels are random, the enemies are pitifully weak, and they give you all of your overpowered gear immediately. In every possible way, this game is designed to be a short, shallow, pick up and play once kind of deal - and yet it requires much more dedication and playtime than that to 'truly experience it'. As a designer, your job is to build the game around its strengths, not force-feed unnecessary features and padding into it. Random level layouts do NOT make a game stay interesting without interesting, deep mechanics to go along with it.

Worsening this issue is the difficulty level, which is nonexistent. There is no challenge to this game after the first round, once you've become way more overpowered than you need to be at that point. This is where the randomized levels really show their failure. Without an intentionally designed course, there is no sense of progression. You start the game, and you are almost immediately bombarded with powerups; from super jumping, to rockets, gliding, wall climbing, and even the ability to break the blocks creating the world around you, there are so many things you're given access to right off the bat. The game throws EVERYTHING it has at you all at once, and then after that it feels empty and meaningless. There's nothing to entice a player to keep going, once they realize they're just going to keep getting the same powerups over and over. Hell, the powerups don't even stack. They could become more powerful if you collected more than one, at least then there would be SOME sense of progression, but there isn't. You immediately become overpowered and it takes several levels of boring, unchallenging tedium for the game to catch up with you.

Oh, but let's not forget the bandage design to keep you challenged. Acid. The acid in this game is one of the best examples of this game's worst flaws. No matter how powerful you are, how much you can decimate everything else, acid will always kill you in one hit. You can have the most powerful armor and full health, and barely dipping your toe in it means your adventure is over. I see a lot of the designer defending this decision, saying you're supposed to 'tread carefully,' but this is nothing but a bandage over a deep flesh wound. The problem is how contradictory the entire driving force behind the acid is. Here you have a game that immediately powers you up to insane levels, making you deadlier than anything you could possibly come up against, and getting you used to being able to jump around and fear nothing. Then all of a sudden you fall into a pit of acid you didn't see because the camera wasn't showing it, and just like that, it's over. This is not a failure of the player, for not being careful enough - this is a failure of the designer, for trying to input two opposing forces at once and assuming it will work out well. Spoiler alert: it doesn't.

Some of the powerups only exacerbate this issue, in particular the Super Jump Boots. I noticed in the author's responses that he even admitted not to getting those boots in his own playthroughs; so then, why, may I ask, do they even exist? Are they a punishment to the player for being too hasty to pick up something labeled as a powerup? This goes back to the opposing forces idealism in place with the acid. These boxes give you wonderful powerups that make you stronger, and then you find a super jump power. Great, you would think. Now I can jump higher and get around better. On the surface, it's a useful addition to your arsenal that should make everything easier, but it just doesn't, and the player won't figure that out until well after they pick it up. Chalking it up to the 'learning curve' to determine which powerups are best is another failure of design. The game doesn't have the depth to warrant a second playthrough, and yet it requires one to avoid its numerous design pitfalls. Again, it's a bandaid, and not a particularly effective one.

I'm not sure if the author realizes it or not, but the randomization in level design and powerups truly is what is holding this game back. When a game uses randomness, it's supposed to use it in a smart way - TRUE randomness breeds chaos, which is what this game does. Intelligent randomness still follows a path of progression, something that makes the player feel like they're accomplishing something, but prevents the game from becoming predictable. The irony in this is that the randomness applied to this game forgoes the positive effects of randomization and only takes the negative ones. The game is immediately predictable from the moment you play it; there's nothing that's ever surprising about its design. Blocks all seem practically random, and soon they become nothing but a nuisance as you get the ability to break through the world at your will. At the same time, the randomness prevents a natural sense of progression - in one game, you might start out with super jump boots and gliding, and only later find double jumping and wall climbing. The problem is, the player gets used to the abilities they start with (super jump, glide) and these are all they need to get around. But why should one ignore new powerups? So when double jumping and wall climbing are found, the player will naturally collect them, only to find out very quickly that they throw off every bit of control the player has grown accustomed to. No longer can you press jump in short bursts to slow your descent with glides; instead, you'll rocket back into the sky with another jump. You'll constantly find yourself attaching to walls you didn't want to grab, and it's not like you need them to get up higher - you already have super jumping. Abilities should COMPLIMENT a player's loadout - not harass them because they didn't realize picking up the new powerup would screw them over.

In my opinion, the designer of this game is expecting more out of their players than they're willing to give them. Don't like a powerup? Well, learn what it is and don't pick it up again. Don't like that acid kills you instantly? Well, stop using all these abilities we gave you to get around fast, instead you should go around slowly to prevent falling to your death.

Every element of this game's design is contradictory at best, game-breaking at worst. The random generation of levels and powerups pushes the game toward a 'short, single playthrough' type of game, while the learning curve of which powerups to get and how to avoid acid shove it in the other direction. With these kinds of opposing forces acting at the same time, it's only a matter of time before the train derails.

There are many points I haven't even touched on, such as how the game still gives you the lesser helmets after you pick up better ones, and allows you to literally downgrade yourself by picking them up, or how super jump boots bring you dangerously close to falling far enough to take falling damage, but I think my point has been made.

Designer; my question to you is a simple one, but one that lies at the very core of intelligent game design: Why?

Why should I care enough to play your game for more than 5 minutes, when I can see all the content it has to offer in that time period? Why should I take time out of my day to play this game? Do not mistake these questions for arrogance - they are simply questions that must be answered before a game can be considered complete.

Unfortunately, this game is anything but that. Potential abounds, and every single bit of it falls disappointingly short of greatness. I hope to see all of these ideas better utilized in a sequel or an update of some sort, but for now, this game isn't worthy of anything more than 2/5. There are simply too many opposing ideals and bandaids in place for truly good game design.

PestoForce responds:

I think you made a lot of good points, though maybe they could have been more succinct :-P

This game was largely experimental, and definitely has flaws. That's one of the reasons I want to make a sequel, because, like you say, the concept has lots of potential, and with some tweaks I think it could be great! The progression issue is the main thing I have lots of ideas about. You're right, randomness is NOT ENOUGH!

Thanks for taking the time to review it in-depth!

[Legend of JOHNNY]

Really? MOUSE control?

Okay, let me start off by saying that this game SEEMS really fun. I played the version on the main site, with the cutscenes, and it seems like a funny, well designed game. The voice acting was decent (not amazing, but good enough,) the sounds were pretty good, the animation and graphics were BEAUTIFUL (this is one of the few DMC-esque flash games that got the pace of the attacking animations right,) and the storyline, while simplistic, was told in an interesting way. The little bit I was able to play was enjoyable, but.. That's where we get to the bad part.

First off, this game is SERIOUSLY GLITCHY. I use the caps lock for emphasis, because jesus, I should not run in to 10 glitches in the first 5 minutes of gameplay. Adding to the glitches everybody else has been talking about (although my attacks don't seem to "queue" like others have noted,) I ended up teleporting outside the "bar" after reading the Devil's note, making it impossible to get back in and the only fix being to restart the game completely. Also, I'm not sure if it was a glitch or bad game design, but I both ended up using the dash attack when I didn't double tap a direction (or had a lengthy pause between taps,) and ended up not hitting the enemy far too often when trying to combo, even though it looked like my sword hit them. Also, it's worth nothing that I was able to run the game on High graphics without the slightest FPS drop, so lag most likely was not an issue.

Now on to my main issue.. Mouse control. Seriously? WHY did you have to do this? Why is it that keyboard control just isn't good enough for game creators anymore? I'm using a laptop, and quite frankly, this game is nearly IMPOSSIBLE to enjoy when using one. By using mouse control, not only do you have a glitchy, annoying, ridiculous combat system (you can't always guarantee if you're going to shoot or swing,) but you cut away a very large chunk of your audience by ruining somebody's chances to play the game with a laptop. I don't see why game developers think making a fast-paced action game, based around combos no less, controlled with the MOUSE is a good idea - It doesn't work in this game. It hasn't worked in any other game. It never WILL work in any game. It's truly a horrible system, and as much as I hate to get on your case so much about it, you practically ruined an otherwise exceptional game with such a god-awful combat system. One last thing I'd like to mention about the combat system - Knowing that the camera moves in a way that, when the player is falling, he is at the bottom of the screen, what exactly made you think that shooting down to slow your fall would be useful in any way? When you're falling, you pretty much CAN'T shoot down because of the camera..

I do doubt you'd take the time to go back and fix this, considering it would probably require a massive engine reworking, but I seriously suggest you at least TRY and add in a pure-keyboard gameplay system - Or at least allow you to control your sword with the keyboard. Controlling the guns with the mouse is perfectly fine. I sincerely believe keyboard control would make this game skyrocket from mediocre to fantastic.

Now, I hope you don't take me as being rude or offensive about this - I just generally tend to focus my reviews on the negative aspects so the author can improve. I truly do think this game has alot of promise, but it seems like it was released far too early and with far too little thought put into the gameplay itself. With some work, this could be an A++ game, but for now I can't give it more than a 4.5/10.

-Froodjakle

I-smel responds:

If I used keyboard control then you wouldn't be able to aim guns.
Then if I used the mouse just for guns n left attacking to the keyboard then you'd be switching between them the whole time.
With the mouse, you switch between firing n slashing automatically depending on how far away from the enemy you are. ALSO it stops you from combo-ing off a ledge because he turns around to allways be facing the mouse.

The problem is that I've got a regular mouse (which it was made for) and you've got a touchpad, which is something completely different. I hate touchpads n I hate laptops, so sorry.

[LARRY: Doug-Out]

Good concept + Bad execution = Mediocre game

The kingdom of Karryon is coming together quite nicely, I have to admit, but quite frankly, this game suffers from FAR too many problems to be anything more than average.

The graphics are great. Everything animates smoothly and fits together well. Nothing to complain about here.

The music and sounds are good, although the beer pouring sound got annoying after a while. Maybe it's just me. Other than that, nothing to complain about in this category.

The gameplay is when this game starts to falter, badly. The game is good fun for the first few days, but after a while, Doug becomes STUPIDLY hard to beat, and McSweeny is FAR too slow; Upgraded weapons don't help at all when you can't even hit your target, do they? You could be using the most powerful weapon in the game and it still wouldn't make a difference; You can't repel Doug if you can't hit him, end of story. This is an absolutely game breaking problem and needs to be fixed as soon as possible.

My personal most frustrating problem with this game, is VERY often, when I go to serve a customer, the meter that allows me to click and pour them a drink disappears, making it impossible for me to pour a drink no matter how many times I click the mouse, and it won't come back until I walk ALL the way back into the storehouse, until McSweeny comes to a complete stop, and then walk all the way back, and even this doesn't work sometimes. It's a HUGE waste of the small amount of Doug-free time you get during the day, and one of this games biggest flaws.

Another thing that would've been nice is if you could click on McSweeny when he is carrying a barrel to make him drop it; I accidentally picked up a barrel early in the game, when you have very limited funds, and I had a full keg in front, but the only thing I could do is waste the ENTIRE barrel by pouring it into the already full barrel in the front.

All in all, this is a good idea that seems to have been COMPLETELY neglected during the testing phase; It's too flawed, unbalanced, and glitchy to be any fun, so until you fix those problems, this really isn't worth a good score.

Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 9/10
Gameplay: 2/10 (revised to an 8 if the aforementioned problems are fixed)

Overall score (not an average): 4/10, 2/5 (revised to an 8/10, 4/5 if issues are fixed)

Here's hoping you fix the problems; this could be a great game if you take care of it right.

[Guitar Hero Hero game]

Good, but...

...I feel EXTREMELY ripped off. The "multiple endings" comment made me feel like, hey, if I play this song perfectly, I get some special ending, right?
Well I'm warning anybody who's going to play it over and over again to 100% it, don't. The 100% ending is the EXACT same as the 99%/98%/etc ending.

Aside from that annoying fact, the game wasn't too bad. The music wasn't my style and it was FAR too easy (98% first try, hit every note but one the second, aced it my third- and this was while I was very tired,) it was probably the best Guitar Hero fangame that I've seen floating around on the internet. Nothing to write home about, but it was decent. A 7/10. The animation was probably the best part of it, considering the animation was actually quite good. It had a nice style that actually stayed true to itself, although this would've been better if it was JUST the movie, maybe with sounds/voices, rather than having to try and play the mini-game AND watch the great animations going on at the same time.

Overall, it was fairly good, but I didn't like the music personally. Also, the fact that you say Multiple Endings, but DON'T give a super ending for perfecting the song, is a serious turnoff, especially for people who aren't very good at this type of game, but want to ace it to see what happens.
My only other issue is the fact that it's just one song. Just one. One, very average song. With few notes and no difficulty levels to keep it interesting. This is a game that I honestly, could not see myself playing again. I've beaten it, aced it even, seen the ending, and now it's done. There's nothing to really make me want to play it again, which is the fatal flaw of this game, and why I can't give it higher than a 7. It's strictly a one shot game.

7/10, 3/5. Decent, but far from amazing.

-Froodjakle

[Execution]

...Really?

Yup.. Nice job DIRECTLY RIPPING OFF 2DCUBE'S GAME FROM YYG, Raitendo.

You had a UNIQUE and clever idea going with "You Only Live Once," and I was interested in how this game would end up, seeing as it was a 'sequel' to YOLO, but when I started it up, this is EXACTLY the same game as 2DCube's game on yoyogames, WHICH WASN'T EVEN GOOD IN THE FIRST PLACE, except you used your own character. In fact, this isn't even as good, because you CAN'T win, unlike the original game this was stolen from.

0/10, for not being original enough to think of your OWN continuation, instead of blatantly ripping off of 2DCube.

raitendo responds:

usually I ignore the idiots but since it might not be clear to everybody what's actually going on I'll reply. YOLO is a unique idea, but the permanency thing has been done before by Jesse Venbrux (I don't know if his user name at yoyogames is 2dcube but I guess that's possible) in a game called "Execution". I was partly inspired by that when I made YOLO, so I wanted to pay tribute, and that's what this is.

[Vorago]

Just... Thank you.

All I can really say, is thank you. Thank you for bringing this amazing piece of art to life, and allowing me, and so many others, to enjoy it.
I really just don't even know how to describe the way I feel after playing this cinematic masterpiece. The characters are all believable, the storyline is fantastic, the art was incredible, the sounds and music were perfectly fitting, the length was just right, the puzzles were perfect.. I can't think of a single negative to this wonderful experience. This is the best point and click game I have played in my life, possibly the best game I've played on newgrounds. Other games may have more complexity, but this game.. It just held my attention throughout it's entirety, and I wanted to know what would happen next, every single step of the way. The voice acting is fantastic, every characters voice suits them perfectly.
If I had to pick a downside, it would be the mini-games, which at moments were frustrating, but they were also balanced enough to not make them unbearable. They certainly weren't enough to make me want to play this game any less, and I sincerely hope you continue using your skill in this same style. Your ability to perfectly combine every element into a game, without ever overwhelming it in any particular section, is stunning. I myself am not a fan of horror, but I gave this game a chance, even though it seemed like it might fit into that genre. And I was right, to a degree. It is definitely creepy at times, but never overwhelmingly so. Just the right amount.

One of the best games- no, experiences- to grace Newgrounds in recent times. I thoroughly enjoyed your storytelling, combined with the beautiful art style, and I hope you decide to make more games in this particular style in the near future, as I haven't enjoyed a game this much in quite some time.

ABSOLUTELY 5/5, 10/10, if I could give you more, I would, and I wish I could.
I'm looking forward to seeing this game on the front page. It almost definitely will be, it very much deserves it. The effort you put into it shows.

[Paper Planes]

Memories..

Ah.. I remember how much I hated this game when I was a kid..
10/10, 5/5, for the painful memories of how much I used to suck at gaming :D

[Super Mario 63]

Amazing, but not without flaws

This game is absolutely incredible. From the complex physics engine, to the sheer fun of pulling off a perfect move, to the endless possibilities of the level designer, I'm certain I'll be playing it for some time to come. The level designer is nice, although it IS lacking some features that would be nice, but that's a small complaint that you'll probably fix in updates later on.

The major flaw to this game is the amount of bugs, one in particular that jumps out at me. If you attempt to use Rocket Fludd right after a triple jump, while you're still spinning, Fludd animates very quickly, but nothing happens, and a few seconds later, it finally sends you flying upwards, but completely missing the height of your jump and ruining it entirely. This was a MAJOR flaw for me, especially in Hazy Maze Cave, where I was desperately trying to get up the rocket jump area at the very beginning, with almost no success.
However, even with the glitches, this game deserves 10/10, 5/5. It's absolutely incredible, and a few glitches won't change that. I would very much appreciate it if you would try and fix the triple jump fludd glitch though, it's extremely aggravating.

The only other possible complaint I could have is that the final boss with Bowser is a bit too easy, but that's just nitpicking. The way you switched up the battle mechanics was amazing, it was awesome the way you damage him compared to the normal Bowser battles.

I honestly can't think of any other things in this game that aren't perfect, which is why I'm listing the bad spots. It would take FAR more than the 5,000 character limit they give me to list all of the good points of this game.

All in all, this game has got to be one of the most impressive Flash games I have EVER played, and I for one am very much looking forward to your future works.
5/5, 10/10. Keep making awesome games, Runouw!

-Froodjakle

[Da Pink Knight]

SO close to awesome

This game is really close to being amazing. The graphics are gorgeous, the animation is great, the sound is awesome, and the way the music changes every time you level up is a fantastic idea and it works to perfection.

The biggest flaw with this game is how cheap the boss can be at times.

I'm not talking about difficulty here. The difficulty is just right. At first I thought it was stupidly hard, but then I figured out how to play, and it got better. However, I was up above 500 hp at one point, and I got stunned, and in that ONE instant, that ONE five second period, I lost every point I had earned, had less than half of a healthbar, and would've had to restart the entire thing.

That one flaw is keeping this game from near perfection. I heavily enjoyed the gameplay, the surprisingly strategic element to the game, and the fact that, unlike many games, it emphasizes using every move at your disposal at the right moment for the right progression, but the fact that in one mistake, you can literally restart the ENTIRE damn game is just too much for me.

Personally, I would suggest an exp loss limit. Such as, you can lose exp to the point where you are at the minimum exp for your current level, or however you wish to do it, but it's just plain obnoxious to see everything I've worked at ripped away from me in a matter of seconds. Even if you just lowered the rate at which you lost experience it would make it so much more enjoyable.

At any rate, I didn't play far enough to see how truly great it is, but I'm gonna give it a 7, for overall being a great game, but with one massive flaw. I'm not saying that's the only issue, I could complain about how the bosses hitbox is hard to figure out and such, but the exp loss is most definitely my biggest issue with the game.

Graphics - 10/10
Sound - 10/10
Gameplay - 7/10
Challenge - 7/10
Control - 8/10

-Froodjakle

MindChamber responds:

thats for the review, and I agree with alot of your points, we will definitely be taking alot into consideration for our next game(s)

I would suggest trying it again though, because once you nail out the patterns the game becomes extremely easy.

[Megaman Zero:]

HIGHLY overrated.

Back in the day, when I was younger and didn't know squat about game creation and such, I loved all of your games. Etherena Beta was a favorite of mine, me and a friend would play it all the time. However, coming back to your games today and replaying them, I can honestly say they need alot of work, this one especially.

The movement in this game, unfortunately, is HORRIBLE. The controls are screwy and non-reactive, ESPECIALLY for jumping/wall jumping, which is where every single death I had in this game came from. Not good level design, not good enemy programming, but glitchy controls. I would've gotten through this game without taking a single death if the controls were able to keep up. Controls are a major part of Megaman Zero games, as I'm sure you know, so this was a HUGE blow to the game.

The enemy AI in this game was just plain bad. There was a very small variety of the enemies in this game, and it was obvious they had no intelligence whatsoever, aside from "see zero, attack. do not see zero, do nothing." I know you can program better AI, you did so in Etherena Beta. The AI in that game was great. But in this game, the only hits you take are from cheap shots, like the reactor boss, who has MASSIVE pieces of rock or whatever they are that it throws at you that NOBODY sees coming, because they just appear out of thin air and damage you, and also the endless hordes of enemies that come after you which make it nigh impossible to attack the boss without getting hit.

The graphics for characters were fine, but that's not saying much; It's kinda hard to ruin a pre-animated sprite. The background graphics for the most part were good, EXCEPT for the intro level. The desert graphics were TERRIBLE. They didn't flow together at all and the sand just stopped out of nowhere on ledges. It would've been nice to see some custom graphics too, rather than purely ripped.

The sound effects and music were fine... except for the volume levels. The sound effects were virtually silent compared to the music, and one of the best parts about the Zero series was how great the sound effects blended in with the game and everything. Also, it would've been nice to see a change in music. Hearing the same song throughout almost all of the game was really annoying.

The level design was okay SOMETIMES, but the rest of the level designs were awful. I liked the platforming in the spike level. It was fun to do, although it didn't really feel like Megaman Zero to me. MMZ focuses more on challenging enemies than platforming, although it's definitely not out of the question. But the thing about level design that really bugged me was how the levels progressed. You randomly go from inside a factory or something, to riding across flying cars, to inside another factory, with NO explanation whatsoever. It was confusing and made me lose hope in the small amount of storyline this game had.

The gameplay itself was lackluster, because of everything mentioned before. Awful controls that felt NOTHING like the real games, cheap shots left and right, terrible level design (for the most part,) bad sound/music balancing.. Alltogether this was just a VERY disappointing game.

I'm gonna have to give this one a 4. It worked, but just barely, and it had almost no fun value whatsoever.

Graphics - 7/10
Sound - 4/10
Level Design - 4/10
Programming - 5/10
Controls - 1/10
Challenge - 3/10
Replay Value - 0/10

-Froodjakle