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Asandir

9 Game Reviews

2 w/ Responses

I played the first one and after playing this one I felt like writing a review about the problems of this game:

Graphics/Animation : 1/5

The water is just a one-coloured surface, the swimming animation consists of only a few frames, the jellyfishes are just a moving, unanimated sprite. The attack animation is also not good.

Audio: 3/5

The song is well chosen but you could add an option to choose between more songs. It would be also good to add sounds for : getting a coin, attacking a jellyfish, getting a bubble, etc.

Content/Gameplay: 0/5

That may seem harsh but I will explain why you get no points in this category. While there are some much needed improvements over the last game, it is still too difficult to get coins and an overall unenjoyable experience.

I upgraded everything to a point where the upgrades cost 40$ and there are still multiple rounds in a row where I see nothing, no coins, no enemies, nada. Since it becomes more and more costy to get an upgrade, the game becomes more tedious the more upgrades you have. The one-time upgrades help a bit to counter this problem but it is not enough.

In other upgrade games you feel more powerful as you keep on playing - in this one you will feel more and more unlucky.

The spawn rate for everything apart from the jellyfishes is way too low. Why bother to upgrade bubbles when I see one in 10 rounds? Upgrading bubbles should make them more efficient and increase their spawn rate. I also found the attack to be absolutely useless. The jellyfishes get barely knocked back and most times you will just crash into them when you attack. The hitbox of those monsters is also insane, they are cleary far away and the still hit me, tone it down a bit.

I also recommend that you add some upgrades that make the game easier and more enjoyable:

- Hearts upgrade: Each point gives you one more heart. That will prevent rounds where you suddenly crash into a jellyfish and gain nothing. Once you get hit, you will be immortal for 2 seconds, so that you have time to move away from the jellyfish.

- More treasures! upgrade: that will improve the chance to spawn gems that give more than just one dollar. That will help to keep high priced upgrades obtainable without playing several years.

- Improved weapon: instead of knocking the jellyfishes back, they will now get damaged and slowed down. The jellyfishes will have 5 hitpoints, once you have upgraded weapon 5 times, only the amount of shots gets improved.

I am so lucky! Upgrade: The most costy upgrade, starting with 10, and increasing by the same amount, can be upgraded 5 times to increase the spawn rate of bubbles, coins and gems a bit.

Apart from that, once you got rid of those flaws it would be nice to see more content:
- first would be a high score for how long you survived, one for how many coins you earned in a round and another one for how many challenges you cleared
- a challenge mode: you get quests that you have to solve, with incrasing difficulty, for example "obtain 3 coins in one round", one of the later ones being "defeat 3 jellyfishes within one minute", etc. The higher the difficulty of the challenge, the higher the reward will be, giving the player an optional way to gain enough money for the upgrades
- unlocking skins for the player, and skins that add more monsters than just jellyfishes

Overall: 1/5

As it stands now, the only good thing is the relaxing song - which stands in a strong contrast to a gameplay that is in most aspects simply annoying - you don't look forward to upgrades and more often than not unfair jellyfishes spawn directly before you without a chance to react. The game in its current state simply is no fun to play and the one point is only given to put it in perspective to the first one. I hope that you don't get discouraged by my honest rating - I also recommend that you play some of the upgrade games here on Newgrounds to get a better feeling what that kind of games need to be fun - steadily more upgrades that make you feel more and more powerful.

PakoYea responds:

Thanks for your review and ideas!

I stumbled upon this game earlier today. It left an impression to me and I felt that I should write a review. Truth be told, the impression that I got from this game is overwhelmingly bad:

Graphics/Animation: 0.5/5

Even for this kind of game, they are too simple. Nothing against a simple style but this doesn't even look good. The colour scheme of both the background in the main menu and the levels (atleast for Level 1,2 and 3, I was unable to play the others but that's another point) is horrid. Enemies shoot grey projectiles in front of a grey background - that is not a good idea. It almost feels like you made it look bad on purpose. Atleast the characters look somewhat decent. Work on this and get rid of colour combinations that create a horrible contrast. It would be great if you would also use another font that doesn't look that basic.

Audio: 0/5

I wondered why the sound was turned off by default - then I turned the sound on and got my answer. Not only is the music a short loop, the music itself is of such a bad quality (due to compression, I guess) that I can only wonder how you didn't notice this problem. We have an excellent audio portal and you can upload flashes to dumpggounds to test flashes - there is no excuse to dish out such bad audio quality in a flash game - where audio can help to elevate the athmoshpere. Would have been helpful since the game doesn't deliver in other parts either. Fix the quality of the song, or preferably choose another AND longer song. The current one is maybe 30 seconds long, way too short. It would be perfect if you could implent more than one song, though. Maybe a new one every 5 levels.

Content/Gameplay: 0/5

I can give you no points in this regard. I said it previously, you can test flashes in dumpgrounds. To me, it seems like you never tried this game out even once - the errors appear too frequent and there are way too many issues with the gameplay. The most important one being that the game will freeze up after some time - yet again, such a MAJOR bug is not acceptable upon releasing the game to the portal. The controls are clunky and the hero gets stuck very often.
The leveling system doesn't work at all - you wouldn't be able to get to Max Level anyways with the game-crashing bugs.
Long story short, most medals are unattainable and the game itself is unplayable and beyond that clunky.

Overall: 0/5

There is one good thing that I can say about this game : there are tons of ways to improve it. Making it playable is a good start. Then fixing problems with the gameplay like the not working leveling system. Some medals like the 25 death medals are also not working but that is at the moment a minor issue.
I strongly recommend that you test your games in the future before you release them. Newgrounds offers you enough possibilities to do so.

Graphics/Animation: 10/10
I love the graphic style of the Burrito Bison series, both the hero and the gummies are given character by it. The different areas bring in enough variety. It would be cool when the survival mode would also have multiple areas, though. Visual presentation is on such a high level that it could be very well a game that is developed by a company.
Animations are perfect and make it fun to squash the gummies time and time again. I noticed that the game slows down sometimes a bit but I can't say for sure if that is caused by my internet connection, so I won't take away points for it. The game runs much more fluid on Chrome than on Firefox, though.

Audio: 10/10
The music is well chosen and doesn't become too repetitive, which is a must for such a tossing game, that is normally played for a long time. In comparison to Burrito Bison, I find this soundtrack less appealing. The last soundtrack gave me more the feeling of an epic journey.Sound effects are perfect too, especially the impact when Burrito Bison hits the ground with his rocket slam ability . All in all helps to create a nice, action paced athmosphere.

Content/Gameplay: 8/10
There are many things that I like. For one, the uge amount of upgrades, they help to keep me occupied for many hours. But some of the later upgrades are too expensive and it takes a lot of time to get them. I find it also sad that some items are exclusive for people who pay money, I can remember that the tacos were normally unlockable on the Adultswim version. Especially since the tacos make a huge difference in the survival mode.
Special gummies are much needed. They bring in the activity that is otherwise missing in a tossing game, the minigames are shortly and well explained. However, reaching high distances/high speed depends a little bit too much on luck in my opinion. Nyan Bison is awesome!
The new mission system is also a nice addition. Some of those missions are almost impossible, thankfully they can be skipped for ingame money.
Gaining upgrades, fullfilling missions - all those keep the game interesting. It is good that the saving function is finally fixed because it pretty much ruined the gaming experience. Playing for multiple hours to find the savefile vanished was not cool.
I would also like to mention the last unlockable opponent (I won't mention who he is, so that I don't spoil anything), but it is nice to see references to other flash games. It would be good to see more of them, Goin' Up is a good example for implenting them well.

Overall: 10/10
The things that I found negative are pretty minor and I would lie if I would say that I didn't wait for the sequel of Burrito Bison. It is one of, if not the best Tossing games that we have on Newgrounds and improved the original one in many aspects.

Basic Flash

I saw your request for reviews and despite not being a member of the Review Request Club, I decided to write a review for your flash. I will take into consideration that you made it in 2 days and that it isn't a full game.

Graphics/Animation: 4/10
The graphics are not very detailed - they look very simple to me but I guess that it can't be helped with such a short amount of production time. However, the characters are too small in my opinion. For my personal taste, the green colour of the ground is really unpleasent.
The animations are decent. The explosion effect is simple but a nice touch. I would appreciate it when the enemies would do more then just simply rotate, though. You should definitely improve that aspect.

Audio: 8/10
The music is well chosen and suits the music well. Positive that you have taken it from the Audio portal and that they support the theme of this game.
There are not many sound effects. The sound of the gun is pretty goood, the sound when the enemies attack you could be a bit louder. All in all well done.

Content/Gameplay: 4/10
Walking around works nice and smoothly, like it should in such a game. The aiming works perfectly. However there is much place for improvement.
First of all, the game is way too easy. The visable area is too big, there is no possibilty that the enemies could surprise or bring me in a dangerous situation. Infact, I didn't lose any health while playing and I am not a gifted gamer.
Good that you didn't add a highscore system yet, since the score just depends on how long someone plays this flash.

I think that ammo should be limited - that way it just adds to the feeling that I am invincible - when I run out of ammo and have to search for it, then it becomes more interesting. It also stops me from shooting randomly around.
Which brings me to my next point - there is a lack of weapon variety and upgrades. Interesting weapons are essential for a shooter.
You should also add waves of enemies which become bigger and add more though enemies from time to time, since 2 different ones are not enough.
Right now I can easily kill each opponent with one shot.

Overall: 5/10
I think what you created can be described best as good base for an improved version. Right now, there are many things where you can improve on. Also take into consideration to give the next version something unique to make this game stand out from the others in that genre.
I would give you a lower score if this would be the final product but since you said that this is a project that you will expand in the future I give you a decent score of 5 points to encourage you to work on this game.
I am looking forward to see the finished game and wish you luck and fun with creating it. If you wish, then I will gladly review that one too.

Promising basic flash

You mentioned that you consider to release an improved version. I would like that, but I will review the flash as it is presented now since I don't know how the improved version will turn out.
I played this game for some time, when it entered the portal and stumbled across some things that could be improved, here is my review:

Animation/Graphics:
The Graphics are very basic, but they do their job. The background which resembles a piece of paper is pretty fitting and the letters are good readable, that's a plus - I noticed that the letters are sometimes overlapped and then it becomes difficult to identify them.
There is a serious lack of animation. For example, it would be great if there is some kind of visual indicator when one of the letters reaches the bottom of the playarena, just a simply red glowing for example. Apart from that, maybe letting the letters that you succesfully type in turn into shatters or even only letting them slowly fade out would give the game a more appealing touch.

Story/Content:
One posive thing are the instructions - they make it very clear what my task is and how I get points. The gameplay is fairly simply - you see the letter and type it, the keys are responsive, there is no lag. I also like the increasing difficulty curve.
There are some suggestions that I have: I would add a penalty for typing the wrong letter. I started to just hit random letters in the later parts of the game and got away with it - I would take away one health point for every 10th wrong typed letter. I would also add more game modes, right now we have only a survival mode, basically. I would add a challenge mode, where you have to solve different tasks in a certain amount of time, for example putting 30 random letters on the screen and the player has to type them as quickly as possible or writing as many difficult words as you can in 30 seconds. Also different difficulties would be great.
I would also add the possibility to regain some health, maybe by reaching score milestones( maybe for every 100th point).

Audio:
The part where the flash disappoints the most. I appreciate it that the sound when you type a letter resembles the one of a typewriter - but in comparison to that the sound that plays when one of the letters reaches the bottom of the playground is not loud enough.
I also think that the addition of music would help a lot to keep the player longer entertained - start with a calm song - that gets faster and more intense with the increasing difficulty and you get a more entertaining gameplay.
You didn't mention that you will improve that aspect, so I found it very important to point it out.

Overall:
I enjoyed this game - but not very long. The general idea is nice, and while it is not very original, it is well done in some aspects, like the good working basic gameplay.
But the lack of different game modes, the rather bland visual presentation and the big weaknesses in audio stop me from playing it for a long time.
All in all, I gave this flash 4 stars and a vote of 2 points. As I said in my first sentence - the improved version could turn out to be a great flash.
Don't get discouraged by the low voting that I gave, you already promised to include a lot of the things that I recommended, which will result in a better score.

A great game

The game is good, and here are my views:

Artwork: Is very outstanding, thanks to your unique drawing style, the use of famous characters ike Angry Bird give this game a nice touch and makes you want to search for other characters. The change of Rufus look after leveling up is a plus.

Animation: Looks very smooth, nice to see that characters, that you jumped on change their look into a more bloody one, while keeping it on a cute level, due to the drawing style. I also love Rufus facial expressions.

Sounds: They make the game more enjoyable for me, I personally like the sound when you hit the spikes, sounds pretty realistic to me. All in all well done.

Music: Just one song, but it didn't become boring for me, even after hours of gameplay. I noticed earlier that the music stops playing after some time, but this issue seems to be fixed now, great.

Concept: The game idea is pretty good, although a bit inspired from Doodle Jump. Still, the artwork and the upgrades give it a fresh style, and I enjoyed playing it.

Gameplay: The most important thing at first- playing Goin Up is fun, so it delivers also in this aspect. Still, there are some minor issues:
I think that some upgrades are too expensive. Sure, there is a well working save function, but upgrading everything still takes a few hours. Apart from that, sometimes bigger enemies are placed under platforms in a way that you can't reach them.

Additional notes, final conclusion: Goin up is one of my favourite games, and it has everything that I want from a game, a replay value, motivaton due to medals and upgrades, nice artwork and gameplay. The few issues are so minor, that they don't influence my final vote of 10 stars.

Need improvement

It is not a bad game, but there are my views on it:

Gameplay:
It works, but it is way too easy and slow. Infact, I see no way how you can lose, when you try atleast a bit. It would be better if the game become faster and faster or when the amount of red platforms increases. Maybe you could implent different difficulties, so that it appeals to different players. Still, too easy at the moment. Also some kind of highscore would be a nice touch.

Graphics:
They are somewhat decent, the ball and the platforms look nice and so does the menu. I am indifferent about the background, it looks a little bit too plain to me.

Sound/Music:
Well, the sounds are okay, but I think that the game would profit a lot from a fast paced background music. The lack of said music made the game boring pretty quickly.

Recommendations:
Make the game more difficult, add possibly different difficulties, adding highscores is optional, a nicer background and good backgroudn music is all that this game needs to be a good time waster.

GuidoB responds:

Hi,
Thanks for these reviews.
I've updated the gravity which the ball falls, and I've added levels.
Everytime the ball gets xxx points (secret for now ^^) the speed increases and the blocks appear less often.
Background music is going to be added soon.

I'll upload very soon a new version of the game (probally without background music again, but in version 2, that one will be added to!)

A great game

Pros:

Gameplay:
Works absolutely fine, the given option between keyboard and mouse control is positive, the shortly given tutorial and tips via speech bubbles help the beginner a lot and fit into the game well.
Also good is the upgrade system, especially that the gamer gets informed, when he has earned enough money through turning gummy bears into sweet mud.

Graphics:
Outstanding and one of the most well looking graphics that I have seen on a Newgrounds game, the cute and colourful style fits the theme of the game so well, that you have no chance but to enjoy looking at the screen.
They also give Burrito Bison character.

Story:
Not really needed, but the intro in form of a comic surely helped to give the whole game a purpose, and gives it another funny side.

Cons/Recommendations:
Nothing. At all. I can't find anything negative, so that is surely a good thing.

Addition Notes:
I love that game, thanks for creating it!

My favourite game

Pros:
Gameplay- The controls work perfectly, the cannon moves fluently and the movement control of the Turtle together with different weapons via mouse works fine.

Graphics- They look simply good, due to the unique animation style of yours, which is lovely detailed, everything looks excellent, especially the suffering mimics of the turtle.

Replay value- Is given, and the game can be entertaining for hours, since the medals give you the wish to get them all, and they appeal to beginners and also to experienced gamers.

Music/sound- The music sounds good and doesn't become boring, even after 3 hours of playing, the sound effects are also well done.

Cons/Recommendations:

Gameplay: I think that applies to every cannon game, but it becomes repetitive after a while, although that is thankfully reduced, since the new weapons and cannons give the game a fresh feeling.

Addition Notes:
Yes, I love that game, and I think it says enough, when I admit that it made my join Newgrounds.

I am Asandir and you might have seen some of my posts, if you came here because I made you mad or sad, then I want to apologise to you, with that being said, just enjoy your time on Newgrounds!

Age 33, Male

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