VelvetDarkRocks's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[PALADIN: the Game]

An epic game.

Auron! Truly a great name.

I have to say, this flash is epic. And not ridiculously over the top epic, nor tries-to-be-epic-and-fails, but truly epic. The story is brilliant and the voice acting extremely well done. As for the score... I'm hugely impressed by your composing talent. The music always holds the sense of glory and righteousness that make this game so epic. The animation was filled with effort and detail, things as simple as labelling the barrels in the storeroom, and it all comes together to make an incredible work of art.

As for faults, I didn't like the reliance on magic attacks for boss battles. Most of the game could be very, very easily won by maxing out strength and dexterity and simply hacking through the hordes, but one or two battles required either a high level aura or potent spells or both. This was a great weakness in my initial character, and those battles took the most effort to even land a hit.

The voice and character of the raven seemed out of place, and given too much emphasis when considering the brevity and insignificance of its appearance. It had very little role to play in the game itself, except as a useful storyline tool for one or two levels, and as a momentary distraction. If the raven was a reference to the "Paladin series" its role should have been expanded rather than slipped in and removed. There was no time or reason to associate with its character, and it didn't bother me too much when it was removed.

That's another one of the faults of the game. Although initially epic and with a vast and deep storyline, it was quickly lost to the hack'n'slash genre of adventure games. The story was reduced from a few minutes of animation and dialogue to cutscenes only a few seconds long. This is something I feel needs to be adjusted.

On the whole it was a wonderful game to play, but turned out much more shallow than its opening promised. Still enjoyable, but without newgrounds medals, there is little replay value.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

[Brawl Royale]

An epic game!

Excellent to see so many references from so many genres and games. A truly wonderful line-up, and the simplicity of the game was astoundingly challenging. I admitted defeat after I died on Canti a few times too many. There's very few methods of increasing your skill at such a game, or influencing your chance at victory at all, so I admitted defeat rather than spending hours trying to foul my way to success.

Not too sure what the issue is with the medals, but disabling pop-up blocker seems to work after all.

A magnificent score of music for an epic game, but one perhaps a little too challenging for me. I guess I just can't hack it!

~VelvetDarkRocks~

[Armed Prophet]

Fantastic!

The whole game reeks of epic without taking itself too seriously. The fantastically over the top storyline, the characteristics of great heroes in a humble bar-goer who comes to know himself as the "Armed Prophet"... It's all horribly cheesy but at the same time has quite a cool ring to it.

In terms of gameplay and graphics, it's very reminiscent of Castle Crashers. It has a great newgrounds feel, kind Dan Paladin and Tom Fulpy. And of course, they make some excellent games. Comparitively though, Armed Prophet is still fairly original, unique and entertaining.

One of the things I'm most impressed with is the sound track. I mean, the main theme is singing his name over and over! Rather like One Winged Angel (Sephiroth's theme). Each stage had a certain kind of feel to it, well expressed in the score. I can see a lot of effort has been put into creating or finding the pieces used.

Each of the three levels had unique environments, characteristics and enemies which required different strategies and quick thinking. The variety of weapons was also appreciated, though they all basically did the same thing apart from their specials. Perhaps if each weapon had a unique range, strength or combo style it would vary the gameplay a little more and call for more diversity and adaptability.

I also feel that the spin-attack wasn't worth it. In a game where every split second counts, charging up is too much of a cost to use a cool attack. I think half the death meter is a more than fair trade, and the spin attack deserves its own button.

Humorous additions as simple as a the signs in Robort Corporation and the crate of H1N1 added just that bit of character to the game. I especially love the Freeman medal.

It took me quite some time (perhaps more than it should have) but I finally got all the medals. An excellent challenge, without being too tiresome with satisfying reward.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

[Madness Accelerant]

Nice.

Like all the Tom Fulp games, this is a game of skill. The better you are, the less health and ammunition you need because you are in rhythm with the game. Knowing exactly when and how an enemy (or enemies) are going to attack allows you to predict, evade, counter or just plain cockblock. There is something beautiful about streaming through hoardes of enemies with a storm of bullets about you to smite down your foes.

A thoroughly satisfying game.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

[Medieval Rampage 2]

A truly excellent game.

I enjoyed Medieval Rampage for many hours, and I was delighted to see the sequel had improved upon the original. Fresh enemies (with a thorough beastiary and some additional challenges in the form of new projectiles) created fresh challenges and enjoyable gameplay. The addition of a melee weapon was welcome, though it was not always convenient to switch between the two- better to stick with one or the other.

I'll say this. I completed 139/170 of the challenges, planning on getting the full 170 but it was taking too much time. It seemed unfair that to buy every item in the game, I needed to start over so I could get the Level 1 armour or the earlier items I did not buy. While I could have very well repeated certain levels in order to max out each individual bow, it just wasn't worth it. I could have spent hours grinding in order to get enough magic kills (requiring mana potions), but again, there would be so little reward for getting just one achievement. Perhaps for the newgrounds medal, rather than separating them in to 100 and 170 complete, offer a smaller amount of newgrounds points for smaller amounts of in-game achievements. For example, offer ten ng points for completing ten achievements at a time.

Points for improvement!
I notice that you've changed the health recovery system! Excellent to see, but a change I exploited. As the price of health potions began to rise, i realised they'd keep getting more expensive while healing the same percentage of health, so I just stocked up on several dozen of them while they were cheap, saving me thousands of gold by the end of the game. I think the health system you're looking for should be based on amounts. Eg. Heal 100 health for 20 gold, 1000 health for 180 gold, as well as health potions. So amounts, rather than percentages (though the system could work either way).
Another thing that greatly annoyed me was it took equal amounts of upgrade points to upgrade the shortbow as the compound bow+. It wasn't worth upgrading *any* of the bows because they'd be replaceable in a few levels when a new bow became available. I think that the higher level bows should require more points to upgrade, so players can choose between getting efficient, weaker bows, or saving up their points to max out the best bows in the game.
Also, the cheats menu says 90 achievements are needed to unlock them all, but doesn't seem right.

Certain bugs also bothered me: enemies could move through the blockades caused by killing certain characters. In normal terrain, you could shoot at them with your bow without their reaching you, but they somehow squeezed through the gaps that weren't there and continued attacking me.
Certain achievements couldn't be unlocked for reasons unbeknownst. Specifically for me, buying 1000 arrows, visiting ArmorGames (I tried clicking every link that might have lead to it as well as typing in the url), using mana potions etc.

In summary, an excellent improvement on the first Medieval Rampage, with new ideas, enemies, items, levels and gameplay in general. However, earning some of the achievements is difficult to the point of madness, with little satisfaction or glitches in the way. Though not worth 100%'ing, certainly worth an hour or two (or more if you're so inclined). An overall addictive and enjoyable addition to the MR series.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

[Dragon Boy]

Pretty cool!

It takes a while to level up, but I can see it being a very enjoyable game. The attacks are quite weak in that they're four-directional when enemies can come from angles (making them harder to hit). I did enjoy it though! A game well made, though perhaps slightly better graphics are needed for any sequels.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

[SkyFyre]

Excellent!

My goodness, such a simple concept but such an addictive game. Whoever thought riding dragons with guns on them (Fyres?) could be so addicting! The range of powerups was probably what hooked me in. The game was really amazingly difficult, but with patience luck and skill, I passed even the bonus level. If only this game had Newgrounds medals! A magical and truly captivating side-scroller. Excellent work!

~VelvetDarkRocks~

[Crush the Castle: PP]

Highly addictive.

There is something strangely satisfying about flinging rocks at something and watching it fall to pieces. Too is there a morbid kind of charm in using one's dead family to prevent rubble from reaching you. There were some interesting poses where, say, a pillar was held just out of reach on the heads of the two people standing either side of the queen.

A wonderful game that can never be played the same way twice. Highly addictive, very satisfying, plenty of medals for replay value.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

[Seed of Destruction]

I love it!

Some charming animations, such a simple but brilliant idea, such thoroughly pleasurable physics... It's so creative and so entertaining, addictive and enormously enjoyable.

Something about the cowboy hat and the carefree attitude (not to mention nonchalance at riding a giant sperm) is hilariously endearing. Fantastic.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

[Bunny Invasion: Easter]

Another excellent installment.

Bunny Invasion is back, with it's trademark graphics and telltale humour! Addictive, hilarious and highly satisfying, a game well worth playing if you have the time.

What an excellent and creative idea, having the Easter Bunny as a villain in the Bunny Invasion series! I'm amazed at how many Easter references you managed to squeeze in here, from chocolate blood to balancing on eggs to Jesus bunnies/Frost. Somewhat sacreligious but impressive nonetheless.

As in the previous installments, a wide range of (very creative) enemies to be mowed down by a large number of (very cool) weapons is always an addictive and entertaining combination. Highly satisfying to customise weapons to suit the individual's style of play. The rocket launcher was a highly welcome addition to the arsenal, though I wish the initial handgun was the one with the special name he'd used in the previous, just for continuity's sake.

As I said in my review of Bunny Invasion 2, I can see how much fun you guys would have doing the voices. They add just that touch of humour and variation to make what would otherwise be repetetive bunny slaughter interesting enough to remain enjoyable. Good to see some new phrases too, showing you didn't just recycle the old ones.

I'm also really glad to see the assistant shooting bunnies around the middle rather than those closest (which you presumably aim at) so that he provides the most coverfire. Great thinking on your part.

Highly entertaining cutscenes also provide a welcome break from the action. I think some of the bonus scenes were definitely worth sticking in there, but at least we got to read the script for them. I especially love how you actually justified having a shop to resupply after every wave, though I must admit I somewhat prefer the alternate script. It explains a lot more, fleshes out the story and makes things more believable, plus at times it's just plain awesome.

Either way, you must have enjoyed coming up with the story and dialogue. In fact, I bet this project was a whole lot of fun for you. That said, your hard work clearly shows, and I have no doubt you put many hours of effort into its production. It pays off!

SPOILER ALERT!!
I really loved how Mr Frost returned after three days of supposed death. It was cool, but a little short for an ending given I spent about two hours playing the game.
SPOILER OVER!!

One thing I felt the game lacked (and this is clearly only minor) is the lack of sound effects during cutscenes. Dialogue was great but I miss the hilarious voice acting, and it would have been good to hear the actual battle cries when they duo faced off against the Easter Bunny.

Also, an option to go back as well as forward when choosing levels would be much appreciated so I didn't have to keep playing Level 60 when I wanted to rake in the money from the level 50's upwards.

All up... a truly excellent game. I was crazy enough to play to the point where I bought and maxed out every weapon and all the ammunition for it. Sure it's a waste of time, but if there's ever another Bunny Invasion, whoever stumbles across the bunker will be more than prepared to defend it essentially forever. It's somehow very satisfying.

Definitely one of the most addictive games on newgrounds. Highly enjoyable, fantastic variation to keep things interesting yet repeating what's just so damn satisfying: mass bunny slaughter. If there's another on the way I look forward to playing it.

~VelvetDarkRocks~