VelvetDarkRocks's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Final Death Wish]

A straightfoward and simplistic game.

Enjoyable in its simplicity. I spent hours playing this, and though the graphics weren't particularly amazing and the soundtrack got repetetive, it was still a pleasure to play through. For the first half.

The formula was simple. Shoot, reload, move and jump when necessary. A healthy variety of enemies kept this enjoyable for the first half of the game, but it got stale towards the end. The enemies only varied slightly and provided no great challenge once the character had maxed out a weapon and chosen some useful skills. There was nothing further to gain from the game except completing challenges, which was mildly interesting (given how long I had invested already) but stupid hard for some of them. Not impossible, but not worth the time or effort to gain the minimal rewards. Speaking of rewards, I liked the medal system. I think more could have been added to the game if achieving a medal gave rewards in-game, like bonus damage or extra-long magazines for weapons. Newgrounds medals would have made attaining achievements MUCH more appealing.

I really appreciate the expansive variety of skills to choose from. They shaped the style of gameplay in significant ways, allowing the player to, in a sense, play a different game every time.

Problematically, there wasn't need for any other weapon than the magnum. Perhaps my gaming experience was devalued by the narrow lense of artillery, but I didn't find a need to try anything else. The double bouncing, homing bullets did hundreds of damage per second. The only reason I kept playing after I had passed the game was to see what bonuses the other weapons had, but the prospect of levelling them ALL up wasn't really enough motivation for me to bother.

Amusing humour to keep things interesting, depending on the events taking place in the game. I appreciated the many references to pop culture you made, especially The Matrix. I too am a great fan.

A few glitches include the final level's Agent Smith's not being able to quite make it onto screen. Some of them would continue walking at the edge but not make it onto the part of the level where they would open fire, so they were just cannon fodder in that sense.
The direction of the homing bullets seemed to change whenever a new enemy appeared on screen, leaving the other it was formerly targetting on low health but still doing full damage.

One suggestion I could make is give enemies a healthbar or some kind of indicator to let you know how close you are to finishing them off.
Also, there's no way I know of to turn off the cheats to continue getting challenges, so that was kind of a bummer.

All up, a good game but with many limitations. Enjoyable on a surface level, but unsustainable as a longer game with several flaws and limited replay value. Good job.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

Arkuni responds:

Awesome review! Please come back when I release my next game :)

[LARRY: Gnomergeddon]

Fun but flawed.

A really simple game design- beat down on the enemies using a variety of weapons and combos. Straightforward beat 'em up fun, right? Well, not necessarily. I found that a large part of the game depended on luck- if you were fortunate enough to get a good weapon that balanced speed, power, range and bonus (like a flaming short sword, which I used up until the very end of the game), you could breeze through waves of enemies. The other weapons weren't even worth looking at, not even the massive axes that did 40+ damage. This privileging of certain weapon types made the game too easy for some levels or ridiculously hard on others. It was just a matter of replaying it until you got an awesome weapon early on.

That said, the range weapons added a surprising amount of balance. The extremely limited ammunition but incredible power was a nice trade-off. Their difficulty and time to use was another challenge, but if you could create distance between yourself and the enemies you could pick them off one by one. Very satisfying and well done.

One thing I felt was lacking was magic. I thought that with the introduction of wands might come spellcasting, but I was mistaken. I think defensive and offensive spells would have been a really great contribution to this game, adding a much deeper level of variety.

Excellent graphics and choice of music. A little tiresome over time to hear the same song over and over, but it had this epic battle feel which was satisfying. The absurd cries of the gnomes was also surprisingly enjoyable to meet in battle. Maybe our protagonist could use a war cry or two of his own?

My final and most prudent complaint is characters who knock you down. A giant or one of those furry fast little guys (that remind me of Alien for some reason) that push you to the floor. They're fine one on one- they challenge you to use evasion and timing to kill them. But when there are two of them on either side, butting you backwards and forwards, you don't even have a chance to shield or jump or attack. You can't use rage, you can't move, you just watch your character get beaten to a bloody pulp within seconds after playing for twenty minutes. Please address this, as it was quite an anti-climactic end to a campaign.

Overall, an enjoyable game, though based more on luck than skill. Without a good weapon, there's no chance of getting further than a few levels. Definitely worth a try.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

Jazza responds:

with the wand you can cast a spell, but larry isnt a magician. :)

[Biggification]

Wow!

That's actually a surprisingly addictive game. I see how the strategy element comes in with the size of the orbs, as well as the multiplier. Most enjoyable, but only if you have time to kill.

One thing that bothered me was the sudden background changes that threw me off for a split second, but that's not biggie. Overall, nicely done and quite original/satisfying.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

MaxManning responds:

Thanks for the feedback. I think cross fading the backgrounds would make the changes less abrupt.

[Deflector]

Talk about challenging!

Now this is an awesome game. Creative, brilliant idea, such simple enemies that cause such an enormous challenge! It was incredible getting just the right angle of deflection to nail an enemy while being fast enough to deflect all the other projectiles! I spent untold time getting up to level 6 where I finally admitted defeat. Bravo, bravo! The music got a little repetative, but that was fine. A pause function is needed, and maybe upgrades per level but I'm not sure if that would ruin the challenge of the different levels. The setups of enemy formation were also fantastic and very challenging. A highly enjoyable game, well worth playing! Be warned- it's addictive!

~VelvetDarkRocks~

freeworldgroup responds:

thanks : - ) hmmm there is a pause - hit 'P' or simly click on the menu button bottom right - will pause the game.

[Dragon Fist 3]

Great game!

Chinese martial arts cinema. That's a good way of putting it. Some familiar faces there, costumes, even variations on famous names (Bruce Lee = Billy Lo). That made me smile. Although one thing I do disagree with is that ninjas used ninja-tos, not katanas as their primary weapons. Well actually there are a lot of contradiction in weapons/special moves. Very happy to see such a wide range of fighting styles though- drunken boxing, different forms in kung fu, not too sure if Billy was doing Jeet Kune Do...

So much to do, no time to do it in. A hugely expansive game with much appreciated familiarity of characters. Kicking ass feels so much cooler when you're Bruce Lee, doesn't it? Anyway, great game. Little choppy, but with that many characters, who can blame you? Music could have been upped a notch, but otherwise very good.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

DJStatika responds:

Billy Lo was the name of bruce lee's character in game of death! also in Enter the dragon his character was refered to Mr Lee, so thats what i put in the game

[Prison Escape]

Hm.. Fair enough!

Not a bad idea for a game.

The graphics were a little bit scrappy, but you focused on powerful images rather than fantastic animation. That's a good technique.
The shadow wasn't always following him, but it showed the level of detail you put in the game.

Music wasn't entirely appropriate, but it was all right in terms of atmosphere.

One of the major flaws is that there's no clearly defined movement. It's free-range, he can move in four directions. Yet, with the ice stages sometimes he would go whizzing past a block and sometimes it would stop him. The movement needs more rigidity for those kind of stages. Also, although the puzzles required some level of thought, they were abstract and had nothing to do with the storyline.

MGS-style feel to the game, overall not too bad. Could be a bit more variation on sneaking- distractions and things like that, but in general, pretty well done.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

freeworldgroup responds:

rankyou

[Cemetary 2]

A good game with lots of room for improvement.

Pros:
- Everyone loves a zombie game.
- Similar to Dawn of the Dead.
- Not a bad layout.
- Fair music.
- Nice ranking system. That's what drew me back to play on.

Improvements:
- In need of a replay button.
- Stagnant. Ie, not a lot happening. Just zombies approaching, you click them.
- No real story, but it's a zombie game; who needs one?
- The reload needed to be much clearer.
- An ammo limit would be a good idea, or at least, a different reload time for each weapon. It would also be good if you could scroll through weapons you've already bought.

Other:
- If Jacob wants you to kill the zombies, why doesn't he give you the guns for free? =)
- Great idea with the night/day, but the transition could have been just a little smoother. You did a great job though!
- Sound effects got just a little tiresome.

Good job though! 7.5/10.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

GrimStudios responds:

You made some valid points, I admit, but a few things. ;D

-Jacob doesn't just give you guns because he's a greedy bastard and doesn't need you anyway (he has all the guns, so it doesn't matter if they come after him, see.)

I guess that's all. xD

Thanks for playing ;O

[BR's Climate Chaos]

Adorable!

My compliments to Dustball! More appropriate music for such a game could not be imagined- I loved it from the very, very first moment.

Texture and shading was incredible well done for something so simple. On second thoughts, they weren't simple at all. They were incredible! The different, 8-way movement was sensational, and the different layers of objects in the foreground and background were unbelievable.

The graphics were, of course, adorable. I loved the fluffy little tail! And the conversations were entertaining and brilliant! Some of them were hard to figure out, but I took great delight in translating the pictures out loud. I recognised some Japanese in the audio, too! The world is so incredible interractive... I just can't believe how awesome it is!

Very pleasantly challenging game. So much to do, so much to see, so much to love! Absolutely adorable humour and everything. I love this game very much.

Despite all this, I did find one glitch though! The hotel disappeared and all that was left was the sign saying "Hotel!" When I walked up to where the door should have been but couldn't get in, so I walked far right then walked back left and it was there again. No biggie!

All in all, a highly loveable game that's both cute and darling! Thanks!

~VelvetDarkRocks~

The-Super-Flash-Bros responds:

Wow, it's great that you liked it so much :D Thanks for an awesome review!

[Paths]

Creative and challenging!

An excellent combination. It took me a little while to get used to, but once I was in to it it was so difficult to stop! Every fall was another challenge to get back up.

I'm still not sure how to re-start without going from level 1.

The stages were creative, the music neat. There was a very fine line between impossible and bloody annoying, and I think I crossed it a few times. All in all, not much to say except very creative and very enjoyable. I had to stop before my brain exploded though.

~VelvetDarkRocks

Glaiel-Gamer responds:

you simply click the circle again

[Great Teacher Onizuka]

Very simple.

Not very difficult either, just a sort of patience game. It reminded me of the old fashioned Sim Girl type game, except not quite so pornographic with better humour. Not a bad sort of storyline, and fair graphics. I didn't know what health was for until I realised you could leave the room without going to class or skipping it. I also wasn't sure what the fish was for until after I bought it, or that skipping class took you to night time. Those are the little things you have to try yourself to learn, so perhaps more of a detailed instructions page could have helped.

I also liked it how he was breathing! Heh heh. Little details like that make it all the worth while. I think recovering five health overnight would have been good too though. I also noticed that Day 7 was a Sunday, meaning he started work on a Sunday too. Tsk.

I've never actually seen "Great Teacher Onizuka" so I'm not sure I got some of the jokes. I do know that robbing the store wasn't worth it (5 times in a row to make profit) and that it got highly repetative after a while. There wasn't really much variety, and random events were difficult to come by. I got a C the first time, but if I had the patience to play again, I'm sure I could get an A by avoiding wasting money on fish.

Overall, not the greatest variety of things to do, but a pretty decent game. I give you 8/10.

~VelvetDarkRocks~

DAIRYDOG responds:

Wow, thanks for the review. I made a slightly better and more varied version called Great Teacher Onizuka SE, but I don't know if it's worth playing through after this one. Who knows. Anyways, I'm glad you liked this somewhat, since I can't even stand playing it after the 10th time.