GreenCastle's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Gear Tower]

Unoriginal and has bad user interface design

This is not a terribly original implementation of the "self multiple" concept pioneered by games like Chronotron, Cursor*, etc. It has better graphics and nice sound but doesn't add anything else (except maybe a plot)

I did not finish playing because the user interface has a fatal flaw that shatters my flow. Way too close to the portal you have to click to create a new instance, you have a clickable link that hijacks the user to maxgames.com. I accidentally clicked the link and not the portal and was furious. You tricked me into going to your sponsor's website. The fact this wasn't noticed by you or any of your playtesters either indicates laziness or you care more about hits/ads than having a smooth user experience.

I actually went back and discovered you don't have to click on that portal... but it is not excusable to have a clickable link anywhere on the playing field in a game that involves clicking.

There is probably some incredible innovation later on that you deserve a 10 & 5 for, but you failed to keep me playing that long.

[Orin Squares]

Too bare-bones

I understood the concept of the puzzle, but this flash just isn't polished enough. The lack of polish combined with the difficulty of the game made me put it down.

- even the "easiest" level is very hard.
- why is there no navigation to get back to the menu once you've started the puzzle? No way to reread the instructions? Was this playtested by anyone before submitting?
- there's no way a game this size should take this long to preload. Are you trying to run an ad? There's no way to justify putting an ad in a flash like this.
- no music or graphics, nothing else to create an atmosphere or hold our interest
- there are text fields inside your buttons which turn the cursor to a I-beam which means your buttons aren't symbols like they should be... it doesn't affect gameplay but it just shows laziness and should be avoided

This shows a nice concept for a game - should be way more polished and start out easier if you want to make it addictive.

nem02 responds:

Hi GreenCastle, thanks for your review. This is my first flash game I have ever made. I made it mainly to test stuff.
1. difficulty - wow, and I thought that it was extremely easy and wanted to create 7x7 square. I will work on difficulty.
2.a back to menu button - you are right.
2.b it was tested by a few of my friends, non of them had been as helpful as you
3. I put the ad there just to test it
4. I am not musician, nor graphics designer and it is very confusing whether I can use free stuff
5. text fields - right again, I didn't know about that

Thanks again

[Lastman]

Good designers eliminate breaks in user flow.

"HEY STOP DYING AND YOU WONT SEE ADS!
(Lol, upped it to 1 ad every 20 deaths to quiet the bitching. Seriously, what the hell guys.)"

Wow. That is really arrogant. I don't see how you can show this little respect for your players and complain on the front page how your game only has a 2.0-something score.

Your game puts the user in a nice little flow (try, fail, hit space, try again) and then breaks it by introducing ads. We didn't ask for ads, don't need them and don't want them. Why give the player an excuse to quit? Your game is not fun enough to afford that. Just drop the in-game ads altogether.

I already wrote quite a detailed review of this game on your news post which I will not copy and paste for I suspect you won't read it.

[William and Sly]

One of the better looking games I've seen recently

+ I love the mechanics of this game, the fox is easy to get used to and the controls are simple
+ The graphics are stunning
+ The music is appropriate and varies enough to not be boring
+ It is easy to see what is happening due to colorful cues
+ The game seems like it is very deep and has a lot of stuff to find
+ I liked the setting and the animation of William, though not a main part of the game, was a nice touch

- Before you get the map you're randomly wandering. You have no idea where you should go. If you don't stumble upon the first 2-3 stones in your exploration (like I didn't first play) you'll end of just wandering the map looking for mushrooms asking yourself, yes this game is very beautiful and the control is great, but is this fun?
- The "boss" is stupid, unfair, and ridiculous. There is not nearly enough time to defend yourself and the boss has no apparent pattern. The only strategy I could come up with was to wait until more flies appeared and then time it so the boss was going to the side I was starting before going on my hunt to pick up flies. But sometimes the boss comes from the same side twice! Just as I was saying to myself, "maybe I voted prematurely first time and this game is really worth a 5 for its effort and deepness", you had to throw in this part. I made 6-7 attempts but I give up. If there is a strategy I'm missing, could you at least have given me a hint somewhere? There are hints all over the rest of the game! It frustrated me to the point I didn't want to see the end of the game anymore. Also, most of this game is beautiful and graphically, this boss looks like crap. A partially transparent brown snake?! Really?

The appeal of this game should be in its deepness and the challenge of finding the cleverly hidden stuff. The end boss is totally unnecessary and ruins the game. If you read prior comments you will see I am not alone in this thinking. You should have just allowed me to activate the last runestone, and then give me my ending when I go back and talk to William. Not challenging, sure, but as I stated before the challenge of this game is in discovering stuff.

Mostly a great work of art. But I can't bring myself to give it a 10.

[Use Boxmen]

Really nice game

I liked the casual atmosphere of the game and the different music tracks that play.. that is a nice touch. The idea of the game is kind of like several other puzzle games where you spawn copies of yourself, but none of them are quite the same. I liked the storyline and the quality of the puzzles. Negatives: the controls are slippery. The 3rd to last level took me quite a while, not because I couldn't find the idea, but because I kept falling, and on the runs where I laid all the clones and got back alive, I screwed up the fall-around-corner-while-cloning jump. The 2nd to last level... when I'm standing on a platform that's moving, I expect to move with the platform. And I lost about 2-3 times because I jumped down off the moving platform on a button, and slid off the button I was trying to hold down causing the spikes to reappear and kill my clone. In summary, the harder puzzles are all about precise timing and therefore the controls should be tighter. Despite this, I actually really liked this game. If it had kept going I would have kept playing.

[BO: The Secret of Steel]

Nice action game.

The mechanics of this game are very good and I like the artistic style, especially the use of color. But I stopped playing at Zoggot. What a tedious, cheap, boss. Ruined the game for me, sorry.

[Crush the Castle]

Pretty nice

What can I say about this game? The graphics and sounds are beautiful. The physics engine is very nice. As you get better weapons it's great to watch things blow up after a well placed shot. Also you included a good level editor - always a popular feature!

A very well polished product and clearly it took a lot of effort. I only have two complaints.

1) on the later levels with a lot of objects, I found the control unresponsive - I click the 2nd time when the shot is clearly still on its way up and nothing happens, the shot just hangs there and gets wasted. Frustrating when things are going well for me otherwise. Are you removing the game objects from the stage when they are not visible?

2) after I release the final shot, the reset button is broken. I have to wait until the the shot stops moving, then for the countdown, and then I have to click some acknowledgment that I'm a royal failure... even when I know immediately that the shot didn't come out right (sometimes due to point number 1)! Why can't I click reset! It seems like a purposeful irritation. As a result, I found myself clicking reset with 1 shot left if I didn't think my odds on the shot were good.

Nevertheless I finished the game and it was quite satisfying.

[Don't Look Back]

Perfect

Excellent use of everything. Simple controls, great example of storyline told without words, good choice of music, good variety of challenges, not too long... there is nothing else to say. This is a work of art. Well done.

[Ultranium 2]

Good followup. Get the ad out of there.

I've said it before... any game that involves clicking should not have a clickable ad on its main screen. ANYWHERE. (especially when I can't see my cursor) Your site opened up during a heated, complicated round with a lot of stuff going on. -2 points. If I really wanted to go to maxgames I'd type it in.

Other than that, really good. Graphics are clean, plays like the original. New powerups are neat. Gets a little old after 10 min or so but hey, that's breakout. Nice job.

[Slug Designer]

Fun and cute and clever.

GreenCastle,Matt,0,1097217,42,10,15,2 ,7,5,5,Jessica,10,2