EmmDubya's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Gravity Bob]

I like it, but this premise isn't too original.

The first thing that struck me upon opening this game was that the character artwork didn't seem too impressive, however looking around the fill for the scenery definitely gave me good vibes, with a nice calming look and later on little subtle details like small pairs of eyes in the walls and such that I believe gave a nice ambience to the visuals. One thing regarding them that I wasn't too keen on was the absolute lack of player animation. I know as a blob kind of thing, it's pretty difficult to make an animation, but the fact that there's just nothing wasn't good for my first impressions. It struck me that you're likely a programmer and that animation may not be your forte, and if so then perhaps collaborating with one of the countless great artists this site has to offer could be a good idea. You're certainly not half bad with stationary art, however, so this may not be a fair conclusion to come to.

It sounds slightly odd, but one qualm I have with the flash is that the UI feels a bit too... 'floaty' for my preferences. I have no suggestions as to how you could improve this, but it's something I noticed and now I'm not quite able to put properly into words. There's a lot of transparency going on and the buttons don't, to me, feel like buttons. I won't elaborate further on this as my thoughts are jumbled as to how to put it across properly, but make sense of this if you will and I will be thankful.

Out of the audio the menu theme, although barely audible due to how quiet it is, and very short, was my favourite piece. It gives a sense of tension and makes it feel as if an important event is brewing and coming nearer and nearer. The in-game music is definitely very different in that it's far more energetic and I think this fits the lighter side of the game eluded to in the character art and such, as opposed to the darker feeling the background art gave me, which reminded me of the third instalment in the DooM series somewhat in the darker sci-fi sort of area.

This clash of two different themes: the vivacious one given off by the in-game theme and character artwork against the slightly creepier and tenser atmosphere of the backgrounds and menu theme, to me detracts slightly from the overall experience. It feels rather mismatched and muddled, where at any given moment you're receiving both of them at the same time.

The concept of a platformer that swaps gravity around has been around for a while, with my own first experience being the Shift games, which I wasn't ever particularly fond of, although they were rather fun. Since then, I have seen it done over and over again. I think that you carried it off pretty well, although as I said, the fact that it has been done to death in the past reduces the score for unoriginality.

Last but not least, I'm going to come onto the gameplay. The first thing that struck me was the left and right movement feeling rather bloated and sluggish, and sure, perhaps that fits the whole space theme of the game, but I believe that slightly speedier movement would be an asset. As I previously mentioned, the idea of a gravity-switching platformer has been done often in the past, however one thing that I haven't noticed in other people's flashes (not to say it doesn't exist)is the ability to swap in the air, which was present in this. This is what I believe causes this submission to stand out slightly from the rest, albeit not much. In my experience with it, it allowed for more tactics and some levels were even based on getting the balance of each one in mid-air perfect, which definitely took advantage of it.

Overall, I did quite enjoy playing this, although admittedly it didn't captivate my interest for too long, possibly as I've played so many similar games. I really liked the soundtrack, however at any given moment the audio and art direction for particular objects seemed to be giving conflicting ambience out. The movement was slightly sluggish, but I can look past that.

7/10. 3/5. I definitely enjoyed playing this, and hope that you expand on this formula further in future.

ProfessorFlash responds:

Wow, thanks for the long and detailed review. I can't take credit for the graphics as I didn't make it. I did collaborate with an artist but he doesn't have an newgrounds account as far as I know so that's why I'm alone in there :). You can however check the credits page in the game to see info about all the people who were involved.

I set out to create a fun platformer, and originality was something I was willing to sacrifice. I've spend too much time thinking about original concepts and not getting anywhere because it's hard to come up with something original and fun :). I hope people enjoy the game despite it not being that original.

Thanks for your thoughts and I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[What is Success?]

I'm not quite sure what I think, but it's positive

This was a really nice kinda break from the regular flashes that I see coming in, and the one thing I have to say is that the game is a really unique creation, and the spawn of thought rather than simply looking at what had already been done and building on that, and I really liked the almost philosophical feel the text gave, in addition to the unexpected method of finally completing it.

I also feel I have to commend you for your excellent efforts on the soundtrack, I respect the fact that you composed your own piece of music for the background, and even moreso for the fact that it's a very fitting tune for the kind of game, although that's not to say that it's not a really nice, beautiful piece on its own. After I've submitted this review I plan on downloading it for myself, to go along with my existing ambient-esque files.

There's not too much to say about this, or perhaps there is too much and I'm just struggling to find exactly what that is, however I have to say that I voted to protect this, and I suspect that this will comfortably pass, as it's far superior to the majority of Flashes that do, albeit more on the weird side. Keep up this kind of thing in future, I'll add you to favourite artists just in case you're planning on bringing out more flashes along these lines, or anything completely different.

8/10, 4/5, well done. :D

viewtifulday responds:

You're right, it is on the weird side. Though I'm glad you appreciate the thought and work I put in.
And I'm glad that you like the background music, too!

Thanks for the review! I enjoyed reading it :D

[Being a Helpful NG'er]

A fine tutorial.

I have to say that this is one of the most useful tutorials I have seen on Newgrounds. I watched it when it was first released and at that time I really needed to improve on my reviews and BBS posts, if you checked my posts at around that time you would see why. This Flash really was helpful and was what inspired me to join the NGPD and (just several days ago) the NGDD. Although there wasn't much of them, the graphics were well made and set out well. If you two are going to be carrying on making these flashes or similar I would like to contribute to them as much as possible as I found them so helpful. If one of you want to carry on though the other doesn't just try to contact me via PM or user page.

I feel that there could be a section on each of the NG forums to help people post their threads in the right section, as just not telling people to post their threads into the right section may not be enough for many users, they might want extra information on each of the boards. I would also suggest making small updates, maybe once a month, nothing more.

RohantheBarbarian responds:

Thanks a lot for reviewing, if we make any more projects in future we'll let you know :)

[Swords and Sandals 3:Solo]

I am impressed

Animation:9/10:
Good animation. Improvements to the physics of animation could be made.

Sound:9/10:
A good, high quality, backing track that added to the submission. This suits the submission well. Well picked.

Art:8/10:
Good art. Detailed, high quality art and backgrounds.

Humour:Not rated:
Not enough humour to rate.

Presentation8/10:
I liked the way this was presented. The presentation helped out the overall quality and has improved since the earlier games in the series.

Preloader:Not rated:
A good preloader, but I only give scores if the preloader was created by the artist, unless you created the fizzy preloader.

Style:7/10:
I'm not sure if I like the style of art in this series. It's nice but the character style looks quite weird.

Violence:9/10:
The violence in this flash was very well done. I liked the blood effects if you choose to kill them.

V-Camming:Not rated:
No vCam (or none that I could see) used.

Gameplay:10/10:
Very good gameplay. The many opportunities regarding what to do were nice and stopped the flash from getting repetitive. The new options and places to go were very nice. A real improvement from the earlier games. The options for the character model were very nice. An improvement in AI was needed from the previous game and there was one, though it's hardly noticeable.

Execution:10/10:
Very well executed. Many good new features that make the overall quality of the flash just that bit higher.

Overall:9/10:
A very nice game. Though it felt more like an improved version of the earlier games than a new game.

hechaos responds:

MwMike, thanks for the in-depth review. Curious as to what a Vcam is?

[Sumoball 2]

Amazing

Great physics, great scenario, great AI, just amazing. As a flash author I know how hard it is to make a decent creation and this is great. A suggestion would be for more modes and custom modes.

ZuiGe responds:

Awesome! Modes would be great, yea. But nobody wanted to buy this game so I kinda stopped developing and submitted here. I hope this gets frontpaged so sponsors will be pissed off >:)

[The Extreme R-Click Tut]

Great

I protected this the other day, I completely forgot how to edit context menu's so it was great for me. I'm going to recommend for tutorial collection. As a side note, putting a joke in the comment is unprofessional and unneeded, Thanks,

Mwmike

Jaye19 responds:

Thanks man for protecting you can download this by (mozilla firefox only) File>Save Page As then you know the rest

[Platformer Tutorial AS2]

Really Cool

Sometime, I'll check back to this, it was a great tutorial which can teach a lot.

ActionSick responds:

Thanks

[(BlueBlobGame) Aviod]

Don't say your age.

By saying you're under 13 you will get people to vote 0 without playing, thinking that they can get a blam point. Also you could be taken off.

Blobsworld responds:

Sorry lol

[Misc. Tutorial]

Ten...

Again.

AIDSMcGuff responds:

FREAKIN' MIKAEL.

[Awesome Sprite Tutorial]

Cool

Well explained. Clear text. Good tutorial
[R.R.C.]

Swizardv2 responds:

Thanks.