WCCC's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Traps Tower]

Dear god, man.

I hate to be rude, and I'll try to stay constructive. Seems like there's a good game to be had under the cover, but the INSTANT this game begins I am somehow getting a frame every second. Takes most of a minute just for the elevator to bring the guy up to level 1. Once playing, oddly, it runs at a less impaired rate, then takes most a minute to leave the elevator and so on.

I WANT to stay constructive, just like I'd WANT to actually play this game, but quite frankly this piece is so overtly dysfunctional that I cannot reinforce its negatives with positives or more detailed critique.

All I can tell you is that you need to pray to jesus for optimization, because it would take a miracle to turn this piece around. Whatever you're doing in a platformer, I guarantee you it should NOT run this slowly or anywhere close.

My advice, look at things as in depth as you can for cleaner, more optimized alternate solutions, or maybe start reading some books on code. I am amazed at how unplayable this is for such a minimalist concept it seems to be.

Right now this game somehow manages to use more of my processor than Zombidle running sloth's form, keeping in mind that game is actively calculating god knows how many digits of math operations 10-20 times a second.

Sorry man. 2/5 for effort, but that's all I can give this.

[Big Tower Tiny Square]

Good game. Outright sadistic in many senses, but a fun concept done in a way that accelerates at a reasonable pace.

That being said, my main gripe seems to be that FPS tanks sometimes and it makes controls less than responsive. It's a really subtle tanking, no more than 10-20 frames less per second, but it's definitely there. Thought it was me being tired last night, so I logged back on this morning, lo and behold I'm seeing it crop up a lot, especially near turrets in particular. Maybe an iterator that's too hefty? I can gauge it pretty well by jumping up and down a few times, and seeing how smooth the transition is.

That being said it's otherwise solid. The control hangups are pissing me off more than anything, but slowly progressing due to sheer luck and persistence.

[Tattle & Tale]

The spirit of spyro lives on yet. This game struck my nostalgia bone harder and harder the more I played it. If this isn't textbook spyro 2 influence I don't know what is. My nostalgia bone may very well be obliterated with so many things that resonated in this piece. However, onto the bad news.

Tired upon playing and writing this, so maybe I'm biased, but I found the piece itself to be fairly dry. But in the 2 levels I cleaned out before putting this piece down, I did a lot of thinking about what was wrong and what was right.

Primarily, I think it came down to pacing and movement speed. The game itself had a very slow pace in terms of movement and slow, low-risk combat. Combined with the "collectathon" aspect (a pejorative in its own right in the realm of gaming, if only for reasons I may never understand), it really did kill the pacing and make things feel tedious.

I'd also point out that the levels were perhaps overly dependent on verticality. I love me some verticality, and one should use it to properly appreciate gliding, but I think it just doesn't work in a 2d setting as much as a 3d setting. Wherein vertical terrain is not used for mounting a chain of terrain displaced from the rest of the level, but rather strewn on top the ground of a level and made mandatory to re-climb a large chain of 2d terrain upon falling down or missing something at one spot. Dare I say, it just doesn't work outside of a 3d realm for the lack of non-linearity one could imbue into 3d.

Further, most enemies seemed bland, and a couple of the NPC's had somewhat annoying sounds for speaking, and the speaking range was so high you'd hop between L/R platforms and have the effect resound every second or so. Painful, in its own way. About the enemies, I always loved how in spyro, with some exceptions, enemies seemed specialized in their attack style and how each had weaknesses and strengths, as well as more diverse movement patterns on occasion that could keep you on your toes in combat. Meanwhile, most of the foes presented seem to be pretty linear and "idle" in terms of routing, while often just being some kind of critter.

Let's move onto the good news: The game functions without any true bugs I can find. It has a nice setting that is generic while a thing its own at the same time, oddly spinning the old record in a new direction. The game looks great, its soundtrack has some nice and very creatively stitched together jams, and all the core mechanics are there while platforming.

For 2d, I feel that mario and sonic realized or built around some of the potential faults at hand.

Not to be a completionist collectathon or to mandate the player to move in all sorts of areas requiring backtracking and climbing, but leaving them as options with large incentives in terms of rewards. You could blow past tedious 2d terrain in a more reflex oriented manner rather than pure coordination, often times. More unique encounters, be they level or boss, would gradually require more coordination over reflex, or rather along side it. In that sense, it was challenging and skill related, while fast paced and not requiring too much time investment.

I love what is inherited in this game, and how it is unique in many fashions. It has an artistically thrilling world, but a functionally dry one. It pains me to say that I'd rate this somewhere in the vicinity of 7/10, PROBABLY leaning towards 4/5 due to how close it is to being a magical product in its inception. I hope my criticisms can help improve and see things a bit better for you, or at least that I didn't shit all over your day at the least.

A very tough call for a very thin line that barely remains uncrossed. Keep on rocking, because you've clearly got a lot going in terms of elements, and I've seen you produce some fiercer content before.

~WCCC

SinclairStrange responds:

Thanks for a wonderful review! I complete agree in some aspects with the design point of view, however as this was created for a gamejam (and I only had a month) I really didn't have much time to plan out everything as I would of liked. I actually had lots of neat ideas to try and keep things more fresh but just didn't have the time to create and build them. I originally wanted the worlds to be all interconnected and have sub areas but that would of just been too much of a task.

Same with the enemies, to program in 20 plus unique enemies would of just been too much for the time scale I had so I just made 5 different types and re-skinned them with different sprites. A bit lazy approach but at the same time it saved me time to work on other stuff. The music itself was all created on the last day, in under 3 hours I think, so that just shows how pushed for time I was.

The movement and pace is only an issue in the flash version because it wasn't planned to be ported over here, it was originally made for PC's. Flash is a bit of a resource hog and I'm shocked it even runs to be honest!

Hopefully when I get around to making a spiritual successor I'll make sure I plan it using flash and iron out all the bugs and have more time to create more clever world designs :D

[Sanguine 2]

Ugh. Would love to properly review this, but holy crap. Moment "C to hook" comes into play, I'm trying to climb a wall. Spent 5 minutes figuring out all actual strategy to using it. IE can aim upwards, or I can throw hook standing still, or throw it mid air to use it on the move... but past that? How in the hell do I scale that wall? 5 minutes and I'm not an iota closer, straight up STUMPED. Complex mechanics, unlisted information, and zero foreplay all collide to make me wonder what the hell I'm doing.

Love the art style, love the depth of mechanics, love the kind of setting it's in, but dang dude, I am straight up stumped by level 2 no matter how much I try to learn and explore. A PAINFUL dose of proper instruction and introduction to mechanics is needed.

In an almost unprecedented stroke of criticism, I have to hand this piece an entire 20% less on its score just because its quality content is presented in a way that is almost completely incapable of congestion.

Literally unplayable, literally unhitlerable. 6/10 ~IGN

Although seriously jokes aside, it IS getting a 6/10 in my book, and I am very confused with what this is supposed to expect of me.
~WCCC

[Emoji Quiz]

Energizer is the one known for a bunny mascot, FYI. Otherwise not a bad piece. Some were easy, some were crazy obscure. Never heard of airbus, for instance. Fun concept, regardless.

7/10, 3/5
~WCCC

[snek REDUX]

Seems that on lower game speeds, pressing two movement keys in rapid succession will only register the first. Sadly, I'm in a lax mood this morning, so that about undoes it for me.

Fun concept, definitely some fun being had.
7/10, 3/5 ~WCCC

[Cathode Raybits 2]

Well, I'm hesitant to review this piece both on the grounds that it is emulating retro nearly to a point of fault, and that I'm not encouraged any further upon seeing a lot of salty responses to reviews lying around. Reasonable and well written enough, sure, but definitely feels like a bit of lashing out. I hope I'm wrong.

I guess I'll list pros because I'm absurdly tempted to list cons off the bat. I think we can agree reviewing both sides of the coin is the better option, of course.

Pros:
-Not bugged in any major sense I can find.
-Good art and soundtrack, and it seems like a fun world portrayed and played through.
-Not an absolute cookie cutter retro piece, despite its many function throwbacks.
-Challenging enough to make its (relatively slim) content potentially last much longer, given the player has absurd patience. Sadly given the reviews I've seen in the first two pages, it seems a good chunk of the demographic receiving this piece don't share such a trait, whether by age or by disinterest I'll leave up to you.

Cons:
-Poor clarity. There is no tutorial level to speak of, or any other in game method to find out the controls, and this is a colossal ass pain. One might argue the controls are so simple and/or flash game trope based they can be guessed or are in themselves retro. However, considering both the high level of difficulty and the fact that guessing occurs over an entire keyboard, this often devolves into poor execution of clarity. I totally guessed controls from experience, knew to check for anything else in the NG desc, and quickly saw the control menus and etc, but for people who just want to walk into a game and get the information they need in the game, directly and as a new player, this is counter intuitive.
-Dashing isn't described anywhere I can find period. I found this out by reading reviews. Dashing is never listed that I can find, and even the game's NG desc makes no mention of it. I assume this was a bit of absent mindedness and/or a bit of assumption that this sequel will be pitched to people who usually know of the first. As a person who doesn't know of the first, this just leaves me asking why.
-Found a couple places where enemies just blend into background too readily, probably due to similar colors and especially saturation values.
-Cheap stage design from hell. Once again, while it is retro, having enemies respawn every single time you doddle off screen for a moment's notice and having them prearranged to kick your ass savagely from the get go is a real rough go of things.

FRAGMENT RANT:
Maybe I'm a bastard for starting with the upper left first, instinctively, but I found a wall tank shooting through platforms, hitting me, knocking me down and back, and by the time I walk over to the platform again him and his buddies have respawned and I'm primed to get hit by the same combo again. I wouldn't mind this if it weren't for the fact that for most people, by pure instinct, the upper left is the level they choose to start, only to find out that respawning, floating enemies are shooting bolts down on their hands en masse from the very start, and then letting those bolts split into schockwaves to further mess with you. Also said enemies don't die from a single charged hit likes some enemies from the "first" level do, so trying to strike early is virtually useless and will probably just get you shot.
-So, the controls menu doesn't have an arrow indicating which thing you're floating over. As a guy that prefers visual aid more than colors, I sat there mashing enter for almost 30 seconds because I didn't know I was inputing a "enter controls" command instead of an "exit" command.

I want to take a moment to refocus that I can tell this game is well made and it has a LOT going for it, but it has the polish of sand paper to me as I walk into the experience. I play retro plenty often, and even prefer it in a good handful of cases vs newer or similar installments.

For all my instincts, this game is confusing, unclear, and has zero concept of foreplay, moreso than most retro games even. And that's a statement. Further, I find that once I figure out what the hell I'm doing, the task set before me is time consuming, will almost certainly need dozens of attempts, and is pretty sadistic seeming in nature. That's not bad or anything, but the seeming scarcity of content, lack of empowerment to the player, and the laborious need to claw your way back up every time you die emphasizes those previous two points painfully well.

To me, this game is very minimally entertaining yet wants me to invest much time, blood, sweat, and tears into the process to accomplish much of anything.

I feel very safe saying that much could be learned from the similar (yet later nerfed) asslevania: son of the butt. It had clarity, it had empowerment, it had a good degree of content, and it was sadistically hard in a sense that made you want to push ahead further, while still throwing back a fun handful of things that were homage to castlevania itself.

Personally, a 4/10. Objectively, a 6/10.
~WCCC

[Zombidle]

Let the ol' storm of broken ad block messages roll in. Don't know what to say. Unlike most people complaining, I run "noscript" addon on my browser, which in short blocks all cross site scripting unless explicitly allowed, hence it blocks ads as a side effect.

What's funny is the ads never didn't work. I always got a 15 second ad based on an animated GIF advertising things like "world's hardest game" and such. I suspect that might've been a failsafe vs an actual video, but I've seen at least a couple ads that peeked my interest regardless, although not enough for a visit to their site.

Last night ad block messages were a pain in the ass, so I allowed all the page today, but it's still screaming martyr quite loudly, although I suspect the ad networks aren't being listed as part of the page's resources due to an error.

If you have a couple site names of where you run ads from, I'd be willing to try to allow them more directly and see if that helps, but it seems probable your ad block message is at least broken in part, based upon the angry mob forming at the doorstep of the reviews section.

Good game, very addicting and all, but hot damn, this might be the nail in the coffin of me walking away from this piece.

[Dandy Cave Explorer]

Game froze after reaching level 20, with this vomit alphabet barely visible in the upper left, smothered under a dark gray box that I assume is attempting to load the achievement. Pushing mouse makes a jump sound, but everything else is broken beyond repair.

[Super Dangerous Dungeons]

Whew, just went to alt tab and closed my review tab, after writing like 6 articulate and well explained paragraphs. Sorry, but fuck it, this rounds gonna be blunt. Great game, 3 issues I draw with it, and due to my impatience, take it with a grain of salt.

1. Inconsistent hit boxes. Not colossally so, but enough to get my goat on a few occasions. Have my hat be grazed by lasers, and live. Have my face get nipped by maces, and live. But fall in ankle deep water? Dead on the spot, drowned. Hit a theoretical "box corner" on an ovular flamethrower trap? Dead. Hit the SAME theoretical corner on an electrical stationary trap? Dead. Land on the right few pixels of the SAME stationary trap? Perfectly fine, alive, and chilling inside the electric trap's sprite. This happened 3 separate times, all on accident.

2. Too many jumps requiring perfect horizontal jump position, hazards to be jumped OVER, and ceilings to be jumped UNDER. This was combined in moderation with traps based on timing or a bit of clever spacial awareness, but at some points it just happened back to back to back, making a crotch-punch fest. Even though I know it's intentional, dying because you hit your head on things, especially in high frequency, feels victimizing and like bad map design. Even rationalizing still doesn't make it feel like legitimate death.

Players love to die bounding over fireballs or dashing over pits, not getting a giant red lump on their head and sadistically ricocheting into a pit of lava or a death ray. That's just lame, for lack of a better description. That and my actual better description got nuked.

3. The hall of challenges. This is explicitly why I hate point number 2 instead of disliking it. Was neat to do the ol' ascending death pit camera and lots of crap to jump off of. It was BAD to make it super lengthy, have no concept of checkpoints, and, get this, be littered with a malicious combination of a camera that slowly ascends and needs to be kept ahead of combined with tricky, barely possible acrobatic feats that 90% of the time, waiting to see them coming means you risk being outran and killed by the camera.

You will naturally rush, and try to memorize and cut corners. I must've at least memorized half the damn thing, but it didn't matter because one tiny mistake of hitting my head on something, jumping on the wrong time, or just having my usually supreme focus challenged due to the fucking absurd amount of time required to clear it by trial and error, would get me killed. Eventually I realized there's a man behind the curtains with a spring-loaded boxing glove aimed at my groin, and that just kinda tested my patience, focus, and tolerance for the obstacles even further.

It was close to the right combination of cliche, yet lively fast paced obstacles, combined with low blows that just made the rest of it worth nearly nothing in my eyes. Lots of fun obstacles got drowned out by a select handful of points that seemed to almost intentionally exploit the weakness of the camera and the lack of foresight the player was given. I don't mind learning about a level, but having to directly memorize it really betrays my expectations for modern, quick, fun games made with all the best components of the retro spirit.

Ranting and aggravation aside: It's a great game, and a great redux/sequel combo in its own right, but truth be told it lacks the balance and consistent fun that makes me want to come back to a platformer and replay it again and again.

Nothing more to say past that.
7/10, 4/5 ~WCCC