WCCC's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Snowbrawl in HELL]

Um, it's not completely without value. It is a working game, and provides its own challenge, but polish seems to be lacking at several points. For the sake of hopefully providing some positive insight, I'll list off the ones that stick out to me:
-No sound. Or Music. If you're not used to working with audio these can be hard to procure or install, but they are very key to setting the ambiance of a game. Players are gifted with sight, sound, and thought as their 3 real sense for a virtual environment, so completely leaving out one of these is a major blow the game's impact and environment.
-Window size seems non-relative, especially seeing how it quite literally breaks the bounds of the player area. This isn't so bad, but I suspect this could get weird depending on monitor size and ratio.
-Intro and main menu are basically nonexistant. We're given no major backstory (though this is not always necessary) and the controls and mechanics were very "get your feet wet". The controls seemed odd as they were limited to A D and space. Complete WASD, AD and say Z or X, or even options for all of the above and arrow keys would have made more sense, and generally fits a larger range of player tastes.
-Controls and physics are a tad weird. I should explain this one well I think. It seems the way the player jumps and runs are very separate, in fact, they also feel like very separate physical states as well. Jumping simply holds the current velocity of the player and adds some upwards movement to it, and this does, for the purpose of jump, work. However most major platformers also tend to install "air control" (The ability to alter or influence one's aerial velocity) or have running and jumping seem fluid or combined. The way jumping is and the way it is required in this mini-platformer seems very rigid and unnatural, or at least in the realm of gaming. The way players stuck to ropes with just the current height being used as a stick-point relative to swing. Considering combination of fireballs and no further controls except releasing post-stick, this was counter-intuitive as well as really awkward. I would incorporate W & S for that maybe, if you insist on a non-WASD control scheme for jumping, this could work better in-combination.
-Little devil fire dudes rising in the back. I assume this was a finite time limit being implied, but this was neither explained or very well demonstrated.

This is, for most purposes, a functioning, relatively bugless, and style-making game. These are all good points I want to re-emphasize because these are things the game has going for it, and are important in that sense. What stops this from being a great game instead of an OK one though seems to be the fluidity, the polish, and generally the incomplete ambiance of the game.

I think this is the start to something truly wonderful, and it is anything BUT a waste of time to continue pursuing things of this style or layout. I really see a lot of potential laid down here, and think you should follow-through as best you can. For now though,this remains a solid "OK" label game. Hope to see more from you in the future, cheers.

6/10, 3/5 ~WCCC

farfromsleep responds:

It's actually got sound and music, but due to some HTML5 limitations with the audio system it'll only play on certain browsers (Chrome definitely works, but Firefox can be very flaky with HTML games).

Apologies for the relative lack of polish, it was entirely put together in a few days after another project fell through, as I still wanted to release a little something for xmas. Think of it more as a playable xmas card than a full-featured game.

The fixed jumping is a deliberate part of the design. If you check YT videos of the game "Hunchback" (or if you've played similar stuff like Pitfall) you can see the inspiration. It's meant to be a throwback to early (pre-mario bros) platformers, with the set jumping patterns, fixed lives, slower pace and limited range of movement. It's definitely not to everyone's taste, for sure, but I felt modernising it too much would remove too much of what I enjoyed about those games.

Some fair comments about aspects of the controls, I'll try to tweak those a little for later versions (update: changes have just gone live). Thanks for taking the time to offer such a detailed critique, I appreciate it!

[Boss 101]

This is an original concept, and I do very much enjoy it. There are a large fistful of things that stops this from being a high-calibur product though, in my eyes. I'll list some bulletins, and I'm sure some people will agree with them and some people won't.
-Powerups and health don't last very long in the air. Additionally, many kinds of exploding munitions or minions seem to have the explosive effect make the powerup invisible until its last split second of lifetime.
-Many of the powerup weapons are ill-explained and TERRIBLY balanced. I am aware that some powerups seem to be rarer than others and some enter the game later on, which should make them more powerful. The being said, the flintlock looking pistol was useless, the scattershot weapon was so puny you can hover next to minions shooting them point blank and the puny minion won't even die. The charge up laser was pretty awful IMO. The sound was loud and high-pitched, making it annoying. It's fire rate was very low, its stopping power equally minimal, and its multi-penetration ability sometimes failed for unknown reasons. Additionally, the rocket launcher was alright earlier game but got tedious and the iron fist is outrageously overpowered, but on the plus side it does keep me grabbing for powerups in an attempt to get one.
-Powerups have no way of indicating their ammunition or how long they last, which is somewhat counter productive.
-The music, while nice and cinematic, didn't seem quite suited for the action scenes and really got annoying in addition to not getting the blood pumping. Seeing how this is bullet hell-like in gameplay, lots of gamers are probably looking for an energy-filled soundtrack they can get into while shredding their foes in a hardcore battle to the death.
-Hats were really, really cheap and their effects weren't really clear in magnitude as well as some of them being uniquely present to the hats family and not shared in upgrades. This really leaves the player unsure what "+2 health and +16 money" does in its full magnitude.
-Although there was definitely a large variety of parts later on, the total pool of enemy variety does feel stale at some points, and especially after playing through 40 or so bosses. I'm sure you're already hard-pressed to find lots of original ideas for parts, so I'm not really counting this one against you. This unique game has that at the center of its concern.
-Dialogue at beginning of fights would've been something I'd prefer an option to skip. Maybe there is one but if so I haven't found it.

I don't want to seem like a dick or just sit here and bag on this game. My underlying opinion of this game is rather positive because it is new and fresh and experimental. However, these aspects also provide lots of new areas that could seem worth polishing or developing, and I hope this feedback helps or at least gets the gears turning for the next project you ensue, though I'm sure other people (more and less literately than myself) have pointed out a number of these points previously.

This is a solid product, but is still not in the "wow" zone for entertainment. I applaud the unique ideas and new concepts being employed.
7/10, 3/5 (borderline decision, sorry. I just sat back and sighed in my chair contemplating this one pretty hard) ~WCCC

DarkTimmy responds:

First off, thank you for the review and the play. I know it takes a lot for you or anyone here to take a bit of their time and write something down not knowing if it will fly off into the ether and never be read. I do read all the comment and make a hearty attempt to reply thoughtfully to people. I figure – if YOU put in the time I will too.

OK – there is really nothing I disagree with in your comments. All fair points and I completely realize that Boss 101 (for me) was a huge learning experience. I love the game and the idea. It took me about 4.5 months of intense labor to make it and most of that was learning programming since I’m an artist by trade. Tons of fun and if I had to do it again it would probably take 2 months and be a lot tighter. To your points (in order)

Powerups – yep. They do get occluded by the explosions. In retrospect that was a bad call on my part. What that means is I didn’t even think about it at all and during my games times I kinda didn’t get bothered. That was a little shortsighted but you are totally right. They should have lasted longer and been more visible.

Powerup abilities – I think you are hitting on a good issue here and arguably bigger than the one above. The weapons are cool in theory but all over the place in terms of power. They actually do scale with your abilities and upgrades but the basic points you are making are valid. They could all use a pretty good tune to make each worthwhile in its own way. For instance the pistol was always the money gun with low damage. Doesn’t get explained well (except through the use of dollar signs instead of coins when it hits). Overall though this one along with the others all have some design weakness that prevents enjoyment at various times. I do agree with you about the fist gun. Even I will grab away at guns hoping that thing shows up! HAHAH! It’s just too fun to use even though it deals a ton of damage and nearly every time will end the round before it goes away.

Powerup timing – yep on that. I know in a sequel I want to address this.

Hats – I had to really think about this one cause what you are saying is exactly right and it is completely by design. I think the main thing is the price is too cheap. The abilities are all ‘shrouded’ by generic terms and that is intentional. I can’t say that was the best decision but I really wanted the player to experiment and also have some easy comparisons to make (2 versus 3 as opposed to stats like in Borderlands guns). I think a more robust hat system is called for in the next game. Hats were one of the last things added and done so in somewhat a rush. That’s no excuse, just a fact. Good point you made though.

Boss parts – yes! I know. I actually re-tuned the game about 1 hour before it was put up on the web. Originally you were selecting from boss parts from a narrower pool. There were ‘sectors’ and each was themes (like animal robots, samurai robots). The thing there was you would ONLY fight those type for 20-30 levels. When I realized how boring that would be I opened it up to all robot parts at any time. I think it made it better but it didn’t address the whole issues. Again – that is something I would love to come back to and adjust!

Dialog – yeah, that is a great idea. Didn’t even occur to me that might get grindy. I mentioned elsewhere about the fact I had implemented a bunch of checks to keep it fresh and even then I myself would see repetition. HA!! DANG IT! Again – good point and yep, that can be address in a sequel. Doing it in Boss 101 might be more trouble than it’s worth sine the system would request an overhaul.

All in all – good stuff man and thanks for the nice review. It’s really something I enjoy since I’m making games for YOU and the others here. I work within my limits but where those limits overlap with your taste in games is where I want to be!

Best,

-Tim

[Lost Outpost]

The highly acclaimed sequel to the highly acclaimed original. I was a HUGE fan of the first, definitely brought a lot of great elements to the table that seemed original, classic, and thrilling all at the same time, and I'm glad you were able to produce a sequel this good. First couple levels I was worried it was too much of the same, but I decided to keep playing on and was not disappointed. Enjoyed the easter egg chatlog that addressed the criticism, and I'm incredibly glad you chose not to do multiplayer for this (and, by the way... I have 0 doubt you could've done multiplayer if you had wanted, since the raw power you bring to the canvas asserts you are one bad-ass mother fucker with flash). In the increasingly connected age we live in, it's good to see someone choose not to take this route, and the product is already fantastically artistic and plays well. Also: just scored 10900 on the minigame, and I'm choosing to cut it there. Would've enjoyed an easter egg for beating the supposed high score, but what the hell, I can't complain... it was pretty lulzy already. My only two complaints about this are perhaps that the weapons tree could've used more spicing up (though the small additions and upgrade trees for armor were really rad) and maybe that sometimes with flickering lights it seemed that the flashlight would be overpowered and give into the flicker, instead of being that candle against the shadow, which is always a fun thing. Enjoying it, playing it, linking it out to friends for playing.

Solid job. The first had me at "Damn. Just Damn." and this continuation has me nerding out all over again.
5/5, 10/10, ~WCCC

Squize responds:

Thank you mate ( And thanks for the bug report / pm ).
It's quite a slow build at the start, returning to the first level as a tutorial, and the first half of level 2 is an extended tutorial too, that's why we just kick things off just to try and say "Ok, that's the terminal and all the collectables, we're starting now" as we had to balance it for players who have never played Haven.
I think level 4 is the first "classic" level and then hopefully it stays at quite a high level from there. We could quite easily have just used templated levels from then on, but we really wanted to up it every level to reward the players who stuck at it, so we really tried to mix things up ( I really like level 5, the change of pace, the parallax, sfx, lens flare etc. ) and level 9 is just our way of saying "Well done for getting this far, have some homing missile porn".
We try not to build games for the players we lose in the first five minutes, we're always going to lose them anyway, we try and build them for the players who'll follow the game through.

( We were going to do some easter eggs, for beating the hi-score and for flushing all the toilets and other bits and pieces, but just ran out of time ).

[TwinBots]

Hard to rate this, simply put. Got to the first challenge that involved jumping off of the other clone's head, which although I've seen done a half-dozen times before (Along with a couple of these mechanics, but too much to make it stale), had the very acute issue of being physically impossible to perform a mid air jump off one head to victory. Combined with a minorly annoying jump sound and very little interested attained from the previous levels, I'm just stopping there. For what it's worth I'm tired ATM and don't have much patience for stuff like this, but giving it a good dozen tries with the mid-air second jump thing and getting the exact same result a dozen times regardless of what I try to do different with timing or sync or whatever, I'm calling quits.

I can tell this isn't without value, for sure... but I'm just not in the state to do this and it has failed to project a solid hook to me. Sorry man.
7/10, 3/5 ~WCCC

VashTS88 responds:

No problem, thank you for your honest opinion! As for the jumping off of the clone's head, you have to keep jump key pressed and the upper one will then jump higher. Maybe you can try it later :)

[Tiny Dangerous Dungeons]

Deceptive, underhanded, challenging... buggy. Having a positively insane level of control fritzing; had entire times where I'll go make a jump, keep all my WASD keys unpressed, land, and dude keeps running left into his death. Having my movement do this all the time, and I would think it's one of those moments where you mash too many keys as your keyboard flips the fuck out, except this happens when only using 2 or 3 keys, VERY consistently. The game's punishing difficulty isn't bad either, but some things just scream slanted setup. Like bats or arrows that look like they REALLY shouldn't hit you, like they'll go over your head, until that 1 pixel or less collision occurs and you begin getting knocked around. Bats also have a larger damage area than collision area for knives, definitely proving quite the pest. Additionally, the knockback is a very retro touch, except for the fact it's constantly being combined into situations where the tiniest slip-up, miscalculation in collision, or god forbid, control sticking gets you combo'd into the floor to either death or water that resets you to assure your death. I enjoy the game, and the difficulty is a necessity, but the high difficulty, screwy nature of how reliable your chances are (even after sometimes controlling things right on your end) and the general lack of clarity in the dungeon all combine to prove a real issue. Additional info:
-Running windows 7 and playing from firefox, maybe that'll help with debugging this control locking issue that kills the game for me.
-Not sure what I'm doing in-game. Just scored the throwing knives, which are fun and helpful, but have 2 paths to take, one with a spiky door and a chest I can't reach and doesn't provide a boss (like i assumed) and to the left a gigantic pit of water and a block I seemingly need to throwing knife into the water as a barricade: except its so far off-screen throwing knives from the upper pedestal makes them destroy from range before hitting it, even on the very edge of it. If you want me to risk a potentially sticky leftward jump, I'm not taking that chance seeing how there's no checkpoints for 2 or 3 rooms and I just know my controls are gonna screw me on that one. Also another door with a key that doesn't seem to otherwise be around. Ugh.

Overall: 8/10, 4/5; Favorited.
I really wish this was more cooperative and maybe a tad more polished on clarity or how much sense some things make, but otherwise it is very good. ~WCCC

AdventureIslands responds:

No idea what's causing controls to stick up with you, I've tested on multiple browsers and computers and the controls have worked just fine.

The block that's hanging over the water near the mysterious door needs to be in fact knocked down by jumping and throwing knives at it, you just need to make sure to land on a pillar under you and keep up with the dagger so it isn't killed off screen. You can use the block to get over the water and find a key to that locked door you found.

[Asslevania: SOTB]

An interesting game that leaves the player screaming "I DAMN THEE ARTIFICIAL DIFFICULTY!". Obviously a huge throwback to castlevania in many ways and, while not near as hard, still presents a large number of talking points that could be called unjustifiably outdated or intentionally rigged to screw the player over as frequently as possible, which I might have favored a whip delay or something in exchange for these:
-Rooms you occasionally enter instantaneously in harm's way. One room you literally enter falling into a crusher and it sucker-punches you almost every time for some health.
-Crushers + ghosts. I'm almost 100% sure this was done very intentionally to attempt to infinite combo the player into death regardless of level or health standing, unless you miraculously pull it off without getting caught into it. Crushers or spikes make the player turn backwards for a brief instant, giving the ghosts a free card to approach. Many of the spinning spikes do not present opportunities to repel the ghosts, but rather hopefully just get through it so you don't have the ghost ANYWHERE in the spike region and of course, don't get hit afterwards. If the ghost is anywhere within the field of spikes (which appear in groups almost always for mini-marathons of this) and you cross the point where the ghost is "dormant" the ghost will live inside your ass and waste 0 time violating said ass into a pulp, often leaving the player paralyzed in a state of irrevocable ass-kicking.
-I re-iterate this. Ghosts that are, at any point, unable to be repelled and must have their exact region crossed over, almost always guaranteed to result in death.
-Green ghosts proving to be outrageously hard to contend with, with almost every room they appear in sporting the idea "don't get hit or you're dead regardless". Though, this could easily be the motto for any room with multiple obstacles with any chance of coming into close proximity, since the paralytic hit period guarantees you can keep getting sucker punched over and over again until your death.
-Many rooms you can't really work out a solid strategy that seems to guarantee or even moderately increase your odds of coming out alive, regardless of health level. Some just throw so much crap at you in such rapid, brutal succession that you have to perform them perfectly in a manner that often doesn't seem clear in timing or even often method to the player. Many rooms I would best in one attempt by shear luck, try to repeat what I'd done in said lucky streak later, and consequently get pulverized because even after having done it a few times, I still had no fucking idea how I'd done so.

Other than that, there were lots of humorous bits, psyche outs, and lots of little details that simply bled retro, including many of my areas of disappointment. My only regret is that the only remotely modern mechanic present was the "level" system, which seemed pretty ill-explained, poorly tracked in progress, and generally had a humongous tendency to not make a half-shit's difference unless what was hurting you was a single, lone obstacle or opponent.

This IS a good game, despite the negative aura around my review. It's a fun tribute and representation of Castlevania, but simply seems contradictory, counterproductive, or mildly uncreative at some points due to the over-abundance of similarities present.
I'm sure many others find this to be a real masterpiece.
8/10, 4/5 ~WCCC

deathink responds:

Thanks for the review man. I grew up in the 80's, when developers still had the "drain all kids of there quarters" mentality. I love brutally hard games, and if you were a fan of castlevania, you loved it for 2 reasons. It had monsters, and it kicked your ass. I Made this game for myself and other hardcore games out there (like Mick).

[miniPassage 2]

Not a big fan of this, this seems very lacking in many regards. Infinite lives put this up as a high score kind of challenge, but there are only 3 levels that last a couple of minutes each, making the game "Beatable" in about 5 minutes time or so. The fact that you clicked a small square for jumping instead of using keyboard controls felt terribly controlling, especially when combined with the character's autorun; made me feel like I was playing some tiny mobile game vs a flash game on the pc. I guess the music track was decent on the upside, but the obstacles also felt very shallow, with just water, lava, fireballs, spikes, and ladders as your core mechanics for traversing levels. The game was additionally done in pixel art, which in the right environment can be done artistically or other in an entertaining fashion, but this just felt more so like it was used to rush the game's development, but it might have also been helpful for measuring the player's hitbox and all that, so it's not completely without reason I suppose.

Feels very undercooked, lacks a lot of depth in my opinion.
5/10, 2/3 ~WCCC

UnknownGuardian responds:

I can see your point. The original game was designed as a casual game, not a 30+ level style game. Just something to keep you entertained for a couple minutes. (Actually, check out miniQuest: Trials if you like the art style in this game. Its a platformer as well, and very similar to Super Meat Boy and what not.)

There are actually jump controls. I just magically forgot to include those in the game description! Space, X or Z should to the trick.

Mobile game: Haha! This is a mobile game that I ported in a few hours to a web version that I could distribute. The mobile version had to remove a lot of the original character control and level setup that the original game had, and as you can see, that carried over to the web version as well.

Thanks for the feedback regarding the art style and game elements (basic obstacles, etc).

[Pico's School DX]

Serious imperfections. Funtion-wise, this game is prettymuch identical to the original, but with a smoother frame rate and smoother, more modern graphics. Past that I guess you added achievements, but this game was plagued by extreme shooting controls difficulty I really don't remember in the original. Was so bad at shooting things out of the air with hitbox issues I'd just sit there and camp for that 1 piece of ceiling to fall back down or whatever and would STILL miss it 3-5 clicks later. Not bad. Not Great. And achievements have fairly vague descriptors, such as speed run time limit or the Marc Summers deal.

Kenney responds:

Hey, sorry to hear that. I must agree with you though that I should've done some refinement, due the deadline there was no time for that. But I'm bringing out a patch today which will fix all these issues.

[Melee Man]

Decent Platformer, but bossfights sucked.

Platforming concepts weren't anything new, but had a funner than usual retro feel. The normal levels were a breeze across the board, and then level 15 struck. I've sat down for an hour and a half attempting to beat it, no success. My main complaints with the fight are collective, but the elements are:
-Boss has 10 hits, whereas you have 3 (kind of a constant)
-Half of the hearts for recovery were placed in suicidal retrieval locations.
-Boss REALLY liked camping in unreachable locations for 50%+ of the fight.
-Boss would often teleport into me and then shoot me within a half second succession, effectively slaughtering me in an undodgable manner.
-Fell through the floor 2 times, INCREDIBLY rare relative to the number of attempts, and the first wasn't so bad, I was f*cked anyways, but the 2nd time was when I had him on the ropes.
-Third and especially fourth (only reached it once) spike barrages were damn near impossible.
-Shortly after hiding in corners from spike barrages, boss would often teleport RIGHT above me and point blank me, almost always before the spikes were even gone, effectively leaving me insta-raped into a pit
-The pits in general; these aren't a problem on their own, but with the insanity of everything else put together, this made the goal assured to be impossible.

Like I said, decent platformer, but f*cking brain exploding-ly frustrating boss fight(s). I'm not in the habit of Rage Reviewing, so I'll throw the bossfights out of my scoring and leave an overall 8/10, 4/5.

~WCCC

TheVillageBlacksmith responds:

Oh wow. Thanks for the in-depth report. Him having 10 health is actually a bug. He's supposed to have 8. I apologize for completely overlooking that and I'll get it fixed up right away.

[Pothead Zombies]

Fairly good game.

It didn't stray horribly outside the usual defense genre formula, but the way it was presented was very nice. The most notable thing about the gameplay was the incorporation of the AI partner. Adds more strategy to your battle-plan, and also had the very nice touch that it took them a while to get familiar with a weapon. I'm not sure exactly why some people are offended by this, obviously it's a (heavily) exaggerated effect of the drugs, used for comedic effect or something of the like. One thing I would've preferred is a way to repair your fortress at the cost of money, but it's not a major concern because you can continue from just about anywhere, and most damage can be avoided if you hurry on advancing your weaponry.

Overall: 9/10 5/5
~WCCC

leonardozimbres responds:

Thanks for your opinion.