MarikBentusi's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Madness: Project Nexus (Classic)]

Really promising start.
Tho at the moment there's not much else beyond Survival and Get From A To B While Killing Dudes. That's a recipe that works fine for the movies because you can always throw in some crazy moves or plot twists, but for gameplay it can get pretty repetitive. I like that you tried to mix things up with the Tac Bar and sudden "armor-piercing" enemy superattacks.
I definitely expected to be able to dual-wield tho if both selected weapons are the same. The perks are alright, but +X% -X% stat boni are the most unimaginative and boring improvements you can buy in games in my opinion. It's fine for climbing from perk to perk, but the actual unlocked perks should be something the player has fun experimenting with, then the sessions he's having with experimenting with it will yield the XP for the next unlock they can look forward to, etc. Quality over quantity makes the difference between tiresome grinding and gradual mastering of all gameplay mechanics (that otherwise would overwhelm you all at once). Special moves for certain guns might work if you're willing to do the extra effort - we do have a keyboard, we can quickswitch to 6 different guns without a second thought, same for pretty much anything in the direct vicinity of WASD. We aren't console gamers that need aim assist and 2 weapons maximum. Maybe add two extra slots for 1 passive ability and 1 special ability with a cooldown or something. Customizes character and playstyle and keeps things varied!
Another gameplay element you might want to experiment with are random boni. Can be a gun at the end of a round you did well, can be an upgrade for your current weapon that spawns in the middle of the arena.

Also I'm personally not a fan of regen health, it makes things so boring and encourages running away and hiding behind cover in a game about action. Why not medkits or execution moves Space Marine style? It won't overload our brains, we know how to navigate YouTube, that makes us overqualified already.

Graphics are true to the movies and customization is relatively varied. If at all possible, you could add paints and more layers or even allow the player to tick as many clothes as they like and whatever they ticked last gets added as the top layer.
A bit change of scenery in the arena couldn't hurt however and the guns you buy should have a classification in case you're wondering if this counts as an SMG or rifle, etc. There could be a couple of additional effects as indicators for tough enemies, not cutscenes but maybe something like auras (compare: Newgrounds Rumble).

Sound is okay if repetitive. If you're feeling up to it you could introduce some dynamic BGM changes depending on how well you're doing or how far the wave has progressed. There's a bit of that every X waves, but it's not a lot.

Thought about vertical level design? May require more AI programming tho and that's currently eating up a LOT of CPU.

Anyway, I think this is a great start I thank everyone involved in the development progress for putting such an enjoyable flash game on the www. It's pretty fun to play if you do it in small doses!

[Faerie Alchemy]

It's very pretty and polished, but the core gameplay mechanics need some major overhaul:

- give the player a better sense of progression. Watch how Bewjeweled structures its difficulty curve/level sizes.
- give the player more and better rewards for gameplay choices. Even if it's just a small glow, jingle and extra points when they combine 4+ objects or fuse another object together.
- as said below, make it clearer where the new object spawns
- dynamically alter the difficulty curve by introducing seemingly random tide-turners that have a higher rate of spawning if the player is in a pinch (a lot of unused objects for example). The lower the level, the more likely it's gonna help new players out when they need it.
- give players rewards for doing well, for thinking strategically or simply playing for a long time. Maybe tell them at the beginning of the level they can have 1 free tide-turner if they execute X combos. This doubles as an invisible tutorial in the first levels.
- give the player some sort of achievement after a game over that will make them want to play again, maybe a tide-turner, maybe a skin, maybe just an XP bar that fills up. Any kind of progression that the player knows will lead to something - unlike the seemingly infinite elemental fusion - will keep them going
- give higher level players additional challenges instead of tide-turners if they're doing /too/ well. Like petrified blocks that will only become usable if a reaction happens nearby.
- finally, depending on how long you want to stretch the game, build in checkpoints or make it easy for experienced players to get back to their limits so they can take pride in breaking that limit.
- nobody cares about highscore lists. Seriously. It's only relevant for like the top 10 players and this game really isn't of competitive nature. It's a casual game, your audience just wants to play something fun. If you want to give them a challenge, think about time challenges or the aforementioned "do these tricks and earn a tide-turner".

[Little Wheel]

It's alright

As already pointed out below, it was less of a game than a movie - which Yahtzee calls Indigo Prophecy Syndrome, and I'd like to stick with that term. I suggest you decide whether it's supposed to be a movie or a game, something in between has never worked as far as I recall.

The graphics were great, damn well for this sorta thing and it was also a very interesting idea to make it all shadows and lights. This is probably the best point about "Little Wheel".
The sound isn't bad either and the HUD isn't interfering with the experience. Now what's up with the low score?

It's the story. I'm not expecting a new Shakespeare here, but it was like you were utterly bored, decided to come up with this sorta mix and then just built something around it. The convenient loss of electricity (Which seems to be wireless for the robots in the future, but not for all that stuff you fix Oo Also there's no battery pack or emergency electricity, but hell, this is "Little Wheel", not BBC) built up more or less an Excuse Plot to get from A to B by solving little riddles.
In order to make a game interesting, you've got to develop it. The gameplay here was way too linear and the story was really flat, too. Maybe people value it for its simplicity, but I personally expect something that comes with a difficulty which is enough to entertain me. And Little Wheel sadly didn't entertain me one bit.
Even if you stick to something basic like Point and Click, you can still (theoretically) produce something like Monkey Island. That had charm and humor and the quests were difficult enough to keep me hooked to the funny and changing storyline. In Little Wheel you could pretty much just click at random stuff and it somehow worked, no big deal.

So, to summarize: Good graphics and other "outer values", but very hollow at the core and not very entertaining to me. This is why this gets only 6 stars, because I think a submission on newgrounds should be at least worth the time you invest in it. However, very nice graphics, like I already mentioned before. ;)

[Tangram32]

Fake

9.7 KB?
Yep, that's definitive a fake submission here with a fake error included. Don't waste your precious time.

[HAMU]

You are oozing of talent and fresh ideas!!

It's so fantastic! Finally someone with new ideas to a classic game!
The music fitted the situation every time super, but was decent. Great.
~Spoiler~
It was a good idea to shoot shot blocks a second time. And also the hint blocks, keep it up!
Extras... hmm. Maybe. I would be interested in some extras playing this game. Something like bombs or ala "WinBrick". But your simple gameplay is enormous important for your game i think... hm. Anything, keep up your piece of brilliancy!

[3 Foot Ninja]

Too easy

You only have to press D very quickly and you will beat everyone. When the guy with the fireballs attacks with the fireballs, just jump in the air. Too easy and short, even the spider-scorpion-whatever was able to be beaten by pressing D very quickly. More enemys or more difficult enemys and longer and more different levels and missions would be great.

[Wade Defender]

Good way between hard and easy till lvl 30

I liked your style between hard and easy. If you buy the next weapon upgrade each round, it's not too difficult to blow the spams and whatever up. But when you lose attention, thousands of them crash into wade. xD Great game. But when you reach lvl 30 it's too easy, because you should have enouth money to buy 10-30 BednBblasts each round, so you can press space instant. But your game rulz, no question :)

Casualty responds:

Thanks! I actually didn't really find a good equation for enemy speed, and the one there is currently was quite ok...

[pacman forever]

0 Style+Humor for cheating and taking an old flash

This was only a old pacman flash with cheating infinite lives! I can't believe it... if you can't play pacman well, then try and try and try, sometime you will get better. It's just a question of training. But what did you make here? Hmm. You took an old pacman game and added infinite lives, very clever, yes. I see you worked very hard... oh yes...

[Murloc RPG]

That's a model (?) for all flash'ers!

I really liked your style and kind of humor, but you could have improved some little things, like the fight menu (With >Attack<, >Skills<, >Spells< and >Items<). Some more details.... but at the whole your game was just great, different hard or not so hard enemys and a great Easter Egg!
~Spoiler~
But when you have beaten the guy at the end and got the weapon from his corpse, its too easy to finish the last guy (Cold Blood + Attack = ~4000 Crit. Damage)

I hope, I really hope you will make more and upload new missions! I liked the amount of different missions and quests and the storyline. New Items, skills and enemys would be fantastic! My problem at the end was, that i wanted to skill murk at max with all magic and skills, but there weren't any more enemys. I hope there will be more in the next part.

Keep up the good work, this game is so awesome!

[Warbears]

Bug Report

The game is good, but i found a bug:
When agent Kla is on the second floor and the brown bear gots throw this doo, the window is locked and Kla is on floor 1 again and gets upstairs again, he is attacked and killed. But while he reaches the second floor, you can give him introductions, so you can move the (dead) Kla the the right. There you can activate the letter-thing and the brown bear is warped to his old position. Then he will try to destroy the door a second time, but the whole thing end in a loop. Just fix it - its a wonderfil game. The graphics and the ideas are very good - hope you'll make a sequel.