Gimmick's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Gravity Bob]

Meh

I found the game good but it wasn't the most original idea, I say. There are plenty of gravity based games like these out there, and what does this have that makes it stand out from the others?

The art: The main menu artwork was good, I'll give you that. However, the ingame art was....disappointing. I see a little ball with eyes and I wonder "Is that supposed to be an alien?" I don't know if "Bob" is an alien or not, but whatever it is, it's not drawn very well. The walls are just regular shapes with a background. Not good. The black holes and the explosion, however, were good.

The animation: Smooth. The explosion animation, however, was a bit choppy. I can't really say much else because there's not much left apart from the explosion and the black hole animation.

The music: Not bad, it's actually good, but it's a bit repetitive and after a time it gets irritating. The sound effects are drowned out by the loud music, but they're not bad, if you can hear them.

The concept: As I said before, the game's concept is not original. There are plenty of other gravity games out there, and this is no different. To answer the question I asked before: this game has nothing extraordinary, nothing surprising, just your average gravity game.

The gameplay: It's rather simple, just using the arrow keys and the space key to switch gravities. Sounds simple, but as always it gets tougher. Some levels took me a long time to finish and made me frustrated when I almost finished but had to restart. I don't know much, but the fact you could swap gravities while in midair meant you could do a lot more than you could with other gravity games where they switched on contact. I'm still wondering whether this makes it easier for the user or not. Maybe a limited amount of switches you can make in a level...?

All in all, not bad, despite the fact it's no different from any other gravity based game. And yes I have been harsh :)

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Smooth animation
2) Simple gameplay

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Repetitive music
2) Relatively unoriginal
3) Rather basic art

[Review Request Club]

ProfessorFlash responds:

I can appreciate constructive criticism so thanks for your review. I'll keep your points in mind if I do a sequel.

[I Want Your Blood!]

Not bad

It's a good flash, but there were a few glitches that just brought it down in my opinion. I know your motive was to make people donate blood, but I won't be heading out to, because I'm scared of needles...but on topic, why this for Halloween? What's it got to do, apart from Dracula?

The graphics: Basic. The text in the beginning is italicized and just plain annoying. The text later on is better, but the font's too...basic. The images look as if they're ripped from the Google Image search...the background's not too good either. The UI is basic, and not very neat, I must say...

The animation: I don't think there's any animation at all. It's just a quiz, and for the bare animation there is, it's either a) too fast or b) too slow. I'm talking about the animations as you progress levels, and the end animation, all of which are just...hurried.

The music: Bad choice of music. I think it'd be better if you had peaceful music even in the increasing levels, so that the viewer could actually concentrate a bit. It doesn't help that every time you fail at level 3, you go back to level 3 and the level 3 music starts again, thereby duplicating the copy. So, say you lost twice at level 3, there'd be three copies in total.

The gameplay: It's just a simple quiz. You click and you get information. You pass if you get it correct, you go back to the beginning if you lose. That's what I hate -- having to replay it all over again. Thankfully, there were checkpoints. Yet this system isn't foolproof, but hurried -- there's no option to disable people from clicking "Play" from the context menu and just skipping things, and there's nothing to prevent people from searching on the internet. Perhaps you could've had an anti-cheat system and a timer?

All in all, an okay piece, although I think that this is thoroughly flawed. Please attempt it again, and fix the bugs!

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Simple...?
2) Good...motive...?

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Dull background
2) Dull UI
3) Bad art
4) Little, if any, animation
5) Music glitch
6) Nothing to prevent users cheating

[Review Request Club]

IceDragon64 responds:

Thank you for your detailed review.

See below for explanation of reason for connection with Halloween

I like the fonts and I wouldn't change them. The images were taken (and credited) from Goodle images etc. I don't see why that is a problem. They were intended to show that Blood Donation is an international thing etc. and they do so. Since you have not told me which animations are too fast and which too slow I can't really respond. Like most quizzes, the animation is only intended to be a decoration etc. I can't see why you say "if any" animation and that you don't think there is any- when you criticise the animation you have seen.

Whilst some of our quizzes do incorporate anti--cheating I don't think it is important- if people want to cheat they will find a wayand its their choice to do so. If people were prepared to look up the answers, that would be fine by me- as they explored the pages, they would learn more!
I might do somehting with some backgrounds, but it would generally look too cluttered with the art, photos and animation if I put much in the background.

Sorry about the glitch- thanks for pinpointing it for me - we can definately fix that.

The effort y'all have put into reviewing does inspire me to improve the quiz.

You gotta fix this fear of needles- just go do it, these people are experts and they will leave you with less fear of needles!

[=Button Tutorial 2=]

Meh

I don't think this serves much purpose apart from showing what the basics of buttons are. Apart from the 110% newbie that enters flash only occasionally, pretty much everyone knows what a "button" is, in flash and in real life.
Okay, let's start.

The graphics: The layout is clean and simple, along with the text which conveyed the tutorial in a no-frill manner; however, the use of text as a button confused me at first. At the initial screen, I thought it was going to be a list of links which finished each part and returned you back to the title screen. Now there's an F and a B button, which I didn't know what they were until I just clicked on them; it took me a while to figure out they were "forward" and "backward". Either way, the graphics are minimalistic -- the way they're supposed to be.

The sound: I don't think it's a very good idea to include music and sound effects in the same package in a tutorial, especially where the music is so loud it drowns out some sound effects and some SFX so loud it drowns out the sound and turns the whole thing into a cacophonic "ear-rape". Thank god there's a "pause" button for the music...I wish there'd been a "set volume" button as well. Maybe you could've taught how to create that, I presume?

The tutorial: Now, the thing is, everyone knows what buttons are. This tutorial just expands a little on what buttons are, and introduces the viewer to actionscript. This is, of course, worthless to anyone who knows what buttons are, and what Actionscript is, such as a programmer. It doesn't help that there's only a "made in As2" tag and there's no "Choose version" button. Maybe it'd introduce some people to actionscript 3? Either way, this is newb (and noob) only. Pshh. Especially when you count that this is from 2010, and not many can see this flash since it's not featured or in a collection.

All in all, a very basic tutorial for the ultra newb, and is completely useless to others. At least it fulfils its purpose, although you didn't teach alternative methods (such as the use of the "Hit" frame).

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Minimalistic graphics
2) To the point

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Teaches extremely basic stuff ("extremely useful? Maybe, maybe not.")
2) Loud sound, loud music
3) Confusing progress buttons (ironic...)

[Review Request Club]

Phantox responds:

I agree this is for the basic beginner but when I was starting flash, I knew nothing. I tried all the button tutorials and there were many times where I was stuck because the instructions weren't written correctly or it didn't explain steb-by-step and I would get lost somewhere. I also had to learn to how animate the buttons by myself because I didn't find a flash that explained how to do it.

Anyways, thanks for the review.

[NG Audio Elevator]

Not half bad

It's too small, but as SCTE3 pointed out, there's always the "inrease size" feature, but then again that just pixelates the whole thing. I've known from past experience with other loaders that you just type in the ID and you load the song. This one, though, simplifies that step by just telling you to input the ID and it'll do the rest. Neat-o.

The graphics: Not half bad, I like the pixellish graphics you used, and I think I know now why you had it so small -- because when enlarged the rectangles become bigger. It could've been vector instead of pixel, but aye, who am I to say -- others may prefer it, I can't speak on their behalf.

The animation: Good, since I'm talking about that one small thing where the person bobs his mouth only. I fail to see any animation there, perhaps a visualization? Then again, you said the sole purpose of this flash is "to play audio while playing something else".

The concept: Not bad, however this idea has been done to death before. There's the NG Radio Chat which had that feature, some other ones made by some other authors, and of course, the inbuilt players in the audio portal itself. So it's not at all original, and if anyone wanted to play audio from the portal, they'd just go to the portal and enter the ID, or use the other creations from other authors.

The system: Well, okay. I played the gadget, and I entered some audio ID -- I'm not sure -- and it started playing those loading bar things (it took me a while to figure out what they were). So correct me if I'm wrong, but you're supposed to load the ENTIRE song before playing, even if you just want to SAMPLE it? Also, there's no "main menu" button here, and not even a keyboard shortcut for it -- if I enter a gibberish audio ID, I get a person gaping at me, and the gadget "breaks", in that you can't listen to any audio any more, and you can't go back to select audio either. If you want to rewind the song and play from the beginning, then you'd have to skip the song, and go back to it, and wait another X minutes for that song to load, depending on your connection.

All in all, quite nifty, but under the surface, there's a lot of room for improvement.

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Convenient
2) Good graphics, although could be vector
3) User-friendly

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Gadget "breaks" if incorrect ID entered
2) No allowance of rewinding song directly
3) Waiting time to play music, even if just to skip

[Review Request Club]

Surn responds:

"increase size" feature... pixelates the whole thing."

It's pixel art- that's kind of the idea. Still, you have a point with it being too small.

"others may prefer it, I can't speak on their behalf."

Hm, a matter of taste, I didn't really consider that.

"So it's not at all original, ... play audio from the portal, ...or use the other creations from other authors."

The advantage this has over the audio portal is that it plays the song then moves on to the next song, where as you'd have to retrieve the next song manually. As for other creations, that is a good point.

"those loading bar things (it took me a while to figure out what they were)"

Hm, probably should have told the number box at the top to say "Loading" while it was loading. Coop seemed to have had trouble with this as well.

"So correct me if I'm wrong, but you're supposed to load the ENTIRE song before playing,"

That's what I programmed it to do. Perhaps next time I'll unlock it at 50 or 75 percent.

"there's no "main menu" button here, and not even a keyboard shortcut for it"

That would have been useful, though it would have taken away from the simplicity of the device. Still, arguably worth it.

"I get a person gaping at me, and the gadget "breaks", in that you can't listen to any audio any more. "

He tells me he enjoyed your company, he doesn't get many visitors (especially with such a low score). But seriously, I probably should have made it give an error message, them compensate for it instead.

"If you want to rewind the song ... skip the song, .. back to it, .. another X minutes for that song to load."

Play controls would have been nice- but again, that would take away from the simplicity.

This review was quite insightful. I'll look back to it when I try making another audio player.

[Pilo]

Um.

I didn't particularly like this game, mostly due to the bad graphics and the in-originality of this. You could've just as well used an awesome face sprite.

The graphics / animation: Meh. A poor replica of an awesome face sprite. Not only is the meme poor, the drawing is even worse than the original awesome face. The coin, door and wall (including spikes) are just basic shapes, with the only exception being the spikes -- brush strokes that are more smooth than sharp, per se. The maze is even worse -- a large rectangle with erased out parts, which looks unprofessional.

The sound: Downright annoying. When I started the game I was presented with a loud background music, and when I clicked on play I was directed to the level screen, where there was no Mute BGM button. I had to go back to the menu and disable the sound. That doesn't help the fact you can't autosave, either.

The gameplay: It's rather a collection of minigames involving the awesome face named "Pilo", than an actual game, per se, mostly due to the fact that there are levels such as coin collection in one level, and suddenly some levels ahead you jump into mazes and forget about coins altogether. I couldn't finish the game, and see the "sound" section where I said I had to go to the main menu to disable it -- I'm lucky I did that on the first level. If I had done it any later, then I'd have given one star less. Put at least a *little* effort into organizing the level system into chunks, where you could save every time you got into a snag for later. That or add a mute button; I hated the fact you put the "5 commandments of Pilo" in the tips section...that's just downright bad, but that's only my opinion. The only good thing that came out of that commandments was that it was challenging. Also, I'm writing the review while playing the game -- I'm still seeing the death counter increase while I'm writing this. Add a pause menu, for god's sake!

That's all for now. I hope to see a better version where the graphics and other things are better, because even though this idea's not original, it at least has some potential in it.

~~ Summary ~~

~~ Good points ~~
1) Challenging

~~ Bad points ~~
1) Bad sound
2) Poor graphics
3) Unoriginal
4) No pause menu
5) No save system
6) No ingame mute button

[Review Request Club]

norfor22 responds:

Thanks for all the harsh criticism :)
(I'm serious)
I have nothing to say for myself except - i will try harder next time :)

Took all what you said in consideration.
This game was mainly to "test" my as2 mad skills.
(i'm not serious)

I will, however, make a more serious game then that in the near-ish future, since i got my mind on other projects right now :d
But seriously, thanks for taking your time and reviewing this game.