SFaPiL2's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Gyossait]

Very good

Fascinating bleak scenery. It reminded me of Evangalion for some reason... probably the choice of color palette, the presence of impaled figures, the and inverted pyramid in an underground geofront.

The music was very particular, in a good way. The creepy and distorted essence was its main attraction, but there was more to it... a dash of sentiment and sorrow as well that made it a very good soundtrack while walking around.

The gameplay, on the other hand, was dull at times. The fact that your objectives were pretty much to pull some switches and get some keys to open some door without any major understanding of where you were going and why, with little variation, made it seem like a chore, but the music and scenery helped keep up the interest... alot of eye candy in this game.

The story was a little hard to come by... but I just read the explanation you gave in your blog post and the things that happened in-game are starting to get clearer now.

Overall this was a very polished and nice looking game. Much detail was put into it and it shows.

Thank you for uploading this.

[Picross Forever]

What? That's a doughnut?!

The "Doughnut" puzzle was pure BS. The final pixel art looked nothing like a doughnut... it looked more like something you'd find in sushi (i.e. makizushi).

Besides, succeeding in the beginning of the harder puzzles was only a matter of luck. You'd look for the rows or columns that had larger numbers and presume that the correct slot would probably be towards the center... and then you'd try your luck. I couldn't see the puzzle element in that. I was just randomly guessing... I felt powerless.

Apart from that, I appreciated the rest of the game. The overall look seemed very polished, the sound effects were great and the music was very appropriate for that chill-and-think feel.

I would've given this game a 9/10, hands down, if it wouldn't have been for that non-puzzle/luck-based aspect of the game at the beginning of (and, sometimes, during) each puzzle.

Great work, nonetheless.

[Minesweeper3D: Universe]

Extremely undeserving score (2.36)

This is a great game and the controls work perfectly. You can choose to use the control on screen or drag with the mouse.

The music seems more fitting in a war-like game, but it's still cool enough to keep you focused while solving the puzzle.

I'm astonished at the low score. Either you've been zero-bombed/sabotaged or the player-base can't get passed the cube on easy. Shame on you guys on voting so low on such a great game.

tpodhraski, I'm sure you've done it already, but if you didn't... implement this for iPhones and iPads (and android phones, maybe?). You'll be earning so much money with this game, imo. It just screams "touchscreen compatibility". The typical user-base consists of casual gamers. Minesweeper is perfect for that demographic. Plus, it is known how iPhone user will buy even the dumbest of apps if it's just EU0.99... imagine how willing they'd be for your game, dude.

Best of luck.

[Infestor]

Pretty nice

The game is really polished graphically and the music isn't bad, either (the coolest thing about it is that, more often than not, you'd end up with the vertical pistons perfectly synching with the music... I love when that happens). It would've helped having different songs and level designs, though, but I know that I'm asking for too much.

The controls were extremely responsive and it was a pleasure to move the infestor around.

However, I unfortunately can't say that this game is unblemished. The progressive level difficulty wasn't enough of a challenge, imo, and it's a shame that the game ended so soon (and in a hurry, I must add). I was honestly expecting a "meat boy" type map using only the jetpack scout or an entire level forcing you to use the overseer to unlock all the doors or even in-level pipes that would bring you in another point of the map in order to press buttons and stuff... you get my point. The game had so much potential that it was a shame to see it end so soon with a rushed conclusion that felt extremely "meh".

Now this isn't the end of the world... just please, please extend this game and make it HUGE. I believe people would buy this as an app store mini game if you'd extend it more.

Good luck with everything.

8/10 -> a "low score" simply because I believe you can do much better.

[Toys Vs Nightmares]

I like it more than PvZ

This game makes, first of all, sense!! The concept of making the kid fend off his nightmarish fears with the use of his imagination is a great touch.

The "tower"-units available are creative and require some degree of tactics. However, I find that being able to speed up the book recharge (although a nice way to make players "grind" when the enemy is too close) makes it too easy to build an army: I started off making another book, flipping pages of both books and then build many units while constantly flipping pages on both books. I could've had the chance to place another book if I wanted to, but this method was good enough.

Anyway, this is a pretty addictive game and the artwork/animations are great! The story is fitting and the general concept (although unoriginal in the basics) is still fresh.

Thank you for making this great game.

Xplored responds:

Thank you for appreciating our work.
It's always a pleasure to read comments like your :-)

[Super Type]

Evil merciless game...

No possibility to go back to your mistake... once it's done, it's done... a big distracting red slash on screen and *bam* another word to type... still distracted about the previous word *bam* new mistake... *UGH*

I still havent managed to get 100% accuracy since it's in my nature to type pretty fast but with the backspace button always by my side.

I've manged to get 936 points with a 96% accuracy (if I recall correctly)... and I KNOW I can do better, damn it.

It may be just me, but I would've prefered having the <spacebar> key to move to the next word and the <backspace> key to go back to a mistake. It doesn't seem like cheating simply because:

A) The <spacebar> is the most comonly used key in the entire keyboard, therefore it should be used in the game to train future typers

B) Giving you the chance to erase a mistake would give you the oportunity to get 100% accuracy, which would boost your score alot with the mulplier. However, this incentive would also be counter-balanced by the time it would take to go back and retype, wasting precious seconds.

It's probably just me, but I just feel uncomfortable typing a word after the next without pressing the spacebar.

Adding something more original to the classic "typing-game", however, would've been very welcome, but it's a nice polished game nonetheless.

[Alphaland]

Almost thought provoking...

In a certain sense, a programmer is a creator of a world whose plane of existence is different from ours. A world with bounds and limitations... just like ours (even though we view our life as boundless).

From a pixel's view-point that world is all it knows, and therefore believes it's all that exists...

... dude... I'm seriously over-thinking ^_^.

Anyway, oddly nice brief game... It had some puzzle elements and "story" elements in there, but it was a bit too straight-forward and simple for me.

My score mainly goes on the thought-provoking-factor: If a game makes you think and learn, then it's a good game. You're almost there.

[Tower of Heaven]

"unresponsive" is an understatement...

When you keep one directional key pressed and then press another one (example: performing a jump while moving) the character would either move or jump... not both. Already impossible from level 3 on.

By writing the following:

"If controls are unresponsive, it may be because your computer is not fast enough"

what exactly is "fast enough" to play your flash game? A dual core with 4 GB of RAM?!

I've played many other flash games with this computer before, and no other platformer gave me such problems so, unfortunately, I blame your game.

Overall, the retro look and music are good, but the main concept isn't original and the controls are simply frustrating. My two cents.

flashygoodness responds:

I'm sorry to hear the controls did not work for you. I have a $400 laptop with very low specs by today's standards, yet it runs the game perfectly. It's not just the RAM or processor of your computer that affects the performance of Flash games, because they are being run within a web browser. Do you have a lot of extensions in your web browser? Did you close other browser tabs, programs, and services you might have been running?

[Infectonator : World Dom]

Absolutely...

... make this an iPhone (or even an iPad) app!

Refine it a bit and you'll be shitting gold nuggets. ^__^

[Sketchbook]

Agreed...

...Algebra, Trigonometry and Calculus were THE most draw-inspiring moments of my life and, judging from some of your drawings, I guess the homework was a pain to finish ^__^.

Anyway, nice drawings. Obvious metal slug influence in the beginning (which I like). Many funny and original variations: I especially liked the "standing" four-legged tank.

Some of the manga, however, has facial disproportions. Cloud, on the other hand, is awesome. (funny how they were done in the same year, though: 2006)

There's also one with a masked guy with long hair covering half of his face... looks sweet.

The mushroom ones are kickass.

Nice cityscape drawing (second-to-last picture in your sketchbook). It would be an awesome platformer city-map (with dozens of levels to beat).

Last... but not least... I love the sketchbook page-turning effect. Very clean, very smooth, very immersive.

Nice one!
10/10
5/5

matt-likes-swords responds:

Thank ye.