A bit easy (I never once used or felt pressured TO use an EMP, and went all-in on the offensive options), but enjoyable for what it is. This could pretty easily go on semi-endlessly I think, but having an end goal helps keep it focused and polished.
Not bad.
Mechanically and aesthetically fine but I responded to death by audibly grumbling "oh, fuck off" a few too many times to say I was having a good time before calling it somewhere in level 2. Maybe I'm just too tired for this shit but the combination of the timer making me want to hurry and the utter lack of forgiveness of being booted back to the start of the stage after every slight fuck-up really wore on me very quickly.
Not bad, could use some polish. Enemies will sometimes spawn directly on top of you with no real warning or mercy, and some indicator of when a powerup spawns off-screen might be nice and serve to tempt the player into danger. a visual warning or cooldown for the big invincibility murder attack coming to an end would likewise be pretty nice. Little things, mostly.
The perspective kind of throws me a bit and some of the hitboxes are kind of unintuitive (ie. aiming for flying enemies' shadows instead of the big obvious sprites) but there's a solid foundation here.
Thanks!
The power-ups *have* an effect - it's a lightning bolt/thunder sound (they spawn with a lightning strike) but what I'm taking away from this is that the effect gets lost in the mix, so I'll have to look for something better. Ditto the attack power-down, there's a rising tone but again, it must get lost in the mix.
The perspective thing, similarly, I'll see what I can do. It has to do with how the mode-7 style visual work, but it might be possble to adjust.
It's a solid start. The groundwork's here and everything seems on-point, but there's not a whole lot here.
I'd love to see the view zoom out a bit at high speeds so something like the glider would even be feasible to use and get anything with; as is, I feel like I'm working half-blind and it's not really worth the item cost. Upgrades for something like orb grab range could also help, but in its present state this is really a grind to get anywhere. I finished the demo with nothing upgraded past level 2, and I didn't feel particularly inclined to keep pushing.
Some reward for distance or an orb/item bonus for clearing goals would be a nice touch, and perhaps a little more going on in the game itself. A lot of these sorts of games have obstacles and helpers scattered around the playfield that add a little dynamism to the experience, and you could potentially work that into an upgrade / unlock progression as well to help keep things a little fresher.
I hope you keep going with this and turn it into something special!
Amusin'
It's a very minor change to the normal Snake formula, but it's just enough to make this one a little unique. You could stand to refine the graphics and the like, obviously, but this isn't at all a bad start.
Thanks ;)
A little basic...
The board was sparse and half the game window's space is taken up by Sonic and Tails just standing there. The bonus boards and single-slot slot machine are nice touches, but don't do much to justify how open and empty the layout is. The collision is largely passable, but the flippers don't seem to hold any power to them, and there's a visible delay between when they flip up and the ball gets going with barely any speed. With the bumpers helping out it's not as obvious, but in the bonus rooms it's a glaring fault that makes getting the ball up past the bottom third of the board feel like dumb luck simply because unless it hits the top of one of the lower bumpers it's not going to get any higher.
simply put, what you have here is a foundation, and while I've seen you saying Flash couldn't handle much more, I've been having terrible lagging issues due to some Firefox bug or other that's been going on and it's about the first thing that's run decently for me on this site in a week. I don't know how you're handling your collision logic, but there shouldn't be enough here to slow things down by even a remote stretch, even for Flash. :/
And, on a more minor offense, while I had no trouble finding the music and ball options, the fact I couldn't hear the chosen audio until I started the board authentically irked me. Your menu is bizarrely silent, and no harm could come from it playing a little something something.
The physics are decent save the flipper collision, and this doesn't feel like a lost cause, just very aimless. Give the board more, or make the space it consumes less, maybe add some rollovers or an orbit shot, something. If you're already having issues keeping the game running smoothly a ramp or two is probably out of the question as then you have to handle layering, but I find it hard to believe more couldn't get into this. :/
Long-Lasting...
The game seems a bit long for something with half the medals revolving around beating the thing and no save feature. While the gameplay isn't bad, most of the enemies don't seem to do that much so the variety seems almost purely cosmetic, and I found myself frequently annoyed by having one enemy left on screen, forcing myself to give up a spike for it or some such thing, and then having another enemy or two pop up immediately after. It's not like i wasn't waiting for that to happen, either. Why can't the enemies spawn steadily over the course of a wave? Would help this thing's pace a lot.
As is, dull at the beginning, only moderately better at the end. That medal for full spikes seems a bit outlandish considering most of mine were lost by the bosses ramming into them. A couple more layers of strategy and a better pace could have helped this a lot. It's not bad, but it's not particularly good, either.
Still a Bit Too Much Luck Involved
This is one of the best games of it's kind, but would be all the better if your ability to manipulate the turtle as much as you can made a bloody lick of difference.
A genre mainstay that you've neglected is some manner of radar or warning indicator of the assorted hazards and aids coming up, a serious problem with the latest patch's assortment of floating spikes and increased number of aerial adversities, never mind the ludicrous speeds things move at that render most obstacles a single-frame existence that makes them more decorative than a way to test the player's skill.
And, again, this is a shame, as you've done a lot to try and make skill a factor here more than just straight luck, and I commend that in any cannon game. The assortment of upgrades, variety of things to ram into, and assorted achievements and medals all do a lot to make up for that shortcoming, but I do wish they didn't have to.
Could Be Better
It's just boring. There's no onscreen indicator of your health or whatever it is that finally dictates your health, and enemies just swerve into walls to die by your hand.
Some onscreen health or indicator of progress would be amazing, as would, possibly, the right ship being controlled via arrow keys? The mouse was tolerable but required far more focus, causing enemies to be a bit more successful on the left side, and once the screen splitter vanished, a ncie touch admittedly, the mouse became a chore in trying to keep the pointer over the game, something that is a curse of Flash and never something I've much liked in the games made with said.
There's potential here, but as is it seems more like a tease of something better you're working on than an all-out effort.
Still needs work.
The game looks nice for the most part, but could stand to play a lot better. the only visual complaint is that the ball is white on a very light blue background, which makes it harder to see than it should be. And I'm not sure if this is a complaint or not, but do the presents explode for any particular reason?
Perhaps it's to explain the ball's sporadic bouncing as, indeed, this is the killing factor on what could otherwise be a fairly enjoyable game - the ball bounces randomly, often hitting the left or right edge of the room and doing a complete 180 from its previous heading. The typical strategy and precise control and timing of your typical Arkanoid clone is replaced with just trying to hit a ball that seems only remotely under your control, and never in the expected ways. when I bounce the ball off the far right edge of the round paddle, it should not continue to head left without seeming so much as hindered. when it hits a wall, it should bounce off the wall at roughly the same angle it hit it, and likewise with the bricks/presents/explosive boxes.
And while collision hurts a lot, a less important but still annoying trait is the power-ups. while something like glue replacing expanded paddle is acceptable, the power-ups completely expiring so quickly they rarely get to be used is a bit harsh. I got glue at least five times before I realized that's what it was, as by the time the ball reached my paddle it had expired without ever being used. I thought it was just a free hundred points, or, since it did so one time, something that canceled other power-ups.
The basics are all here for this to be a solid Arkanoid clone, but considering the Christmas theme I don't understand why this seems to be so rushed out the door. It has a decent graphical presentation and the initial impression is good, but once the ball starts rolling things go downhill far too fast. Give it a little more care and try again.
As developers of this simply and alittle unsightly game we want to thank you greatly for such Constructive criticism! We love it!
p.s. Dont beat us to hard, please - this is our first game 8)
Creator of the comics Trelldain, Lonely Hooves & Witches' Thralls. Illustrator of cute monster gals, and occasional musician. Storyteller.
Age 37, n
Artist
Lebanon, OR
Joined on 9/21/05
Impact-Effect 
my favourite place 
Valkyrie: Sacred Feathers S 
Fish Canon (Prototype) 
Pixel Snake 
Super Sonic Pinball 
Tetraform 
Toss the Turtle 
Xalaxer 
Snowballoid 
