ZaronX's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Snowballoid]

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.

Warlockus responds:

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)

[X-MAS HERO]

It's not ready yet.

This has potential, but it's just not ready. the collision's really sloppy, first and foremost, especially when attacking, which resulted in my guy tweaking out and falling into a hole every time i tried to clear a gap and attack a bird at once because he'd swing while landing and it would push him back to the edge of the wall. it's the only major complaint I have, but it's major for a reason. You need to tighten things up a bit.

A more minor thing, but why is it that only the ranged attack has a sound effect while the rest of the game is bizarrely silent?

Give it a bit more work and it could be a lot better, but, as I said, right now it's not quite there.

[Hunted Forever]

Interesting.

It was fairly enjoyable until a certain point in the third stage. As the game went, it slowly started dropping frames, until finally at some point I had to quit because the framerate had slowed to such a crawl that it became difficult to even control my guy, a considerably serious issue for a platformer. My best guess says you've a memory leak somewhere, but since it's Flash and my knowledge is kinda weak in Ationscript and its workings, that may not be the msot helpful. :( you sure the missles and such go away once they've gone off screen and such?

[Dance Of Distraction]

Not shabby at all.

I started with the space stage, which I still find the most creative, but all in all I rather like this game and wouldn't mind seeing more of it. : D The distractions are creative and lend to the experience instead of being outright intrusive, which I find nice since I was expecting seizure lights and for half my screen to blank out and then giant faces or something popping up in my way so I couldn't see a single thing. But really they had a ncie balance, getting in the way without making things impossible, and the stages each having their own atmosphere was fantastic.

Good job, sir. Keep it up! : D

BurningBunnies responds:

Why thank you! I shall indeed.

[Dance Dance Carabao]

Needs work.

Butterfly is by smile DK, not Aqua, nor is DDR a song artist. At least bother looking these things up.

I started off with Butterfly on Hard, because I'm a crazy person. However, that's also all I played - your hard is more in line with actual DDR's "BASIC," and your arrows very rarely work in sync to the song. the only way to fix that is to fine tune, and whle the graphic presentation suggests you've put some decent work into the presentation, the game itself gives it away - this was a rush job to show off a fairly lacking DDR engine. Jumps seem to have issues, most notably, though that might just be something about Flash or my keys - Stepmania does not have these issues, however, so I'm fairly certain it's more the game ehre than me.

Make hard, you know, hard. Sync the steps to the song, also, and check your music artists before you put up false information. I'm fairly certain that last one can get you in trouble. >___> It seems like a good start, but it needs a lot more work.

[Millie Megavolte 2]

Not bad.

I think the stages are long enough that, especially with pits, it wouldn't be too much to ask for a checkpoint somewhere. And for the life of me i could never figure out how to parry. Otherwise, though, the game's pretty good. Well done!

[Sprox the Furcone]

Serious Room for improvement

The game leaves a lot to be desired. For starters, a couple times shoes I shouldn't have been killed my caused my demise. But that's a bit less obvious a bug than some others.

Primarily, did you even play test your own game? your score resets every level, and your help's story cuts off near the end of the first line. That alone makes the game seem very unproffessional.

Graphically, I'd recommend a bit of background visuals, maybe some changes between levels (day/night/dusk/dawn skies?) at the very least.

There's plenty of room to improve, but the foundation at least isn't too bad for what it is. the game just needs more work, is all.

iameatingjam responds:

No I didn't really test it, thanks though, those things are fixed up now.

[The invasion of Zorg]

Needs work

The biggest beef I have with this thing is that the cannon moves painfully slow, and the enemies move relatively quickly - many times being impossible to get even close to all of them.

Speed that bugger up to a point where I could enjoy this thing without seeing my inevitable doom early on and we'd be talkin'.