Thetageist's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fit Cats]

I feel like less is more, honestly. I can tell there was a lot of effort put into the graphics and music, but I feel like they distract from the gameplay and make it feel soulless. To be blunt, you had me wondering whether this game was a mobile game industry plant posted on Newgrounds to get awards, especially since I know Suika Game is a hot trend right now and lots of companies want to capitalize on that.

The rat mechanic is a fun and creative addition for a Suikalike such as this, including the need to interact with what's normally a static game background. I feel like it needs some balancing, though, because there's not much reward for waiting as long as I do to get all five rats. So I'd recommend either making the requirement a smaller number of rats (as another user said), or have the rats cause a bigger rat-splosion that will take out multiple cats.

The basics seem solid at least!

[super Hero Maker version 2]

Much improved! I appreciate the additions of more color pickers!

[Darkwood]

Gameplay wise, this is really solid! I don't have enough knowledge to comment on the auto-attack, but everything works together pretty well I think. Dodge is really useful, especially with the big dude from the gravestone that I kept triggering by accident.

I like the art style and general theme, but I think that your GUI is at times a bit too minimalist - I'd appreciate landmarks being marked on the minimap once I've seen them before, as well as more introduction to what some of these things mean. I also don't know what the heck the shopkeeper does, since I don't think I actually received the item I bought?

Also unsure whether looping back to the beginning and continuing the exact same order makes sense narratively. I'll think about it. Bosses aren't scaling very well to higher difficulties, as most of their difficulty lies in their attack patterns and how easy/hard those are to avoid.

I'll be sure to update my review as I discover more stuff!

ErikSwahn responds:

Thank you! A great idea indeed about the landmarks on the map. The merchant spawns a bag on the ground when you buy an item, so just pick it up. I agree it is a bit odd to repeat the same loop in a narrative perspective but the original idea was to make it endless.

[Lime Attack]

This is a really good Scratch project overall! My one complaint is that almost every sound in the game is loud enough to make the audio peak, and I'm on a pretty low setting on my headphones, so it'd be good to turn it all down. Otherwise, looks good!

[RECURSION]

I can't help but feel like this game is about something more. The title, the distressed face on the player square and the presence of a happy square far away from it in the brief intro image, the melancholy music that seems to go on without end, the heart-shaped objective that you eventually can't reach, the ending with more happy squares that you are being separated from, and the display of a broken heart when you try to reach them. It all seems to point to an emotional message as well as being a regular puzzle game.

Gameplay-wise, this definitely made me think outside the box! I learned a lot of new strategies that allowed me to beat tougher levels, like the one where you're trapped in a grid with bouncing balls. The addition of having two buttons down to move diagonally while keeping things the same color was a really clever one!

Back to the subject of meaning, as someone struggling with mental health issues, this game seemed to capture the type of feeling I get sometimes when I have the time to sit with my thoughts. Alone, overwhelmed, with no idea what to do and at most a faint glimmer of hope that I'll ever find happiness or love - that I'll ever be like the other people who I see getting to enjoy those things. I get a warped sense of time and space at those points sometimes, kinda like what you do with the visuals and soundtrack there. So, I guess, in case you're struggling with that too, just know you aren't the only one.

[Emo Maker 2000]

The WebGL loader froze my browser, but I really want to play it once you can get that fixed!

[Cthulhu Merge]

This is a cool Suikalike and I hope Alpharad finds it! I love the silly theming and the devolve mechanic - it's definitely been both helpful and capable of screwing me over.

Just wish some of the sounds weren't so loud in comparison to the others. That's a small fix, though.

[Chef Quest]

I love this lil wholesome game. It's such a cool hybrid between genres! Would love to see it revisited later!

[SPLAT!]

The one thing I wish would be tweaked is how big the player is in comparison to the little corridors it has to get through. It's really easy to bump my head and fall into the spike I was trying to get over. I enjoyed the rest of it, though - even for something made in one day, the level design and graphics were pretty solid! Hope you had fun with this!

STATICOdev responds:

I did have fun with this, and im glad you enjoyed it too!

[Knight Escape]

Good God, your games are brutal. I love them, though! (Also hey I know that second composer! :D)

This one in particular might not be my favorite, but it's easy to understand and difficult to master - a good recipe for replay value! Looking forward to playing through more of these and possibly beating Pixel Mania for real!

blit-blat responds:

Haha, yeah on reflection this game does need a bit more polish (like being able to jump as others have suggested). And yeah, I love the sound track for this one - NG has so many great composers!