CrankyRabbit's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Happy Corp. [Alpha] [Updated 3/8/2024]]

A nice little breakout game. Only real beef I have right now is that the explosion effects send the framerate plummeting to what feels like 0.2fps on Firefox 123.0.1 (64-bit).

saltandpixel responds:

Yeah, lol - It's a buggy power up I need to remove. I may update tonight.

[Merry Schmess Frenzy]

One of my favourite Christmas games to this day.

[Tiny Heist]

The big problem I have with this game is that it's too random! Playfield generation seems to be a simple arrangement of rooms and corridors, which sometimes leads to rooms with redundant doors because there's a hole in another wall. Also, placement of hostiles seems random as well - my last play got me to level 3 before reaching an impossible situation (a patrol bot was already heading for the entrance and no way to avoid!)

What the next iteration of this game needs is a more 'fair' method of level generation. Perhaps rendering a series of rooms (some possibly pre-defined), then linking them by corridors or doors as appropriate. Good roguelikes have an underlying rhythm to their level design and sequence; I'd recommend inspecting some of the others out there to understand this.

Otherwise, the turn-based mechanic is a clever twist; do I wait or keep moving? It's just that the unconstrained randomness of level generation makes the game far too difficult, unfair, or impossible. Choose your preferred term.

A good roguelike lets the player's skill dominate, as opposed to dumb luck. Sadly, Tiny Heist does not feel like a good roguelike.

[SlushPuppies]

This unfortunately only loads to a black screen when running Firefox 47.0 on Windows 10. Going to try v48.0 since it's being shoved in my face right now.

SiredSpace responds:

Let me know how it runs on v48! I'll look into the v47 issues :\

[ EDIT 8-14: Fixed, thanks for the feedback! ]

[Scramble]

Not a bad recreation of the arcade Skramble... but not good either. It would have been nice if the keys had mappings for a QWERTY keyboard (ie. cursor keys to move, Z shoot, X bomb, like that.) What it really needs is better music instead of a background throb.

paulpaterson responds:

Thanks for the comments and feedback.

Check out the latest update if you have a change. There is music, cursor keys movement, and a completely new UI.

[Glorkian Warrior]

This is a great and faithful taster of the full game (dead cheap btw) and gets to the point. Jump spitters. Collect crackers. Unleash the power of the flarf gun (oh wait, that's the full game). Shoot stuff without dying (much). Simple, cute, and worth playing. And buying as well. Beware the Magic Robot!

[Holy Stomping]

When I saw this on Boing Boing I had to have a lookie. What a pleasant little time-waster!

[Pivot]

First off: I don't comprehend the herds of idiots claiming that this is a Fez copy... since Fez' mechanic was that of rotating the level in 3D space, which doesn't happen here. Instead, the rotational axis is orthogonal to the playfield; no previously obscured platforms appear. To say this rips off Fez is like claiming Epic Battle Fantasy rips off Skyrim.

I finally finished this game despite the lack of a map, and was slightly disapproving. Firstly, because the graphics were relatively samey throughout the game; some variation (e.g. having a section dolled up like a cavern, another a temple etc.) might have helped with navigation. Secondly, I spent some time trying to find the final chest before suspecting that it was behind the 'door'. That wasn't made obvious.

Other than that, this was a pleasant game to while away the time; adding enemies, or deadly obstacles, or time challenges would be gilding the lily. Very nice.

[No Cleaner]

This was an enjoyable timewaster that reminded me of a cross between Centipede, Gauntlet (hordes!) and Robotron, and I played until everything was maxed out, and I had over $500K, before getting bored, cramped hands, and stopping.

One beef I did have was that, if the game was becoming too hectic, one could stop playing, let nature take its course, then Continue - with the chance to upgrade of course. Thus the upgrade part of the game became one of endurance rather than skill. Perhaps docking a percentage of money for a continue (or maybe wave# x $1000?)

Another is that in-game the FlashFooty logo is underneath the 'next' button, which made me nervous about possibly opening another website either in-game or when visiting the upgrade store. Just a little UI hiccup you might want to look into.

Finally, one lesson I've learned from games with upgrades is that you're upgrading for a reason beyond slaughter into infinity. Here... I didn't feel like I'd accomplished anything except being able to circle around and around the playfield turning square critters into red smears. Maybe a big boss that appears around wave #30 and lets you unlock endless mode, or perhaps integrating scoreboards or achievements?

Otherwise this game was a blast. Insane firepower. HUGE numbers of enemies onscreen didn't slow things down at all. Great fun!

[Robot Phone Home]

This game has promise as a Knytt-style platformer, but drops the ball with a near-vertical difficulty increase shortly after collecting the wall-jump power-up. Apparently you're supposed to not only jump between two sets of wall spikes in a cave, but also over a set of floor spikes - all with pixel-perfect accuracy. Either that, or you're somehow expected to jump back to the start despite not having the range.

The art style and ambient sounds are charming, but as stated, the sudden and frankly excessive spike (pun intended) in difficulty made me give up in frustration. Less spikes and more exploration please.