CrankyRabbit's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[I Can't Escape]

I desperately want to like this game. It reminds me of happier days spent playing a public domain game called Labyrinth on my Commodore 64... but far more frustrating and unfair.

My first gripe is that when I find a ladder, almost always a) there's a hole in front of it, or b) no hole but I fall down anyway. This seems remarkably unfair, especially b). Whether this is an artifact of your maze generator, or deliberate, I cannot say.

The second is that you seem to have wandering monsters that drag you down if they touch you - but you never see or hear them coming. I suspect this is related to my "falling through solid floor" issue. Far more excitement could be had in the sequel by adding cues to indicate a monster's proximity and where.

Thirdly: Gates. Some open. Some don't. There is no visual cue as to whether one will open or not; no visual cue as to how many keys you have to open said gates. From comments I gather that you have to collect these and then find an X to reach the exit for the secret ending.

Finally... I am convinced that your maze generator modifies the levels during the game! In my last game, I walked around the cell holding an exit ladder, started again and found a gate and hidden doorway that wasn't there before. I don't know about you, but I rather like maps that stay relatively static. Who needs monsters when the maze itself seems to be the monster?

If you make a sequel, I suggest:
1) 'freezing' the generator during gameplay;
2) adding indication of monsters in vicinity (forcing the player to run away);
3) making the keys more important - say, by placing them on lower levels and forcing players to drop down to collect them, then struggle to conserve same on the way up;

Actually, with relation to 1), another option might be to, at regular and distressing intervals, have the maze move things around - holes, gates and so on - in other words, play up the angle of 'the maze IS the monster'. In other words, go down to get up - preferably without falling too far and being eaten.

So technically, a good concept, but unpleasantly hard in the wrong way as executed.

[Fishhead: Chapter 1]

A decent port of a very old platformer into Flash. Controls feel a little skittish though, and I can't see any sign of a health bar. Just getting past the first level is proving difficult...

[Mundane Game]

It looks like the guy's legit, but he's forgotten to unlock the project, AND also to provide a link to it on his site. I'm sending him an email about this.

rustinhaler responds:

I'm having real problems making a version of this game that works on newgrounds. Are there any stencyl users who can tell me the EXACT phrase I have to type into the "site lock" box so it works on yogyog.org and newgrounds.com? I've tried "http://yogyog.org, http://www.newgrounds.com" and "yogyog.org, newgrounds.com" and even "newgrounds.com" but it's still not working! I don't want to releace this game unlocked.

SORTED!! Turns out newgrounds stores games on ungrounded.net .

[Ace Pilot]

Having played in story mode, I'd just like to say that the character of Ace Pilot has succeeded in evoking desire in me. Admittedly the desire is to punch him in the face for egoism above and beyond the call of duty but never mind.

As many others have observed, the movie was fine but the interactive parts weren't up to snuff, in part due to half-explained controls and lack of intuitive feedback. That you use the mouse to steer (if the damn Flash doesn't lose focus) wasn't adequately explained at the start. Indeed, at first I thought I was being prepared for a vertically scrolling shooter. And during the shooting sessions, instead of an immediately comprehensible damage bar, I was serenaded by thoroughly opaque warning hooters on losing maneuverability.

In related inquiry, is it even possible to die in story mode? As far as I can tell, losing all HP merely meant a frustrating wait for repairs, instead of being informed that with your demoralising death in action, the celebrations of husbands galaxy-wide were cut short by the arrival of Krill invasion fleets or something like that.

For the sequel's action sequences, may I suggest looking at one of the 3D engine APIs, e.g. Sophie, Sandy3D or Away3D, and a control system similar to that of Elite? Space battles that take place not just above, but *around* great space frigates... bears thinking about, and might please more of the crowd more of the time.

Whatever you choose, the main gripe seems to be that the space battles felt perfunctory instead of important. Making these parts feel like whatever you do actually has an impact on the story unfolding (or is even vital for the story's survival) needs to be carefully considered when designing the sequels.

Which, by the way, I'll be looking forward to.

[Binding of Isaac DEMO]

A delightful and dark game stew

Take the rooms of Zelda-esque dungeons, add controls a la Robotron, randomise level designs as per Roguelikes, and season heavily with the strange black ichor that squirms from Ed McMillen's pen.

Welcome to a short but hideously sweet taste of the miserable life and many, many deaths of poor Isaac.

[The Day (Gregory Weir)]

Goals of Innocence and Experience

This game is truly unsettling; you can either stay 'innocent', playing your little war games, or lose your innocence by discovering the shattering truth about your home.

Actually, there's two questions: Are they refugees from a devastating war, or some other disaster? And, the destroyed laser drone outside the base - attacker or defender?

Another point is docked due to the fact the annoying ad box merely gets shunted to the back of the stage and doesn't go away - I can still see it when roaming inside the bunker and when reading the developer notes.

Otherwise another splendid brain-poker from Mr Weir.

GregoryWeir responds:

That's what I get for changing something last-minute and not testing enough. The ad should be fixed as soon as the new version gets approved.

[jue - junior]

The controls are too complicated to be fun.

Seriously, why do you need three buttons to punch, three buttons to kick, three buttons to use "skill attacks" and another button to rage?

End result: I find myself leaping around desperately mashing buttons as the computer rips me a new one. I AM FIGHTING THE GAME, AS OPPOSED TO FIGHTING IN GAME.

Next time, consider coding for combo moves (e.g. back+punch-punch-kick = Flying Buttcheeks of Death.) That would make more sense than simply allocating what feels like four billion buttons for a simple beat-em-up.