CrankyRabbit's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pixel-copter]

Horrible controls, frustrating play

This would be an interesting mashup of Icy Tower and Hedgehog Launcher gameplay, except for the controls. Most players will not be octopi.

I'm trying to figure out why you have to mash the space bar to gain altitude, while *click-dragging* to steer. It's awfully like trying to pat your head and rub your tummy at the same time. Why not mash the left mouse button and have the helicopter follow the mouse?

Also, the relatively short distance the helicopter flies is unrewarding. Instead, it feels like you have no control over the game; you're going to rise a pathetically short distance before falling into the drink, *without losing sight of your start point.*

Basically I can't rate this game high, because, damn it, you've got me *fighting the game* instead of playing it.

The upgrade menus are also annoying, since they scroll around with the mouse movement (again, why not the chopper?) and lack bounding boxes for mouse click detection. Given the size of the icons, precision clicking is fiddly and... again... frustrating.

Ending on a high note, the graphics are crisp.

[Neck Twist]

Clever mechanic

But there is a problem with the enemies wandering off the playfield or staying on the edges, making it impossible to circle around them and thus complete the levels.

[doodle jump]

Needs a bit more work

Obviously there's the control problem with jumping, but what you've got here is a reasonably good if plain Icy Tower clone.

It just needs a few additions to make it more enjoyable:
1. Sound effects and music
2. Animation of the player, even just flipping the player object
3. Preloader and title screens
4. In-game instructions. People don't always look outside the frame when playing a game, for some reason.

Aside from that, not bad.

[When The Lights Go Out.]

Hey, the lights came back on...

Nice ambience and a nicer twist on the "find the item" game, but I did notice that in later levels the lights would come back on before I clicked where I thought everything was. It's one of those little bugs that makes the game too easy.

[Space Madness]

Framerate problems

While graphically nice, the play itself was far too frantic and fast to be really enjoyable. The player vessel moved slowly, so it seemed that I was being rammed by enemies travelling very fast and firing equally fast.

In the revised version, try adding framerate detection so that those of us with fast computers can play this otherwise nice shooter.

[bubble in my garden]

Collision detection very poor

No sound is guaranteed a low score on here by the way :)

Seriously, I was not happy about the very loose collision detection -- my bubble was touched several times by the spiky things but nothing happened. Then I deliberately steered into one and my 3 lives dropped to -1.

As I write this, my bubble has drifted right clear off the stage. Not good at all.

SO: sound, collision, and game logic need work.

pinoygamegeek responds:

Thanks! Now i know What i should improve more.

[Doom: Flatten Horizon]

Nice idea, overcooked sound direction

A top-down Doom (crossed with Doom 3) clone is a great idea, but any atmosphere the game might have had was destroyed by the sound.

The music... techno doesn't work, sorry, and frankly I would have preferred more "faithful" sound effects for the enemies, some of which owed more to Unreal than Id. Also, for some reason they sounded overamplified.

And as some have suggested, faster movement rates (framerate?) would also have helped.

[Magnum Force 10]

Nice Product Tie-In

Nothing much else to say -- good reaction game like Canabalt.

Now I want a Magnum... dammit.

[Cock Rocket Adventures]

Now try making an actual game

On loading, I found myself confronted with a large, screen-filling phallus; presumably this is the "cock rocket". Pressing the arrow keys moved this object very slowly around - and off - the screen.

To add injury to insult, there is inappropriate music (The Police? Why?) as well as that old chestnut, the strobing background.

My recommendation is to try expanding this into a real game; maybe something like Joust, but with smaller rockets, more suitable music and sound effects, menus, a scoreboard, and better graphics.

Sidorio responds:

DON'T STAND
DON'T STAND SO
DON'T STAND SO CLOSE TO ME

[VIY : To reach the dawn]

Major control problem

According to the instructions, the mouse is supposed to turn the player. In playing, the player character WOULD NOT TURN. At all. He stayed stubbornly flicking holy water off to the right, so the Flash is receiving mouse clicks.

I recommend taking this down and fixing this very serious bug and resubmitting.

Also, I couldn't hear any sound or music; I'd recommend selecting and incorporating that for a better score.

The graphics are to the point and reasonably nice, btw. Just fix the controls and add some sound, and you'll have a good variant on the turret shooter genre.