Phantosanucca's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Gorillaz Groove Session]

"Not bad..." [6.5/10]

Not bad... Some good recreations of the Gorillaz art, although it's clear they're movements are just tweens. Nice quality on the music, glad to see you didn't make a horribly compressed file of Feel Good Inc. The game itself isn't bad either, but you should've made it more obvious that you're supposed to press the buttons along with the DRUM beat. It wasn't very clear on that, and I ended up having trouble on my first try.

There's not a whole lot to the game, but it's nice that you added a high score system to it.

~Phantos

johnbell responds:

Actually none of the character's movements are tweens. It's all actionscripted so that the characters dance to the music. Thanks for your comments though.

[Dad 'n Me]

"The gameplay mechanics need more tuning" [6.5/10]

For my 300th archived review, I've decided to review Tom and Dan's latest project, Dad 'n Me. Now, I had before expressed my disconcern with the concept during it's Alpha stage. However, I go into this review without bias, as I feel it's only fair that everyone get a fair review, and I wouldn't be much of a reviewer if I didn't give everyone a fair shot. Regardless of how much I dislike the idea of what's being presented.

During the load-up, we're treated to some very nice button links to buy Alien Hominid. I already own AH myself, so it's just a pretty marketing ploy until the game loads up. At which point we're treated to more pretty logos and backgrounds and buttons. Which is nice, but that's the high point for the graphics here. As soon as the game begins, the visuals become much less flashy and detailed. They have a cartoony flair, not unlike something on Nickelodeon. I for one never thought of Synj to be all that great an artist anyway, but as an animator, which are almost 2 completely different things, Dan has always impressed me... Until now... It's not that I hate the visuals in this game, it's just that they're pretty much the same stuff we've seen time and time again. The same pseudo-square kids with the flat heads, dot eyes and lines for mouths walking around, except outfitted with afro's and t-shirts and junk to show that they represent specific members of the Newgrounds community. That's fine and all, but it's not that realy deserves a *high* score in the graphics category. Hell, most of the animation isn't as fluid as the Alien Hominid DEMO. I had this thing on low and medium, and both times, only when there's only 2 characters on screen, and when the backgrounds and foreground stop moving, will there be anything close to fluidity. Motion tweens were used a bit too much here as well. The backgrounds themselves are not horrible to look at, but Dan has made better looking games than this.

The nick-esque environments are a +1 in style, but that's as far as style goes for this game. And again, what is up with the concept to this game? "Kill Defenseless Children?" You know why Final Fight used street thugs and evil corporate business ninjas as enemies? Because there's more incentive to kill them than to kill a harmless child. Specifically that almost none of the kids in this game are even bothering you, let alone trying to harm you, while generic street thugs and ninjas are out to kill you in other sidescrollers. Self-Defense is the basis for 2-D sidescrollers, and when you lose that aspect, you lose all incentive to bring virtual harm to the characters onscreen. I know it's just supposed to be twisted and fun, but I don't even think it's either of those things. It's not all that violent, and it's not very exciting. Punching kids does get boring, and the pacing of the game is rather unbalanced.

That's not even the worst part of Dad 'n Me. I can tell you two went out of your way to make this a fun sidescroller game, and I can give you that much credit. You even tried to implement some combo system in there, but with only 2 buttons for attacks, and very little, almost randomly decided control over when and how you can combo the kids, it just seems like a broken system. In that sense, it feels like this game is not finished. Many times combos simply didn't work, and even punching sometimes failed for no clear reason, even if standing exactly perpendicular to your opponent. Was this game tested enough? I don't know, but the gameplay mechanics need more tuning.

The music fits the game nicely, and I like the sound effects too. Although the car sound effects were a bit too loud...

Don't get me wrong. I don't hate this game, per ce. I am a fan of Tom and Dan's work. I'm still playing AH to this day, and I don't regret that purchase. But this game in particular, has some pretty obvious flaws to it, that prevent it from reaching the same level of enjoyment as AH. I just think this game should've spent a little more time in development.

~Phantos

DanPaladin responds:

i'll address stuff.

the logos and ads are there because this file will be stolen and put on sites without our permission, so it's only fair to point people back to where we'd like to be showing our work from.

i'm sorry you don't like the animation but if you think my animating skills from several years ago is more fluid than my current skill, you're absolutely weird. maybe you're confusing something in there.

as far as flatheads go, you may just have to get used to it. artists have a thing called a "style". perhaps you've heard of it. Nobody told Monet to stop painting the way he did. Nobody told Dali that they can tell that a painting is his and that's bad. It's a GOOD thing, and I hope you smell a fart soon.

This is stand-up arcade violence and you're going to love it. Storyline Shmoryline.

Who the hell are you to say self-defense is the basis for 2D brawlers? You are a moron if you think that. 2D brawlers are not self defense. They are a tool in which you can slay hundreds of enemies and scream YEAHHHH EAT THAT. In DoubleDragon you might be saving a girl, but you're beating the living shit out of people by bashing your knee into their mouth over and over. Who do you think the cops would arrest first? The guy with the teeth marks in his knee or the 100000 people laying on the floor dead?

Anyway, better luck next time. I think you are over-analyzing.

[Megaman PX - Time Trial]

Patience is a virtue

I don't know why everyone else seems to be whining so much about this. "Is too hard!! WWAAAAHHHHHH-yur stupid omglol" "Da conrtols r 2 complicted for my small dino brain vote 0", and so on abound in the reviews here... Personally, I had my troubles at first, and was just as ready to pout and whine after not even a minute of gameplay because I didn't get the highest score as soon as I started playing. Which would then be followed by voting zero and leaving a review which would blame all of my inadequicies on a flash game.

But unlike most people here at Newgrounds, I had a thought.

"Why not play through it a little more than 5 SECONDS, so as to form a VALID opinion on this game?" And now I've got one of the high scores for the hardest level. ^_^

I mean, come on. You invested the time to MAKE this game, the least we should do is is invest some time to PLAY it. Right? The controls are pretty good, though the wall-jumping feature seemed a bit clumsy and unpredictable, though it does add a bit of rush to the whole thing...

Megaman X, overall, is alright. Though he skids a lot, and he's a bit slower than the other characters. Not a good mix. But, I managed. Zero is probably the best out of all of the choices. Fast and responsive. The recipe for success. His only drawback is that his weapon is short-ranged... But that's Capcom's fault, not yours. :P

Bass, however, due to his lack of a wall-climbing ability, is useless in all levels except the "hard" level, where his double-jump comes in real handy when jumping across pits. But I still used X to get through that stage, so maybe he's entirely useless altogether... Especially since he doesn't fit in with the Megaman X game setting, being a 20XX Wily Bot...

Though it has the common little... er... shortcomings, that most Megaman Flash re-enactments have, in terms of controls, and graphical thingeys, but it's not offensive to the eyes. The use of layering is really well done, hell, the levels are nicely arranged from bits and pieces of stages from Megaman X5(a good choice, considering there aren't any Burn Dinorex background sprites on the internet to my knowledge, so that must've been hard to arrange).

The music and sound effects are what you'd expect from a Megaman game. Blast, explode, die, explode, die, rinse and repeat.

Overall, I think this was very well-designed game. It's nice to see that it got itself some Front Page time. Good job. :)

-Phantos

Andrew-Traviss responds:

Thanks :-)

Yeah, I think people have gotten to used to Flash games being dirt simple little things that you master in 5 minutes. Truth be told, I expected the reactions I've gotten, there are a lot of short attention spans at NG, I've noticed.

Bass is actually incredibly useful once you learn how to use him (he is the hardest to use), but because his double jump allows him to move up much faster than wall clinging, he can be the most competitive.

It's nice that someone recognized all the effort that went into this. I had to use ePSXe and my copy of Megaman X5, ripping all the level tiles myself, there's over 400 of them in the game, it took forever.

[Mr Flacit's Word Search]

Nice job

TERRIFIC art, the programming is sufficient and very much working properly, and a heavier dose of challenge than expected. The only things I can think of that... well, irk me in any way are:

1. The word "Fans" doesn't count...

&

2. I think it may have been just a coincidence, but that guy looks EXACTLY like Dr. Wily from the Megaman Games, but with shorter hair, and more sanity. Like, BEFORE the games, and before he went insane and all that. Nothin' big, but you might wanna consider a bit of a design tweaking should you ever want to make money off of this character, and, you know, NOT get sued by Capcom. :P

Good job. :)

-Phantos

[Homestar Hunt 3]

The result of obssessive jealousy

I can barely find the words to describe just how aweful this game really is. This might be one of those most offensive games I've ever played. Not just in terms of theme, but in terms of actual gameplay itself. This game offers so little. All you can do, is run in one of 2 directions, and fire blindly into the air. This game is nothing more than a nearsighted ammunition wasting simulator. Except when people usually go around firing weapons, they're allowed to aim, and sometimes they can actually kill something.

The graphics leave much to be desired, the music tracks aren't anything special, and the only sound effect I am aware of is the gunshot.

The entire basis for this gameplay is the result of an egotistical amateur who, for some reason or another, harbours a jealousy for the Brothers Chaps for having success from a loveable and original character. And I seriously doubt that they actually approved of this game, for 2 very important reasons:

1. No one in their right mind, would approve of a slipshod flash game portraying their personal creation and symbol being shot to death.

and

2. You didn't actually give us any proof whatsoever that they actually DO aprove of this shameful display of coding. This IS a fan game, and a poorly made one at that. Any idiot can go to the Homestar website, and then play this game, and see that the two art styles are ENTIRELY different, in every way, except for the Homestar character which you simply copied without any proof of written or consentual permission.

This has amateur written all over it. The only difference between this and the work of an amateur, is that amateur's display a budding talent. This is just a waste of our time. The only reason it has the score it has is because you put up the illusion that it's a great game with lots of collectibles and violence.

Oh yeah, like THAT hasn't been done at Newgrounds before.

Learn to channel your obvious loathing of talented people's work into something productive. That way, we can avoid a Homestar Hunt 4, and all live happier lives because of it's abscence.

-Phantos

[Alloy: Arena]

It's lookin' good so far...

However, this is clearly an unfinished product. Certain things really need to be added, removed, or just tweaked before making a final... whatever kind of media you plan to make the finished product in...

The enemies, I take it, are meant to start off easy and then gradually get more challenging. As is evident in any well-made game. But considering how much damage you recieve from the punier attacks, and how quick-to-react they can sometimes be, it feels like you're starting at a medium level, then going to hard, then going up to needlessly hard. While this isn't a bad thing, it makes the whole flow of the game somewhat awkward. Simply taking off just a TINY BIT of the percent of damage you recieve from the rats, or even the first level Pitz would even things out. Since there's no visible difference besides the colour scheme between the 2 forms of rat people, then perhaps this can be the difference necessary to make these 2 different forms of enemy.

Or, you could just put in a small health powerfup after every "round" of enemies, and leave everything else as it is... But seriously, put health power-ups in for the final product.

Second, fighting different variants of dogs does get rather bland. Even though they are magnificently coded, and make each round of gameplay more unique and challenging than the last, I'm sure you can think up something more innovative than "blue dog, red dog, green dog". As I recall, there were more than just dog's on Noah's Ark, I'm sure there's room for some other crazy critters in here as well. Of course, you already knew that, and, most likely have already put an entire zoo into this mysterious finished product, but since this is an incomplete, so to speak, flash I am judging, you can forgive me for having an incomplete view for now.

The sound is sort of offputting. There aren't that many discernable sound effects(at least that I can remember, of course that says it all right there), and the music doesn't seem to fit the overall mood of the game. Something with a little more rock, or industrial sound to it may be a more fitting soundtrack for a game like this.

However, those imperfections have failed to keep the addiction of this game from being overlooked. I'm hooked to this game, as is evident in the High Scores at the PsychoGoldfish site. And not only is it fun to play, but it's nice on the eyes too. Although in a perfect world, it would probably have one or two more frames for each character's actions, as it is, it's still very professionally animated. The background is immensly detailed, and the movements work just fine for this product. Although the framerate does come into play on more than one occassion, at least it gives a bit of a slow-mo effect... I just wish it were a smoother slow-mo effect... My only other complaint in this field, is that Alloy looks like he has boobs... I dunno about you, but maybe he should get some different armour, 'cause that is definitely a breast-plate he's got goin' on there... :/

Well, I await whatever final design for this game you have in store for us. Until then, I'm gonna try my damndest to get past 7th place...

-Phantos

PsychoGoldfish responds:

Thanks for the suggestions.. these really help, and we're taking notes on how to improve the final version..

[Megaman vs Ghosts&Goblins]

Finally, a sequel better than the original. :D

I'm simply amazed at this game. People will think "Eh, he just put Megaman in Ghosts 'n' Goblins'", but they probably don't have the brain capacity to imagine how much blood, sweat and coding went into this terrific video game collaboration.

The controls work like a charm, perfectly recreating the feel of playing as the little NES Blue Bomber in unfamiliar territory. I'm especially thankful you added health power-ups to a Ghosts 'n' Goblins re-make. Although it would have been funny to get hit as Megaman and have his armour fall off, in classic G'n'G style. Kinda like with Arthur (I can see why you despise him so), but frankly if I had to play this without getting hit twice, I'd probably curse your name 'til the day you die... So, yeah, thanks for the health bar as well, too.

As for sound, the SFX are as good as they get considering it's re-enacting an NES game, but the music choice is a LOT better this time than it was in Megaman vs. Metroid. DJPretzel's supremely awesome "psychounderpants" OC 'mix was such a great choice for the level music. Not only is it a kickin' song, but it totally fits the feel of a futuristic character entering a scary environment. And kudos to switching to Gux's Boss Music mix as well, for the incredibly easy fight against Arthur(who, yes, is having a seizure throughout the entire battle, fortunately, away from you).

This is such an improvement over your last game, it's not even funny. The mechanics are pulled off incredibly well, and the game itself is both very challenging AND very fun. Something that's rare in games both online and off, these days...

I don't know how you managed to transfer game progress from one flash file to another, in lieu of weapons recieved from end bosses. But it just amazes me that you found a way to do it. It offers a level of replayability that is almost unheard of in Flash games.

I'm glad that Megaman vs. Metroid wasn't your first and last entry into the flash community. We were all afraid you had just abandoned us, so it's nice to see that you're still committed(at least to the extent that you willingly made a sequel), to providing entertainment to us through flash. You've got a talent many of us(including my envious self) would give up a body part or organ to have.

I hope you continue to make games through flash, but if not, at least you gave us this to play with for a while. :)

-Phantos

PS: Thanks a lot Silverhawk. Try to keep spoilers to a minimum next time. ;)

[Extreme Mini Golf]

49, C

I think I remember playing an older version of this game before. It's challenging, it's addicting, it's easy on the eyes, and it's a nice stress-reliever. I enjoyed it very much so. Good job. :)

-Phantos

[Megaman X Next - The Game]

Good job

The most obvious factor to why everyone seems to be voting 0 and giving terrible reviews for this game is due to the majority of this site's disability to differenciate good and bad. Right and wrong. I don't know why anyone bothers submitting ANYTHING to this site. I don't know why Tom and company bother updating this site, when the only people who will see it are children either too young, or just plain too damned stupid to judge a flash movie or game.

This site is the largest Flash Community only because all of the Spammers and Flamers banned from other sites huddle together here. Only 5% of the public will even be able to UNDERSTAND right from wrong, let alone be able to write a valid review for this terrific game. Only 5% will understand what a coding nightmare it is to program a really good flash movie. And not all of them will give a particularily good review either.

The Morale Of The Story?

You should have uploaded this at Flashplayer.com, where people have the intelligence and the logic to appreciate something as fine as this. You'll just be lynched by the outcast sinners here. This is literally Hell on the Internet.

Oh well... I'm sure the folks at Bob and George can see this for what it is. And I'm sure they're all givin' you a pat on the back for it. It's well deserved too. :)

-Phantos

maelstormm responds:

- Personally I love the 'less than' favorable reviewers here. It provides endless entertainment for me ^_^ I don't come here to get legit feedback since I know I'm not going to get much of it. Heck, most people can't even fathom the logic of using 8bit graphics for a project as big as this.
- The BnG forum has given some feedback, less than I anticipated but some.

Thanks for suggesting the Flashplayer.com site and the comments ^_^

[Mario World: Overrun]

Terrific.

I can't recall a time when such an addictive, entertaining and challenging game was designed in flash.

The graphics, although somewhat askew from having to resize the sprites, I think fit nicely for the situation. Although I would have liked to have seen more enemy sprites from Mario All Stars, because they're just so much cleaner and more detailed. Also, the menu screens are nicely animated as well.

The controls are hard to figure out at first, and even harder to master, but it all works, and it all works well. That's what matters when it comes to controls. The only gripe I can find is making the "P" key as the pause button. I would go with the "Enter/Return" key, but that's just me.

I like the different music files from different games, however, I find the sound effect for the guns are just a WEE BIT too loud. I'm a nitpicker, so these things are sort of a pet peeve to me, but overall the sound is worthy.

There's a very well determined variety in the enemies, and that's good. But one thing I would have liked to have seen are Bosses. Like, maybe after 4 or 5 levels, you have to fight a giant goomba, koopa, bob-omb, and Bowser could be the final boss.

All in all, this is one of the best-designed games I've ever seen made in flash. True talent and effort oozes from every aspect of this game.

-Phantos