WarpZone's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Anti-TD]

So basically, just do what Xeno tactic does.

Namely, build the most uber unit you can afford. Then, once those units die, buy a million of the most uber unit in the game and spam them like crazy. I wish I could claim cool tactics like bouncing an attacker back and forth across a money power-up were important, but they're really not. Just start with a few turtles so you have staying power, and after they build up your money a bit, spam as many rocket cars of super jets as you want.

[Halloween Puzzle]

This game was more fun when it was about Atlantis.

I'm sorry, but I've already played this game before. And that was with simple, iconic shapes that were easier to identify in a hurry. I had to squint and try and distinguish the details between dozens of orange things and dozens of black things... it made matching more difficult. Not "more challenging." More difficult. As in, "It's difficult to play Jenga when some asshat keeps poking you in the arm with a stick." Then the game was over with inside of 5 rounds, and there was really no meta game to speak of, so really, what's the point of this game? Why should I play this game when I could be playing Rise of Atlantis? Just because it's seasonal? Insufficient. That's what Castlevania: SOTN is for. This game fulfills no niche in my soul not already better occupied by other games. :(

[MiLife: April]

Great game! :D

There are some issues here, but it works fine. I didn't like how sometimes you'd move forward, and there'd be a book monster off the edge of the screen, and by the time you realized he was there, it was already too late to either kill him or back up. That said, it was cool that you used three different types of monsters (which had to be shot different ways), and the boss was a nice touch. Good luck with your project. :D I hope you get an A!

[Boss Bash]

Sure brings back memories...

BTW, don't feel bad if you get your ass handed to you constantly. This is not the play control of the original games. The gameplay concepts are the same, but the execution is subtly different in a million ways. In a way, I guess that could be considered a good thing for all us old farts, it means we'll have the challenge of mastering these bastards all over again. :P

BoMToons responds:

Yeah, it's not an emulator, which is part of the charm I'd say. Good luck not smashing your controller in frustration.

[Super Chick Sisters]

Pretty good gameplay, for a PSA...

So, wait, let me get this straight... there's a new game on Newgrounds that combines Mario parodies, Pamella Anderson, AND Animal Cruelty? This is gonna go down in history as the highest scoring flash EVAR... oh, wait. No. Don't get excited, it's just a Peta ad.

That was my initial reaction when I realized that this game was sponsored by People for Extortion, Terror, and Arson. (And yes, I realize that after winning that Wiggi World contest, I'm the last person who should bitch about preachy morals lurking in my video games. I'm just not a big fan of PETA.) Thankfully, there's a game underneath the message, and it's halfway decent.

The implementation is extremely clean. At any given moment, you can jump on stuff, break stuff with your head, collect stuff, and stomp on stuff, and the controls do exactly what you expect them to do. The stage design is also good, although it feels a bit more sprawling and random than your typical Mario game, and there's only 2 types of bad guys, who seem to follow arbitrary hardcoded patrol paths instead of walking all the way to the edge of a platform. Often this means a spider-bot is lurking directly under some bricks, so it's a little tricky to time your jump to nail them. There's also a single decent boss.

I don't think I would classify this as "Suitible for everyone." There's blood all over the place, and graphic descriptions of animal mutilation. Either torturing animals is horrible, OR media about torturing animals is suitible for children. You can't have it both ways.

I actually liked the cutscenes. I thought they were pretty funny. They're pretty tame compared to the hundreds of violent Mario parodies already on Newgrounds, of course, but they were funny and well-done. Also, that sunset at the end was just plain cool. Playing as Pamella wasn't much fun. There was no major difference except for the graphics, and she was pretty awkwardly realized... her feet don't touch the ground correctly, and she just generally looks weird. Certianly nowhere near voluptuous.

Persoanlly, I don't eat at KFC if I can help it. Not for moral reasons, I just don't like their food. I usually go to Popeyes or a local ma & pop place to get my fried chicken fix. Putting aside my personal prejudice against Peta for their anti-human tactics, though, I question the usefulness of raising perfectly healthy chickens under opulent conditions in captivity, putting them to sleep with anesthesia or something and then killing them gracefully in their sleep. That's just a ridiculous ammount of effort to go through to ease the suffering of an animal that's raised as a food source and doesn't possess the mental faculties to comprehend its own mortality anyway.

Decent game, though. If this was your first forray into Flash, you did an excellent job. I'd like to see more games from you, but since you're not a gamer, I guess that's probably not very likely. Still, there was some decent entertainment value here.

Thanks for tha game. :)

FunkWaxPuppie responds:

You make a good point. This is probably best suited to 13+ :) Thanks for the detailed review!

[Cemetary 2]

I never thought I'd say this...

A defense game that makes it too easy to upgrade. I played for a few levels, bought the assault rifle, played a few more levels and bought the Minigun. By that point I was kinda sick of the same waves of zombies, and there was nothing bigger to buy, so I quit playing. It's a good, solid core for a defense game, but you need to mix it up a bit more.

Some suggestions:

-More different types of enemies.
Big slow zombies that take a lot of hits. Kamikazes that explode and do a lot of dammage if they get through. Dogs or other land units that run fast. Zombies with guns who fire if they get halfway across the parking lot, That sort of thing. Every now and then, a boss of some sort.

-Less predictable enemy behavior.
Birds could spawn at any height and drift upwards or downwards towards the shooter. The zombies could spawn a little higher or lower on the parking lot. (But note that you should implement z-sorting if you do this, otherwise it'll look odd.)

-Shorter days.
Each level feels a bit too long. Since we know the game has an unlimited number of levels, why not make each level shorter. 30 seconds to a minute is the magic number IMHO, but opinions will vary on this.

-Dusk-till-Dawn gameplay
Take a page out of The Last Stand's book, and make each level start with the setting of the sun, and end with a dazling sunset that turns the undead to dust for another day. It's established in most undead fiction that they're stronger at night, plus the mood just seems scarrier at night, and safer during the day. All the zombies dying at exactly midnight so you can take a 0 second shopping break makes no sense. Much better to assume the player ate, slept, and bought guns during the day. There's no need IMHO to worry about time of day during the day. A simple bright orange screen where you currently have the moon, and a nighttime sky during the middle of the level, would do the trick, I think.

-Better Music.
I'll admit the music sounds real tragic, but it's boring after a while. Cricket-chirping ambiance would work (if you make all the combat take place at night) but just searching the newgrounds portal for a more lively song could help, too. Go metal, go goth, or even just find a classical song that sounds more moody. This sounds too much like a recital, or a music box. You want music with some teeth to it.

(Of course, if you were using the music and daylight to make some kinda artistic statement, never mind. My suggestions assume there is no deeper meaning here, and you're just trying to make the most badass zombie-killing game possible.)

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I hope you keep working on this game. It's a pretty solid start, but it could be a lot better if you developed it further. :)

[Bloons Tower Defense]

The perfect cure for too much Xeno Tactic :)

It's probably not the be-all, end-all defense game, but it IS an excellent game that goes down very smoothly. You can catch your breath and build after every wave, each level passes quickly enough that you don't feel bogged down. Things never get impossible due to enemies having too many hit points.

I used clusters of tack towers in the corners, followed by a few peircing dart towers to take out anyone who got through. When the black balloons started showing up, I built a second group of tack towers, and that was pretty much enough to see me through until it was time to start building Super Monkeys. And of course, once I had one up, I could easily keep adding more. No need to upgrade their range, because their range wasn't an issue, just their stopping power.

Freeze/Bomb combos were never of interest to me, so I wasn't bothered by the white and black balloons. I think the strategic importance of them would be improved if there were some balloons that could only be destroyed using freeze or freeze/bomb combos, but you might need a bigger playfield for that. That's something to look into for a sequal.

Ultimately, what you've done here is use a fixed number of enemy types, whose charecteristics do not change between levels. That does a number of subtle things to the gameplay, or should I say it prevents a number of subtle problems that can arise in games like Xeno Tactic and Tower Turret Defense or Onslaught 2. It does make the game easier, but only because understanding the mob you see before you is simpler and more intuitive.

Less obfuscation = less confusion, = happier gamers. :) I'll admit there isn't much replay values, but this is a good, solid defense game, and like I said, it goes down very smoothly. Keep up the good work! :)

[Wiggis in Flight]

Actually addresses responsible internet use!

I really liked this one. :) The pop-ups are annoying and almost impossible to avoid, which makes them almost exactly like real pop-ups. I'm actually kinda surprised there weren't more "surf the internet while avoiding internet danger" games so far. I considered making a game like that, but I figured the biggest internet danger for kids was pedophiles, and I couldn't figure out how to do the "GAME OVER" screen. IMHO, this is a decent compromise.

The gameplay was good, though perhaps a bit simplistic. You took the two most iconic wiggi sprites, and put them to good use in a story. Each level is very short, but of course that's kinda what they were going for. Not bad!

gankro responds:

that's what I've been saying! Almost none of these games involve internet!