WarpZone's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Bunny Hop]

Cool concept, poor execution. This is the kind of game the developer thinks is finely balanced because they find it challenging, but they don't realize they're just unrealistically good at playing it after playtesting it for a month straight.

If you could make the smallest possible hop a LOT shorter, while keeping the overall arc of the jump the same, it would be a lot better. Just use a different calculation the first couple frames the button is held down. If Super Mario Bros could do it in 1983, you can do it in 2020.

gamehoundgames responds:

Thanks for trying my game.

The hop length is as short as it is by design and is not a "technical limitation".

> ...because they find it challenging, but they don't realize they're just unrealistically good...

Thank You! I appreciate the compliment that my game gave the impression of multiple developers. Bunny Hop was created by one person (myself).

[every wall]

Every Wall. I'm glad it's free
because it just was not for me

It has gameplay, as you'll see later
it's no Walking Simulator

The story's kinda hit or miss
Not sure if aesop, or plot twist

When it cried out with despair,
I expected "walk on air!"

But instead of something bold,
it's just about getting old

Dry and somber with no humor
"My game is art!" "OK, Boomer."

But if you found these couplets vexing,
please pardon my crass Gen-X-ing

But I will say one kind thing
Meter's catchy; nice rhyming

If that's not good enough, sorry
It's no Blind Forest & Ori.

StuffedWombat responds:

I want to thank you, thank you kindly
because your careful words remind me:

making games is pretty hard
and every fucking game is art

if you compare game with game
I will gladly do the same

But not with games, or paintings layers,
No, I will compare the players

You are poetic and not wrong
But i prefer the feedback of Kadronk

They wrote their feedback hours sooner
and they did not call me boomer

They also did not make a rhyme
about whats free and worth your time

you still possess a saving trait
because you spent effort, to create

[Shattered Colony]

Only thing shattered is my immersion. The game worked fine until so-called Endless mode. Then it started saying I had negative numbers of survivors, so I couldn't tell what my actual numbers were. About 5 depots into the Endless map, suddenly everything sped up to insane speeds for no apparent reason. I'm not sure if this was a programming bug or a UI failure (as in there's some sort of non-obvious 3x speed control I toggled without knowing it,) but either way, it's a complete deal-breaker.

Update: Also, zombies just randomly appear in the middle of green areas for no reason. You know what? From now on, I'm deducting another half star every time I find a bug. This is just ridiculous.

[Duane Crashers]

An absolutely brilliant mashup between belt-scroll game and twinstick shooter! Choose your Duane, and Duane it up through several office buildings! (Protip: Ivy wins Best Duane!)

Jack responds:

My personal favorite is Wendy but we can agree to disagree

[Boomer Retrograde]

Retro games came out in the 80s. Baby boomers were already in their 20s by then. And while you might think of that as a reasonable age for a gamer to be, back in the 1980s, ONLY KIDS PLAYED GAMES.

If you're gonna mock an entire generation, at least google it first and do like one subtraction problem.

Sincerely,
Generation X
(We complain about everything.)

[everything else]

Slick presentation for how low-fi everything is, especially the opening. Unfortunately I ran into a problem at the end of the first level as I could no longer tell the difference between winning and losing.

It would always LOOK like I was killing the last enemy while holding space, but no matter how many times I did that, it would always make a noise and say "too slow" and zoom the camera out without me being sure if the enemy actually shot anything at me or not. There's a point where the whole "Hotline Miami" thing gets too intense and expressive and wraps back around to boring again, and that point lies where, between the minimalism, the camera shake, and the abstract nature of the objects in the game world, the player can no longer tell what's going on.

Literally style over substance. Which hurts me to say, because I can *feel* how solid the controls are. Maybe I'm just getting old and there's some kinda really cool killing blow animation the enemy is doing with an obvious way to respond that I'm just not registering.

Judging by the other reviews, apparently most people found the game playable. So I'm probably wrong, here. But I can only review the gameplay experience I had. It keeps doing the same thing over and over again after I shoot the second enemy in the first level, and I have no idea what that thing is.

Sorry, StuffedWombat.

StuffedWombat responds:

hey thanks for those precise thoughts!

the thing with "space to be faster" is a communication mistake on my part!
pressing space actually only restarts the level and has no impact on gameplay whatsoever!

to end a level you need to go to the place where you spawned after killing all enemies.

I will try to rework that text and am sorry that it caused confusion!

cheers and thanks again for taking the time to write this,
josh

[Helicopter Shooter]

A simple, no-frills side-scrolling shmup that feels like something out of those "How to Program AS2" books from the 90s. Technically playable. Nothing special.

The most amazing thing games7510 ever scripted was whatever botnet attack got this thing featured. (I'm KIDDING, obviously. It might have been a social engineering attack.)

[Escape Pong!]

An interesting experimental game that delivers on the concept expressed in the thumbnail. The tense music does a great job of keeping the story from becoming too cheesy, and the ball-manipulation action only becomes more intricate as the levels pass. Every time you think you have it figured out, the devs throw a new challenge or limitation in your path. A great example of minimalist storytelling done right, right up there with Thomas Was Alone.