CheckeredZebra's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Interactive Buddy 2]

Where are the happy/positive interactions?
I don't want to play just another torture game. I don't mind having a Demo in this one case (because you could get a lot of fun from this)

I don't want to feel as if I'm punching my pet dog. If there are "happy" interactions in the full version, you made a bad choice by not including them in the demo. =X

Played this for 3 minutes, felt bad about punching the buddy, then stopped. Being nice to him was what made me like the first one so much. Without that option, it's just a fancy version of a torture games, and god are those things depraved and overdone.

[Sole Gunner]

I actually don't have a problem with the interesting control scheme. What the issue comes down to is balance.

It's not hard in a -fair- way. You simply cannot dodge most of the stuff coming at you. There are large hit detection boxes, and just when you figure out a pattern some other random thing is scripted to fly at you automatically.

Seriously, the jumping fish on level one are a great example. You wait for one to jump, then shoot it down. Then, after waiting by the side to make sure another won't pop up, you jump...ONLY TO HAVE A FISH AUTOMATICALLY JUMP RIGHT WHEN YOU DO. If the jumping mechanism was more complex and you had a fair chance of dodging this sort of stuff, it would be okay. Kind of fun, even. But you can't, which sucks the fairness (and enjoyment) out of the game. =(

[Knightmare Tower]

This is a very nice game, but who did the music? There's no mention of it anywhere, and unless you're a very talented individual, you're leaving hours worth of work simply uncredited.
=/

Otherwise, a very fun spin on a familiar concept. The gameplay is right on and there's a lot of humor throughout =)

[Slimevolution]

Unforgiving, unchanging, and what's with the music? I don't want to bash your labor of 2 day love because I couldn't do better, but...This could have been better.
1. Visual changes as the slime evolved (Getting bigger, changing color, etc)
2. Changes in food (eventually getting big enough to eat the bats/alligators would've been cool. Or, if you CAN do that in the game, I didn't get far enough into it. x.x)

Just those two things would've made this a ton better. I know making the slime LOOK different when it evolved/leveled up/whatever wouldn't have been too hard. I could understand if you didn't have time for the second one, but it seems like some basic features were really left out of this one.

[Stable Boy]

I was gonna give this a 5/5, but there are literally a few (arguably 2) things that make the game unfinishable.

1. Choosing the Bow over the Pole leads to missing out on a ton of the game. Should just remove the bow guy until the player has chosen the pole. It is UNFAIR and simply bad game design to punish people that harshly over a "left or right" choice.

2. Shooting the horse and making it dead makes the player restart the whole game to see what happens if you don't. This one is easily fixed by allowing the player to resume from capturing the horse. Shouldn't be hard.

But alas, those are some serious design flaws! In any other game, gaping holes like this would've made them go from a 5/5 to a 2/5. So why a 4/5? well...The game is easy to replay from the start, and the game itself is very entertaining. You keep wanting to play through and try "off the path" choices to find everything. Sadly, the game also punishes you for that while also encouraging it. =(

4/5.

LonLonRanch responds:

Hey brudda, I appreciate you taking the time to give me some useful criticism. Yes, I agree that there are parts of the game that could easily be considered unfair and here is what I was thinking when designing these features:

*Rewarding patient and thoughtful players*

1. There is a tablet very close to the water that suggets you will at some point have the option between choosing a Fishing Pole or a Bow and Arrow, how many people read this tablet? I would assume most. I put this tablet there specifically to make people think about it and potentially hint that the decision isn't as obvious as you may guess. Players who have taken the time to explore the game and take risks are therefore rewarded. Does it make sense? Not really, but what in this game does?

2. Actions have consequences. I would assume it's a natural instinct to shoot something when you see it during gameplay, and I want to reward players who are more conscious of their actions, it's as simple as that.

You do have a good point that the worst part of all of this is that I don't let players take back these decisions unless they restart the game, and I admit that is a functionality which would improve the game. At the same time I think these flaws help give Stable Boy the personality it has. I never set out to make a perfect game, just a personal one :D

Thanks for the review and your vote, I really appreciate it!

[Personal Trip to the Moon]

Normally I like these, but I've seen this exact same concept before. (Google "Inside a Dead Skyscraper game" to find it). Once that novelty was over, the game wasn't that interesting aside from finding all the pieces. I wish you had more locations with meaning to visit, because that was the coolest and most touching part of the whole game to me. I feel like the previous game I mentioned had more impact on me, however, but it was shorter. (The feeling of WEE flight! was more well done in it as well.)

I also felt the ending was too long-winded. It was nice poetry, but I wish I could just use spacebar to read through it. I can read faster than that, and I know that at some parts you had to time it with the video, but other times it would've worked fine. I actually found myself browsing through other tabs waiting for a line to fade away.

Overall if you'd have fleshed this out more and made it more gratifying to fly/more things to discover (exploration was not rewarded, in fact the slow flight time made it a pain) I'd have not cared that this concept was done before. However, it wasn't really improved enough for me to think this above average. I'm sorry. =(

Although, I encourage you to do more stuff, because this was still a good distraction, it just needed more to it. =)

[The Sagittarian 4: Berger]

It's still a really good series, but I really didn't like how there was only one ending. I'd prefer it if you just picked one and went from there, like you did this time ;P
Thus, instead of the 5 you usually get, you had a lot of points knocked off for what is an ESSENTIAL part of Choose Your Own Adventure games. The whole -point- of these games is for your choices to make a difference. When they don't affect the outcome, the game becomes pointless.

[Dead Pixel]

2 stars for being kinda fun, but I mean the art is basic, the concept basic...I don't want to discourage people, but I mean, why is this on front page? Newgrounds has RPGs people have spent hours making and groundbreaking, meaningful games that redefine the flash genre. Yet, this is what makes it on front page: a point and click game with little to no gameplay (removing any addictiveness you get from action games) puzzle-solving, (you squint your eyes a lot) or story. C'mon, newgrounds...

On a whole though it was kinda fun but hurt my eyes, so there is something to this. You made what I thought would be a terrible idea into something slightly entertaining, so good thing on that =D
But, it's just too basic for the amount of hype it's been given. If this is something you're new at, though, this isn't half bad. Keep up the good work! =) I can see you improving and making good things later on in your voyage into flashmaking.

[Hungry Gamers]

At first I was like "ZOMG D: laaame april fools."
but then, I tried to actually get all the medals; suddenly, the game became extremely funny.

So far, I've done everything but kill glitter. Not sure how on earth you're supposed to do that, if it's even possible.