Plasmarift's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pluzzed Souls Demo]

The game could be good, but it is suffering in a few different ways, the worst being the waiting.
- Having to wait five seconds every time to respawn gets old really quickly. Although the wait isn't long, the time adds up because of a number of factors. For one, many things in the game can kill you in one hit, you can't see too far ahead to see enemies coming, and the shadow characters move about randomly and are impossible to predict with certainty. Both of these will cause the player to die a lot so why do you make the player wait five seconds before letting them replay the level? It should be near instantaneous. I know you are trying to pay homage to Dark Souls, like how it takes a little while for it to reload, but just because it has a long waiting time for restarting, doesn't mean your game should (and it shouldn't for good reason since, in Dark Souls, a player can go a long time before getting killed so the reloading won't bother them and deaths in Dark Souls are often times deserved because of a lack of skill and such. This isn't the case with your game for the most part.) You either need to cut down on the death or cut down on the reset time.
- The game seems to move at a sluggish pace. Pushing blocks and attacking blobs could be done faster.
- There is less puzzle so far and more luck as the most difficult part is navigating through enemies.
- There is no explanation of the controls in the game or in the description (and just pressing buttons randomly doesn't always work since some games have functions that don't work unless you are near a specific object or you reach a specific point in the game. For instance, what is the shield for next to the sword in the menu bar (where the health is)? Can I defend against attacks with it?

I stopped at the level that introduced the blobs. I know I have to get the extra health, but it's too annoying trying to get passed the shadow creatures as they can box you in if you go for the switch.

There are so many things that can be added to improve the game, such as having torches you can light that unlock doors, but lock others, or using your shield to refract light to activate something, or killing an enemy and pushing its corpse onto a switch to hold it down. I could help you come up with more ideas if you'd like the help. I wish you luck in creating your game.

DragonHeadStudio responds:

Thank you so much for the review, we will improve so much to final version and a lot of content are comming! Please try our windows version in HD! The link are in game menu! Thank you so much for playing and reviewing!

[Tap To The Future]

The game is interesting, but can you please add spacebar to the control option? I can't seem to click fast enough. The biggest number I got up to was 840. I don't know how the others are doing it (well, I know one of the commenters cheated since he said so, but that's beside the point).

Good luck on your future game projects.

AvixGames responds:

Added SPACEBAR! And it is possible to travel! not an ease challenge though.... Thanks for your feedback! :)

[Can You Escape Fate? An Escape the Room Game Inspired by Undertale]

Honestly, I don't think the game was as fun as the last zodiac game.
- The battles were pretty easy and replaying the game was torture because there was no way to skip long, lengthy text parts (I had to keep waiting for the enemies to get everything off their chest before the battle could end). After the fifth time of beating game, trying to find other endings, I can't take it anymore. Sometimes, I come back to games I played years ago to re-experience them, but I can't come back to this one. There's just too much waiting and I see so many opportunities to skip ahead without losing anything, but time. Even the enemies in the lab were a pain in the butt because you had to wait for them to disappear and they posed no threat of you losing unless you went out of your way to lose.
- There were no secrets that I could find (it also didn't help that it kept asking me if I wanted a hint). A big part of escape games is exploration and experimentation and, with that offer popping up every time I tried something that the game didn't like, it seems to deter players from doing these things.
- I didn't find any secret battles or items and only found three optional battles in the entire game and that was with the cat, the pink girl, and the karaoke machine, all of which don't seem to affect the endings (I thought by avoiding giving the bear to the pink girl, I could get a different ending, but I was wrong). The liked the first game with the sheep because it had more of a escape the room type of feel because it actually felt like you were exploring a room and needed to use your wits and the items around you to solve the puzzles.
- The story certainly wasn't as frightening as the sheep one, but it was greatly expanded and had more enemies and scenes. Still, it seemed strange that the monkey did an almost 180 degree turn near the end where it is mad at you and wants to bring Jax back and, with one phrase (something along the lines of "he appreciated what you did for him"), he likes you and is happy.
- I can only find four endings: A New Life, Lost Forever, A Soul Crushed, and Who Am I. I've searched up and down for the last two endings and have been killed by every single enemy in the game in an attempt to unlock the endings, but I haven't found them. Are the other endings in the Arcade mode? Is there something I'm missing? The only thing I haven't done is try to use the bear on the hoop machine in the game room and like I said, I can't play this game again unless I know there's going to be something new to encounter because I can't go through the same battle another time.

Bugs:
- I think someone else mentioned it, but there are strange pauses in the game, such as for Clawrus Jr when he goes to say what the Jr stands for. I use Chrome so I don't know if that has anything to do with it.
- As I was clicking through the text quickly a few times, I noticed the game started spelling out scrambled words. If you let them spell out, sometimes, the real dialogue will start printing. The two times this has happened has been for the pink girl stopping you from dying and the dialogue just before a game over screen.

Still, I hope to see more from you in the future. It seems a lot of others really like the game so my opinion is the minority here.

If you would like help with testing, voicing acting, or advice for games, let me know. I have some experience in each category. Good luck on your future projects.

chibixi responds:

Thanks for the thoughtful response! I definitely agree with a lot of the points you brought up. I do think that in the future it'd be useful to have some sort of skip button to make the waiting segments a lot shorter for those that have already read them before. The secrets are the optional battles! You do get a different ending with the pink girl but it only happens if you die in the main story (spoiler). The two other endings are in the arcade mode, you are right! Thanks for mentioning the bugs! I'll do my best to fix them in a future version and I'll definitely let you know if I need help. I really liked reading your review and I know that I have a lot of room to improve! I really appreciate that you took the time to play so much of my game :)

[Ohm]

It is a pretty interesting game, but I ran into a potential problem. As the enemy numbers start increasing, there is a chance that they can pin you against the side of a platform, preventing you from getting away from them and causing you to continuously take damage. I was eventually able to escape, but this cost me time and the enemies were able to get closer to the guy I was protecting.

There is also the problem of positioning yourself to attack the enemies. You need to be parallel with them in order to attack, but the problem is if there is a giant group of enemies on one side with almost no room for me to fit in-between them, how am I supposed to attack? It would be easier if you made it so the player can pass through the great master to attack.

Still, it is an interesting game and I enjoyed playing it until I encountered the problems I mentioned. The art is good, the music is relaxing, and killing the enemies was satisfying. I look forward to your next creation. Good luck.

HoytHoyGames responds:

This way it is possible to clean the areas full of enemies without being in much risk.
Pass through the great master, we think that would make the game much easier... maybe, looking now, would be a nice solution

[Minute of Rage]

It really wasn't that rage inducing for me, but it was challenging and a little frustrating (maybe if I was listening to the music, I would find it more frustrating and frantic). I managed to beat it, though I have some concerns/questions/comments:
- Is the rapture medal the one you get when you beat it? Because I didn't receive it. Or do you receive it from reaching 60 seconds in Endless mode? Also, I unlocked all the clothes and didn't get the other medal either (I figured it was for the clothes since the name of the medal means custom fitting clothes.
- It seems like there are some instances that are impossible to avoid death, like when three floor tiles disappear from below you, there is an eye shooting lasers on the left and a ball of energy moving toward you from the right that you'll jump into if you try to avoid death. Still, I found strategy in this game. I typed some of it out here for other players and for you (because if you planned this out, you are smart:
- After the spikes come up, you can walk over them. You just can't jump on them or be standing there when they first arrive. (I didn't figure this out until after I beat the game)
- The spikes take longer to come up than the floor tiles do to disappear, meaning you can move over the soon-to-be spike areas to avoid falling in the pit.
- The tiles only disappear for about three seconds so if you time it right you can dodge something by jumping to where the tiles will reappear (sometimes, they are timed just right).
- There is also the slight chance that on the tile with the eye monster shooting lasers that you can stand on the edge of it and not get injured (I used this to avoid certain once though it is tough).
- For the statues that shoot energy balls, there is a charging function on that that will alert you that they are about to shoot so it shouldn't take you by surprise.

I liked the art, the music was intense, and it was a very good challenge. Very good job on the game. I look forward to your future work and hope you do great in the competition.

Wolod responds:

That's a very detailed review. Thanks for the feedback!
Rapture medal is unlocked for beating the game. Game checks your medal status every time you run it. So they have to unlock eventually. Keep in mind that Adblock (if you use one on Newgrounds) may interrupt medal unlocking.
I have one more tip: I personally love to stand on the border of two blocks. If one of them disappears or if eye monster shoots laser you won't get hurt.

[Dream Eater]

The story is very interesting and the game does definitely place tension and fear on the shoulders of the player, but other than that, the game feels more annoying and a tiny bit empty than scary and this is why:
- The shadow chasing you in the treehouse is indeed scary, but only because it can suddenly appear in front of you when it is chasing you in some instances. Other than that, it becomes more of an obstacle as when you first enter one of the two main rooms, you are essentially backed into a corner and I've been stuck in loops of running from the door to get to the rooms with the clocks, only to be chased back to the original and having to start all over again. I'm still not sure how I managed to get out of these loops other than going into the opposite room and messing around in the hopes that it would stop the loop, such as letting the shadow chase me to the door. (if sneaking and walking is required in any way, I don't see how because it didn't work to stop the shadow from finding me so I don't know why sneaking was included in the game). This shadow mechanic alone makes me not want to play this game again, ever. There needs to be a way to hide from the shadow or protect yourself from it that doesn't involve having to backtrack multiple times until the randomizer for the shadow appearing cuts you a break.
- Repetition. It can certainly had something to a game, especially when the game is horror themed, like helping to drive in a point or making a person feel helpless, but with the problems I described above, the realization that I would not only have to do this again, but have to travel to one of the clock rooms an additional time. Even then, there is no need for everything to be exactly the same. You could have added new visuals in the treehouse section, perhaps had the shelves become dusty and unkept, have more blood splatter after every visit. Repetition alone will drive away player, but when other things are added, it can be impactful and well done.
- The number of inter-actable items is limited. It would have been nice for there to be more to the game than just walking and running around, such as examining the pictures and items in the house, exploring optional doors, solving some small puzzles or experiencing these weird events (these were dreams we were playing through yet they were very much grounded in reality). You could have had spiked pits that came out of nowhere that would force the player to time their progression.
- Lag starts to become a huge issue later on in the game. You say to use Chrome if we are experiencing issues with lag in the treehouse. I was originally using Chrome and the game basically became unplayable onceI reached the treehouse. After that, I switched to Safari yet still had trouble with lag (what is this highscore or scoreboard thing you are referring to in the description).
- I'd highly suggest putting the "probable photosensitive epilepsy" first in everything. I don't get epilepsy, but these flashing lights bothered my eyes.

Still, this is all very promising and I still found the narrative to be interesting enough to push me through the annoyance (though just barely). I wish you luck in your future in game development!

Cagmaster responds:

Excellent and complete review. Thanks a lot!

[Virtual Dungeon]

It's kind of boring, though not because of the education. I felt like the questions were too easy, especially when some of the answers are obviously wrong because they wouldn't make sense. Other problems I had:
- I wasn't able to beat the final boss because once he got down to his last peg of health, he wouldn't die no matter how many times I hit him.
- The movement is too slow, especially for a game that incorporates a maze aspect. It's very annoying to be following a path and find out it's a dead end. Having a run button wouldn't be a bad thing.

Having to wait for the enemy to be vulnerable at a certain time and having a limit on how many times you can use a certain ability is pretty cool, as it prioritizes timing over button-mashing. I wish you luck in your future game making endeavors and let me know if you need any helping with level design, testing, or voice acting.

terlx9 responds:

Yes this game is really buggy indeed, will be making it a lot better in the next version!

Thank you so much for your response and your well wishes! Greatly appreciated. :-)

[The Resurrection of Cthulhu]

I played the game, but I'm having trouble. I followed your instruction, but:
- Where is the big monster I'm supposed to give the ash to? I had gotten the four tentacles up to that point. I put the ash on the black hole on the far right and it feel in. (also, the ward disappeared after I found the one in the dark).
- I put the poop on the seaweed and made it bigger, but I couldn't go up? How am I supposed to do that? I tried clicking on the seaweed and moving the AWSD keys.

A lot of this is not intuitive, like the bottle of water. You're in water, so how could you start a fire underwater to burn a box? Why wouldn't the ocean put the fire out? And why does putting the box out when it is on fire result in a pile of ash? If anything, it should just lead to a burnt box. How would I know to use the rock again after damaging the wall once, considering it doesn't make a sound the second time to indicate I'm getting anywhere? Why can't I continuously hold down the ward when searching in the dark?

I give you four stars because despite the low graphic quality, it could be a fun puzzle. It's just hampered down with a lot of "why" and "how". Also, it doesn't help that it takes a few seconds each time to pick an object up. It makes me almost not want to pick things up.

Still, I wish you luck in your game design. I think this is a great first step for you and that you can make some awesome stuff.

tcmxx responds:

Thanks for playing!

- go further right to the darkness and go down to see the monster.
-You are supposed to go up by w key. The controls are terrible because not enough time to polish, but at some position you should be able to go up.
-The water thing is creepy..the whole story is designed to be nonsense..

Thanks for the four start! Since it is a Game Jam game created in 2 days, I am not satisfied with it at all.but currently we don't have plan to continue with it..sorry for that!

Thanks for playing!

[P: The irritating miniscule game]

It's interesting, but short and the jumping is very slippy and somehow almost glitchy (I swear when I jump, I sometimes teleport a little). I definitely wouldn't mind seeing this game expanded upon, like by adding enemies or starting the game out large, but then reducing it to this size as you continue.

The game doe not work in Google Chrome though.

I wish you luck in your future of game design.

[Pixel Zombie Shooter]

It looks interesting, but whenever I pause the game and unpause it, I can't shoot the gun anymore. Also, you don't explain the controls or how to upgrade your weapons and character (the player can play around with the controls, but they don't have a lot of time to considering there are endless waves of zombies heading their way. I only found out that you can fix the bike by pressing S or the down arrow by messing around near it.

Please list the controls in the description when you get the time.

FidelumGames responds:

Hey, thanks for the review! Sorry about the controls--huge oversight on my part. They're in the description now along with a few strategy tips.

Also, I can't reproduce the "can't shoot" bug you mentioned. If this actually exists, it's a huge issue. However, I can't seem to replicate it. Is it possible that you were just out of ammo? Can you let me know if it happens again? If so, what kind of machine/browser are you using, and how did you make it happen?

Thanks!