Plasmarift's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Madness: Fueled By Hotdogs]

The game was short yet I enjoyed the first person action. However, I feel like there are a few problems and missed opportunities:
- On the last and second to last (mostly the last) level, sometimes enemies that come out of the doors start spinning in circles and basically don't really attack.
- The idea of running around and scarfing down hotdogs while fighting off enemies is appealing. However, it doesn't really work out that way because in order to pick up a hotdog, you need to drop one of your weapons (if you're holding two) and, when you're in a rush, you can end up picking back up the weapon you dropped or an enemy could end up picking up your weapon in the mean time. It probably would have been better if you couldn't store them and could simply pick up a hotdog and eat it while still holding your weapon (with a few seconds of vulnerability between eating it and getting the effect to build tension). That way, when the effect runs out or your health is low, you could swing by the hotdog stand for another.
- Trying to pick up weapons in this game is a pain for a multitude of reasons. You need to be looking at it in order to pick it up, which means you're looking away from the action. Plus, you could end up picking up a gun you already used up (maybe it'd been better if those guns just disappeared after throwing them). Also, when the enemies are piled up, their weapons are as well, making it even more difficult to pick up a specific weapon during a fight.
- I'd have liked it if I could throw the weapon immediately after it runs out of ammo instead of waiting a moment for the character to realize that the gun is out of ammo. It would lend itself to much more fast paced action (it'd also seem fair considering the enemy never runs out of ammo and would keep shooting you while you realize you're out).
- The dive mechanic, while interesting, doesn't really help much. Since it launches you forward haphazardly, you could end up launching yourself passed enemies, putting your back to them and leaving you vulnerable. As a platforming ability, I could only think of one segment of the game where it was useful to jump across a gap, but there was no point to it (except maybe to sneak up on the first enemies of the level perhaps). Plus, it feels clunky to pull off in general, which makes it even more awkward to pull off in combat. While you are invulnerable while using it, it also uses up tac and you can't effectively attack someone while using it due to how fast you'll be moving. It'd been cool if you could dive into enemies to knock them down.
- Speaking of the diving mechanic, as well as the vents, it'd been interesting to see them more integrated into the gameplay, like maybe a level where you sneak up behind people using a vent to kill them (there was one level where you could use a vent, but it just dropped you in front of the enemies I think) or using the dive to jump across a gap to sneak up on enemies (though I think with the level I mentioned before, that was the intent, correct?).
- The aim in the game seems off for some reason though I don't know why. I could have my gun pointed straight at a stationary enemy and somehow miss while other times, it seems to work great. Sometimes, I found using the gun sight didn't actually help much.
- It's pretty easy for enemies to sneak up on you with the player only realizing this once their attacked or dead (I know it's the nature of 3D games and the game being 3D also contributes to a few of the problems I already mentioned). Part of this is due to the fact that enemies make no noise when moving. The only indication that more enemies are coming is the opening and closing doors, which is greatly appreciated. It'd be cool if there was a peripheral vision feature where if an enemy is on your right or left, there's a red glow on the right or left (the closer they are, the brighter it gets).
- I kind of wish there was a way to restart the entire game from the menu instead of refreshing the page, but this is just a small detail.

Overall, it was an interesting play. Often times I've played 2D games and wondered "how would this handle as a fps?" It's cool to see what it would look like and you did it. I wish you luck on your future projects.

frdy responds:

Best review I've gotten.
- diving can be done in any direction, and you can still control your movement in midair. Shooting enemies will diving is hard, but a very good strategy if you can pull it off.
The level design absolutely should have had diving in mind, and a lot of them are nothing but enclosed halls.
I may have messed up somewhere, but you are supposed to be able to pick up nearby weapons regardless of where you aim, and aiming directly at weapons was supposed to give it higher priority.
Enemy indicatiors absolutely should have been put in.
Bullets originate from gun muzzles, and aiming was not originally going to be put in the game. That leads to the case where aiming does little more than give you more consistent hits at close range. It was an interesting idea that didn't really pan out.
I.... changed the x button from immediately letting you throw into instantly dropping it at the last minute. That was because I got a complaint about not being able to skip the throwing animation.
Being able to instantly eat hotdogs is a great idea I never considered. I'm wondering how one could control saving it in your inventory vs using it instantly

[Train Journey]

I can see the game had a lot of passion and imagination put into it. Almost every one of the train stops (including the train) feel like their own world with their own behaviors and rules. I finished the game. However, I almost feel like I shouldn't have. Let me explain (SPOILERS AHEAD):
- Trying to dig was annoying because you couldn't dig horizontal while standing on a pile of dirt; you would dig down, reach solid ground, then dig horizontal. This made things more tedious, especially the free the spirits part.
- There were so many parts of the game that just forced you to wait or ate up your time. Wait for an enemy to finish their attack before you move, wait for an enemy to move out of the way, hold down the fire button and wait for the enemy in your way to die, wait for the boss appearance animation and/or dialogue to play every time you go to fight them, wait for that long awkward cutscene after stopping the conductor to finish, kill this group of enemies because you'll die if you try to run by them or they'll interfere with your jump. I can understand waiting being an aspect of the game, but I don't think it's a good idea to be a core aspect of the game, especially when the character isn't moving fast and killed enemies come back when you leave the screen. While you can take the hit in some parts, there are just so many that it will whittle your health down quickly if you aren't careful.
- Back tracking is also annoying, especially when you take the prior point about waiting, movement speed, and enemy respawn into account. Having to backtrack on the train to get upgrades and clock parts and reach the exit, look around the confusing moon base level looking for keys, being sent all the way back to your seat after losing to the conductor, having to backtrack with the diary pages (This one is especially annoying because it is set up for backtracking, but the player doesn't know this, especially if they missed the rock like structure near the beginning with the skeletons so I ended up going back into the cave after getting all the diary pages because the text said something like "I should put these with the rest". Plus, I asked myself how would returning pages to a diary help progress the game when I knew I needed a shovel?). Backing track should only be done when there is something to be gained from it in some way or if the experience will be different somehow, such as unlocking a new power and applying it to places you've been or if it's in small doses. Going back to the train in every world was slightly annoying, but in the first level at least, you got to reach areas you'd passed that you weren't able to before, like a letter and the clock piece.
- There was at least two glitches; the diary page count broke on me and started going into the negatives (luckily it still recognized when I collected them all) and it seems to save outside of the conductor room, but still sends you back to your seat). There might be one more; after getting the rocket pogo, it wouldn't always work. It would act like a regular pogo. Sometimes, I think this was due to me holding down the jump button, using the rocket, returning to the ground still holding the jump button (and it wouldn't rocket up again) while other times, it felt like it just didn't work.
- I like that you included two endings, though the ending where you got all the clock parts was annoying. You had the player go through a long section where they are freeing spirits that hurt them on touching them. This part felt unnecessary as it wasn't enjoyable, added nothing to the story, and just felt tedious, as did fighting the bosses again because it added nothing to the game experience since you beat them already (boss rushes typically work if the bosses are slightly different, attack you all at once, or they occur one after another because then it's not just about beating them since the player would have done that already; it's beating them while making sure they're combined efforts don't drain your health to zero. With the new blaster, it would have been an interesting fight; new blaster vs. 4 bosses, no health recovery inbetween). The part where you have to go back to the apartment was less bothersome than the spirit freeing one, but still had its problems. Story wise, why was everything possessed by darkness? Having to go through this part was hampered by the fact that there were enemy that could attack you from below (which you really couldn't do much about accept jump and potentially get hit by something while vulnerable in the air) and there was very little health and no save states (though I liked the health upgrades. It went well with preparing for the final boss and was much appreciated).
- Finally, due to the game being pixelated, there were parts where it wasn't clear what was background scenery and things you could step on though I've found this issue in other Pico-8 games so I don't think much can be done. To be fair, I think you did a pretty decent job on making this clear usually.

There were definitely good things in the game which is why I ended up playing it to the end (the final boss of the good ending was good), but it just almost didn't feel worth the grind to get there by the time I reached it. The artwork and music were good. The story was good as well though the epilogue of the good ending was a little weird. I don't comment on games as much as I used to, but when I do, it's because I see a lot of potential in those ones and the people making them. I wish you luck in your future endeavors.

Meivuu responds:

Thank you so much for all the feedback!! This was really helpful to read! I was aware of some of these gameplay issues in a sense but it was really really helpful to read a player's experience with these issues. I'm sure you realize that I won't likely change this game very significantly anymore, (I did mention a remake in another reply so if that even happens I'll definitely use your feedback very directly when making it) but this certainly helps for future projects! And thanks for the bug reports, anything going into the negatives is a yikes lol, that thing had been causing trouble but I thought I fixed it. Anyway before I get into spoilers, I wanna thank you again for this feedback! My favorite reviews and comments are always the ones with loads upon loads of feedback like this, and I really appreciate you taking so much time to write this and explain your experience with the game.

(SECRET ENDING SPOILER AHEAD plus major plot point explanation in case you want to figure that out on your own)
[REDACTED]

[Apocalypizzapie]

I really liked the game. Here's the good and bad I found with it:
pros
- I really liked that you didn't indicate in the game that you can or should destroy the aliens (I know the instructions tell you that you can, but not everyone reads the instructions). I know this seems like a strange thing to praise, but far too many games hand-hold and don't let the player find things out for themselves. Beating the game without killing any leads to a desolate ending which makes you think "there's got to be a better ending". The intro sets up the game as a pizza delivery game so finding out that you can kill the aliens was a fun surprise.
- I like that the game is light-hearted and funny in an alien apocalypse. The comedy really comes through in the cutscenes and the intro does well in setting the mood for the game.
- Gameplay is fun and difficult. Having the different attacks depending on the position of the enemies near you is a great idea. I've played the game multiple times and it's easy to mess up. Being strategic in how you take down enemies helps you advance and is fulfilling when you pull off a combo. I felt so accomplished upon getting the best ending. Also, thank you for including a quick reset feature.
- Graphics are cute, cool, fun and retro. The music is also retro, fitting, and just great sounding in general.
- The multiple endings are awesome.
- Thank you for including a pause function, sound control function, the ability to rebind the keys, and a list of controls in the game.

Cons
- Why does the amount of pizzas you have to delivery change every playthrough? I played a game where I had to deliver 10 pizzas and another where I delivered 7 pizzas (it's always between these amounts). The 9 and 10 pizza amounts occurred during playthroughs when the game first came out while the 7 and 8 amounts happened when I came back to the game later. Did you change the difficulty by reducing the amount of pizza deliveries? Why isn't it consistent?
- Doors sometimes appear overtop of windows.
- Maybe have the reset button not be next to the jump button? While it's unlikely to be hit by accident, better safe than sorry.
- There's no credits page. While there is "credits info" on the game page, it only lists the voice actor and author. It doesn't say who made the music, what the name of the songs are and who made them, who programmed it, and who drew the artwork (while many of these might be credited to the same person, I'd still like to know the names of the songs).

Aside from the amount of pizzas changing every playthrough, the game was extremely well put together. Great job!

[Buns: Bunny survivor]

I played the game before others took notice (around the same time you released your second game) and I'm glad it's getting the attention it deserves! I'll say it right now; please don't lower the difficulty.
- I like the music. It's a little upbeat and adventurous with a feeling of "better get busy" to it.
- The pixelated graphics are good; the bunnies and bunny girl are cute. I really like the screenshot artwork. I also like that the hair color of the character changes depending on which dash ability you pick, almost showing how important it is to victory.
- Most importantly, I really like the challenge. It's easy to lose if you're not careful and, even if you beat it once, you might not win on your next playthrough. Coming back to the game a few weeks later, I managed to beat it on my fourth or fifth attempt. Some of the upgrades are better than others in the long run and playing the game and learning this is part of the experience. Even with the element of luck involved (the player is offered only certain upgrades at each level), skill is still a definite factor in the game.
- I also like that, instead of having the enemies come from off screen like other games, they come from a surrounding darkness that you can walk on, but it damages you. I wonder if there's anything beyond the darkness.

Very good job on the game!

[Tux Planet Speedrun Any%]

I'd say the game offers a lot of challenge. It handles the same way I remember the first Mario game did; very slippery since momentum continues to carry you forward. However, with the speed the character moves, a skilled person could do a spectacular speedrun of the game. Honestly, if it weren't for the save states and slow down mechanic, I wouldn't have been able to beat it. I personally don't think a change in difficulty is needed because:
- The two mechanics I mentioned before can be used at the player's leisure to make the game as easy as they'd like (though even with them, the last two levels are still pretty hard).
- The difficulty is part of the game's aesthetic; without it, it would just be another platformer. It'd be like having a Resident Evil game without zombies. (I actually thought level 5 was impossible until I remembered you could phase through some platforms and walls with the teleport).

Although there isn't really a story, I liked the dinosaur and how nice it and and the yeti were.

For possible improvements:
- I'd recommend having a reset button for the game. That way if a person wanted to speedrun it, they could reset the timer.
- Make it so when you load a save state that the game doesn't try to automatically make the same moves you made before reloading (because, usually, these were the same moves that led the player to die and load the save state in the first place).

A cute and tough game. Good job!

dtsudo responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I certainly agree that the game was meant to offer some challenge; though I acknowledge that it seems player feedback is mixed on the difficulty. (This is mostly just me reading the comments and looking at the Newgrounds medals to see how many logged-in users cleared each level.) Perhaps the difficulty can be slightly tuned and refined in a way that doesn't compromise the game's overall challenge.

There is a reset button on the homepage, although I admit it's not a great solution. The reset button does reset all progress (including the timer) although then there's no way to get back. Maybe I should offer multiple save slots.

It is also true that the game will replay past moves when loading a save state. I totally agree that this can be annoying sometimes (it's even annoying for me though I made it that way). The original intent was that a player could play out a sequence of moves which ends in failure (let's say they try jumping on 4 enemies in a row but miss the 4th enemy and fall into a pit), and by reloading the save state, the same sequence of moves will replay -- the player can intervene at the final step (the 4th jump) to correct their mistake. But there are also times where this mechanic is annoying, so perhaps I'll make it toggle-able in the menu. People who like it can use it and those who don't can disable it.

Thanks for playing and for writing the detailed review. :)

[The Bunker: Prelude]

The pictures for the game is good, but is hampered by bad design choices:
- There is WAY too much waiting. Every time the player changes screens, they have to wait for the arrow keys to load to go to the next area; why not just have the arrow keys load immediately as soon as they get to the next screen? Sometimes, when the arrow keys lead to a new screen, text will appear and the player has to wait 3 to 4 seconds for it to go away and for the arrow keys to appear again. This happens every time regardless if the player has already seen the text before. Why not have the text and arrow keys load at the same time; that way, the player isn't forced to wait. I'm guessing the "waiting" was done in an attempt to increase tension, but this only serves to hamper the player from exploring and decreases replay value and encourages the player to avoid checking out previous areas.
- Sometimes, the arrow keys won't work and you have to click on them multiple times (this might be programed into the game that they won't work until a certain amount of time has passed.
- The position of the arrow keys can be confusing. I'll enter a new screen I hadn't seen before and click on one only to be brought back to where I was before. This wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't for the waiting.
- While the pictures look nice, the game doesn't offer much in the way of puzzles or using objects (except for the key card). Often times, I click on things, see them change, and wonder if I'm making any progress. In one instant, I clicked on a switch to activate it, left the screen, came back, and the switch was no longer activated.

I hope you will continue to work on your games. I wish you luck.

ArcheonMedia responds:

Thanks for the critiques. Yes, you are right, the arrow keys are timed so the player can read the text and will not allow click until the time elapses. It's an old feature I saw on the early point and click flash games that I transferred over. These first Bunker games were intro items to the series that is coming right up. Some puzzles are planned for the futire entries.

--the switch was a small oversight noted prior.

Thanks again!

[The Ferryman]

Well, this game is definitely an experience. It's clear a lot of work and thought went into making it. Many parts of your game, especially the atmosphere, is very good though I did find a few problems with it. I'd like to go through the good and bad in list form:

SPOILERS AHOY

The story is pretty good. I'm gonna take a guess and say it was inspired by Soul series games (like Dark Souls), correct? The history of this world isn't revealed and large pieces of the story aren't elaborated on, such as why did the great light go out, who are the Harbours, what makes people plagued, etc. This isn't necessarily bad though since it keeps mystery in the game and allows people to fill in the blanks for themselves (and can definitely work in your favor if you decide to make a sequel or prequel to it). However, since there's a lack of gameplay variety, a lot of the entertainment value falls on the story and people wanting to learn more and more about it and a lot is left unanswered so some players might feel cheated. It'd been nice to have some extra story information that you could work toward or find, like a letter in a bottle that splashes abroad your ship or that you can catch with a net. Or maybe some of the empty lighthouses have notes. Take this with a grain of salt however. You can't please everyone!

The artwork seems good to me. Due to game lag (I couldn't say it was the game's fault. My computer is sluggish at times), I don't think I got to appreciate the animations fully. I kind of wish there were some more scary visuals in the game. For example, you never got to see the wall eaters' faces (unless you count that one guy) or the fog eater's face (though the sirens' were pretty good). It'd been cool if there were sometimes some scary visuals below deck (maybe representative of the mental state of the Ferryman), especially later in the game; this would reflect the kind of struggle the broadcaster mentions. It just felt like the sea and struggle wasn't shown to be as terrifying as it could have been.

The gameplay is okay.
- When starting the game and looking around, I could tell something unsettling was going to occur. The first time I saw a wall eater, I definitely jumped. However, the game becomes less and less scary as it goes on, mostly due to the fact enemies didn't directly hurt you, only your ship (and it's kind of a let down after hearing what happened to Keeper 2). I get that by attacking your ship, they would kill you, but the Ferryman doesn't really die (based on the dialogue afterward) and the death isn't really scary. Had the wall eaters been able to attack you when your back was turned or the sirens been able to pull you into the water, it would definitely make things more nerve wracking. I also like the idea of having to cover your own lantern to protect yourself from the fog-eater, but this makes you vulnerable to the wall eaters.
- Also, with the gameplay focusing on routine tasks, it could maybe due with a few more, like having a fishing rod on deck to fish for food. However, I will say that the difficulty of balancing tasks peaks at about the time when the player can settle down so I'd say that was good pacing on your parts.
- There were a few things that went unexplained, like why a wall eater kept clinging to the chimney on the ship; what danger did it pose? Did the fires that broke out on the upper deck pose a danger?

The voice acting was extremely good for most of the characters. Very well done! The sound effects and music were good as well. The only character I didn't like was the kid. The voice sounded like a kid, but the lines felt forced; like he was reading from a script. If the point was to make it seem like he was putting on a brave face, then it didn't come across that way; I'd have recommended throwing in a few slip ups that would show his true emotions on the matter. (If you need a voice actor in the future, reach out to me ;)

The radio was interesting though there were only three stations and they repeated themselves; this gets old really fast and it really hinders replay value for the game. I'd recommend having a couple of songs/broadcasts to be randomized on those stations, especially considering story is such a large part to this game (broadcasts that give updates and background on things).

Lastly, there were some glitches I came across:
- You can sometimes see wall eaters crawling around off screen (by that I mean in the sea, on the air, in the darkness around the ship when you are below deck).
- After Lighthouse 10 (I think. It was later in the game), the sound effects started glitching. The sound effects for repairing, putting out fires, etc. would just stop playing and then would later come back (only disappear and come back again later).
- The radio started making a thumping sound. when I tried to turn it off, it started making a double thumping sound, where it felt like the glitch duplicated itself.
- Radio playing after I made it to a lighthouse.
- Siren stayed on ship front after it crashes.

I apologize if it sounds like I'm being overly critical; I enjoyed playing your game and I wanted to give feedback (I wouldn't have written this much if I didn't think your game was cool). I wish you luck with your future endeavor!

crelish responds:

we made this in like 5 days homedawg

[Above the Clouds]

I enjoyed the game. While the mechanics were simple, it was still challenging and easy to mess up if you weren't careful. It felt expansive the way the camera panned back to show you while you were facing the enemies and moving further away from them. I also like the fact that the game doesn't provide explanations for how to beat the bosses; you need to work them out for yourself. Based on the fact that the hook actually draws you in when it comes in contact with something and this doesn't really serve a purpose in the game, it makes me think there was more planned with the game than we see here. Here are a few points of criticism:
- My main criticism is that the game is so short; I would have liked for there to be more (enemies, adventures, etc), but this isn't so much a criticism of the game rather than just sadness that it ended so soon.
- The mechanic with going above and below the clouds was intriguing though it seemed like the game only scratched the surface of that mechanic's potential (such as having a boss where you need to hit it from below, then quickly come back up to strike it at a vulnerable spot.
- For gods, they seemed fairly easy to beat, at least in the sense that you only have to hit two of them one time to kill them. At the same time, I'm glad that they didn't have a ridiculous amount of health where you needed to repeat the same move ten times to beat them.
- Although it doesn't take long to get through the opening of the game, if you are going for the perfect medal then it becomes more tedious to click through it every time you reload. Perhaps put in a skip button for the opening in your next game.
- I'd also recommend a mute button. While the music is pleasant and fitting, the player might be listening to something else at the time, like a podcast.

All in all, I thought the game was great and it gave me a feeling that I used to feel when playing great games from my past, maybe something similar to an excitement for adventure or looking forward to the unknown. I wish you luck in your future endeavors!

OmarShehata responds:

Thank you so much for taking the time to write up this thorough review! It means a lot to hear the game evoked this sense of wonder & mystery. I appreciate your kind words a lot.

I agree with all your feedback. I think the above/below mechanic is really interesting & there is so much more to explore there. I love that idea of like opening up a vulnerability by hitting something under the clouds.

Initially I wanted the way to defeat the serpant to be to lure it under the clouds and maybe get it to be stuck somewhere/wrap around something. Or introduce something where if you launch a hook under clouds, then pop up, you can "pull something through the clouds", or vice versa to pull something under the clouds.

I also agree the hook is a little under baked. We went back and forth a lot on whether it was needed anymore once we found the main mechanic being just shooting. Initially it acted as a way to dodge (by hooking onto something and pulling yourself of the way just in time) but that was hard to execute and redundant because popping under clouds acts as a better dodge.

Thanks again so much!

[James]

I stopped playing before finishing the tutorial for a number of reasons.
- You force the player to wait through the intro and tutorial text. Players only have so much time available for playing games and being forced to wait through intros and tutorials to play a game is a waste of time (I understand that you put time into the intro, but if we wanted to want an animation, we could go to the movie tab on Newgrounds). Add a skip function for the intro and change the tutorial to where text appears, but doesn't stop the player from moving (you can decrease the size of the text box that pops up).
- From the small part I played, I noticed that the game relies on waiting for the screen to move for the player to see what is ahead of them; this is also a waste of time. Why not just make it so the screen moves with the player? This way, they can play the game at their own speed.
- The game tells you that your mission is to save your fellow fruits from their gummy bear forms, correct? Then why did you make it so that you need to keep some of them as gummy bears to progress? In the tutorial, you need to bounce off of one of them to reach a higher platform and if you save them, you're stuck. It seems counterintuitive.
- Upon seeing the square with the red X in the top right corner, I thought that was used to get rid of the tutorial text box. Little did I know it would exit me out of the game. I'd recommend adding a pause button with written options like "exit game" and "resume". I'd also recommend adding a mute button because some players like listening to other stuff besides the game audio.

I will say that I liked the different colored bullets mechanic and the premise seems promising. I am interested to see what you make next.

JonathanGV responds:

Thank you on the feedback! On our part, some of the many problems stated are a big “we thought it would be cool…” even if you feel like it is something dumb in the first place, we want to make an extended version of this game, but we want to get the things as right as we can. We changed some things and fixed what needed a fixing.
On the story standpoint you are right! Never thought of it and glad you pointed it out, in the extended version we will be adding much more elements, so you can be sure some things will be different, hopefully better.
You can check out how the game is after the update!
Here is what we changed:
- Changed the pacing of the screen scroll due to feedback on how it makes the gameplay slow.
- Stopped forcing the instructions and made them optional.
- Fixed the bullet spamming.
- Changed a bit up the controls, now for shooting: ZXCV and HJKL.

[Miriam's Mice]

What the game lacks in graphics and art, it attempts to make up for in challenging puzzles. The game certainly offers some interesting and difficult puzzles. However, I feel it is lacking some features (I also have a few things I want to say on it):
- When activated, there's no way to turn off the mouse guide without exiting the level.
- Dialogue plays every time you enter a level and there's no button to press to immediately skip it or shut it off (this gets especially annoying when you need to exit and re-enter to get rid of the mouse guide).
- There's no way to quick reset the level without exiting and re-entering.
- The whole setup with having to undo and redo to get rid of things that you place is tedious and annoying. For example, if you first thing you place turns out to be a bad move, you have to undo everything else just to get rid of it; why not just have it so you can pick up and move things that you place?
- Having something coming off of the mice to see their line of sight might be nice. Without it, the mouse guide seems incomplete (I'm not sure how this would look or if it would even workout, but it's a thought).
- I think some of the difficulty of the game comes from the fact that there is no pause or stop button on it. In Unstable Engineer, you could literally pause the game, allowing the player to evaluate the situation (not just undo the last move). In this case, placing something in the view of a mouse causes it to react immediately. It'd be cool to be able to place the item down and then look at things. Not allowing this seems to create an increase in difficulty that really isn't necessary. It's like not allowing a person to try putting two puzzle pieces together just to see if they fit.
- Some of the later levels and the achievements in them seem a tad extreme or impossible (I don't normally like using this term; I play a lot fo puzzle games so please allow me to explain). On the level "Give me strength" in the bedroom, there is a letter against a corner, two mice (a red fighter and red normal one), and 3 red cheeses and 3 lions. In order for a mouse to get out of a corner, it needs something to attract it out. However, all three cheeses are necessary to lead the normal mouse to its hole (it's in a narrow stretch with a lion at one end and the hole at the other). Unless there is a mechanic that I'm missing, it's impossible.
- Another example "Roll call", it takes place on an 8x8 grid; subtracting the mice, regular cheese, and pellet, that comes out to 57 blank spaces to place the provided cats and cheese. Beating this level is fairly easy, but getting the pellet is another story entirely. With four assets for four mice and a pellet, it requires the player to use some of the assets on multiple mice at once, but there is so much space and combinations to account for. Taking into account the order that the objects can be placed and the fact that most of them will need to be placed in view of the mice (each mouse can see 15 tiles) that comes out to at least 786,240 possible combinations (this is assuming that one mouse is sent into a hole with each asset placement). Keep in mind, this is showing all the possible placement combinations and does not reflect the number of ways the puzzle can be solved (many of the levels seem to have only one way) or the assets to each type of mouse, since some of the objects don't affect certain mice.

You've basically set up the game to make the application of trial and error tedious, as well as making some levels with so many obstacles, possible positions for assets, and a multitude of steps to make visualization aggravatingly difficult to say the least. This critique is only my opinion (I've completed 73 levels); it seems others enjoyed your game, but I find it lacking. I did want to compliment you on a few things, like having a mute option, the tie in with your previous game, and the medal system you implemented, where if the game didn't award you a medal you earned, you can refresh the page and it will award it to you. I look forward to your next creation!

If anyone needs help or wants to discuss solutions for levels in the game, visit this form: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1487916#bbspost27113294_post_text

WigDev responds:

Thanks for this detailed review, you make some interesting points!

I can understand the desire to just drag devices around, but the way that the puzzles work, if a mouse has reacted to an object then you shouldn't be allowed to move it somewhere else after (and you shouldn't be able to move a device that was there from the start), and having the rooms fill up with both movable and unmovable devices actually ended up being more confusing than it was worth. Undo/Redo seemed like the best solution that was consistent with the puzzle logic, but I'm sorry to hear you found it frustrating.

As for seemingly impossible later levels, I accept I've made them more challenging than you'd find in most puzzle games, especially the optional pellets and ace stars. This won't appeal to everyone. (When it comes to 'Give me Strength' specifically, the name of the room is a gentle clue for how to get the normal red mouse to an exit without using all the cheese.)

Thanks again (to you and everyone else) for your feedback, it's always a tricky balance trying to create puzzle games like this, but as long as some people have their brains enjoyably stretched - and nobody is driven to genuine insanity - then I can be happy with that.