Valio's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Slender Survival]

What I dislike
1) The surrounding graphics suddenly jump from time to time (I guess some would call it a feature, not a bug; but I don't)
2) I don't get how I'm supposed to run away from the faceless man as soon as he appears; even with full stamina I can't avoid taking some sanity damage; neither do I see a strategy to avoid the faceless man as he's randomly coming from left or right

Furthermore the game does not provide a lot of motivation to go forward apart from the medals; the gameplay does not getting more interesting, but just repeating.

Apart from that, given the intent and the constraints it's okay I guess.

Brunodev responds:

1) Yeah we need to make it change smoother.
2) Eventually you WILL lose. But believe me, there are strategies. Such as don't walk in one way for more then 10 seconds, or only do one way. Thanks for your review!

[Ugly Americans]

Some items could have been more obvious; at some point I had to start tabbing.
Second it would have been nice if you would have added newgrounds medals for the achievements.

Apart from that nothing to complain. Great story, good graphics, nice sound, intuitive gameplay.

ClickShake responds:

Ya, going forward we do want to better highlight what you're clicking on. We did that with Wentworth which was made after this.

[Call of 'Doody']

Stuff I disliked:
- Muting music doesn't work too well by hitting the "M" key it seems to me
- Game doesn't stay in music muted mode
- No replay key (you have to click)
- Doesn't work for deaf people ;-)

Sabtastic responds:

Hah - that last one got a chuckle out of me.
All very good observations! Thanks!

[Barbarium]

I think there's hardly anything to complain; graphics, sound, game-play; all perfect. Kudos!
Probably only the issue with having to choose between two kinds of fixed game controls.

Although some parts were extremely difficult; e.g. the one were the coldness showed the way was really frustrating.

I found a few [non serious] glitches (I think): Once I burned a soldier and suddenly a nearby larvae started to behave like a burning enemy (jumping around from left to right). In a lot of rooms I was able to walk on the ceiling. Then there was this strange bird boss bug, where the bird attacked me first, I left the room and when I returned the boss was stuck (and I was unable to proceed as I could neither kill him). Then there was this bad-ass room (the one which required about 13000 points and you had to jump over the birds: when you leave on the top exit it took me back to the start screen. A few times I was able to do slight wall-jumping (but it took a lot of time).

Parts of the game reminded me of QuackShot (especially "abusing" the birds with the new weapon).

Just two questions:
1) Is there any real secret to find where "the wall on the right seems hollow"? I tried to stack two barrels on each other as I thought there could be possibly a second wall to break (one tile above the ground) but never succeeded.
2) Do you happen to have a Flattr or Paypal account? I consider myself a pirate, but always would like to honor creators of art that I appreciate so much :-)

Hypnohustler responds:

I'll be sure to check in to those bugs, thanks for taking your time to report them. :)
1) There is a breakable wall there, you should be able to use barrels and find couple beers inside.
2) HypnohustlerGames (at) gmail.com is my paypal account. All donations go directly to my sons candy budget. :)

[MOON]

Okay, this is probably rather an interactive movie than a game. I found the interactivity almost a bit too limited (like it's kinda incomprehensible why you can't steer the character in certain directions; you could give at least a visual hint or do it as most adventures do, by displaying a short note of the thoughts by the character which e.g. says "I should not go back until I repaired the communication").

I think you really grasped the atmosphere quite well, graphics and sound were flawless.

I saw the codes posted by another user but didn't quite figure out how one should get all of them or how one should connect them (but at least I did figure out the one for moon).
In case the "E" key for returning to the menu doesn't have a special meaning, I would strongly suggest to choose another one; the first time I was at the end I may just have to mirror the words; well you can imagine what happened, when I tried to do that for the first word ;-)
From a usability perspective it's probably also bad if you played through the whole game and you probably just wanna figure out some code, but you have to start all over again; so after recieving the "step" medal one could probably offer a shortcut (yes, I know this is a trade-off for atmosphere).

EventHorizon responds:

In the secret room the words as "life", "moon", etc. are some clues, just know how to interpret these words and you can get the codes without any problems, thanks for your review!

[60s Burger Run]

Worthwhile mini platformer.
Hardly anything to complain, except the extremely repetitive music.

I see you added further medals in the meantime (10 in total).
Currently I'll try to get all medals; 2 secret ones are missing.
Are there more than 3 shortcut medals?
Could there be an immortal medal? Or a score medal?

whileworking responds:

no. no. yes ;)

[Drugsdrugsdrugs]

Okay

The game was okay for a 48 hour game competition, but not overwhelming; e.g. there are certainly areas for improvement (game balance, consistent controls [instead of mouse, usual keys, spacebar], further drug effects, full-screen option, a lexicography of drugs that had been acquired).
The concept of drug visualization has been used in other games as well, the most ancient I can recall being Tetripz (DOS game) which had a number of excellent effects (especially for that time). The most recent submission on newgrounds I recall was a game where one had to collect falling antidepressants; can't find it currently.

Natpat responds:

Yeah, the balance isn't quite right, and I could flesh it out more, but hey, it's supposed to be a quick fun game that keeps people entertained for a few minutes. :)

[Mechanical Ice Apocalypse]

All great, except medal fail

I really admire the work you did within this 72 hours.
It's a full-fleshed boss fight, with great graphics and sound (apart from the fact that the weapon sound of the boss sometimes continues after I already respawned).

What somehow pisses me of and lead to a minus point is the medal fail here. It took me a fairly amount of time to finish the game and I did it within 2:40, even got on the highscore board; but I got neither the gold, nor the silver, nor the bronze, nor the Winrar medal.
Also I ask myself what's the exact reason for the high score buttons to be invisible (from technical POV)...of course that's not the best example of usability, but I personally can live with it.

bcdefg123 responds:

See author comments

[Collateral]

Clever

It's a clever idea, storyline (in it's simplicity) and level design.

Is it worth trying to get it "perfect"? I mean in a game sense, not in the real world sense... ;)

MrPiglet responds:

The cutscenes change in a minor way if you manage it, I'm afraid there's no grand alternative 'good' ending.

Huuuuuge props to anyone that makes it though, I've been trying it myself, and whilst I've managed to hit the bottom without killing, going back up is brutal. I'd absolutely love for someone to record a video of a perfect (or heck, even just very good) run.

[Reincarnation: ITNOE]

yay! I'm the 73rd virgin...err reviewer

liked:
- minimalistic number of objects
- graphics
- voices
- involvement of 2 NPCs

disliked:
- stereotypical association with terrorism
- repeating music
- just a sound off button (no music off)

LiLg responds:

i'll see if i can't fix some of ur dislikes in the next one ;)