Anonymous-Frog's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dead Fish Clicker]

== Vote 5 and comment 'Awesome'? Don't mind if I do! ==
Score: 5

As the audio commentary explains, you can click the fish to get maggots, every 10 maggots gets a dollar, maggot fester increases maggots per click, and flies let you gain maggots automatically.

I don't want to delve into the entire concept of 'cookie clicker' games here. Clicker games are a lot quicker and easier to make than other game genres, even for this jam where all you need is clicking/tapping, but even then you made a few mistakes, which may or may not be intentional. I'm still lowering my review score because of them.

1. There are only two upgrades to spend your money on, but nothing to dump your maggots on.
2. A sound effect from 'Super Mario' is used when you buy an upgrade rather than an original or royalty-free sound
3. Clicking the fish feels slow. and the money counter appears to only seems to go up in increments of one regardless of how many upgrades, regardless of how many upgrades I buy. The maggot counter works fine though.
4. The more flies you buy, the more overpowered it becomes compared to the fester.
5. When trying to aim for 100k maggots, the increase of clicking noises caused by 15+ flies can get annoying.
6. The "Walkthrough" is actually a Wheel of Fortune clip accidentally getting "Wish List" wrong as "Fish Love". Not that a clicker game as simple as this would need one. It's just a joke. A not so good joke, but a joke nonetheless. Your mileage may vary.

The very compressed bitmap graphics appear to be an aesthetic choice, and the music, though uncredited, is good.
I believe you had 14 days to make a game for the Mobile Jam, not 2.

PS: I also want to ask how you got the 'flaming red text' title.

Graphics: 6 | Sound: 8 | Controls: 7 | Concept: 6 | Presentation: 4 | Humor: "AWESOME"

LeviRamirez responds:

fish love

[Times Newer Roman]

I don't think the 'Share' function works (Edge + Chrome), but otherwise, a cool little tool

SUGGESTION:
Click on each letter to full-screen shared letters.

crow-seeds responds:

Added the full-screening feature for shared letters! Sharing may not work for certain browsers (It works on my Firefox and Android Chrome, but not on my Windows Chrome), due to some Newgrounds browser security features (which don't let games access the clipboard?). Sharing works on all browsers on the website version at https://crowseeds.com/font/ currently trying to fix this though!

Edit: Fixed sharing!!!!!!

[Alien Hominid Art Collab [20th Birthday]]

== LOL INSTANT FRONTPAGE LOOOOLL!!! ==
Score: 7 | Critic Review

This art collab was made to celebrate Alien Hominid's 20th anniversary. However, you shouldn't "all your 5s" right away this early, it still feels like an amateur's attempt at an anniversary.

The art on show here isn't exactly professional. There is some good art here, and I believe everyone here did their best to paint the titular alien in a good light (no pun intended), although there's a few stinkers, but those would probably need their own reviews.
I think they're being displayed at a lower resolution (it doesn't look like they're in crispy clean full HD, but it's not too bad, just a minor nitpick)

As for presentation outside of the art submissions themselves, it's ok. It uses a pixelated background ripped from the actual Alien Hominid, which scrolls slightly to the right, only to stop after some time. I would've used something a little higher in resolution and quality.
(I don't think Tom or Dan will take action, they love when people celebrate their work)

The music is also good, but not so much the sound effects. You also could've used some better fonts and UI. Not just because the ones used look very default-ish, but also because the collab's logo looks very rough (ie. thick rounded outlines that bleed into each other, not a good look).

EDIT: Just asking, how the hell did you get links working in Scratch/TurboWarp?

Graphics: 6 | Sound: 7 | Participants: 18 | Style: 8 | Presentation: 5

s-zenmode responds:

Yeah, it was pretty barebones back when I made the engine in January of February. I'm much more capable of making things in scratch and also I'm not that big and i got some talented artists to join in but only some of them submitted. Scratch also kinda bozo when importing PNGs, i just learned importing HD pngs to it. Yeh

[meli shooter]

Goombas take way too many hits to die, in comparison to the player which dies in just one.

[We have come for your nectar: The game]

== WE HAVE COME FOR YOUR COME ==
Score: 6

This is based on YouTuber GoLuB's take on the 'We have come for your nectar' meme, where Nikocado Avocado takes some honeycomb from the Spongebob bees. That has 1 million views.

Footage from the original video are used in cutscenes while the main gameplay is to keep clicking to shoot at the hand. Lose, and ol' Nick grabs the comb and eats it (also from the original video). Win and you get a slightly more original cutscene where Nick falls over and cries.

Not bad for 2 hours, but 2 hours nonetheless.

Graphics: 6 | Sound: 7 | Accuracy: 8 | Gameplay: 4 | Style: 5 | Originality: 4

[TBH Physics 2.0]

== Big screen, little game ==
Overall Score: 0

If you tell people to play at 50% zoom, you know you set the resolution too high. 720p should be good enough, maybe lower to accomodate for smaller screens, and if possible, the option to fullscreen.

Aside from that, it's just a basic ragdoll simulation with barebones graphics and the ability (TBH's House) looks nothing like a house) and no sound effects

Graphics: 2 | Sound: 0 | Gameplay: 3 | Stability: 4 | Style: 2 | Entertainment: 2

fraglord123 responds:

The big screen will be fixed. Thanks for the feedback tho!

[Morbsweeper]

"The Newgrounds game of all time!"
Overall Score: 100

This ain't just a regular old game of Minesweeper, and not because it's themed around the Morbius meme. It instead encourages playing fast in order to activate "Morb Mode" and build up combos. It's a real test on your brain since in Minesweeper you're supposed to spot mines based on visual clues (such as 1s near corners or a 4 sandwiched between a rock and a hard place)

The soundtrack includes chiptune remixes of existing songs like Fur Elise in the title screen, and the Turkish March for the results screen, and also Off the Meds' EKSE, a song used in the film itself. Those suit the game very well.

Only thing this game is missing is the option for a larger playing space and varying amount of mines / rotten tomatoes. This may help gain some replay value.

Graphics: 94 | Sound: 99 | Morbin: 100 | Gameplay: 78 | Style: 89 | Humor: 82

[Portal Panic]

= It's good, but a bit unfinished in areas. =
Overall Score: 6
This appears to be a run and gun style Metroidvania where you play as multiple characters, each with their own attacks and abilities. (Refer to author comments)

You can switch through them to unlock hidden areas. Although this was named 'Best Game' for Pico Day 2012, I still have a few criticisms.

- Cutscenes are very easy to skip. This is one of the times where I WANT to watch them.
- I couldn't hear sound effects, even though the intro cutscene was fully voice acted. This is off because there is a SFX setting. I thought this was an issue with the Newgrounds Player, although I did hear one for the collectibles.
- The tileset appears to be obviously tiles. That may sound as ridiculous as 'Too much Water', but I can see a noticeable seam for all the tiles, some of them might be intentional
- There's a section on the top left of the 'Dad n Me' stage that's just a grey square on the corner, which can be seen by using Bitey to jump up there.
- Most of the enemies are just reskins of the same types. There's the tiny hopping thing, which can be either a fatsack or a soccer ball, a human-ish enemy that walks back and forth and can either use melee or ranged attacks, and a stationary gun that doesn't hurt you on its own, but does fire small projectiles every few seconds
- In the Pico's School stage, it is possible for the enemy near the checkpoint to attack you after you've selected a character.
- In the final (and only boss) P-Bot being messed around by Blockhead, there's no damage indicators, and I also found a bug with Bitey where he stays still after attacking and moving and with Salad Fingers where P-Bot fires three missiles and one's stuck in an explosion animation.
- In addition, you start the fight as Dad but the blocks he breaks before the encounter don't disappear.

Other than that, it has excellent character animations that imitates Mindchamber's art-style very well and a great soundtrack and the gameplay DIDN'T make me want to tear myself a second arse.
~frog~

Also BOSS STRATEGY: P-Bot
Dad: Stay near the middle and dodge his drill attack
Tankman: Same trick
Pico, Keep your distance and fire your gun at him
Bitey, Keep kicking, dash to avoid danger
Salad Fingers. Use the puppets to deflect his rockets back at him. Throw your hands at him to stun him if you get too close.

Graphics: 8 | Sound: 7 | Repetitiveness: 8 | Polish: 5 | Style: 10 | Gameplay: 8

[All Right on the Knight]

= Just run RIGHT! =
Score: 7
Updated July 19th 2022

For all intents and purposes, this is a very basic, albeit difficult platformer. You jump on dragons, those are your springs, there's another one that presses down when you walk in their line of sight like a Thwomp, and switch blocks. Oh and there's signs.

To interact with signs you press the jump key, which I find inconvenient. This is especially a problem in the first level since there are signs on top of one-tile thick pillars that are difficult to jump off. You have to be at the very edge of those pillars in order to reach a checkpoint and some chandeliers.

Later on I figured out most of the later levels can be solved just by holding right and letting the environment control you, which this game dubs 'The Path of Right'.
Turns out the whole game is designed around just holding right, even though there's nothing stopping me from walking left or jumping to access different parts of each level and find more signs written in Old English (or at least an imitation of it). On one hand, it's a very neat idea, on the other hand, "don't move" or "move right" levels aren't too hard to find in Super Mario Maker.

Speaking of Mario Maker, you used a similar tool to create this, notably a tool called Pocket Platformer. I looked into this and I found that it was extremely limited in what you can do, not unlike Mario Maker. You can change your player's speed, jump height, and slipperiness, but there's only 12 ground tiles (previously 9), 15 background tiles, tiles can't animate more than 2 frames, no 'actual' enemies you can kill and no power-ups. Although it's a decent tool for beginners, I personally wouldn't use it to make a game on Newgrounds, it's not really in the same league as Unity, Godot, Construct 2 or even Scratch, which is also designed for beginners in mind.

Anyways. One cool thing you did with this is a fast-clip, which you can perform by getting stuck in a switch block and moving in the opposite direction. And the music is good, but there's only 3 tracks. And the 'box art' looks good too.

~frog~
Graphics: 7 | Sound: 8 | Entertainment: 7 | Style: 8 | Creativity: 6

TmsT responds:

One good thing about Pocket Platformer that must be said is that complete casuals like me who can't handle the learning curve of Unity, or the price tag of Construct 2, can pick up Pocket Platformer and make a game without much trouble. When making a platformer there are many great options out there, but fewer options if you're a casual or a beginner, so it's nice to see someone make something like Pocket Platformer as a gateway to game design.

Another thing to note is that between when I released this game and when you reviewed it, the developer added more tiles, so it was even more limited (to only 9 ground tiles) when I made it. lol. But it is still being developed all the time, and many of the things you found it lacking in are things that I do too, and I've suggested such things to the dev. I might have to make another game in it later with all the new features that are currently in the pipeline, if I haven't got good at Unity by then!