Anonymous-Frog's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Windows 96 Emulator (Read Des)]

I've got 3 reasons for this score:
1. The idea was already taken and executed worse than the original, which itself can't be recommended (see reason 3). There's less content overall.
2. BEEAAAANNNNNNNNNS is not a good joke.
3. Windows parodies are a dime and dozen on various game website and this one doesn't really set itself apart from the rest.

See 'Why They Intentionally Get the BSoD' on Crappy Games Wiki. A lot of the points made also apply to this and Michaelsoft Binbows 97, especially points 1, 5, 6 and 10.
https://crappygames.miraheze.org/wiki/Windows%27_Flash_parodies

sn1ck3rs responds:

Thanks for the response I guess. But you got remember this was made by some teenager in like a month so of course it's gonna be shit.

[The Life and Death of Boe]

TIPS:
1. If you don't want to wait around watching all those unskippable deaths just to get to a later stage, right click the flash, and click 'Forward' on the option screens.

2. I recommend using the Newgrounds Player. Ruffle only just supports AS3 stuff. Due to this game's simplicity, only the main menu buttons don't fully work." In addition, although you can click on the credits, they won't generate links in either Ruffle or the NG Player.

NOTES:
- Typo in the credits, Enophano is credited as "Enphano" for his role in the shower scene.

INDIVIDUAL REVIEWS FOR EACH PART: (this is a long one, last updated August 29th 2022)
ALARMCLOCK: (MrPakoMan)
This is a 5 from me. Don't kill me Freddy!

DREAM (midgetsausage)
Boe literally shapetweened to the door, aside from that, very trippy. 8/10

BED (Noodle)
This is long. Boe narrowly avoids death for about a minute, only for a bee to be the final blow. Very well animated and definitely an improvement from the last two Kill Boe games.

CLOTHES (TWATurner)
Having multiple shirts of the same color is pretty much an overused trope. I spot 7 of these shirts, not counting what he's already wearing.

TOOTHBRUSH (Phaox05)
Outlines were pretty thick, especially the backgrounds.

NEWSPAPER (Dungeonation)
Very solid, yet still pretty basic, but a dog stealing newspapers? Blood could be better.

CEREAL (TheADHX)
Actually pretty good.

WINGS (DMpls)
Santa being stuck is a nice attention to detail, but the fence appears bent on both sides.
Quick thing to note is that Boe didn't actually fly with wings.

SHOES (MetalSlayer69)
A rough, yet valiant attempt of frame by frame was made using realistic proportions for Boe, but cheapened out by using a stock photo of a sniper.

BIKE (This is my own part, so here's a little director's commentary)
My part is broken. Boe runs over a boost panel, like the ones in Mario Kart, but there was supposed to be a mask layer so that the arrow texture stays inside the panel. There was also a scene where Boe gets on the bike. That's also cut.
I was trying to emulate the style of @koit for this, while still using more realistic colouring. There's a Sheriff Poo billboard if you pay attention.

PETSHOP (DellTheEngineer / dellzer, name not visible onscreen)
Crap, utter crap. On the first scene it looks like it was drawn in MS Paint with anti-aliasing, which leaves behind so many white artifacts. This could've been avoided entirely by drawing it IN FLASH, which subsequent backgrounds do. Also, please set your brush smoothness higher than 40, but less than 50 for best results.

BANK
This is missing, and has been for 3 months already!

CLOTHES STOP (dloppp)
Considering how basic Boe looks, you could afford to animate him a bit better. Also there's a real photo of clothes on display.

FRISBEE (53xy83457)
Boe is literally just three rectangles on top. On another note, this could use a background, maybe that checkerboard one you use in Project Pixkill.

KITE (Demented-Duskull)
Background's nice, although I think it was done outside of Flash, hence why it appears pixelated when I fullscreen it. As Egoraptor once said, "Crystal clear without all this fuzzy compression BS". This is not the case.

DOG (klonkorbonk)
No audio. Dog turns into goat. Animation's very stiff. also.. WHITE VOID ALERT! This is common throughout the collab.

DUCKS (MrDuK)
This almost feels surreal of sorts. The tile texture appears like it's scrolling to the right, there's orange slimy blobs in the grass, and somehow the water stays still. Probably used the shape tween in some areas and Flash filters not supported by Ruffle.

MCDONALDS (BigTexasTony)
I honestly expected better. In the car when Boe is eating the burger, there's WHITE VOID out the windows, even though in the previous scene there's a brick wall.

RESTAURANT (flimflam-obj)
It's decent, but why would Boe order a whole chicken just for himself? That's a lot of leftovers.

CAFE (LazyPix3l)
Very shaky outlines. Like with the pet shop scene, try a brush smoothness of 40-49

DINOSAUR (megadrivesonic)
Drawn extremely well, but it was a little short

FISH (prestigiogio)
Even without faces this is very expressive and good looking.

FOSSIL (TheBigSurprise aka PuffballsUnited)
It definitely was a big surprise that PuffballsUnited, the creator of the Henry Stickmin series, another similar 'stickman click button' type game series, one that managed to get a full Steam release in 2020 with superb visuals. His part in Kill Boe 3 manages to capture that energy just as well.

Also, just so you know, Kill Boe came first. The original Kill Boe actually predates Crossing the Pit by a few months (KB was posted in August 2007 while CtP was in December, and KB was originally conceived two years prior) Kill Boe 2 was also released before Breaking the Bank, both fleshed out their respective characters.

WEIGHTS (Lobster-Monster)
Boe is depicted as a semi-realistic human, one that could struggle to lift weights. I'm surprised that he only snapped his back from the weight.

BOXING (MassiveMarioLuigi700)
Decent frame by frame animation with backgrounds. Also some neat cameos. Can you recognise them?

TREADMILL (sodacloud)
That looks surviveable. Granted, this is a cartoon, but what actually killed Boe? Getting sucked out of the treadmill or the dumbbells? I don't see no blood!

VR HEADSET (s-zenmode)
This one actually has shading in it, but the fan has a different coloured outline on it and the next background (especially the 'Boe's House' sign don't look too impressive to me

BOOKS (SuperJeffoMan)
This one actually has voice acting in it, and the animation's clean too. Very good.

TV (Lukeshardo)
Forget dying in seven days, Boe dies to Mr. Generic Horror Movie Villian in 7 seconds! Ever watched 'The Ring?'

DISHES (Pajamagator)
Boe gets sucked into a tap. It's supposed to kill him. Cartoon logic doesn't make sense here.

PET ROCK (OreoScarFire)
No sound effects, plus the rock has poor physics. Just a straight up to down motion. This is Flash, you can do better motion tweens. There's an 'Ease' function for just that.

SHOWER (ButtChamber)
Ok, another white void scene. How is it there's so many of them? And is that Statler and Waldor.. wait a minute!
*pulls mask off*
I knew it! Doobus Goobus. You're the true mastermind behind this! You think I don't recognise your "style" from a mile away, and crawl your shitty quickly made movies back into the Newgrounds ecosystem under a different name without any improvement?
Like, butt chamber? What kind of nonsense name is that? Worst pseudonym ever! You could've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for them meddling kids!

DAY'S END (Noodle again)
So the day's end and you sat through 30 other parts. What's your reward? a meteor? the Death Star? Galactus? Guess we won't be seeing Kill Boe 4.

Overall, a worthy sequel and a nice grand finale to "the original Henry Stickmin".

[Kolo Terorita]

OK, so SiIvaGunner is doing Newgrounds more often, not just for the Newgrounds Day event. I hope this carries on in future events.

The game itself is an arcade-esque game where you have to get as many 'shakes' as possible. It plays well enough, but later on once you gain a fuckton of upgrades does it just become 'run away while you hold both mouse buttons down', much like the later bosses in the Terraria Calamity Mod.

In my most recent playthrough, my lightsaber deflects enemy projectiles, which previously were extremely difficult to dodge in tight situations. I also thought this would be endless until I beat the final boss, after that it just ended.

SUGGESTIONS:
1. The option to not pick an upgrade for 'teh ultimate challenge!', in case some YouTuber wants to do a 'Can you Beat Kolo Terorita Without Upgrades' video
(UPDATE: This is sort of added by making the upgrades optional)

2. Fix the game over screen. I can click the replay button before it even starts properly
3. An endless mode.

Also #4. Nerf the difficulty in Mug Only mode.
and #5. Let me remap the controls. Middle click sucks (for some users)

GAME TIPS:
Upgrade the lightsaber when possible. Once it becomes big and fast enough for multiple sabers to spawn, you can deflect enemy bullets back, which would otherwise end your game if not careful.

~frog~

[Phase 3.0]

Identical to 2.0, except with new music, title screen, hazards, and 3 more stages.

Points from the last review:
> Admits that getting stuck in blocks is a problem
> Barebones graphics (now with blue sky and red lasers!)
> Basic platforming without scrolling
> Annoying and repetitive music loop (gone in v2, but now MORE annoying)

Don't post a new version as a new submission. You can update the old one.

Exemo responds:

Dude it's got 3 new levels

[Phase 2.0]

Identical to the last submission, except without music and two extra screens.

Points from the last review:
> Admits that getting stuck in blocks is a problem
> Barebones graphics (the addition of a rock platform that's harder to notice doesn't fix this.
> Basic platforming without scrolling
> Annoying and repetitive music loop (gone now)
> Only three screens (now five)

Exemo responds:

Can you do better?

[Phase]

> Admits that getting stuck in blocks is a problem
> Barebones graphics.
> Basic platforming without scrolling
> Annoying and repetitive music loop
> Only three screens
You expect me to give a good rating with this?

Edit: This being bad/annoying on purpose without any redeeming qualities won’t make the score go any higher.

Exemo responds:

This Game is supposed to be Annoying so deal with it

[Pico Clicker]

Messy and unbalanced! (as of version 1.9)

I'm not scoring this low because this is a clicker game, or uses Scratch, but because this clicker game has a ton of flaws, especially for something with 4.3 stars.

For starters, this is REALLY unbalanced.
The earlier click tiers are easy to obtain once you get at least one of the latest upgrades, and very easy to stock up. The only exception is the +10M points upgrade, which costs 15M points, yet the upgrade before that only gives +15,000 and costs 100,000. After you get the +10M upgrade, you only need to click it twice to buy it again, or five times to get the next upgrade, or ten times to win, practically making the game even easier than the start.

OTHER FLAWS.
- The screen's also cluttered full of buttons. I believe there are several more efficient ways of organising them, even without scrolling involved.
- The shop doesn't show the characters you buy and is just a wall of text that's hard to read.
-The character you click, whether it's Pico or the eight other unlockable characters, are just static images ripped straight from Pico's School, or in the case of the last three skins, traced/modified from Pico.
- Bland white void background. At least put something there!
- The "Piconjo" skin is based on MindChamber's design, ie. ButtChamber, NOT Piconjo!
- Save/Load system is bugged. There are times where the load bar won't go away.

I hope all of these can be fixed.

MISC:
The saves use an easy to understand formula without encryption, making them easy to modify. I'm not saying this is good/bad. I'm just informing you.

How to Doctor a Save.
Use this format:
(Score)/(Click count)/(9 digit binary code (for each character you bought)/(CurrentCharacter)
Put whatever you want in here, whether it's an absurdly high score or click power.
Example:
999999999999999999999999/999999999999/111111111/GalaxyPico

Impossible Mode:
0/0/000000000/Pico

IOU Mode:
Just put a negative number in the load menu. It'll work just fine.

~frog~

[Survival of the Fetus]

The two maze sections in this demo were pretty hard, but otherwise it's very solid. It sucks that the Kickstarter failed.

[Arm flapper]

Broken.

Loading text doesn't fit on screen
'Keep Going' is broken. After I click it, the man automatically flaps. Click it again and the score breaks. 'Stop' resets the score and also stops the music.

Even if it did work properly, it's more of a novelty.

[game boy's madness]

Even though it's nice that the graphics and presentation are a little better (themed around the Game Boy) it doesn't look like you changed the gameplay much, (which itself is on the easy side and the only real challenge is not losing your beat) and still feels Game and Watch-esque.

Have a look at the Game and Watch Gallery series, which have a collection of multiple games, each one having both a 'classic' mode, which recreates the original, and a 'modern' mode, which revamps the graphics + gameplay in a way that's not possible on the original Game and Watch system.
https://www.mariowiki.com/Game_%26_Watch_Gallery_(series)

If I was to give this game the same level of magic I did for Gun Shit Die, I would've taken that approach, ie. in 'modern' mode, there'd be smoother animation + movement for both Tricky and the grunts, the grunts move in different patterns, and maybe have Sanford, Deimos, Hank, etc that move in less predictable patterns and take more hits, only being knocked back if not killed.

TBerger responds:

Thanks for the review, I will take a look and perhaps even make an update to this pseudo remake