Zhon's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Adventure?]

This is a nice shell of a game. If you did this in only an hour it is pretty impressive, I would love to see where you could take it by expanding gradually. Only thing I would say is that the double jump is a little buggy - if you touch the ceiling after a single jump, you can't jump again.

Keep at it!

[FamousPaintings Parodies2]

Pretty fun, some of the parodies were hilarious and it was well put together. The transitions could use some polishing and maybe a better way to show that your answer was wrong. Also it was essentially a 50/50 chance if you knew anything about popular culture (Come on, Mortal Kombat?) so it would be nice to see a more serious quiz.

I got 25 of them, not bad I guess... Art school taught me something.

[Square Dodger]

Pros about this game:
- The elements that are present are properly functioning.
- Adding customization was a step in the right direction.

Cons about this game:
- The execution was too simple. Try changing the speed, size, frequency, etc. of the falling squares.
- The graphics are too simple. Try adding a custom cursor to help players see their hitbox better. Some interesting visual effects on the squares and possibly a simple background design could be nice. More responsive play / replay buttons are a good touch to add as well.
- Customization is difficult. Either add a pause function when changing colors, or have a main menu where you can do that.

I see that this is your first game so I am guessing you were just excited to get something in the portal. Please take the above as constructive criticism and try to reserve your portal submissions for really polished projects, and maybe share your tests or stepping stone projects on the forums instead using the dumping grounds.

Keep at it!

[Earn money online]

While tutorials are legitimate submissions... This isn't really a tutorial. It's just some general information. The information itself is alright.

[Jump Knight]

While I rated this game completely objectively in reference to the Newgrounds portal, I must say that playing this little adventure made me feel happy. It's good to know that someone is interested in spreading knowledge like this. I remember being 8 and spending all day and all night making things like this in Game Maker... Major props to you for being an awesome mentor.

[Magic Life Counter]

There are tons of applications like this floating around in various forms... This one is overly simple. I agree with the other reviewers that said it needs more to it. A +/-5 button on each counter would be cool too. There is a lot of potential to make useful MTG apps, so use your imagination and think of what else you could implement that would help make gameplay more efficient. Something I've always wanted to see was a "what if" button, where you could enter all the cards in play and in your hand, and see interesting/powerful combos. This is obviously a huge endeavor in scope but I'm just giving some motivation to think of ideas.

Anyway, to comment on what is already in the flash, I do believe the poster below me is right - you should watch your copyrights. Also the dice should be more easily accessible, not in the options, and you could make it custom-sided.

[Kingdoms CCG]

It is true that single player lasts a long time, but I see that as a plus side. A lot of people don't like PvP and prefer to face off against the AI. Also, if you just want to get through the campaign, you don't have to refill with gems... Spend a few coins on purchasing refill/max energy boosters and it will go much faster. They do get pricey, but if you are planning on completing the campaign 100% you will have more than enough coins in the long run.

Anyway; I love this game, the only thing I wish it had was more player interaction. It is *possible* to interact with players but there is no real incentive except for guilds. Something like a 2v2 ladder or a multiplayer campaign would slay that issue.

[Super Adventure Pals]

Simple and fun gameplay, I really enjoyed this. However I have two complaints.
One: bugs. The character would randomly stop responding to inputs if I held them down for too long, resulting in stopping mid-air and falling into a pit or losing my tongue helicopter right over a spike. Frustrating to say the least.
Two: too easy. I was playing cautiously at first to avoid taking damage but after I realized how common potions were I just ran through every level.

Suggestions: obviously fix the bug if you can, and make dying cost a potion (or make them a lot less common). I'd die to spikes or falling or hammers or whatever but still have 20-something potions.

[ir/rational Redux]

Very interesting game concept, I really enjoyed it. It was just a little too sarcastic for my tastes but overall still funny and enjoyable. The puzzles were easy for me until the last one with the arbitrary symbols.

tjubert responds:

Thanks. Yeah, I'd scale back a bit on the voice if I did it over, I think.

[Wizard Walls]

Key things I like about this game:
- New spin to the defense genre. Well, not entirely new, but it's a breath of fresh air and contains much originality. It's not a clone.
- Executed very well. The game looks and feels very polished and is overall just a pleasing experience.
- Fun graphics. I just love the artistic style.
- Addicting gameplay. A lot of defense games leave me bored after the first few levels. The fact that you have essentially five different game modes makes it easy to stay interested.

There are a few points I dislike about this game:
- The spells aren't very creative and only a few are really useful. They don't do anything unique that adds an interesting element of strategy. I found that the bubble spell was the most interesting in that it was useful for deflecting rocks back up at enemies to kill them.
- The spells also weren't terribly useful. Heal and magnet are great standard spells for this type of game and they worked just fine. Since fireballs were on such a long cooldown I'd expect them to be more powerful - they take two casts to kill the shield holders. Freeze spells only delay the death of your enemies since you need them to throw rocks to kill them. Stone line again is a little detracting from gameplay because you need those stones to kill your enemies. Bubble line was a nice useful spell.
- Too easy to abuse mechanics. Really, if you just draw a line right in front of the enemy's head they throw the rock and are immediately hit by it. The only time I didn't do this was on the siege levels and the boss levels when I was trying to aim all of the rocks at the boss.

Overall the spell system, which seems like it should be an integral part of the game, takes out a full star for me. It just leaves a lot to be desired. The other .5 star is for my third negative point because it is something that removed much of the challenge of the game, especially in the first 3-4 tiers of levels.