Paradox's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Meat Boy]

Cute interpretation of the typical platformer.

I was going to review this a lot earlier; yet I decided I'd leave it until I actually managed to complete the game, since, as I hoped, it had a very sufficient number of levels, and the difficulty throughout was more than satisfactory. If a game can frustrate me yet urge me to continue playing, then it's definitely a good game. Thus, this is one of the best Flash games I have played on Newgrounds.

Firstly, I loved the theme throughout this game. A lot of platformers I've played in the past have been basic, stick-figure, one-dimensional designs which only have the gameplay to make up for them. This game had nice graphics, the characters were original and playable, and the scenery was nice to look at while playing (despite often getting in the way). The storyline may not have been exactly original from the beginning, but the epic twist at the end of the Hell chapter had me surprised. The humour was beautiful too; the boss guy taking a shit was hilarious.

Although it took a while to master, I did find the movement very effective on the overall difficulty of the game. It was quite difficult to jump in the exact place you were aiming to, and as such, it took a while to get used to the controlling. It was nice to see, as it had one of the biggest impacts on the overall difficulty of the game.

One thing I was quite disappointed with was the difficulty curve - or lack of. Although there were many levels which had me frustrated and took me many attempts before finally completing, they weren't placed in any particular pattern. It often seemed like I would spend ages on one level, then spend about two minutes completing the next five. This happened every once in a while, where I feel it might have been better if the difficulty gradually sloped upwards. Regardless, the difficulty level was more above satisfactory. Many games on Newgrounds these days are far too easy, so I was glad for the challenge.

I also noticed there were a lot of worn-out, typical video-game cliches in the game, such as the 'ridiculously easy last level.' At least, that only applies to the Hell chapter, which I suppose you'd consider the last level in the main game. The Hell chapter took me quite a while to get through, and even though I had gotten quite frustrated at times, I was hoping for a near-impossible final challenge. Fortunately, the bonus chapter sufficed for that.

One thing I thought was quite lame, yet had no impact on my playing of the game, was the ability to skip levels, even if there were a few restrictions on that. I chose not to skip any levels to my advantage, so it doesn't have any effect on my enjoyment on the game, but still, I'm sure a lot of people would use this as a way of saying the game's easy.

The weak points aside, this game was brilliant; one of the best I have played in a long time on Newgrounds. A sequel, or as previously suggested, a fan-made level pack, or anything which gets me new levels designed by other people would be swell. After completing all of the levels in the main game (although, I didn't unlock all of the secrets. I'm still working on that as of now), I'm not done with this yet. I'd very much like to see more with this concept.

Other things to note which I enjoyed, such as the music, character designs, 'enemy' obstacles, they all help this game gain a 10 for me. I will undoubtedly play this game through its main levels again sometime, but I would still like to see a sequel, or any way to whore out more levels, as there can never be too many levels in a game like this. It still took a few hours of playing to complete, though, which is quite amazing for a Flash game. Most Flash games lose my interest after about half an hour at the most, so it goes to show how well this game had me hooked.

That being said, there was a sufficient number of levels, and the difficulty throughout them, although irregularly placed, was what made this game the most fun of all factors. I should also try playing this game with a 360 pad sometime, as the movement took a while to master with a keyboard.

I strongly hope you make more.

[- Darkness -]

This game is better than cabbage

This game is better than cabbage

[Jetbot]

I love THIS GAME

I played this game before everyone else HAR HAR HAR. But seriously, this is a great, original game. The difficulty throughout the levels went up and down a lot, but generally the level of difficulty overall was good, so I didn't finish it too quickly but I didn't have to spend hours on one particular level.

The idea itself is unique, so I had fun playing a new, original game. The theme for the game, being a flying robot-thing was also pretty great. The game was obviously scripted well as there were no horrible glitches or anything.

The graphics and animation is also great, so good job finding a great artist for this one, Dan. The stars I felt were something that could have been replaced - you use stars in most of your games and generally stars don't mean much to anything. But then again, I probably can't think of anything you could replace them with.

The levels were mostly fun, a few really got on my tits at times but I did manage to complete it, which means the levels overall must have been great, and they were. The few 'fun' levels which lacked difficulty were also cool, maybe there could have been a few more like that, but that might make the game too easy. Thirty levels though, is a good amount to have.

Although I know you were strapped for level ideas, so it would be quite a feat, I would like a sequel to this, or maybe something similar so you don't have to concern yourself with the level designs so much. But yes, a sequel to this game would be great. This is probably the best of your games so far.

Great job with this. I hope this gets frontpage. ALSO GUYS I SWEAR PSYCHO DIDN'T PAY ME TO REVIEW THIS, KTHX.

Psycho responds:

Yeah, I was thinking of making a sequel. Level design would be difficult, though. Might make it sidescrolling and give him a gun or something.

Thanks for the review, wuz awesome.

['Geom 3D]

Very fun 3D arcade game.

The thing I love about 3D Flash games is that they don't have to be as incredible and playable as 2D games, because I can respect that it's hard to make a Flash game in 3D, and I respect that. This game however, I can see how you put the effort in anyway, and it's not just the 3D graphics that impress me.

I love how very arcade-like this game is, I can relate this to many games from the retro generation which I haven't played for years. The levels were fun, the controls were great, and I can see how this game wouldn't be as good if it were in 2D, nor would it make much sense anyway.

The only thing which lets this game down is the lack of real playability. There's not many level types, although what there is is fun. I don't play this for too long at a time, if I manage to not lose all of my lives too quickly anyway, but it's not the kind of game where I'll only play it once or twice, I've played this game quite a few times and I will continue to do so. Of course, the game could use some sound effects. Sound effects add to a game's greatness too.

Good job with this unique 3D arcade game. If you made a sequel (and my main suggestion of course would be to add more playability), I would definitely play it and enjoy it.

Another thing that I liked about this game is the AWESOMEYAY logo. Glad to see this game was sponsored. I'm an admin there. :D

Disarray-yarrasiD responds:

Thanks!

I'll keep in mind what you said about the sound effects :D

Glad you liked the game.

[Sonny]

Pushing the limits of Flash.

This game in my opinion exceeds Flash's limits, although I never thought it was possible, at least not to the skill seen in this game, the concept of a turn-based RPG with a proper battle system really can be done professionally in Flash.

This game to me seems like something that would be seen on a console. The graphics were great, the battle system was great, it had great gameplay and everything. If this were longer, I could see me playing this for a long time, without getting bored at all, as though it were a real turn-based RPG on a console.

Other than the fact that it was quite short, this game is perfect. I loved playing it, the battles were fun, and the system was pretty unique and worked well. I would definitely play a sequel.

[Castle Crashing the Beard]

Very fun classic arcade game.

This game was truly wonderful, the graphics (including Tom's AWESOME beard) brought the game together so well, that it made this a very fun game. I also liked the concept of playing as one of the Castle Crashers, it helps bring me one step closer to playing the REAL Castle Crashers. :)

Other than the graphics being beautiful (not just that sexy beard), the controls and everything like that were also great, they were simple, and it was very easy to get the hang of the game. I liked how there was a levelling up system, and how using combos and such made it easier to level up and defeat the beard.

I honestly wasn't expecting a second form though, that caught me off-guard when I actually finally defeated the first form, it took quite a few tries as well, so the difficulty was great. After about eight or nine plays though, I managed to defeat both forms, although the second one wasn't as hard as the first providing you keep distance from him when he fires the flames.

So basically, a great game lies here, I will definitely play it again, due to its brilliant classic arcade style, and also because as I've said repeatedly, Tom's beard is HOT.

[Newgrounds Pass 2]

Not as great as they're hyped up to be.

I've played and completed both the first one and this sequel, although before playing this one I was actually expecting more. The main flaws with the first one were the graphics, and the questions, mainly, and both seemed to have transferred to the sequel. I can see potential for these games, because the concept's always a fun one, the idea of figuring out brain-testing puzzles to get through and complete them.

The questions are relatively good, but there are only a few once in a while which actually manage to get me thinking, a lot of them were very simple. The same thing applies to both this and its prequel, and I was hoping for much more interesting and original questions. A lot of the questions were also too exclusive to certain people and therefore biased in the sense that, it would be impossible for some people to actually know the answer, but I noticed there was less of that in this one than the prequel, so good job with that.

The real thing I was disappointed with mainly though, were the graphics. I understand it was an attempt to make it as NG-themed as possible, but the layout and generally the design as a whole didn't look too good, it was pretty much a basic background with a few relevant buttons, text boxes... but compared to NG, there was a lot of design missing which makes it significantly different.

Other than that, the only other thing I found quite tedious was the password box - a lot of the time I had to look at my keyboard while typing so I could make sure I didn't make a typo, that's already a very tedious problem I have with REAL passwords. I can see how it was done to give that extra effect of it being a "crack-the-password" style game but nonetheless, it's fairly annoying.

Other than that, a lot of the questions were fairly fun... and if you plan to make a third one, simply giving the graphics some improvement would probably be enough to make an eight, and an addition of lots more questions - more original and interesting questions would potentially earn a nine. But at the moment, I can't find enough enjoyment to earn you anymore than a six.

M4KBOT responds:

fair enough.

[Ninjotic Mayhem]

Pretty fun, kept me playing for quite a while.

This game was a fun little time-killer that I could play over and over, if the game had a few more attacking modes I'd have played for longer and probably would have lasted longer too, but it was still fun to hack and slash at the zombies.

The graphics and animations were beautiful too, I liked the way they died, it was simply brilliant, and seeing that happen multiple times in one go was just great. I also happened to notice the goatse-themed level, which gave me a small chuckle too.

Hopefully you get round to making a sequel or at least something similar to this game, I enjoyed it and I'd definitely play a sequel.

[Orb Blaster]

An interesting twist on defense games.

Haven't played a defense game quite like this before, since you could actually push the enemies away from you rather than just blow them up instantly, but instead you could blow them up when they group up in order to get combos and a higher score, etc. So therefore, I quite liked the interesting twist this game had. The only reason I couldn't find myself playing this game for too long was because after a while it got pretty repetetive, the bombs regenerated somewhat too easily, and it was too hard to group the enemies together to get a good combo.

But apart from those small flaws, I liked the way this defense game was different from the others, so I'll give you a 7/10 for it.

[Nodes 2]

Very interesting and fun.

This game was a fresh concept which was simple to understand and to play. It took me a while to figure out some levels, although a lot of them were actually very easy, even on the hard mode there were some hard levels. Understandably, it would be somewhat harder with the timer on in the background if I had it enabled, but once you've gone through the game a few times you could just play it with the timer on and you'd know exactly where to place everything to light the nodes up.

Other than that, this game had a cool concept and I had a lot of fun with it. I haven't tried the level editor yet, but no doubt I can get quite a bit of fun making challenging levels with that too, so this game is very fun and if I had more patience I might try to make my own very, very hard levels.

Hope you get round to making a Nodes 3.