Troisnyx's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fleeing the Complex]

I probably differ from the vast majority of people reviewing this. That's fine. I personally found the game a bit too nonsensical for my taste. I guess it was true that a lot of conclusions weren't supposed to make sense and everything was ex machina, but some of them flat out didn't make sense -- Sonic's spring kills you, but the Super Jump DOESN'T? for example. This makes the game a pure die-and-retry, a kind of game that I have zero respect for. Even if it's fairly easy to retry and get the medals, that concept makes it unnecessarily drawn out. Honestly, this is to Flash gaming as Dragon's Lair is to arcade and console gaming -- even if this one is a bit easier. I cannot mince my words.

The music was well done, and the stick animation was fun, I guess. And I suppose there were many parodies of depictions of Alcatraz in popular media, so this has been, at the same time, something original AND something unoriginal. It's not necessarily a bad thing or a good thing, it's just a thing.

The highest point of this thing is the voice acting. It was pretty well done. The Russian voices were not tacky in the slightest.

Maybe I'm a stickler for really well done scenario and parodies aren't necessarily my thing, I don't know. But I didn't have as much fun with this as others did. And maximum security prisons with Russian-accented personnel make me think of areas in the world where prisons without escape are a reality, rather than a parody -- and I cannot help but feel a greater sense of pathos than most people would. >_< It also brings back awful thoughts about losing my own freedoms, which can't be regained through video game means.

3/5.

PuffballsUnited responds:

This probably isn't your kind of game then. You're supposed to enjoy seeing the fails, not get disappointed because you picked the wrong choice. It's not meant to be taken too seriously either. Cartoon physics and such.

I wasn't really trying to draw any parallels to Alcatraz but I could see how they could be interpreted.

I'm glad you liked the voices and music!

If parodies aren't really your thing either then I'm not surprised you didn't like it that much.

Thanks for the honest review though!

[Frankenstein: Do-It-Yourself!]

Alright, here are my thoughts. I played this game yesterday but didn't really get to review it because of how late it was.

The graphics look basic. I guess we can't fault them because they do try to look like what they're resembling e.g. windmills, gravestones, Frankenstein monsters, but... I think I'd appreciate it if they were given a bit more depth. The monsters look boxy, but I know what you were trying to do with them.

The music... I can see what you're trying to do with it, but I find it's the wrong instrumentation for it. This sort of game warrants the music from the Mario Wii and U Ghost Houses in the way of feel. That bass sounds... I don't know, eeeeeh. A short, detached organ would have done the trick, and would have given us the spooks.

What's worse is that in battle, there's no fitting battle music -- there's absolutely nothing! It feels... empty. Even an ambient sound would've done the trick... I mean, what would you hear when you went into a graveyard? You wouldn't hear complete silence like this -- the wind would be rustling in the trees every now and then. There may be crickets. If not, you could just hear the breeze if and when it blows.

The gameplay is nice. It's a simple, turn-based RPG almost. The mechanics are simple, and there's nothing wrong with simplicity. We would have appreciated different animations for normal / strong attacks, etc.

Overall, the game is in full working order, but could do with a lot more atmosphere to it.

3/5.

t4upl responds:

I tried to create proper combat music, I thought about rock tune but music generators made all music so terribly happy so I gave up.

I never thought about organs - that would work really well for map screen. I have mixed feelings about the wind sound, that would require using sfx libraries and that is forbidden during compo.

Game was supposed to have more life in it (on map: lightning in the sky, moving windmills) . Given the timelapse I concentrated on combat mechanics and just prayed that it will work.

[Nomzilla: Munching Mayhem]

Really cute. ^_^ As people said before me, the music is repetitive. However, the graphics are excellent, and I just can't get enough of the nomming movement of our little monster.

It does feel a bit of a letdown that I don't have much to achieve except a high score, and to me, it does feel like a drag doing it over and over again. But let me just say right off the bat, for a 48-hour job, I can easily let that slip. It is bugless, and works fine. Good job.

4/5.

[Project Box]

The game mechanics are simple, I guess... I have no complaints about the core mechanic. The background really looks nice. I like the urban feel you're using with this.

I cannot help but bemoan the lack of music or ambience apart from the background. It's so quiet; I would have hoped even for the faintest traffic noise, but not even that was present. It's too austere. What the game also doesn't tell us is that even touching a box by its side makes you automatically lose, despite not being out of bounds. It's a bit of a nasty shock.

The other thing is that I get that you're handling a box monster. At least *make* it look remotely evil... Or maybe, give it some character. Make it a pretty, pretty box that's actually evil inside. Surely it's not that far-fetched? You've got *some* artistic skill, at least from what I see with the BG. It looks so good; I really, really wish you could make your imagination run wild with this.

2/5.

adiokristoffer responds:

thanks for your feedback :D i tried making it look like a monster but im bad at art that i decided to make it simple XD thanks for the good comment about the bg im glad you liked it XD

[Bvbbles]

The game looks awfully simplistsic; some better transitions and a better menu screen would have been appreciated. The square colour changes quite quickly, so it would be nice to see some upgrades (e.g. cursor speed).

The music is fine. However, I've also noticed you can't mute the sound, which makes it a bit awkward when you've got something playing in the background. Recommend listening to the music, but don't enforce it.

3/5.

Cyxo responds:

Well, I made this game with Construct 2 Free a while ago, and I already have the 50 max events, so that I can't add sound muting or thing like that. Maybe if I have time to, I'll fully recode it in HTML5 - JS, but I'm currently really busy.

Thanx anyway for your useful comment ;)

[GemCraft Chasing Shadows]

Okay. Playing 68 fields, quite a few on Glaring, and I've been at this for nearly a month. I think it's high time I wrote a review.

The 9x speed was a very, VERY welcome feature, but of course, it tests one's reflexes. I also like the new additions to the good old Gemcraft gameplay that we know and love.

The difficulty spike on Vision fields is unnecessary. Or if it REALLY were, then it should be recommended to us what level we should be at.

The music is so ambient and beautiful, and very chilling. I also like the addition of the journey notes; it gives greater depth to the story than in previous Gemcraft games. It makes it so personal.

What irks me the most is that this is a demo, and some levels are inaccessible to us unless we get it on Steam. That makes it a blatant rip-off. Labyrinth did not have any of this bullcrap; even if you had limited features, you still had a sporting chance with every level.

4/5.

[Falling Doges]

No music, crappy sound effects, crappy visuals... pretty much the only thing going for it is the medals.

[Droppin Beats Remix]

Decent. I'd have preferred some less MIDI-sounding remixes/covers, and better design -- something that doesn't scream "TACKY!" when you look at the result screen -- Tetris was especially notorious for this. The best level design, the way I see it, was Kirby -- it was so simple.

The game mechanics are so nice, and the medals were decently easy to get. It was a short and sweet affair. Have a bit of bullet-time introduced as a power-up, this may switch things up to make them more exciting. Also, I don't know about you, but perhaps have the things that appear as notes actually.... move? -- like, animated wings on the bees, movement... Some of them have got to be homing? This feels a bit... unexciting.

TL;DR: Game mechanics are nice but could seriously use some innovation, otherwise it gets really old really fast. Graphics could use an update, i.e. life-like "notes", bullet time, and something that doesn't look like people ripped sprites off the game and put it into a 2-star animation.

3/5.

[Match 3]

Giving it a 1, because

1) the game is quite simple and would warrant a 2 normally for not being too new or interesting,

2) you stole Phyrnna's track, "The Stage is Set," and I recognise it because it's the introduction theme to Bullet Heaven 3.3, and DID NOT GIVE HER CREDIT. The track is on Newgrounds and REQUIRES ATTRIBUTION, but you did not give it her. There is no link to the track you used on your game's sidebar, nor is it actually in the game's credits -- if it actually does have credits.

Please sort that as soon as possible. I have contacted Phyrnna and some of my friends on the Audio Portal about this theft.

1/5.