johnsoma's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Deepest Sword]

My first time beating the game took around 22 minutes, the second time took around 7. The physics are silly, but they can be mastered.

(best time: 5:20)

[MADNESS: Off-Color]

It's definitely based on Madness Interactive, but the small things, like being able to block and see your health bar, make all the difference for how the game feels to play.

Stepford responds:

We took a few elements, and then did our own thing with them! I'm glad you had fun!

[Rushdown Rivals ZERO (2021 Version)]

The core gameplay is quite fun! However, it seems extremely processor intensive. I got an error on my laptop telling me I had run out of application memory while playing this game after 3 attempts at beating it. It also drained my battery extremely fast. Probably some hidden variable that wasn't refreshing properly in the backend.

In summary, the game itself is great, but seems to have technical issues behind the scenes.

[Tooth Toss]

So I guess the secret to high quality games is to make your main character a bug.

Seriously, this is really good. Pretty awkward at first, but then I got good at throwing the sword and catching it in midair and that feels awesome. Also, the pillbug boss is far harder than the final boss.

[Underblood]

That is some jamming music. The game is solid too!

[COMBO HEART]

The combo counter is also your health, so if you mess up your combo, you'll die in one hit. Normally I would say that punishing players that are struggling and making life easier for skilled players is kind of backwards, but enemies also get faster the higher the combo is, and slow down when the combo is dropped. Interesting ideas!

You also don't take damage right away when touching an enemy, instead you get a zoom in effect before you take the hit. I think this is a bit overpowered, because if you keep running at full speed, you'll be able to pass right through enemies and their attacks without getting hit. Then again, if there are a lot of enemies on screen, their attacks can overlap, and then this trick doesn't work as well.

Deflecting bullets with a sword is fun, and there's a thing where a bullet you fire will sometimes fire more bullets of it's own and wipe out everything nearby, but I don't know how to trigger it. You can also double jump, and 'jump' by swinging the sword up. Alternating between sword and gun attacks is also faster than just using one or the other, and I like that.

I'm describing mechanics like this because the game doesn't tell you anything, leaving you to discover all the little nuances for yourself. I actually like that, but not everyone will.

I was going to give a lower rating, since the game doesn't have a huge amount of content and because of that thing with the delayed contact damage, but I think I just talked myself into giving a higher rating. Not bad!

[Final Fantasy Sonic X:Ep6]

A piece of my childhood right here. The story's pretty hokey nowadays, but in a fun way. It's a lot easier than I remember, but that's not a bad thing. It just lets me focus on the AWESOME animation work. That's still something that most RPGs haven't been able to match.

[Rat Game: Roaming of the Wretched Rat]

Pretty shallow. I think part of the problem is that one run isn't long enough to duplicate potions to appear often, so there isn't any point to memorizing their colors. As a result, you just chug whatever you find, and then there's no thought present in the gameplay at all. Sounds like there's more to come, however, so maybe that new content will help.

The soundtrack is fantastic, however.

[Madness: Project Nexus (Classic)]

I'm having an issue where sometimes when I hit a button the game thinks I'm holding it for a few seconds before going back to normal. I'm pretty sure that's a Ruffle-related problem, though. So I'll still give high marks to this game, since it holds up quite well.

[Castle Crashing the Beard HD]

Just plain fun!