johnsoma's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Winter Falling: Price of Life]

I...don't think my brain is big enough to handle this game. It's so easy for me to spend too many resources early and be stuck in an unwinnable position lategame.

(Although, looking at the review from @blurrymadness tells me I was spending too much time trying to play the game legitimately and that spamming AOEs is the way to go)

Rarykos responds:

Oh yeah it's all about saving! The hint is in the name! There are, I think, 3 viable playstyles. Spamming AOE is more of a cheesy fun and high risk. But it's a fun way to play!
Thanks for playing! Glad you tried!

[Deck Adventurers - Chapter 1]

This is really good! Lots of hard choices to make and strategies that can be pulled off. Nice work!

[Fight and Flight]

Wow, this game is amazing. Simple at it's core, but incredibly well-realized and highly polished. Gameplay is really snappy and responsive and the style of the game really makes it stand out. Fantastic work!

(best score: 597)

[ROOM ROOM]

Interesting take! It kinda lags on my system, but the puzzles are clever and gameplay is snappy, so it's still good.

(Although, I didn't know about the mechanic with the rooms hitting you until I looked at another review on here. Just not immediately obvious)

[Slimoban 2]

At it's core, it's a block pushing game, not the first of it's kind. I think it's got enough unique mechanics to stand out, though. It's really hard, though. Level 19 is the furthest I could get without the walkthrough.

[Frantic Fighter]

(Updated 11/14 due to significant updates)

Let's get the good out of the way first. The main menu UI has been updated and is now much cleaner. The art and music are also still solid. The new pattern maps are also significantly better and do a better job at giving each monster a unique feel.

Now for the bad. The controls are not intuitive at all. Instead of using a set of buttons that are set up in a row or using the arrow keys, this seems to have just used random buttons on the keyboard. This wasn't a problem in the last version, because of how simple everything was, but now it's a big problem when put alongside the increased difficulty.

Some lesser problems
- Losing to a monster will move you on to the next monster in the list, as if you won. There doesn't seem to be any penalty for losing, or incentive to win, as money doesn't have any purpose
- By contrast, making a single mistake in battle will send you all the way back to the beginning of the monster's pattern, which is extremely punishing.
- You can use the mouse to click buttons, and the tutorial even tells you to do this, but later monsters require multiple buttons pressed at the same time, which isn't possible with a mouse, so why bother having mouse controls in the game?
- Help screen still describes the old UI, and is useless as a result.

Basically, this game needs serious help, but at the same time, I'm starting to see some potential to be more than a simple time waster.

Icekiller33 responds:

I just updated the game so you get to see all the monsters quicker and also updated the patterns to make them more fun! I also did a reside for the main menu, I hope it's clearer now. Thanks for playing and leaving feedback :)

[Aground]

The mining and survival components are similar to Minecraft or Terarria, but this game separates itself with a deeper story and actual characters and goals. For a demo, there is a lot of content here, as well. Amazing work!

[Dragonfire: A Game of Pixels]

Eh. Game looks and sounds nice enough, but there are some pretty severe problems.

-Everything being so dark makes it hard to see what's what
-No reliable way to dodge attacks makes trying to get good at the game frustrating
-Seeing as this is an endless game where you go for a high score, why bother with upgrades at all? The game doesn't really begin once you get all of them, the way it is now, so why not just be at full power right away?

[You Broke the Game]

Pretty basic, but the platforming itself is fun and precise.

(Time: 3:01 damn it)

[Ex4ce Beginnings]

Well @FuturecopLGF kinda summed up my thoughts on this one. I'd also add that while the rest of the game progresses smoothly enough, the final boss suddenly spikes up the difficulty to such an extreme that it is nigh impossible to beat without being fully upgraded.