TerribleDesign's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fort Fight]

I played though this 4 times, how fitting. :)

I really want to like this game, but there are several issues where I just can't.

Let's talk about the good!
HTML5! Really, this is very well made for HTML 5! The animation and voice acting and music all streamed very quickly that it seemed like there was absolutely no loading! I really appreciate that!
The way the plane moves. Not necessarily the controls. The way it reacted to gravity and acting like it would stall if you fly straight up was very realistic for the type of plane modeled. But my favorite aspect was how it bounced on the ground, I loved doing that in the tutorial stage as it didn't kill you! :) I would like to see a reaction/puzzle based game where you have to fly your plane though all sorts of crazy levels and bounce off of walls and other interesting areal maneuvers that are not possible in real life. I didn't have an issue with the controls.
As for the graphical features I liked, I loved the Newgorounds Logo, the forts, and the little puff of smoke your shots made when they impacted the ground. Those were all very cool to look at. I think that the barren sky could have been filled with more interesting details.
Finally, the soundtrack was nice to listen to. The SFX may have been a bit too loud, but that wasn't an issue with me. I really like the Wilhelm scream in one of the endings. The one time I cracked a smile. I also liked the voice that sounded like Markiplier. Was it Markiplier?

Now for the not so good. :(
Again, I really want to like this game, and I would consider all of these things to ultimately detract from the experience.
The intro. Not the length or anything, but the really lack luster content and "humor?" I also figured out how to skip it without reading or looking at anything, but I did watch it twice to make sure that I actually didn't like it. I don't like it.
For being a game about flight, there really isn't too much flight featured. I also don't care about Gunnar, and that is kind of not good as he is the most complex character in the game. I can sympathize with his dreams, and I can understand how he could want to make leisure flying cars as well as war bound aircraft, but I just don't care about him because he cares about soup and a toilet and his car, but mostly his toilet. Honestly the intro wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the ending... But let's talk about the short gameplay!

I can appreciate a short game, but when I played the game I didn't expect there to be a literal fort that I would then fight that would then lead to the ending. I don't count that single tower as a fort personally. I would have also liked to have seen the towers take more damage as they were shot, not just the part that is shooting at you. As they are made out of what looks like 4 blocks, I think that a bit of modular design to animate damage would have been very cool. Again, one of my favorite parts was the look of the forts. I would like to see them take more damage. It would also give me something else to shoot at.
As for the shooting, the machine gun is OP. There is no reason to not use it until you have to shoot the three blue barrels all the way at the end with the rockets. That is pretty much all of the battle strategy in this game.
Now on to a few bugs I encountered. First, I noticed that none of the achievements are unlocking even though I get the animation. That is odd. Second, I died once at 100 health. As in, the health bar read 100% and the plane crashed without any input from me. And when I crashed the plane was still at 100% health. Odd.
I did notice a few blips of nothing between, what I assume are, state changes. Nothing detrimental and I didn't get them on the second third or fourth play though. Probably a streaming thing, but like I said, blips that lasted a few frames.

Ok, now the ending. The worst part of the game. Let me get something clear right now - you broke the first law of giving a player choices. NEVER make the player make a moral choice that they DO NOT want to. You have four options, and they can all be chosen, but only ONE ends the game. Yes, the outcomes are very similar, but the only viable option is the last one. Not to mention that one that is chosen for you if you choose nothing. I kind of expected an indecisive joke.
Yes, there are "Yes and No" choices that end the same way in games, but that is still a choice. There is no choice here.
Anyway, I also don't care about the villain and the girlfriend character. It really only feels like the girlfriend was only tacked on as a last thought. I like the part where she fights back, but then well you don't expand on her character in any relevant way. As for the villain, the only way to really make him better would be to have him look a bit like Thomas Edison for obvious patent stealing reasons.
I wouldn't say anyone in this game was too likable maybe the guy that gives Gunnar an award in the intro? Who knows? He's probably a pedophile anyway, so no reason to like him.

Now the icing on the cake, the car files off and we never see it - or our toilet - again. Then the thing just ends. It just ends! No space level? NO SPACE LEVEL? NO! SPACE! LEVEL!? You have a set up for an epic vengeance quest space level with asteroids and crap and you don't take that opportunity? I mean if not for your GF at least for the soup and your toilet! Come on! How cool would steam punk space forts have been? I really did expect more than one level. I honestly think that is the BIGGEST let down of this game. The story is bad with no pleasant resolution for the player. I guess Gunnar was happy sitting in his chair and holding up a sign at the end as if to say, "Yeah, this meant nothing to me. I'll just build another car, eat some soup and, shit in a brand new golden toilet that I buy with my flying car money."
I think too much time was spent on the intro and outro and not on the game. Let's fix that with some advice! :)

Ok, I like the controls and the plane and I want to see an actual good game with likable characters. So now let's take what you have and rearrange it.
Gunnar wants to build a flying car - that takes cash. He can build other planes that are cheaper. Going back to my acrobatic puzzle suggestion, why not have him build and fly stunt planes to earn cash to build better planes and eventually the flying car?
You want war in you game? NO PROBLEM! Patriotic air shows to drum up support for war are kind of already a thing. You could even have him shooting down some steam punk air blimp for all I care, but make it interesting and relevant to the story at hand. A guy trying to make a flying car.
You want real hardcore war shit with a moral choice that has no good resolution? Have Gunnar take a test flight, and during the flight a weapon/bomb/laser/toilet "accidentally" malfunctions and kills innocent people. This could have been avoided by not taking the warbond money, but as it stands there is no real way to see that coming. However, it is still a choice that could been avoided.

Do I expect you to implement any or all of these suggestions? No. I feel that any of them are better than the story currently presented in the game, and anything even NO STORY would have been more enjoyable.

Again, I really like the plane and the way it controls and I do think that it could be expanded into a far better game.

As far as team work and actual game play execution you get 5 Stars from me. For all of the extra crap that is so bad I am going to take away so many stars that it wraps back around to 4. Not to mention I didn't see a theme of four. There weren't even 4 cans of soup, there were 3 and half, but now I am just getting nit-picky.

Anyway, a solid 4 from me for the gameplay mechanics alone. You have something good here, but it could have been great.

Potatoman responds:

Thank you! That is a very thoughtful review and we appreciate you going in depth! I really like how you analyzed every aspect and didn't just flat out say "controls suck".

[Marco, polo and monster]

I would like to see (hear?) an expansion to this game.

If you get points when you get the high pitched blips, then finding them is pretty straight-forward without using the "Marco Polo" mechanic. Simply move diagonally across the board in a checker board pattern. It may also help to increase the current amount of panning for finding the direction of the objects. The panning should be more affected by left and right distances, and the volume should be more affected by vertical distance.

When I get the lower set of blips, did I run into the monster? I also couldn't hear any clues as to its position. It may be a good idea to set up a few levels that introduce what sounds correspond to what object. It may also be cool to put in walls and other obstacles. You could send out a square in the last direction the player was moving that will stop when it hits a solid object, then run your panning and volume code from that position to indicate that a wall is there.

I really think this could be a decent puzzle game for all sorts of game players.

Kharjaz responds:

Thank you very much for your feedback!, whenever i work on the second version i´ll be taking your insight into account.

[Sweep Miner]

I played this though the other day, and I thought it was quite fun. I liked how you could look at the level as long as you wanted to begin with. I think that when the level resets you should also get as long as you want to look at it instead of it resetting when it wants to.

The one change that I would make is leaving the miner's hat where it lands if he explodes. That way it is kind of like the flags in Mine Sweeper - marking the mines. It almost seems like that was supposed to be a feature with the animation and everything being the way it is.

I also noticed that you were a big fan of U and Z patterns when making the levels. That made even the harder levels easy to memorize. Very good design choices overall. Well worth a 5. :)

MikeSalyh responds:

Thanks for the review! Both of those ideas sound good. Perhaps the hat could be turned on/off (easy mode?). If CynicSama and I ever do a sequel to this game, I think we may implement those features!

[Flight of Butt Fart Duck]

I absolutely loved this game. It was very charming and fun. Maybe "Farty Duck" would be a better name?
It really reminds me of an old game I made, but without the farting duck. Just replace it with a plane.
Anyway, I am noticing one issue that cropped up with my old project, the levels are tricky to navigate. Especially moving objects like the moving rotating saws are hard to get around because once they enter the screen there is no time to react. A harmless drop shadow that follows them may be a good indicator as to where they are even if off screen. It could be as simple as a black square in the background.
It may help to zoom the camera out for some larger levels. It would be great to have a pause screen that zooms out to show the whole level so the player can plan how to tackle it.
Another thing to consider with level design is that you can take your big levels and cut them up into smaller pieces. This will make it easier to place checkpoints and other helpful things in longer levels.
I hope to see a more polished sequel in the future! This was very fun.

TheBirdBag responds:

Thanks for the advice :D. I noticed the navigation issue myself, but couldn't find a simple way to deal with it. I tried to compensate for it by placing the camera based on which direction the player is going, but it didn't help much. I'll definitely be using some of these suggestions if I make a sequel.

[CONTACT Demo]

First things first, did you mean to use "QZSD" as the controls instead of "WASD"? I almost thought I couldn't go up or left for a bit.
The camera following certain bullets is a bit disorienting since you can fire more than one. Maybe have that be a toggleable option when you can't see down a very long hallway?

I enjoyed the hallways becoming clearer depending on your position. That could make for some interesting puzzle solving or a great way to hide bad guys.
I also think that the bouncing bullets and moving walls is almost like mini golf, so that could provide lots of fun puzzles.

There are a few issues that will take away from enjoying this as a full game, but they didn't get too in the way for this demo. Maybe polish it a bit more before asking for funding?

WolfGamesInc responds:

im uploading a update of contact and more levels to play so checkit out and tel me what u think :p

[Nanobot Within]

While the main levels are a bit too slow and easy compared to the boss fights, the unique cell healing and killing mechanic is fun.

The big issue for me is that the hitbox for the ship is well, the whole ship. Most shooters like this use a smaller hit detection area around the center of the ship. For example the pattern the second boss fires would be easy to dodge if you could actually weave around it, but as it stands most of the game was just waiting for an opening, firing a shot or two then getting out of the way. Not too much strategy or skill without being able to weave through the patterns. I noticed that the white cells have a smaller hitbox than the entire cell, so I am curious to know why the whole ship is used as one.

I wouldn't mind seeing more shooters where there are good and bad things to shoot or not shoot. Maybe add a combo system to healing cells and destroying bad pathogens? I hope you expand upon this system!

Elementalys responds:

Well, I made choices and some of them don't really make sense I guess. I started to doubt the idea of using the whole ship as hitbox really late in the making and it was too late to rebalance everything. I'll try the faster gameplay and smaller hit box next time. As for combo, yeah I like the idea!

Thank you for playing and writing a review!

[Mandanga Levels Hard]

I enjoyed this platformer.
The infinite kick is pretty fun. I also liked the exploding bats. Really, I like that you can kick everything.
I'm not sure why super infinite kick man hates infinite cannon ball guy, but infinite cannonball guy is kind of screwed.

Some different stock sound effects and music wouldn't be too bad, but they didn't detract from the experience of kicking everything that moves. Oh, and doors too.

BandyBadger responds:

I made most of the sounds with sfxr