TankTheta's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[kekoriman 2]

With a bit of audio and visual polish, you could make this into a real gem. I actually quite enjoyed the gameplay, it opened up alot once you got the slowdown second jump. It's a cool idea that deserves to be refined to a clean larger scale game.

[The Hit On Hallows' Eve]

Okay, so it's a mixed bag, but a mixed bag with great amounts of potential
The main issue, which I think encapsulates the entire game, is a lack of refinement. The firing mechanic and the dash are good, various enemies aren't bad (Some are even fun, like the witch making enemies that are normally weak into unkillable obstacles. Especially the two big bosses of the game, they were quite enjoyable, Frankenstein was quite awesome indeed). But some levels are badly designed or a slog.

And the animations/art assets are frankly subpar (Presentation is important, and to be honest, most enemies look like a basic flash asset. It can immediately turn some people off. However I liked the mechanics), some sound design (especially when you pick up boosts, they are literal static) and some fight encounters need some work. (Level 1 and 2 don't even really challenge you at all)

After Halloween, take the concept and make it into an actual game. Make the animations stronger, make the actual art assets alot better (they look very bare bones), make the sound design better, clean up some of the level design, add more bosses and clean some of the bad fight encounters (and some of the weaker enemy designs).

Overall, I like the game, it just needs more refinement. I hope you take this concept and really run with it. Because it's fun.

svaerth responds:

Hey thanks a lot dude! Yeah, this was a massive rush job to try and get it out since no one wants to play a halloween game after halloween, so I think all your points are valid.

[The Wall]

Put in more effort.

Theswordsgame responds:

yeah i had to make this in like 5 hours so yeah but next time sure i will probably have more time

[PROJECT CYBER_GLADIATOR]

The game has very little features, but the roll's not bad and the gun firing is okay. But it's so blatantly incomplete that I can't in good faith recommend a positive judgement. If you can't even move to the second wave then it's a problem.
Completely more of the game, then try to upload it again. And make it more distinctive, it's right now just a average roguelike with nothing unique.
Also I recommend getting a better sprite artist or telling your artist to step up their game for characters, it's really just not up to the standard you should have for a quality game.

EDIT: Yes, I'm aware it's a pre-alpha, but this is barely up to even a pre alpha standard even. Th wave mechanic isn't functional. And that's needed to do anything more than kill 6-7 enemies. The counter may show it, but it doesn't change to the next wave very clearly. At least make the game somewhat more complete beforehand.

deadBatteryGames responds:

It's a pre-alpha dude
Did you even bother to read the description?
also, the enemies killed" not being counted was fixed already, which was a regression from the last build

EDIT: That's the whole point of a pre-alpha, it's a PRE-build of an alpha (which is already way before the game's even close to completion).
I'm afraid you don't have much of a clue about how a game development cycle goes. Spoiler: It's a slow and methodic process, and not all the present pieces will necessairly fit together as it is currently, as it's for mere playtesting/bug reporting, not for judging it as a complete product, which more than clearly it is not. The current focus is to complete the first playable demo and THEN go early access. So yeah, quite obviously there's much to do yet.
And wrong, the wave mechanic is currently working, just uploaded the new build with the fix. Also, it's a *placeholder* mechanic, just like 80% of the features currently in this build. Why? Because it's a PRE-ALPHA dude.
And yes it changes to the next wave, yes, it's sudden, because cutscenes, dialogues & effects are low-priority tasks in such a phase of development, and will be added later on.

If you have any actual constructive criticism to post (such as the wave bug report), then be my guest. But now, if you're gonna purely keep repeating the obvious ad nauseam as if I, the lead developer of the game wasn't are aware of it yet, plus making beyond unreasonable & pointless demands/complaints, then I'm afraid I'm gonna have to report you for toxic behavior.

[Plasma Fist]

It's an interesting and tense game, though I think just simply adding a jump mechanic or something would really help. The Plasma Fist itself is quite a satisfying attack though

[Phase Shift: Lab Escape]

It's really rough around the edges, but I sense some heart here. Refine the concept and see how far you go next time. Really polish the gem. And give each form more to do.

Pastruvium responds:

In future games I'll have to spend more time polishing the actual gameplay loop.
Thanks for checking it out!

[Le Chat Fonce: Dreams]

It's simple, but very wholesome. It's quite an easy platformer though, but I think you should grab the idea and really run with it. You could probably do some amazing things with, like expand on the Jump mechanics, give more challenging platforming situations, add to the water mechanics (I liked them)and add more personality to the game through characters. Anyway, that's all, goodluck :D

[Last Shadow]

Uh, game's not loading dude.

DriftingSnailStudio responds:

That is right. Thanks for notice that

[Orbital Defense Cannon]

I actually like this, it's really beefy and chunky of a weapon. And there's actually some unexpected enemy types I usually don't expect to see in this type of game. As well as the nuance of needing to REALLY protect yourself over the planet because you die in one hit and you can't come back. Good job dude, you should really expand on this idea more in future.

orange08 responds:

Thank you for the nice review, TankTheta!
If I had more time I think I would have added some more elements, maybe even some object types floating by that are neutral, but interact in odd ways with the other objects. Glad you enjoyed it!

[Candyfactory]

Sorry man, this is just awful to control. It unironically gives alot of motion sickness and the audio looping makes it even rougher. I know it's a LudumDare, but man this is rough. I say clean up this idea in future and make a proper thing out of it. Also I like hand drawn assets, you could evolve on that in future.

rakowu responds:

Hey TankTheta, i've added a settings menu. Would be great if you could test it and give me some feedback :)