Verspar's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fragile]

Spoiler Warning: if you haven't played this game, play it. It's a game that's meant to be played with no previous knowledge of it.

This is a typical story with a moral where we see the gradual fall of the character until they reach their retribution in the end. That was done amazingly for this game. Almost everything int the game was meant to make us not break our egg: from the title, to the atmosphere, to the fate of the other eggs, to how easy it is to keep the egg from breaking. This game has a great way to lead us to the moral when we find out we would have hatched the whole time. The best part about a game with choices is that we can often see another ending with a newfound knowledge; which is true in this game. This game is really great at bring the player through the narrative.

However, what this game didn't do well is maintain the false notion that we will die if we break our egg from the beginning. I said almost everything in the game tells you to not break your egg, except the game mechanics. I was stripped of the narrative because I broke the egg immediately by heading left, up the ledge, and breaking my egg when I jumped back into the nest. My love to explore the world destroyed the narrative for me.

The challenge with making a game of choice with a moral behind it, is to allow people to experience something regardless of their way of playing. The story is meant to see us get further and further into the fall of the character as we keep making the same mistake of not cracking our egg over and over again. What motivates someone to make the same mistake over and over again? I think it is that they continually believe that they are making the correct decision when it is opposite from the truth. I believe that a good way to build such facade is to make it seem like you are punishing the player when they try to break the egg with a crack and an indication that that crack is bad. If that existed, I would have been more cautious from the beginning onward.

Either that, or make the game more rewarding for those who broke their egg immediately because, as much as I like the concept, I was not able to experience the game in its full glory. The good ending wasn't satisfying enough as I had no burden to begin with, no obstacles to overcome, nothing to gain, and more importantly, nothing to learn as I had broken my egg in the beginning. The worst part is that the game became easier after the egg breaks which can be a metaphor to releasing the burden, but like I said, I had no burden. It is a good game otherwise. I just wish I was able to experience it.

[Limbo Mario]

I rated a 2.5, but in all actuality, I can't rate this. This is definitely only a testing experience, like the one level you will come back to over and over to see how things go (I guess you could call debug mode). If this is debug mode, then you should get cracking because people seem to like the idea, but when they think of this, they seem to want a completed version. This clearly needed to be in NG Alpha (sadly it doesn't exist anymore, and stopped working for many years). But I digress, you should work on perfecting debug mode or the rest of the game will be terrible. Now what I want to do is point out some bugs that you could clean out.

Coin block problem:
The coin block seems to gravitate me to the nearest side when I hit it from under, some time I just fly out to the right or left of it.

Jumping problem:
When I hold the jump button, all I need to do is go on the block above me and I automatically jump, but in this case, it looks like I'm doing a super jump or something.

Block cluster problem.
I've not had any problems with any of the blocks by moving around it, but the two block clusters on the far right (3 blocks on the right 2 blocks on the left) have a strange collision pattern. Every block seem at least "solid", but if you go to the gap between these block clusters, its a whole new rule. like for example, jump on top of one of the block in the cluster and walk your way to the center of the gap and you are floating in mid air. Also, time your jump correctly and you could move to the side of the gap in order to go through the blocks (only within the cluster).

Collision issue:
All block have a strange side collision. If you are touching the edge of a block, you will not actually "touch" the blocks because the collision line is a few pixels outwards. Also when falling off the side of the block, I started falling (first few pixels) and I went towards the block, not only am I not falling anymore, but I'm also on the top of the blocks. One last problem I found is that if you are jumping under a block close to the edge of the block, you will gravitate towards the side of the block.

Outside the whole bug issue, I'm perplexed on how the design of the game will turn out, from what I see here, I feel like it would be a normal Mario game that takes place in a Limbo like world. In this case you will probably lack the Limbo element, but if you make the world more deeper like Limbo, I fear you will take away the whole Mario. The reason I say this is that Mario and Limbo are designed completely different. Mario is about someone fast and has a strong jump ability who can end any enemy by jumping on them. Limbo is about a fragile boy who has mediocre ability, he's not strong, he's slow and can't jump high and if I think correctly (never played the game) you can't kill anything directly and everything is off to kill you even the environment.

If you could put both of them together and make a great game, awesome, but I can't really imagine a way to make a decent enough game to have both elements without neglecting one of them. Unless, hm, I just thought of it, but I still think it won't come out exactly right, but you could make the world crumble upon you. You also would need to make the enemy design much more gruesome or ominous. And the level not so friendly, but keep a good Super Mario Bros. pace to it. It's coming clearer to me, but I'm not sure if you can execute it. Could you?

[Cute Explosions]

What a marvelous, fast paced game. I like it allot. It's Assassin all over again. Destroy the cutest things with the power of the strongest might, survival of the fittest. It fun and and exiting, simple, and funny. The controls are great and smooth. I did have some problems with stages that had full of blocks; you couldn't get your way around to make a good amount of point within the 15 seconds. I'm not a fast paced gamer because the quicker I'm the game the earlier I'm finished. There's nothing you could do to change that, but for a fast game I really enjoy it.

Oh and Tom Fulp and the NG crew. . . Do you remember all all those time you spent on revamping the site? Well. . . I think. . . I had an accid- OH RIGHT! I destroyed your precious Newgrounds! But you'll never catch me alive! I have the power! AHAHAHAHA! :P

SinclairStrange responds:

Hehehe I'm glad ya liked the Newgrounds level. Twas a 'ickle something to say thanks for such an awesome site :P.

Aye, if I ever do make a sequel in the future I have plans for new modes which like increases time limits ect ect but for the time being I just wanted it to be simple and quick.

But I'm glad ye like the game! ^_^

[WTF QUIZ 2]

Better. . .

Okay, I just reviewed your previous submission and apparently you had done something with the sounds. That's good. I don't think it fits, but it's better than hearing nothing. You have translated the menu buttons, but I literally looked for a translation button and I couldn't find one. It looks like that's the only thing left that I need. It frustrates me not only because it's in another language, but you have some words and phrases that are in English. It's either go all out on your language or go all out in English. If you want both, there should be a translation button.

[Kit and the Octopod]

There are some bugs, but it's amazing

There is a bug when trying to select the character's skin (both male and female) where you will be trying to select their skin, you will reach to their final skin, which is pale white, but if you click right one more time, you will still be at the same skin but you are apparently on a different skin; if you keep pressing right the same thing will happen, but from there, you must press left the same amount of times you pressed right (after reaching the pale skin) to get the pale skin to turn into the tan skin.

Here's another bug, I exploited it on the Dungeon Barracks stage. you may be able to skip the stage if you have fall through the huge gap, crossed by an exploding bridge, that allows you to not go back up via running up the wall and jumping off to run up the same wall again. But if you manage to drop from the middle of the exploding bridge, you must jump over the middle and get kicked by the archer, and hold the right button, due to your momentum, you may be able to go through the wall (proven after many failure to do the same thing the second time while trying to figure out how I did it in the first place) and in this case reach the Captain's Quarter boss stage. But I don't think it should be considered a bug for the fact that you may skip the rest of the stage, but the fact that you may go through walls if you fall fast enough because I managed to do the stage skipping twice out of many failures, and the first time I didn't try to do it.

I've also encountered two bugs with the barrels (though I'd prefer that the enemy would also use the barrel on you, but that's just me). One of them I couldn't do again; I somehow manage to make a barrel freeze in mid air in the Outer Mavigonia stage, since I only did it once, I don't know how to exploit it, I was just using the first two barrels you see in the stage and then it froze in mid-air, my theory would be that the spike has to hit the barrel once the barrel gets in it's range, or the arrows from the archer needs to hit the barrel. Either way, it froze and can be hit from mid-air. The other would be repeatable no matter what, It also works with the slave/prisoner. What you need to do is hit them with your wrench while close and facing a wall, they will go right through the wall. On the second note, if you kill the slave in front of a ledge, he will be floating in mid-air.

Here's one I don't think it is a glitch, but when your fighting against the two boss character at the same time (I'll call them captains) you may throw your octopod at them and they he will throw it, but here's the catch, if you have a captain close to the way you entered he'll throw it, making it hit the wall and bounce back to him, hitting his face yet again. But it's funnier when the other captain comes close to that side of the wall because when he throws the octopod, he will throw it at the other guys face, I managed to make them throw it at each others face for a while, it was hilarious!

Now the bugs out the way, the game itself is amazing. It has things that are simplistic, I always enjoy the kind of drawings with a person that has no nose and a big grin, like Kirby; that's why I have a picture of him for my icon. I adore kiddy-like art style, but sometimes when you add blood, in some cases, like this game, it does too much for me, it doesn't fit the mood. I noticed that you have the button, Q, W, and X along with the s button to jump. Could this game be fit for several regions? I personally have a US keyboard so I use the S button. The coding is not the best, but I'd say the coding is good since your profile only have 2 games, and your website have only a few games; so you must be starting off. the music is great, I love Waterflame's work, but I'd like a little less electronic in the game besides the one for the map; that one should be left alone. The stage and the boss ones are so-so compared to what would fit for the game.

Overall, the game is nice. It has bloody deaths, but is still really cute. The coding is starting, but will only get better. I look forward to future games.

-Verspar

[Windows Doors]

Funny game

Though, not much of a game, but definitely not a movie.

I love all the actionscripting and showing the problem some things of windows do in a parody like form. This is proof of a parody in a form that isn't used much. Also the innocence as to telling us we have a good computer and it gives you a realization of it not through usage. The NoTron Virus, I liked it, but I saw it when I read the name. I disrespect and humor, go and get a mac background in this game.

The Chatbot (for some reason you) is weird, but very funny. People should try it out. Here's a hint of a meeting dialogue:
Archon68: Why you come on my yard and kick my dog? WHY?
You: Because your dog deserves to die
Archon68: Good reason. I will take that under advisement.
(me O_O)

When it comes to the internet, I personally love the newgrounds.com with the game by Archron86 and go to the internet on that game and find a game by Archron67. Another site is, I'll put the url, is http://smouch.net/lol on the game and on the browser. (warning: please use another window for this)

Enough about this, I think people should look what's in this game. And when it comes to glitches, I think it's when a file is dragged over to another file's name; I can't drag over them. Also, the back button, it doesn't take you back to all the pages you've been beforehand; unless that was part of the jokes, then I'm sorry about that.

Archawn responds:

Lol he's so unpredictable.

[Hedgehog Launch]

This is on of the best launch game

I'd tell you this game is great!! The only problem is that you have a possibility of getting done in 6 turns (took me on my second try, my first 27). It's all about luck in the beginning and gradually on what you can do.

I found a way to get a lot of money quickly, first use the $50.00 on launcher or band. if you get a lot of money on your first one, spam your money for the E - rockets, then spam it on rocket pack, then spam on both rocket thrusts. Then go for the launcher and bands, parachutes will help when speeding sideways. You should spam your thruster one direction when you hit the ground and you will be able to not get to much money points but you get multiplied from the time you have on your run.

On the sixth day I bought everything I possibly could and won.

Its funny to know that people believe this is a ripoff when this is the original. "Learn to Fly!" and "Shopping Cart Hero" may be ripoff of this game, but who cares? if it wasn't for this there might not be those games. And if the ripoffs are not favored, then this game wouldn't be favored since they are living proof of the this game's ideals.

Great game anyways. Simple, but fun, and that's how all games should be, the simplicity to the players are what make it fun, even if it take you guys a hell of a hard time to make this.

[Black'n'Orange]

awesome

I like the game and I thought that it was going to be good. I also thought that it was going to have spikes at all four sides(eventually I was right). Anyways the only bad I saw was that the star may become hard to control sometimes. Also I don't see into the "whole name of game = color scheme".
Well it's not my game. . . you may call it anything you want.

AwokerR responds:

I wanted to make it hard.

[Scruffy Tweedy Game]

Not so great

the game is basic which is good, but it lacks a real concept, I mean a head of Tweedy eating cans of WD40 the scruff (Whatever that is). Also, I thought it was to avoid the cans at first. I prefer the ultimate snake game you created though.

[The Tower: Heart in Glass]

Really good

Hey I liked it, but the problem is that the MP regeneration was really slow so I had issues on whether or not is should put the blue blocks in. It was great, especially with satan. I wounder why he owes me such a good favor though, I mean, he was stomping everyone and killed them, even when I got to the last level against the king himself, satan just stomped him like nothing!

Another problem was, The king should not be alone. And as a giant? he's bigger than those cyclops!

Just to let you know I did offensive with Satans foot and defensive with my turrets, crappy sword, the best blocks I could get.