tonyfinale's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Jac LaPlume: Private Interrogator DEMO]

did NOT read the tags going into this so gotta say the 'combat' sections were quite the surprise. funny enough amateurish voice acting kinda thing to behold. fun for a lark

LustPotato13 responds:

Lol, thanks <3

[Inn & Out]

HOTEL MARIO INSPIRED GAME??? Sign me up.......

I want to like it WAAAAAAAAAY MORE, but there's a couple IRKING little wrinkles killing my vibe...

Like how you seemingly can't change directions on stairs, the at times awkward jumping, the 'hiding in door invincibility' not kicking in until you're fully inside a door, etc... Oh! I WISH you could use doors while running... Or is the idea that that would be too easy? I was really confused why I couldn't go in the elevators at first... Having to come to a dead stop first asks you to be careful but I dunno... I'd kinda just like to be able to SNAP inside of them <3

And I know part of the challenge is keeping track of who's in those elevators, but maybe them FLASHING or something to indicate when they were already being used by the enemies would be nice? Sometimes I'd just be mashing UP - desperately trying to get into one; not realizing they were sending a guy my way and POOF - guy appears on top of me and I'm dead. Just needs a TOUCH of a liittle more 'PLAYER FRIENDLINESS' I think... OTHERWISE IT'S MARVELOUS! Tho one more pedantic thing - I wonder the point of the border display information when it's soooo small I can't reasonably read it as a genuine source of information. Kind of ends up just coming off decorative.

Notakin responds:

Those are also great suggestions, Of course i should've added more indicators of when the elevators are usable, I could also tweak the rules a little bit sometime. Thanks for the feedback!

And yes maybe I will bump up the screen resolution, but for now you can just zoom it until I change that, K?

[Homecoming]

With how simple an interactive experience this is, I kinda wish I could click ANYWHERE on the screen to advance the text! Not a big fan of NEEDING to hover my mouse over the bottom box but bahh itsa minor lil preference kinda thing...

The mom came off suRPRISINGLY reasonable sounding when the mc decided to blow up at em all spontaneous-like that at their reunion. Is that the point? Are they supposed to come off sorta in the wrong sounding? I mean I can ASSUME things about their relationship and why the mc would read the worst in anything their mom said and why they'd immediately go into that yell-y mode with the intro putting the usual CARTOONISHLY EVIL, TRANSHATING expectations in my brain wit all the '''PATRIOTISM''' signage. But idunno - I felt we didn't hang out long enough to really solidify their relationship and justify that better with more information to read and ponder. iiiiii thought that drama came out a lil unprompted sounding and unsatisfying to read a bit as result, but 'EMOTIONAL CONTRADICTIONS' are realistic so hey~

solid enough buuuuut yea I suppose I would have just wanted MOAR. Abrupt endings can be cool and dramatic but with not too much 'MEAT' to rly ruminate on idk it felt kinda over and done too soon.

Bleak-Creep responds:

When I first started the project, my intention was to have a bit more interactivity to the art/some of the text itself so that you could potentially uncover more details about the situation if you wanted. I'm thinking I might still add that in, so I probably won't edit the hit box there unless I decide I'm officially done.

The mom coming across as fairly reasonable is also a conscious choice. I didn't want anything in this to be painted in a stark black and white, and all points of view were aimed to be presented fairly. It's very difficult to hate the people who raised you, no matter how betrayed you might feel later on, but there's a lot going on beneath the surface, and it's eventually admitted to be an overreaction.

[Pop the Lock]

Needs more 'SAUCE'....... If you get me~
LIKE... The visuals, the font, the general feedback you receive for 'popping the lock' correctly - it's all too SIMPLE and generic. Not as satisfying as it could be wit how limp and abrupt things come off looking and feeling! But it COULD be! It's a nice enough foundation. I liked it a little :)

I really liked the realization you could tap space more than once over a circle if your timing was good enough to score more points than you normally would off a single pass. But!!!! That cool gameplay technique feels a little OFF to do because the visuals end up looking sorta janky following your actions! The next circle kinda FLICKERS from one position to another if you do this; making it feel like a glitch! Needs some work!

A less IMMEDIATE and abrupt a failstate would be nice too! It feels WEAK messing up because there's no fanfare, no nothing. You just sorta miss the timing and go: "oh. alright".

YOU GOTTA BUST OUT THE CLOWN HORNS and BOUNCE the game over text onto the screen or something, man!!! Make me REVEL in my failure!!! The text jus kinda quickly fading onto the screen leaves me feeling nothing................

Maybe you could also have a few lives and if you flub all of em THEM you gameover? THAT would also be nice~

It's hella SIMPLE, but if you waaanted - you could really trick this out into something neato wit some polish. Happy gamedeving :)

SubsolarGames responds:

Thanks for your great advice!
For my next game I will definitely keep in mind game feel!

[☕ game]

youre weird as ever naming and describing the game all EMPTY like but it was a damn satisfying powertrip; i loved it. weird as hell obviously like what's with the debug room in the beginning but idk I figured it out. it was COOL and I liked eating beans and bulldozing monster dudes

adriendittrick responds:

glad you had fun on your powertrip :)

[Word Wizard]

I ended up sampling the game mostly through the level select because after I randomly hit ESC during the gameplay to try and pause, it crashed! And you can't skip the opening??? Might wanna tweak that...

Anyway! Pretty cute 'MIXED BAG' sort of game. It looked visually quite polished and the animations to go along with actions felt satisfying enough, but the sound design was a little lacking. A lot of actions just felt sporadic as for whether or not they'd have a sound to go along with them. Or maybe they were just too quiet... Eitherway- I thought the lack of EMPHASIS with the way sounds were used made clicking and inputting things feel less TACTILE than it could have been; if you get me.

AS FOR THE GAMEPLAY well because it's basically a collection of spelling themed mini games, I'll just go and prattle out my thoughts on each:

The WORM fight was fine but prob my least fav. I'm not too big on word scramble games, and once you learned the few words this one has to ask that's kind of it. The worm attacking you also feels a little uninvolving once you go into SPELLING MODE and basically just acts as timer. I wonder if it woulda been more interesting in a multi-tasking kind of way if you actually had to still dodge while trying to figure out the words... Not bad though! From the perspective and controls, I thought it was gonna be some VAMPIRE SURVIVORS WITH SPELLING kinda game at first.

ALSOOO - if you try to enter a word with Caps Lock toggled, it won't accept it because it only wants lowercases! D:

The KRAKEN game was easily my MOST fav despite how simple it was. I kinda wish the path to the goal was randomized so potentially on replays the thing could remain as interesting. I can see an endless version of this because pretty fun too... I was worried you would be able to just repeat the same word over and over, but I was pleased when you couldn't!! yay!!! gameplay!!!!!

The DRAGON was weird being the most conventional of the 3 at the end of the game, but yeah also pretty enjoyable! Ya know - itsa classic 'SPELL THE WORDS QUICKLY' kinda thing; hard not to find a lil fun. Extra weird that this guy got a unskippable intro cutscene even when played from level select, but I guess he was the final guy so its gotta be EPIC. I get it.

Game crashed a few times during this one too either because I got hit by multiple fireballs at once or???? Yeah I'm just not sure... I DID end up beating him but I missed out on seeing the ending because of the crash and didn't wanna replay the whole thing. Ouch.

I liked it!! Overall I think my takeaway is yeah that lack of TACTILE-ness because of the weaker sounds and the kind of tacky/abrupt feeling you get from the opening tutorial blurbs for each mini game are the things holding the game back a bit and lessening the satisfaction. But solid for what it is!!

sidvenkatayogi responds:

ty 4 the review! We kinda made this game for fun and didn't bother fixing the hard bugs lol but anyways I really appreciate the chance you gave our game!!

[Dragon Keys]

interesting idea... I DO like having to react quickly to the overstimulation those falling keys and the mad dash gameplay of getting the right portals to appear provides~ UNFORTUNATELY THO it being a bit OVERLY PUNISHING and generally lame to look at ain't doin it too many favors!

droppin your score straight to zero for missing a single key is PRETTY MEAN. would prob have been better off rocking a standard lives and game over kind of system. the fact that the thing can't even end no matter how many failures you let happen doesn't inspire too much greatness from me either!

not a lot of good feedback for interacting with the thing in general beyond hearing that repeating DING sound for getting a key in the right spot. grabbed keys only vaguely keeping up with you as you fly around also just feels so innately wrong and unsatisfying....

ya got a neat idea here. I'd saying get polishing and a real deal version of this could be sick one day!

hhponygames responds:

I fixed pretty much everything on your list. *Huff* please come back and check it out! haha it wasn't too hard I've been making projects for almost 10 years :)

[Word Attack]

it's a bit foolish that you can just hit the PAUSE button and get to look around indefinitely for your next words to make. most puzzle games like this usually obscure the board when you pause so ya CAN'T do things like that!

OTHERWISE yeah! I generally like the way it plays, looks and sounds! clicking stuff feels good because of those nice CLICKY sound effects, and the snappy animations are simple and satisfying. THOUGH the music can get feeling a tad intrusive and annoying after a while in a thinking game kind of word search thing like this. that music also just STOPPED playing at one point during my play, so that felt unintentional...

it might have also been better off whipping up a kind of single player mode without the versus element because the computer opponent is pretty hit and miss! I got to a point where it just couldn't make new words anymore and it just sat there waiting for me to drop things onto it. potentially unengaging half the time! I naturally didn't try fighting a real opponent over tha internet so whoknows if that works; props if it does! but what are the odds, right?

overall solid! a little rough here and there - could use some polish like a proper title screen and some quick how to play blurbs maybe, but it feels good for what it is! well done :)

joshuajewell29 responds:

Hey Tony, I really appreciate you taking the time to write feedback. I hear what you are saying. I threw the pause in there very quickly for a friend, Will probably obscure it when I get to some more polishing.

I will have to look into the getting stuck you mentioned for the computer, I hadn't seen it since I updated it to add more rows. I hear what you are saying about the single player, I feel like there are so many single player word games I was trying to make something different and focus on the battle aspect. Similar to an old favorite of mine ( Tetris Attack ).

The Matchmaking does actually work, although there is no player pool. ( I've played with a bunch of friends to test it out ).

Thanks again!

[Gappy 3]

was thinkn the whole time "yeah this lil fella looks like a kirby ripoff". AND THEN YA HAVE ME GO TO THE HELL DIMENSION FOR THE ENDGAME JUST LIKE KIRBY USUALLY DOES TOO JUST TO HAMMER IT IN OK NOT BAD.

simple and satisfying! making jumps felt great with those NICE landing sounds and dust effects. the 2 jump sprites were real distinct from each other, so double hoppin around never didn't feel good!!! those higher pitched jumping noises tho COOOOULD get a little grating but ahh whatever~

otherwise ummmm? I think it woulda been nice if you could start levels with the jump button you're usually holding the majority of time anyway. I understand ya maybe dont wanna create misclick situations, but hmm I would take the SLIGHT convenience factor over that chance of happening~

OHYEAH the progression of levels and their gimmicks was MOSTLY ELEGANT as well! world 3 felt waaay easier than #2. I wonder if those 2 shoulda been swapped.

that's all I got! good good game!

LeviRamirez responds:

your gonna wanna see this...

https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/leviramirez/kirby-gappy

glad you liked the game :-)

[H E A V E N S E N T]

Solid! I wish your attacks were more obviously tied to meters or resources that had to recharge after use or something though. Because USUALLY I felt like I could get away with just mindlessly left click laser-ing everywhere, and that's no good ;)

I thought something like the tractor beam was more interesting. With how you could grab missiles and things out of the sky, but they'd slowly rise up and hit you anyway if you didn't drop em quick enough! I thought that kind of consideration was more interesting than the default BRRRRRRRRRRR of the lazer and wiiiish all your attacks made me think a little like that! Middle clicking with the pulse blast also always made the page scroll for me despite the whole cursor lock thing you had going on, so thatsa little jank!

Otherwise yeahyeahyeah nice simplistic aesthetics; they got the job done, and all the noises and ambience were nice too! solid solid solid!

AwkwardSilenceGames responds:

Agreed! There's a lot more with the mechanics I would have ideally done - especially around tractor beaming - but I think maybe completely pulling out the lazer in favour of catching a dropping with the tractor beam would be a good idea. The lazer could be a more powerful temporarily power-up maybe.

Thanks for playing.