3p0ch's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Garry's Getaway]

This is a nice little puzzle platformer that has the fundamentals down of designing levels that take a little thought to get through. I do agree that the limited view (not being able to see what's below you before you jump at key points in the game) gets annoying, especially when it's done on the very first key you come by, but by the end of the game I was getting used to just assuming that I would be skewered by spikes if I took any blind jumps. My biggest gripe is that at times it felt like I was moving too slow, especially when having to backtrack or loop around through a level, but I realize that considering how fast the purple guy moves it would get ridiculous if you were to speed it up any more. Maybe the Shift key could accelerate time? At any rate, I didn't have any issues with unresponsive keys or anything. The jumping sound didn't annoy me, but the sound of the boxes breaking when you punch them seemed pretty weak to me. But those are minor points in a game that's overall worth a play for any puzzle platformer fan.

[RednGreen]

My overall impression about the game is that, while there's nothing really wrong with it, it's just not that fun to play. The biggest factor that makes puzzle platformers fun (at least for me) is the puzzle element to them, and in this game there wasn't much puzzling to be solved. The second biggest factor that can make a platformer stand out to me is if it's a metroidvania style game with a big world to open up and explore. This game wasn't either of those so it wasn't really up my alley, but I can still appreciate a good platformer that's just a test of platforming skill without being a puzzler or a metroidvania. In this game the only challenge was pulling off jumps where you need to change blocks once or twice in mid-air, and it felt like there were only a few points that were even close to challenging. The slow pace of the game took away from the allure of a skill-based challenge -- I agree with the other reviewers that the guy ought to move faster or have a "run" button if this is meant to be more of a skill game than a puzzler.

So if I were to try to make general suggestions for your next games: 1) spend some time coming up with clever puzzling level designs if you'd like to make a puzzle platformer, 2) build a huge interconnected world for the player to open up and explore if you'd like to make a metroidvania experience, 3) make the game pace faster and have some more intense challenges if you'd like to go for a skill game. Or all of the above if you think you can swing it.

[Cartesian]

I agree with others that it could use a suicide button so you can restart a level if you get stuck, and I ran into issues with level 67 falling down through the blue door at the very beginning half the time so I'm stuck in the little pit underneath with no way out aside from Esc - Quit - Level Select. But it's a minor complaint that shouldn't overshadow the game's awesome puzzle design and (afaik) novel mechanics; it was challenging enough to make you feel somewhat clever to have been able to make it through.

[Through (#gbjam 4 version)]

It seems like this is a very good engine for a game that could be very challenging. I admit, I couldn't really envision a complete path through most (any?) levels until I really embarked and thought "meh, let's just see if this works", which is a good sign of how challenging of a puzzler this could be. But like a couple of the previous reviews said, the level designs so far have been straightforward enough that there hasn't been a whole lot of puzzle-solving necessary and I've been able to just run through and eventually find the way out. Future levels could definitely use some branching paths with a lot of dead ends for players who don't know what they're doing.

And since I'm a "musician" after all, it would be nice to use a longer and better loop for the background muzak.

[Get In The Hole]

Dafuq?

Such a profound five-letter word. It could mean mind = blown. It could mean that this journey took me not forward, nor backward, but maybe sideways. It could mean that the point of everything is pointlessness itself. It usually means that I cannot grasp what's going on because I have a mental acuity slightly duller than Homer Simpson's.

What does it mean in this case?
The answer is simple: Yes.

(As far as dafuq games go, this one dafuqs rather well.)

[ICS]

Are people really not seeing the big letters on the title screen saying you can jump with K or Z as well as W or UP? That makes it a lot easier to navigate the ladders, folks.

This is a nice and difficult game; I like it so far. The only gripe I agree with is that horizontal movement seems a bit slow. Also, I noticed the settings screen doesn't bring up any settings to change if I access it from the title screen (flash player 18.0.0.160 in Chrome on Windows 8.1).

[Puzzle Tower]

It's too bad early comments were just about it not being able to load, and probably brought the score down. It worked fine for me on Chrome, and is actually a reasonably nice puzzle game. I finished with all stars, but it had more challenge than I would have expected with the kid-like cartooniness.

[Sideomorph]

This seems like a very good game so far. Definitely not too easy, especially on the diamond runs. I haven't even gotten to the point where I'm picking up gears (without it trapping me) yet. I haven't run into the problems other people have talked about with lag, even though I'm using Chrome.

I had no idea what I was supposed to do at the first boss. Only after looking at the walkthrough did I realize the point was to find ways to stomp its body/tail.

The only thing I don't really like is the mechanic where if you go from one face to another by ascending, and then cross into another face by moving sideways, then gravity rotates. It seems like it ought not to do that, so it's giving me fits. But maybe my brain will adapt to that instead of what I think should really happen (I realize the definition of what should "really" happen if you're a two dimensional man walking around on the surface of a cube and pushing it around in a three dimensional world with gravity is somewhat subjective).

Wackiedk responds:

Good to hear you enjoy it - I hope you will finish it.

Yea the bosses can be kind of tricky - they are probably "too hardcoded" so it can be quite hard if you don't do the exact thing that is expected.

Heh, maybe you're right - but I thought this way would make the most "sense". :)