PhotonStorm's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Horizon 6]

Ohh, this was pretty sweet! Graphically, it's great. I like the flying and zooming around. The landscape looks great and it feels satisfying blasting the baddies. Collecting the cat / lemming was a nice touch, too. Finding that green exit square could be a bit of a nightmare, though. Feels like it would benefit from a way finder or mini-map, especially when fuel is running low or you're out of ammo. The controls took a bit of getting used to. They felt ok, but I think the extremes of their settings should have been more confined (i.e. you don't have to move to the top or bottom of the game to reach those limits). Nice to see something different :)

PatrickOReilly responds:

It's funny that nowadays this is something different, of course back when, there was more than enough of this trope🙃 this is the first acknowledgement of the homage to the lemming👍

Phaser is uniquely suited to making this type of game, and I am greatly enthused by v3. That's some great work, especially the scenes architecture, and my hat is off to you. You really understand game dev in all its aspects. I'm hoping to evolve this effort into a more advanced flying game, super small footprint, but real 3d math models instead of the highly fudged prototype this is. Still weighing putting the standard thumb overlays for movement control.

[Hey! I just need some bread]

That was proper fun! At first I was thinking 'what laser beams?' but after a few minutes, oh boy! Loved the speed at which it got harder and the other birds coming in and causing havoc. The only thing that bothered me was that the other birds seemed to have laser-proof feathers. I tried SO many times to peck one to stun it right into a laser blast, but they always got away unharmed. Either I just didn't do it right, or you can't do it at all? If so, it'd be a great addition :)

nightape responds:

The original idea was the others bird can get burned to ashes but i got no time to do it XD

[Fortify]

Haha, damn, that's hard! I managed to save teddy 3 times, which frankly I think was more fluke than skill at placing the pillows to block the footballs :) I liked the concept, though. Without knowing where the balls were coming from it was hard to know where to put the pillows, and as they killed teddy you had limited places anyway. Even so, with a bit more work evolving the concept it could turn into a sort of reverse Angry Birds.

[Intergallactic Exterminator]

Yeah, some old-school blasting! I enjoyed finishing the first planet and defeating that big green boss. The weapon rotation was a nice idea, although the different weapons didn't seem to make a huge difference to the baddies. I loved the power-up that bought in the big ship that blasts rockets everywhere. The only thing missing was sound effects, as I think with those it would have felt more engaging and you'd get a cue as to how many aliens were escaping.

[Feed & Evolve]

Nice idea and I felt like I really had to protect that egg until it hatched! Once the Birzard was out and I let it start eating things it seemed to take ages to evolve - and it was hard to tell when an animal was attacking you compared to just being eaten. With a little more balancing I would have played for longer, for sure.

nicolashdm responds:

I didn't have much time to balance the game, but for sure I will improve it. Thanks for your review =-D
The idea of the game is pay attention to the enemy's life, so the Birzard can kill it with one hit and don't take any damage.

[Roadside Boardin']

Aww this was pretty fun! I enjoyed jumping and nosegrinding along the buildings. The only thing stopping me rating it higher is that very often impossible jumps would appear, usually as a result of 'animal cruelty' right before the end of a roof, meaning you had no time to jump again (even when double-jumping). That aside, it was pretty fun :)

[Infinity Dungeon]

I really liked this! It felt like a solid little rogue-lite to me. It's damn difficult, though, especially the bigger baddies like that green monster thing. The skeletons you mostly win against, but those can really drain your health down. I had no issues with the controls, it was standard rogue and made perfect sense. Showing the keyboard shortcuts when rolling over the buttons helped a lot, too. I would have liked to know -what- the items I found did. For example, I had no idea the potion bottle restored health without clicking on it and using it. Perhaps the shop-keeper guy you meet could have told you what the items did? Very nice, though. Enjoyed playing this lots!

dlodz responds:

Thanks @PhotonStorm I appreciate your review and I am happy that you enjoyed playing it. It makes sense for the shop-keeper to indicate what each item do. Didn't think about it, this is an excellent idea!

[Closing In]

Really liked the concept here! I didn't understand the challenge at first, but by around level 4 it becomes obvious and the tension really racks up. Getting those final cubes when the wall is slamming in and then making it to the exit is just a great feeling. Could be expanded into a really 'big' game without much work I think.

GoodL responds:

That's what I'm thinking too! A lot of people have offered suggestions for how I might expand it, so it's been bouncing around in my head since basically the day I published this. I do intend to revisit the idea at some point. Thanks a bunch for the review, and especially thanks for making this possible!

[Sarah]

That was intense! Lovely use of Phaser and Quill :) Really enjoyed figuring the puzzle out. Took a while to get the phone code and honestly would have missed the power cable had I not just clicked everywhere in frustration! Otherwise, really liked it. That ending, though :-O

[Fish Canon (Prototype)]

This was great fun! :) I ended up playing right to the end and completed it. I couldn't tell the difference between the wings and the glider, but the glider worked really well. The luck of randomisation seemed to be at work - sometimes a shot would net me barely any orbs, while the exact same shot next time would get me hundreds. But that's part of the charm of games like this. I would have liked to have been awarded orbs for completing a set of challenges, too. Aside from that, I enjoyed it plenty. Nice one!