Score: 10

"Lovely"

submission: Salad Fingers Episode. 8

date: August 3, 2008

Salad Fingers is gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flash, to paraphrase A Clockwork Orange into a bad pun. I must disagree with those who want a prequel or a more indepth look at Salad Fingers' reasons for insanity. That would be fascinating, but I don't think the series could really keep going if that ever happened. The atmosphere would be irreparably altered without the mystery, and Salad Fingers' behavior could no longer be as nonsensical if we knew what goes on in that head of his. Maybe as a final episode, if it has to end anyway, but otherwise it would be a cool episode that would ruin the series.

As an odd note, I was feeling slightly depressed before watching this, and now feel a bit better. I am as confused as anyone.

Score: 10

"Beautiful."

submission: You Have To Burn The Rope

date: April 12, 2008

Awesometopia.

Score: 8

"Promisingly Nifty"

submission: FWG Knight

date: April 10, 2008

I like the graphic style, and found the controls to be smoother than a lot of games of this type. I really appreciate the key-customization option, too.

On the down side, "see how big a score you can get before dying" scenarios have never much appealed to me. You could add missions, possibly adding some RPG-ish elements (upgrades, experience, equipment), or something of that nature. So, in a nutshell, the engine is great, but it needs a little more to it, in my opinion.

Score: 8

"Wait, wait... A defense game that's original!?"

submission: Knights Castle

date: March 16, 2008

It's refreshing to see a defense game breaking from the normal mold a bit. Sure, there's a few with "heroes" who run around, but this one's still pretty unique. Overall, a nice game: good graphics, good concept, and overall nice execution.

My only real complaints are that the only feasible way I could find to not die past the first handful of levels involved tediously attacking, retreating, attacking again, etc., and that deflecting spells with a well-timed sword swing is not possible when the casters all cast at different times, so that if you swing early enough to hit the first, the third or fourth will hit you, but if you swing late enough to get those, the first will. Perhaps set it so that the first caster you get in range with sets the pace, and if any others get in range, they wait a little to attack in unison with the first.

Score: 10

"A Standard In Excellence"

submission: Caravaneer

date: March 12, 2008

Among the most complex and deep strategic/tactical games on Newgrounds, and not poorly balanced like so many much-less-complex flash games tend to be. My only complaints are minor bugs or oversights having to do with the programming that others have already mentioned. I haven't even left the first three towns yet, and I'm already hoping there'll be a sequel.

Score: 7

"Good concept"

submission: BallBalance

date: March 9, 2008

I like the concept, but the execution could be better. I'd either rework it so it's slower placed, allowing for a lot of time to figure out your next move (coupled with higher difficulty to require this kind of thought), or faster and more dynamic (for instance get rid of the dividing walls and have the balls roll around if things get off balance or something). As things are, it's too slow to be exciting, and requires reactions to be a little too fast (at least for decent scoring) to allow for much strategy. More special stuff would also be good, aside from just the fairly obvious "eliminate a row/column of balls" things.

Score: 7

"Nice, but could use improvement"

submission: Black Sails

date: March 8, 2008

Overall, a pretty good game to waste time with, and definitely has a lot of potential.

As others have said, though, the ships you fight tend to get off screen and take forever to find again. Either programming their AI so that if they're off screen they go towards you or just putting arrows at the edge of the screen to give you a gist of where to go would fix this pretty well. The combat in general got a little dull, but the overall engine for it was pretty awesome.

More features would also be nice. Personally, I'd really like to be able to customize my ship beyond buying new ones and getting the best of three kinds of cannons. I especially wish improved sails for speed and maneuverability were available.

Taking over towns feels really pointless. Perhaps make it so once they're yours they pay you tribute every month, proportional to the size of the town.

Score: 9

"Nice"

submission: Zombie Survival Quiz

date: March 7, 2008

Something you could do to improve it would be to set the questions up so earlier answers influence later ones. For instance, if you live in a rural setting, a machete might easily be a better choice than a crowbar, since you might have more trees, shrubs, etc. to deal with (which could also be used to build fires, barricades, etc.) than doors that need to be pried open.

Score: 8

"Pretty awesome"

submission: Hungry are the Dead

date: October 6, 2007

Not sure what the last person's talking about... The game gets a lot harder a few levels past three. The reload by clicking the pile was a little inconvenient, but probably simulates real reloading better than hitting a button; you have to re-aim afterward, and it takes a little time. Couldn't do very well at it, but I'm stuck with a crappy touch-pad and no mouse. Good atmosphere, and simple in a good way.