ProfessorFlash's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Metal Arena 3]

good but

The game really starts to dwindle down after the mid game. There are few major issues with the economy that really make the game boring. Level 12 is the 'money round'. You'd think you start getting more cash as the levels get harder and you need to buy better stuff, but nope. You will be racking up solid 4k after level 12 where you can get up to 9k.

The decision to make the playing area bigger from lvl 19 onward was just bad. It takes longer for the enemies to get to you which even more reduces your chances of getting combos. I don't understand why you made the levels bigger :P.

The economy sucks because it's too heavily tied to the combos. Which means you need to kill a lot of enemies fast in order to get a lot of cash from the tougher enemies. With the levels having more tougher opponents, you take more time to kill them which means you aren't increasing your combo. This means lower income the tougher the enemies get. I see you are trying to throw some free kill waves at times, but it just isn't enough, and frankly those waves further add to the boringness of the game.

I suggest you increase the money you get from killing the tough enemies by a lot. This will ensure better economy the harder the enemies get and you don't need to throw those free kill waves which are just boring to deal with. I didn't finish this game as it was too boring in the last few levels. I was killing everything before they even reached my screen with the triple missile cannon. And as the income was so poor, like 4k per round, I wasn't going to save up for the beam weapon.

I suggest you take a good look at the difficulty curve of the game, as the beginning promises good game but it fails to deliver it further you get.

[Space Cruiser]

good idea

Good idea but it needs some work. First and foremost the power bar; it really doesn't deliver the punch it promises. I have a good sized (like 10cm) power and the ship hops like 5 pixels forward. It's confusing, you can get used to it yes, but not many people will give your game a chance if they are annoyed by it. I didn't really find much need to use the lower power levels anyway. When do you ever need to hop couple of pixels forward? Played 16 levels and the answer is never.

That brings me to level 16. Is that level even beatable? The ship just bounces backwards from the blue cubes and always dies. I tried it several times thinking maybe I just need to come in a good angle, and that probably is the solution but god damn you must have made it that you need the perfect angle and with the launching being what it is, it's way too hard to hit it.

I liked the pixel graphics and the music fit the game, but work on the playability and level design.

nananas responds:

Thanks for your review.

It's all true, I don't like the power bar either...It was the fastest solution, but not the best one :s.
And the blue things...well, when you hit one of them, your ship will shoot again, like when you use your mouse. So you have to point your mouse in the direction you want, and it will shoot towards it. (I just added these blue things for more action :D).

Oh, and the best levels come at the end...But I hope you liked it anyway!

[Catch Watermelon]

okay

I like the style and the feel of the game, but as far as gameplay goes it's pretty frustrating. Maybe just in real life, catching the watermelon is hard :P. With a timelimit in place, your best plan is to sling it as fast and far as you can. This makes it 100% luck based. You rack up biggest score like this.

I was first getting like 700 score, and was wondering how someone could get 30k, but then I just threw it as fast and far as I can, and after 3 lucky shots like this I had 12k points.
I also tried to go slowly, but it's too damn hard to fling it even if you try to just get it to the next guy. You always fail like after 3 throws.

[Ace Invaders]

below average

First thing, fix the volume on the "Ace Invanders" sound which comes right at the start. My sounds weren't even loud and I almost jumped off my chair when that poor quality and loud sound came up (HEADS UP FOR ANYONE READING THIS WHILE LOADING).

Second thing, the game feels like it starts from middle of the game. I'm right away facing many enemies and getting a lot fo different upgrades. I didn't even get the chance to properly see what I was getting, I just had like 4 different weapons shooting off in the first 10 seconds of the game.

Third thing, the enemies aren't shooting back. They are really easy to kill, so while I did feel for a while that I was thrown into some kind of chaos, the feeling quickly passed as I noticed the game was really easy. And it continues to be so easy. I played a bit further than the first boss, and then stopped because the game felt really boring. There was pretty much no challenge.

I think you tried to get us right into the action and didn't want us to have a boring moment, but by giving us ton of weapon upgrades right away and making the enemies floating paper bags, you actually managed to make the game really dull. I'm not a fan of the graphics either, they feel bit amateurish.

[Johnny Deep]

has potential

It was just an 'okay' experience for me. There were few things I didn't like. One was that I had to press down to go down. After I got every upgrade, at that point my finger was starting to cramp. There's not often any reason to not press the down button. I suggest you rework it that it goes down fast by default, and if you wish you can slow the descent by pressing up.

Second thing I didn't like was the pace and difficulty of the game. I got at best to 483m with all upgrades bought. And it takes quite a while to get there. I see that you had up to 1500m achievement, so I wasn't even close to the bottom. I think the game is bit too hard, and tedious. It takes too long to get to the deeper depths.

[Not Without Her]

good idea

Good idea for avoider game but the last level is just impossible. I thought it was easy until the level 14 (last level). The green maze thing is way too hard. There's hardly any precision in the movement. You move like half a block per hit. Too easy to move too far and hit the wall. Really frustrating ending for a game. You robbed me the satisfaction of completing the game :P.

[Tigsy and the Stars]

die Tigsy

I felt like a retard when playing this game. Tigsy wants this, Tigsy wants that, fuck you Tigsy. I want to strangle Tigsy.

[Mario Star Scramble 2]

ehm

A mario game without mushrooms? You can't break the blocks? No run speed? Collect stars, and then go back the same route, ie. artificially making the level longer? Man, you must not know what mario so popular. This is below average platformer with cute graphics, though the graphics are mario so no points for you from that either. And on top of it all it was really easy.

Kenney responds:

There are so many Mario games and all of them have different rules. Take Super Mario Sunshine, which doesn't have mushrooms, breakable blocks or running.

[Johnny Copkill]

nice!

This game has got some balls! The voice environment was great and that was what really made this game. I wish there were more varied weapons and more enemy types, but maybe for the sequel? Good job on this one.

[Ultimate Chess]

bug

I couldn't move my horse to a free location where I definitely should have been able to move. In chess moving your stuff to the right position at the right time is crucial, this kind of bug is unacceptable.
And please do not reply saying that I don't know how the horse should move. I've played chess for over 10 years.
You should also add a skip button for the animations.

Low score because it had a game ruining bug. Else I'd probably give it a 7 or 8.

RatherRandomReality responds:

The game has been tested thousands of times and there isn't such bug. In chess sometimes you cannot move your knights(horses) if they are "pinned" to your king. Make sure to check the "chess rules" section for more information.