Skullls's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fear Less!]

It took me eleven deaths and a record of 1693 metres until I made it... I actually screamed out loud.
But onwards to the actual review. I was positivly surprised how long it was possible to survive with minimum upgrades. Many other games of this kind ramp up the diffilcutly so quickly that it takes several minutes of grinding to actually make a distance, whereas here it was mostly dependant on your skill.
On the first hundred metres or so.
After that there were obstachles that could not in any way be beaten if you did not have the sufficient jump ugrade, and I personally think that it should at least be theoretically possible to... well in this case not BEAT the game on the first try, but at least go as far as your skill lets you.
The way the enemies had to be beaten was something I don´t believe to have seen in a game like this before and was at some points pretty challenging. I had a bit of a problem with the way obstacles worked. For once with the triple jump, it could happen that there was no sensible place to land once you made your first jump but maybe that´s just bad timing from me. Another point is that whilst getting hit will make you lose control for a second and make you go flashy, it doesn´t actually give you a moment of invincibility. Very often I found myself hitting an obstacle and then immideatly hitting the one after it as well, since I couldn´t dodge after being hit.
The grande point here is of course the ending, I presume that nobody who has not either finished the game, or is the author will read my comment to this point so I´ll allow myself to talk about it:
Everything the game gives to you, from skills, over information up to compliments, prefferably in the form being told to have defeated something powerful, having saved something important ect. Is important to the player because he earned it.
If I am trying very hard towards getting a specific reward, in this case the ending scene then I want the reward to be a direct consequence of my skills.
Winning by dying on purpose is just about the opposite of that.

innomin responds:

Thanks for the in-depth review! The Fighting Back medal was the major reason we couldn't let you play the whole game without upgrading - I often get over 150m on my first play, and you need double that to unlock the medal. The game should generate 'fair' levels almost always, particularly when fully upgraded with triple jump. And yes, short invulnerability has been requested, but the distance highscores over 9000 make me think that hp recovery overcompensates for the multi trip-ups that can happen at higher distances.

The ending is a little strange, I know, but you did mention that you screamed out loud. And that is exactly the point! You have to master all of your abilities and defeat every medal challenge to win, but more importantly, you have to 'fear less'. When Death becomes a less of a fear and more of a frustrating nuisance, the recurring nightmares end and the girl can sleep. And from a more practical 'game' perspective, it also allows highscores to reach infinite distance and flawless time. =)

...WHAT, 9000!? (sorry, I had to do it...)

[Scylla Starfighter]

This game is one of those cases in which i notice that they in some kind outdo most of the flash games I have played before this rating is only meant for you to show that there are things you can improve on: The plot which is demonstrated by the dialouges in-game is at some points much longer than it should be (yes Ragnaquians you want me dead but please one first and last warning is more than enough... in fact i don´t even get why they are so talkactive commenting on their and your every action) and in other instances it falls horribly short ( Yeah I am going to blow up the entire universe you know the "AI-figures out death to all is somehow the best strategy story" so I am not going to explain myself to you and just do it already). I have played games I would call easy but on this one besides for the last level my thoughts were mostly " Oh come on! At least put up some resistance" Most ships could be destroyed by a few shots and the most endurant enemys were the rocks. Now it is a common strategy to make the player feel powerful by giving him a weapon able to crush any enemy quickly but if you then tell me that I can´t destroy rocks, killing the enemy ships feels like hosing down carboard. For the story itself I want to give you the hint: many players won´t care for the story the least bit if you don´t MAKE them care. An example: If you tell your player he is going to attack the enemy´s home PLANET you put a hell of a fight against him if you don´t he just won´t care for anything the enemy has to say or any warning. If you would fulfill warnings the player would listen to what you say much more carefully searching for hints for the oncoming battle and is thus more involved in the game. If you place the fight on the very planet you want the player to defend - again- make him care! I shot down just as many buildings as enemy ships just because they are in my way and there is no penalty for doing so. If you penaltize or reward behaviour based on the plot you make the player care for the plot. Last bit: I am not sure if there is a top limit on how you can shoot but in most fly&shoot games i ask the simple question: Is there at any time a possible situation in which you would want NOT to fire? if your answer is no then please just add autofire as having to press the same button over and over again during the ENTIRE game is only destracting you from the game itself.

How said above: This kind of rant is something I only do with games which tell me that there is a brilliant author capable of far more than flash games on free to play sites.
Sorry for the bad english and greetings from germany

Josepho responds:

Many thanks for the feedback, autofire is now enabled

[Magi: The Fallen World]

what the heck!?

A quest asks me to scout lvl 2 on Zinatsu but that dungeon doesnt exist on that island. Know I can screw my lvl36 warrior and start all over again

veewen responds:

You can scroll the island map with your arrow keys. Try looking around.

[Jim the Worm]

...

I´ll give you a 2/5 and a 4/10 because you got me good and...well you at least did a little bit of a game.

Kembry responds:

4 IS BETTER THAN 3, THANKS ! :B

FOOL

[Escape from the Madness]

twisted....

one the one hand it was quite enmtertaining and there was a -little- madness in it, too (if he wants to die anyway he shall!) but it was too short and easy sry bout that

Stannous responds:

You're sorry that it's easy? Lol, not your fault, haven't quite gotten difficulty down... Hm... My score went down .03 after I made a snide remark about There She Is...

[Being One - Episode 2]

damn

damn this is the best point and klick ever... such an AWESOME feeling killing all those vampire bastards who tried to scare you about 40 minutes ( i now i am slow...)

Psionic3D responds:

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for playing/rating!!!