JorisRollfox's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[100 Bullet Dungeon]

Firing a massive amount of bullets and the sound it makes feels very rewarding.
Though I think the game would be more interesting with far less than 100 bullets, as I never ran out.

Unfortunately, having to replay the entire game because I died once discouraged me, especially since I lost a lot of my health to two spikeballs that kept pushing me back & forth. I understand that there is knockback, but at least allow me to keep moving my character.

Having a lot of health also means it takes a lot of mistakes untill you die, unless you get cornered after which it's over before you know it. I would reduce the amount of health, and push back all nearby enemies when you take damage.

Speaking of enemies, while they are quite interesting, they do not form much of a challenge.
To make the blue slimes an actual danger I would also let them eat bullets that lie on the ground. Besides, I would color the bullets they shoot at you in a different color, as I was confused at first.
I also think that the armadillo's should be invincible and reflect bullets back when they are in their ball-form, because currently you can kill them before they can reach you.
Furthermore, I think enemies shouldn't attack you only when you come within a certain distance, because now you can just shoot at them from a distance.

Finally, I understand that the boxes in the room add more things to shoot at, but having to pick up hearts is obnoxious and doesn't add anything to the experience (especially since they block bullets, preventing them from hitting boxes behind them). I would just let them fly to you once you've destroyed the box.

It was a fun game, but it also has a lot of untapped potential.
So I hope this helps :)

Thoof responds:

Hey, appreciate the feedback. Considering doing an expanded release of this game at some point, so it really helps.
The "too much health" thing was mostly because I didn't have time to implement some sort of checkpoint system, so I added in lots of hearts to try and ensure that players could make it through (Unfortunately I didn't know that the spike balls could stunlock you to death).
I agree that 100 bullets is too much -- that was mostly due to the theme of the game jam being "100."
The hearts being annoying to pick up is a solid point, I should probably make them at least get pulled towards the player in the same way the bullets are.

[Collision Idle]

3993.69 sec (good to see the game had the same "ending" in mind as me)

It took me a frustratingly long time to find out that you had no control over the game besides upgrading, because at first I thought the random bounces of red were my doing. I was about to quit when I noticed that the green skill made a lot more money than the blue one, so I started strategising around it (buying skill upgrades for green & money upgrades for blue). Before I knew it, I could buy a yellow ball and there was no turning back.

While the sound effects are quite satisfying, they could use a random pitch shift to increase variation. Or you could use the pitch to determine , as I think the game could be a lot more satisfying and strategic if you could somehow indicate the money earned per collision.

I would also put the upgrade screen below the game instead of making it a popup, currently it's blocking the action as you are constantly upgrading.

It's also a bit dissapointing that once you're done, the screen is so chaotic it is no longer fun to watch.

[Pucamuc]

The moment it starts the vibrant art & music get me pumped, then I start playing and get frustrated because I can't figure out how to move. A witty comment from the character that explains the controls would both be very helpful and fitting.

While the hard-to-master movement itself is also so frustratingly hard that I almost quit, this seems intentional and was interesting enough to make me want to keep going. Though I wouldn't have played for much longer, which also prevented me from replaying it even though the core gameplay provides some interesting replay value.

Besides the unique movement and satisfying art & music, the game does do a good job differentiating itself from the oversaturated platformer genre through its weird snarky plot.

[Lockdown]

While the game is mostly filled with optional texts, their comedy can be considered the core appeal of the game. Especially when I felt the developer share his genuine appreciation for something (like Cdog's channel). The puzzles themselves were not particularly good, but this was not bothersome as you almost always knew what to do so you could go through them quickly. This was not always the case though, especially the first room as it was filled with irrelevant stuff. It also felt off that you had to combine two objects in a specific order, where putting X on Y didn't work but Y on X did.

The shading in the artstyle often felt off, but it was overall consistent and charming enough not to be bothersome. Though it does feels weird that your character looks a bit down even though he mentions several times not to be bothered by the situation, and that the teeth of the monster constantly flipped left & right. It was also impressive how intuitive it was which objects were interactive without relying on immersion-breaking tricks like giving them an extra thick outline.

[THE LEGEND OF BUBBLE BOBBLE]

While I admire the effort in trying to combine the mechanics and art of two classic games, it fails to capture the spirit of both.

Zelda is about exploration with its large variety and secrets, whereas Bubble Bobble is action-oriented with a lot of juicy effects and also a lot of variety.
This game does not have the variety nor the juice, though it does seem to do the secrets similarly to Zelda as I often thought "how should I have known this?" While this can be a fun surprise for optional content, it felt unfair when it was required to progress through the game. I don't think this was the case in Zelda, but I may be wrong.

Similar to both predecessors the gameplay seems to be combat-driven, but as you are fighting with a ranged weapon against aimlessly wandering melee enemies there is hardly any challenge. This was fine in Bubble Bobble as there was more complexity and less room regarding maneuvering, whereas Zelda's enemies were more varied and plentiful.

Yet I still died a lot, mainly to unfair causes. Such as an enemy walking into me immediately after the room loads, or more commonly being unable to fire bubbles because I am walking close to the walls.

Sorry if this comes over harshly, I just want to give you honest feedback such that you can improve :)

[DED GUY]

I think you have a very solid game. The art is charming, the gameplay twist is right up my alley & the comments of the skeletons are a fun addition.

I just find it frustratingly hard to play.

Using a mouse mid-action is already hard, let alone when the screen constantly moves. I also hate that I frequently die because I hit a breackable block from below, which seems like a bug (I presume I don't have enough speed to break it, but it just doesn't feel right). Also, since the player stops moving completely when he touches the ground, I don't understand why you have to leave the ground and touch it again to get a bullet back if you shot while standing on the ground. These may seem like small issues, but in such a fast-paced game they quickly lead to your death.

If you would fix these issues and add controller support, I would probably love it.

[Knightin'+ Demo]

When I died the screen turned black, pressing buttons did not fix this. When I refreshed the page my savedata was gone. I'm using Chrome & the music was still playing, if that helps.

The art looks nice, especially the animations and glowing stuff. There could be more going on on the screen though.

However, while the game is combat- and exploration-driven, their implementations offer little satisfaction to me. The moment I killed my first enemies I already felt like I had mastered the combat, given its simple controls and enemies.
The same applies to the exploration, whose main appeal lies in puzzles that are quickly solved using only your memory. Not that they should be more complicated, but they don't even make me feel smart.

Regardless, the design choices seem to complement a more laid back experience quite well, though I can't say for sure given that I'm just not into that. Besides the crash there was little that downright annoyed or bored me, it just wasn't memorable or enjoyable enough to play more.

Wolod responds:

I'm sorry that you stumbled into such an annoying issue.

I've received ton of very useful feedback since the release. Sequel, if I decide to make one, will be much more entertaining.

[TentaCat: The Lost Lineage]

I accidentally skipped the introduction because I thought I had to press a button to progress, some text that says "[Z] skip" should fix that.

While the game is okay it doesn't do anything new besides its quirky-looking main character, and it could really use some satisfying visual feedback. Enemies and especially bosses take way too many hits which makes you want to rush past them, which for most enemies is the only reason they form a threat as you can easily keep your distance and shoot them.

I did like how the level select screen starts with you entering in a boat, it makes the world feel much more real.

PKTORA responds:

I'll be making tweaks to fix the dialogue box. I've just updated the game to reduce the boss difficulty.

[Space Guardian two]

Besides a few inconsistencies such as the wave hp being a vastly different color than the rest of the game, the pixelart is beatiful. It has some nice details like the light of your ship reflecting on nearby platforms and flickering when you shoot, which makes it a shame that all the ships feel so stationary. Even simply wiggling the size of the ships as they move, shoot and got hit would make the game much more satisfying. Dynamic effects such as these add more fun to a game than detailed graphics, especially when they react to what the player does.

Regarding gameplay it becomes almost impossible to die once you realize you just have to keep moving & shooting while picking up some powerups and sometimes healing yourself. Though I only figured out how to heal by accident (I was already wondering why those pillars were there), just like I stumbled onto the shop. All these things need explanation, especially as I still don't know whether there's a difference between the playable ships.

[Miner Dash]

Very satisfying game and gameplay loop, there are a lot of tiny details that streamline the game like the crafting system auto-filling. I normally don't like crafting systems but it has been implemented well, though most old resources eventually get unused except coal and gold for spamming big bombs. The game does repetitive though, especially since the constant feeling of progression lead me to keep playing when it no longer was fun. I finally completed it in 15 days.