krangGAMES's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Lazerman]

Fun and twisted, and high quality, but god damn is it hard to control. Couldn't get past the rat boss fight, just didn't feel like trying again after dying for the second time. Maybe making the camera movement smoother as opposed to tying it directly to the player would help, and showing a line of where the player is headed? Or even letting the player curve their trajectory a bit?

Anyway, overall it was pretty rad! Just too frustrating to control over a long period of time.

[Cabinalt]

GAH, let me "Retry" with the Spacebar, switching to the mouse is a pain!

Aside from that, not bad. Quirky-ass humor, and I thoroughly enjoy smacking people again and again ;) Just make the whole thing keyboard-controllable (including menus), as well as mouse!

[No Time to Explain]

Oh my god. Glasses and dinosaurs. Secrets so good.

[60s Burger Run]

I like it! Clever too, it's only 60 seconds but I spent maybe 10 minutes on it. Upbeat music, simple graphics, really liked the end. Great flash game.

[Personal Trip to the Moon]

One of the best stories I've ever played.

[Perspective]

I reeeeeeally want to finish this game - it's beautiful, and the story you tell with it is so endearing. The graphics are great, and I love the music.

Later on though, it just gets soooo damned hard. I could -not- get past the double-conflicting-perspectives level for the life of me. VladimirVector raises some good points about the game's controls with the theme, his review is five or six behind mine.

4/5, would LOVE to give it a 5 but the difficulty curve just goes too high. Still, overall excellent job, keep making games!

[Yeah Jam Fury]

Seriously, if you included a bit more explanation, this would be a 5 star game across the board. Tell people to use MOUSE to operate the dudes, WASD to move, and give a visual explanation of what everyone does. Also, make ESCAPE the pause button, not P (or do both!).

Also, "17 - Just Grab It" - what the helllllllllllllllll... Couldn't get past that one, was very frustrating.

Aside from that though, I really liked it! Solid graphics and music, and I really REALLY liked the voice acting. Jam fucking rules :D

[Hollow.]

This was awesome, up til the 20th level. Felt the boulders were too much - like it was just arbitrarily killing the player, you couldn't really avoid them so you just had to hope it didn't hit you. Was pretty frustrating, and I eventually quit.

Aside from that though, solid game! Nice graphics, simple menu (though you should be able to select level via keyboard), and EXCELLENT audio design. Nice work, and congrats on placing 8th in Ludum Dare ;)

[Closer]

ALRIGHT, epic review coming up:

~Good introduction, simple tutorial

~Visually overwhelming, the tiles are very difficult to look at (make the wall boxes lower contrast, and probably a milder color)

~Menu items need sound effects

~Beautiful music

~I repeat, BEAUTIFUL MUSIC!

~First two level designs are excellent!

~Third level comes way too soon, too much going on - simplicity is best for the first five or six levels

~Plus, third level isn't that fun, moving around is dull. Think about what makes your game fun and emphasize that. It's fun making clear progress, hitting buttons, getting closer to the goal, finding the best path, etc. It's not really fun to backtrack through a maze.

~Level 4 is cool! Definitely show this one before level 3, but still later in the game. It's fun watching everything move at once.

~The last bit in Level 4 where I have to double back several times to open doors is tedious. It's really clever, but as a new player it feels too punishing. Maybe put this as like, Level 15 or something

~Ahh, warn me about dying from touching balls BEFORE I get to them! Like, much earlier! The little bit of humor in "should've said that earlier" is funny, but it's not worth the pain of going back and repeating the level :P

~Holy crap, watching the reddish-brown balls circle around me is fun. Use these a lot!

~I really, REALLY liked the mechanic of using the red balls to flip buttons and get trapped. Though I'd place that early in the level, so if I accidentally go in there myself, I don't have to repeat the whole level

~Again, "The Switching Way" is too difficult. Just make more easier levels and put them earlier in the game. If you don't make too many, trust me - players won't get bored winning "easy" levels, if you slowly increase the difficulty, as opposed to launching them into the harder levels.

~Playthrough came to a conclusion at "Got Balls", as the difficulty of navigating through the maze of death balls was too much, and then getting trapped behind the blue door was too punishing.

Man, this game has HUGE promise! The mechanics are amazing, a built-in Level Editor is a GREAT thing to have and the music is just glorious ^_^ But yeah, just be waaaaaay kinder with your level difficulty, and give the game art a makeover so it's less overwhelming. Use color to your advantage too, everything is so yellow.

You're a helluva programmer, and games like this are the best way to develop your design chops. Overall nice work, re-release this (Closer 2: Close Harder) once it's a bit updated. The game IS fun, after all :)

[Magic Steel]

Awesome! Awesome awesome. Great retro style game, totally reminds me of countless hours spent burning away robots on the SNES. The only gripe I have is that the "Main Menu" button did not work at the end, couldn't return to the menu. Aside from that, great balancing, difficulty, music, gfx, everything. 4.5 for 5.