SS4FlameAlchemist's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cute Block Crush]

I don't know what it is with this Unity made games... But my browsers HATE whatever it is.

Anyway... Aside from that, it was a pretty standard destroy the blocks game. Not really much in the way of unique concepts, and the game is fairly winnable if you just spam most of the time till you run out of combinations.

[Labyrinth]

Not only is the game as basic as can be, there's really no real way to lose this. There's no punishment if you go a wrong way, there's no time limit and there's no reward. Not only that, but the higher levels completely can lag out your computer's browser while they're trying to spawn in. I crashed my browser trying to play the impossible levels.

[TrumpGrounds]

Yeah... It's not really that inventive. Not to mention the fact that if you're in it for the medals, you're probably not ever going to win. You MIGHT get a four line, but that's about all you're going to get. For those of us getting the medals, making the medals ONLY obtainable through pure luck is complete crap.

This also reminds me of why I don't play slot machines. Also, there's a glitch where it doesn't register 3 in a row unless it's first three. I don't know what that's about, but I assume it's a glitch. The game does a great job of teasing you like a real slot machine would... But honestly, you could have made this game a little more fair. Especially since the point of this was fun. The game just gets too boring too fast.

[Save To Kill]

Well. This game was a GREAT way to kill an afternoon. There was a lot of good and bad in this one.

Let's start with the positives:
1. Checkpoint at the boss and redoing bosses: This becomes a GREAT way to rack up money in the early stages. Being able to fight a boss over and over is far easier than going through the whole chaos filled levels.
2. The gameplay is addictive: This was a really fun game overall. Sure there's not much story other than what's on the level descriptions, but it still does a great job of giving the story life. Almost reminds me of that old GBA Robotech game.
3. The music: Oh god the music is awesome. It's been a while since I've seen such a great soundtrack for a game. Very Castlevania meets (some arcade shootup... I'm not familiar with the genre's best entries besides Galaga). The music is great on it's own.
4. The game lasts a while: Most games like this would get old VERY quickly. But you did a great job keeping the gameplay interesting. I could redo a level 10 times over and not be bored. There are moments where the game gives you a grinding headache though.

Now the bad:
1. The game can't handle itself: This is the BIGGEST problem I have. And that's when there's too much shit on screen, the game can't handle itself. The biggest example of this is phase 2 of the stage four boss. He puts SO much shit on screen that the game just completely crashes. I get to the point where even if I COULD see and the game worked normally, I'd lose myself in the midst of the chaos. I can't pass the boss because he keeps crashing my browser. And I can only play this in one browser as no other ones work with flash on my computer.
2. No way to heal yourself: Now I know the author's notes say you're supposed to heal as much as you can. But there is no way to heal. Anyway, the lack of health powerups on screen SEVERELY hurts the game in later levels. Especially when you get to the bosses that throw so much on screen it's impossible to avoid.
3. Too much chaos: This was a problem in random portions in the game. I don't like arcade shooters because this tends to be a problem after you get into the late game. Throwing more things on the screen than is possible to dodge is NOT hard. It's a cheap way to add difficulty. Though this isn't TOO bad with the sword as the sword can destroy powerups.
4. No way to get gems without taking damage: This is a HUGE problem and the second biggest problem I have with the game. You either need to have the gems come DIRECTLY to the player character from anywhere on screen, or add a powerup to increase the power of the gem magnet. I ended up having to sacrifice a LOT of gems because they were in too dangerous of spots, or I'd take damage too often when trying to get gems I can't afford to miss. This is especially true in later levels. There needs to be a better way. Or the gems need to be removed and just have it all be a reward at the end. Getting the gems is the biggest killer in this game. It's killed me more than my stupidity and that says something. I don't make mistakes too often, but when I do it's ALWAYS because I am going for the gems.

The game is a bit shorter than it should be, but it's understandable. And the game more than makes up for it with it's awesome gameplay. And if I could figure out how to fix the problem of the game lagging, it would be perfect for me (at least for killing the afternoon)

[Death By Ninja]

Pretty well developed I guess... But there's no way to save yourself in many situations. The game just creates impossible situations. Having a health bar would help considering how many hits it takes to kill the other ninjas. Also, moving around would help tremendously. I don't know why you thought it was a good idea to leave the character in one place where literally everyone can come in from every angle and kill them.

A game is supposed to make you feel like you need to use your wit and prowess to beat it. This game is one of those games where you just have to throw a dice and see what happens. Games like that aren't fun. They're just cheap and lazy to make.

[Knightmare Tower]

Well. The game is FAR too slow paced. It takes far too long to get powerups, and there's just too much cost in getting powerups. It took an hour just to get 5 princess SOLELY because the game wouldn't let me get enough gold to get the right strength powerup. A game like this is meant to last 30 minutes tops.

Not only that, but the game has some terrible physics when using the dashes and sometimes goes right through enemies even though your sword is literally scrapping them. The hit boxes also need some work as I got killed by projectiles that did NOT hit.

And lastly, the game has moments where when there's too much on the screen, it lags out. Even after I turned all the extra things off it recommended, it ended up crashing my flash player.

[Millika Village]

Is there like a walkthrough or something I can do that will help me get the best ending? Cause no matter what I do, it seems random on if my efforts even work the way they are supposed to. For example, I started training with the medic girl and on one run, I only needed 5 int to help the fox. But on the second time, the fox died even though I had 7 int and had worked with the medic girl just as much as I had the first time (it was during training in the mines that I got extra int because I decided not to do the Charisma training). I had the first 5 days down, but there seems to be a random element that makes me have to restart if it decides to fuck me over if I want the best ending.

The first issue I have with this game is one major thing. It is NOT at all clear which stat you need in certain situations. For example, I went hunting and during the wolf attack, for some reason I got through it fine the first time, but haven't been able to do it since. Each choice needs to have the required stat and number next to it. Because it is NOT always clear. And sometimes even if you have the right stat, it doesn't work. I'm assuming there's a hidden element to this I'm not getting (I assumed it was the fact you have to train with a specific person IE helping the fox requires enough training with the medic girl). I know you try to hint it with when you fail as to what you could have done differently, but it's not always clear which choice requires which stat. And I assume the second choices work on some situations, as I realized that when I did the thing with giving news, I chose the second option and it seemed to work. Not only that, but sometimes the choices punish you for not having a high enough stat as though it's trying to tell us we should have smart enough to KNOW that wouldn't work with our current setup.

I got the two worser endings, but I'm trying to get the best one and I cannot get it because of the randomness of the choices and whether or not they want to actually do what they should.

Also the endings seem a bit lazy with only text and no pictures at all. I haven't gotten the best ending yet, and probably never will at this rate so I don't know if the best ending actually has something else to it. But from the other reviews, I'm guessing no.

Now as for the look and feel of the game. It's pretty awesome. This is a good game, but just has small things that need tweeked. It would also be nice if there was a mode for a second playthrough where you can more easily get the stats you need to get the best ending.

The art for the characters is really good. You do a pretty good job of giving life to each character (even though there's only three). The art style seems to work pretty great for this, and the music seems to fit the mood perfectly. However, I do sorta wish there was a variety of music instead of one song as it does get old after a while, especially when you have to restart the game multiple times because of one bad decision or mistake, but the song for the main game seems to do fairly well if you're just going on one run.

[Explore, Expand, Exploit!]

It's a pretty addictive game. One that I wish could be played in a separate window and screen increased to full screen. There's a lot this game has to offer, and I feel like playing it in such a small screen ruins the experience because of how much scrolling has to be done (Which there isn't really an easy way to scroll around without holding down awkward buttons that I feel shouldn't really be used in this case.). It would be pretty cool if you could make a downloadable game version of this so we can do so much more easily. One that will allow us to play this full screen.

And that would solve the next problem I have. In that I'm not sure how this game is saving data. I assumed it was through cookies. However, I have been trying to play this game, and so far I've lost my save data 3 times. I've done pretty well not to hit the new game. Which I think MIGHT be the reason I might have lost my save data the first time. There really need to be a warning box that comes up to avoid us losing our save data that easily. I cannot figure out why my save data is literally not able to stay for long. I have tried manipulating my settings for cookies as much as I can, trying to make sure they're not getting deleted (Though there's not much I can do on that front). Nothing I've tried so far as worked. And I can't keep this window open 24/7 as this game uses flash and flash for some reason takes a huge toll on my computer.

If it weren't for the issues I was having, then I probably wouldn't have any issues with the game. Fixing the two main problems with this game would probably make this game an instant favorite in terms of time killer games to play when I'm bored. If I could download this and make it it's own thing, then it would be perfect, and could replace almost any time-killer game I play.