Flashlight237's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Eliatopia]

Hey Robster. It's me, Flashlight237. I'm one of the main people behind the art of this game. There is a way to add me to the credits to this game on the website itself. Here's an example of what I mean (taken from Sonic Shorts 5): http://prntscr.com/uvpbq5

Now, for the game itself. Back in 2018 when the game was made in Flash, just the idea of making an isometric 3D game in Flash was farfetched given Flash was a very limited engine. It works well for 2D games, but that was it, and there's not really any sort of programming site that readily teaches you Actionscript. You were kinda on your own.

Interesting to note of this game is both its art style and its political commentary. The game takes on a sort of cartoony, puppet-like style, kinda like a cross between muppets and the South Park Canadians. Given its vector-based art, I was able to master the art style as quickly as I took a hold of it, mainly because I had years of experience with the Total Drama series' art style on my side. Out of experience, it works well with heads of things like the armadillos, stalagmites, and batlings. As for things like birds and things with mandibles like the Shadowcreeper monster I've made, it's more like Sparky the Dog in a way that it's easier to treat mouth parts individually than as "one with the head."

It is important to note that the story itself was meant to be a political commentary. It was first introduced when we met up with Pirth, the owner of an abandoned shop that's being watched by a government agent. Turns out that was a setup by Xantis, a ruling figure who hated humans and made it his one goal to exterminate them, and supporters of humans are collateral. It's kinda like Hitler with his and his regime's near-speciesism against humans (saying this because the Holocaust's reign of terror went way further than Jews). His only appearance as of now are concepts made by me, which depict him as a Hitler-looking fellow similar to Big Brother from 1984.

Other signs of the political commentary is slave labor (a Burger Boys' worker had 22-hour shifts despite the store being open from 6 AM to 10 PM), political ignorance (Xantis' supporters sound just like Trump's supporters), and a failed education system (a guy named "Historial Researcher" (purposely misspelled) is very confused over the existence of DIFFERENT CALENDARS)

There are hints of a Moonchyllus in the Eliapedia entries of the Logon and Stalagmite enemies and Lumbercore: a mid-boss. Moonchyllus was a goddess I've designed to fit in the aspects of environmentalism (she is to personify Mother Nature in Eliatopia) and religion (I had thought about Moonchyllus being both the creator of Eliatopia and an ancient pantheon featuring twelve goddesses), both which played a strong role in politics. Her first "official" appearance was on a billboard I drew up a week back.

Mechanically, it does the job. There's nothing phenomenal or abysmal about the game. It's average and does the job its meant to do. People claimed that damage is bad, that the formula needs to be fixed, but I don't think that's the case. I think the real flaw with damage is that the game lacks two crucial anti-damage mechanics: a dodge roll and the ability for melee players (warriors and mages) to cancel out attacks from monsters with hit stun. A dodge roll would easily allow players to avoid damage from attacks from ranged monsters like the Ground Spitter and the Batling, and fast monsters like Lumbercore. As for the Hit Stun, the best way I can put it is "if a Grunt can stun players and cancel out their attacks, why can't players do the same to Grunts?"

Overall, I'd say the game is an interesting experience both creatively and gameplay-wise. I'll give it 3.5/5.

[Out of Reach]

"What is a Mario?"

Uh oh! RETARD ALERT! RETARD ALERT, CLASS!

[Pill heads]

I think the sole thing that's being tested here are the controls, so I'll just focus on those. The movement is alright, although a bit floaty. That's the key term here: "floaty." Walking downhill instead makes you float off into the air when you're supposed to cling onto the hill you're going down. That's just my take.

[Snake and Ladders]

It's simply Snakes and Ladders. What more could you ask for?

[DED GUY]

Not sure if I can say if it's fair, but it is most certainly challenging. By the way, missed opportunity for the thumbnail caption. It should've said "You are dead; not big surprise."

[Parasites United]

I've been playing this game for a while, but there's one thing I don't understand: What do the stars do? What are they used for? What are they there for? The game doesn't provide any explanation for the stars, so we are basically left in the dark about them.

By the way, I've noticed that you've made plans on a sequel. As an avid idle gamer, here's my advice: DON'T. Idle games are games that require maintenance, and many idlers (including Clicker Heroes, Cookie Clicker, Anti-Idle: The Game, and Trimps) stayed strong because their devs updated them from time to time. For this game, updating the game involves checking the overpriced parasite upgrades (this game has a price increase of 9% per level for each parasite as opposed to Clicker Heroes' 6% per level for each hero) and the overall-slow progression (a smoother game would be based on the 5th screen's final cell, which has 20 trillion HP as opposed to the semifinal cell's 80 trillion HP). Other than that, the game's rather decent. 7/10

BambooHutGames responds:

Sorry, the stars are a for a score that is only working on Kongregate, should have explained that a bit better. And the price increase of 9% goes lower at certain intervals.

Thanks for your input about not making a sequel, but my little experience as a game developer tells me that sequels are the way to go as a beginner. The problem is that a game's ratings are very hard to change (I've put quite some effort into games after releasing them, with little to no affect on the ratings). If the ratings aren't pretty damn good right away, the game will vanish into the giant pile of average games. Therefore I think it is much better to learn from your mistakes and do things better in a sequel where you can reuse the better parts of the game. I do put time into my games after they are released because I do care about my players, but I have to balance that with my dreams of becoming an indie developer, and therefore I can't spent days and weeks on a game that already had it's one shot.

Greetings

[Tim's Time Travels]

It's a cool game. The Zork part was a tad difficult, butthis game is otherwise easy. From what I can guess, these are the games.:

1958: Tennis for Two
1972: Pong
1974: Tank (Atari)
1974: Oregon Trail
1976: Breakout
1978: Space Invaders
1979: Adventure (Atari 2600)
1979: Asteroids
1980: Pac Man
1980: Centipede
1980: Zork (or Zorc)
1980: Rally X
1980: Baseball
1981: Donkey Kong
1981: Kaboom
1981: I've no frickin' clue
1981: Frogger
1982: Pitfall
1982: ET?!
1982: Dig-Dug
1983: Crystal Castle
1983: Track and Field
1984: Tetris
1985: Super Mario Bros (Hell yeah!)
1985: Hydlide(?)
1990: Minesweeper
1990: PC Solitaire
1993: I have no frickin' clue.
1996: Pokemon Red/Green
2007: Portal
2009: Minecraft (though the game itself was more of a 2011 hit)
2011: Skyrim
2012: This game.

If you can fill me in on the other titles, please let me know.

[GameToilet Mobile#5:Big Dig North Pole Edition]

The game's still fairly decent, though I've noticed two issues.

1. When I played this game, for some odd reason, the Beanie Baby and Penny Farthing in-ground graphics were missing. That and after the initial upgrade, item slots do not seem to align properly.
2. If historical accuracy is the mentality around Berkshire/North Pole digs, why in the name of King George's armpits would there be an ET Atari 2600 cartridge, an item from 1983, in 1600 where the world's first newspaper (invented in 1605) be? Shouldn't ET be put in 1983 while the world's first newspaper gets put in the proper year?

All and all, it's still a decent game. A bit buggier than the original, but still good. 7/10.

[Drippy's Adventure]

At first, the game starts off as a rather easy platformer, but once you get to Level 8, it gets so unfairly difficult that it makes you think you're playing a Metroidvania. The last six levels, in terms of difficulty, makes Epic Battle Fantasy 4's hardest battles look tame. There's just no room for mistakes! The grasshoppers are especially bitches. They fire so fast that they can only be passed with frame-perfect timing.

Other than that, the controls are fluent, though the physics seem slow and there is a slowdown mechanic in there, which I'm not sure is good or bad. There's occasionally a glitch where a worm spawns in the wrong place. All and all, not bad, but not good either. 6/10.

[Helmet Heroes]

It used to be better, but now, you basically have to hope the Super Jump glitch works. And the Super Jump requires a lot of precise timing.

robscherer123 responds:

This has been fixed in nearly all spots now and jump height has been slightly increased.