Monkius's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Amanda in the Bedroom]

Where is the key?
"Well, try to Google it."
Okay, where is my computer?
"At least give it a try on Google before asking me."

...... WTF?

[Abandoned In China]

Everything was more-or-less intuitive in the game, but I had to do waaaaaay too much pixel hunting to get the knife and the screwdriver (the latter is so well-hidden that /you, the programmer/ breezed right by it and had to double back in the walkthrough, lol!)

The pictures are awesome, who took them?

[McLaren P1 Simulator]

God, this reminds me so much of S.F. Rush, I was driving around looking for keys for about an hour...

Some comments:
-"ESP" and "4WD" don't seem to do anything. With 4WD engaged, the truck still struggles and spins only the rear wheels when coming away from a stop.

-I think it's a bit weird that I can hit 130 (mph?) on the highway in a pickup truck and 150 in a twin-turbocharged monster. I would limit the trucks top out at 90-110 for realism and make the sports car at least a bit faster

-I really, really, really wish there were engine and tire noises. If you plan to implement a car with a 4-cylinder engine, I could even help record some of the sounds if you want (this game has me /that/ psyched)

-You should put some sort of collectibles in there and make a parking garage I can drive to the top of for awesome jumps... Or ignore this nostalgic, S.F. Rush-loving fool. That's definitely a viable option, too.

All the same, all my 5 R belong to this! I can't wait for the next build.

derikvlog responds:

Hello, glad you liked it. It's just a test game. I hope to post something new in the next days, a new scenario (higher) maybe. Interesting the idea of mega ramps as GTA 5 does.

[Prototype: Munch]

Dude, this is really neat and innovative.

It's also a nice touch that whenever you move the teddy bear close enough to the camera, you get a screen full of cleavage :)

I think that if you further developed this one (and made the camera a little bit more responsive to the controls) that it could turn into something truly beautiful. An adventure game about overcoming co-dependence, for example... It could start from a second-person view and slowly change to first-person.

[Hypothermia]

Great:
- atmosphere

Needs some work:
- controls, I find they are a bit twitchy for what is asked of the player (walking across narrow boards)
- "the pit", he climbs down into it and comes out through the floor. What did he do, dig to China?
- closure, I can appreciate that you can only do so much in a week, but the ending made absolutely no sense.

[An All Hallow's Tale]

Loved it, but a few things are eating away at me:

- The part where you have to follow the ghost is a bit tedious in comparison to the rest of the game. Perhaps only having to click when you come to the fork/intersection of paths would achieve the same thing without breaking immersion.
- After seeing one of the comments about skulls, I would have loved to have a "replay" button to go back and play the "skullophone".
- Why does clicking "friend" make you lose the game??? You can only continue if you want to be the window-ghost's enemy???

[Naut Land]

It was fun, but the control scheme and character movement could use some work...

When I am trying to jump across "planes", I have to wait until the character lands to switch planes, and in that span of time, "totally not a goomba" could move its way to where I am about to land. Worse yet, I can't decide to go back mid-transition, either. So as much as I may panic, I'm pretty much committed to colliding this poor fella into one of these freak walking mushroom things.

The control scheme is also a bit awkward... You have to control the character's movement with your dominant hand, and move your non-dominant hand from space to "x" to end the level (which is surprisingly awkward, maybe if it were "r/u" or something [depending on leftie/rightie], I could leave my hand on the keyboard and hit "space" with my thumb and "r" or "u" with my pointer finger.) And when the level is over, I have to move my dominant hand from the directional keys to the mouse again, for the sole purpose of clicking "ok" and then the next level's icon.

I think it would be much more streamlined if you had the controls as WASD/arrows for movement, and space for both entering the portal and continuing to the next level (straight from the "you win screen", no going back to the level select... The latter seems like an unnecessary step to me.) I think with that small change, the players would become more immersed in the game; the levels would just meld into one, instead of harshly breaking immersion in between, and I would have played past level 10.

JackAstral responds:

Fixed the controls, changed the enemy graphic. Thanks for the critisms + review + for playing!

I'll look into speeding up the planet flipping speed asap!

[ShopKeep Quest]

Lots of glitches still left in this duesie... In order of appearance:

- Bought some things, clicked "sleep", lost the game (perhaps the sum of my purchases made my "coin purse" equal exactly zero, by fluke...) Started my new shop with all the things I had bought in the last shop, and an advantage.

- Kept clicking "sleep", never lost the game for any reason, got the 50-point medal just by clicking 359 (???) times...

- The "play" button keeps re-appearing at seemingly random intervals, usually when I click the "sleep" button.

- When I try to click the "sleep" button too rapidly, it disappears and the screen goes dark. Clicking "shop" and then "market" solves this.

While this game is a bit of a turd, it would seem that it's one of your first; that considered, kudos for making something less lame than those awful "idle" games... I hope my feedback on the glitches has helped you at least a little, and good luck on your game-making quest.

sowcow9 responds:

Hey! thanks for the feedback! Yes, this game was definitely a weekend project and really appreciate the notes. After reading the responses, I know I have some more work to do. Thanks again for the notes!

[Generation Ship]

I agree with schiele, GLaDOS was actually funny in a "dark" sort of way. This computer is just a douche with a funny accent that insults you all the time. I muted it after the /second/ time I died, only because you did a pretty good job on making the voice sound synthesized.

I know this was made in 72 hours, but there are sooooo many things wrong with this game. Before I figured out there was more than one room, I turned off the life support and killed everyone, since I thought it was the only choice. You should clue players in to this, instead of just saying something vague like "push that red button", of which there are none... At least make a "restart" button, for godsakes.

Also, you should provide a little information on this "protomolecule". It sounds nothing like a germ, but that's what the she-asshole computer tells you /after/ you die. Would have been really nice if there were information on the proto-molecule somewhere, so I wouldn't have to restart the game *yet again* after freeing it...

If the oxygen is "green" (plentiful), then how come waking people up kills you? Wouldn't it just go to "yellow"?

At least you made a walkthrough... You probably wouldn't need one, though, if the game itself gave the player a little bit more information (perhaps about the consequences of their actions, too... Although I admit "release carnivores" was pretty obviously going to kill you, so no need for more information on that one LOL), and things made a bit more sense. I definitely see potential in this game, since, well who doesn't love a "stranded spaceship" scenario?

xuxubadabooom responds:

We thought that if player will get more information, fame will be less difficulty and replayable, so someone likes this, someone not. We hope, we did right decision =)
If you wake people,eve the oxygen is green, if there is no food (such as mushrooms, or herbivores), they will die without food (AI say it, by the way).
Thank you for review!

[Sweep Miner]

A miner mining while avoiding mines and saving minors... Wah! Confusing, just like level 21, which made me swear...

I like the creative spin on a memory game though, and am always a fan of keeping my brain sharp when I'm playing games.

I'm looking forward to seeing more :D

MikeSalyh responds:

Thank you! I'm glad you guys/gals appreciate the mine-ception ;-)