Monkius's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Waddle Antarctic]

Ironic that a game which desultorily levels me up twice in a row (I went from 8, straight to 10) or changes my shield to one I haven't bought yet--and cannot form proper sentences, to boot--is calling me an "idiot"...

It would be nice if the player's HP were shown somewhere in every menu. I went into battle more than a few times with barely any HP, only to get pwned by my opponent. I soon learned to keep better track of my penguin's health, but it would still be nice if it were shown in the main and battle arena menus. Heck, while you're at it, may as well make it show how much money you have, as well.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for making a "mute" button. The music got really repetitive after a while. It actually says "unmute" when I go to mute the sound, and "mute" when I go to turn it back on, though...

Other than the glitchiness and few minor issues--which hopefully will be fixed with the patches/updates--it was pretty fun. I got all the medals except the one where you had to hunt for the rocketship. :D

Oh, and try to be a little less hard on people (yourself included.)

JackAstral responds:

It was just a little joke :b I'll work on fixing up the issues you mentioned in the next patch- thanks for the detailed review!

[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.

[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!