Monkius's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Myosotis Chapter 4]

I love puzzle games, and see a lot of potential in this. However, it was way too short.

The "15" level had me baffled, until I read ArrogantDoucheNova's hint in the comments.

The card level was annoying until I realised I could change the suits... But in retrospect, I think that's more my bad for not realising it earlier. However, I had to guess the first combo; there was no logic shown to me that dictated "spades and spades equal hearts", only "clubs and clubs equal hearts". IMO, if you have to guess, it's not really a puzzle.

The Mona Lisa level would have been better if there was a second button under the paintings to change the face, instead of having to click the painting... Even after I figured that out, I feel that I solved it with a bit of educated guessing. I really didn't get the last one ("OGEN"). Like almost everyone else in the comments, I don't understand why you chopped the "D" off of "BLIND", either...

Not bad, but still a lot of room for improvement.

ImpendingRiot responds:

Thanks for the review. I'm definitely sorry about the confusion with BLIN/BLIND. It's one of those things where I was looking at it for so long I didn't realize the letter got cropped off because I knew the solution. The last one isn't OGEN, it's GONE. As in her whole face!

Like I said though, I really appreciate the review :)

[Gravity Den]

Awesome game... Part tetris, part donkey kong... You have to use your brain to solve the puzzles (sometimes quickly) to get the stars, and have to hit fiendishly-precise button combinations/timings to set a fast time (or even get through the level sometimes)...

This kept me thoroughly hooked, and as of this writing, I have all the stars and sit at #6 on the all-time high scores list...

(All I have to say about "much blood!!!" is: YOU BASTARD! THAT ONE TOOK ME LIKE AN HOUR!!! Lol)

There are a couple of niggling things that I don't really consider "drawbacks" as such, but little refinements you might make if you made a commercial version of this game (which I'm sure you could):

1) I remember the controls being a little loopy on a couple of occasions, but I really couldn't tell you how or where, since I was so sucked into trying to beat my high score/get all the stars...

2) Sometimes you can fall from a "crumbling" square, and still get pegged by the spike squares in the row/column beside it. Maybe try making it so that it auto-centres you on the square whenever you land on a "crumbling" square.

3) This last one is a problem in like 9/10 games that have spikes in them, but when you hit the /side/ of the spikes, you die. This just doesn't make any sense at all to me...

Denver2003 responds:

Nice review, thanks. I'm really happy that you've enjoyed my game. I will implement auto-center when i go commercial.)

[Ucogi - Solitaire Quest]

@ captain let's-spam-japanese-emoticons: Nope, it was pretty much just tough from the beginning for me, and I play a fair bit of Solitaire...

I've done the first level three or four times now and haven't passed it; perhaps I'm just tired.

It would also be great if the cards were spaced further apart vertically... I found it tough to tell which one was on top sometimes and had to move the entire stack to view the top card. NBD, but just saying.

Veinom responds:

Solitaire is what is it.... I hope the tutorial helps. This game was ment for noobs ^^

[Tainted Olive - Chapter 1]

This is a definite change of atmosphere from your last game. I've gone from loling at the "wizzard" to having chills shoot down my spine after reading the Rat-man's eerie rhymes, or witnessing the scene where I find the hammer...

I love the hand-drawn style, as with The Grey Rainbow.

I also really enjoyed the depth of the characters, but the downside to this is that I felt a bit cheated when the game finished after only about 25 mins of play. Lol.

It's great how everything is so well-laid-out and intuitive, but I found the puzzles a little sparse, and on the easy side (maybe I am just a genius, :P).

All my 5 are belong to this; I look forward to future chapters!

BlackOlive responds:

Well yeah, 25 mins after the hour and a half of Grey Rainbow seems like cheating, no? But remember this is just an introduction - all the following chapters will be longer, not sure how long though. Several times.

And there's only so many puzzles one can cram into a story-line before it feels padded ;)

[Cardinal]

Damn it... Got up to about 60, then I blinked.

In the beginning, the "arrow key" control scheme was a bit hard to master for me. It might be more intuitive to use the "8462" keys on the number pad, like DDR.

HybridMind responds:

Never blink, man. Never. Blink.

[Pizza Freaks]

Lol, pretty good for a first game. The scoring system is a bit wacky though... I've two-starred levels where I've gotten all pizzas and nothing else, and I think I 3-starred level 5 (the last one, even though there is a "6" after it???)

The game just hangs when you hit the "game over" screen, you should have a button back to the main menu or something.

The style of the game kind of reminded me of the old "game and watch" LCD games.

whack47 responds:

Can you tell me how I can give my game 5 stars, because you're killing me larry! Try the new version!

[Christmas Gifts Push]

"Nothing too new or interesting"... I've seen this kind of game a lot before, but it was cool of you to put a Christmas spin on it so I could have some puzzle time during the holidays.

I'm not sure if I'm just an anomaly, but I didn't find this too terribly taxing. Maybe next Christmas, you can release a level pack with some more fiendish levels I can swear at...

duquekarl responds:

Yeah Monkius, this time the levels were not too hard. It's difficult to find a balance between easy and hard. If you really want fiendish levels and more challenge, try this previous game I made - SteamyBalls: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/610387

[You Only Get One SpaceMan]

Took me the longest time to figure out that I had to land on smooth ground, even though the ship didn't topple on the boulders and such... Lol... But other than that, this was great for a quickie.

xkoster responds:

Thanks for feedback! Ive changed the caption to 'land on a smooth spot'.

[Color Follower]

Level 30, What the F**K!

Please, please, for the love of god make checkpoints or something on the last level. I can get to the last level without rage-quitting; but /on/ the last level, when you get through about 5 "sub-levels" and then die because of a stupid mistake... FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUU UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU UU---

RatherRandomReality responds:

It's the LAST level for a reason, sorry buddy. Thanks for playing!