Monkius's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Z]

I'd have liked better it if the game's response to movement inputs was a little faster. The character must be obese, since it takes him so long to get up to speed, and he can't run very fast... The odds aren't exactly in the little guy's favour, what with him wandering around in a zombie apocalypse. Good thing he has explosives!

I also came across a bug (or I think it was a bug, anyway) in level 2, where it said there were 3 zombies left, but I could not for the life of me find any of them... It made the unresponsive controls and slow movement speed even more frustrating...

SevenCreative responds:

Comments taken on board regarding the slow movement. I guess I was trying to make it so you couldn't just run to avoid the zombies and need to be more tactile, however maybe a middle ground of faster acceleration would suit. I will add it to my dev list.

Thanks for taking the time to provide feedback.

[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'.