JohnnySedona's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Heist II - Greed is Hell]

I like the game

And I think that you did some new things that added some fun to the point and click genre, but I think this game suffers from the same problem that almost every other game in the genre suffers from- it assumes that the player knows more than he does. I had the walkthrough and it still took me a few minutes to realize that the main room at the top of the stairs was even there. Looking through the keyhole was a great element, but how would I know to do that if I wasn't just randomly pointing and clicking? I wish I had a solution, but that's a problem I see with the whole genre, not just your game. As it was, it was a well-made and interesting game, but I think the gameplay problems with that whole category of games should be worked out or the genre shelved forever.

[Ether Cannon]

Good game

It reminds me of the newer vertical scrolling shoot-em-ups where there are just so many bullets on the screen, you feel like it's just blind luck that's keeping you from dying. But there's a very low-level instinctive skill involved in ultra-fast paced games like this, and it's difficult to master, from a game design perspective. I like what you've got here.

Kajenx responds:

Thanks! Try reversing directions really quick when you're swarmed. They don't turn as quickly as you can, so that breaks them up. Then you can isolate and destroy.

[Gravitee]

All in less than 500k...

Congratulations- your optimization is not unappreciated. I think it may have benefited from a bit more sound, but the gameplay was great.

[Dark Cut²]

Extensial's not a word.

But I did like it. It was short, and that made me sad, but the atmosphere was absolutely incredible.

[Halloween Game Collab 07]

Not bad.

I'm sure building a game for a collab takes a lot of the glory out of it, so I've got a lot of respect for designers that can do that. It would have been nice to see some unifying element in there, though- something that brought all the games together, like a checklist of accomplishments that would have required playing all the games.

[Dead Frontier: Night One]

Looks great, plays great.

I prefer games that have more progression, but as an action-based shoot-em-up, this is great- the graphics in particular were incredible.
As for realism... video games don't need to be realistic. If you can suspend disbelief enough to accept that you're guiding a mushroom-eating plumber through monster infested magical green pipes, you can trust that any inaccuracies in reload times were done for the benefit of gameplay.

[StormWinds]

Fantastic

Polished and professional. It began to feel a little too repetitive after a while, but that's one of those things that's hard to plan for in an independent game release like this. Great work, though.

[Emogotchi v2.0]

That's fuckin old school.

The whole tamagotchi thing was happening ever before pokemon- that must've been 94 or 95. I appluad your sense of history, but the game itslef was a little slow. My biggest complaint was that the buttons (for sleeping, especially), didn't have their own hit areas, so it was kind of a bitch to hit the zzzz's.