cableshaft's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Russian Affairs]

Pretty good, but unfair at times.

First of all you could probably safely take out the holster/deholster key, as well as the speed key. I ended up keeping the gun out the whole time and running constantly. Your gameplay isn't dependent on these functions, unlike Flashback, so unless you're planning on expanding the gameplay, I wouldn't keep it in.

I like the split screen effect, where you basically get to see what's coming up without having to engage the enemy first. Reminded me a lot of Oddworld in that sense.

I had some problems with the gameplay. First, it seemed like the only way I could get more ammo was to let myself die. I might have missed something, but I didn't see any way to gain more ammo. If there is a way to gain ammo, you should explicitly state it somewhere in the instructions. Second, once you die once, usually the enemy will kill you once or twice more after continuing before they even let you get your gun back up to shoot them. Third, one time I came out of a cave facing the wrong way, and the three guys there killed me before I got turned around.

Work on these and the game will be a lot better. It'd be nice if there was a little more variety to the gameplay, as well.

alexander-b responds:

Thanks Man, "R" is for reload, it's in the How to Play section!!

[Great Teacher Onizuka]

eh...

Concept is actually pretty good, but you're missing a lot of elements to make the game actually fun. For example, there was practically no reward system in the game (there's always a reward system, even if it's only "You survived! NEXT WAVE" Here you just do the same things each and every day, do it for 30+ days, and THEN you get your feedback. Too late man. You should have at least something more interesting or some progress reports or something to make someone keep playing past 10 days.

DAIRYDOG responds:

k. Onizuka pwns j00.

[SPACE ACE]

Some suggestions...

The game doesn't look or play too bad, really, even though the concept/style is way too bland and derivative, but there are a few things you could do to make it look more interesting.

First of all, the ships should be animated. a single solid image moving slowly on the screen looks just like that, and not like a ship that's attacking you. There should have been some minor ship animation.

Also, the A.I. should have been more active than sitting still, or moving back and forth in a tight pattern and shooting a spray of bullets periodically. The ships should react, the ships should speed up/slow down, they should try to line up their shots to where the player is/will be. As it is, they seemed very dull and very lifeless.

Another benefit would be if all you had to do to keep shooting was to hold down the shoot button. I don't particularly enjoy tapping the space bar many times and repeatedly; it adds extra wear and tear on one particular key and I know with a few lines of code it could be made so you shoot continuously. It's not a skill to tap a key quickly, especially in these games. The skill is in avoiding, and your control scheme just distracts from the game.

Otherwise the game was well made. I liked the classic feel of the sounds, and none of them were especially annoying (as classic sounds can be). Having multiple modes was cool as well, even though both were classic gameplay that's been done hundreds of times before (and better). Overall, it's fun for a couple minutes, but it's not really worth playing twice.

terrypaton1 responds:

what have you done for new zealand hip hop lately?

[The Deadline - Part 1]

Not very fun.

It's kinda cool, but not very fun. One reason for this is it takes way too long to reload weapons. It takes longer to reload than in most survival horror games where you can move around to avoid the zombies while you reload. This is especially troublesome once you get the shotgun and have to reload after every shot.

Also, the lighting system is pretty poor. I understand why it moves differently from your crosshair, but it confuses the brain, and it means that in order to aim at the zombie that's coming at you, you can't see what you're shooting at. And you only have the flashlight when you have the pistol, so with the rest of the weapons you can't see much of anything.

When the zombies start attacking you, there seems to be no way to kill them either. Because of the damn reload one got to me and then I couldn't do anything but watch him bite me again and again until my health dropped to zero.

I'm not a big fan of this incredibly linear style of gameplay either (fmv of moving to the next spot, then stay in one place and shoot), but that's just personal preference.

It's not a bad attempt, but because of the above issues, I didn't have any fun playing the game.

RVWD responds:

do i have 2 repeat everytime that corsshair and flashlight stuff...? read some earlier reviews... thnx for the review anyway :)

[Ammunition Mission Lvl 1]

Fairly simple game.

Except you've got to ditch the whole "rotate and move" concept in favor of direct movement, Zelda style. It's too hard to move the guy to dodge those bullets. Other than that, it was decent.

isthatlegal responds:

The reason that the curcular motion is in place is becasue it makes it harder... If it was 'Zelda style' it wud be way too easy

[Tank Escape]

Pretty good.

I like the game, but the hit testing is too unforgivable. I see a bullet five feet away from me one frame, and then the next frame it disappears and has hit me? It's hard to figure out how to dodge that. I understand you're just moving the bullet at a set velocity, but perhaps if you doubled the FPS and lowered the velocity per frame it would be easier to see where to dodge?

Good concept though. All about timing, and choosing which path to take. I like it.

binaryflow responds:

i agree in a way, the way i play it is, you wait for yor chance to get through and go for it.. i dont really think the tank handles well enough to dodge..

and while your here.. loved Proximity! most addictive game ive played in a long long time! well done!

[Gig Racer]

Almost...

The game is well made in just about every respect except 1) the resolution is small, so it's hard to see what's on the screen, and 2) the objects move across the screen too fast so by the time you identify whether the object is something to grab or dodge it's too late to react. Other than that, great game, and a good marketing tool.

PlasmicSteve responds:

Hey, thanks for the review - I did increase the game to a larger site. Check it out again if you can, and thanks for the review.

[Ninja Air Combat]

Feels empty...

I really like your games in theory. Their style, characters, sound, presentation, controls are all top notch. And I also feel like I'm playing the minigames on slot machines when I play your games, and that's also the problem. Your games tend to be so repetitive and mindless that I have trouble playing the games for more than two minutes.

Ninja Air Combat isn't an exception. The concept is brilliant, Ninjas and anime schoolgirls instead of spaceships in an otherwise standard shooter, but there's no real strategy or skill involved. The screen's too hectic to really maneuver well. I end up relying on getting larger and larger attacks to clear the screen of enemies that don't even fight back, for the most part. There's a lot you could do with the genre and theme that you didn't, and for that I'm rather disappointed in the game.

I'll still keep checking out your work, but there's a reason why I never play the slots at casinos. They're more of a chore than a joy to play.

Wiesi-Mausland responds:

well i respect your opinion.
but for me different things are important. i want to portrait arcade style games, mausland games are something like a parody of those mindless and hectic typical arcade games which i always enjoyed very much! i dont like slow games where i have to think. i just want short action and fun and yea it should be mindless!

[Tropzilla 2]

I liked it.

For the most part it was a good game, and I played it all the way through, but there are some areas you could improve.

The levels were a little long, with very little variety in the gameplay. Move right until you see a projectile guy, hold space for a second, press right again. It only really changed in the second level, where you occasionally had to hit up. A little too repetitive and not very challenging.

The bosses would have been hell to evade (since the controls are kinda stiff - you can only do one action or another at a time) if I didn't realize you could move over to where they were standing and not get hit by anything, removing that challenge. Jumping took too long to use and wasn't useful anyway, not even at the boss. Biting wasn't very useful either since by the juice attack was so much more effective at mass destruction. I also thought it was kind of lame that the first two levels had bosses and the last level didn't, nevermind the third level adding nothing new to the gameplay besides some art swapping.

But it was an interesting game that I've never seen done before. It has its weaknesses, but it's kind fun nonetheless.

Tropicana responds:

Thanks .. I wanted to make a boss I swear I had no ideas what to make for a 3rd level boss I sat for a day trying to think of one before the release nothing came to mind :(

[verses for everyday life]

I just wanted to sigh and walk away...

...but I couldn't. My concern has nothing to do with your use of religion, my concern is of the flash itself. I read the reply you gave to someone's review of 'i wanted to do a nice interactive instead of this other junk you usually see.' See, this flash is anything but nice, and far from interactive. It shows little work at best. First, the buttons were atrocious and moved when they obviously should not have. Second, the scripture lines you posted didn't all FIT in the box you had given it, besides the fact that the text was a little too large to begin with. Third, the design is anything but pleasant. A box for text, with 5 more boxes for moods, and a few colors. I'm sorry, but you contradicted yourself by claiming that you made this to counteract the junk on this site. You submitted some junk of your own. Come back once you understand simple design concepts. Until then, please, PLEASE don't submit anything else.

jsav responds:

well you see what i ment by junk was this violence. i have been on newgrounds for only 5 days and already seen more violence in these 5 days than in 10 horror movies combined. you may think this was poorly made but i am new to flash and have only had it for 20 days. i respect your opinion but this is the best i could do for now. thank you though.