Davoo's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Unstoppable Game]

I totally want to see the movie now

Holy crap, man! Great little graphics and art, good sound effects, awesome unending pace, great level design, very unique and fun concept, and it's the first game PERIOD that I have ever played where losing is actually insanely fun.

ChrisKempt responds:

Wicked, glad you enjoyed it! I have to say I'm very much looking forward to seeing the film myself!

[This is the Only Level II]

This is the Only Level 1.1, not 2

Aww, take a classic little clever game, and give us the typical bullshitty sequel that's nothing more than an expansion pack. It's not worse or anything, it still technically counts as "good", but it doesn't belong anywhere in our existence. The first game, like most games, had an ending. And it ended for a reason: that no matter how cool it was, it was going to get boring sooner or later. "Let's see what would happen if it dragged on overly long and lost all its charm" says the design philosophy of This is the Only Level II.

What a disappointment.

[Dexyball-2]

I am stunned

The inconsistency in the graphics is real annoying. Why are most of the game sprites pixilated and sharp (and pretty decent looking), yet the instruction page is an ugly piece of gradient abuse? Controls are quite unique and good. Maybe a little less responsive than they could be, might wanna see if you can tune them up a little bit, but still. So, um, anyway:

Holy fucking shit this is the most addicted I've been to such a simple game since... um... ever, I think. The concept is nothing brilliant, but it's simple, understandable and fun. It can get really hectic obviously, when new bigger enemies come onscreen. The level design is also great, really adding a huge variety to the gameplay and without-a-doubt makes the game as good as it is.

Music. It's sometimes hard for some people to understand: what exactly DOES make a video game song good? How can you tell? The answer is simple. The answer is a question, in fact. It goes like this:
"Can you listen to it for three consecutive hours and not get sick of it?"
With this song, that is definitely the case. I don't know if you downloaded this song and didn't credit them or WHAT, but if you actually made it yourself, then damn, you put a lot of love into your creation.

I can say with no hesitation that Dexyball 2 is a true diamond in the rough. Sink in a true budget, get yourself a sponsor, and bring on Dexyball 3. When refined and cleaned, this game will be a masterpiece.

[Wikipedia Portal Toy]

Wikipedia: the broadway musical?

You get a gold star, Devin. Games judgement must always be adjusted to how much time you spend playing them, so this is a really, really good game. More whimsy and mellowness has been packed into thirty seconds here than any game yet made.

DevWil responds:

Thanks a lot! Very kind review.

[Meteoroids]

All you 'eroids' look the same

This game is broken down, buggy, and unpleasant to play. It's really nothing more than Asteroids. I'm okay with a retro throwback game, as long as it does something new or fresh. But we really get nothing other than the hyperspace teleportation, which I'll admit is pretty cool.

Having different ships to choose from was a really cool idea too, up until you find out that they're all the same. So what was the point?

Visually: I don't know what happened. For some reason, everything looks blurry and choppy. Very unappealing to look at.

Maybe the biggest problem is the control. Shift or Crtl for fire? Why? Nobody uses those keys for primary action buttons. The spacebar is where you should fire from. Make the teleporting some other key.

Music's nice though, at least.

[Daft Punk Keymixer 2]

Best flash of your life

Alright, if this isn't the best soundboard ever made, I don't know what is. Just a few things are missing:

1) Background music needs to be longer. There needs to be a way to put it on loop.
2) Let me scroll through the list faster, please.

A soundboard can only be so good, though, but this is about as close to perfect as they come. May I recommend Justice for next time?

[Space-ninja]

I didn't enjoy :(.

Sure, everything is competent, but not special. This game is one of many signs that the "8-bit even though it doesn't have to be" fad is a little too popular: it proves that a game designer can just pump out a random, half-assed 8-bitter and assume people will like it, and be right.

Having the camera pan up almost every time you jump is really, really annoying. And I also hate having only one jumping altitude. Why should you be able to choose how high you go by holding down the button for a certain length of time? Because that's, like, a game-making standard. Don't ignore something like that. Also you shouldn't have included the songs that were annoying (all of them.)

[Bunny Flinger]

Flinging never felt so average

What could make it better? Um... how about a ground? It doesn't make much sense to have the bunny magically stop at the bottom of the screen. Better animation as well. And I don't mean art design (you did a decent job at that) I mean make the bunny have more than one single frame that just spins around. One of the most important parts of a skill toss game is the fun of seeing your victim wiggle around like a rag-doll. Make the physics less floaty, and the world less empty and you're good to go.

The music though; I know I'm supposed to not like it because it's so cheery and cheap, but I think it's pretty good actually. Certainly better than the overly-loud song we got in Toss the Turtle.

PS: About that song in the Turtle game; I think it was also in Castle Crashers, right? Why is it so popular? It's not that good.

RickyRombo responds:

Funnily enough I never thought of ground! Thanks for the heads up - wish I could've seen this earlier when I had the time to fix it up.

As for the physics, what I have now is most obstacles add 10 to the gravity and subtract x from speed, while the others add x to speed, and the tramp actually subtracts 40 from the gravity. You'll get varied floating results, but what exactly do you find to be the best combo?

Oh and the ground adds 20 to the gravity

[IQ Ball]

I feel smarter after playing

What an awesome game. Great visual design, good sound effects, solid presentation overall. But the physics are in charge today; and what a good and noble leader they are. That; and the fact that the level design is so good as well. Thank you for not making the same mistake that so many other game makers make, by understanding something:
Looking at the same graphics over and over again gets really sickening after a while
So gold medal to you for having new objects and slightly new backgrounds be consistently added to the game as the levels go on.
Oh and about that too; only 25 levels? Good job! Not too long, not too short.

Maybe the only two flaws are 1: the main character needs to not be so static, make him roll around. And 2: better music please. What you have right now is okay, but nothing special.

[The Randomly Random Game]

Okay, okay; I will enjoy

I literally laughed-out-loud the first time I saw the foot-shield. Other than that; the randomness only works mildly well. Basically, you keep fighting the same plant demons 90% of the time, so it's more repetitive than random.
Sound effects, however, seriously needed some work. It got annoying to hear the same thing so long. The solution is simple: make at least twenty different effects for the gunshot, and at least ten for taking damage. Make them take random turns. Boom: instant cure for annoyingness.

Another thing I don't like is the fact that the title gives away the fact that the game is random. If it were some generic title like, "Grand-city war of Hembloo!" no one would be expecting much. Then, as soon as they see what the game looks like, they'd be like, "holy shit! What is this?! Ololololol!"
By making sure that everyone knows the game is SUPPOSED to be random before they can even play it, they see what it looks like and go, "Yep, this is random alright. *small chuckle*"

Ultimate problem--though--is gameplay. Yes; it's just another shooter. And not a very good one. Frame-rate is choppy, animation is stiff. Animation-smoothness is a big part of gameplay, you know. In Mario World for example; the way that Mario moves his legs so fast is vital to giving players the feeling of running as fast as he does. It makes the controls much better; giving you a better sense of what you're doing.

Art design is great, though, so this is a good effort for being so small and quick. Continue working on your animation and controls, then make some more games like this.

Axiom responds:

Thanks. I'll have to find where to add a randomness to the sounds... since I found out how to add sounds and badguys.. but I agree a list of like 5 different kinds and maybe 2 sounds each would be a lot more interesting. I just need to learn how to *DO* it :P

Hmm I think another thing I will need to do is add a preloader. Maybe that will help a bit with the smoothness? I'll look into it.