AshSamael's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Super Mario Hardcore]

The whole game is not as great as it's idea.

Pluses:
+Perfect idea;

Minuses:
-Too many glitches;
-Short levels;
-Very few enemies (considering the game¡¦s name there had to be more);

Super Mario Hardcore is an action game based on Super Mario World universe, where you¡¦re able to use guns to kill enemies.

After reading the name you will probably think that the game is really hardcore, you¡¦ll be able to slay thousands of enemies with large arsenal instead of simply jumping on their heads. In fact, yes, there actually is such feature, but it¡¦s not realized as it should be.

The first problem you face in Super Mario Hardcore is a large amount of scripting glitches. The invisible walls appear where they mustn¡¦t and sometimes there isn¡¦t a wall where it has to be. In a few minutes this really frustrates and annoys you.

The other scripting mistake is enemies¡¦ spawning: they appear in a strange sequence and there¡¦s too few of them. With a word ¡§Hardcore¡¨ in the name of the game it should be considered that the game will be really hard because of the amount of the enemies. Instead of this, we¡¦re just simply wandering through the levels (sometimes it gets even more boring when you have to go through a thin walkway) shooting turtles time-to-time and changing weapons just for fun. Yes, there¡¦s no point of changing them because you have unlimited ammo. Besides, you have only 4 types of weapons: a rifle, bazooka, tommy-gun and a spanner to smash the enemies with (probably the best weapon in the whole game).

You¡¦ll probably expect at least a long playing time, but you can forget about it now: there are only 4 levels in the game. At least, they are totally different, thanks for that. When you¡¦ll get bored of killing innocent creatures you can entertain yourself attempting to collect all the coins on the level. But don¡¦t forget about the flying cubes you can¡¦t stand on and the walls you¡¦ll periodically stuck in.

The idea is really great and could be realized much better that this. But instead of hardcore arcade shooting we get a boring and frustrating gameplay.

Advices for the author:
Dear Casualty, I am a Flash-maker myself, so I suppose I can give you some advices you can use in the future. First of all, you should improve your AS skills. In fact, I could help you with that, but I¡¦m not so good in physical part myselfƒ¼. Add more enemies and coins. Improve weapon shooting effects. Make levels more interesting and much longer.

That¡¦s it, we¡¦re waiting for a sequel=)!

Casualty responds:

You're really inspiring me to do a sequel =) I dunno, I'll see next year. Oh wait... That's in a few days! Nah, I'll think about it, but first I'm doing some other music video project.

[Escape from Helltowers]

Good first impression. But later...

Pluses:
+AWESOME graphics!;
+Nice atmosphere;

Minuses:
-Boring gameplay;
-No fresh ideas;
-Too little amount of pickups;
-No checkpoints?!;
-No possibility to jump or crouch.

Weel, as a first try that was awesome. When I saw the graphics I was like paralyzed for a moment. They are REALLY great. But, as appeared soon, it was almost the only advantage in the game...
The music and the graphics created a scary atmosphere. It could be better if the game's genre was adventure instead of action.
What does the gameplay consist from? Walking around, picking up a few items, shooting a bunch of zombies? Not interesting. Sorry, too boring. If the main hero could do some actions besides walking and shooting it could be more interesting.
If there are any kinds of items you can pick up, why don't you make a big amount of them? The guy could use grenades, find keys or other stuff like that.
It's really frustrating when you've got really far and you get killed. But in most of games you're given checkpoints, or at least a certain amount of lives. Why couldn't you make so?
My advise: try yourself in adventure genre. I'd love to see such work of yours. If you have any problems involving programming, feel free to E-mail me.
~Good luck with an adventure game! ^_^

ZZR responds:

Thx, I was going to have jumping and crouching, but coding that became extremely frustrating XD... so I decided the gameplay could just be walking, dodging, shooting, and switching ammo... which is better than just walking and shooting :P

re adventure, it was supposed to be a blend of action of adventure, but turned out to be more action, because of time limitations, but hopefully in future versions I can get a better mix of action and adventure.

[Zombie Grounds II]

Very nice!

Pluses:
+Nice graphics and detailed envioronment;
+Interactivity;
+Gameplay;

Minuses:
-Too much walking;
-The gameplay isn't as dynamic as it could be.

Loved it. But it needs to be patched. For example, the background loop was too annoying and the zombies are moving too fast.

Nemo responds:

Thanks for the review. I definitely agree with the background loops. For some reason the volume did not go as low as I wanted it to and I got annoyed with it after a while. Luckily, knowing this I have added a volume control option in my newest game (in progress). Thanks again for the review! I'm glad you liked it.

[The Amazing Photon 3]

I don't even know what to say...

Pluses:

+Great tutorial;

Minuses:

-Bad graphics;
-Boring gameplay;
-Awful music.

I couldn't find any sense of this game. The aim is just walking around and clicking sometimes. E- mail me if I'm wrong...

ChrisBored responds:

Clicking can be fun :(

[Tempur 1.0]

Fantastic effects

Pluses:

+Impressive visual effects;
+Fighter maker;
+Interesting fighting system.

Minuses:

-Fighting system is original, but not so interactive as it has to be.

Random pressing of only 2 buttons and watching what happens isn't very interactive, so it can get boring. The effects really impressed me. Especially bullet time effect if it can be called so.

Jannata responds:

Thanks for the review, AshSamael.

[Uniwar Level 1 SE]

Good conception- bad realisation.

Pluses:

+ Addictive gameplay;
+ Few original ideas.

Minuses:

- Some ridiculous moments;
- Poor graphics and animation;
- Uninteractive moving.

People shooting each other with PISTOLS and SHOTGUNS in SPACE??? Very interesting. People like to choose themselves where to go, but here is only one desidion you can make. Too bad.

[-outpost part one-]

Too poor for an adventure game...

Minuses:
-The game is too short;
-Stupid God- damn pixel hunting!;

Pluses:
+Good graphics;
+Nice atmosphere;
+Pretty good storyline;
+Humor.

I'll play part two tomorrow. I hope you've fixed all minuses. Anyway, if there'll be part three try to get rid of this things. Anyway, you did a good job. I hope people will love the graphics, humor and animation.

Waterflame responds:

thank you for the constructive review =D i liked how you did a clean "pluss and minus" of it. and thanks for the kind words ofcource :) im afraid there will never be a outpost 3 tho..