TheReviewTrickster's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tankmas ADVENTure 2020]

I love you, Newgrounds! Merry Tankmas everyone, and thanks for bringing us the joy of hanging out together with wonderful music and art another year! 4.5 stars only because the stuff with what I'm assuming are other users of some kind is kinda weird and I don't really get it.
@Geokureli I hope you get better ASAP, good as new!
Here's to another year of creation and enjoyment, chilling and hustling, pushing limits and moving heartstrings! Another year of Newgrounds.

[Sift Heads 4]

Yes, playing this again, it doesn't quite hold up. figuring out what to do is really hard and tedious because you give no logical clues, only very blunt or very vague hints in the objectives and mission names and we're required to assume things from there. basically nothing is explained in the mission descriptions and the objectives are sorta hidden away, but, again, none of it is very logical and a lot of missions just have you waiting for a long time. The concept was actually fun, so it's a shame, but this really isn't one of your best games. Also, yeah, the guns definitely aren't an incentive, as the automatics and semiautomatics would just lower your mission rank. The graphics are okay and I like the music. The title card thing that plays every time you retry a mission is insanely annoying, though.

[Christmas ADVENTure 2019]

A true sequel. Has the spirit of the original, but strives to take it to new heights. I like the feeling of the cabin, I imagine it's gonna be great when it's filled up! I like how last year's decorations have melted away in the outside area, but that just means they'll have to be restored, better than ever before! Also giant head in the background, that's a top-notch Christmas detail. Love it. I can't seem to get the second present, though, is it not in yet? Also, the rug in the cabin superposes itself over the character when you go on its far side. I hope I can get all the medals this year!

[Crimson Eve]

The music is great, but the track is way too short, so it loops constantly. The art was great as usual. The story and gameplay, though, were not good.
Let's start with the gameplay. The puzzles were very simple, though I did like the one wth the reflection on the shield. I like how you actually used a cool detail there that forced you to pay attention. The rest, though, was very simple or infuriating. Like the bricks, which were straight up invisible. That was such a random little thing. There were other places where the bricks showed like that and I tried clicking around on the fireplace in my desperation, but I had to look up the walkthrough.
Next, we have the story. An unconnected mess. There's things around like the crestlocm and the bear pelt, which suggest something to do with the family, and that the brother was foing something strange. But in the end, psych! It's some random guy who we'd never seen or heard about before. And all the strange items in the cabin related to the family had nothing to do with naything apparently. Maybe they were random Easter eggs, I don't know. I like to analyze clues and try to piece the story together, not have trivial Easter eggs confuse me. And just as a cherry on top, we have the sister-in-law. She is scantily clad for no reason and looks very cheaply done, not to mention she's completely unburdened by the tragic death of her former husband (I get she'd want to see him, but still), and is just an exposition machine. Not to mention that random guy at the beginning who says man a lot and serves no other purpose tha to weirdly clue us in, because the game thrusts you right into the story. And he's just there, in an undefined place.
The writing had potential, I liked the maim character, he seemed to be very melancholic, with his rhymes and pessimistic remarks. A sort of "this place is awful and there's nothing to do but go with it" character. However, his rhymes were inconsistent, so they felt like a gimmick that was sometimes just given up on.
The music was nice, but a very short track, so it just restarted constantly.
The art, however, was beautiful, I loved the world of pumpkins and strange creatures. The idea of these guys having a proud family history and of the land being barren and melancholic was really cool. Great atmosphere.
Overall it had the art and probably one of the coolest worlds you have created, but the execution really was disappointing.
Perhaps someday you could remake this, with a better, longer story, better puzzles, etc.

[goodbye, doggy]

The graphics and music are really cute and go well together. The gameplay is simple and not at all difficult. As someone who recently lost a dog, I found this entirely relatable, and I gotta say it's made me shed tears. it's not about the gameplay, it's about the story, which was constructed rather well. All of the feelings the characters experienced were, like I said, entirely accurate. The finality of death, the reminders everywhere and, of course, the comfort of memories. The way none of them could do chores and simple tasks seemed hard, I'm sure, is true to life, though I didn't have much to do when my doggy passed away. I also liked the way that, when the yall took a little time off to think, they were able to come to terms with it. The game was cute, but it didn't shy away from the serious thoughts that come with loss. The ending was also beautiful and I loved the humorous parts of the chores.
This could have been a cheap way to rake in feels, but you clearly know what the experience is like and captured it perfectly. A beautiful game.

[Detiled]

That was a cool concept. Graphics were minimalist but fun, just like the gameplay. Even the lack of music fit. The difficulty was there, but the controls were good and the hitboxes and level design made sense and were maneuverable. The puzzles were neat, they weren't over-complicated and all you needed was logic. You had to think, and that's what a good puzzle should have you doing. Thinking about the limitations and positioning, process of elimination. not sure what else to say. A neat little puzzle game, keep it up!

[TAMUTU]

I thought this was gonna be one of those games that tries to have a deep story and be pretentious, but doesn't master basic gameplay. I was pleasantly surprised. The gameplay was very nice. The controls are simple, but they work. The boss fights had some good difficulty without feeling unfair. The patterns were pretty simple, but for a Ludum Dare game it really did satisfy me. The graphics also looked nice, except for the text screens with ugly gorilla dad. Those felt kinda low-effort. The music was also cool. The story really was interesting, and the flashes of reality were cool too, a bit weird how the final battle was all real. It was pretty fitting, but maybe if it at least started off innocent, that would have been nice. It was interesting. I guess the thing is that, no matter what, the innocence would be destroyed.
This was a really good one, might be one of the best LD games I've played. Keep it up!

[Christmas ADVENTure 2018]

Well, now that it's finished, I can leave a review. It was a cool idea with the medals, some people say it's cheap, but it encourages you to come back daily. At least you didn't lock the actual art to its own day. Either way, you got some cool people to participate, and some cool art. The game world also looks nice and I really like how the presents and characters fill out the place. The background details are really cool too, with the little characters and shack in the distance rewarding you for looking around. That final day really brought ot the feels when I saw who the last character was. The igloo finally being enterable was nce, and so were its contents, but maybe you should have used the tank instead. Speaking of using different stuff on the last day, I think a different piece of art should have been used. This one was cool, and had a few iconic characters, but I think @Chobiluck, @Tyler or maybe even @Snailpirate's piece would have been better. A nice selection of characters for sure. The music was really great, very joyful and atmospheric. It can really bring out the feels. I wish it rotated out though. I seem to remember there being a different song at the beginning. Maybe this one is better suited to the mood, but I would like it if they switched from time to time.
Also edit: I'm sory, but the walking really should be a bit faster.
Overall a neat way to celebrate the holidays on NG, but some tweaks would be nice.

BrandyBuizel responds:

There's 4 songs switching out every 6 days.
I wish we had the luxury to choose which art was use each day but we ended up running out of our stockpile around the 16th. From then we were just using the next piece available and hoping one would be finished in time(reason for a lot of blackout in early hours of the morning)

Glad you could spend Christmas with us!

[MOBS, INC.]

A cool concept with very appealing graphics and simple but fun gameplay. I'm still surprised at what people can accomplish for the Ludum Dare. The music is nice as well.
There's a good amount of enemy variety for a 72-hour game. It's actually quite a difficult game. it's mostly fair and the upgrades really do feel helpful. The abilities too, though I mostly use them for avoiding purposes. I like the system of having to survive until you're a certain level.
The humor of the game is also nice, like the lines of the adventurers and the comfy corporate atmosphere of the waiting room. The Creeper is a nice easter egg.
Now, there are some flaws. The verbal warnings should be counted as 3, not four, because that's misleading. Then there are some gameplay flaws. Multiple times, I have been hit immediately after respawning because an archer hit me or a knight guy charged me before I could even see what was happening. It would be nice if you held off the spawn or disabled enemy attacks for a second. i can always use the Q ability to teleport out of harm's way, but I feel like he game design shouldn't encourage doing that every respawn. I'm annoyed that the big armored knights can get me in ball mode. It's fine that they can when teleporting, it discourages abuse of the time-stopping effect, but it shouldn't be like that for the ball. This, along with the fact you can't control it and there's no counter to say how much time it has left makes the ball the worst ability.
Overall a fun time-waster, and very god for the time it was made in, but could have been improved a bit afterwards.

[Pico vs. Uberkids]

A weird concept but surprisingly fun. I really like the detail in all the characters' roulette reactions. The game is dependent on RNG, of course, but it's also got a fairly sophisticated AI. it can be predicted, but it gets fairly complicated and you have to take into account red herrings and double red herrings. The music is nice as well, and the win/lose messages are pretty funny. The intro and story are really interesting and pretty funny as well.
Overall a fairly simple game concept, but entertaining and about as fair as it can e.