Score: 6

"Almost a perfect replica of the original."

submission: Regular Pacman

date: May 13, 2009

Two things missed to make up the difference:

1. It's already been mentioned, but the speed is much slower than the original, and that kills any desire to play it for an extended period of time.
2. Minor - As I recall, original Pac-Man has the ghosts reversing movement direction when a powerpill is eaten, to simulate them "running away".

All in all, nicely done. The only thing that kept it from appearing to be an exact copy of the first was the game speed.

Score: 10

"I'm all that into brainteasers like this..."

submission: CUBIQ

date: May 11, 2009

... but it was enjoyable for a short play. I don't have a lot to add, other than a minor grouch about the overabundance of blue coloring. A little variety would be good to break up the monochromatics. I realize you probably had an intended muting effect of some kind, what with the varying shades of plue, but imho, it's a tad overdone.

Score: 10

"Surprisingly good."

submission: Bubblestars

date: May 11, 2009

I say surpsingly only because it started off really hard to catch the hang of, with the unusual darting movements, but then became much easier to deal with. Given the way it moves, I'd suggest making the "hero" icon a fish instead of a star simply because it darts in that quick way small fish have and fits the them better. Not a complaint, mind you, just personal taste.

If there's one thing I'd criticize, it's the huge abundance of bubbles at the beginning while the player is still at the point where they're catching on. Making it a little sparser might make the learning curve a touch easier. Not a serious issue, and again, nothing I'd dock rating points for.

Overall, entertaining game. Thanks for sharing it.

Score: 8

"Ahhhhhhhh, nostalgia."

submission: Billy And The Shootgun

date: May 10, 2009

I remember long and boring pre-gameboy car trips where I'd have to read or draw, and this totally brings back memories of little pencil-paper drawing games I'd play to kill the time. Great stuff when you've the imagination for it.

Two issues:

1. Gunshot Evasion - It seems like unless you react instantly (hard to do when you're fighting) to the sound of a fired gun, you take a hit. That's not as much of a problem in kiddie mode, but... yeah. You end up taking lots of damage from a gunshot that acts almost like a visible real-time bullet.

2. Off-screen attacks. This is more of an extension of #1, but it has some issues of its own. Particularly when you have some little shootpunk taking shots at you from the edge of the screen: you advance on him, he backs up, and you can't see him. It's not a lot of fun fighting something you can't see.

Fun game, and if you do a future variation, I recommend adding a larger variety of enemies to fight. It gets a bit tedious after awhile.

Off-screen attacks

Score: 6

"Patience, eh?"

submission: Which Holy virtue are you

date: May 10, 2009

This piece is an amusing diversion, and you've managed to do a decent rendition of those "which X are you" themed games. I can't say I understood the rationale behind some of the choices, but it certainly was entertaining. And it demands a "Deadly SIn" followup! :)

Note: Don't mistake the low star-rating for a bad review - Your game doesn't employ any of the features (such as action sequences or actual gamplay) that I would rate harder in a movie or something involving real game-play, so there's no markdown. It gets judged only for what it is and its potential, which isn't a lot in this kind of piece.

Score: 9

"Mission-games, way to step it up"

submission: Iron Snail

date: May 10, 2009

The last one of these kind of games that I saw was really good, and it seems you've stepped it it up notch over whoever did that one. My only complaint is the same others have had - the jumping is whack. The player should be able to jump in place, rather than jumping forward, so that they can move forward or back as needed.

Score: 8

"Enjoyable, but spotty."

submission: TheCrazyStunt

date: May 10, 2009

This was an entertaining game, but there's some issues that take away from it. The first two are minor, the last is annoying.

1. Speed Power-up: I like the idea of a speed power-up when the game is about motorcyles, but since there's not a noticeable time factor, it tends to come across as more of a powerdown when your cycle suddenly blasts uncontrollably across the screen.
2. "Revving" - You have the right concept, but the execution makes me wince. Even when you're moving at a steady pace, it sounds like the engine is revving when it should be a steady hum.
3. Checkpoints - This really grinds my gears (yay, pun). The last thing I want to do is go back and play all the levels through again after accidentally missing a couple jumps. How about checkpoints for Retry?

Score: 8

"Unique concept."

submission: ...palindromes,,,

date: May 9, 2009

I particularly like the use of non-English palindromes. It makes the game a little more challenging.

Minor issues:
1. Word repetition in the lower levels. They're so easy they really don't need this to make it easier.
2. Challenge escalation. I think it takes about 8 or 9 levels before the game gets remotely challenging. Not because of any failure on your part, but simply because there's too much extra time and because anyone who knows what a palindrome is can take a look at the letters "bbo" and make the switch without even checking the definition. You could scale this better by making it get harder earlier.

Score: 8

"Entertaining game."

submission: Crazy Apple 2

date: May 9, 2009

A couple of minors issues that take away from the gameplay of an otherwise decent game:

1. Lack of variety - I think there's all of two creature types, the bees and the spiked spiders through the first three levels. I didn't get much further than that because of issue #2.

2. Maneuverability. There's a huge emphasis in this game on floating over things or dying when you fall. The problem in that is there's really not a lot of control in how you move when you're floating, so it's very easy to run into things unless you spend a lot of time honing your control skills. If this were a more involved game rather than an obstacle course, that wouldn't be too bad a thing.

3. As for the things you can or can't attack, the mechanism is odd, but I didn't dock you for it as I'm not sure it's unintentional. I've run into the spiked spiders a few times, not dying from it, but clearly registered in the little noise it makes from hitting things. Not sure that's a bug or intentional.

Score: 8

"One hit, quite a few misses."

submission: Brawl Funnies [Dick 1]

date: May 9, 2009

There's a few decent pieces in this collab, particularly the first one, but unfortunately, it's overwhelmed by a lot of stuff that seems to be poor flash filled with semi-decent in-jokes. I'll admit, Meet 'n Fuck Brawl made me laugh.

Most of the stars from this rating go to the maker of the first piece and whoever did that standout one called "Rina-Chan and the Brawl Boys". That deserved its own short flash outside of the collab. Kudos to the author.