Jojiro's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Geneva Convection]

Seriously good graphics and game mechanics, but the execution is kind of bad. See all those instructions in your author comments? Those should be in the game. Either as a tutorial, or as a gradual work up in the difficulty curve.

The capacitor room has way too much influence on the rest of the facility. The moment it blows, repairing it is impossible. Your assistant implies that it is doable, but you literally have 0 cooling and 0 idea what is going on at that point. The game is unbalanced by this caveat.

The other thing is the satellite management. With no satellites, you have only two cities, I believe, which you can hit. Then with two satellites the game is suddenly very very easy. Basically, the difficulty is curved in a strange way where the beginning of the game is nigh on impossible, especially for a new player, and the endgame is comparatively a breeze.

It's certainly playable, but I question if the balance was intentional or if there were severe issues with balancing that were ignored due to time constraints. The graphics for the game, and again, the mechanics were well done, but it's put together in a package that is as explosive as the reactor in the game. I really want to see this game out, but rebalanced to be more newbie-friendly, especially at the very beginning, and challenging maybe later on.

(I replayed the game multiple times to test out how the valve system worked and what was optimal...short of me missing something really obvious, I found the beginning to always be more frustrating than the midgame, and simple mistakes ended the game for me)

3/5.

[Vast]

Trippy and unusual in a good way. Nonetheless, everything was so widely dispersed that I felt like I was aimless a lot of the time.

The art was interesting, though I'm not sure it matches the concept of minimalism. There is that language barrier thing that forces me to remember odd symbols, but that's the only thing that veers towards the main theme.

Not terribly fun, but definitely quirky and worth a quick look in terms of art alone.

[The world is in your hand]

I got a girl her cat. Then I picked up a boy.

Does he want a girlfriend? A bed? A cat? A depressed person? I have no idea, but apparently not.

That was all. The game is unclear, lacks direction, and is just hard to understand. What am I doing in this flying chair? The lack of a visible ceiling and floor, but their presence nonetheless, felt like a lazy design choice, and the gradient in the background was not representative of anything nor did it add anything to the game as far as I could tell. How is the world mine? Why am I playing this?

[Consequences]

Great, minimalistic game that has a wonderful theme in the name and gameplay. Well executed, fun, and simple, with a fitting soundtrack to match. Nothing negative to say besides that it is obviously a very simple game, but that's the contest, right?

Controls were a tad non-intuitive, and enemies lacked a lot of variety. Still, a good game.

[COLORUS]

The music was actually a really good fit, and the color elimination game mechanic was a cool idea that embraced the theme of minimalism.

I wish you expressed more clearly the instructions of the game at the very beginning, as I didn't really understand why I was "choosing the wrong color" at the beginning. It was fairly intuitive, so this is a minor gripe, but it would have helped.

Grammar was kind of an issue with all sentence combinations. Again, a minor gripe, but it should be:
"You must pick your color faster" or "You must pick the color faster"
"You picked the wrong color"
"Before you start playing, I want to ask you a question...would you like to play with sound effects?"

The game itself utilizes a nice color palette that isn't too hurtful on the eyes, and the music fits well. Animation and gameplay are smooth and well-polished (not difficult to do considering the simplicity, but still worth complimenting).

I wish that it wasn't asdfg for colors though, I really do. My right hand totally would be able to help more intuitively if the order of development had been adk;sfjlgh, which encompasses the full range of the keyboard. Of course, that many colors would have been challenging to sort through, but maybe maxing out at 8 would still be doable (adk;sfjl), or 6 (asjkdl).

Great game.

JokerDenFromMR responds:

Helpful review, thanks! Suddenly somebody helps me with language.

[Rock Bottom]

Great mechanic idea, great smooth execution, decent graphics, and overall a good game. The hovering idea made the game even more cool, and I have to say that everything just worked wonderfully.

I do question how rudimentary the main menu is, and the fact that you cannot return to it mid-game, as well as the fact that each level is unlabeled as you go through them, so you can't tell which level you are on.

The one easter egg I found on the second gravity level was fun.

The ending was fantastically done as well.

I think that for polish, decent sound effects, and a great game, this would get five stars. The only qualm I have is the polish with menu presentation and numbering the levels, as well as possibly a mute option thrown in for those people who dislike sounds. A potential idea is to expand this in the future, as I imagine you could play with this mechanic a whole lot more! All in all a fantastically done game.

[This is not minimalist]

The movement causes the screen to scroll in a manner that makes me very dizzy. Graphics were very well done otherwise...lol.

In all seriousness though, doing an all-white game is just painful on the eyes. Use something that isn't pure white, or have some variance. I get the theme, I really do, but it hurts even at low brightness levels. Use black with white outlines if you have to!

The game was also pretty ridiculously cool in concept, though the execution was a bit messy, and dare I say it...minimalistic? :D Hits the nail on the head though. You really should expand this into a more polished game with the same idea of a concept, but with more plot and gameplay than stomping on random suspicious objects.

[Potato The Destroyer]

A great and smooth platformer with fun shooting elements and great reflex challenges. Graphics and music are old school. My only complaint is that the music is a bit high and tinny, but midi will do that no matter what, so it's barely a complaint.

Enemies are cute, and though the game is hard, levels were designed well. A little bit more polish could have been given to the frankly unnecessary title screen with its odd epileptic potato, which didn't fit how the game came together. Enemies were great, though I do wish there were more plot.

That music actually gets really irritating really quickly. Wish something could be done about it. Also, a level selection option would be nice, for returning players.

[Mono Caves]

Simple, and a bit bland in style, though the gameplay was smooth and it was definitely worth playing. Difficulty curve was alright, actually. A few design elements were questionable, but then it was for Ludum Dare.

The stark black and white hurt my eyes, especially when I came up against walls and it was just a large expanse of pure white on my screen. I don't know if you could do less contrast, more color, but just telling you what I felt. The music was very repetitive, and especially the trill upwards is a bit grating. If you're going to have a main theme and one that is fairly peppy, it's hard to use midi sounds simply because no matter what they have that shrill quality. A calmer soundtrack or a more varied one may help.

I like the musical theme itself, it just got on my nerves after a while as a constant thing in the background.

I'd just point out that medals are typically awards for trying something out of the ordinary, with maybe a few 'checkpoint' medals, instead of one per level. One idea is beating level one without using a gun, which is possible. I only found this out because I didn't see that Z was shoot until I got stuck on level 2 and scrolled down.

The boss was well-done considering the few resources you had in the game.

Overall I can't call it amazing, but it was well-done and quite clean of a game. The biggest minus point for me is definitely the bright white and its effect on my eyes.

[Where's My Water?]

A decent satirical piece, but as a game on Newgrounds, I wish you had more gameplay. Like turn it into an actual puzzle game. Or involve better graphics (background and the characters, especially the large head to the right).

Sounds would also have been a nice extra push for quality.