Sentio's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[9 Ball Pool Challenge]

Pretty average. The physics, which games like this live and die on, are mostly ok, though some angles are a little odd, and I did have a ball bounce 'through' a cushion before returning to the table. What lets this down is the lack of traditional rules- combination shots are penalised rather than rewarded, there is no penalty for hitting the wrong ball, or indeed no ball at all, and sinking the 9 ball does not end the frame.

There are much much better pool games around, but as a start this is passable.

eichwulf responds:

Thaks, will fix these for the next version!

[Ultimate Chess]

Battle chess revisited

Not exactly an original concept, but really neatly executed. I remember spending many an hour trying to see all of the animations in the original battle chess, so having the execution menu is an excellent addition.

And any chess game that lets you play en passant is very thoroughly researched and well made in my opinion.

My only gripe is that the computer isn't the smartest though getting it to play even semi-intelligently is impressive- I've seen much much worse. It's real issue is that it will sacrifice pieces relentlessly to stop you from taking the queen (or other high value piece), when it would be better off just letting you have it in the first place and making the best of a bad situation (in one case it gave me a rook, bishop and knight before finally relinquishing the queen).

Oh, and can we have knights, not horses in future please...

RatherRandomReality responds:

Here is my logic. It's a horse. If there was a person on it, it would be a knight, but there isn't. So it's a horse. Thanks for the review!

[Drop the Bomb (Medals)]

Absolutely impossible, but well made

Seriously, the difficulty of this needs toning down about 10 levels. While I'm at a disadvantage anyway through not being American, rendering probably 80% of the questions I'm facing pure guesswork (Seriously, there is sport and TV outside of the USA you know...), even the 'neutral' subjects are tough. I'd consider myself to have a good general knowledge, but every question is painfully obscure.

I've played 20 or so games and made the final once, it is just that tough!

At the very least scale it, so rounds for $100 have much easier questions, while the $1000 dollar rounds are more like the current difficulty. I lucked out getting the 8 question right in a row medal, but some of the others seem completely impossible as it is at the moment.

Other than that, it is a well made and entertaining game, and I've not come across any glitches like some other people have. The music does get a bit annoying though...

7/10

pacdude responds:

That's a fair review, and to be honest, if I weren't American, then yes, I would have questions that centered outside my culture. We're planning a question expansion very soon, so if you would like to help and contribute questions, then PM me and we'll start a dialogue.

[In Utero]

Great!

I was on the verge of accusing this game of being too difficult, with probably 6 or 7 attempts ending at the boss. But as there is no more beyond that (thank goodness!) it is pretty much spot on! Takes a few goes, but you get there in the end!

Gameplay is smooth, enemies are initially overwhelming, but actually quite manageable, the pace it comes at you is fast and furious, but needs to be to make sure you don't blast through it in one go. Certainly the challenge keeps you coming back until you've won!

And medals as well, though the scew of points seems a little odd- perhaps 100 points for beating the boss with no lives lost and 25 for passing the first level without shooting (as that is easy with so many lives).

I guess you could accuse it of being too short, but with so many of the medal games taking an age to finish it was actually refreshing to have one that is a quick, fun blast and actually replayable without wanting to kill something...

All in all a great effort, a good little time waster, and a worthy tribute to mini fulp and parents.

FetusFulp responds:

i'm surprised that people are willing to replay this so much. is it the frustration of not beating it that makes you go back? or the allure of more punishment? a need for closure?

there are a lot of mixed responses regarding the smoothness of this. sometimes i get "it's so laggy" and sometimes it just runs fine. i don't know if it's the user's browser or their computer, or if it's the game itself. i guess it's in this paragraph that you reveal why you kept coming back to try and beat the boss - the challenge. interesting.

there was a lot of difficulty balancing in-between coming up with medals and their point values and the release. the boss used to be a lot harder, but after complaints from our beta testers, we had to drop it down quite a few notches. we tried to keep it at least a little challenging, but it's hard to tell exactly how challenging it is after making it and testing it so much. i can run through the game and beat it without dying once, but i certainly don't represent the majority of people, especially on their first try. also, the first level used to last longer, and you used to get swarmed with more enemies. it's still fairly challenging, because the fish and spores are hard to dodge, and throwing in the shots from the black tampons and the terrain really complicates things. sometimes you just get lucky.

this game was initially supposed to be a mini-game, and though it grew and grew in complexity, we still kept it short. it was actually going to be longer, with multiple levels and multiple bosses.

thanks for your thoughtful review.

[-Spectre-]

Nice game!

Firstly, damn you for submitting this in that 8 hour period I was asleep! I didn't even realise it was here until you posted about it in the Mafia :P.

Great game, simple yet fun- that is a good combination.

Graphics- Nice and shiny, not a lot more that could be done with them given the style of the game, and my computer was already laggy enough at around 10,000 points without any more for it to worry about. Maybe could have done a bit more with the menus, but that doesn't really matter as far as the game goes.

Style- Simple style, and easy to pick up and play. The concept is fairly original, and the difficulty curve is just about right, though it does jump quite quickly from being easy to incredibly difficult. I still would have liked to see more colors, and random color changes rather than in sequence, but I know that would have fried my computer, so I'll shut up :)

No violence and Humor, doesn't need them, nor should there be any in a game like this (unless you include me beating my head against my desk when I got trapped in a corner by 5 blue balls)

Interactivity- I don't know what everyone else is moaning about, I like the mouse control, it adds to the difficulty that it moves around a bit. The keyboard control is a lot more difficult as you can't move diagonally, but still playable- in fact I found it easier to avoid balls with the keyboard, but harder to catch ones of the right color. Good to see you implemented the bouncing off the side walls, that really helped.

So overall a very solid 4/5, and congrats on the daily 4th, you deserved it!

Lebastic responds:

Too bad you weren't there, maybe next time I submit something XD
As far as the review goes, thanks alot it's very helpful. I'm glad you liked the game and thanks for the congratulations.

-Lebastic

[Seven Deadly Sins]

Brilliant

As far as depth and storyline goes this has to be one of the best games I've seen on NG, if not the best. Maybe there are other things out there with more re-playability and length, but while playing this game is incredibly funny and entertaining.

Graphics- not the best in the world, but still pretty damn good, and in perfect keeping with the feel of the game. The slightly daft cartoony look works extremely well, though how he looks like an Adonis I will never know...

Style- A game that makes you want to play to the end, and it's fairly unique as far as I can see as well. Although there are other games out there that require you to wander around and explore (almost all dating sims), none are quite like this one. The way you can move the camera around on screen by moving the mouse is something I haven't seen before in this type of game, and really adds to the exploration.

Sound- fantastic music choices throughout, and some excellent voice acting, although in places the sound bytes didn't work, hence the deduction of one point. The dialogue is hilarious as well.

Violence- with wrath as one of the targets a bit of violence was inevitable. Wrath was the last one I found though- I thought beating up the guy in the woods would have been enough.

Interactivity- fantastic from start to finish. A couple of entertaining mini-games that can easily pass the time (the Dance Dance Revolution game is HARD!), and plenty of things to explore in the world. I also loved how getting drunk made everything sway.

Humor- top notch, with possibly the best ending line of any online game ever.

A worthy 10 then. My only faults are that it gets a little repetetive simply gaining stats until you can achieve your goal, especially in the gym and the hair salon. There is also only limited re-playability as much would be the same second time around (I assume), although there is reason to go back and seduce the other girls, and see the other ending. The only other fault was the sound glitch that I mentioned above.

I really hope you make some kind of sequel to this- maybe one with the 12 commandments?

5/5

DissoluteProductions responds:

cheers,
10 commandments last time I checked.
Beating up the naturlist doesnt get you wrath coz its self defence, he attacks you.
The sound bytes missing are one of girls telling you good looking/strong you are and as theres 30 different levels I didnt feel like making and putting in 60 extra sound bytes.

[Runaway Kart]

Great game!

First up I'd like to say that this a truly great game. It is well made with excellent graphics, sound and almost endless playability once the scoreborad gets a bit more competetive. In particular the cut scenes are excellent, giving a really god sense of story often absent in games, as well as being short so as not to distract from the most important element, the game play.

However, I can't help but feel it is a little repetetive, especially in the story mode, where each and every level is pretty much the same as the last, with the only difference being in the shape of what you are avoiding. Although done extremely well, after a while it does get a little tedious, and makes playing it again a bit of a chore if you die near the end (as I did).

Secondly, I feel that this would have had an extremely good shout at daily first on pretty much any day, except today!! Releasing it the same day as Red Riding Hood, by Granfaloon, may have been a mistake, though I guess you aren't doing this for the awards, rather for the enjoyment of making flash games.

In short, excellent, though your games pretty much always are!

5/5

Denvish responds:

Yeah, it was the first time for me in terms of 'proper' cutscenes. I found it extremely time-consuming, but I think it's worth it, and credit due to Ani-x (SeoulSnake) for making some pretty damn cool animations.

I have to agree about repetitiveness, to a certain extent. I would have liked to add a bit more variety. But after working on this for 3+ weeks, I was just sick of looking at the code (mostly bug-killing) over the past few days. Maybe I will make something else based on the same engine at some point, or rework the engine so it's less CPU-demanding, and can therefore add more graphical and gameplay options.

I have to admit I expected the score on this to have sunk to ~3.5 on its way through judgement, but I'm very happy and grateful to the voters that it's stuck around 4.0 (so far). I'm certainly not expecting any awards, with it being a Tuesday, but I'm not going to complain if the game gets one =)

Thanks very much for taking the time to type out such an in-depth review.