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gel

19 Game Reviews

5 w/ Responses

Good.

After 2000 points though, it's just tedium. It'sn o longer a test of skill, but a test of how much boredom you can stand.

Add increasing difficulty. Maybe aliens that shoot, or just other obstacles.

Your art needs work. The black hole is convincing enough, since you explicitly tel us what that id, but with just 2 parallax swirls you could make a kick ass black hole. Also, the ship should explode or melt, or something when the game is over.

I understand you may be wanting to keep this simple, but I don't think tedium is one of your objectives, so increase the difficulty progressively, if anything.

Add sound.

Good programming overall. Most people don't know how to do gravity, and it's so easy to do. Good job. Maybe you can ad a high score thing to your website so we can see the best of all time, or at least, the players that could stand to sit there for 10 minutes straight weaving left and right.

Mech building is fun

But at what point does he get to do my bidding?

(And yes, fix those buttons. I'm sure if you just set up a constant value for each of the buttons, you could easily change them everytime you add another body part. Then you wouldn't have to put in a real constant like 15. Replace that 15 with something like MAX_HEADS and you're in business. Email me if you are totally confused.)

Funtastic

Or is it? Definitely a worthy tribute to the beloved little Megaman.

Graphics: The graphics are okay, considering it would have been pretty simple for you to make the "next" graphic 8-bit, but you didn't. Good job with the rest of the pixels though.

Sound: It's got music, sound effects, all in good quality. Nothing bad here.

Gameplay: This is the worse part of the game. Now that doesn't mean it was bad, by any means, but it wasn't on par with graphics or sound. It's not the difficulty either. The game is hard, but that's fine. It's just that the gameplay didn't really feel like Megaman. Enemies in Megaman never came at you at blazing speed. There was no rapid-fire (though I doubt many would complain about this). Those helmet guys were one hit kills. I could go on. I understand this is made to be similar, but different (i.e. harder), but it just doesn't flow well. Megaman is all hyperactive, he slides for as long as you hold the down arrow, charging the Buster is a different key than shoot... and many other little complaints.

I only found one bug so far and that's when a bullet got stuck on Megaman and no matter where I went, it was attached to me and I soon died. This happened at the begining of Punchma's level.

I might suggest teaming up with Andrew, who did Rockman Neo. With his graphics and your love of Megaman and coding skills, you could realy make a cool Megaman game. Of course, you'd still have to improve the gameplay.

Quick suggestions (email me for more elaboration): make charge/fire same button, like
in real Megaman. Enemies should never be in the same "space" as Megaman (x,y coords). Sliding should go a set amount and that's it. Slow down the game's pace about 15%. Some enemies should be one-hit kills. Configurable keys. Streamline all your graphics to the same style. Get someone else to draw your cut scene drawings because the art is just sad. Don't make it a guess where to go next ("will I fall to my doom, who knows!"). Make a charging sound.

I can see you put tons of work into this, but a game is made for fun and this game isonly kinda fun. I commend you on the programming and this ambitious effort.

maelstormm responds:

Thanks for the comments overall.
Now about the gameplay...
True it doesn't feel exactly like Megaman on Nintendo did, but I consider it a step up. Mega can jump backwards while still facing forward so you can dodge while pelting the baddies. You can slide as short or long as you like to make it easier to dodge or get up and shoot your foes. The later Megaman X games DID use autofire and I think MM8 had the option too. However you couldn't charge when you turned that on. So by making an extra button you can have both. In Megaman games, Mega and the baddies CAN occupy the same space/xy, just you take damage which is the same case here. I did want to do the customizable keys, but the project went on plenty long enough and I decided to finish it off. I didn't like the though of 1 hit enemies. A good portion take 2 hits which is easy to do with the Megabuster charged 1/2 or by using the autofire. Graphics style wise, I ended up feeling like using vector graphics for the baddies shots. The drawlings were whipped together quickly and colored using my friends Crayola while I was at work, but they get the point across. There was only 1 or 2 jumps which were leaps of faith in this, all others gave clues about where to go or you could see the platform if you stood on the end of the one you were on. Charging sounds irritate me so I left them out (Makes me think a fly is after me and makes it so I can't hear the music).
Thanks for the ton of feedback

Good start

Now tweak it a lot and you'll have something good on your hands. This may barely be saved from being blammed. I gave it a 2.

Some things to improve:
- Start with a few enemies, then increase the number to make it harder.
- Add more than one life for the player.
- I never made it to the end, but if there's no end to the level, you should add one.
- Every level you beat should give you a new weapon/bomb.
- In level weapons upgrades would be cool.

I'm a game programmer, so I know this is possible, and not hard to do. I hope to see you back with a better game in the future!

Ask yourself one question

Do you have fun when you play this game? Do you see any flaws in it that you could fix? If so, you should fix them.

When you press reload and hold it, it shouldn't keep ducking in and out. The shooters shouldn't just randomly shoot at you, they should pop up, wait, then shoot. I'm not asking for it to be easier, just practical. This is a game, not a simulation. Just look at real shooters like Virtua Cop, Time Crisis, etc. The enemy pops up, aims, then shoots. It gives you some reaction time.

Good job on sound. Music, fx, all worked together.

I see you put some time into the graphics. Very nice. Enemies could use more animation. I like how the quality changes to speed up the game. However, graphics don't make the game.

This game wasn't fun, only frustrating. Sure, I beat it, but it was only because I try to give a good review by playing the game many times to really get the feel of it (in this case, the feel was very bad).

"What a great game!"

...is something I wouldn't say about this game. It's reminiscent of Scope Assault (here on NG) and that's not a good thing.

At least you've coded a solid little engine. Now you can continue by adding all the bells and whistles. Animation, more sound, speeding up the movement of the crosshair, etc. I'd recommend leaving the gun either at the bottom of the screen (moving a roudn only a little) or totally offscreen, because it's slow even on my super computer.

Contrary to what others might say, you need to add a LOT more to this for it to be awesome. It's a good start though.

Beta?

This is no beta. It's a pre-alpha. Betas are usually nearing completion and need testing and may be missing some features, but they aren't simple little two scene things that are about 2% done.

People think I'm too harsh in my reviews but they only disagree. I'm always want the best work and give constructive criticism. With that said, this game needs a lot of work. It's very linear. One reason why GTA3 is so great is that it's totaly non-linear. Your GTA3: super linear. You must click this. You must click that. The uzi only has one bullet and it's suddenly useless.

Don't use the GTA3 brand. Also, don't use other games' textures. That head texture you have was made for wrapping around a 3d model. Don't steal.

If you do use the flat body and rotate it, I think that's fine. It's a nice little style if you remain consistent. Just make the weapons realistic, slightly (more bullets). The big thing to change is to make multiple paths, otherwise, the player is just clicking around until the little arrow appears so they can move on.

mi6di6an6 responds:

oke, thnx i really like criticism cuz it helps me. so thank you for your revieuw

This "game" isn't fun.

You create games for 2 reasons: for entertainment or as a simulation.
There is no other reason. This isn't a sniping simulation (snipers don't constantly pop up all over the place) so it's suppose to be fun. It's not and that's why people don't like it.
Don't be so defensive if the game isn't fun. There's more to a game than just "skill." Minesweeper is a game of skill. There's no blood or violence, but many people enjoy that game. In the end, if a game isn't fun, it's not going to go over well. I see you've got some coding skills, so keep up the dedication to game making. Just make the next one enjoyable.

Tomorrows-Nobody responds:

Scope Assault is featured on like 20 sites.... (Do a google search: "Scope Assault") Some people enjoy it..
My issue is a lot of people don't get the concept of it, also they judge it harshly.. It's more of a mini-game. If It was fuzzy blue balls on a Surreal backdrop I think it'd be more enjoyed..

The problem is that people expect a sniping simulation, where its really more like wack-a-mole, a test of speed and accuracy.

The Hand of God

First I'll just regurgitate what others have said: fun concept, nice level progression, could use more enemies. Now I have to say that I'm really looking forward to the final release because I can't wait for those craftsmen and wizards. That just might mean there are more types of enemies, eh? Keep the gamer interested by opening up new features because I'm on Stage 18 now, my hand hurts, and there's no reason for me to continue playing except to get to the next level. More enemies, more castle upgrades (moats, warriors, catapults, etc), more incentive to keep playing. Great start!

Working on a game project that will lead to a larger game project that will lead to a larger game project. When it's out you'll see it here on the blog.

Andre @gel

Male

2D Animator/Game Dev

CSU, Chico, graduated

Southern California

Joined on 3/1/03

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