TharosTheDragon's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[SOPANOID]

Regarding the author comments

Actually you do see comments in support of SOPA. They're from the government and entertainment companies.

Playing the devil's advocate is all good and well when there's a debate going on and you want to get as close to the truth as possible. But in this case, being a contrarian just to spite people would have severe consequences. The only way we managed to beat SOPA was by uniting against it. The sheer overwhelming volume of the voices opposed to SOPA was necessary to get the ball rolling in the right direction. This was definitely not the time to be unfashionable just to make people mad.

I'm sure you think my response is "funny" because I'm siding with the masses and am therefore deluded, but I hope you'll think this through a little more.

I-smel responds:

You don't see comments in support of SOPA, you see a press release and a blog post saying "This company is in support of SOPA, let's boycott them." That's not people talking, that's paperwork.

Here's where I'm coming from: I'm not gonna change anyone's mind about the Stop Online Piracy Act with this game.
Nobody. Not one person.
Nobody's getting informed because of this game, nobody's re-thinking their stance after playing it, the message is a shallow one that's just repeating things that people already know. Censorship is bad? Good job I_smell, you're really pushing the boundaries.
In that sense it's a waste. It's just re-assuring people who've already chosen a side.

Whether or not SOPA passes is a surface issue, someone smarter than me would've asked much scarier questions that actually get people thinking. Like "Are we actually pirating too much?" or "Did any of you READ the act and consider both sides before jumping on-board?" or "Isn't it insane how many people you can get behind you just by being Anti-Government?"
Nobody's TALKING about SOPA in that way, they're all just changing their fuckin avatars for a day and signing the petition, saying "YEAH MAN, FUCK THIS!! #stopSOPA". I know this because I am one of these people: I made the game. If you zoom out for a sec, do you think this 15-yr-old girl is passionate about where to draw the line on safety and liberties? No, fuck no, she's just saying "SOPA is the biggest load of crap ever" cos that's what's for dinner this week, and your only argument against that is "we need the numbers".
Yes we need the numbers, but if all it takes is switching off Wikipedia for a day to get the whole world writing passionate dissertations about something they haven't really looked into, isn't the kind of omnipotent control we're all against already working?
THAT'S THE GAME I SHOULD'VE MADE. Next to that, "Censorship is bad" was a braindead idea.

I agree with the meme guy, this game is a shallow also-ran that doesn't do anything interesting at all.

[Shadowess]

So...

Good work, would like to play it, but it lags way too much. Like I always say, if you're going to go out of your way to remove quality options from the right click menu, put quality options in the game.

[Trick-or-Treat Adventure!]

Fatal glitch!

I refreshed the page during the animation where the spider eats the kid, then when it loaded the kid wasn't there but the spider still was. Now I gotta start over from the beginning.

[Abobo's Big Adventure]

Best game ever

Ah, that fateful year of 1985 which changed the world forever.

Lots of people think they'd like to make a tribute to Zelda or Mario or Duck Tales or whatever, but it looks like you've realized there are just too many games to give tribute to and so you're paying them all tribute at the same time.

The one hit kills are always annoying, especially in the Megaman level when you get hit by the lasers and have to go so far back. In the Contra levels, I became convinced I had unlimited lives but then finally ran out while fighting the boss of the second level and then had to go all the way back to the beginning of the first!

All the same, I have to remember that you've made everything considerably easier than those NES originals in order to appeal to a modern audience. It just goes to show you what gaming has become where everyone's spoiled by how easy everything is.

I actually played The Legend of Zelda recently and so I instinctively checked every block in every room by trying to push it from every side. I also checked every wall for secret passages by trying to walk through them. That's right people, that's how the original Legend of Zelda was played. Needless to say it was a relief to finally beat that monster of a game. (In case anyone's wondering, no I didn't find anything in Zeldabobo that way.)

When I realized I could hurt the fire on the bridge in Contrabobo, I knew I couldn't stop until I killed them. I just kept shooting at them and using the special power for over 5 minutes. It was like revenge for every invincible enemy I had ever encountered in any game.

Anyway, great work. Is Annie the Mermaid from a real game? She's hot.

[Don't Catch the Herp!]

Not particularly amused

I get that it's supposed to be all funny and everything, and offensive Newgrounds content is widely accepted as the norm, but when you say it's based on true events it makes me think you actually were cruel and insensitive to someone just because they had herpes. Herpes is extremely common. I myself get cold sores from time to time, and they're usually barely visible. I just make sure I don't kiss anyone while they're active. Although if I knew they already had herpes then it would be okay.

So yeah. Stuff like racist humor can be seen as making fun of racism or whatever. But this doesn't seem like you're making fun of cruel and insensitive people. It just seems like you are a cruel and insensitive person. I hope I'm wrong though.

ItsTheAshtray responds:

Good review, and fair assumption. ITS NOT REALLY BASED ON ANYTHING REMOTELY CLOSE TO REALITY. So no, I'm not making fun of anyone in particualar or people with the disease in general. She's just a character.

[Pew Cubed]

Unplayable

The lag was just ridiculous. I'm guessing you need a gaming computer to have a decent experience with this game. I wasn't even playing in full screen. And the full screen button gave me a fatal error each time.

BryceSummer responds:

Yes, the system requirements for this game are higher than your average flash game.

Sorry to hear it didn't work :(.

[Trigger Knight]

Perfect game

This is the most addicting thing since Canabalt. I can't believe it only got daily 6th. This deserves to go on the front page.

People complain and make suggestions about how this or that enemy is overpowered or how you should be able to do this or that, but they don't understand how finely tuned this game is. The average gamer doesn't know crap about this sort of thing and their ill-conceived tweaks would just ruin it. The idea of something being overpowered only applies to cases like fighting games when all the playable characters are supposed to be equal. So it doesn't make any sense to say an enemy is overpowered. It's not necessarily supposed to be as powerful as you or as powerful as any other enemy.

Yes, I would agree that it's about 50% luck but that just means it's so perfectly balanced between luck and skill. Luck has always been an important part of gaming. Without an element of luck there wouldn't be an element of risk. This game is all about choosing between the safe bet or the dangerous one that pays off. Paying 500 gold for a gold ticket leaves you pretty vulnerable since you'll often have to forego healing in order to save up for it and you may not find any more healing items for a while afterwards. Someone suggested a warning system for when a dragon is coming up, but that would eliminate a major risk factor. The divine edge is only good against the dragon, but without it you may go up against one with full health and an elixir and still lose. So there's always that tough choice of whether or not you should buy the divine edge. I've found that dragons are generally preceded closely by Grim's shop so you might even take that as a sign that a dragon might be coming up.

Like Canabalt, the randomization engine is tweaked just right to provide just enough of a chance and just enough of a challenge. Also item costs, item powers, and enemy stats are all at just the right amount for a challenging and fun experience.

I've found that a good cut off point for the soul shrines is 30% life span. If I have more than that, I won't pay for the life, but if I have less than that I will. It always worked out that way. I got 6th place in the high score board and may try for an even better score.

[FvF]

Cool game

Really laggy for me though, even on low quality.

I thought it was funny when I played Megan and went up against Fox.

[Adventure Story]

Great game

Matt, you are a wizard. Excellent art, programming, and design as always.

Unfortunately it runs very slowly for me, even when I turn off the backgrounds. I get about 7 to 13 fps when it looks like it should be 30. The performance is actually about the same regardless of the backgrounds or the quality. This suggests to me that maybe the backgrounds are still being rendered internally even while invisible, or that it has nothing to do with the graphics and it's the hit detection or something that's lagging it.

Yeah, my computer ain't the greatest but other stuff runs fine, like Bullet Heaven.

[Geo Land: Dream Traveller]

Not bad

It's a decent Flash RPG, but the interface was not executed well at all. If you have to walk up to something to interact with it, you shouldn't have to click on it as well. You should be able to just press a key, and there should be an indicator that you're within range. Also there need to be hotkeys to make battles go more quickly.