TharosTheDragon's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Gates of Hades]

Gosh, if there was ever a game that needed an easy mode, it's this!

For those wondering, the scrolling stage takes 2:17.51 to beat, and the final boss takes a little less. Also there's no ending apart from the usual stage clear screen.

The stages should really tell you their numbers. It's hard to interpret the stage numbers in the author comments because it's easy to lose count

Paytonio responds:

Thank you for the feedback. I was working on an update that would address those issues by saving your progress through the game as well as numbering the stages but unfortunately my computer has stopped working. Hopefully once I get a new one I will be able to continue where I left off. Fun fact: you can make the auto scroll stage go by faster by sticking to the edge of the screen.

[Shape Crash]

I don't understand why easy mode stopped when I didn't get any misses and I was playing just fine?!

JacksonTXG responds:

There's a max limit. 300 shapes and you're done. You then get a bonus based on the number of chains and shapes held. Don't worry though, I've just fixed that and I'll have an update released soon.

[Pixel Fixel]

I appreciate the inclusion of a medal refresh button.

I did notice a bug with the beginning and end buttons in the level select. You can keep clicking one over and over and the level stats keep changing because the selected level becomes misaligned.

BluePinGames responds:

On it! Thanks for playing and thanks for the bug report

[George The Gentleman Frog]

What's the difference between the difficulty levels?

pugfuglygames responds:

Higher difficulty = more enemies

[Golf Adventures! 2]

It feels like the par score doesn't really mean anything because there's another secret par that you're really going for (the gold score). Still giving you a 5 though

Aleksander-Sats responds:

The par score is really meant for how long the level can be and how difficult it can also be. It's more of a way to represent the difficulty in some aspect combined with the length of the level if that makes sense.

I'm glad you had fun though! :)

[Rocket to the Top]

Oh no! I have to press down to go up and up to go down! If only they were reversed!

*gets cursed ruby*

I changed my mind!

platformalist responds:

That cursed ruby might be the most cursed pickup I've ever made! haha

Thanks so much for playing, TharosTheDragon! :)

[Ice And Fire Tower Defence]

Like with Age of War, you can only win at the final level, and it's pretty easy to get there and max everything out. Money doesn't matter in the endgame, so you just spam the most powerful units and wait for your level 5 summon to charge. This means all the other stuff you put in the game, all the units and turrets and abilities, they don't matter. There's no strategy involved in the sense of weaker units being preferable because you need to save money, or needing to buy more turrets because your old ones can get destroyed or something. It's like most of the work you did on the game is just wasted because of lack of more involved game design.

Not only is the fine-tuning way off, but I think there may be an actual bug. The difficulty levels don't seem to make any difference. Easy and hard feel the same.

Also I want to mention that this is not tower defense. It's a one-dimensional RTS, like Age of War

octopus58 responds:

Thanks for the review! It's interesting to hear your experience with the game, as I feel the audience is scattered on it being too hard or too easy, etc.. One thing I will say though, it's actually both possible to beat the game before the last upgrade level (though harder, of course), and lower level summons are actually useful even in level 5! Allow me to give some examples if I may:

With the first point, if you wait certain periods between spawning your units, as well as summon the right ones to kinda "control" your opponent, you can win as early as level 2 sometimes. If anything I was somewhat worried people will find the game too easy because of that, but it doesn't seem like people are able to do that as much as I thought they would. As for the second point, as an example when I play on the fire team but don't want to wait for my level 5 summon, I use the level 3 summon as the green flames often take out even the tankiest opponents if used right and allow me to send in more troops early. Summon level 5 is more the safe option for me on that team if I want to KO the opponents for sure, and level 4 is to ward them off if there is a battle in the center and I'm stuck midway.

In addition, a more "creative" strategy sometimes involves sending out the speedy unit (unlocked level 2) as canon fodder to slow down the opponent teams while you secure the tankier units from behind, etc.

These are just my suggestions, but either way I'm glad you played my game and thank you once again!

[Darkwood]

I had to do a double take because I just played this game: https://store.steampowered.com/app/274520/Darkwood/

That one also involves a wolfman so I guess there are a few parallels

ErikSwahn responds:

Same name but different game. I guess that is for the best :)

[Primo Richards: Case 1]

Very nice presentation, but still just a visual novel. I don't like the pacing because there's often a loading screen and it even makes me wait for text to appear. I did test the autosave feature and that works very smoothly, so good job with that. Unfortunately I feel like the game got softlocked after I found the phone and toothbrushes because I can't get Aiesha to analyze the phone and nothing I do seems to make the game progress

arrogancy responds:

Thats where the demo ends unfortunately, which is why that "fourth wall" message is in there that says you can kind of look around but not really progress. My cut-off point got hit due to this being entered into a game jam, so that's as far as I got, haha.

[Sweater: Trouble in Cottonvale DEMO]

I really like that you made a momentum-based platformer. It feels like you gave this game a lot of character that helps it stand out in a sea of overly derivative platformers that do nothing new. I'm sure you know the game has issues, but you didn't list the game as a demo or anything so it seems kind of misleading. You set up a story about an energy source for Planet Plum but then the game unceremoniously ends after beating a boss we know nothing about. Are you intending to continue working on the game at all?

I don't mind the momentum mechanics normally but Platform Panic feels very strange when you're riding the moving platform because you don't maintain any of the platform's momentum. You jump and then immediately stop moving forward like there was an anchor holding you back.

Also, it seems like the levels should keep a record of whether you've collected the stars or completed the bonus portals.

WooltronicStudios responds:

The game is still being worked on as it is a demo, but I could see why you would miss that since it's only mentioned in the title of the game's page. Thank you for the feedback too!