TharosTheDragon's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Melon Clicker]

Treasure Hunt review!

### Aesthetics: 1 / 10

Textbook pseudopixels. A pixel aesthetic is used for some fonts and graphics but then no care is given to provide the illusion that this could actually be on an old-school console. The pixels are different sizes for everything, there are rotation and swirl effects, and there's a freaking vector graphic behind the watermelon.

### Originality: 1 / 10

There's nothing here that isn't found in many other clicker games. I suppose originality can be found in the features that are omitted rather than just in the features that are included. For example, it's unusual to have all the upgrades just be bundles of the same two upgrades over and over again, and it's unusual for the prices to remain fixed instead of increasing.

### Challenge: 1 / 10

Since there's no way to lose in a clicker game, the only challenge can come from metagaming, i.e. I challenge myself to find the fastest and most efficient way to maximize my clicks. I did the calculations and it's interesting to see how the various deals relate to each other. The 5k deal is 10x the price of the 500 deal but gives you 100x the benefit, so it's 10x as good. Then the 100k deal is 20x the price of the 5k deal but gives 100x the benefit again, so it's 5x as good. But then every deal after the 100k deal is actually worse than the 100k deal! I guess you have to factor in the time it takes you to click on the upgrades to know that relying on the 100k deal still isn't a good idea.

### Fun factor: 1 / 10

I do admit that I'm biased against clicker games, but I still think my complaints are legitimate. It's not really fun to click on the same thing repeatedly, nor is it fun to wait around.

### Content: 2 / 10

There are a handful of upgrades and achievements but no way to view the achievements or your current autoclick level. I tried using the rebirth and it seemed to only multiply my click power by 20 and not my autoclick rate.

### Total: 6 / 50

(The Treasure Hunt review score is different from the standard Newgrounds review score because it uses different criteria. My review may seem harsh but I'm being a lot more critical than usual for this judge role and I want you to feel encouraged rather than discouraged when it comes to making more games.)

[Minimal Skate 41]

Treasure Hunt review!

### Aesthetics: 5 / 10

The minimalist style is nice and retro. I like the way the background changes color when you crash. But the lack of artwork doesn't give us a lot to look at. There's a lot of empty space.

### Originality: 2 / 10

It's a pretty standard runner. Dodge and collect.

### Challenge: 6 / 10

There's only a basic amount of skill involved in doing mouse down and mouse up at the right times here. But I do like that the challenge escalates over time.

### Fun factor: 5 / 10

I was hoping it would shine in this category but it's too repetitive.

### Content: 3 / 10

Introducing new obstacles is great but you really weren't kidding when you called it minimal.

### Total: 21 / 50

(The Treasure Hunt review score is different from the standard Newgrounds review score because it uses different criteria.)

[New Ribbon Divide]

Treasure Hunt review!

### Aesthetics: 9 / 10

Very nice character design and effects. While I like that the game focuses on the gameplay, I wish there was more story so I could learn more about the characters.

### Originality: 7 / 10

On the one hand, it's just a bullet hell. On the other hand, I don't know any other games that let you control a bullet hell boss while another player fights you on the same machine.

### Challenge: 8 / 10

There's a great challenge involved for both sides. For the keyboard player you gotta do the traditional bullet hell stuff and for the boss it's so hard to hit someone who can dodge everything so you really gotta figure out how to flood the screen with bullets.

### Fun factor: 4 / 10

First, I need to mention that I'm only reviewing the browser version and not the downloadable version. Second, I'm now realizing that I didn't make a category where I can complain about playability issues and bugs and stuff so I'll do that here. Right off the bat, I discovered that full screen mode is broken. I can cope with the portrait orientation getting stretched super wide into a landscape-oriented screen, but the mouse coordinates get thrown off. However, you insist that we should be using full screen mode because you rely on the mouse wheel and haven't prevented the page from scrolling. It's very sloppy.

### Content: 7 / 10

I like the way you've accounted for the fact that the game can last for five rounds and could therefore have four upgrade screens, and you've loaded each upgrade screen with different upgrades.

### Total: 35 / 50

(The Treasure Hunt review score is different from the standard Newgrounds review score because it uses different criteria.)

[CURSE OF THE CANDLE MAZE]

Treasure Hunt review!

### Aesthetics: 7 / 10

Very cute pixel graphics, though the scaling transitions make them "pseudopixels" which generally bother me a little. It's a shame so much of the game has to be played in the dark, and instead of having a cool darkness effect it just looks like my screen's brightness isn't high enough. Maybe the candles should stay lit all the time and just change color or something when you're nearby.

### Originality: 7 / 10

It's ultimately a sokoban game though the particular puzzles are fresh and so are the new game mechanics. In sokoban games there's a question of whether you can push multiple blocks at once or not, and most sokoban games just pick one or the other, so having a special transformation that allows you to switch between the two styles just feels right.

### Challenge: 10 / 10

I almost had to deduct a point because the difficulty curve is so dang steep. It just barely gives you a few tutorial moves and then immediately throws stumpers at you. But apart from that, the challenge level is fantastic. After I got past that first stumper I was able to look around the rest of the game and see what I was up against. There's a very nice red herring that teaches you about the three-candle transformation, and then there are enough clues in the level design to allow you to make a plan of attack with deductive reasoning. It's a perfect logic puzzle and since I know you're curious I'll tell you I'm very happy to have solved it without using the walkthrough.

### Fun factor: 10 / 10

This is the hardest sokoban game I've played since N-Step Steve, and wow does it pay off. Definitely my kind of game.

### Content: 6 / 10

Just a few tiles to work with and a few transformations, with some nice atmospheric music. It's ultimately a small game and definitely leaves me wanting more, but I'm still happy with what I got.

### Total: 40 / 50

(The Treasure Hunt review score is different from the standard Newgrounds review score because it uses different criteria.)

saadisaadi1 responds:

thank you for playing , very happy that you liked the game , I built a tool for making sokoban games, and currently making with it "Happy Color Links" that you may like : https://store.steampowered.com/app/2685450/Happy_Color_Links/
the demo will come to steam this week, hope you enjoy it too

[Laserpit]

Treasure Hunt review!

### Aesthetics: 8 / 10

I love the blocky retro 3D arcade look, as well as the 2D victory art.

### Originality: 7 / 10

It's a pretty basic duel game, but a lot of originality comes from what the game lacks. I can't think of another first-person fighting game where you can move while only facing one direction.

### Challenge: 6 / 10

There's some challenge, but not a lot of skill and strategy involved. It's just shoot fast and dodge fast.

### Fun factor: 7 / 10

It's fun to shoot and get the kill and then kick the body around afterwards.

### Content: 5 / 10

There's just a small amount of art and sounds but I do appreciate being able to switch both sides between player controls and computer controls at any time.

### Total: 33 / 50

(The Treasure Hunt review score is different from the standard Newgrounds review score because it uses different criteria.)

[We Need to Talk]

Treasure Hunt review!

### Aesthetics: 8 / 10

The characters have a lot of character. I love the cute cartoony style, and the shadows and highlights look great. The characters also move nicely even with just a few frames of animation, and the attack effects look good too. Unfortunately there's not a lot to look at besides that.

### Originality: 8 / 10

It's a great take on the Ludum Dare theme. I've seen other games that apply video game mechanics to ordinary life moments but I can't think of any with this particular concept.

### Challenge: 3 / 10

There doesn't seem to be much challenge here. I get the feeling I could keep the game going indefinitely based on how easy it is to attack successfully and how powerful the attacks are, and I didn't detect any increase in difficulty as time progressed. And it doesn't seem to be possible to fail when triggering an ultimate since it pauses the game and lets you make as many mistakes as you want.

### Fun factor: 6 / 10

Everything in the game feels as good as it can, given the lack of challenge. It's fun to pick a card, execute the combo, and watch the result.

### Content: 5 / 10

There are a handful of cards within 3 different categories: 1-key, 3-key, and 5-key. It's enough to feel like there's a variety of phrases with their associated attacks, but it doesn't last long.

### Total: 30 / 50

(The Treasure Hunt review score is different from the standard Newgrounds review score because it uses different criteria.)

[Call of the Woof (Ludum Dare 55)]

I lost on purpose after passing the final checkpoint during a speedrun, and when I clicked play again it just let me continue from the same spot with all four dogs rather than starting me over.

[Tracie's Pursuit]

You can click Pico's backpack to get his library card multiple times

[Wibby's Adventure]

You can walk right past Wispy Willow without fighting her and if you go back to the room she's gone.

Also, this game gives me Little Runmo vibes.

[Cascade Cascade]

Okay so it looks like you weren't kidding when you called it endless. Games like this need a way to ramp up the difficulty to prevent players from going on forever. I stopped at level 103 with a score of 2267 because I could see it wasn't getting any more difficult. In PACTIME, I prevent players from playing forever by steadily incrementing across 21 levels of difficulty, and level 21 is so difficult that I don't imagine anyone can last very long. I'm not sure what variables you can change to increase the difficulty over time, but for example the thermometer could refill more slowly making you need better shots to get more hits.