TharosTheDragon's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[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.

[2-Bit Explorer]

This gives me Cursed Travels vibes and I love it. So much to do and explore. Very nice pixel art.

I think I did everything, though I never figured out what the upgraded torch is for. The only hint I really needed was waiting on the unstable floor. I thought I was supposed to make the floor collapse by walking a lot rather than waiting. I think you should switch it from 30 seconds to 15 seconds. Also it was nice to look up some reminders about where the temples are in FCPXAV's review. This game could really use a map, especially one with either automatic or manual markings. I found all the Valac shards without any help so I'm proud of that, and I tried to uncover all optional dialog and Easter eggs like turning the shade to gold.

Also, I accidentally lost progress a few times by ringing the bell to get the Twilight Zone ending. The first time, I didn't have a habit of saving very often so I was really lucky that I saved maybe 10 minutes prior because otherwise I would've lost over an hour of progress. You should really make sure that when an ending is triggered, the autosave is right before that ending.

[Orphanarium]

Yay, got all endings! 7 endings, 7 items, 7 crayons.

Men lust over Ucogi's boobs while women act like she's a bimbo. Never would've thought she had such a traumatic backstory.

Veinom responds:

Very impressive!
And now you know everything! xD

[DARK SWORD: The Light of Ainn]

This is a strong candidate for best of the month. It's nice to see a full-fledged game rather than just demos and game jam entries, etc. I definitely think goldenPiGames went too hard on this. There are plenty of normal enemies to fight, and even when there aren't the exploration and secret-hunting are still fun.

The main problem I had was that I got soft-locked out of finishing the game. When I defeated the heart of darkness, the game froze on the statue-crumbling screen and the statue didn't crumble. I assume something special was supposed to happen because it was the last statue and that's what crashed the game. I tried three times with different weapons and the same thing happened each time.

The other major bug I found is that you're able to run while holding the hammer if you switch from the ranged weapon to the hammer while you're already running. It's an exploitable bug of course so I'm reluctant to report it :)

MrDoth responds:

Thanks mate!!!!!!!!!!! The game is not made by goldenPiGames, but anyway thank you <3 :D

[Los Tostadores]

Toast of War riding the Brave Little Toaster