TharosTheDragon's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Death Count]

There are a lot of really hard platformers out there, but this isn't one of them. It's actually kind of refreshing to see a platformer that's this easy. There's very little frustration. The controls are good. The levels are short and simple.

The achievement lied to me when it said "Congratulations, you died A LOT!" I didn't die at all on that level, and it said it was the hardest level in the game. I thought level 8 was the hardest, and that was only because of timing the jumps in the first half of it. But now I'm looking back, and it looks like there's a glitch that makes the level go straight from 9 to 11. I never played level 10. You should put a level indicator in there that shows what level you're on to avoid these bugs in the future. Also, the mute/back buttons seem to be missing in level 11.

Why is it called death count? Because there is no death count? Because you're expected to die a lot? It's kind of ironic that a platformer which boasts about a high difficulty level would be so much easier than average.

I'm a little peeved that you're calling this a puzzle platformer though. So many games call themselves that when they're not! Time Fcuk, Chronotron, The Company of Myself, Fixation, any of the Portal games made in Flash, these are puzzle platformers because they're about solving puzzles. Your game is mostly skill-based, being about precision and timing.

[Tesla Defense]

It was a lot better once I discovered you could use hotkeys to build towers. However, it still would have been nice to let you hold shift to place a bunch of towers of the same type.

When it says it's telling you how much money you earned at the end of the round, it just tells you how much money you have total instead. It should tell you how much more money you have now than at the start of the round. And upgrades say they increase some stat by a certain percent, but it's not clear if that's in addition to the previous levels of that upgrade or if it's the total stat increase you'll be achieving.

I think there should be money bonuses for things like taking less damage.

And there should be an indicator when your towers can be rebuilt. Maybe the icon should flash and there should be a subtle noise. I often didn't realize I could build another tower until all my towers had been annihilated.

[Furiosity]

A lot of the levels can be beaten by clicking every square exactly once, in any order.

To beat level 22, just click all 6 squares in any row or column in this order: 3 1 2 5 6 4

To beat level 28, click all 6 squares in every other row or every other column, like you're drawing stripes.

To beat level 39, you must click every square except the two squares directly adjacent to each of the 4 corner squares. So you'll be clicking 28 squares total (36 - 8).

PM me if you need help with a level.

[Slime Quest]

Why would a slime be unable to pass through small holes when it gets bigger? Couldn't it just squish itself?

The major flaw with the game is that you have to wait before pressing space to go to the next level. Why is it that you can click the next level button before you can press space?

Bonus level 2 seems unbeatable. Can't get the carrot out of the first hole. I'm bouncing on top of the enemy while he's on top of the spring but that doesn't get me high enough.

[Clash of the Worlds]

Sorry killertitan135, this is not from the same makers as Kingdom Rush. That was by Ironhide Studios. Don't jump to conclusions.

Though at first I thought it was another Kingdom Rush clone because many design aspects bear a strong similarity to Kingdom Rush including the title screen, map screen, victory screen, and level layouts. As it turns out, this isn't even Tower Defense but rather an interesting take on lane-based strategy games which I think originated with Krin's Tainted Kingdom, the sequel to which I'm still waiting for.

This game can be very easy if you buy the right upgrades and very difficult if you buy the wrong ones. I first bought the cavalry and that turned out to be a mistake because it's the most expensive unit in the game and practically useless. I was thinking I could rush the lanes and get my unit through before enemies show up, but they show up too quickly so it doesn't work. So basically the cavalry is only useful for getting reinforcements to the front lines quickly, which is seldom needed if at all. Upgrading old units is better than buying new ones because then you get more powerful units for the same cheap price. But even better are the spells. Having spells regenerate while you fight is like having an extra source of income, and you can kill powerful units with them early on so you can gain the upper hand money-wise right away.

Starting with level 9 the space bar stopped working to switch lanes. Maybe you forgot to program in the order that the lines cycle through. Also, the last few levels all had the same enemies. Maybe put in a big boss enemy for the last level.

Looks like the lane change buttons can be blocked by units. Should make sure buttons are always on the top layer. Or at least set mouseEnabled and mouseChildren to false for every layer above the units. And it looks like there's some difficulty picking up coins as well. Maybe instead of using a ROLL_OVER event you should just check each coin to see if it's close to the mouse and then have the coins drift towards the mouse and get picked up. That way you could pick up coins that are behind other layers. Also, there should be a magnet upgrade to attract more coins from further away.

Wedi responds:

Thanks for your review.
Good idea about checking each coin to see if it's close to the mouse, instead of using ROLL_OVER event! (...shame I didnt think about it earlier xD)

[Evolvo]

Good game, but the medals aren't working for me and it doesn't save my progress.

poxpower responds:

Hmm that is weird. They worked fine up to now..

[Steampunk Odyssey]

My first impression was that it was just another idiotic steampunk gimmick that had nothing to do with anything. Like why is Abe Lincoln in there? But it turned out to be very well made. The atmosphere works really well. I sort of wished there was more story or explanation, like you could find diary pages or something. But the ending is pretty self-explanatory. You immediately see what it's all about without ever needing to read a word.

I wish it would warn you that returning to the menu will erase your progress, though.

[Maximum Frustration 2]

Yay, I got 11th place in the all time high scores! 162 deaths.

It's not just a try'n'die platformer. There is some genuine thinking outside the box going on. Sometimes it looks like you've pursued every available option and then you have to figure out what you're missing.

Zapxo responds:

Congratulations in your 11th place.

[Hood Episode 4]

There's a glitch where the fade out transition restarts if you click the button again. So you can click an arrow or a person or the final line of dialogue over and over and it'll just keep fading and fading. I presume it's in your other games as well if you just reuse the same code.

I'm stuck at the sword garden. I have the wood and the locket. Have tried every item on everything including each other and people. Then I tried random click throughs of every room with every item. No dice. And yes, I've tried scanning the junk in every room to see if the hand changes. Haven't found anything. What room should I look in? What am I looking for? A musket ball? Those things are tiny.

For those stuck on the first puzzle, it's easier than you think. The path on the right literally tells you exactly what to do. For each horizontal line, put gaps where the path on the right would pass through them.

Hyptosis responds:

Maybe you need to make the musket ball? The locket is the only really hidden item in the game. Use the wood you find in the first room.