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.

[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 :(.

[Electrikill]

Pretty cool

One problem is the amount of luck involved, especially on shotgun missions. There's the one where you're not allowed to hit a single gringo, which you have next to no control over. And then there's the one where you have to shoot down all the drones in 4 shots. Not only do your shots fire in random directions but the drones are in random places.

Another problem is grinding. Once you've got all the stars, it should just automatically unlock all the glossary pages. I'd like to read them but I don't want to have to just sit there shooting locusts until I have enough money to buy all the scatter upgrades. And I'm certainly not gonna sit around shooting stuff until I get all the achievements.

The art is certainly good. I like the all-female military squad. Kind of reminds me of rtil's Freetown.

VictorGrunn responds:

Thanks for the feedback. I'm going to be tweaking the money earn rate along with the other patchwork needed later today, this is more out of whack than I realized. Glad you liked the art too!

[Devilish Differences]

Nice job

I checked the credits before playing, and there was no way to get rid of them! They blocked the play button and I had to refresh.

Also, I don't see any negative effects of using hints. If there's a limit to them I didn't find it.

Ab9003 responds:

Did you see the "close this box" button in the credits? It's possible you missed it it's at the bottom of the box. I don't penalize people for getting lost in the game but if a lot of people want this I can add a minor incentive to click it less frequently.

[They're Chasing Me]

Excellent

This does not look like the work of someone who can't program. Well done, c0rupt3d.

But... how'd you manage so well?

Also, good job to Xionico and dj-jo.

coruptedGames responds:

96hrs of hell

[Town of Fears]

Nice game

"But solving the case of Kraig Rock is only a part of some bigger mystery, detective. Something dark is coming..."

What, that wasn't dark already? I just imprisoned an ancient god of fear that was released from the underworld. What could possibly be bigger than that?

I feel like my accomplishments have been belittled.

avee responds:

Who said there's only one ancient god of feat? :P

[Stealing the Diamond]

That's not true!

Kirby can also do a falcon punch.

PuffballsUnited responds:

But it sucks compared to Captain Falcon's.

[100th]

Nice game

In the room where the guy says there's no turning back, there's a passage into a room to the left. But then in that next room you can't proceed without a balloon, and there's no way to get a balloon in there. What's the deal? The walkthrough made no mention of it.

Droqen responds:

You can grab a balloon from any blue guy by holding the grab balloon button :)

EDIT ::

Ah, my bad. -Tricks-.

[Snailiad]

Easily the best Castleroid Flash game ever made

You mean to tell me you drew and programmed this game and composed the music as well? That's unbelievable! And this is your first Flash game? If you've made more, where are they? Whatever happened to starting small? This game is a monster, and it's expertly and beautifully made.

I was hard-pressed to find any glitches. In the first room of Mare Carelia, there are some invisible blocks in the upper right area that I don't think were supposed to be there. If you try flying through that room you'll probably hit them. Also if you become a shell in order to fall into a one block wide hole, you'll become stuck and have to load your game. Also, sometimes jumping against a wall looking for secrets and stuff, I'd land on the wall as though it were a floor. It might be the code that makes you stick to a wall just not rotating you the right way all the time, or it might be simple collision detection sensing a block underneath you and letting you stand with just your "toe" on it even though there's another block above it.

Anyway, there is no end to the good things I have to say about this game. It's a masterpiece. Well done.

auriplane responds:

The second and third thing you said are glitches, but the first was on purpose--the clouds are a path to the helix above the first room :-) It could probably be called a design flaw, instead, since several people were confused by it.

And thanks! It's my first Flash game, but I've been programming for something like twenty years, and I've also written a zillion terrible songs over the years, so it's not like this is the first thing I've ever done :-) I made lots of stupid C64 and DOS games when I was little, but I spent most of the last ten years doing boring web stuff, so I thought it'd be fun to make a game again now that I'm a bit better at programming. I'm going to make more! :-D