WisdomThumbs's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Horse with a Human Mask on a Tightrope]

Holy shit it's a video game about my current DnD character, who started as my war horse, got Awakened, and years later can wield swords. He stole a dude's mask of disguise, but its convincing humanoid hologram doesn't link up with the correct horse legs.

It didn't have to be fun, but that's a nice bonus. 4/5 only needs helicopter dueling to be lore accurate.

[Snailiad]

Excellence

(note that I consider 5 an "average", and a 9 is something truly rare and exceptional)

Going into this game, I was expecting something cheap and short-lived. I didn't think I'd be playing it for any longer than five or ten minutes.

But as I got deeper and deeper into the world of Snailiad, I realized I just couldn't quit. I became almost obsessed with finding all of the power-ups and Isis Fragments (still haven't accomplished that, though I feel I've found every last power-up). Finding all the secret areas had me in a fever for a while, I think. I actually had to force myself to take breaks - few games can put me in that kind of state. :P

Took three hours to beat the game. I was tremendously frustrated with the last two bosses, spending about 45 minutes to an hour apiece on both. And here's the part that had my palm glued to my face - after finishing the game, I realized I'd been playing on Normal when I thought I was on Easy. XD The challenge was immense, I have to admit. But once I learned how to use the Snail Shield effectively against Moon Snail, it didn't take much longer for me to finally triumph (there's nothing better than beating the hardest boss in the game with just one last heart left right as one of his attacks is about to hit you). :D

I'm going to keep playing and see if I can find this Isis Room. And you should make a map showing all the secret areas with the power-ups and Isis Fragments marked on it. I really want to see all these easter-eggs, after all, but just don't have the time to look for them. Perhaps you could make the map an unlockable (or activated by the Konami Code, just for lolz). And what's this about a secret boomerang? I think I already found the boomerang (I have one, after all), but that one snail only just started talking about the thing.

Anyway, moving on to some constructive criticism before I forget. The artwork wasn't bad - far from it, it was pretty good and simple. However, the opening cutscene does need to be a bit better - some potential players who would otherwise the game might not play it just because the first cutscene doesn't grab them.

As well, the gravity-changing jump feature made things really, really annoying for most of the game. I only got the hang of it AFTER I'd beaten Gravity Box. Changing directions mid-air was really tricky - sometimes Snaily wouldn't change direction even when I was pressing both "Z" and an arrow key at the same time, and sometimes he would. Having to hold the direction you want to go BEFORE hitting "Z" was much more reliable, but incredibly hard to do when you're trying to change direction quickly. And even when I pretty much had the hang of it, trying to fight Moon Snail and Giga Snail resulted in a lot of accidental gravity-changes, which typically got me killed. When you're under stress and jumping around a lot, you'll often hit "Z" multiple times in quick succession trying to jump just once, and you'll probably be holding an arrow key in an attempt to direct your shots which results in gravity-changes galore. (though in the end, I figured out that it's best to fight Moon Snail from the floor and move as little as possible)

Oh! And I should mention that I've never played Metroid. Ever. I think this is one of only three or four adventure games I've ever played. Adventure games generally aren't for me. That said, I'd play a Snailiad sequel.

Boss Tips:

First Boss - you can stay in the bottom left most of the time, even on the ceiling right above the door.

Second - stay in the opposite corner when he releases his mini-squares. Deal with those before anything else.

Final - stay on the floor as much as possible, use Shell Shield on his cluster-attack. Keep up a constant stream of Devastator blasts and always stay facing him to stave off his own stream of attacks. Move only when you need to get under him. For Giga Snail, stay on the walls during his transitions between phases and use Shell Shield during his Red Phase (stay on the wall and don't move, just Shield quickly). When he uses his ZZZ Attack, get on a wall and use Shield again.

[endeavor]

Pure win!

**SPOILER WARNING**

This is one of those oh so few PERFECT flash games. I've so far played twice and gotten two of the endings, and I'm about to go in and get the third. Replayability is exceedingly high for a game like this - it's a platformer with a linear story and lots of repition! Who knew it would be so addictive? o_O

You've definitely got a very strong grasp of game design. The cave area underneath the pillars really emphasizes this - the little blue mushrooms show where you've been before (a GENIUS idea). You also were able to craft a really good environmental puzzle there without actually using any puzzle elements - it's just a whole bunch of different paths to fall down, and a long climb time to get back up. I was so frustrated after ten minutes of this, but because the Blue Mushrooms were there to show me my previous attempts, I eventually worked my way to the gem. More challenging a puzzle than most straight-up puzzle games can manage. :P

As for the story, it was damn good. I've already played Shadow of the Colossus (years ago it was the only game I had on hand to play on my PS2 - spent months just messing around in it during all my free time), so I figured out the ending fairly quickly. Or did I?

I'm going to admit right now, I wasn't entirely convinced that Malor was the bad guy. For a long while it was a nagging thought, a gut feeling more than anything else, and I could tell he was manipulating me. But I STILL ended up falling for it, even though I killed ten creatures and got the Fruit of Eternal Youth. I just had to see what Malor would do if I got all the gems before I got the chest. And you knwo what? When he started sending me back up in the golden beam of light, I suddenly became convinced he had been a good guy all along.

"Hey, I see what the message is here! You just have to trust every now and then!"

And then he turned out to be a villain anyway, making it a double turn-around. I facepalmed pretty hard. :P

I also have to say... killing creatures was actually hard on my conscience. I kept thinking "What if Malor turns out to be the good guy, and by killing these things and going behind his back, I lose the game?" Besides, I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was doing something really wrong. Felt REAL guilt, something most games can't even hope to instill in people.

I even killed one of the characters - the rock guy who wants the unreachable fruit. It just so happened that since I was standing partially on top of him when he died, I picked up his soul instantly AND filled up my Endurance bar to Max, leading me to believe that killing him earned me the "Only the Strongest" achievement. I still felt guilty that I'd killed the poor guy.

And when I climbed back to 'Heaven' after killing someone, everybody treated me like shit. I felt kinda put off about that, but felt that it was my just deserts.

This game was pure win, PURE WIN, and I hope you make a sequel of some sort, at least set in the same world. I'm going to play Summit (the name sounds familiar) as soon as I get the third ending. This is gonna be awesome.

I feel as if there's something I'm missing in this review, but I honestly can't think of what it is. That's right, there's so much good stuff to say about Endeavor, so little bad stuff (read: none) that I'm actually FORGETTING details. XD

Favoriting.

[Depict1]

Original and surprising

Unfortunately, my baby brother figured out the correct way to beat the evil twin before I did, stealing my chance to be in that top 11%...

Well, to be more precise, I did what I THOUGHT he suggested I do, but it turns out he actually suggested something else that just sounded like "jump between those thing-a-mabobs".

Very creative game. Just wish I was this creative!

[The Breach]

Insane in the Membrane

The platforming was somewhat wonky, and the inability to shoot in any direction but sideways was often frustrating, but overall this was a very enjoyable game. The story was rewarding, and the animation was excellent. It felt like my deaths (for the most part) were the result of my own incompetence and not the game being unfair.

And furthermore THE YELLOW IS IN MY BRAAAAAAIIIIN!!!

[Wild River]

Lawlz

Kevin Bacon beat it in 100 seconds on Kevin Bacon's second try.

Furthermore, Kevin Bacon.

[Mushroom Madness 2]

Fawesome Possum

Great graphics, smooth control, nuanced strategies, challenging difficulty (without ever seeming completely impossible), and fun, fun, fun.

Just the stuff for any awesome game, and this IS an awesome game.

Some problems I have are when weapons and items overlap one another, often right on top of the spot I'm trying to click on, while I'm trying to do something else. This leads into another problem I found with the game, which is that once you've picked up a weapon or item you can't put it down again until you've either used up all of the ammo (former) or placed it somewhere that isn't already occupied by dozens of traps (former). These don't break the game, but they were frustrating at times (most especially in the later levels of Survival).

I'm proud to say that after an hour or so of sinking my time into this cool game, I managed to unlock all the weapons, upgrades, and levels. As well, I got all the achievements except "Thank You!" and "Immortal" (I would have the former of the two, but can't seem to find the link...).

In my defense, though... I was on 36 when one of those nasty little moles got my last 'shroom. I would have had him if I'd been able to grab that chaingun, but I'd grabbed a mine. :P

[Armed Prophet]

Unfortunately...

Graphics could definitely be better, most notably with the main character and his run cycle.

Also, being mobbed by more than three enemies equals near-death even if you're at full health, because once one attacks you can't get out of the cycle without divine chance on your side.

And Zomboss is a cheap-ass zombitch. Damn him and his attacks that take away a full twelfth of my health and that cannot be escaped. Seriously, I must be missing something here because you can't get up close to hit him even once or he grabs you and does a L4D2 Charger move on you.

Not too bad otherwise, though.

[Modern Day Assassin]

WTF

It seemed good up until I glitched outside the garage during a laggy moment. And got lost in white space for all eternity. o_O

As trippy as I thought the game would be, except I'm the one suffering mental problems and not the character!

Since I've got a good connection and plenty of space on my computer, it would appear the lagginess in this game is inescapable and everywhere. At least it doesn't LOOK bad.