Mantis1's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Fruity Tower]

This is one of the best games I played on Newgrounds! A little too easy, but I spent one hour to beat it.

[Catastrophe Chaos]

Underrated gem. Would work nicely on a tablet in my opinion.

PatrickZochAlves responds:

Thank you very much for the nice comment!

Normally the game works on mobile on the web, but I'll certainly try to make a longer game directly in the stores!

[PE@CE]

I've been playing this game extensively, and I feel it didn't get the credit it deserves. I REALLY like it and I think the aesthetic is very original and atmospheric.

I think my biggest criticism is that after you respawn, the hazards in the level do not reset their timers to a predictable point; they just continue going. That means I sometimes get a lucky pattern (all hazards passable), or I may get an impossible pattern and I have to wait or die. The game doesn't make me feel skilled if I pass some hard levels by chance. Compare that to Super Meat Boy where after you respawn, the hazards' timing is always the exact same on the first try, even if the patterns diverge when you stay alive for a while.

Unlike other reviewers, I haven't experienced any lag but maybe that's because I have a good laptop. I've noticed that the player character moves in pixel-perfect chunks which might explain why others are complaining about lag.

[Shekateka]

Great game! I really don't have a lot of criticisms. For a game made in two days, it's as polished as a regular web release!

The sound effects are very juicy and unique. I especially love the pickup sound; unexpected but strangely fitting.

If I have to nitpick: The graphics feel a little drab, I wish they were a little more stylized like your previous games (Space Hummus), but they are currently fine. I also wish that the bullets made different sounds when impacting different types of objects.

There's a typo in the game description: You wrote that the theme is "power is running out" when it's actually "Running out of power."

dietzribi responds:

Thanks... I was super tired. Fixed I think :)

[Space Hummus]

This is the best kind of Ludum Dare compo games! The ones where I have to check it wasn't a Jam game made by a team in 3 days! Everything is polished and vibrant in it.

It reminds me of They Need to Be Fed, but I love the twist of how this game is relaxed and allows for multiple solutions. I think the 7th level with the magnets was the least fun because of how hard the last challenge in it was. Still, I had a lot of fun playing overall.

I only wished that you used the volcano planets from the final level more in the game.

[House]

This is the best game for this Halloween event I've played so far! It's so good that I delayed my own Halloween game as it can't hold a candle to this one right now! I'll be surprised if you don't get first place in prizes.

While playing the game, I found a couple bugs which I'm sure you'll be glad to hear about:
1- I revived the sister by talking to her after killing her.
2- When talking to the doll, I can let go of the cat and then a new cat spawns in the game which I can use to repeat the doll dialogue and spawn an infinite number of rifles! However, all rifles share the same bullet.

As for suggestions, I wish you used a pixel art thumbnail because the current one doesn't evoke the art style or the feel of the game, and I think the name "House" isn't very shocking for a horror game. Other than that, great job! This was very atmospheric and enjoyed replaying it!

isaacnite responds:

Thanks for enjoying it! We are gonna fix those bugs ASAP. Thanks for letting us know!

[Alone in the Madness (pt.02)]

The game is not "hard". It's unfair and irritating.

Disregarding the tiny button hitboxes and the short response times, my biggest quip with the game is that in order to register a quick-time event, I have to 1) Initiate the click inside the button 2) release the click while also still inside the button.

Sometimes, I'm to tense to do #2 correctly. Other times, I do #2 right but mess up #1 which results in me thinking the game didn't register my input because of lag or a bug.

[007 Legends Death Label]

I like what the game tries to accomplish. And for what it's worth, it delivers on having an immersive retro game atmosphere. But I have some complaints.

I wish the controls were more tight. And they feel like they have been created for a different game! For example, I found shooting downwards only useful for the third boss. And shooting diagonally and up only useful for the last boss. I haven't found a use for shooting diagonally and down!

Dashing feels awkward and useless. That could have been fixed if it was on a separate button and had a sound effect and visual feedback when you do it.

The art style is a bit mish-mashy. There's no uniform pixel size. Some objects are outlined, other are not. And you could have replaced the protagonist's pistol graphic with, for example, a Thompson gun because shooting behaves more like a machine gun.

One feature suggestion: It would be very cool to pause the game with escape and add a pause button on the top right corner. I know the game pauses when I scroll away, but that isn't apparent when the music is still playing!

Jonathan-So responds:

Thanks for playing and for the criticism, I just responded to your PM. I can tell by the way you reviewed my game that you either beat it or were very close, so congratulations!

You addressed the controls as being loose and having multiple ultra-specific cases; while I don't agree with the looseness part (kindly give me an example), you probably saw that the ending reports your completion time. These movement and attack options are for making sure the player feels accommodated and for reducing completion time (speedrunning); you want to keep your bullets on the bosses whenever you can, using all of the shot angles appropriately. As for the dash, I use it all of the time (again, for speedrunning purposes), usually chaining multiple together so that I can move while aiming anywhere I want (Dash -> Fixed-Shot + [Directional Aim]; think wavedashing in Melee). I do agree with you that the dash needs to report player feedback, though.

I learned through this project that generally, textures in Unity should be imported using a 2^n Pixels per Unit value; this is what caused the non-uniform pixel size (characters are 24 PPU). Because this was designed to be an arcade-style game, however, I have no intention to add a pause; after all, players don't walk away from arcade cabinets. Finally, I'd like to address why Bond has an automatic pistol: I depicted all of the characters in their most recognizable and iconic attire. For example, in the original 007 Legends, Goldfinger wears a navy-blue military outfit during the confrontation on the plane, but in my game, I designed him based off of press images from the original movies, where he's in a gold-colored suit. Applying that to Bond, his most iconic weapon is the Walther PPK or the P99, so I gave him the pistol to make him more recognizable. Though slightly unrealistic, Treasure's Gunstar Heroes manages to have pistols that behave similarly to mine, which is why I ultimately drew Bond with a pistol.

Thank you again for the review, and if you don't mind me asking, what was your completion time?
- Jonathan-So

[Shword]

Very impressive! I was entertained from the first level throughout!

The main game mechanic is very versatile and open to expansion. If you add ideas like breakable tiles, moving tiles, lazes and such, you could easily make a sequel. Or you could make a port on mobile if you ditch the movement controls (the levels are so small that the game doesn't benefit too much out of movement in my opinion).

As for issues I have with this game: Sound is WAY too quiet. And there's a bug in the last level where the camera doesn't follow the player if he teleports too far ahead (version 1.2). Other than those tiny mishaps, this is a very solid game! One of the best web games I've played in a long time!

StuffedWombat responds:

Thanks, that is some quality input!

A sequel to this game is already planned, I am collecting Ideas right now. It shold be much bigger and prettier (will probably try to get it on steam) and will take a long time to make :)

I will fix the camera bug in the last level asap!