Mantis1's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[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!

[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 :)

[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!

[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!