MLScherbatov's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Straw Hat Samurai: Duels]

too much clicking and tedious dialogue, too little ingenuity or skill involved in the combat. it seems to be mostly luck and you really need to have more than just one click controls in order to make a game that's in any way challenging or entertaining.

lutc responds:

Combat is very much skill based, especially in higher-levelled PvP duels, and when not using autoslash. (The purpose of autoslash is to help beginners get started and used to combat)

[Level Editor 4]

loading screens take a little too long
it seems like a bit of a cakewalk here... when the blocks are automatically selected for every single puzzle, the game doesn't offer any sort of challenge. the jump key was very unresponsive and that proved highly frustrating when there are no checkpoints mid level and very little room for mistakes. if i miss one block i have to start the level over, and often the puzzzles were so simple and monotonous that i didnt even want to bother repeating them. i had to play level three about 7 times in a row specifically because the player refused to jump when standing at the top of the screen, and its really not any fun to place the same few blocks over and over again only to be disappointed by poor game design...

[Arizona Joe]

why would u use j???? that is really weird dude you should probably consider switching to z and x or maybe shift and z... as it is i have to place my hands in a strange position to operate the game

Stairs were oversensitive and i often lost progress simply due to the lack of wiggle room in small levels where i'd accidentally run into the stairs or door. think about having the player press a key to access them (e, maybe)
it was unclear what the upgrades did or if they even did anything.
im not sure what the point of having a counter for your bombs was, because i never ran out and it seemed like the only restriction was how many you could place at once
the first level with crypts needs a fence or for the trees to be closer together or at least modified in some way. the trees clearly leave enough space in between them for the player to walk through but it seems like you just used an invisible wall and it's frustrating to be backed into a corner unexpectedly in this sort of game, especially with the checkpoint so far away on a level as big as this
overall collision was a bit fishy, and i would get stuck on corners and various objects that should not logically impede movement, so you should probably shrink your hitboxes or round off corners to avoid problems with getting hit by your own bombs or backed into corners too easily when the player runs into these hurdles

baneguin responds:

Hey MLScherbatov, thanks for all the great feedback! We acted on most of your suggestions (all were very awesome). On the dev branch you press c to travel through doors, stairs etc.

About the control setup, I totally agree. I'm not familiar with flash game standards, so bear with me. I changed it to use arrow keys for movement, z for bombs, x for pickup/throw, and c to travel with space/tab remaining the same. Let us know if that's better for you.

Let me explain the bomb counter, because this has been an issue even with our in-person play testers. This is the number of bombs you can have active at any one time. I understand this isn't obvious, nor necessarily relevant to be successful in the game. There's nothing much we can do about it except maybe decrease the beginning bomb count and offer more upgrades as the game goes on.

Concerning the crypt, I agree that the tree collision feels pretty fishy, that's why we fixed it up.

We have had some troubles with the hitbox (especially when fitting into a one tile space). That's why I adjusted it to be smaller, and to be centered at the character's foot.

U da man with all this great feedback.

[Vermin Desert Range]

regardless of the help button, i still think you need to make it more clear which things you are supposed to shoot. it really made no sense...

gintasdx responds:

Yeah, I guess I need to make a tutorial stage or make more interactive help.

[Fathom]

this seems really interesting but the controls are a bit weird... i really feel like it could flow a little more smoothly if you sped up the slo-mo and slowed down the regular speed. The double jump is agonizingly tedious to execute in bullet time, so jumping past the first shielded gun was so frustrating that i lost interest in the game pretty quickly. i'm all for difficult games, but i shouldn't be dying 10-20 times in a row so early on even if i seem to have a checkpoint every few feet, especially when i understand the technique required to pass this obstacle but am unable to execute it due to difficulties with the time manipulation... i think it works out eventually but you could have made the learning curve a bit less steep IMO

that said, i think this has a ton of potential and i agree with everyone who asked for a full length game or sequel. amazing work for only 72 hours.

[Spring Pig]

a few nuggets of constructive criticism:
you should think about mediating the power of the ladders, cus like basically any ladder ostensibly gives you infinite jumping power
IMO the rewind should go much faster. it almost seemed like it was actually slower than the regular speed of the game
short falls didnt seem to add anything to the jump meter and it was somewhat unclear whether there was a specific threshold of how high the jump needed to be in order to do so. jumping off of crates should add a little bit at least, but i found that i gained nothing from them even when stacked up 3 high, yet two gray blocks was enough in other levels.
when pushing crates down steps, the crate would often get stuck with a considerable gap between it and the wall, which was clearly big enough to fit the pig in so that i could continue pushing, but the little guy kinda just hovered there and i was down one crate unfortunately. maybe you could allow the pig to slip in there even if it's a tiny gap. a lot of platformers allow for some wiggle room to avoid this kind of thing
IMO the springboards shouldnt automatically expend your energy. it doesnt trigger when you land or when you use your basic jump, so it doesnt make a ton of sense to force it in this situation
the level with 4 buttons in midair next to each other had a small glitch where i could stay on top of the box after it disappeared so long as i let go of the down key before hitting the button, which allowed me to press all four buttons at once instead of having to bounce back up or climb the ladder.
when crates are stacked, i can only push the top one. i think it'd make more sense to have them move slower when weighed down, or just allow all of them to be pushed regularly. it does make sense for multiple adjacent boxes to be immobile, but when they are stacked friction doesn't come into play in the same ways.
maybe increase the move speed. it works earlier on when the puzzles are simple, but once you have to backtrack and perform actions multiple times, it becomes a little tedious to wait for the pig to cross the screen.
covering lava with crates works puzzle wise but doesnt make any sense when you consider that they seem to be made of wood. you could think about introducing wooden ones as platforms on top of spikes or water or various room temperature hazards, and then maybe bring in metal or stone ones which can be placed on lava later on.
havent finished yet, gotta run, but ill check back in and message you if i have anything else for u
good job!

[Sideomorph]

great concept but it glitched out on tutorial 4 when i stepped off the left side of the platform. i got stuck in the jumping animation and was unable to move... im assuming it had something to do with the fact that generally i would have to push the edge that i was landing on, but i couldn't do that while it was below me. anyways i hope u get this worked out. seems like an interesting game

Wackiedk responds:

Hm, I have never experienced that bug before - but thanks for the heads up. If you ever get stuck you can press "r" to restart or "Esc" to go back to the menu.

[Udom Nebdon]

look, this is a cool game and its got a lot of potential, but these controls seriously blow. it seems like half the time the movement is centered on the character, and the rest of the time it's based on the camera's perspective... it's incredibly obnoxious when you have to figure this out every time said perspective changes, and i really dont enjoy when i walk into walls so continuously that im forced to assume the controls are literally just changing randomly... a feeling of helplessness is important in horror games, but this really misses the point. all im getting from this gameplay is frustration despite really enjoying the art and concept

pLaw responds:

Yeah, I know, the controls suck.
Point is, it's really difficult with fixed camera angles. Either, you go with the awkward tank controls which behave the same from each angle or you go with direct camera-relative controls which you have to switch each time you change the view because else the player would leave the screen he just entered immediately.
I'm not trying to make excuses. I learnd a lot from failing on these controls.

[Three Nights Escape]

i dont think the pliers were the correct tool for attaching a wheel to a bicycle. it's cool to make your game surreal and i think its pretty well done, but it's important for the puzzles to make sense.
was that a rag that i picked up with the model ship? it didnt really make a lot of sense, and you could have let the player look more closely at the tub so we could see that the water was running down the drain. i assumed it was a glitch until i tried using the rag or whatever that was. you might want to think about replacing the rag with a cork, or something that is more recognizable
also there should probably be some music, even if it was just a really simple loop to add ambiance.

edifede responds:

Thank you for the feedback MLScherbatov!

[The Valley Rule]

awesome as always. your wall jump is one of the most responsive ones ive seen lately, and i really appreciate that... some of these climbs were really a workout haha.
i noticed that if i landed just right on one of the sliding blocks, i could wall jump 1 block above it onto nothiing and continue upwards a little bit in midair. im not sure if this could even be exploited in any way or if it was just lag, but ill message u if i figure out any further details
im gonna click thru all your titles now, tbh. everything i see is rly qt and you make some really challenging and interesting platformers.
Although i love to see all the amateur content on this site, i really come here for the original ideas, so it's really refreshing to find well made games that still have the novelty im looking for. much love!!! keep up the good work!