JakBaronKing's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[A Sabtastic Sketchbook]

An in depth look at the mind of Sabtastic

I like the V2 version of Mom, but the skull looks kinda funny. Like she has buck-teeth. And a spoon only emphasizes her being a home-keeper, which in my opinion doesn't do a wife of Dad justice. She needs a nasty looking weapon! A weed-wacker!

As I notice, you have been inspired by Disney, Nintendo, Fantasty, etc. The works!

But you know...I would really like to see some other styles of art aside from what is cool, anime, fantasy, or comic book super hero stuff.

Ever considered just drawing a kooky-lookin cartoon character? Every Canadian draws their cartoons with this traditional "Boiling-Outline" technique that was once so treasured at the Canadian animation film festivals.

All you do is take a brush pen and draw a goofy looking character.

The cool/sexy art is 'sinch' for you.

But versatility is key for every artist!

Eventually I would love to see sculptures and even paintings from you.

And besides, it's good for the soul to stray away from computer art for a few days and just chip away at a rock.

Surely this isn't your ENTIRE art collection. So keep this updated each year!

All this is fantastic art!

Sabtastic responds:

Hey, thanks man! (As usual)
You're always one to count on for great, helpful and interesting reviews. c:

I have to point out the fact that I don't have any means of references at work (which is where I drew these) so a lot of the work that I draw off the top of my head usually tends to be the generic stuff that I can draw in a "sinch". :P

...I'm pretty sure my boss would hate me if I brought my laptop to work all the time just so I could look up some diverse subjects to draw.. XD haha

Anyway! That aside, I really appreciate your input. Thanks for your advice!
Maybe I'll take a stab at subtractive sculpture one day.

[Armed Prophet]

Good game, but still a few glitches

Though it is a decent beat-em-up, it's only 'decent'.

It's mostly the game-play that really needs improvement on.

I even tried the game on a faster computer, and the results are still the same.

I was very aggravated because I was only had limited control of my character and the enviroment.
_________________________

-Summary of Irritations-

-Jumping is pretty much flawed because you can only face one direction when you jump.
-You can't move when you attack.
-The Camera has trouble focusing on the stage equally. Making some enemies un-reachable because they go 'just' beyond the character's stage limit.
-Because both "A" is used for charging and attack, the programing has a tendency to wanna charged for a spin attack when you don't want to. Switch that ability on a different button. (W)
-Collecting other weapons are pretty much pointless if each one is useless.
(with the exception of the Lazer Rod)
-The objects that you can hit against other enemies often trap you. Why can't you jump or run through them? It's a logical flaw even it intentional.
-The only hard boss...was Zomboss (Zombie). The rest only had hard and long stages. Alien and Robot bosses were TOO easy.
-The crowbar is the only real dependable weapon in the game.
-Hard mode is good, but if gameplay was improved, you need to make the harder. And I mean much much HARDER!

_________________________

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy the challenge enough to complete the game.

The animations added were a wonderful touch.

It's a good idea for a beat-em-up game with a few major flaws.

_________________________

-Ideas for Improvement-

-Switch spin attack on a different button. (W)
-Be able to move while attacking so you can move in on enemies while in combo mode. Enemies can move, why can't you?
-Improve the jumping, face any direction you move so you can attack.
-You tend to move slower than the monsters. Fix that. TIming is crucial and the timing always seems to be off.
-Improve the abilities of weapons.
_________________________

Examples of Weapon development

Crowbar - use to attack and have lighting powers is fine, but since it's his ideal weapon, the function of a crow bar is to unlock special areas that require a tool. Thus opening 'secret' levels. This will encourage more players to use this weapon.

Lazer Staff - Overly powerful. Needs to be powered down a bit. That or you need to make the regular attack power of the staff considerably weaker.

Robot Razors - Pointless. It actually hits less on enemies than the crow-bar. It's so devastating looking! It's attack power should be VERY HIGH. Because of that, it'll work well with the protective shield. Where ONE hit is death. And the shield should last a bit longer.

Zombie Arm - REALLY POINTLESS. If that arm is powerful. Then the attack power of the arm should be really really high. This needs to be overlooked completely as I do not even like the 'power up' special feature. He should instead turn into a GIANT Monster and destroy everything for a short time.

_________________________

-Positive Conclusion-

I hope you three are not upset by my scornful review. But from my reaction.

I've played hard beat-em-up games that were fun...

Because whenever I lost...it was because I wasn't good enough.

Not because of poor programing. I mean...seriously! The programing really needs to be smoothed out!

HOWEVER....this is by far the best concept of a beat-em-up game I have seen in a while!

I'm a big fan of the game genre because it needs one main thing...

A KICK ASS STORY and AWESOME MUSIC!

I would love to play this game again with those problems smoothed out.

Half of the game is programing. The other half is music and story.

[Gretel and Hansel]

Very Good

I like how you animated a water coloring picture.

Very nice touch.

But why must fairy tale remakes be so gory and violent? Perhaps it's the ironic twist as how it was a falsity to reality in the first place.

Not everything in life has a "Happily Ever After"

----Irritation---

Why must the background music have that ANNOYING cricket sound. it really is offensive.

CHEEP CHEEP CHEEP!!!!!!!!!

That's how loud it is.

[Zombie Hooker Nightmare]

Gameplay is a bit Redundant...

-It's hard to judge 'hand to hand' fighting distance
(since she punches or kicks randomly, the distance does not seem set)

-The game hardly has no story.
(no back story, no intro?, no bosses?)

-There is no real point in collecting money if you can't 'Buy' anything.
(Sure the scores will be posted on TV, but I wanna buy some Guns!)

-Collecting your 'clients' makes no sense for saving them.
(A whole trail of horny men suddenly become invulnerable to zombies?)

---Suggestions---

+ Add a Timer to each stage
(If players are rushed, they enjoy the game more.)

+ Add weapons to buy rather than collect
(No point really in using suck weapons.)

+ Add a "Thriller" story
(A reason why this hocker becomes a protagonist for zombie kiling)

[Madness Accelerant]

Man...this one was a bit tougher than last.

It could just be my slow computer.

Timing the attacks is a bit unpredictable at times.

And Hank seems to fall slower than a feather under a blowing fan - making falling to avoid attacks a bit tricky.

It took me 2 tries before I could beat it in a wink. And another time to figure out how to win the remaining medals. (With the exception of the "Mercy" medal that seemed to bug on me.)

________________________

But other than that...the game shows promising features as...

"The precursor to future console games for casual players who enjoy killing things for absolutely no reason."

It's not so much the concept of it being a "platform-shooter"...

It's more of the art style and concept of characters that really bring out the demon inside players.

"DARK-VIOLENT-KILL-KILL-KILL!!!!!!"

With but a spruce of humor every now an then to bring players light-heartedness back.

....meow :3 ......"Oh Tom :D"

Following Alien Hominid, Castle Crashers, and Game 3.

I think it would be profitable and beneficial to Newgrounds to focus their next game around the "Maddness" Univerise.

Keeping the exact same Teams of people listed in the credits...

And making this game BIGGER, LONGER, FULL STORY, and....MORE explosions.

And it can be downloaded viva X-Box 360 Wi-Fi.
________________________

HOWEVER....

It's a great game but it still needs a few necessary adjustments.

1. The idea that you "automatically" pick up a weapon does really work.

You have the "D" key on the keyboard. Simply have that to pick up weapons of your choice. No ammo wasted or undesirable discarding of weapon.

2. I encountered a bug at the end. It loops after beating boss. Possibly because I managed to keep the Chain-Saw.

3. Falling and Recovering is slower than the AI's. It could just be my computer though.

TomFulp responds:

Thanks! It's killing me that the boss bug still seems to be there, assuming you weren't playing a cached version from around 2am. I was hoping to chilax after getting some sleep but now I dunno...

I've been curious to tinker with the gun pickups but I like to treat the game as total chaos... A smorgasbord of firepower where you just grab guns like a kid in a candy shop and blow through ammo. I worry that pressing a key to pick up a new weapon would throw people off in tight spots, when they just need ammo NOW. I'll have to experiment though... I think I play it different than a lot of people.

As for a Madness console game... I do think that would be neat!

[Cave of Wonders]

Impressive Programming Skills

It has a perfect 2-D platform feel similar to the old SNES "Metroid" games or recent GBA titles.

The controls of the main character was smooth and easy to control.

But what disappoints me is the difficulty.

Beating the game was just far too easy. Mindchamber had a real habit of making games almost unbearably difficult only because I feel that he really puts thought into the bosses and their learned patterns of attacks.

The bosses on your game however...was VERY easy to learn. People who have played and "E" rated Plat-forming games will already have a feel for the basic of learning the bosses' moves.

To defeat the 3rd boss might get some people confused. But it is actually quite simple and similar to something I played in old Metal Slug Games. So defeat ended quite easily.

I appreciate the incredible plat-forming at the last part of the stage. But it was again too much time given to escape, unless there is a "secret" where more time is required.

-------------

In conclusion...

It shows remarkable tallent in videogame programing and stylish art, animation, and music.

But well-seasoned plat-former gamers who are knowledgeable in basics of boss battles will easily solve the patterns.

Easy for some, but an overall fun 5 minute game.

[Viva Caligula]

My kinda of game...

A bit hard if you don't know which weapon you don't know how to use...

Although it does become repetitive. Each weapon is what it is...and I just wish there were more ways to combine your weapons for addition effects.

Instead your just toying with a bunch of computer sprites.
At least that's what it becomes when you finally accomplished all that you can do

Have an impossible dungeon that requires all power ups to beat.

But I really like how you can play as a famous historical character.

Maybe a strategy game featuring the all might ALEXANDER.

[Toss the Turtle]

the game is amusing...but a bit slow

But I feel that due to it's RPG element of saving your progress and collecting up-grades.

The Game moves a bit slowly...

Knowing where your next obstacle is unpredictable and easy to miss. Which very well might be the point of the game. But I feel that if you could achieve a MAP item in the store...people could achieve their results with more precision and accuracy from thousands of feet above. Thus creating a sort of 'skill' to the game than just hoping for the best.

I played till about 11,995 feet (which took about 10 minutes) and I was getting VERY bored. And yet...it yielded only about 2,000 dollars in cash. Where as some of the better items cost well over the hundreds of thousands.

I was somewhat disappointed.

But I suppose with enough dedication to his game, one could achieve all the medals and reach the fathoms of space.

I just wished it could've been sooner. Or at least attain some form of map with colored dots expressing which power-ups are which.

----

I know it'll get better the more I play...but sometimes thats a problem for some gamers. We don't always have allot of time to invest in playing a game.

So if you want to achieve the best results, you hope for the best and dedicate your time whenever you can.

[William and Sly]

BOY...this...game...is...LONG!!!!

But...exteamly stylish and ambient.

It is very much like ECCO the Dolphin back in the old SEGA days. Only it's more of a scavenger hunt rather than puzzles.

It has all the calming effects for a casual gamer who enjoys peaceful music, calm scenery, and uncomplicated gameplay.

My only gripe is the simple concept of searching and finding.
I want a plot to develop asap!

You can still have all the hunting and stuff, and maybe a few attacks, but other than that...the game is perfect for younger players.