qwerty741's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dungeon Watchers]

the upgrade system and base stats need a bit of a revision due to how the different characters work.
luna works fine; you can easily tell the game was made with her kit in mind, since after you get far enough into the game you really feel overpowered and that's what good games are all about.

because of this, xelvy's gameplay feels a bit odd to play around.
(there's an inconsistency between her in-game name and the description name, so i'll just use the in-game one)

for starters, all upgrades related to spell damage and bullets only affect the supporting magic, meaning they don't feel nearly as impactful as they do when playing luna, because they don't improve your "main" way of attacking.
for that same reason, the "additional bullet" upgrade is completely useless as it has no effect (it doesn't increase the amount of bombs you drop at once, nor the total amount of bombs you can drop) since it doesn't affect the supporting summoned magic either; it should probably be removed from xelvy's upgrades rotation entirely.

i'm not sure if there's a cap to the amount of "additional bullets" upgrades you can roll, but i never managed to get more than 2 (total of 3 bullets) when playing with luna. which is fine and all if it's intended.
however, in xelvy's case, you can keep rolling "additional bomb" upgrades indefinitely, even though you can only drop at most 8 at any given time (regardless of upgrades, that's the max frequency xelvy can drop bombs at before the start exploding).
there should probably be a cap of 7 upgrades and once you've gotten all of them they stop appearing in the rotation.
there's also a similar situation with crit chance. you can hit 100% crit chance, and crit chance upgrades will still show up. probably should make it so they don't once you're maxed out.

the stats table needs a custom revision for each character. in xelvy's case for example you get the same stats as luna but not all of them are applicable (like the bullet bonus amount, which as mentioned does nothing).
her main gimmick is entirely missing for example (notably the number of bombs, or their "blast speed", which is mentioned in one of the upgrades).
her bombs base damage seems to be accounted into base fire damage.

also, and this is mostly unrelated. i feel like there's really no incentive in taking any max hp upgrade.
while you do want to mostly focus on damage output, everything else has at least some use that makes you consider taking at least one of them.
however having more max hp doesn't feel "important" at all, since you'd rather take hp regen in case you get hit, or even speed so you can try not getting hit in the first place.
i'm not sure after which amount luck stops making a difference, but even banking on extra (maybe useless) luck feels more rewarding than taking max hp. though i'm not sure how you could make that any better.
maybe merging the two hp upgrades and lowering their effectiveness? (something like, +5hp, +.3 hp regen, as a single upgrade)

rm120 responds:

I'm already fixing many of the points you mentioned like the Zelvy's bomb amount issue. I understand some upgrades are more powerful with some characters but that's part of the game. New characters will not be necessarily more powerful than the previous one. Instead they will have their own stats/passives/skills set and it will be up to the player to figure out how to make them work. A game which does this is Brotato, the characters have limitations which force the player to find optimal configurations for each of the characters. Even vampire survivors does that in some degree.

And about health stat, I plan add a character and some skills which scale with maximum health, which open the road for "health builds", the same for the luck stat.

Thank you for taking the time to make a review, I appreciate it.

[Donut Dodger]

adding a review because i think while the game is nothing special, what it really lacks is some kind of instruction panel.

the game is called donut dodger, so you'd expect to want to dodge everything.
except turns out that's actually not the case, and i went pretty much the whole time not realizing until the very end (because no one would willingly get far enough where different donuts start spawning only to purposely crash into them)

pink donut: -1 life. -15 score
brown donut: -2 life. -15 score
green donut: +15 score
blue donut: +1 life

it's kinda weird that hitting donuts also docks your score since you're already penalized for hitting them but that's not really major. however, not knowing you can (and should) collect the other two types is an oversight.

additionally, regarding upgrades:
once bought, you can toggle them; however, the hp-up upgrade does not work (whether it's equipped or not, you'll still always have 3 hp total).
for the "speed boost" upgrade, when equipped you get an energy bar in the bottom left which triggers by pressing shift.
while you're holding shift, the energy bar depletes and your side movement speed is increased.
if you're not moving while holding shift, the bar will still decrease so keep that in mind.
it auto-refills over time as long as shift isn't being pressed

ACrazyTown responds:

Hello! Thanks for the review. This game is a very old project of mine, and one of my first attempts at making a game. I agree with your points, and I'll be releasing a final patch for the game that addresses some of them.

[nedodriving]

i won't say it's "impossible" to handle, but the car's a bit too fast imo.
between you bouncing around whenever you so much as touch a wall, and sometimes getting stuck to it when you're directly facing it, it's really difficult to control.

apparently you can get all the additional goals without having to clear the corresponding level;
as long as you at least collect it, it counts as having "reached the goal".
this is especially relevant for levels 13 and 15, which i cannot clear for the life of me.
add to that level 18, though thankfully that one doesn't have a collectible.

i can confirm it's at the very least possible to clear all the other levels, with my worst one being level 12 (which according to the game took me 120 retries). it's especially evil because the starting section is hard enough, but then you get to pick-a-path and if you die you have to redo the first section.
i can't even say this is the hardest level because at least i've cleared it, which can't be said for 13, 15 and 18.

i don't see anyone clearing every single level with 0 deaths anytime soon.
additionally, the number of deaths in every level seems to auto-reset when you refresh the page.
because there's no clear indication of a level being cleared, i'm going to assume the game does not save progress between sessions (rather than "auto-resetting" for whatever reason. same result), meaning you'd have to do everything in a single sitting

EDIT: ok level 18 specifically seems like a gimmick level, in the sense that you can just decide NOT to play it and it will send you to the next level instead. not sure if i like that idea but i'm not complaining about one less level to worry about. i guess 13 and 15 are the real rough ones.

while i'm still here, i would like to report a bug i guess? apparently in levels where there are moving red blocks (specifically ones that go off-screen), the blocks tend to "persist" if you die.
when you restart the level, you'll get the ones from the normal cycle, and an extra one from the previous cycle.
it's nothing game-breaking since it only happens on the first cycle every reset, so you can just wait it out, but i just wanted to mention it

EDIT 2: gave it another try. as usual, level knowledge makes all the difference.
i managed to clear every level with less than 20 deaths (with the exception of level 13, which took me 127 by itself).
might see myself coming back to this and giving it another try in the near future. i just need to figure out how to actually take that corner on level 13 properly (also 6 and 15. those are really rough)

EDIT 3: managed to clear every level with 0 deaths except level 13 (my current best is 113). guess i just gotta bash my head against it until i figure it out

EDIT 4: i figured it out.
for future reference, i took the short way (the one that doesn't pass through the green goal):
the only way to get a tight enough turn without sliding off into a lava wall is to go face-first into the short side of the rectangular solid wall and keep turning.
if done correctly, your car will get "stuck" close to the wall as you turn.
if you don't bump into anything you can still get past the corner but when making the U-turn your car will swing towards the lava wall on the bottom, so i don't see another way to make it besides this gimmick

HAGER-NG responds:

Hello, thanks for reviewing the game!
I can tell you and the players how to make it easier for yourself to complete!

The task execution process works almost the same as in SUPER MEAT BOY. When you start a level from the main menu, all the data of this level is reset (this will make it easier for you to
complete the game without damage).

I suggest you look at the levels in the menu more carefully (for example, at level 18 there is a hint on how to complete the level even more easily)!

[Can You Crack the Password?]

okay i'm just going to comment at this point because all the reviews with a 0 score are relatable, but none of them actually go into detail as to why, so i'll give my two cents.

for starters, the game itself gives literally 0 clues.
the only things you can try are:
- not inputting a password (says to provide one)
- inputting a wrong password (says the password's wrong)
- "i forgot my password" (you get laughed at)
none of which help you in any way.

it took the one person who somehow "solved" the "puzzle" to give some kind of process to actually get some hints, which required to "look at the submission tags" and follow the author comments explicitly telling the password is 8 uppercase characters.

to reiterate, NONE of these are in-game hints, so the game itself does not provide any way to solve the puzzle, at all.
also, the original "clues" were:
- "can you believe it", which is about as useful as any other simple phrase in the english language as a clue (that is, not at all).
- "what lies beneath", which redirects me to some horror movie or book series i've never heard of (neither of which were related to the password).

i'm prefacing with this because after the author went out of their way to update said tags, it took one single google search to find out the actual movie the NEW quote is from, which has nothing to do with the previous ones, in any way.

i haven't given much of a look at what's AFTER getting past the login screen (but from what i've seen it's probably going to stay just as unsolved as the original problem so i won't bother bashing my head against it), but i really wanted to explain just how aggravating the whole process was.

simply put, the game isn't hard, just badly designed.
it's a puzzle with no hints, so it's pretty much a brute-force check.
i'd say in its current state it's just as unsolvable as it was before, since the game itself has not been changed whatsoever (only the tags have)

p0tterindy responds:

two words

X

D

[Bug Ball 3D]

EDIT: i've figured out what was making the game completely unplayable on my side, so now i can run it "properly".
it still has some random hiccups every now and then (which does get annoying when it makes you miss important jumps), but i still managed to get S rank on all the courses.

the roll mechanic works fine, except the ball randomly decides to go sideways instead of straight.
i understand it's directional influence, but sometimes it still happens even when i literally don't press any direction.
it feels really bad when you're doing the same thing every time and getting different results (especially when it gets you killed).
jumping is also really finnicky, and dependent on running speed in an overly precise manner.

level 3 on hard is COMPLETELY RANDOM: you literally only have to run up and then time your jumps without pressing anything else; and yet it never works.
sometimes you jump and it speeds up, sometimes it slows down.
other times you straight up plummet to you death before reaching the next platform as if you didn't gain enough speed.
i swear the ball doesn't even land on the platforms proper, it just bounces off walls until it randomly decides it can't do that anymore.
all of these, from doing literally the same thing over and over.

i also have a personal grudge against hard 6. that whole level is just "do the thing in one go or die trying".
you need to go full speed, jump way before the end of the platform (otherwise you'll fall off the next platform), then hold full down and right to follow the path AND make sure you have enough speed to make the second jump.
once you're on the other side, if you stop you won't be able to get enough speed to cross the last gap, and if you miss the boost pad you also won't make it. it's really rough.

the hard course in general is really volatile because most jumps rely on you either keeping the ball perfectly straight through multiple curves, or very strict timings.
i was struggling to get under 3 minutes thinking it was barely possible, and then ended up getting much less than the required time for S rank simply because i got extra lucky and somehow only died once the whole time (don't even remember where. i was sure i died a lot but the endscreen says otherwise).

the pillbug movement is still the most annoying thing ever because you want to hold back out of panic but end up walking forward and falling into pits.
it's the game distinguishing feature so i wish it wasn't the worst part of the game.

EDIT 2:
someone asked, so i recorded myself getting S-rank on medium and hard
medium course: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YgRzhTsidCU
hard course: www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW77_LkaZKI

i wish it would have also recorded the stuttering i experienced while playing, but i suppose it doesn't show because the whole pc is affected, so the recording itself is no exception.
if i randomly stray off instead of going straight, i'm not doing it on purpose;
the ball seems to have a mind of its own sometimes so it's really difficult to keep it steady.

for level 5 on hard specifically: the door is supposed to open as soon as you get the key.
in my case it takes 2 or 3 laps before it opens because of lag, which messes with my jump timing a bit since i have to guess when the door will actually be open.
if sometimes i slow down before reaching a door (like for level 12 on medium), it's because i don't want to bash my head against a closed door that's supposed to be open and end up bouncing back into a pit.

StaggerNight responds:

Not sure why its chugging for you so much. There are downloadable options of the game if you want to keep playing it in steam and itch. Those are always gonna be more stable.

[patterns]

waltz 3 is absolutely insane and i have no idea how anyone thought it's even remotely reasonable.
i somehow managed to find a configuration that let me barely make it in time, but my fingers were moving faster than i could even register the pattern with my brain.
the only way to physically make that time is through muscle memory. it's that insane.
(for actual tips, i solved it by having the left two keys binded to Z and S. the idea is that you press them both as if it was a single button, with Z taking priority on the single press because it's closer. bind the right 2 to any other two keys, then you alternate between the two).

double tap is also BS for a different reason.
to register two individual key presses, you need to able to release the key before the target time. it's not about how fast you can press it twice, it's that you can't press it any faster than that. it's honestly sheer luck.
i didn't even realize i somehow managed to clear it and ended up doing another bunch of retries. after i gave up and took a break, i came back to the next level already unlocked.

the last pattern was pretty cool, because it's multiple different patterns, and they don't oeverstay their welcome by repeating a million times. wish the whole game was more of that and less waltz 3

[Gem Frenzy]

couple things about the game mechanics.
during the early game the rent feels like it ramps up way too fast (this is particularly noticeable while attempting the "against the system" achievement).
i understand it's balanced around upgrades, but unless you get really good upgrades early (sell for more, or shop open for longer) it's really dififcult to get the snowball going.

the real problem with the game imo is that there's way too much "dead time", where you're just moving around without it being helpful towards your goal:
you're already on a strict clock, and between having to run around to collect material, going back and forth making individual ingots, and to a minor extent having the furnace so far away from the counter (you always need to use the furnace so the extra travel time impacts the total customer patience meter), makes it so you feel like you never accomplish much in a day.

one mechanic that really needs an actual explanation is "mineral recycling profit";
i haven't pinpointed the exact specifics, but i get the gist of it:
if you collect every single material in excess, at the end of the day a certain amount of all your ores gets "sold" automatically, which nets you extra income before being cut down by the rent.
this ends up being relevant for the no-upgrades run (especially on day 6) where customers don't always show up and selling only gives you 1 coin per item, so you're better off just spending the whole day mining, and maybe sell something if there's remaining time and customers once you've cleared out everything.
do note that you need EVERY material in excess to benefit from this. if even one of them is at 0 or too low, you won't get anything from it, and on day 6 you unlock 2 new ores that are way deep below the surface, so you REALLY need to dig to make it past that day.

the only problem with this mechanic is that it forcibly removes ores from your total inventory, which means you can't just hoard ores for subsequent days (to minimize time spent mining to prioritize selling).
you can choose to only focus on collecting the ones you need so it won't trigger, but that means you get no bonus money from the recycling system.
still haven't been able to figure out what affects the "bonus profit" at the end of the day, even after fully clearing the game.

assuming you manage to get the snowball going, and buy out all upgrades, the only rng holding you back depends on which recipes you roll;
during endgame there's a total of 11 different ores (let's say 1 is coal, 11 is diamond. gold is 7).
the recipes are (ordered by increasing value? not sure about the last few):
- 1+2
- 2+3+4
- 5+6+7
- 3+8+9
- 4+7+10
- 6+8+10
- 2+8+11
assuming the first 2 recipes stop showing up during endgame (or aren't worth enough), you can see that 8 (blue gem) and 6,7,10 (ruby,gold,emerald) show up more than other ores.
the tricolor gem also uses three of those at the same time, which means they naturally end up depleting faster than other ores.

from my own experience, i could still replenish enough emeralds while collecting diamonds, although they're pretty deep.
the sapphire is used in 3 recipes so it needs to be replenished fairly often, but i had more trouble with ruby and gold because they show up around the same depth, so they contend space with each other (meaning you end up finding less per day than you would other ores, overall).
i ended up starting each day by clearing out the ruby/gold level right away, and then replenishing diamonds/sapphires while i'm not busy selling. just some food for thought in regards to balancing.

extra note: interacting with the counter, while holding an ingot, if no one's at the counter, throws the ingot away. not sure if it's intended, just putting it out there.

pabten responds:

HI thank you so much for taking your time for this review i hope you have enjoyed our game 😁

We did change the balance on early let me know if that helps to the snowball

Your balance anotations are really helpful we'll let you know if we change something about it
Thank you for your feedback!

[Diced Up!]

ok i have to make an updated review because finding out there's twice as many upgrades is like playing an entirely different game. that's how much of a difference it makes.
DISCLAIMER: i've only played easy mode (it's the easiest to grind for money and achievements), so it may not be entirely accurate on higher difficulties.

i honestly believe i wasn't the only one who didn't realize the other upgrades existed (except the one person who bought them all), and all the game needed was a couple UI arrows to show you can scroll the upgrade menu vertically.

---------------------------------
the biggest game-changer is the luck stat, which makes grinding for money sooo much less of a chore.
before, i needed to reach about floor 50 just to get a couple thousands coins;
i had to grind the game for hours to "max out" all stats that way (which turned out to be only half of them), which was an excruciatingly boring process.
with maxed out luck, i'm pretty convinced enemies drop coins 100% of the time (even if it's not stated anywhere), sometimes even 2, which means you can potentially earn anywhere between 5 and 100 times the amount of enemies you defeat in a run.

they also drop a lot more hearts (which are counted separately from coins; a single enemy will always drop a coin and ALSO have a chance to drop a heart at the same time).
not only does this make grinding upgrades more user friendly, but it also helps with reaching higher floors.
i basically had to force myself to die to end the run, so i'm sure if anyone cared for it they could reach a much higher floor than the current top score no problem.
haven't played any difficulty higher than easy, but i hope the heart drop rate is much lower on those, otherwise the entire difficulty curve goes out of the window because it's virtually impossible to die with max luck (at least on easy mode, up to floor 50).

i legit do not believe anyone has found the luck stat before, because with no other upgrade outside of luck (on easy mode), i got the invincible achievement by floor 25, and when i reached floor 50 (having defeated almost exactly 1000 enemies, just enough for the achievement), i easily had 200+ hearts and 10000+ money, in a single run.
the crazy thing here is that this was always possible (it's not like the latest update added the second layer of upgrades), as the only thing added was an easier way to show those upgrades existed in the first place.

---------------------------------
the sword is arguably the best weapon in the game when used correctly, especially on higher floors.
it doesn't attack far compared to actual "ranged" weapons, but it's AOE is big enough where you can hit multiple enemies at a time, even around wall corners.
to make up for its lack of range, it has the unique trait of being able to repel enemy projectiles.
this only happens when a bullet physically comes into contact with the actual slash animation, so it gets better with improved attack rate (which happens to be one of its upgrades).
its damage output is ok but it's irrelevant since you can also attack with reflected projectiles.

what's really notable about the sword is that when you get a high enough attack rate bonus, it effectively becomes an impenetrable barrier which makes you completely impervious to "direct" damage. any and all projectile will be reflected back, so you can just stand with your back to a wall and watch as the enemies helplessly shoot themselves to death.
its weakness is that it only reflects projectiles in front of you (your back is completely exposed), and rocket explosions will damage you all the same, so if one hits a wall close to you, or you reflect a rocket towards a close enemy, you'll still be caught in the explosion and take damage.

maxed out rifle is just a solid weapon overall; probably the best ranged weapon in the game, especially on easier difficulties.
it shoots a constant and fast stream of bullets, which is useful when you're trying to hide near a corner and you need to quickly dispatch a row of enemies on one of the sides.
it feels like it has the longest range of all weapons, so as long as you can clear out the area around you at the start of a floor, you can probably clear it without even seeing a single enemy.
its only drawback is that it has "weak" damage output, but with high enough fire rate it goes almost unnoticed (especially past floor 15 when you're guaranteed to get some kind of bonus to both damage and fire rate).

don't have much to say about the shotgun, which is unfortunate because i kind of liked it starting out.
on easy it already kills with no upgrades, and the upgrades simply increase its spread and number of bullets, so all it really improves on is the amount of enemies it can hit at once.
it pretty much fills the same niche as the rifle but with a lower fire rate, so it feels like a "worse" version of it.
after trying both the rifle and the shotgun on hard mode, to test whether the increased base damage of this one makes it better overall (due to facing tankier enemies), i can say that neither can oneshot them without at least some floor bonuses, so imo the rifle is still better (though i suppose it's down to personal preference).
only case where i prefer the shotgun over the rifle is on the early floors of insane (since there's no upgrades), where killing enemies earlier does make a difference.

i'm quite happy with the new and improved rocket launcher, since it's not only a liability anymore, and it actually has its own niche.
i always hated rolling it in the weapon rotation before the most recent change, because i had to constantly worry about not killing myself while using it, and increasing its explosion range only made that more likely.
it has a slow fire rate, it's hard to actually hit the bullet, and when it did the explosion didn't even deal enough damage to kill an enemy.

i still think it's likely the worst weapon out of the 4, but at max level the explosion range covers like half the screen (for reference, if you're behind a square barricade, you can shoot into it and the explosion will hit all the way to the opposite side of the wall), and it actually kills stuff too thanks to the damage upgrade.
moreover, i don't have to worry about dying from shooting myself anymore, if i suddenly switch to it while near a wall or enemy (thank you for that btw).
it's great at crowd control, provided you actually land the shot (you can now also aim at a nearby wall to make it easier, without being damaged for it).

i would also like to add that the enemy rocket launcher seems affected by the explosion range upgrade as well, unless it was just that large in the first place.
i'm saying this because i've seen entire clusters of enemies being hit by an enemy stray explosion in the crowd (or when they were nowhere close to the explosion), and i'm not sure if this is intended behavior or not.

[Gacha Panic]

not sure how that happened considering the changes don't mention anything about enemies, but something messed with the balancing somehow.
i think it has something to do with enemies not being able to be attacked off-screen.

the game tends to slowdown a lot whenever you're engaging in battle. previously it would be almost constantly in slowdown because gacha units would target an enemy and relentlessly attack it until it died (even offscreen), so it seems the idea of not allowing this was some kind of soft-fix for the lag issue.

however, most of your money intake ended up being from offscreen battles, because either enemies attacked less frequently when offscreen, or units would not get damaged, as you'd get streams of coins coming in from offscreen consistently, while your army stayed alive.
meanwhile now you can only battle on-screen, so you can only collect money if you're actively in battle (where you can see it).

the way coins get collected also seems to have been nerfed, as the ones that spawn on the opposite side of where you're standing won't get magneted towards you unless you walk towards them (effectively halving money gain from battles).
they also don't seem to be collected even if you're close, if they don't have "sight" on you (if they're around a corner and there's a building in the way).

blue lobsters also severely need nerfing, as they can decimate your entire army in seconds (even if your units bar goes offscreen) and more often than not even survive the whole assault before your entire army is destroyed. couple that with only half the money gained, and you pretty much can't even see the 100k rent anymore, much less overcome it.
just some food for thought

squidly responds:

I’m considering undoing the change. Yes it makes the game more stable but it also messes with the high scores. The other option is re-balancing and making a new high score table, but it might be too late for that?