qwerty741's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ms. Rainbow]

there's nothing wrong with the difficulty, the problem is how jank the controls are.

for starters, there should only be limited fixed jump heights. one short jump, one high jump, maybe a medium jump.
as it is now, there's too many different "jumps" that have no use besides getting yourself killed.

i hate it when i try to short jump onto a platform, but i didn't press the button "long enough" and i just faceplant into the wall. or i pressed it "too long" and i just barely jump past it (but it's not a long jump so i don't even get to the next platform).

there's also something about the timing of your jumps, where you either don't have enough time to jump on consecutive short jumps, or it doesn't register having landed on the ground, but sometimes the jump doesn't come out?

this is just a me problem, but i also feel like the characters runs just slightly too fast, and that also affects the time you have to perform jumps correctly

the wall-jumping mechanic introduced in the third level is really weird because there's only one fixed jump height for it (despite the many problems caused by having multiple heights on the normal jump).
this isn't especially relevant on later levels, where you can change the height of your double and triple jumps, but level 3 becomes one of the hardest levels because of this.

also not sure how it's actually supposed to behave, but it doesn't really work properly when trying to get the egg on that level, because you try to wall-jump to get out of the cave and it still sticks to the wall.
i have to mash at different intervals until it randomly decides to get me out of there, and hope i don't accidentally fall to my death when it actually starts running again.

on level 4, you need to pick the high path on the last few jumps, because your double jump doesn't come out on the last spike pit if you take the low road, at around 97% (turns out if you hit your head on a ceiling mid-jump, you lose your double jumps)

the hitboxes on the spikes are way too big.
one such example is that they can hit you from below.
this is especially relevant on level 5, since wall-jumping pushes you up a fair bit before leaving the wall, and most pillars in this level have a spike on top, forcing you to slide down a bunch first before being able to jump.
on 64%, theres a gap where you'd think you can just walk and fall to the next lower platform (like every other time), but the spike on the ceiling will hit you as you're falling if you're walking. you're forced to make a specific jump from the previous platform that crosses the gap without landing to make it through, even though it's at the same distance from the spike.

the way glide is introduced in level 7 is awful, because you're immediately thrown into a narrow spike tunnel, followed by circular saws. you have no idea how glide works, and by the time you think you have it figured out, it expires and you're either falling or flying, and you have no idea if it's due to the glide mechanics or not until you realize it's on a time limit.
also half of the "difficulty" introduced by gliding is just adding blind jumps that lead to immediate death unless you trigger glide at the right time, which isn't great imo.

the variation on level 8 is already much better, because you go straight, and you can decide when it ends. though for some reason it takes a lot more time to restart on level 8 previous levels, which is somewhat annoying.

also the egg on level 8 is impossible to get without the debug controls.
there's only one ledge you can wall-jump against to reach the left platform with the egg:
if you jump too early, you slide up and hit the bottom of the spikes (same bug as level 5).
if you jump too late, you hit the death plane at the bottom.
if you manage to jump in time, you still won't make it on the left ledge, because the first wall-jump has fixed height (which is too low), and the double jump doesn't come out. you'll end up clinging on the left wall.
from the left wall, if you hold the left arrow mid-jump you can wall jump up the left wall and make it onto the left ledge, otherwise it's impossible.

same for the level 9 egg. you can get there just fine, but once you've gotten it you can't wall-jump away from that position onless you're holding left while wall-jumping, for some reason.

EDIT: i didn't realize no one ever managed to get past level 9, but i can see why.
i happened to encounter a glitch at around 45% with the glide boxes, which somehow bounced me off the vertical wall and sent me flying upward, which allowed me to use arrow keys to scroll over the layout of the level. it's honestly evil, and i have no idea how it's even physically possible.
https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/22103d3f3f39f45ed15707ebe25e7bbb
it also awarded me the "level complete" medal once i reached 100, so i had to manually remove it because that's wack. best i could do legitimately was 51%

[Impossible Hardy]

the single spikes (the one on the floor and the one on the ceiling in the pattern with the gap) hitboxes are far too big on the right side, every single jump requires almost pixel perfect inputs (and by almost i mean like a few frames window) and your jump doesn't come out half the time after landing from mid-air (be it after jumping or falling from a ledge)
also sometimes when i jump it somehow jumps forward for some reason. not sure why

i feel like this isn't a case of the game being hard so much as "it requires inputs more demanding than what you can perform with the available controls".
the fact that i have to mash left click just to triple jump in time, and even that doesn't guarantee that my jump comes out, should be enough of a statement.

edit: after miserably dying on 19 at attempt 981 because my jump didn't come out, i've finally scored 20 on attempt 1127;
though in exchange both my eyesight and sanity have considerably worsened

[World chaser]

i came to this expecting nothing and found myself pleasantly surprised.
i really like the gimmick of the gameplay loop, and i feel if this got a proper overhaul the result would be pretty unique.

the game as it is in its current form is fairly unbalanced, as proven from the fact not a single person seems to have cleared it (going off of medals).

the main offender is probably the extremely low chance of actually landing into the final world, since it's only a 6%, and to even get there you have to go through literal hell itself at least once lol.
one solution would be to increase the chances of getting to circle 4 slightly every time you reach a circle 3 world.

the second problem is the high variance caused by the sheer randomized nature of the gameplay: there's no real difference between easy and hard mode, since all it boils down to is getting lucky by landing in good worlds, and especially not ending up in the 3rd circle 7 times in a row.

the controls are somewhat slippery, so it's real easy to just slam into enemies and take a bunch of damage; the fact you can bounce off walls if you walk into them is especially annoying.
ironically i found myself more comfortable moving with the actual slippery modifier than normal controls, and that's saying something.

the rate of fire is also a problem, as enemies spawn at a much higher rate than you can shoot any of them down. their hp also seems inconsistent, as sometimes i can defeat the same enemy in different amount of hits on the same level (regardless of world rules).
it ultimately boils down to how many screen wipes you manage to luck out in a row, but it would be nice if there was something like piercing already built in, like in the sniper level.

boosts stack, which does help if you somehow manage to survive long enough in a single run to get more than one of them, but the overall control of your character still ends up being somewhat poor.

i also learned that pressing R at any point resets all your progress (awards, worlds album) , so heads up on that.

t4upl responds:

Thanks for the comment. Glad you liked it.

[Obsolescence]

i like this but how does one get past level 9 is simply beyond me.
can't find a single reference online.

you are forced to destroy the laser spawners otherwise you'll have to deal with too many bullets on screen, and the worst part is that as soon as you trigger the things right behind them that shoot those massive bullets, super fast, at random, you're basically screwed.
i can deal with everything else except those.

i lose all 3 lives there way before i can get rid of even half the lasers, it's simply unfeasible for me.

[Pico's Ludo Vengeance]

thank you newgrounds player for bypassing the barn softlock.
now the game is playable again, and it's a damn good game at that

[360 Degrees]

to complete the "pump it up" objective, you need to interact with the waterwheels in the lower level of the map.
to activate them, you need to jump and manually perform a 360 board spin while in proximity of the waterwheel.
leaving this for future reference since i had to ask about it, as i couldn't figure it out on my own

[Code Box]

for the secret medal, go to the first level of the question mark door:

assign y=260 to a key (in this example we use the down key)
assign gravity and jump (y -=10) to the same key (in this example, the right key will be used)

hold right, and the cube should start to fall slowly.
when it's about halfway to hitting the floor, press down to teleport past the lava and to the door.
the down key only needs to be pressed once, the right key needs to be held down the entire time.

it's possible that using the left/right commands may prevent the medal from unlocking, so don't assign those as they're not needed anyway

[Antivirus]

somewhat of a video walkthrough: https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/e0014de4b1a9aa894d2cc198f8a5a4e3

sorry this was the best solution i could find to upload it, filedump doesn't allow direct video files

[Mechanical Commando 2]

tips for survival:
whoever recommended "repair droid ammunition and just dodge" clearly has not played survival.
there's so much lag on higher waves and enemies never seem to die so the entire screen is cluttered with bullets.
it's pretty much impossible to even try to dodge anything.

homing rocket launcher + energy cell + azote chilling system
is the way to go. just hold spacebar, keep your mouse in the middle of the screen then walk in circles. spray and pray.
you get way more mileage out of your hp by not being able to be hit most of the time, than trying to "dodge" anything past wave 20.

currently only missing the destroy 4 and 5 side missions, but honestly i got no clue what's required to get gold since not getting hit + being fast really doesn't seem the way to go tbh

edit: managed to beat destroy 4 with homing launcher+cluster+cooldown+spiderlegs.
i got hit a whole bunch so it's really not about hp, just destroy all buildings as fast as possible; though honestly i'm not sure "fast time" is the actual requirement either, maybe i just got lucky

edit: finally got destroy 5 with the same equipment as destroy 4. i'm level 32 and finished with 354 out of 360 hp, if that helps in any way.
the path i did was to shoot the 3 buildings right below your starting point, right to left, and then the extra building further left that's somewhat closer to the middle.
then i went straight down, walking into a tank and the spawn building that's right below it, and destroyed everything as fast as possible walking counter-clockwise around the map.
i have no clue about the specific requirement, but homing launcher + cluster means you're unlikely to get hit, so the difficult part is juggling your cooldowns.
use the cluster only to destroy tanks and the buildings that take 3 hits, or if it's full.
also make sure your shots connect with the buildings since most of the time they'll home into the nearest enemy instead.

[FLICKARIST]

update after bug fixes:

aside from a few softlocks with the tv, you can reach the dog and clear the base game normally, as intended.

you can actually get the hat, except reaching the end with the hat currently seems to always result in a black screen.

for the secret area, it's kind of all over the place.
the boss attacks seems somewhat inconsistent, and i can barely dodge them after practicing a somewhat working path for 30 minutes straight.
i managed to reach some kind of blue portal twice, except i got black screened both times so i'm not sure if it's the same as the hat ending, or there's actually more after that which i never reached.

the hidden platforms in the cliff on the left are actually an "invisible maze" except instead of walls if you pick wrong you die and have to do the whole platforming section for that screen all over again. i managed to reach some kind of alcove in the cliff at the lower middle of the screen, except i'm unsure if there's more because i didn't get black screened yet (so i have no idea if i reached the end) and i also don't know where else to go, since the right seems completely walled, and the left side where i came from is just more death planes both above and below.

might revisit it later down the line, but for now that's about as far as i'm willing to go