qwerty741's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tankmas ADVENTure 2024]

now that gachapons are a thing, in hindsight, i could have seen a mechanic where you could get coins for playing minigames at the arcade, and you get stickers out of the gachapon machine.
though that assumes the minigames are in a playable state that doesn't murder your pc (though it sounds like that's a me problem).
it's been a long month but can't wait to see how it all ends.

EDIT: for some reason the cinema isn't showing any of the movies anymore? it's just a black screen for me (though it still lags just the same as before when you get close to the screen lol)

squidly responds:

I wanted to put collectible coins around the map sooooo bad

[Touhou Fake Invitation]

i'm not complaining because it's still possible thanks to infinite continues, but i feel like pacifist mode is the perfect example of a challenge that isn't fun.

i'm not good at bullet hells by any stretch of the imagination, but i did manage to beat the main game with every character without continues (with a lot of bombs lol).
i completely forgot continue was a mechanic until i tried pacifist, and then i had to use 4 of them, and half of them on the last stage alone because the last few kirky spells are just "random bullshit go!" lmao. definitely not the way games like these are intended to be played, for sure.

also i swear at some point it said somewhere that pacifist was supposed to have spells last half as long specifically to balance out not being able to shoot or bomb, but i guess i must have imagined it because i can't find it stated anywhere;
also the whole time a spell was going on i couldn't stop thinking "when is this going to end?!?", so they definitely aren't.

i really like the idea behind the 10 challenges even though i'm extremely bad at those. i'm especially terrible at ones where bullets seem to have a mind of their own even though they have a proper trajectory (it's just hard to visualize), like challenge 2.
i'm currently missing challenges 2, 5 and 10, so i'm halfway there but honestly idk.
so far it felt like it's 40% dodging, 40% get an easy pattern (because somehow, they aren't consistent), 20% actually get lucky and not die from bullets you have no business having dodged.

only complaint is the game takes an ungodly amount of time to load, every time.
btw, how are the stars in the top right accounted for? like, how many are there for how much progress? i currently have 2

EDIT: my bad, i've been using terms improperly. when i said "last spellcard" i meant specifically "scars of war" (and to an extent non-spell 4, and falling sky).
i'm really bad at that, and that's the last one you HAVE to dodge that isn't just for extra points.

as for the halved timer for pacifist mode, i was looking for it in-game when i wrote that, so i guess i read about it in the description and then simply forgot;
though if halving them means "bringing them closer to the time in the main game", then i'm not sure how they're halved. wouldn't they have be halved compared to their appearence in the main game mode?

i really like this game, and it's unforunate that i can't explain exactly what makes it good compared to other similar concepts. it just is
-------------------------------------------------------
EDIT: progress report: finally beaten challenge 10, though it's pretty much up to luck.
the bottom line is, it's possible to dodge the main pattern, and if you know what you're doing it's actually way more forgiving than most other challenges.
unfortunately, there is simply no way to predict how the randomly spinning bullets that remain on screen will move, so the strat is literally to ignore them and accept that you either dodge the main pattern and win, or die trying because you accidentally hit one.

as for challenges 2 and 5, idk if i can beat them.
challenge 2 is too random to form any kind of plan, and challenge 5 is way too dense.
it's like falling sky on crack, and i'm already bad at that one; best i've done so far is reach the 19-ish timer mark, and i've seen that exactly at that point it gets like 3 times worse, somehow.
legit wondering if it's even possible

EDIT: i somehow beat challenge 5.
turns out the gimmick of the last 20 seconds is, it looks scary but the gap doesn't move so if you land it correctly you win; though the hard part is surviving up until that point and actually finding the gap.
i guess now it's time to bash my head against challenge 2 and get lucky

EDIT: i did it! 3-stars achieved.
i had so many retries at challenge 2, it says i've played reimu more than all the other characters combined lol

VGE-SV responds:

I mentioned that the time of spells is halfed at the description of the game at "Author Comments". It does actually half the time of every spell and non-spell, bringing the time you have to survive closer to that of playing the main game mode. However, Kirky's last attack doesn't count as a spellcard. It is a challenge that gives you bonus score depending on how many times you get hit before the time ends. The attack changes as the time passes so I can't half that.

As for the stars,

★ = Have beathen the main game
★ ★ = Have beathen the main game and the extra stage
★ ★ ★ = Have beathen the main game, the extra stage and unlocked all the achievements

If you have 3stars you can say you have completed everything in the game.

[Topeka Drift]

i really like the concept, and it's pretty fun to play;
though it could really use a proper save system because, while the grinding is not that tedious, the game is prone to freezing whenever something happens at the same time as you interact with a passenger (either picking them up, or dropping them off).
usually involves crashing into something (i had one happen as i was picking up a passenger and crashing into a vehicle, and another when crashing into the road after flying with boost into it, while dropping a passenger at the same time thanks to NoSlow)

the various upgrades are fun but i think some of them could be streamlined.
there's no reason to have vacuum, evil and noslow tied to a button.
having a lot of buttons to juggle with can be cumbersome; sometimes less is more.
i also have some doubts about every single upgrade giving you a visual overhaul: normally that's a good thing but with so many of them at once it just gets silly. would be nice if there was at least an option to turn them off (visually only. keep the upgrades).

there's no reason why you wouldn't want evil to be on at all times (since it only works on living things specifically; you still lose money yourself if you actually crash into something).
noslow is also a really good contender to be always on, since dropping off passengers immediately saves you a lot of money that would be lost wasting time trying to stop (i can see it being annoying if always on for the picking-up part of the minigame, but if it worked permanently only for drop-off that would be good).

when you have max boost (and maybe max glide?) enabled, if you touch the ground while coming down from flying, you'll "bounce off the road", and be immediately turned around from the direction you were facing before.
gets fairly annoying because max boost is already hard to control, so this makes it even more difficult to work with since half the time you can't land properly when it's enabled.

nothing much else to add tbh. the game's solid.
i had a minor gripe with how passengers' fares are calculated seemingly based on "direct distance from goal" (sometimes you have to do a massive roundabout trip to stay on road while the fare is real low due to being close to the starting point) but i assume that's because you can always fly directly to any target once you get the right upgrades.

good game

EDIT: found the ending that gives you permanent evil mode (allegedly) so that's fun. unfortunately as soon as you get the ending you're thrown spinning off the map and reset doesn't work.
so it works as a finite ending, but you don't get to keep the unlock because it's a softlock and there's no save data system

bokononyossarian responds:

While we work on the softlocks/weird crash we have added a new save system. Your upgrades should now carry over between sessions.

[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.

someone asked, so i recorded myself getting S-rank on medium and hard:
https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/2a795b1cc113231ee900889f5715167e
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.

[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!