Rad's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Greater Fighter]

Glaring flaws. Why? Why?!

Greater Fighter is a game that looks like time and effort has been put into it, this is clear when you play and see all the art and music it flaunts, but there are many major problems in gameplay that completely ruin it for me.

For one, Leveling up is way too slow and the bonus experience you get for hitting objects rapidly without taking damage is unfairly weighted toward light, rapid characters, don't forget the bonus expires if you go 2.8 seconds without hitting anyhing as well. Sammy and Vanilla are both very maneuverable and can attack more than once per second so they have a much easier time leveling up than Lovett or any of the slower fighters you hire. This leads to one character (Sammy in my case) becoming way stronger than anyone else on my team and leading me to replay the first level over and over.

Speaking about power, why do I need to level up to stand a chance? I have 10000 dollars, why can't I just spend money on one of mu main fighters to make up for their terrible weaknesses? Why do I need to hire a different fighter that is either terribly slow or they cannot deal a decent amount of damage in a battle? The difference one level makes is ridiculous when my level 6 Sammy can completely win a battle by himself. While my level one Lovett can get in three battles not even get halfway to a level up, nor survive a hard fight because she is SO SLOW.

On character designs, I like them. You try to infuse personality and style into everyone, it's clear that they all have a combat type. Sammy, is balanced and thus does the best in a shoot'em up like this.

Vanilla is hindered in that he is fast, does little damage and has low health. WHY? I can understand that he is a speedy fighter, and cannot just march up to enemies and win singlehandedly, but he does so little damage that it is pointless and he only becomes a supportive fighter. If he had a smaller hitbox it would be a nice redeemer, or if he had a wider angle to attack rapidly with. but he can only move straight, shoot straight, has no chance against enemies that move to the side or behind and dies in a few hits, WOW.

Lovett is just horrible, she takes time to attack, so she will never level up as fast. She fires in a shotgun like burst, which is a nice design choice, it makes her feel different, but her "increased" damage is easily outdone by a leveled up Sammy. She moves terribly slow and has a pitiful amount of health. Why? What purpose does that serve? If she was a tank she would have much more health, and if she was a glass cannon she would be much faster. Lovett has no actual way to survive in combat since enemies have much more health and you will need to fight them for a few rounds to defeat them, unless you have a much higher level. So she attacks an enemy get in a few volleys of fire and dies in 2 hits. Amazing.

The mercenaries are even worse! Sure they can attack and move, but they take forever to level up, they have no special attacks or the ability to fuse in support. They often deal damage in an unconventional way or they do not deal enough of it, they feel like they are an unfinished part of the game, just added in to give more options, but they really fail to do anything except give you a larger presence on the battlefield.

The battles themselves are just awful. You move your fighters one or two squares, why so short? they need a much larger movement radius in order to capitalize on the idiotic rule system that turns normal battles into gimmick fests. The Silence status effect needs to be removed, absolutely. I do NOT want to sit there and try to evade bullet hell for a solid minute with no way to fight back. There is no reason for small mini enemies to float through one on one battles and spurt off bullets, so the slower characters have no chance to survive, even if you memorize bullet patterns.

I want to like this game, the idea is fabulous but you need to add a more versatile upgrade system and make it easier to evade bullets. There is no reason to have a tank character in a game about dodginf bullets!

Thanks for making this game.

[Toxie-Radd]

20 Waves? WHAT.

This was an okay game, the very beginnings difficulty threw me off but I beat it and then got the flamethrower, the only gun you need from that point on. It does damage through multiple foes like the armor piercer, it does extra burning damage if you get close enough, and you can embarrass bosses by just circling them and using the flamethrower point blank.

I didn't mind that, but what did get me was the waves. WHY did you feel like you needed to add 20 waves of zombies? I have every upgrade I need at this point, and now it just feels like grinding on that flash zombie MMO "Dead Frontier", considering they both sound the same, with the same dying and yelling sound effects and play almost alike.

But the waves... oh the waves, I'm 8 waves in, and I just don't know why you needed 20. This is getting repetitive, you could of stopped at 10 waves, but 20?

[NINJA Brawl]

Warble Castle Crashers Warble

I've never played Castle Crashers before, sadly I lack an Xbox360 and my friends lack Castle Crashers, but I find this game to be an actual PLEASURE to play. There are no outstanding flaws that ruin the gameplay for me, I played all the way up to the forest hideout rest stop, and still enjoyed myself.

I couldn't care if this was a tribute or not, it's just a fun game and I loved every second. The only thing that could be better is the animations in general, the characters seem a bit stiff to me, Running, jumping, attacking... they all seem like they were done with the character in that perfect upright position, and there wasn't much redrawing done, but that's just my thought.

Overall, loved the game, you're a credit to indie games.

SeethingSwarm responds:

Thanks a lot!
Yeah I'm not really a master at animation, hehe :)
I did my best to optimize the graphics for gameplay, but still tried to keep it as good-looking as I can.

[Super PSTW Action RPG]

Incredible.

This is very easily, one of the GREATEST RPGS I have ever had the honor of pressing space on.

[Run Elephant Run]

I loved it but...

Sorry if I'm being a wuss but I was playing it and I was thinking "Fuck yeah! Return of the elephant from achievement unlocked!" So I started and I was actually enjoying myself, until I randomly got hit by a mine left over from the limo on a white screen.

Then I got the record scratch and I just continued. Still absolutely killed the flow of the game, but who am I to complain, (HEY GIVE ME UNLIMITED LIFE OR REGENERATIN HEALTH HURRRRR)

Overall I had a fun time playing and I kept wishing at the end I'd get an achievement "You beat the game!" Just as a Easter egg to the other elephant game.

Oh well, keep rocking.

[Castle Crashing the Beard]

Greatest secret character ever.

Really, this game is Epic. The way everything is presented, it's just a fun one on one between you and Tom Fulps beard.

Thanks for spending your time to make this for us, and getting Tom Fulp to say Fabulous!

[Germ Hunter]

It's pretty good.

I kept getting a little miffed when my pill would just ram into things after clicking the go button, but overall it kept me entertained and it had a decent story.

Psycho responds:

Glad you liked it.

You can hold SHIFT to stop your ship from moving, and doing that when you're about to hit the GO button can be pretty useful.

[Tofu Turkey]

Trading hasn't been done for a while. Also CAMEO!

I like the concept, it's original! All the cameos were awesome, but cameo-ing me? Luff <3

It kept my attention, it was fun and there was a great music selection!
Happy Thanksgiving and Radical game!

LilDwarf responds:

Hehehe thank you for making that funny song...it fitted well on the credits :)

[Asteroids Revenge III]

Lots of Work and Luff a good game makes :3

Really when I started I like the way you ease us (the player) Into how the game and mechanics work, and It was fun and challenging.

Your story and starting cutscene was funny and made of win, really now how many time do you play AS the asteroid?

Anyway your upgrade system is cool and you really capture the whole "We are one, we are legion" way of the noble asteroid. Really when I got to the level with "The mine" and blew myself apart for my team I thought it was game over until I saw another ally of mine rise to leadership! (Great actionscript and great gameplay!)

My one gripe is when I got to the level before the last, I was PWNZORED by the boss, It was nice letting us continue but even then with half my powerups I had no chance... It was sad really...Someday I'll see one of the endings...someday...

Either Way GREAT game, Cool mid level pep-talks and an awesome story! I can't wait to see your next flash!!!

And it didn't lag either!

AdamSchroeder responds:

Nice review! Thank you very much!

The boss was hard to balance... if you come at him with an armada of allies you would complain about how easy he was to kill. If you try again, try to grab the ally powerups on those last few levels. It will make a big difference.

Yes, I did a lot of optimization in this game. It really shows on the free-for-all level (after the boss) where you can be fighting up to 100 ships at a time.

[Weltling 2: Regurgitated]

Brings back, disturbing memories

Ok I loved this game as a kid, but to be honest it freaked me out a little, when i saw this game was a remake I was like oh hell yeah! But then the trouble started...

I played story mode because I always wanted to see the ending, and for the first 1-3 levels I was crusing along kicking ass as usual, but then I encountered the spear-elephant like guys and the killed me 5 TIMES... 5 Flippin times! But still I gamed on because this game rules.

When I got to the dumpling Mama with only one extra life I fought it like hell! I knowed out both of its eyes and didn't get hit once, then I started hitting the body, when if freaking just blood-shit and killed me instantly, ok that sucked but I learned it spits blood from the holes so i move to my right and i'm nailing it, and then it moves over me and insta kills me with blood again!

So Why? why is the bosses blood move instant, with no warning whatsoever? it just instantly rapes you and you can't tell where it's coming from.

Other than that sweet game, i always loved the badland series.