Hoogiman's Reviews

[Barbershop Quartet...]

Meh

The one joke short always has the potential to be hit and miss and this definitely feels like a miss. Even though perhaps you're trying to be edgy or different by spelling out the entire contents of the short in the title, it basically ruins every element of surprise because 1. they're probably going to sing something sexist/awkward to the girl (OLOL) and 2. at the end, something CRAZILY unexpected will happen to them that's really dark and edgy!

And basically because the situation isn't anything particularly original and the outcome is so on par (repetitive) with everything else you make, this flash at no point becomes enjoyable.

I can say I enjoy your longer shorts more because there's more opportunity for you to 'build something up' as opposed to just throw in a (not very good) gag, plonk it out to the fanbase on Newgrounds and get heapsha visitors to your website!

I actually challenge you guys to make a short labelled 'man hits himself with stick and then passes out' which goes for six seconds, and exactly that happens, because a) anything you submit will get the unconditional appreciation of your fanbase, b) it will suck out another three awards for the week and c) you'll get heaps more visitors to your site! $$$!

Go back to making some decent-length scripts because I'm pretty sure you can make half of these shorts into comics anyway and animating a one-liner doesn't really enhance the joke.

Just make some longer, less superficial toons. Heck I actually enjoyed the book ad, which was obviously advertising to me but these ones just seem like cop outs.

You guys could very quickly turn into the new illwillpress and that is not a nice title to have. But then again you could just whip these out every day and cater to the fanbase to get lots of 5's for 'man hits himself with stick and passes out' and then moar hits to yoar website!1!1!1

[Fruit N' Veg Attack 2]

Strange

Good animation and good storytelling is gripping and captivating. This flash contained some of these elements. It certainly never got boring. The eery soundtrack, the creepy audio added to the visuals of the animation, if not stole the show.

However, the straight line drawing style of the flash never quite complements the chaotic nature of the flash. You could say it's a juxtaposition but it never really evokes an emotion with such plain visuals.

Bits of the animation look dopey like the flight of the flying thingies. Try easing your tweens in and out and experiment a bit. Try lip-syncing the evil sun thing.

The screenwriting doesn't get you a Pulitzer prize and it sounds like some guy on a meth-trip. And ultimately the nonsensical/hard to grasp story doesn't really have a lasting impression and the plain-looking, one-colour visuals never really give the viewer a sense of the depth on the landscape.

But thank you for submitting something different and submitting something unique to this site.

I am now going to have a dream about bananas.

[Tyler the Socialist Dog]

Fun Little Toon

Hi, that was a nice little short there. The graphics and animation seemed to have a lot of care put into it. I liked the drawing style, and everything blended well without the background drawing away too much from the action.

You tweened the repeated walking cycle, and sometimes it looked like the dog just glided, and sometimes it felt just a bit unnatural when the dog exited a room/through a door. Maybe we could've seen a bit of dog fear initially as he ran away as opposed to what seemed to be a straight face?

I liked the extras and you gave a good insight into the storyboarding/planning process that seems to be absent from my toons. There's a lot of heart in this, and that's what sets you apart as an animator and not just some copypasta sprite dweeb.

The plot seems slightly weird, and I think others might say the same thing as me. Although there's a clear storyline and it's just a short, the pacing of the plotseems a bit off balance.

We see the dog running for (what seems like) half the toon, but all of the action seems to take place too quickly... maybe there's not enough action. The scenes of dialogue feel a bit too brief in comparison to the length taken up by the journey of the dog. Maybe there isn't really a feeling that the themes of the cartoon have been explored enough. I'd just like to maybe explain this before a bunch of 1 line reviewers say 'but it's a bit weird'. or that's what i predict anyway.

The voice acting was quite good, but maybe it needs to be a bit more pronounced or animated or with more emotion or louder. This might be because the music and voice are at a similar register, and of course, the dialogue should be easily heard and understood.

Overall, an enjoyable short. that's my long-ass rambling.

[MTC: CyberSpace Assault!]

Enjoyable Game

This is a fun game and it's really enjoyable to play. I thought as first this game was too easy. With a bit of caution, brains and good reflexes, it doesn't take an enormous effort to get through this game. But I did go over some of the thingies at the start of the game again and it seems the swinging axes and the lava pits send you back pretty quickly. So good work on producing a very solid package.

Some good things about this:
-The control scheme. Very intuitive. The gravity and jumping was not bad, but there were one or two spots where you could do a double jump off a bump in the wall and clear an enemy.
-Sounds: good music, good voice acting, good sound effects, nice humorous dialogue.
-The level design wasn't too repetitive and it has a very nice classic platformer feel.

Some stuff that could be improved:
-The graphics were usually quite good but there were one or two points (the forest? the buildings?) where the graphics seemed a bit unfitting: dodgy thick lines or unstraight shapes/platforms. But they didn't influence the game's enjoyability of course, it's just that there's always room for improvement.

I did however, like the graphics of all of the characters and the weapon effects.

-The villains: The villains might have been a bit too easy to evade/kill. A lot of them needed only one hit really to kill. This is of course your choice though how hard the in-level enemies are. It does seem fair though with lack of save points after a certain point.

The bosses could've been more challenging.
The panda (was it a panda) in the beginning could be outranged by standing a long way away.
The helicopter boss has a clear spot on the right of the scientology building where you were sure to be safe, and all you had to do once you reached that point was jump straight up and shoot.

There was nice variance in attacks, and I liked the tank boss, but the last two bosses had clear spots where you could just rest and certainly not be hit.

I did however, find, the thingy surrounded by six clones by itself a bit harder. But once again you just had to time in a couple of stabs/super-hand things and then go out of the way.

Maybe a laser that tracks you and makes you move around the screen could make it a bit better. Making the player do more when he can't attack (instead of just sitting) might make it a bit more challenging.

One more thing is that the text for the dialogue seemed to be a bit unfitting or just a bit amateur-ish. Maybe a cool MGS-like display or something could give it a nice touch or even an avatar of the guy talking to you, but that's just me again.

And I really, really liked this. It certainly has areas to improve, but it shows with effort, determination and good planning, you can make a really enjoyable game. I'd take this any day over some flashy graphics with uninteresting gameplay.

Also, I died at the helicopter the first time and then came back to the page five minutes later (I wanted to finish the game) and I didn't get to pick up from my last save point. For future games do you want to program in some cache-data-y thingy?

Very fun.

TheCriminalDuder responds:

Great review - thanks a bunch.

A type of display for the begining lvl convos - MGS-like inspired would be neat.

I tried to keep the backgrounds of the lvls simple so it wouldn't get too big.
Huge sorry for any errors. The sloppy, dodgy, or dirty rugged lines or style of the art I do purposely. It' just my style and a good way to send a message that pretty ain't what we all think pretty is.

Thanks a lot again. I tried to make it solid - easy but challenging. I've fiddled with the difficulty of the final bosses an few times. I may fiddle more.

Very glad you enjoyed this game. And thanks for the final time for this wonderful review.

[Sixty Seconds to Live]

Good, Intriguing Game

I found this game quite addictive. I know this game was made under the time constraints of a competition, but to have great replay value after the first fifteen minutes or so I'd like to see such a game, but a bit longer. The countdown does make the click and point-style game more interesting, whilst some of the actions were slightly confusing before referring to the walkthrough. Still, a very solid and intriguing game.

CMU responds:

Thanks for the great feedback. I have another room-escape style game planned too. It'll be a while, but it'll be worth it (and prettier).

[Questions about God]

...

That typing race thing is so cool. :)

[Cookie Jar Gone Wrong]

i've had

'eric' stole the cookie from the cookie jar stuck in my head all day

damn you.
DAMN YOU

[_-={The Tanks Thunder}=-_]

Very good.

I used it in a submission. :D Not my sort of stuff, I thought around the beginning the melody wasn't going anywhere, but then it built up, and the result was a very good song. A very good song that can be used in a soundtrack, well done. :D

MaestroRage responds:

I saw the flash, it was quite amusing XD. I thank you for using the song, I didn't really make it with the intention of being used (as you mentioned, the intro, should it have been cut off, would make it a much more appealing flash song), but i'm glad you still found a use for it.

Thanks for the review, keep up the good work ^^.

[Severed a Jazilluper]

Good

Very good, I really like. Maybe you went a bit overboard with trills in some parts.

The only part I wasn't sure about was in the middle, where you stayed on the same chord, but there wasn't enough variety in the melody to make it interesting, I found it just a very little bit dull.

But, overall, a very good job, good work. :)