Sheizenhammer's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Cosmic Crush 2]

Second time lucky.

Just as good as the first one, only this time it works much better thanks to not getting stuck on things that just clump together and eat you alive.

However, there is one annoyance left in it: the moons can't tell the difference between stuff that's not a danger to you and things that are. It makes absorbing smaller objects irritatingly difficult when you've got a moon on just about every possible area of the planet / sun / galaxy / whatever. Half the time, even with just one or two moons, you have to be really careful about how you approach edible stuff, else all that happens is you end up losing a few moons and obliterating the object that could've benefitted you had you not been surrounded with moons.

The obvious solution to the above would be to program the moons to only hit stuff that would otherwise harm you, and ignore things smaller than the main rock.

There's also the issue of replay value; there isn't very much at all here. Although it is a lot of fun the first time round, there's not many reasons to want to do it again (unless you just really love absorbing stuff). Why you took out the survival mode from the last one, I've no idea (unless it was hopelessly bugged or something).

This file is less than 1/5 of the maximum upload limit to Newgrounds, so there's a lot of free space for you to experiment with new modes / objects / stages / etc. This is a good start, and all it would take to make this potential top 50 material is a healthy dose of creativity.

Keep at it! This is gonna go somewhere good, if given enough time and effort.

Bi-Polar-Bear responds:

i didnt take the survival mode out, i took the level mode out, its only a survival game now, you can submit your score at the end.

[Particle Playground]

The ultimate time-waster.

This is an amasing little gadget to play with. You can play with it for hours on end and never really tire of it, thanks to the limitless nature of the simple-yet-effective physics of it.

I would've liked more options with the 'force' points, though. Right now, you can set them to either attract or repel particles, and nothing else. Having other functions (like speeding up or slowing down the particles, or just changing their direction) would offer more possibilities and make picture creations easier to do. Having more than 4 'points' would also be good, provided it doesn't slow the program down too much.

I remember a fash entitled 'Newgrounds Chat 09' having some kind of audio portal jukebox thing in it, that enabled you to listen to random songs as you chatted with other NGers. Having something similar on this would be simply awesome. Think about it: listen to random songs while making random pictures. The fun really WOULD be endless!

However, this amount of fun is very good anyway, so I can't really complain here. 5'd and favourited. :)

[Being a Helpful NG'er]

Extremely useful.

While this is a great way to encourage people to take part in NG more, there are a couple things it could do with:

Firstly, it could've done with mentioning the Google advanced trick when the search bar doesn't work. For those that don't know what I'm on about: go to Google, and hit the 'advanced search' option. At the bottom there's a 'search within site or domain' box. Type/paste "http://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/" into that box (minus the " " symbols), and then enter your keywords into the top search box.
This is good for finding things that can't be found by the search bar, or things that are buried in hundreds of pages of results.

Also: you're right, it is a bit text heavy. Considering most of the text-walls are copied from their relevant places on NG, a simple summary would've sufficed here (and if people would want to know more, the links to the full explanations are right there).

All that said, it remains a very good flash. I wouldn't have found half of the stuff it pointed me to on my own.

RohantheBarbarian responds:

Thanks for the great review!

[Portal Defenders]

So close to being perfect.....

..... And yet, so far from it.

I can see that a LOT of talent and effort went into this flash, and I absolutely love the concept of whacking the shit out of all those NG familiar faces. However, that just makes it all the more of a shame to say it has a few flaws in its design.

Ironically, it could've done with a 'Defend' button. While I like not having to learn 20 different keys for the sake of a 5-minute game, this time, one extra button would've been a good idea, especially since dodging multiple enemies is almost impossible (and more down to chance than skill) with the limited controls available here.
Also, bombs seemed to be inaccurate to the point of useless to me. Giving them an area-effect would have been better (so you don't end up using 3 of them just to hit one enemy).
Lastly, guts appear to do precious little to your health bar. Given how often they spawn, I don't think making them give more health when eaten would make the game too easy, but more enjoyable for those who think it's 'too hard'.

So yeah. It's a great game on many levels, but it's not perfect on all of them.

[FWG Evolution]

Most fun I've had all week.

This is great. One or two 'bugs' though:

Sometimes, the bugs get stuck on things (toys in particular). The first thing you know about it is when they starve to death through not being able to get anywhere.

Secondly, it could do with slightly clearer explanations for how you train them for increased stats and such.

Overall, great game. And for the people hating on it because of the music: JUST TURN IT OFF! The option to turn off the music is right there in the menu. You don't HAVE to listen to it if you don't want to.

[Abusive Review Guide 2]

why isn't this in the FAQ page somewhere?

overall, this is brilliant. there are one or two things i should point out though:

apparently, review mods actually have three options open to them when they get something brought to their attention. two of these were mentioned in the flash (deleting the review/flash and dishing out positive w.p, or clearing the review/flash, with negative w.p going to those who flagged it). according to a couple of mods, there is the option to clear a flash of flags without giving those who flagged it negative whistle points. apparently, this option is used when they get something that falls into a 'grey area' (like that "this flash is gay" review you mentioned, for example), where something doesn't technically break the rules, but any mod who sees it can certainly see the reason behind why it was flagged.
however, flagging borderline stuff like that will at best get you nothing (and may stuff your whistle; every mod is different, so each would likely have a slightly different opinion on where the line should be drawn here). i just wanted to mention it for people who watch this and think: "oh shit, i flagged something that didn't break the rules, even though it looked like it did!" that doesn't necessarily mean they/you WILL get bad w.p for it.

secondly (on a much shorter note): Rage's thread has now been locked due to prolonged misuse. people were automatically flagging stuff linked to in that thread, without actually thinking about what they were doing.

RohantheBarbarian responds:

Those are fair points, however the point I was trying to make was that if you flag stuff on the borderline you are taking a huge risk, so it's not really worth it.

As for Rage's I'm aware that it has been locked but I no longer have the .fla for this or my other flashes so I can't change it. No reason that you can't continue to flag things anyway.

Thanks for the review.