Score: 7

"Good Sequel and Beginning"

submission: Griswold the Goblin 2 CH1

date: January 13, 2009

I remember playing the previous Griswold the Goblin game and enjoying it immensely, so it's great to see the sequell hit the net. Especially seeing the bar being raised in a lot of areas since the first one. First of all, the art style used by Chris is excellent. The cartoony look is very crisps and clean and comes across as very professional, as does the incredibly smooth animation of Grisworld and the world he interacts with. Programming is practically flawless as well. At one point I did come across what I thought was a bug. While in the labyrinth I was walking right to the screen with the lumberjack, but ended up in the first screen of the Dark Passage. However this did not happen a second time I followed the path and the game carried on as normal. It was likely just a one off glitch and didn't affect the playthrough at all.

I would say that the story was far too simple and didn't seem to actually go anywhere, but as you've said yourself that this is only the first chapter to create the setting and the story will be fleshed out in later parts, which it does very well. It was nice to have a little bit of light humour throughout the game, which made it quite enjoyable to play through. Griswold's complete indifference to his world in particular is quite humourous. He sees someone get eaten by a giant flower, and where most would probably be shocked he instead sees an opportunity to get a free chicken. Also I don't know if it was intentional, but I did get a kick out of the fact that most of this game involved you searching for a rope to avoid having to just jump down the well, only to have you in the end fall down it anyway. A bit ironic don't you think?

The biggest problem with point and click games is finding that balance between puzzles that are actually doable but ones which are not overly easy and provide little to no challenge. GTG for the most part has this balance but does to jump either side of the line now and then with some really obscure solutions to certain puzzles, and I did end up having to use to walkthrough to solve some of them. (The one that stumped me was fishing for lava, which I'll admit is something that I never would've considered). Mind you after using the walkthrough I often felt like kicking myself for missing something which looking back seems completely obvious. Quite often on some of the least obvious puzzles there are subtle hints which direct you in the right direction, you just have to look for them. A number of people seem to be complaining about the inclusion of minigames and who they distract from the main quest the game centres around. I have to disagree and say that they add a nice bit of variation to the game, and are not exactly difficult to the point where they'd be 'distracting'.

The voice acting was also top notch right down from Josh Tomar's opening narration to each of the characters. In particular the Weeping Widow was quite impressive. The music score additionally was perfect for the game, never getting too annoying or distraction as many in-game loops do. All in all this is a fun game, a great sequel and a good set up for the rest of the chapters to come. I'll be looking forward to the future releases. Though looking back I do have to wonder, where does Griswold lives in a cave, so where exactly is he plugging his TV into? Guess that's fantasy for you.

Score: 7

"Good Scary Fun"

submission: Ghostscape

date: October 29, 2008

Point and click games are a dime a dozen, so it's always good to see one made with a very effective concept with just as much fun and style.

First of all, the graphics and art used in the game are very good. The house actually did look like a dilapidated old building with something to hide. The gameplay was also incredibly smooth and straightforward, never presenting a too serious obstacle to distract from gameplay. I did enjoy the concept of searching through a haunted house, photographing elements of paranormal activity. Many a time I would be focussing at something else, then quickly grabbing for the camera as I noticed a chair moving in the corner. The rate at which some objects move could have been slightly increased or better hinted at. I did find myself a number of times staring at a cup waiting for it to move, deciding it wasn't going to and then turn away only to have it slide down the table, just missing it. But then again you don't want to make the game too easy.

One inconsistency I did come across while playing was that I never visited the attic until the very end, yet your character comments on how every candle he finds will be useful for the pentagram. If he's never seen it, he shouldn't know it exists. But it's only a small error.

The backstory to the house was told effectively through the diary pages and newspaper article and while pretty typical, suited the game well enough. However, I felt that it could have had far more depth. During your search you could have ended up actually investigating the murders that took place yourself and possibly using the scattered occult objects to confront the angry spirits which haunt the house. In the end I'm still not sure what their purpose was, apart from pretty scavenger hunt items. There could have been a lot more detail.

Something which I think could be improved on which would greatly improve how the game was played would be to really emphasise the appearance of ghosts. With the exception of the one which jumps out of a closet, the rest really weren't that scary. I ended up reacting more like a tourist, "Oooh there's one! Quick take a picture!", than getting frightened. To really add to the scare effect, when a ghost appears (Or is about to appear) the addition of flickering lights, sudden darkness, an increase in the volume of ambient sounds or the like would really grab the player's attention as they stop doing everything to look for the specific spook. The Exmortis series by Ben Leffler in particular does this sort of thing very well.

This is a very solid game, which plays well and looks excellent. There are only a few areas which I think could be improved on and developed out which would make this a genuinely scary game and a solid contender against other horror titles.

Tip: For those who cannot open the cases scattered throughout the game, there is a scrap of paper in the right bedroom which translates symbols into numbers. Near each case there should be a corresponding 4-symbol code which will open it after translation.

Score: 8

"Where to Begin?"

submission: Fallen Angel Ep. 1 (Pt3)

date: October 26, 2008

After the release of what was one of the biggest teasers back in 2004, it's great to finally see the first episode finally surface after over four years of work and all the hard work, set-backs and re-writes that went into it.

To start with what is obviously Fallen Angels strongest point, the artwork is flat out amazing. The backgrounds are nothing short of spectacular, and you've really created a realistic looking world. The integration of 3D elements mixed with 2D animation is seamless and incredibly well done. The level of detail that is put into the environments is simply amazing, really only rivalled by Adam Phillip's Brackenwood animations. Specifically, I have to say that the scenes where New York and Washington were destroyed are outstanding. The explosions and the destruction of the cities were drawn and implemented incredibly realistically. The architecture behaved as architecture would, and the level of realism and plausibility that these scenes emulate I think really defines the level that this series is on.

It is interesting that the art style has changed between the release of the Teaser and the first episode, and I've noticed a lot of other people are commenting on it as well. The original anime-inspired style has been dropped for a more realistic western comic book feel, which I think was a good design choice given the serious nature of the animation. It made it seem less action-cartoon if that makes sense. It does make Serra appear slightly less feminine, but that's only down to a personal design preference and both do the job perfectly well. I think what most people are thrown by is not that it's any worse or better drawn, but that the design is just different from four years ago. What did bug me though is that Serra's animation is a bit inconsistent throughout the episode. In the occasional scene (For example, entering the shop in Part 1) the animation is a bit choppy and stands out against the rest of the episode, but it's really only a minor aspect.

What did disappoint me, and what I believe was the weakest aspect of this three-parter, was that very little of the story was revealed. You could understand from the teaser that we were obviously going to be dealing with some form of post-apocalyptic dystopian world, but we only got a small amount of backstory as to how this world came to be. No characters were explored, and only one was introduced. It is important in every story for the audience to be able to sympathise with the protagonist, but Serra could really just be another civilian. We know she is the main character, but we don't know anything about her, what here plans are, and why she's incredibly proficient in using firearms (As seen in the teaser). Episode 1 may have served as a setting for the rest of the series, but I hope you use more character development in later instalments, because the setting won't be able to carry the story on its own.

The use of sound effects and music is also very well done. It really creates an eerie feel as radio stations fail and cell coverage stops, as all technology is rendered useless in only a few minutes. It must have taken a long time to edit the sound to perfection. The voice acting was a bit inconsistent. The majority of Serra's dialogue was far too quiet and sounded distorted and distant, as if one too many background noise removals had been used, which gave the dialogue that metallic twang. It is only a technical issue, and re-recording with a better mic would easily fix it. The rest of the voice acting throughout the three parts was perfectly fine.

Overall this is a very solid first episode. Incredibly well drawn and animated with only a few minor details which don't derail the viewing experience as a whole much at all. You've created something you can be very proud of and the hard work of those four years really shows. My only hope is that this series can live up to the enormous potential it has and is really fleshed out in terms of story and character in upcoming instalments. I wish you all the best.

Score: 10

"Time to F@$% Off to Space Now"

submission: Mastermind: WC

date: October 5, 2008

I've lost track of how many months this was stuck in the pipeline and it's great to see it's finally been dislodged and let out into the sunlight. I honestly can't remember the last time I had this much fun playing a flash game.

The animation and graphics are impressive and smooth as ever. It's always amazing to look back on the early Blockhead cartoons and see how much you've improved over the years, and once again you've set yourself another bar. The individual character models of all the minions and henchmen were also unique to each character and I got a couple of laughs out of some of them. The amount of individual animated scenes for all the missions and sanctum meetings is actually quite staggering, and had more than enough variance between them and witty dialogue to stop them from becoming boring. I can only imagine how long it took to put them all together.

The gameplay itself was intuitive, simple and highly effective. Once you got the hang of it and remembered where everything was it was a very straightforward process to plot and execute missions. What I found most impressive was how everything blended together uniquely to create an individual gaming experience. If you set out to sabotage, assassinate and steal everything and everyone you're notoriety goes through the roof and you'll be spending most of your time defending your base, but if you focus on propaganda and hire the right henchmen to do the right jobs you can fly under the radar as long as you can. My own funny experience was that I'd forgotten that you had to evacuate your base in order to travel to a new one so I spent a good 70% of the game slumming it out in Philadelphia wondering why I wasn't getting the benefits of my skyscraper.

The music fitted perfectly and as always was composed by you. You're basically a jack-of-all-trades aren't you? I'll be expecting you to be building your own computer from wood and making your own software from old solitaire programs in the future.

A huge congratulations goes to the voice actors who all took part in the game. The voices all excellent quality and well acted and each added a uniqueness to the characters. Special mention definitely goes to Tomamoto's Tutorial Minion #7 which made some aspects of the game which could have been quite tedious perfectly enjoyable.

One feature which I think would have made the game better would have been the ability to group together minions or order them to move to separate areas individually. Quote often I'd end up having all of my minions chase after a single fleeing soldier while my base was being attacked on the other side by five tanks. While it never really posed a problem, even simple orders like 'Move Here' or 'Hold Position Here' would have been helpful. On the other hand, it also might have made it too easy, so it's on a coin toss really.

Overall you've made a flash gem here, one that was definitely worth all the time and effort it took. A great blend of seriousness and Swain humour, with intuitive and fun gameplay with huge amount of replay value. You should be proud Mike, be very proud.

Spoiler Tip: A good way to set yourself for a decisive and easy win is to start off focussing on building your economy. You can't take on missions without income, so make sure you have a steady natural cash flow from investments and always have at least one patsy who can almost guarantee successes of cash raids. Otherwise you'll find yourself at points unable to fund new missions and unable to afford minions and defensive structures when you get attack, and after that it's just downhill.

Score: 9

"Don't Go In!"

submission: Jerry and The Closet

date: October 5, 2008

Well let's see. A Stephen King novel, an over-embellished closet of scary mystery on the far side of an empty room, death, no night-light, darkness, a locked door from the outside and a door that's obviously having some kind of draft issue....

Nah, I don't think there's anything there that would scare a five year old, they'd be set for a good night's sleep. A very nice, well not nice in the lovey-dovey sense but you get what I mean, animation, again fitted with the dark humour you do so well. Excellent job.

Oh and by the way, that final line was priceless. Great timing. Poor Jerry.

Score: 7

"Entertaining With a Lot of Potential"

submission: Straw Hat Samurai

date: October 5, 2008

I expected this to basically be a generic side scrolling swordplay game. Which, for the most part, it is. But in it's defence it is one with a huge amount of style.

First of all the graphics in Straw Hat Samurai are simple, but effective and animate together very smoothly. It would have been nice to see some variations on the different enemies other than just green man with sword, bow, shield or spear. Even making the enemies more personable and less generic would have probably been enough, and that only requires adding a beard to a character model or changing a shirt colour.

I'm undecided on the lack of sound in the game being a good or bad choice. As mentioned in some other reviews, there seems to be a want for sounds of battle. While I can see where this is coming from, with the number of enemies I sometimes had on the screen at some points, I can only wonder if this would have made the game far too chaotic. Battle cries for the enemies would have been a welcome addition however, rather than a mute horde. As for the in-game soundtrack, the chosen music fitted perfectly, but a change in the song every now and then would have also been welcome. Even id only on particular levels.

The gameplay itself is incredibly simple and incredibly effective. The click and drag sword swipe method is intuitive and works well. But I found there was a lack of variation in what you were actually able to do under the surface. While it was obvious you were attacking with a sword, there was no real difference in how you could kill an enemy soldier. You either ran them through or managed to cut off their head. Additional animations cutting off different limbs, or even having injured enemies carrying on fighting or trying to retreat would have really added to the combat. The bow itself was not all that useful to use outside of levels where you were required to shoot enemies from afar.

As with all sidescrollers it runs the risk of becoming repetitive as you face off against the same moronic enemy over and over, but most of the time SHS avoids this by including occasional variations of battle elements such as the catapult and watchtower sequences. While they didn't drastically change the game, they added enough variation to stop the battles becoming overly tedious. In particular I was intrigued when the game shifted from sidescrolling fights to strategic troop placing. It was a nice shift in gameplay style and a welcome one at that point, but also ended up being the low point in the game for me. Your own troops just don't seem to be very effective at all against the enemy's superior numbers and advances. If you push forward your numbers dwindle and the enemy troops just clean you up on all sides, but if you hold your own to make a slow push forward the enemy's numbers grow to high for you to make a meaningful attack when you do. In the end my own army was destroyed completely leaving me trapped in a corner to slog it out on my own. It's only afterwards I realised that you were never intended to be able to defeat the opposing army, but more create a path to make your slog to the tent easier, so it was likely my own fault and suffering from a case of bravado I chose to try and take on an army which outnumbered my own ten-to-one.

The only real gripe is that there is no form of a save feature. This would have been especially handy in the situation I've already mentioned as I could have reverted before I went on a suicide mission, and I don't really want to play from the beginning just to risk loosing it all in the same place again.

All in all, Straw Hat Samurai has a lot of flair and is fun to play, and the fact the entire game is only 700KB is nothing short of impressive considering the content. I only suffered the occasional slowdown on a couple of levels, but that would be because I played it on a computer which has more worth as an expensive paperweight. Adding a save feature for the player would round the entire game off and is the game's only real flaw. Good luck for the Golden Joystick Awards, this should be a decent competitor.

Score: 10

"Sets a Bar"

submission: "A Slice of the Action"

date: October 4, 2008

I had a friend mention this to me, and I honestly had no idea what to expect, but lets say it far exceeded any expectations I may have had.

The art and animation here is utterly superb, and a cut above a lot of other really popular artists on the site. The style of the art is nice and simple as well, making it easier to watch instead of being too polished and visually intensive. I can imagine it would have taken a while to animate all the frame-by-frame movements, and it really shows in Michael's constant actions to his words.The voice acting of Michael was completely spot on as well and fitted the character perfectly.

Even the story, simple as it was, was enjoyable and had a completely unexpected twist at the end. I'm not sure what Michael was hoping to achieve with that plan, but if the Thimples didn't like too much before then, I'm fairly confident they'd flat out hate him now.

Score: 6

"I Don't Know..."

submission: The Sicksons

date: July 31, 2008

I don't know why I found it so funny, but I did. Sod the technical points, I had a good laugh out of it. Nice job.

Score: 7

"Brilliant"

submission: FF6 Opera-Pella Fun

date: July 29, 2008

Haha. In all it's simplicity I really enjoyed this. I have to applaud you on the originality and hilarious facial expressions. Top job on the lip sync, it fitted really well.
I'm really curious now to know if you recorded this all in one take.

Score: 9

"It Took A While..."

submission: There She Is!! step3

date: June 7, 2008

Yes, it took a while. But Boy was it worth it.

Each step of the 'There She Is' series has show some amazing animation and art style, and your improvement over the years. Step 3, I'm happy to say was no exception. What I like most about the TSI series is the wonderful charm each episode has. Every time it brings a smile to my face, so good job.

And for those of you who haven't found it. On the title screen there is an Raster Egg if you click on the rightmost cloud, near the top right hand corner. You get to view an alternate opening.