slw-dsk's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dodgeball]

The ui at the top is a good way to track play progress. By playing I find out the ui indicates dodge score & chances to get hit by a ball.

The movement to jump over a ball was good enough.

I found the balls appearing on screen at a good pace, allowing time to anticipate the next lot of balls. The alternation of balls from left/right is neat. The variation of distance between the balls on screen at the same time was good. The variation of ball speed was good also, except when balls would meet close in the center, seemed inconsistent and messy. It would be better for balls to spawn in patterns which would gradually increase in difficulty.

It is good to get back into a new round of playing after losing, but I would prefer the game stop playing after losing so balls weren't moving constantly.

[SHOOT STUFF!!!!!]

Bullets don't contrast well against the background. As aiming is not easy, I would aim then spam shoot to ensure a bullet hits.

Player movement & turing is good enough to get away from ships quickly, but weaving between them usually results in taking damage. Turning while stationary sometimes has different speeds which was odd. After leading multiple ships, then shooting in a narrow range while stationary can cut down ships quickly in relief.

Escaping can turn into searching for power ups, but as the area becomes busy that usually results in taking damage to collect them.

Ship spawn frequency is high enough that it is better to escape an area than to shoot them all. Some ships spawn too close to the player, giving little time to react. It would be better if there were a larger limit to how close a ship can spawn to the player.
Power up spawn infrequency and sparsity is good as it seems like a decent challenge to collect them while avoiding ships.

It was good to know how much HP was reamining after gradually taking damage. When taking lots of damage back to back it can be confusing to keep track of how much HP was lost. I think I would be more aware of my mistakes if the HP would flash or grow to indicate the instant of lost HP. I thought the HP balancing was decent, by losing 1/2 HP from damage & gaining 1 HP from a power up.

The shake effect on damaged player is nice, but difficult to see when moving. I would have liked the effect to be more intense. The shrink effect on particle from defeated ship is good to indicate a successful shot, which can also notify the user to handle the next ship. I would have liked to see a particle from defeated player. The pulse effect on power ups is good to indicate a point of interest. I thought the variation of animate effects from shaking player, shrinking particles & pulsing power ups is good attention to detail.
I thought the endless scrolling background effect was cool as I always wanted to make one.

The sudden cut from Play to Game Over can give an immediate sense to relax from the keyboard, after being overwhelmed by ships. The score is good to have. I found it a bit arbitrary to not know if I did well or not. The Play Again button is a good way to get back into the game quickly.

Performance of the game seemed to slow down when traveling far, then speed up when defeating lots of ships. Perhaps minimize the processing for far ships by deactivating their hitbox or despawn them.
Object sounds would have been preferred, atleast for power ups as they are a highlight for the player to interact with. Good music choice.

[BOX DESTROY]

It is intuitive to complete each level. Levels were gradually more difficult. Scene visuals are clear. I avoided reading the in-game text as it's too small. Good to add animate motion to the victims to identify a point of interest contrast to the obstacles. Level restart as a fade to black reads well enough to convay fail & restart. I felt the boss projectiles were difficult to predict & avoid, until I found strafing made it easier to anticipate. I think teaching the player an easy version of avoiding a projectile would help prepare for the boss.