Zerpha's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Super Mario BP Oil Spill]

Great SMB Feeling with lunatic Game Objective

This game turned out to be surprisingly much fun.

Not just because it satirizes BP - the concept for this provocative game is brilliant, I also giggled about the introductory text. And the cinematic.

I also like the references: The dead sea creatures on the intro screen (which is apart from the ending cinematic the only part of the game that features graphics from games other than Super Mario Bros), the (modified) Bullet Bills and the 1-Up Shrooms.
The Cheep Cheeps' and Mario's movement underwater is just like in SMB (except that the former didn't come in green and had color-dependant speed, and Mario could walk on the ground).
I also liked that the background music (in the levels) and all sounds were the same, too.
Therefore the game provides a pretty familiar feeling although it has a far different task than the original sidescroller.

It's also interesting that the player is dependent on foes. Carrying around stunned enemies is nothing new, yet needing them for the entire game progress is a cool idea.
Despite the fact that you're repeating the same level over and over at higher difficulties, this game appears varied, especially when playing it for the first time. Which is also due to the fact that only every X-4 level comes with submarines, which gives a slight "World X beaten" feeling after finishing those levels.

What I missed were Bloopers. Although the scuba jerks chase you like them, having SMB's other underwater foe moving in this zig-zag pattern would have been awesome - especially when it comes to luring them into the oil (including the one on top).
Also, why not use Bob-Ombs instead of mines? My guess would be Mockery refused using them since they were no enemies in SMB.

Another thing I'd have loved to see is Mario grabbing dead Scuba Jerks. Imagine the hilarity of them plugged in a hole! :D

A good strategy is surprisingly effective in this simple game. Some people gave this game a rather bad score, arguing that it was too hard. But i think this isn't the case. Especially the medals were well done. Some gave you new game objectives, but some also made you learn the game.
The harder ones demand some practice, yet even the hardest one (Aquaman) is still doable without causing too much frustration and hours in vain.

For those which still have problems with the game,
I made a news post on my page that contains tips for getting the medals easier, various hints for general gameplay, a good high score strategy, and even a table that list the number of leaks, foes mines and time in each level.

Check it out here:
http://zerpha.newgrounds.com/news/pos t/548386

[endeavor]

Nothing new, yet an okay little retro game.

*SECRED MEDAL SPOILERS*
Alright, i played through the game four times now.
And i gotta say the Author is right about finishing it multiple times - if you've finished it once, getting the items you need will take far less time in another run.
Additionally, "Savage" and "Hero" naturally takes less time than "Pawn" (unless you fall down while you try climbing up for "Hero", that is).
However, first time finishing this game will really require some "endeavor" from you.

The Atmosphere is ok:
The pixelated graphics give this game a likable retro feeling, and the music fits the various areas. Habitants are also well adapted to the environment, and even their character mirrors their appearance.

Their rant make your tasks pretty obvious, so progressing in this game isn't too hard. For me the flowers are merely a futzing than anything else. I think i squelched every single one in the first run...
The endurance fruits become merely redudant in the later game, even if you're going to climb up to heaven. I also think the two special jump variations in heaven were redundant. They are collected in 30 seconds and made you think that you'll get more of them later in the game.
Also getting empowered by killed souls was a good alternation. The Powerups were alright, although i disliked the fact that the Mushroom (acquired at the very beginning in heaven) was a Red Hering despite the fact that you could give it to that creature in the mountain.

The dialogue was alright, yet the story itself wasn't that good. I also think that getting the sword from a chest located where the other dwarves should rather easily be able to get to kills the flavor.
(Although i admit it's cool to get it from a place right next to your starting point, after you've done an entire world tour.)

Since there are four secret medals, i thought there would be a fourth ending, which would have been even worse than "Pawn" and "Savage":
Malor tries to persuade you to help him even after getting the sword either by climbing up or teleporting after killing 10 people, which suggested that you could collect 8 gems to release him knowingly instead of killing him.
Regrettably i had to realize that this wouldn't work out, since i couldn't leave the beginning screen in the underworld and was bound to banish Malor.
Although it would have been cool to have such an ending imho, with a medal name like "Dark Disciple".
But yeah, we know completing all three endings rewards you with a last medal for completion (Forever, Endeavor) :P
*SPOILER END*

Overall this is not an exceptional or innovative game - i personally didn't find it too addicting either - but a fine one. Notably i didn't notice any glitches (since the last updates) either.

Btw, the medal points in this game are exceptionally low. I think that's the first one of that sort i know that doesn't include any 50 point medals for finishing the game under special circumstances.
I'd have liked a more common score, but i still prefer that to such give-away 100 point medals (like in "The Arrow of Time")

[Quick Sand]

Break Brittle Bricks Briskly really doesn't work.

Before i'm going to rant about the game itself, i first of allwanted to point out that apparently the medal "Break Brittle Bricks Briskly" does in fact not work - anymore!

Yes, i can see that you got that medal. And various users that wrote a review own that medal as well.
Yet those reviews i found were submittet bewteen 13.-16. of June.

According to the order of your medals, you added the "Cave half full" and Brickbreaker one after the other two for completion.
I also can remember those two initially having a medal score of 0 and therefore not being displayed on this game's page in the medals section.

Therefore i suppose you involuntarly made the Brickbreaker medal unachievable in some later ipdate.
I already broke 12 and more bricks several times without releasing the Down-button, and twice even with pressing it for each jump (which is notably harder) - yet the medal didn't pop up for me once.

So i'd really appreciate if you'd take a look at your game again and fix that ;)

The game itself was alright overall.
The music was alright.
I liked that it used an introduction and en ending scene. Yet it was somewhat weird for me that the girl had a face in the very last image, it didn't suit the style of the scenes (and the charactermodel) imo.
The character's hair was inspired by Dixie Kong i guess?

It didn't get boring since it introduced some new elements every once in a while - keys, curved walls, bricks to break, spiked traps or "doors".

You have to get used to the controls since they're very sensitive, but once you got a feeling for it the levels are not too hard.
For example wall jumping has some tricks that are worth knowing: narrow walls can be jumped up pretty quickly by simply pushing of from the same wall and jumping at the same time; while broad walls should be jumped up by changing the side each time (spacebar + left, spacebar + right, etc).
And aside from breaking blocks, you can make use of the down button to avoid sliding on a wall if you don't want to.

Yet some later levels were far easier than earlier ones, and vice versa: The difficulty of the levels seems not to have any particular order.
Already the second level for instance it pretty hard. You are barely used to the movement, and especially since you don't know that you can use the down button to avoid sliding on the wall makes it harder.
I am aware, though, that some of these levels were just easier because the sand can sometimes be used as help whereas in other modes you don't have the possiblity to do so.

Now about the bugs:
I don't know whether it's intended that last set of levels with the "doors" is skipped when playing through the game for the first time.

Talking about doors, here's a certain bug i encountered: When you enterwhen the sand is exactly on the door's height. In this case you won't die and the complete level will fill itself even over the border.
Then there is another bug encountered while breaking the blocks. It might happen that you are squished when hitting the block from a weird angle.

Regarding the Speed Run mode, i think it's far too hard. You can barely afford to even fail more than two levels half way.
This really asks you to play each level various times to ensure that you make things flawless and to be prepared which level is up next.
Nothing against challenges, but at some point it isn't fun anymore.

I guess most people cheated that medal by simply abusing the fact that you can fast-forward the entire game.
I think you should make the timer less brutal and then find away to stop the skipping thing.

Compared to Speed Run, Lava Mode was pretty easy. Currently it would even be easier if players had twice the time for Speed Run.
Nonetheless i liked it, although not all levels changed since you sometimes just had to place sand on top in order to do it. (I would only have placed sand on the top on various spots, yet that would possibly afford some tricky programming)
But this mode really needs to get a medal!
I think if a game has medals and various modes, it doesn't make sense not to let each mode have one :o

I-smel responds:

I read all of this!

[Coil]

Fancy game concept, squishy process

I finally played through the entire game once.
(Afterwards you end up in the opening screen again)

For those who still don't know how to start it:
It's named "coil" and it uses the mouse. That's actually all you have to know about it ;)
(Oh, and it doesn't even use mouse bottoms, movement is all.)

Playing once through the story didn't take too long, but sometimes you didn't know whether you got forward in a certain level or not.

Maybe that's part of the game concept, but it certainly made things harder.

The penultimate level was by far the most challenging i think since you knew what you have to do yet doing so was still tricky.

The story was pretty weird. Maybe it was intesivlely kept that ambiguous.
Sometimes i thought "he" was refering to the man who made the woman pregnant, then again i thought it might refer to the (male) baby she is giving birth to instead.
And another time i wasn't even sure whether "she" maybe even refered to one of the unborn babies.

Unfortunately i wasn't able to read the very last line since this one was blurred behind the black whirling borders.

The graphics of the game were pretty.

Deductively i'd say it's a pretty aberrant, yet also somewhat interesting game.

[Tremerz]

Pretty little game, decent difficulty.

[General review]
For a 24 hour work this is spledid :)
I also like the pixellated oldschool appearance of this game, although Tom Fulp apparently also does since he seems to use this for many of his games.

One run doesn't take too long yet stops right before it would get annoying to get a flawless run.

[Tips for WORM MASTER]
Saving everyone isn't too easy, but doable with a little strategy:

Up to the stage with Heather, do not jump at all.
You just have to evade the digging holes once your team stands on top of one by walking from the middle to the mid-left and the mid-right. You can move calmly, your compagnons won't normally get hit by the worm even if it seems to be like this.

in the final stage with Mindy, timing is important, but you can accomplish this with far less precision with a little trick:
Stand in one corner, jump, and quickly move your mouse to the other side. This will cause an almost horizontal jump that can easily master these last types of worms.

After having accomplished that, don't forget to stand to the very left if you don't want to fall from the cliff and lose ;)
I grinned a bit tensly when this happened me. I was missing a medal here, since this could both optimize the humorous effect and possibly reduce the frustration someone would have that rescued everyone with the first try.
Therefore a (secret) 5 points medal like "CLIFF DIVER" would be funny i think.

[Another tip for the LADIES MAN]
At best run through the game as usual, and start bothering yourself about "getting rid of your friends" in the Burt stage.

Worms will always try to jump towards your location. You possibly noticed that if you walked with your mouse of the screen, hoping to cheat yourself through the game, but then got hosed by a worm.
So swiftly move from one side to the other, and try jumping narrowly above a worm that jumps towards your group from the other side of the map.
This might not work out always, but is the best method i have experienced to do so.

Once it worked out do the last two stages with the girls as usual, since you're not having such a big crowd this should proof to be slightly easier than normally.

[Stickya Adventurya]

Overall pretty hard and a bit glitched, but doable

Beating the game isn't easy, but not too hard either since there is fortunately no such a thing like Game Over.
Therefore you get the chance to figure out how to do each level sooner or later.

I also liked the fact that the game had somewhat different kinds of levels.
The distribution of difficulty in the various levels was rather retarded, though.

While some levels were really incredibly difficult and demanded a certain strategy in order to get through, others required almost no skill at all (especially those involving the skateboard).

Yet i also think some of those levels were kept merely as humorous sequence like that part with the meal, when you squish that crowd, or when first encountering the skateboard when this guy tells you it was an automatic switch.

But those levels involving the snake where rather stupid. Once you figured out how it works it's no problem, yet the explanation wasn't really clear.
To all players that are still wondering how to get past them:

Jump towards the snake when it's down, then press E when you're adjacent to it. Now to get to the other side, push in the accordant direction (right) at first to let go, then immediately afterwards press up to jump and right to get to the right.
(If you press up at first and then right, you'll just slide downwards.)

There are also various glitches that make you die multiple times at once, this normally happens when you mash E while falling in spikes or similar.
In some cases you can also still die while using a door. Once in the last level before you encounter the boss, i entered the door yet was killed and sent back to the start to the left.

That level in particular also is the most stupid level to die, since you will sometimes find yourself dieing four or five times just after being respwaned because you get warped right into one of the marples and can't evade them. That's pretty stupid.

I liked that Guitar Hero part, although there's another glitch since you get points while playing during the opponent's turn.
It's also comparably easy if you have already done it once.

It's also pretty weird that the Guitar Hero medal gives 50 points while beating the game rewards 25 points since it's inevitable to get this more valuable one at first. It would have made far more sense if you would only get this medal by beating Slash with 4000 points or something.

The level after the Guitar Hero challenge is another problem. It's also not too hard with the right strategy, but if you allow the spawn machine to spit out five guys, you will barely be able to touch any of the switches in order to kill them since they will swarm the entire ground. This is also rather annoying.

I have to say that in order to get the "You must be cheating!"-medal, i had to encounter a completely different gaming experience as well. Although i'm glad that you are at least allowed to die 20 times, it was rather frustrating to get this medal.
Although one run only takes about ten minutes, i had to start many attempts and figure out a certain strategy for each accordant level to master it without dieing.
While attempting to achieve this medal it's also a bit annoying that you are not able to skip video frequences except for the first one: the second one with the "big mean door", the third one with the encounter with Slash and the final one when beating the boss.

The drawing style of the game was ok, although it was not always clear when you would die by "touching" an enemy.
The humor isn't everyone's thing i guess, and the story is overall pretty weird. The music suited to the game regarding that, but it started to become kinda annoying over time.

Overall the entire game appeared pretty fuzzy to me and there are various glitchy things that could be overhauled.
Hunting for every medal it was a bit too challenging for my taste, but just playing through the story once was somewhat entertaining, though.

[{Survival Pong}]

Quite challenging

The darkened background (including the extremely dark one at the end) or green coloring was a bit distracting at the beginning, but the main threat was the censorship which later got bigger and even spinned around. The hardest part was the faster moving ball which started after about a minute, but i finally somehow managed to survive.
Nice work overall :)
Btw, the score doesn't reset once you die. I finished with a score of 11, but it seems like you get greater score from surviving, meaning that you'll actually always get the same score when managing to finish the game without this bug^^

**SPOILER WARNING**

But now i'd like to eat that cookie D:

CrazyVS responds:

Yeah, I've uploaded the game and 20 min later my friend told me:
"lol at the gameover score bug" and then i was like "Holy shit I've missed that one!".
Thanks for the review.

[Multitask]

Awesome game concept!

At first i thought "duh, balancing that ball is far too easy",
and evading the spikes in the second game still wasn't hard either. One thing left/right once in a while the other one up/down, no problem.

But when the third game appeard where you had to move around with the WASD keys and touch the squares, things already got tricky. When the ball got out of balance while pressing in the accordant direction you had to move away from the obstacles in the second game again while still not forgetting about the objects in the third one.

Then finally the fourth game appeared, and you really hadn't much time to figure out how things rise and sink by pressing space and evading the obstacles and i died shortly afterwards.

Of course getting a feeling for the game is another thing that you will get used to when playing a while, but this will still keep this game incredibly challenging.
My personal tip is squinting.
You really can't focus on one game and then change to the other - and well, that's just exactly what this game wants from you - playing them simultaneously, not alternatingly.

The game is lacking a pause button, but i guess this would either make cheating far too easy here, therefore you'd be forced to censor the screen then, which would make continue playing very hard.

The game introduction become slightly annoying when playing this game several times, although this also gives you a short break to breath.

As already mentioned in the title, the concept is great, and although the flash is simple that shows that a good idea can sometimes even be more important than careful programming and animation.

I have to praise the autor for this awesome game, well done!

[[game title]]

The maze is actually not that hard.

[general review rant]
I've just played the game again and beat my old score by 1 second^^

The gameplay itself is fun in my opinion.
Each subgame used another genre, therefore it had some nice alternations - while still keeping that "[Subject Name]" joke - including the sounds.
It was also that funny idea that aroused my interest.

Overall, except for the maze, the games are very easy.

[maze advice section]
And concerning the maze: it also won't be that hard if you get it on with some strategy:
Press Space as soon as your player is horizontal, This will make the entire maze much easier.
Don't bother with the very left obstacle on top at all, and get through the spinning one counterclockwise (simply move left, down, right).
Then you can normally rush to the right without having to bother with the middle one. Wait for the vertically standing one to move downwards and pass. The very right obstacle will normally be on the top at this moment, therefore you can also simply pass that one as well and go ahead to the checkpoint.
From there on it really isn't that hard anymore. You can simply pass the three right located obstacles by moving left and down to the border as soon as the middle one "opens".
About the last five obstacles is not much to say, yet i advise to move as nigh to the border as possible.
I hope that helps, i'd be content to see someone breaking my current High-Score :D

[review conclusion]
Regrettably, the game gets boring very fast when playing it more often.
But overall it's an entertaining game with a funny game concept.

[Brawl Royale]

Awesome game, i have a hint for beating it

I never thought a game with only a single key would be fun.
This one is :D

The first eight opponents are quite easy, i guess for most people the only two trouble-makers are Canti and Goku.

But i have a little hint for you that makes defeating them much easier:
You can hear the sound that comes when the "GO!"-message appears slightly earlier, thus making it possible to react by hearing rather than seeing.
You will most often get a warning-X for starting the fight too early, but you can easily circumvent that problem by simply turning your fingers a few millimeters away from the space-button ;)
This way i beat Canti three times in a row and finally Goku. I even later wondered which opponent was missing for getting the Masochist medal because i was used to get owned by Canti that often! xD

The animation style is great and the different fighting scenes are amusing and diversified in a good way as well , some of them even contain some deeper allusions.

It was also a good thing that you could skip the "outros" by pressing space. The "greeting-scene" with the challengers was unfortunately a bit time-consuming, though, since you couldn't skip that part D:

Yet eventually i wasn't even missing checkpoints.

The two players mode is also a nice addition, although i'm afraid most often it will only be played once and alone for the medal ._.

All in all an awesome game with an epic ending.

And talking about the ending, the "Re-send medals"-button is genious, my sweetest praise for that! I didn't need it, but it can certainly serve some players for great justice! ;)
I'd hope that other authors let themselfs inspire by your idea and add a similar feature to their games as well.