Score: 8

"I agree with the minority of others..."

submission: the Last of the Dashkin

date: December 23, 2009

... in that I think the narration sort of cheapened it all. My favorite part about the previous episodes/stories was the fact that it all seemed like a world completely and entirely apart from humanity, with it's own set of rules and it's own general mystery to unravel - because it seemed nothing about it could be known by a human. But now you're making it seem as if humans/people/whatever WERE a part of it at some point? in my view it ruins the "freshness" of it... the feeling that it is an undiscovered world. And the narration just helps to steal that mystical aspect and mystery away. A human voice is now telling you the story... honestly, it's a bit like coming across what you thought was a deserted island, only to find out as you excitedly explore it that there is a docking port for touring cruise ships on the far shore.

Also, if I remember correctly, Bitey wasn't the only intelligent/sentient/emotional being among the other animals you've introduced. There was a witch at one point, the guy peeing in the stream, and the one gathering the Waterlollies... who all seemed as intelligent/sentient/emotional as Bitey. Maybe I'm misinterpreting, but the narrated story made it sound as if he were the only one with those near-human attributes... and it just led to my mind finding a discontinuity in the story-telling on that score.

Score: 7

"A bug - don't know if mentioned already"

submission: Tetraform

date: December 20, 2009

I simply noticed that the clickable area of the "nuke" seemed to be locked on center-screen... that is, it DID NOT follow the actual graphical representation of the button - the radioactive symbol at the center of the "planet". Easy to test - all you have to do is move to a corner and then quickly place your cursor at center screen - the cursor turns into the hand as if there is something to click... then if you do the same (move to a corner) and mouse over the radioactive symbol, you get nothing.

This may not be very noticeable when there is no lag going on - which may be why you didn't find it in testing.

Also, at first I couldn't understand why some comments mention that the game got difficult. I didn't have any difficulty AT ALL getting all the way through and receiving a score of over 33,000 (which didn't post to the high-scores for some reason, even though I WAS logged in). But, I think the lag had something to do with it... I always had plenty of time to match up ships or tag them to my giant, protruding mace-type-things, etc. The bosses also tended to just fly around a lot and only drop stuff I could use to attack them with at long intervals - so there was a lot of down time, which was frustrating, but again, may also be related to the lag I experienced.

Score: 4

"Real control problems"

submission: Dadgame

date: September 6, 2009

The control system had a terribly awful base pattern of storing every key-press made and then making sure it executed them all even AFTER you decided to change direction, stop attacking, etc. It made playing this extrememly frustrating. For instance I would be running in one direction, attacking, and if I held down the direction key too long, or pressed "Z" too many times, he would continue running in the given direction and attacking even if I was now pressing the keys in the other direction, and no longer pressing "Z". It was,quite honestly, one of the dumbest things I have ever experienced with regard to control in a game. In order to give players the ability to react quickly to situations, you need to be checking for and reacting to only the keys being pressed ON THE CURRENT CYCLE. In this game you seem to be building a queue of keys pressed and executing through them on each processing cycle in turn... and you make sure you never skip one. Which is ridiculous. As I held down a directional key, every cycle would be processing the key into the queue, so that even if I let go of the key, it seemed like it may have still had 20 to 30 cycles worth of presses in that direction queued-up to be executed. Half the time this made it seem like the character had a mind of his own and that I wasn't even in control or playing. It was a mess.

Maybe that's not how the control-processing is setup... but it sure seems like it, and I sure had a problem in a big way, whatever the game's engine is really doing. Reading some of the other reviews, it seems I may have been among a minority of people who experienced problems. And I admit the computer I am currently using may not be the fastest on the draw, but I have never experienced problems like this before with any other game. Flash or otherwise. This game, for me, was a train-wreck.

Score: 1

"I would readily bet..."

submission: Inspect My Gadget

date: October 2, 2008

... that those vocals sound absolutely no better live than they do on this recording. What does the "D" stand for anyway? It honestly can't be anything having to do with talent or skill in singing, that is for sure. And while the premise for the song is amusing in it's own right, the lyrics are way too repetitive and juvenile to warrant much merit.

I think it absolutely hilarious, by the way, that you capitalized the word "GIRLS" in your author comments at that particular point in your rant... like you wanted to emphasize the fact that it is girls you have sex with... and not guys or animals or such. Almost like you felt we would suspect you or something. You're such a bad-ass.

Score: 8

"Too short..."

submission: Phantom Tunes #5

date: December 27, 2007

But otherwise good. I like the overlapping, sustained notes in the sort-of dual melodies being played.