smokinjoeevil's Reviews

[The Shape of Love]

I know I'm in the minority...

.... but something just doesn't sit right with me about this Flash. I understand what the point of it is, the moral of the story, etc. But the fact is (and yes, I know I am being overly analytical when I point this out) the main driving impetus behind his transformations as pertains to self-image just doesn't stand up past the first transformation. It makes sense that he would want to become the muscle man - because the advertisement and, seemingly, general consensus is that those kinds of guys attract the ladies. So there is a REASON for him to take on the muscular look. However, then he goes on to adopt the mantis appendages of the toy, and even airplane details - even though his girlfriend (originally the only reason he was making a transformation - to impress her) indicates to him that this is not what she wants. So, where I originally identified with the desires of the character to look better for his mate, all that identification with the character was squashed into non-existence when he decided to start making himself look like an idiot by taking on the attributes of everything in sight. It doesn't make any sense. Let's say I saw a rapper, and he was getting the chicks. So, to impress my girlfriend, I buy a hoodie. She let's that slide. Then I get a couple gold chains. And then, when I express my intent to upgrade my teeth to golden replacements my girlfriend straight-up tells me that she thinks gold teeth are for jack-asses... in your Flash, the character still gets the gold teeth. I liked the animation style, and the intent of the Flash with respect to moral lesson or point, but part of me just can't get past this glaring error in the story's build-up.

ScaredyDave responds:

I can respect that. Basically what happened in my mind was that at first yeah, he is trying to impress the girl, but after a bit of it he thinks that just adding onto himself is fun, so he lets the fun of it blind him from what he was originally intending to do. Kind of like someone who has a hobby that their mate disagrees with. Its like, yeah ok, its a little cute that you have a few collectible trains, but when it gets to the point that you're making entire replica cities with working trains and subway systems in your basement then its a problem. Thats the way I viewed it, and I'm glad you shared your opinion. You didnt really "point anything out", its more like you described the plot lol, the way you viewed it was just differently, and thats important to me because chances are you aren't the only one who viewed it like this.

[Waiting for redesign]

Slow

The animation and drawing style were mediocre bordering on slightly-good. it was slow at points for no good reason. Slow is good for building tension at specific moments, or trying to play out some joke where the punchline is how long something took, but when your entire ACTION sequence is marred by enough slow-downs to choke a giraffe, there's something wrong. Story (or is it supposed to be joke/punchline??) needed a lot of work - It started off being about the redesign, and some guy waiting for it. Then it moved on to Tom Fulp going nuts because he lost at Castle Crashers. Some people are claiming "randomness", I would tend to claim more that it is just poor adherence to coherence - I mean, come on... 3/4 of the animation had nothing to do with the redesign.

[The Pigpen]

Really good.

As others have said, had a really poignant message... it's sad that social realities can be summed up in such dark material. And the animation was of top-notch quality and style.

It made me think of something my wife and I were noticing driving through some of the shadier neighborhoods in our area. There are these guys carrying signs calling people to turn in their gold and jewelery for cash. Of course, given the neighborhoods these guys are walking around in, the people paying those guys to wear the signs:

A. know that this target audience will be highly interested in cash
B. it's not entirely likely those people have a lot of gold and jewels just lying around

So, it sorta stands to reason that the guys who are ultimately after the gold to turn a profit really don't care all that much where the gold and jewels actually come from... that is to say... if the people they are advertising to don't have them, and yet they use these ad tactics in those neighborhoods specifically, then there is possibly even an expectation that stolen goods will be turned in to them... and that may be perfectly acceptable from their standpoint.

Sorta like the human in your story, who shows the pig what it is that will get him money by cutting a part of his flesh away... basically teaching the pig how to get the money, and get him rooted in the dirty-deed-doing, so that the human can ultimately get what he wants without having to get his own hands dirty.

Once again, totally awesome in quality, style and message.

[The Karma Game]

Many of the choices didn't seem to coincide with the rating I'd be given or "points" lost toward a particular attribute. For example, a rock falls on you without warning and taking cover makes you lose a point in "ego." So taking random rocks to the head LIKE A CHAMP is what is expected to progress spiritually? News to me.

EAEverything responds:

Thanks for your comment.

This game is to be taken lightly. I see it as a taster more than an in-depth approach about spirituality. I am building a whole series of videos to get deeper into each aspect.

But if you want to know about Ego...

Ego is what prevents consciousness from escaping its incarnation, if you know you are an entity with unlimited capacity, why suffer, why get bored and mostly why go to work on Monday?

So to force a supreme being into a "bone and flesh" experience, you have to make sure that the "person" is gonna live as long as possible and do all it takes to stay safe and sound.

As a consequence of that, the more you are afraid of dying, the less you are evolved spiritually.

If you know you are all powerful and just going through a momentary embodied experience, a stone falling on your head should make you laugh... like a champ indeed :)

Most things in spirituality are counter-intuitive for us human ... obviously.

In the words of Claude Bernard: "It is what we know already that often prevents us from learning."

[Arkandian Crusade]

Interesting.

It seemed like it probably has pretty involved gameplay, and it is fairly well made. There were a few user-interface issues that made it feel wanting for a more seamless experience in terms of transitions. Half the time I wasn't sure exactly what I was expected to click on next in order to proceed with the game.

I also laughed when I saw the name of that first enemy (encountered in the intro)... the "Fak'ough" demon. I read the "ough" as "off", in case it wasn't supposed to be a joke and I've left you wondering what was so funny. So yeah... "fak off" sounds a lot like another popular phrase that comes to mind.

[Satanorium]

Walkthrough... pah...

Got stuck somewhere inside the hospital... so I clicked the "walk-through" button. But, lo-and-behold, no walk-through to speak of on the page I was delivered to. Instead, it was a "Play Hub" page with about 50 advertisements on it. What a crock.

Game itself was fair. Storyline was a bit goofy. I mean... she wakes up at her Grandma's, goes out to the little ghost girl in the bushes, and then ends up being teleported to the hospital. but then the descriptions of the game say you're trying to fix your car to leave? Which is it?