Ectonaut's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Witching Hour]

Cool but...

The graphics were incredible; this is definitely the game's strength. I was immensely impressed with the some effects and the background terrain. However, the extremely low difficulty, lack of enemy variety (you use a grand total of three images, albeit resized and recolored in some cases, and only two enemy projectile types), and apalling boss repetition (the same giant skeleton torso each time, but firing one more projectile series? Come on) really detracted from a game that would have otherwise scored an 8 by me just for graphics. A few other little things were really distracting, like enemies simply disappearing when killed (surely with such a sophisticated smoke effect they could at least fade out or something) and the very different 2d visual style of the witch herself compared to the obviously 3d-rendered enemies and background. The complete absence of a story put me off a bit as well. Great stuff overall, but at this point, it's all dressed up with nowhere to go; give it some meat and it could easily be valuable for its gameplay as well as its glamour.

[Sky Warrior]

Great but with a huge problem

I am, thankfully, rarely confronted with a game that I can say would be better without the story. This, unfortunately, is one of those games. While I do like the story, it would have been nice for it to have some connection with the actual gameplay; without the text reminders, one would have no idea who your enemy was or what his motivations were. In fact, I might even go so far as to say that virtually any plane-related tale could be plugged into this game and make just as much, if not more, sense than the one you have here.
If there are demons cruising around, a few visual clues to that effect are necessary; helicopters with horns, tanks with eyeballs, arcane symbols etched into the ground, whatever. You've done none of this; your Temple of Darkness looked exactly the same as any of the dozens of other buildings, and your enemies, while well-detailed, were fairly predictable planes and tanks.
Now, don't get me wrong, I enjoyed playing this game. The graphics were very well done, the challenge level was decent, and using explosive buildings to help even the score against hordes of enemies was done as well as I have ever seen it. I have no problems whatsoever with the actual gameplay. I'm just disappointed that the story was so disconnected from said gameplay as to be a distraction from and a hindrance to my enjoyment of it, hance the low score. This would have been an eight or nine without this problem.
You obviously have a lot of potential in terms of your art and your programming. Coordinate the two a little better on your projects in the future, and I can see you becoming one of Newgrounds' best. Good luck.

[HOST]

Another great gory game

I love the idea and the visuals, I'm a big fan of all of Edmund McMillen's stuff and got an account on Diverge just for the bonus features... which are well worth it, by the way, though the game tends to run faster here on Newgrounds without the obnoxious animated banners. It's a trade-off, I suppose. Apart from the periodic lag and other predictable server-related errors, the only problem I found with Host was the control scheme... both attack buttons so close together and the jump button being in another part of the keyboard bothers me. Perhaps a later expansion will enable custom keyboard settings?... at any rate, another great game, and keep up the goood work!

[Amoeba Amoeba]

I'm not precisely sure what to think of this.

...but I'll consider it a piece of acid-inspired genius. The gameplay, in my opinion, leaves a little mit to be desired, but as it's only a Flash game and as the artistic style is so deliciously hemorrhage-inducing, you get 10/10 and 5/5.

[StormWinds]

Style for miles, but could use improvement

You have a fantastic artistic style going on here, something I think more games like this should have. However, I feel I need to offer the following major criticism: it's very frustrating when you have to chase around the same little helicopter for the entire level. The big enemies are great and really showcase your style, but the little ones are annoying as hell and (this is the real issue) have no good way to get rid of them in the first parts of the game; canon and machine gun shots are too inaccurate to hit the little guys, and the sniper takes too long to reload to waste on them. While the general look and feel of the game certainly lends itself to highly mobile enemies, and I applaud you for it, it's a lot more enjoyable (for me anyway) and probably be a better use of the gamer's focus to blow through small enemies like paper while paying more attention to the larger, more artistically impressive ones.

[Noidzor]

Great Game

I like the idea and the gameplay style that you've developed here, and I really think that this is an idea that you could run with. My one and only problem is that you have a real dichotomy in your artistic style; the falling angels and the demon look like something out of a Super Nintendo or NES game, while the orbs and particle effects are very modern. I would also recommend adding a background; particularly towards the end of a level, all that black can make the screen look really empty and bring out the rest of your artistic weaknesses.

[Gravity Pinball 2]

ARGH

This would not have been such an annoying experience if...

1. A little more attention was paid to the graphics. The same thing over and over gets really boring to look at after a while. At least put in a background or change the color of the blocks, SOMETHING.

2. The ball had a small point when it spawned where it wasn't control sensitive. Whenever I would run into something, the ball would spawn again going in that same direction; when I try and correct it (and fail because the wall's too close), it spawns in the opposite direction, dies again, repeat until I just let it fall and die for a few times. This annoyed me to the point where I just stopped playing.

You do have a solid concept here, though... a few tweaks and it should both look and play much better.

[Draw-Play]

Neat concept

I like the idea of drawing the level to get around the obstacles. A couple of things...

1. The circles are annoying to the point where I always went around them if I could, and
2. I noticed if you draw a line straight up from your guy's feet, it scoots him up like an elevator. I'm not sure whether this was meant to be here or not, but it's damned useful if you ever need to go up.

Great job overall. *5's*

[Jeeves Volleyball]

More stuff!

The butlers were absolutely hilarious; no issue there. The physics were also very solid. What this came off as to me was the START of a great game. As it is, I would say to add more levels, more character models, maybe some difficulty and level settings or powerups, just stuff like that. Again, a pair of butlers whacking a teapot around is funny as hell, but when it's the same AI on the same level and the exact same-looking butlers, it gets old quickly. A little more work and this could be a really funny, really great game.

[Ragdoll Avalanche II]

Cool and simple

I really didn't expect the slicing noises the first time, nice touch. Very well done for a fallling-stuff-dodging game. My high score was 174.