raitendo's Reviews

Recent Movie Reviews

Mr Pickles &the Bum Kitty

Rated 5 / 5 stars July 9, 2010

VREYNIEC

Zat is super. Animation is incredible.

TheBoogley responds:

thanks! I really didn't think or plan out the movements as much this time, though it's probably the first time I've worked to a planned out "storyboard."
ACTION TURNIP RULEZ!!! 8O

Ask Raptor Jesus

Rated 5 / 5 stars May 7, 2010

I don't get it

But I forgive you and I still love you.

FRUIT

Rated 4 / 5 stars August 22, 2009

nice

It was cute, but doesn't quite match the genius of the one you did last time.

Recent Game Reviews

65 Game Reviews »

A Mother in Festerwood

Rated 4.5 / 5 stars February 1, 2011

YOU'RE 10 AND IN NO CONDITION TO FIGHT AN ELK

I really liked this, although there were a few things that bugged me <- get it? It's a pun. the bugs bugged me. First two-three times I played, I had to reload the page to be able to play a game because the game got stuck in some kind of a loop. My mother also got stuck outside her circle once. My kid's movement was a bit too random, he stayed on the right upper corner of the screen for a bit, hardly visible, which was a bit frustrating.

Other random things: I'd have preferred to be able to control the mother with the keyboard keys. I think it'd be nice if the mother could call out for her son when he's outside of the circle, increasing the possibility that he comes back home.

It's a great theme and I really enjoyed it and I think this is your best game yet. I wish you hadn't included an "artist's statement" though, those always kind of ruin it for me.

One Chance

Rated 4 / 5 stars December 6, 2010

Interesting but flawed

So I made "You Only Live Once", not sure whether you played it? Obviously there's not a great load of similarities except the permanency "feature" (you seem to have been a lot more inspired by "Every Day the Same Dream"). I'm really happy to see more people play with the permanency idea (like me and for example Jesse Venbrux did before me) and your twist on the "genre" (if 3-4 games could be said to make a genre) is a great one that hasn't been done before. That said, I think your game has a few serious flaws.

The first thing I find troublesome is the problem of lack of information. I don't mean in the sense that you don't know exactly where each path will lead, which would obviously ruin the game, but for example choosing the "work" option you don't really get any clues what the hell is going on, whether you're wasting your time or if you're slowly edging closer to finding a cure. It feels wrong you wouldn't share this information with the player, because it creates a distance between him/her and the character, who obviously must have some idea whether he's getting anywhere or not.

The second flaw is the misogyny. I mean maybe it's wrong to point fingers at this game in particular but it bothered me in EDtSD as well. The woman stays at home, while the man works. Do we need to cling to these stereotypes still, in every single game? Just give her a job, damn it, or at least a good explanation for having her stay home all day.

The third, most damning flaw is the main premise of the game. Since I've only played it once (naturally) I can't be sure, but there seems to be only three different paths - work, mistress, or family. But even with such a limited set of choices you don't get the option to spend time with your family until a few days in, and I found the game would more times than not not let me do the things I'd want to. To name just a few things I missed: the option to commit suicide (I felt like jumping from that roof, for example), the option to kill your family, the option to go back to an area you left, etc. For being a game that sets out to be about choice, the amount of choices you get is pretty underwhelming, and as a result the game feels like it was under-developed (or rushed?), and unfortunately falls short of its true potential.

Still, I really liked the game and it was definitely interesting. Keep at it.

AwkwardSilenceGames responds:

*Honoured*

Hi!

I actually played your game a while ago on Kongregate (oddly enough) and Jesse's "Execution" a little after. The idea stuck with me I guess. Although the permanecy idea has always been in the back of my mind somewhere. I don't play very many mainstream games because it's very hard to care about anything your doing in them. I find that partly to do with death penalties (and the rest to do with story telling). There is absolutley no consequence for dying or making a decision, since that choice can be undone in a second. It's very hard to care about anything in-game that way.

As for the rest I'm gonna put down to being very rushed. I originally was going to have the game much bigger, bringing in ideas like faith (the ability to prayer), optional suicide and even that option to kill your family. My room mate brought an idea to me that at one point, you can choose to smother the daughter in her bed. I kinda liked that... In a totally not-serial killer way. Without boring you with the details, I basically stopped work on the game for over a month. Then forced myself to completely finish it in a 72 hour period. This lead to a shit load of bugs when the game was first released (there are still some now) and and a general lack of polish. The plot really suffered there.

Thanks for the review though. I hope you don't think I ripped you off. Even though deep down subconsciously I probably did.

P.s. Did you get an hillarious amount of death threats from people? I think I've triggered some kind of flashback to a past even where they made the wrong decision and they're taking out on me.

Thanks again.

Looming

Rated 5 / 5 stars July 7, 2010

Very cool

I like this a lot, haven't finished it yet but I'll try to get around to it. the unusual graphics and sparse music/sound fx make for a great atmosphere. several layers in the story too. At first I thought "how the hell can a game like this have such a high score at Newgrounds", but I soon got sucked in.