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Could you possibly have put any less effort into the animation? The two characters look exactly the same and do absolutely nothing the entire time besides 3 frames of them flapping their mouths open and shut.

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Score: 6

"I gave up"

submission: Raider: Episode 2

date: September 3, 2009

I wanted to see this through to the end like I did episode 1, but 33 minutes in I was forced to quit, after seeing 9 or so vines in a row, with spikes between them, above a pit of lava. I shouldn't have to deal with 1 hit kill crap like that on beginner, and it was a bit disappointing to see a brick wall like that after getting through so much.

One big problem I noticed was that even though it's only the second level, you seem to have already run out of ideas. This level didn't really introduce anything new, and just focused on dodging spikes the entire time. The enemies felt like more of a formality than anything else, they were just standing in your way to give you an excuse to press the S or D key a few times before going back to dodging spikes. Even the tutorial had better use of enemies with the sole laser turret. The only enemies in the stage itself of any note were the ghost things, which also happen to be immune to attacks, so they may as well be floating spike blocks.

I would like to see a better balance between platforming and combat, though that may be hard since the combat controls are pretty stiff. Why can't you move on the ground when attacking? It's pretty strange given that you can still jump and move in the air while attacking, so you can just bounce around everywhere while firing the laser anyways. I don't expect you to change the engine in the middle of a series like this, but maybe our hero could receive a combat upgrade power-up or something...

The reason I mention combat so much is because there are only so many ways you can make the player dodge spikes before it gets old, and this level definitely pushed that boundary as far as I think it will go. After constantly jumping between ladders, abusing gravity by jumping into a ceiling, or falling down pits onto spikes, it gets a bit repetitive, and I'm wondering if you plan on making the remaining levels like this as well. I'm still looking forward to the next one, I just hope you focus more on combat and timing obstacles, and less on pixel perfect jumps determined by how long you press the A key.

September 3, 2009

Author's Response:

This seems to be a matter of preference for some people...

I for one find *combat* tiring and dull, but jumping around trying to find my way past obstacles - even if they're the same obstacles, just in a different order - far more appealing. I like games like Tomb Raider, for example, where the enemies were rare and dull to 'fight', and the main focus was jumping around very much the same obstacles in different layouts...

So this game is designed with my own preferences in mind, apparently. I suppose I made what I like, I made a game I'd want to play myself.
It's unfortunate that my preferences don't match up with everyone's, but oh well. I notice enough combat-focused games around and didn't really see the need to add yet another to the mix.

Episodes 1 and 2 were made basically at the same time, before I decided to release the levels as separate games, which is why there's not much of interest in this one compared to the first. It seemed easier to get away with when they were both levels of the same game/file.
Episode 3, which I've made most of, has more variety in its obstacles (I don't know about combat though; as I say, this isn't meant to be a combat-focused game; you have no advanced weapons for a reason).

Anyway, uh, I'll keep feedback like this in mind for future games, if not necessarily for future instalments of this particular series...

Thank you for taking the time to write a detailed review anyway.

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Score: 2

"Horrible"

submission: Mario vs Question box

date: August 12, 2009

Another generic movie where Mario gets injured over and over again. Nothing about this flash is original at all, from the multiple takes to the copy paste memes. The sprite animation was decent enough for a beginner, but there was no humor at all. Try to be more original in the future.