Appetite4's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Stealing the Diamond]

Dragon's Lair, anyone?

To be honest, I've had a lukewarm opinion of games that have 10,000 possible deaths for every one happy outcome. But if the humor is okay, and there is not an unreasonable amount of backtracking necessary, it's often entertaining just to find out every possible way the game lets you creatively kill yourself.

The game brings to mind Dragon's Lair and similar "decision" based games. It also reminds me of many of Sierra Online's earlier titles; those had a lot of deaths too. But much as those games pissed me off, this one didn't seem to have that effect.

Fire up your sardonic sense of humor and start stealing!

PuffballsUnited responds:

I've actually never played Dragon's Lair, but I can imagine what it's like. I'm glad this passed your judgement!

[Jumping Box: Level Pack]

Jumping for Joy

Great puzzles! I knew from the original game that a sequel was in order. Nothing new except new levels in this game from the original "Jumping Box," but it's still great.

These levels are definitely harder than the original. But folks will enjoy the game even if they haven't played the original.

I wouldn't recommend a third level pack, though, unless there are more hazards, larger levels, etc. Have you given thought to making the box go on a side-scrolling-type adventure?

[A Snail Story]

Couldn't figure it out, menu has problems

I've played point-and-click games before, and some were tough to figure out. This is one of them, and not in a good way, I'm afraid.

The menus and inventory are very delayed, they block important parts of the view, and I couldn't figure out how to close out of the sub-areas (I still can't). It might be possible to get into this game more, as some people have done, but at this rate, I'm not enjoying myself.

The graphics are decent, but the sound seems unfulfilling.

I want to give a higher rating to a game like this, but a lot more needs to be spelled out, and the UI needs a lot of work.

[Arnolds Fury]

Great Idea!

Nice run-and-gun. Nothing that original in terms of gameplay, but it's definitely nice to take a trip through Arnold's memory lane.

The game, while interesting, seemed to have a few performance problems. It might help to cache the backgrounds if possible.

I would have liked to see the first Terminator movie, Conan, and True Lies references, but that's stretching this concept a bit far. You can't have everything.

Despite Arnold's huge box office success, this game can't but make you feel a bit sorry for the King of Gristle. Successful at everything but marriage.

To quote Frank Jacobs...

"Let the critics crucify him, when his lines he seems to louse up!
If it's brains that wins the Oscars, it's the beef that fills the house up!"

[Darnell: Wrath of God]

WWJD?

What would Jesus do? Ha ha...how about, become a disembodied head and terrorize some poor kids? At this rate, I doubt I'd ever take communion again...I'd know what would happen to the head once his body was eaten!

This game has decent gameplay and graphics for a 2-day venture. But it's kind of repetitive--it shows that this is an experiment, not a masterpiece.

Are you planning on going anywhere else with this idea? Multiple stages, more bosses, gameplay enhancements? I'd like that.

[Rapture Raptor]

One of THOSE games...

OK graphics...but nothing else is OK!

This is one of those games where you can't figure out what the hell is going on, no matter how hard you try.

Top it off with some of the most annoying sound effects I've heard in years, and you've got yourself a steaming raptor turd of a game.

[DuckLife3: Evolution]

Never said "duck" so much in my life

The gameplay is good. It reminds me of early classics like River Raid and Moon Patrol.

I was somewhat confused on the race stages; with the exception of the champion battle, there was no interaction, so I didn't quite understand what was going on at first. Still, the races were fun to watch.

Once you max out your energy, though, the need for coins vanishes. Not sure what point they have otherwise?

There was a bug in some of the swimming stages: you could double-bob or air-jump unexpectedly.

By far, my favorite part was the funky music played in the advanced training! Where can I hear more by the same artist?

[Jumping Box]

Nice Little Game

Great gameplay! One way I know to rate a game highly is when I bypass the instructions completely, and yet can figure out how to play it anyway, and still have a lot of fun. This is one of those games.

And I don't know why, but for some reason, I found myself constantly laughing at the silly cry that the orange box made when falling off the bottom of the screen. Maybe because it forms the perfect combination of what's in the user's head and what the box would probably sound like if it had a voice.

I was a bit surprised to learn that you could air-slingshot the box. I would have been more than happy to deal with a challenge that allowed for slingshots only when the box was grounded and standing still. But I guess that's not important, since you have only a limited number of tries anyway.

This game deserves to expand. You could have the box go on entire adventures using these gameplay mechanics. More!

[Faultline]

Great idea, succeeds all around

This is one of those games that manages to get just about everything right. Fitting eerie music, appropriate graphics, responsive controls, good animation, puzzles are stimulating and rewarding, and a lot of attention to quality in platforming (e.g. no blind jumps to death).

If the ONLY drawback is that it's too short, that means it deserves a 10.

[Donkey Kong Arcade Return]

The Original

This adaptation was made by no slouch--a lot of effort went into making it resemble the mechanics of the original.

It even has the long-lost level 2, missing from so many of the home console ports back in the day, even Nintendo's own. Why is that? Because the hardware didn't support scrolling in such a manner?

Some people have said (jokingly I hope) that Nintendo would sue, it's that good. I wouldn't worry about that. More people will play their games if they're good and readily available, and this is both.

I hope it won't be 4 more years before your next classic port!

LilDwarf responds:

lol I was worried that NOA would say something XD but even if they did, I live somewhere where, lets just say, the law doesn't apply XD hahaha

Thanks for the review! It really took alot of effort. I hope, as well, that it won't be another 4 years until I make another game :)