Boss's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Miskatonic Brain Drain]

You the man now dawg! I liked the theme and story and art it all went together really well and made the confusion of the gameplay seem to make sense and match especially tied together by the BSOD screen which is a great way to trick the player into fucking up which key they want to press. at first hitting q and a for slide and the answers to questions was really fucking me up and the BSOD fucks you up more but its good to have someting like that really confuse you. I have to say I understand why people are confused as fuck but I found it fun even though I did have to play a long ass time to beat it the first time, I wish the timer was on in retrospect because I feel like it took me thirty minutes as not knowing what hitting what things / getting hit does to the meter means, going down to 20% and then almost all the way back up which is emphasized by some instances of double spawn death, glitch into the side of a platform while sliding and one or two times i even slide moved and got stuck outside of the screen on the left side probably bolstered out by a paltform or something? the weird thing is the necronomicon theme made me feel like the more glitches there were the better, the BSOD being slightly meta atleast to the extent of the players computer made me feel like the confusion was supposed to be there.

I think the confusion definitely got fucking aggravating when I started wanting to hit the 3 minute medal and was confused what did what. I eventually had to focus and realize I couldnt punch the heart bubbles and for awhile I thought I had to run into the skull bubbles and the heart bubbles. I think the first thing after realizing how to beat the game that sped my play up a lot was using the slide like a tech maneuver by jumping and sliding over onto the long platform constantly where I knew I had space and using that to speed up as far as I could but I still couldnt hit even 5 minutes so I kept playing and playing. getting like 3 and a half minutes and then getting an 8 or 9 minute run after that is so fucking annoying!! lmfao. eventually I could do them all under 5 minutes and I found out the jump slide tech where you jump and slide at the same time so that you get thrown in the air at around a 45 degree angle diagonally, perfect for some tight spots you encounter in the platform pattern and this was necessary to learn and something i didnt figure out for awhile.

I got a 3 minute run but because I had selected one of the girls specifically I think it didn't give me the medal at first. I could have actually just fucked up and not turned speed mode on for all I know but I think the timer was there so this might be a real thing, hard to say when you played it like 50 fuckin times. Eventually getting down to 2 minute area times was exciting but i realized i had something wrong and i found out you have to punch the skull word bubbles, touch the heart ones, and i also realized i had to stop spammin the diagonal slide invincible tech because it was slower than just going straight up, even though thats riskier. this was a pretty cool game and the mixture of the questions and platforming hectic chaos was really really cerebral and hooked me in and got me to passionately play it for a while. Would love to see something like this expanded and be made even more confusing and have more questions that you have to really focus more on to answer or something like that, like maybe a math question or history mode or some ridiculous and evilly insanely punishing shit like that.

Anyways all that being said, its too confusing to be developed into something that you would sell like on the steam marketplace as is but I think it would be easy to add some things to the tutorial that outline the details of what is happening during the gameplay,and you would probably have to make the controlsand movement feel prettier and smoother so any random person would immediately feel like oh this is fun i get it even though i like the way this all chaotically matches the theme. also kinda curious what the original form of this was before people started reviewing and some changes were made. sick game, probably a really good team because there seemed to be a lot of chemistry with the final product

Maprower responds:

You are absolutely the man now, dawg.
Probably know more about the intricacies of the controls than I do.

As for what the original game looked like, it wasn't that different - most post-launch support was just around trying to make thing a little less obtuse. For example, if I was going back to Brain Drain at this stage I'd have added some telegraphing to the skull/heart bubbles to indicate that you're meant to punch one of them and pick up the other, like so many unattended pieces of gum stuck to the back of people's heads. All mine now. My empire.

Character controller could have used a bunch more work too, honestly, that's been a thorn in my side since day one. But have to move on at some stage, onto my ever-increasingly pile of failed prototypes.

You earned those medals of triumph, though, dawg. Absolute boss.

[Dystopian Nights]

This is really cool and the atmosphere and feel of all the little shops is awesome. Love the little dumpster area in the alley behind the bar and also love the cheap cocaine hard drugs sign. the way the music changes in different areas and buildings is also really awesome

[Not a Race]

the hint in the comment was necessary i think which is kind of funny because its atari style and back then it was all about the manual and the game being two things you needed to play the game. before i read the hint i was like wtf and it was honestly maddening in a sick and ironic way to watch a meditation game called its not a race clearly be a weird futile race. then i realized your bar expands and it was fun and tricky to try and time the bar expansion because ur dude slows down as you age, this also serves as a great metaphor for just energy metabolisms. have to laugh hard at people who cant process the metaphor and see the game as more of a message than " a fun game" but I do agree the atari style can make you wish the game was more and had more features, my personal desire was to time it right and then watch my guy walk off the screen as if there was some kind of objective you earn by timing it just right. it's kind of funny because that goes to show that the lives of the dudes who died struggling were essentially the same as the one who made it all of the way to the end, just pacing yourself got you to see cooler shit and increased your abilities. as always meditation messages and themes about life will frustrate people. I think this stands alone as a good game but it would be awesome to see this modified and expanded upon as a new game with extra features so its more play oriented than about the message

[Dead Earth Update]

for some reason when i use the arrow keys to move the guy it scrolls the page. so i used wasd instead but still, something that i dont think other games have happening. also not sure which button grenades are but when i hit q the dude drops turrets and i can place infinite turrets it seems, which is cool and kind of fun but makes it impossible to die once you spawn kill the scorpions. this deserves atleast a 3 because it feels functional and like it could make a great tower defense/shootemup style game

[BLUE BOY (ブルーボーイ)]

died 106 times. didnt realize those things i was grabbing were the coins, i was almost expecting the impossible mode to end and have a super impossible mode with coins or something that would bring me to like a crazy unbeatable level so i was like ohman this game is pretty tough idk if ill make it to the end. maybe im getting better at platformers as i age. i feel like it just took a while to get every stage. really fun game. this deserves to be ported to consoles and expanded for a full release but idk how you would balance the potential desire for more animation with the way that might compromise the 8 bit charm. really beautiful gameand the background music reminded me kind of of the ominous background music in the boo level in mario 64, this is my way of trying to compliment how ominous and maybe early 3d era the music reminded me of... anyways great game

plufmot responds:

Fun fact: I used the music from the boo level in Mario 64 as placeholder audio. Also thanks for the feedback!

[What to do?]

This was a really cool idea for a game but I feel like if someone came into this half asleep expecting a real game they might barely read the intro text mash the wait button then get bored and ignore that this game ever existed in their life... I think its very interesting to think about how it falls flat because it literally forces the player to "wait" and be able to do nothing but that, and in that essence you have put out an expression that creates a simulation of waiting and non-interaction when the point of the game and the theme is that the waiting is going to be our death, that we need to act and interact.I guess it's a little ironic because it doesn't necessarily drill interaction into the players head, or seduce them into wanting to act instead of wait, and kind of assumes that the player cares about what you care about before you show them a window into the dire real situation. in a way this leaves the game extremely unassuming and uncompromising, never going back and forth euphemistically with what the player might think about the points being made at certain progressions of information coming out to convince them to care and potentiating a wrestling match with either people who really probably will never care or who are legitimate sociopaths who play games online in their free time, so I think in and of itself this game is like an art piece and it's really good that this exists all on its own in the way it does, and this makes me want to give it a 5 simply for that, but I think even that uncompromising status doesn't want me to think that the game is good just for that, because in that sense the interaction and significance of the game is supposed to go beyond the game, where you have no choices, into reality, where actions actually matter.

I think ultimately while its really cool, and it stands for something good, people can miss it, and the art of controlling others minds into learning new functions and paths of thought by creating a sweet and enjoyable product that they dont think twice about consuming while injecting them with something like an actual purpose, instead of being a drone, is our ultimate purpose as content creators... this points to that purpose, but it doesnt make huge strides towards it on the side that pulls and ropes in unsuspecting kids and adults who wont know what hit them...
in this way it really has served its purpose as an art piece to make me realize even in my own personality the way i present my ideas and hold myself are inefficient, and I think most people simply don't have the drive to be some sort of eternal deep soul show tune that sickly draws in a lot of people easily the way some ad nauseum admixture of sports candy and motor oil so easily can in our world where lack of culture and being controlled by an other is the primary culture... in that way this brings me back to the thought that the game serves its purpose for those who understand it-- but I still do believe that the merit of creations, of games, is to offer a direct utility that teaches us and gives us value right here in the real world as we play, whether its a not so noticeable acuity to some sort of new nuance in pattern recognition, symbolic story, rhythm of movement, language, path of thought-- this game just doesnt cover much ground even though I admit the way it does cover the ground that it does is stark.

Ok so ways that this could be better but not compromise how blunt and bright it is would be creating a small series of game elements, maybe like playing through a prologue chapter and then bam youre waiting and thats the whole game. have some characters and some little story that will pull the viewer in, give them options, make their character feel real, use this in a way that makes them see the condition of the stories environment, even if it wont make them care you can atleast mirror the themes you want to display while they start to have a little fun moving around, doing and choosing something, then lock them into the wait ending to show the point. I just think therevery well could be people who play this under any condition that makes them distracted or apt to focus somewhere not on the game, and the few seconds they care about the game is going to dwindle fast instead of expand, and as far a concepts behind a game goes, this would be a really deep and powerful concept, so it deserves to be expanded upon if thats something you really want to do

, hahaha and btw I typed this all out and didnt notice the link at the bottom of your description until now. Dude, trick me into reading and clicking that by putting it in the game instead of in a spot that while yes, is a description and explanation of the game, is secondary in comparison to part of the actual game! hahah I feel stupid but this is my point, you WANT to trick stupid people into looking at this stuff

janosbiroleite responds:

Yes. Thank you. You are not stupid. The game is just a little remark, yes, a provocation, a poem, if I may say so.

[Super Gonad Smasher]

the ending credit voice clip makes me imagine rick and morty where luis is rick and tom is morty

idk.

cool game. gonna sound like a backhanded compliment or literally just a fucking insult but reminded me a lot of spiderman 2 for gameboy color which I played a lot as a kid.. I thought it was a cool game but not sure everyone will agree
also the internet is rated PG-13 so im down with this rating systems

[Spacescape]

Cool but short. Awesome little game to play to kill a little time loved that I could play on my phone. Really cool art style!

[CAVE EXPLOR]

I absolutely adore this and love the use of gameboy zelda graphic style as I loved those games so much. I could go into each of the nuances that I love about this game but I'm sure the dude making the game knows already. I really love the challenges to this game, and the longer you play the more you realize the nuances to it. the style is really technically nice, and the design is super poetic and beautiful. this is a great game to sit down with for a bit and feel like there is no more war. ;-) would love to see another game in this style!! I just loved everything about this!! excellent game!!! you are incredibly talented keep creating !!!!

[The Lost Strawberry X-mas edition]

time 20:44

SIXTYSEVEN deaths

19 berries

I love the difficult jumps, the art style is amazing great color scheme and it reminds me of old gameboy games. the jump mechanics were difficult as FUCK to get down at first and i totally left tthe game and came back. it was a super fun game and you should totally do more like this. more screens like this would be awesome, more console oriented style even, i think this game format is worthy although there might be some tweaking to do at that stage

egordorichev responds:

Nice, GG! Thanks for playing!