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AfroRyan

12 Game Reviews

1 w/ Responses

Didn't this used to have achievements or was it always in-game trophies? Doesn't matter: the game's a blast.

I have played this for many hours, and I remember being in college when it came out and thinking "man, this is really great." The music and presentation are so good, and puts many other matching color games to shame.

A great idea that spawned a great sequel. I was playing the Deluxe sequel on Steam today, and felt like trying the original game again to compare. The sequel adds everything you'd hope, but the original is still very fun, and you can see the foundation it set to go on and make an even better experience.

I really hope having this featured on Newgrounds again is enough to push K.O.L.M. over its Kickstarter goal. It's such a solid series so far, and I'd love to see the trilogy completed, as well as play the older games in this new remastered look.

Please Newgrounds! Rally together to make this game a reality! K.O.L.M. is one of the most deserving games on Kickstarter right now, and I'd love for it to become a reality.

Great gameplay inspired by Metroid, great music, great graphics, and great story. Good luck!

Like Tower of Heaven before it, Askiisoft's "Pause Ahead" delivers an amazing experience that revolves around one very interesting hook. In the game, you can pause time, but your character's momentum is carried into the pause screen, allowing the player to "break" the game. Of course, it's not really breaking the game; it's the core concept of level design (and story). It's a great "gamer's game" in the sense that the core concept of the game would be lost on non-gamers who don't really understand what "pausing" is supposed to mean in a game (and furthermore, how cool it is to see the concept flipped upside down). A good way to explain it to them would be like this: "Imagine if at a specific part in a movie, the only way to progress the scene was to pause it so that the character inside could take advantage of the time freeze." The game itself is slightly more difficult than Tower of Heaven, mostly in the sense that there are some really tricking precision-based timing sections that will likely put off more casual gamers. The controls are solid, with momentum feeling just right during pause mode. The music was catchy, but to a lesser extent than Tower of Heaven. Put another way, I still find myself whistling Tower of Heaven's theme, but I can't recall any of the themes specifically in Pause Ahead, and I just played through it before writing this review. I was never offended or off-put by the music, though; it just didn't grab me like Tower of Heaven's soundtrack did. The graphics and general atmosphere isn't altogether different than Tower of Heaven, but it differs in some key areas. First and foremost, Pause Ahead is in glorious color, while Tower of Heaven offered nostalgic shades of Gameboy Green. The tone of the game is certainly grimmer than Tower of Heaven, and it's really just a matter of taste which you'll like more.

Overall, Pause Ahead is perfect for what it is trying to be. I highly recommend giving it a playthrough.

An incredibly cool twist on the classic Venture formula. I used to play Venture all the time on my Atari. It's a lot of fun navigating a simple maze and collecting treasure, although this maze is quite a bit more complex than anything in Venture.

The player character in Venture was named Winky...does the adventurous square in this game have as manly a name?

Glaiel-Gamer responds:

Pimplestilch

A solid wave-based shooter

Very solid shooter. Taking cues from Galaga Legions, it spawns waves of enemies on a 'track,' allowing players to select the best area to zero in on.

A fun time. It ran a bit slow on my machine (not necessarily the fault of the game; more a fault of Newgrounds' because of the flash ads), but it wasn't a huge problem.

Racecar spelled backwards is racecar.

REDDER is exploration in its purest form. No leveling up. No upgrades to collect. Just plain old simple exploration.

Wait, did I say "plain old simple exploration?" What I meant to say is unique, challenging, and deeply rewarding exploration. The jumping at first feels off, but it's not; more like how Mario feels slippery until you realize it's better that way because it's predictable and master-able. You can control the height of your jumps the longer you hold the button...nothing new I grant you, but your astronaut (or maybe cosmonaut...the game is called REDDER after all) can jump really high, and you can stop your vertical ascent at any point by letting go of the jump button. This leads to some tricky puzzle type setups where you need to time your jumps just right in order to secure your prize.

That last part might make the game sound hard. It isn't...at least, not for an Auntie Pixelante game. Anyone who has the patience to beat a Mario game (or even a Sonic game) could beat this without too much trouble. Checkpoints are common; that's a blessing. I like the ability to warp to a checkpoint and your ship too; it makes some of the exploration more less boring (not to imply the game is boring because it isn't).

The music is very fitting and catchy, and just when you start to get tired of it...*SPOILERS*

You've collected enough gems to start to warp and glitch the world enough to also warp the music. It's all an awesome, unexpected, and thoroughly enjoyable moment, while also motivating the player to continue collecting gems just to see what happens next. I'd have said the story was simple and cliched; astronautic lands on planet, needs fuel (or is greedy and wants to collect gems that the ship detected), must escape, etc. but this added element throws a wrench in the synopsis. Although there is no overt storytelling in the game, I like to imagine that the reason the visuals and sound start warping are because: A - The astronaut is running out of oxygen and is starting to hallucinate. B - The gems the astronaut is collecting are radioactive and therefore the more the astronaut collects the more the astronaut hallucinates. C - The astronaut is simply having hallucinations due to isolation. Or D - A combination of A, B, and C. Of course, you could just say it's a cool design decision and leave it at that.

I should also mention that I like the main puzzle mechanic too. The red and green switches (that in turn activate red and green platforms, but only one color can be active at a time) can lead to some really cool gameplay moments. I found myself thinking "My, that's clever," over and over again.

The endgame scenario (when you've collected every gem) is awesome too. The complete breakdown into Atari 2600 style graphics and sound (minus the music) is super rad. I love the idea that this game, as complicated as it is, could have been possible on an Atari (if it could be squeezed down to like 5KB or whatever the max filesize an Atari 2600 game is).

So far, I think this is Anna Anthropy's crowning achievement. Mighty Jill Off is good, but in my opinion just isn't as fun or engaging as REDDER.

Long review longer: REDDER is so good I'd pay money for it. I mean it. Put it up on XBLA and I'd pay $5 for it as is. I MEAN IT...although I guess hypothetically you'd have to add a leaderboard (speedruns would be super fun) and achievements (halfway there already...here's the another six off the top of my head: Beat the game without dying. Beat the game in less that ? minutes. Collect enough gems to start hallucinating visually. Collect enough gems to start hallucinating aurally. Collect enough gems to BLEEP BLEEP BLOOP BLOOP. Start your game over after having collected every gem and 100% map cleared), but it would be worth it.

Thanks Auntie Pixelante for such a great experience!

10/10 A++++ High Honors etc.

A rewarding game

There's nothing quite like beating a tough screen. I also like the little background touches in the scenery, very nice. The pig is cute, as are the noises it makes (even if it gets a little repetitive).

My only complaint is the upper range hit box...or is it a problem with the stalactites? I'm not sure. Something feels off/cheap when dying from a stalactite, I know that much (not so with the stalagmite, though).

Incredible

This game is utterly fantastic. It plays solidly (although for such a purposefully retro game it requires an awful lot of resources) and turns the whole established platforming formula on its head. Learning new rules is so different, so interesting, and so-much-fun. I loved every minute of it.

People complaining about the difficulty are simply too set in their old ways to accept this new style of gameplay. It's not hard at all if you follow the rules! At least...it shouldn't be hard for any Super Mario World vets.

The music is SO good. I haven't been this impressed with a chiptune soundtrack since Cave Story. Really flashygoodness, you've outdone yourself. The way the theme is incorporated into every piece without sounding repetitive or uninspired is REALLY impressive. A++.

Long story short, this game is wonderful. Anyone who enjoys a good oldschool platforming romp with new twists, great music, and solid design owes it to themselves to play through this one.

-AfroRyan
It really would make a fantastic XBLA/PSN/WiiWare/DSiWare game...I'd pay upwards of $5 for it AS IS, and up to $15 for new levels, rules, and music.

I like stuff. However, there are some things I don't like, too!

Age 36, Male

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Joined on 5/17/10

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