ErasmusMagnus's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[the black story]

Neat. The catharsis is especially poignant.

[Pico vs. Uberkids]

I immediately died at the first click.

[Newgrounds SIM v 1.2]

Awesome! Now instead of wasting time on Newgrounds, I can pretend to be wasting time on Newgrounds! On Newgrounds!

[Madness Genesis]

Overall fun, even if it's a little basic.

[Madness: An FPS Demo]

The day 1 patch helped to smooth out the gameplay from the first version. Before, controls were very stiff and enemies could easily gang up on you, making it hard to retaliate. Not so anymore. Because enemies can no longer stun lock you, it's much easier, fluid, and allows for a feeling of flow. Not that there's a whole lot to do at the moment, but current mechanics work well with no real glaring issues. Except of course, a severe lack of enemies to test with. After about five, they're all gone.

Repeatedly spawning enemies, while stale, would increase the engagement, allowing for more experimentation with mechanics and more fun to be had. Can't gauge the difficulty without enough enemies to test with. But thankfully, it no longer feels cheap. Even if it is ultimately easy, that's still infinitely preferable to cheapness, because it means you can actually play around in the game without getting killed by surprise.

Aesthetically it's unpolished, but the implementation of the art style, models and music are quite well done. Details like flipping the bird and HUD effects are appreciated. The one location is very sparsely detailed, and sound effects are slightly lackluster, but the aesthetics are the demo's strongest asset by far. Overall, while it's very empty with not much to do, what little gameplay I did have I enjoyed. I'd love to see more from it; at the bare minimum more enemies to fight.

frdy responds:

I made some changes last minute that apparently negatively affected the gameplay -- I nearly left a bug in that would have made the ai MORE aggresive, among other things. Besides that, I'd like to hear more about what you think needs changing when it comes to the movement, punch mechanics, and enemy ai.

[Pico's School DX]

Pretty good. The redone art style makes the violence all the more hilarious and incongruent. There is some weird stuff, like some glitches, loss of a couple of details (Pico's face getting smeared with blood, strange Pico physics in the Alucard room, Cassandra encounter, low detail police, etc.) but the gameplay itself is now extremely smooth, and as a real hardass for remakes, this one is excellent.

[Brainsplatters 2]

Ah, the good old days of Flash games. Ultra-violent and challenging. The classics. But some games are only classics because they're old. This is one of those cases.
I remember this game from back in the day. My impression years ago is the same as it is now: Brainsplatters 2 is a well-animated stick movie thrust awkwardly into a game.

The direction seems solid (arcade reflex-based shooting with some point and click adventure elements), but the implementation is poor—you die in one hit, and the timing windows and hitboxes are extremely precise. If you miss them (which there's no way you won't), be prepared for a lot of trial and error and re-watching seconds-long movie clips. With every retry, it adds up. Not a good combination.

The exploration element is very basic, which isn't necessarily bad, but the "puzzles" are illusory. You don't even know what you're trying to do before you've already advanced and moved past the puzzle. Just common sense, then point and click. There's no experimenting or intuiting in that regard. Or you pick the wrong choice that kills you (which again, is usually trial and error).

The storyline is a bit lackluster. Moment-to-moment actions are poorly contextualized. The basic plot thread is explained well enough through the dialogue with the pink guy, but far too many fine details are omitted. Why did you enter this skyscraper in the first place? Why are there a bunch of terrorists guarding some random neighboring building? Why are you trying to break into a different building? How'd you find out this warehouse is where the boss is? It's not as though these places are framed as their headquarters, and they're left unanswered. The basic premise stays constant, but the small moments are left confusing.

The animation and sound design are well done. Right away, the intro music and shot of the city is intriguing, and you want to see what it leads to. The stick animation and effects are quite great (rain in particular), though the backgrounds are rather basic. Sound effects are punchy and provide appropriate feedback, and the music is well chosen. Aesthetically, there are some goofy moments, from the comical screams, the lazy eyes of Steve Brain, the final shot of Steve Brain and definitely-not-Steve Brain with a hat on walking to the car side by side. But overall, it's a pleasant game to look at, with the movement being a real highlight.

Brainsplatters 2 has an interesting enough premise, but it tends to fall apart as a sum of its parts. It wants to be an action-packed Flash movie, and the game elements kind of drag it down. Ultimately, the game has potential, but the issues mentioned made it very difficult for me to like it, nostalgia or no nostalgia. Ultimately, it's disappointing. Well-animated stick fights are awesome, and those are by far the best parts, but you can't make an entire game based on hard reaction times to go with it. "The Playground" was more basic technically, but I found it more playable, and thus, ultimately enjoyed that more.

[Highschool Bathroom Simulator]

Fuck this game. 11/5

[Johnny Rocketfingers]

Neato. Everything's right on the money.

[The Lardener]

Fun little game.