Post by santarcade in Micro-review thread: Review the entry of the poster above you!

Viewing post in Micro-review thread: Review the entry of the poster above you!

Since I did not realize AlienVania was already reviewed, I did two reviews!

AlienVania
AlienVania is a nice platformer featuring super-juicy pixel art, a wide selection of weapons and enemies.
After few istants playing this game, you will realize it is very polished, from the game menu to the gameplay.
I particularly enjoyed the splatter effect when killing enemies and totally loved the music.
The size of the map and the quality of the graphics is impressive for a jam entry.
If you really need to find a small flaw, maybe a few things like explosion particles are not pixel-aligned, but that's not a problem to me.
What to say more? Try it, and you will have a nice surprise near the ending.
Music: 4/5
Visuals: 5/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Design: 4/5

Overall: 4/5

Wild Goose Chase
Wild Goose Chase is a nice meat boy inspired platformer, you play the role of a very nice character in his task of rescuing a goose.
Controls feel very balanced, graphics are essential but stylish and it's very fun to play.
I enjoyed how the tutorials got inside the level art: I would recommend it to give it a try!
Music: 2/5
Visuals: 3/5
Gameplay: 4/5
Design: 3/5

Overall: 3/5

My game is called Phone Throttle (https://santarcade.itch.io/phone-throttle) it's an HTML5 game where you do wheelies with a scooter, controlling it with your phone gyroscope but watching the gameplay on your desktop browser.
Unluckily, it requires an Android phone with gyroscope in order to play it.
Give it a try and let me know!

sitebender8 years ago

I appreciate the review. I've reviewed a few games here and well there's always the hope that I'll get reviewed again even if I suggest a random game that hasn't been reviewed here.

The map was made in 2 days when we realized plan A wouldn't be good enough. The artist will be happy you liked the art. It seems like no matter what the art, people talk about the music more.

What do you mean the explosions aren't pixel aligned? Like the sign that explodes explodes at the top left rather than the center?

How can I improve the gameplay in the future to score higher than a 3/5 in the next game?

As for Wild Goose Chase, i would have never expected a Meat Boy - ish game. Then again I only saw the title screen / default image.

santarcade8 years ago

Hi sitebender!
By pixel-aligned I mean that a few things, like particles, seems moving by subpixels (very smooth) and not respecting the 160x144 pixel matrix.
To improve the gameplay, I would:

rework the jump feeling
make sure there is no camera follow when jumping (on some platform this happens and it is quite disturbing)
let the projectiles interact with enemies even when they are clipped out of the screen
make the guns orientable to shoot higher or lower and not just horizontal

Those are the (personal opinion)-advices that came from the top of my head ;-)
Keep up the great work!