ShangXian's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Naut Land]

I actually enjoyed a lot the physics of this platform combined with the 8 bit chiptune that accompanies the player during the levels. I like how difficulties increases as you progress, and I find them balanced. The mosti difficult task was to control precisely the kid when jumping between piranha plants and walking goombas in order to land in a safe space and avoid getting hit, but at the same time it's the part I loved the most because of its challenging nature. Once you get to know the timing and correct pressure on the arrow key, the game becomes easier to handle.

Despite this the different challenges and the fact that you have to be on the ground to swap the planet's sides keep the player focused on not losing track of what needs to be done. I liked the medals too because they functioned as a rewarding system after completing a level. The music was really enjoyable and, along with the difficulty of the levels, is one of the things I loved the most starting from the menu to each level. The graphics fits the nature of the game and its goals. One thing that made me struggle a bit, asides from certain levels, was finding the hidden golden rocket. I ever replayed each level, thinking it was in one of them but then after a potential third attempt I thought "what if it's in the menu?" and so I found it.

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To all people who are still struggling to find it, here where it is:

https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/242cc986507fb0d081bccb194f187ec9

After clicking start you will see this screen, click on the rocket at the bottom left corner. I know that for some it was easier but because the game immediately makes you want to try it, it's easy to forget about this small, lovely detail.

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Good job, because I had fun with the difficulty, levels, enemies, physics mechanics combined with good timing and arrow key pressure, and the music I gave it 5/5

[FL!P]

This was a short but fun game with its difficulty well balanced as the levels progress despite some levels, like 13 were more nightmarish than others. I loved how it forces the player to think a lot, retry by trials and errors, and finally reach the goal. Graphic is simple, colours are nice and despite it has been done in a week it's enjoyable enough to keep you engaged with the levels. I liked that you can select a level and the presence of medals which makes the game more interesting to try from a reward point of view. Many levels were synchronization-dependent since you played with a double or multiple version of yourself. You had to be fused with the level to see how to optimize the environment. Last level was nightmare in terms of time synchronization especially for the second stage of the boss battle. Since some people may still have problems with the last level, I share here a way to defeat it even though it's not the only, correct and true sequence of actions to perform. I experimented with different ones and this was one of those that helped me to win the battle even though this doesn't exclude the possibility you have to redo it due to time-dependent nature of some sequences. So without any further ado here the solution for the boss fight:

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The boss fight is characterized by two stages, the first one is easier once you move in time your block and avoid getting hit, so for the 1st stage here the sequence:

UP, RIGHT, UP, RIGHT, DOWN, DOWN, LEFT, DOWN, LEFT, UP, LEFT, DOWN, RIGHT, UP, RIGHT, UP, RIGHT, UP

After you hit the first nucleus-like thing, the boss will shoot faster, hence the temporal frame is shortened and the velocity at which you move the blocks, when they must pass through them, must be high. So here the sequence of the boss's fight 2nd stage:

DOWN, RIGHT, DOWN, RIGHT, UP, RIGHT, UP, LEFT, UP, LEFT, DOWN, LEFT, DOWN, LEFT DOWN

And now enjoy your 25 worth points medal^^

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Overall nice, fun, short game. Nice job!

[Word Play - 5 Differences]

I loved this game so much because it's one of the type of games I like the most since it's based on detail focus. It gave me some time in some levels since some differences were mere colour differences (in Tiger Wood there is a part of the sky that is dark blue and it's easy to miss it since the player is usually focused on finding smaller details) or just differences in designs, sometimes even smaller (i.e. Donkey Kong or House Wife). Other differences were plain visible before your eyes but they follow the principle of showing up to hide like in Buddy Building level.

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I liked the first and last musical tracks because they were the ones who helped me the most to stay focused. At the end I got a slight headache since I had to concentrate a lot to find them XD but I had fun. And to all people who are still struggling to find differences I prepared this image document that I share here as dump file (download it to see better and find them easily) to help you with the search, enjoy:

https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/e33695f546e093a1c55369fe0c1f2463

If you follow it you will kill two birds with one stone: you find all differences and don't make mistakes which allows you to get a 100 worthy point medal.

Only thing that sometimes can confuse the player is the presence of some glitches because some of the differences won't register if you click on the right side instead of the left.

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As always artworks and the witty word play is one of the elements I love the most about Munguia's games.

[Jawbreaker]

This was a really fun game despite after a while arm hurts or finger, depending what you were using. Music is relaxing and I found funny the possibility to change skin XD
I also liked how the thicker the layer was, the easier it was to lick it off.

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Tips:

I would recommend a tablet with the pen or a mouse alternatively because with fingers movements are slower compared with those of the mouse/tablet pen. I also suggest to perform circular movements instead of up-and-down movements because this will pay off in the inner layers where you will see how fast they will disappear.

Secret Medal:

While other medals are pretty straightforward, the secret medal is not immediately direct to think about since it's hidden. So in order to get it, lick off all layers but the yellow one (the layer before the bubble gum). Once you reached it, press B or double click to bite it and break your teeth. Now you can enjoy 100 points.

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Thank you for making a short but funny game. Maybe if you want to make a sequel you might add power-ups and different levels. It's a fun game that I would see it as a game series too unless you have already done this (I discovered this game only today). Either way, nice job!

[M-Bot The Game]

Awesome game 10/10 if I could vote 10 instead of 5 but consider this a personal 10 from me. I loved everything about it, first the drawings. Seeing Mindchamber's style blasted the level of coolness of this game by 100, then I loved the overall gameplay even if with keyboard pressing S tired a bit my poor middle finger XD but I enjoyed it nevertheless. I loved so much the music which fits perfectly both the cityscape in the background and M-Bot himself.

Before playing it I thought it was more an emulation of M-Bot moderation powers (I initially didn't read the tags to not let myself influenced) but then I was pleasantly surprised by seeing it is actually an action, shooter, horizontal flight game. I loved so much the 3D-like vibe it gives me when I move M-Bot and I see other characters coming at me (cars included), and combined with the elaborate graphics made the experience really enjoyable. Time really flew. I liked the battles against regular enemies, mini-boss and the main boss. A thing that surprised me was how the score which is also the health bar gets affected if M-Bot is hit by something (whether it's an attack, a car or a wall). When I was running through the city I didn't initially noticed that but then in the final battle I understood the connection XD

I liked so much the introduction of the main boss, it truly gave me a strong late 90s videogame vibe from Nintendo or Sega. The whole game gave me this vibe. It would be a great 3D flash game, and I would love to see other games like this or even different genres featuring the all bots with Mindchamber's style. That would be great imho. The final battle was very fun and challenging to fight and after being beaten the first time, I could learn quickly the main strategy to avoid main attacks minus the metro tram attack. That was the only one I still struggle to completely avoid, but others were easier once you noticed the pattern; stay away from cars as long as possible from their attack range, jumps a lot, and attack the attacks Co-Lab launches at you in order to send them back to him. Nice name for the boss, my mind also read it as "collab", even if the name implies some sort of science behind him. I like both the victory and defeat artworks in case you defeat or not the boss. Nice perspective in the victory artwork. When I beat him I was so happy because it was satisfying beating him after the series of attacks and dodges.

I will replay it again to get other medals and because it's honestly quite enjoyable. Great job to everyone from the programmer, the artist to M-Bot himself. You guys rule!

MindChamber responds:

Thanks for the kind words and in-depth review! we were aimg for that 90s killer instinct retro 3D rendered vibes, Im glad you caught that!

[Stella's Brainwashing Machine]

Once again I want to thank @magnus727 for the walkthrough of this game that allowed me to reach level 50 for the most part even though some quizzes were easier to get, but because the game has been updated and new levels have been added, making the 100 points medal more difficult to get, I want to repay him by giving the solutions to levels 51-70 I managed to obtain through many trials and errors so he can update his walkthrough guide for those who still struggles to complete the game.

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Without any further ado here the guide:

LV. 51 with the cannon hit the "X" symbol of 10+10X10=30 so it becomes 10+10+10=30
LV. 52 type "5" (the idea came from looking at the number of petals of the flower)
LV. 53 click on the blue circle 12 times but stop when it changes colours (in my case it became yellow first and the second time green), once it becomes blue again finish to click on it in order to reach 12 times
LV. 54 type the missing word "over" so the sentence to type is "I'll get over it"
LV. 55 type "wise guy" (here the pun is phonetic since Y is pronounced as "wi")
LV. 56 type "0"
LV. 57 type "electric blanket"
LV. 58 type "no one to blame"
LV. 59 type "1024"
LV. 60 type "design"
LV. 61 type 19 (hint: drag all flowers and once you don't see any further flower popping from the one you are clicking on then you have reached the maximum number of flower which is 19)
LV. 62 type "cashew"
LV. 63 type "thunderstorm"
LV. 64 type "polite" (that was pretty easy to guess)
LV. 65 first I will give you a hint: break one of the lightbulbs by clicking on it, I broke the last one at the right. Then you can turn off the switches. I turned off the third one starting from the left and the fourth one always starting from left
LV. 66 here you have to remove 6 sticks to create literally the word "TEN" so in the first set of sticks, remove stick from the left, right and bottom and you got the letter T, then in the second set just remove the stick on the right and you get the letter E, and finally in the last set of stick remove those from the top and bottom so you can see the letter N. Now you have made TEN out of 6 sticks.
LV. 67 KKKKKKKKK type "canine" (I had epiphany with police dogs which are also called K9s)
LV. 68 hint: don't waste time looking at the sentence, it's all correct. The real type is in the request to find the typo in the sentence, so click on "sentnce"
LV. 69 Meta Meta Meta Meta four metas, so type "metaphor" (a nice pun between it and 4 metas)
LV. 70 type "checkpoint"

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Et voilà! Now you can finish all 70 levels. Thank you very much for this game, I truly enjoyed it, the music is very catchy, it makes you focus on tasks, I like the bright pink colour and the challenges. Many made me genuinely laugh because in some cases (many of them actually) you had to think outside the box (even literally sometimes). It was very satisfactory being able to solve the rest of puzzles by myself since no one, except me at the moment I am writing this review, had obtained the 100 points medal (last one was 1/12/2024 or 12/1/2024 if we want to use US time notation), reached the new levels. The only critique is the font of the text that is a bit difficult to read sometimes, for example in level 57 I had some troubles reading the final letter of ELCR ? but besides this I have no other things to point out.

Again thank you! I really enjoyed the mental challenges, well balanced and very fun to experience. Keep it up!

[Wizard Girl Dress-Up!]

This is a nice pixel game about dressing up a wizard girl. I enjoyed the style, vivid colours and the music. I always fond of chiptune music because it relaxes me, helps with the game and brings me childhood memories. The game has two medal, two secret medals to unlock. One of them is pretty straightforward as it requires to dress up the girl, but the thing that makes it slightly challenging is the order in which you have to put them.

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In order to unlock this medal you have to put them on but in a correct order and to see if one has put them correctly, the game gives a hint: they disappear behind other clothes. I've noticed that when I played it for the first time when I was putting the hats on. I've noticed that the cowboy one didn't disappeared, so I thought that I first need to put short hair with ears, then long hair with ears and finally hats on (black hat first, then cowboy hat). Other clothes were easy to guess in terms of order.

Bras and underwear:

I begun with white bras and underwear, then I put the light blue and white bras and underwear. I then opted for the bustier, black bras and black shorts. Finally I put the swimming suit.

Dresses:

I started with the red dress, then the black cat suit (the black dress with the cat tail) and I put on the maid suit since I know some people like to mix the outfits and create cat maid clothes. Then I combined first the yellow dress and the jeans one to give her a farmer look. Brown shirt, kimono and finally the seifuku (aka sailor suit of Japanese school uniforms).

Socks:

Black lingerie, grey underpants, black underpants with the two white stripes, white socket, white glove, black short sockets (I don't know if putting it before made them disappear behind other clothes, I've noticed that following this order they disappeared), eye patch, black mask and glasses. I admit the mask and eye patch gave me some problems because I initially didn't know what the hell they were since I kept placing them on the legs or feet XD I tried until I discovered what they really were after I put them on the face.

Shoes:

I left shoes as last one following logics. Black shoes, red shoes, small black boots, black sneakers, pink roller skates and finally flip flops (these might a bit tricky to notice them at first but look closely in the bottom part of the room, next the treasure chest).

After this she will turn green and you should have the medal.

The second secret medal was a bit strange to notice immediately but I've noticed that the arrow changed into a hand if I reached the bottom right corner of the bedroom. I clicked on the the cracked brick and the medal unlocked. I just don't know what 6452 means but oh well, what matters is that I got my medal :P

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It was a fun experience made of trials and errors at least for the mask, eye patch and cowboy hat. Following logics helped me to get things right. Nice job with this game and I admit I laughed when she turned green XD she has a funny look.

EvanMMO responds:

thanks for playing! the secret code is used to unlock a cosmetic item in another game I posted on this site, "RetroMMO". also the order of putting on all the clothes doesn't matter lol, just have to put everything on

[Help Me Clean My Room!]

This is a really lovely game, the artstyle is simple and I love the roughness of linearts because it combines well with the topic of the game: tide up your room. I also noticed the pixel chix reference in the style, nice job. The music is adorable too, it's relaxing and helps to focus on the task.

And this brings to the main core of this game: it's a puzzle game where you have to figure out the correct sequence of cleaning the room without killing the poor girl. I admit I laughed many times when I killed her because of the funny pose she has when she gets killed and the sudden death sequence in case you get wrong the cleaning order. I killed her with the ball and the bad air many times, because I had a hard time figuring out how to do it properly. But I liked the challenge it posed me and I would like to give my little help to those who are still struggling or might struggle to get the correct sequence.

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After many failed attempts, I finally got the order right so here how to clean the room:

1) click the automated cleaner at the right
2) click the ball to start removing the dust, this will increase the level of the cleaner to LV. 2
3) click on the window, the cleaner will increase to LV. 3
4) click the future washing machine
5) click the girl (she will be at maximum level) and this will increase the window's level to 2

Now just wait for everything to increase to their maximum level and enjoy your cleaned room and medal.

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Thanks for making this lovely game. I enjoyed its initial challenging form.

[Wanted!]

34 on my first round, now that I tried it a second time I reached 64 but enough about score (yes, I've found Luigi), it's time to review this game after I participated this amazing collab that taught me some interesting elements about pixel art. I really love how it turned out and participating in the making of made this collab and game even more appreciated by me because I see a piece of me put in there.

Everyone did an amazing job with their artwork, you can see the many styles and different skill levels and even in those who are not mainly focused on pixel art, like me, really put effort with the shading, colours and outlines. Some designs were simple, others were more detailed but all had in common the fact they were made with passion and creativity. I liked how some well-known NG characters had a personalized note around them (for example Pico and Otis just to mentions a few). My heart melted when I saw and I had to find Mella since she is linked to Tankmas ADVENTure 2024, a game and collab I could participate. It was an intense experience so seeing her made me go "awwwwwwwwwww".

I admit that I have never played Wanted, the Newgrounds version is the first version with which I interacted with and I really like how it can be quite challenging. One thing I loved immediately, since the first time I played it, was the variability of the challenges. Some are more easy others more difficult even if the speed of the heads increases as you go on during the game. The game forces you to be focused already at early stages even though the challenges are manageable for the first 45ish levels. The graphics are very beautiful and the fluid movements, I like the transition between the various characters.

Music is very spot on with its low and fast tones. It helps the concentration a lot. It was a lot of fun creating the character designs and this experience taught me the importance of symmetry in pixel art when you want to draw a character looking directly at the viewer or if you want to create something symmetrical. Once again congratulations to everyone who contributed to this project, from the game development, the pixel art to the music. Thank you to those who played it and left comments. I don't know which character design I love the most, everything is just spot on.

I admit it is an addictive game in terms of beating your personal best and unlocking the medals. I will try again to see where I get. I wonder if there will be something similar or related to Pixel Day next year, I think so and in this case I will gladly participate again. I love Pixel Day because it allowed me to explore a genre I never considered to be part of my artistic production even though it's not prominent. I hope everyone had a nice Pixel Day, see you next year!

p.s. I found very funny being defeated by my own pixel work, A-bot more specifically, during round 64 XD

SmoshyM responds:

Thank you so much!!

[LASERBLAST]

I think this is a game with the potential to become more interesting if some perks or abilities are added. The graphic is very simple and I like the old flash games vibes it gives me. In some aspects it reminds me of UFA: https://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/183575

The colours and simplicity of background and overall design highly reminds me of and I like it because it gives me a nice nostalgia feel.
Controls are slightly difficult to use when you initially start to play for the first time because when you hit the arrow keys to move left or right the ufo goes at high speed and you need to hit the opposite key to stop it. This makes movements a bit wonky if the mere goal of the game is to destroy infinitely the cars. It would be a nice element if it is inserted in a skill-based match where you have to skillfully control the ufo in roder to avoid crashing against the borders.

In that case I would love these sudden movements because the context would require ability and concentration. Another element I feel to suggest to improve the game is adding further levels with gradual, increased difficulty counterbalanced by some updates (powerful lasers, shields etc.) that you can get once reached a certain score or goal (i.e. destroy 100 cars). To make the game even more stimulating I would suggest adding some medals for example "destroy 5 cars", "avoid borders for 5 minutes" and so on. I don't mind at all the simple graphic of 2000-2010s, it's nice but adding more features like the ones I suggested would make the game more interesting. I reached 119 score but only because I got bored since there is nothing more to do except for destroying cars. If humans counterattacked for example this would make the game more challenging and so with more playability. Nice choice for the music, it fits the dangerous atmosphere.

So to conclude my humble review; add some features like challenges, levels, medals, counterattack from people, updates, missions and the game becomes a lot more interesting of course if you can do, otherwise these suggestions might be applied for a potential future arcade game in case you want to make another one. This is why I gave 3 stars as score because I see a potential. Keep it up!