ShangXian's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tankmas ADVENTure 2024]

First review of the year and I want to start by reviewing this intense experience that accompanied me and others (both those who were actively involved in the making of this awesome game and the players themselves) over the course of this month. Let's start by saying that it was one of the best gaming experience I had here on NG not only because it lasted an entire month but also because I was involved in the making one of the artworks featured on December 25th so this Tankmas ADVENTure has a special place in my heart: it's part of me.

I still remember the first day it was launched, I immediately went to play it not only to get the first medal but also to see the overall look of this journey and I like how simple it was: just a simple fire to roast marshmallows. And this brings to the first thing I loved about this game: marshmallow roasting. The first day I had difficulties and I kept burning it. I still remember when Tankmas Discord server members and I were just many Captains and G-Bots (I was G-Bot since I was supporter then) standing before this fire and keeping these marshmallows burnt. There were some bugs at the beginning, I still remember with affection the big black void square that appeared in the middle of the fire and all of us roasting burnt marshmallows as if we were offering to the Void divinity. I still remember when I saw Tom Fulp the first day the game was released, I still have the screenshots XD.

But if this minigame initially was just a funny joke to see who roasted the most, but then with the addition of high scores it became a very addictive game, to me at least but whenever I felt I roasted as many as I could but ofc I never reached the level of the only and true legend of this minigame: BeepBeeBbastard! I remember the first time I met her: it was a snowy day (in the game, where I live December was pretty much sunny or foggy at best) and I went to the fire to try to figure out how to roast these marshmallows and I saw this user with this funny username and the avatar of Boyfriend. I liked how the name fit perfectly the avatar because the first part of the name mimicked, in an onomatopoeia-like sound, the auto-tune noises Bf tends to do.

I started to see her every day and I liked the vibe she gave me: a tranquil user, peacefully enjoying the atmosphere and chilling before the fire while roasting marshmallows. I observed her and her roasting skills, I've noticed where she tended to position herself to optimize the roasting speed. She definitely mastered it but I wanted to master my roasting skills too. I initially failed a lot because I couldn't figure out how others managed to roast them. I just had to press Z at the right moment but in the initial phases it wasn't this obvious, why? I want to give a tip to those who wish to master this art: follow the sound.

What do I mean by this? I mean listen carefully the sound marshmallow makes, you will see different cooking degrees. I initially had to rely a lot to the sight in order to memorize the pattern of cooking stages and my roasting technique was very rusty at the beginning once I figured out I just had to press Z or SPACEBAR. Some of you might have seen me moving back and forth with the stick when I reached the penultimate cooking phase. It was clumsy but the more I practiced, the more I mastered it especially after I noticed that different locations around the fire give different roasting speed. BeepBeepBastard positioned herself at the right side of the fire (from the perspective of the player) with the feet touching the tips of a stick with a marshmallow impaled in the snow. I experimented this and I've noticed that it gave a fast roasting speed, but it has a downside for people like me who prefer calmer, slower and more patience approaches: you had to be quick in observing and pressing Z at the right moment.

So I preferred to do at my own pace until I finally reached my personal balance: I can now literally roast marshmallows with closed eyes. I don't need to see it getting roasted and reaching the perfect temperature, because now when roasting them I only rely on the sound it makes and I've noticed an interesting pattern: if I understood well by following each sound the marshmallow makes when hitting a cooking stage, there are 5 cooking stages represented not only visually but also acoustically. Each stage has a specific jingle with the next sound being high-pitched and at close range to the next one. If the sound distance between the first cooking sound and the second seems to be split in half (1/2), the distance between the second and third cooking stage is approximately 1/4, then 1/8 etc. When I first realized this I relied a lot on sight but finally on December 29th I reached my balance: relying only on the sound it makes. And I can reach nice streaks (even 20-30) by relying on sound while keeping my eyes closed and the finger on Z button. It works better for me to follow the sound rather the look of the marshmallow. It's a minigame I love because it is based on slowness, determination and patience, this is why it's not for everyone. I've seen some users giving up with the first burnt marshmallow. And around that fire I met some very nice users cheering for me while I reached 100 marshmallow in a row.

Sometimes it happened that I cheered or greeted BeepBeepBastard with those lovely stickers and I liked when she replied back. It's nice how that fire brought together many different users and even helped me to develop a skill I didn't think to have developed: roasting marshmallows only by following the sound they make when reaching the right temperature. And stickers were another part I loved because they are all awesome (I admit my favourite is the one with Jonny Utah and Tom kissing XD XD XD along with Pico, Skid&Pump, Edd, Isaac and others). I saw their evolution: from buggy to perfectly functioning ones.

Second element I liked where these ghosts around the hotel but I always wondered what is the purpose of the silent ghost that was first positioned before what then will become the hotel we learned to love and then was put where the Little Candles present is. I don't want to believe I am the only one who tried to speak with him every day of the month XD seriously, I tried to talk to him each day but I always got the "..." reply. Mmmhhhhh....very mysterious. Each ghost has his/her own personality expressed by their speech patterns and I liked that a lot. I loved how the game developed during the month, how each present was added (I loved every single submission posted, I could see the talent and creativity of each artist who put a piece of their soul in this big project).

I loved the style of each character used as skin to chose: we started as Tankmen, G-Bots and Picos and then exploded in a variety of characters. I image Tankmen first arriving in this place and exploring it, then each NG character its appearance. I initially stuck with Red Knight from Castle Crashes since I like them but my love at first sight was Skid and still now I keep using it. I haven't see many Pumps, the only one I remember is Pumpadoodles, a very talented artist I follow who makes great Skid and Pump art. I still have the screenshot of me roasting marshmallows with BeepBeepBastard and Pumpadoodles watching us. This inspired me to draw a fanart to celebrate this experience. I am already making it.

I liked meeting staff members of the game sometimes across the game map and another thing I loved were the music. I congratulate with each musician, you made each day or group of days (some songs could be listened over two or even three days). I've noticed the contrast between other songs and today's song. Today's song has a more somber and melancholic vibe, as if the end has been reached and it gave me a strong feel of nostalgia, that's very rare I experience nostalgia for something that is only one month old. I tend to develop it after an average of four month because that's the period in which I tend to form first memories of an event I experience.

This song looked like Christmas Ghost that brings every thing away and now only a pale memory of what Tankmas has remained, towering on dusted objects used to make this Tankmas memorable. It's still a great song, it fits perfectly the spirit (no pun intended or maybe not :))))
It's very difficult to say which song I loved the most but I think that Starcat Ft. Saulo Mid - Merry TankMas!, Holiday Memories - Tankmas 2024, Santa's Gone, It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas and Ode to Snow are among my favourite songs of this game, especially Ode to Snow because it differs from others because of the synthwave vibe it was, the sound it makes truly makes me feel winter, it's cold but not a dangerous cold, a distant yet refreshing cold that gets warmed by a fire. I listened to it while I was studying too.

I really liked the addition of dialogue trees to NPCs and how they gave you different dialogues if you used a specific skin linked to said character.

Movies were a part I enjoyed a lot especially NGTV Christmas Marathon, Sketch Collab and Dr. Good's Christmas Special but each movie was fantastic because it combined the spirit of the holiday with NG humour which is always a good thing! Comics were another great thing I loved, and I loved them all especially "Pico and Friends Bringing Smiles to All Kids" and "Tankmas Chronicles" (nice reference to "Pico saves Tankmas" of the previous Tankmas). I just love VoicesByCorey's voice acting, his voice fits Pico perfectly. I first discovered him with Pico vs Bear, and then I could enjoy his voice in these Tankmas comics.

I also appreciated a lot that our Pico Cross pieces were included in the game, everyone did an amazing jobs, kudos!

After all this long walltext I want to conclude this review with a personal thank to everyone: from developers, musician, artists to players I met in the game. Thank you for making all of this possible! It was deep honour to be part of this experience and I hope to participate to the next Tankmas (I will participate again). This was my second favourite collab I took part (the first was the Great Homer Collab) but in terms of emotional connection got the first place because I saw its birth, development and evolution. Thank you to everyone! I hope everyone had a serene Christmas/winter holiday. Keep rocking!

Albe responds:

Thanks for playing!! We really appreciate your experience across the month and we're glad you had fun and discovered all the things this huge project had to offer. Have a great 2025!!

[Horizonauts: Run Like Hell]

This is a really cool game that combines a fun yet tricky challenge where you have to combine both mental gymnastic and finger coordination in order to advance in this endless auto-scroller runner. Graphic is very good, animation is fluid, the character is cool and I don't mind the less detailed animation of her running and avoiding obstacles because it helps to focus more on going on and avoiding stuff.

This is a nice game for a series I am discovering only now and I already like it a lot! So good job at promoting the series with this game that I will play it over and over to see if I can beat my current score:

3724m

I read from the description that it's in beta so I hope in future it can be added a high score tab so players can confront their results and have fun. I wonder what coins do for now. They might be used in future for updates and make our hyooman more resistant to hits and obstacles, who knows. In the meanwhile I will continue to enjoy this fun game. I like how the challenge is well balanced with the overall dynamics of the game even though we have yet to see how the game will evolve considering it's still in beta. Even if you lose, it's not frustrating unlike certain games that don't give you satisfaction of mastering the mechanics even by a little.

Keep it up! I love it.

p.s. congrats for the FP and Daily Feature, well-deserved!

p.p.s. if I reach higher scores I will edit the comment by adding them.

new score 04/12/2024:

4408m

score 05/12/2024:

5144m

score 15/12/2024:

9119m
10607m

score 16/12/2024:

11388m
12009m

DynamoToon responds:

Thank you so much for your kind words!


Btw my highscore is 13475 so keep at it hehehe

[Pico-Cross Collab 2023]

May I congratulate to everyone who made this amazing game possible? I love the music of each level, the music at the end, the voice acting and overall story. Just recently I discovered these types of games and despite I still have to learn how to master them, thanks to this game I am finally understanding the basics and logic behind them. It was a really nice brain stretching and exercise that combined a nice balance between difficulty and reward for reaching the solution of the homicide.

Graphics are really cool and enjoyable to watch while solving each nonogram, music helps to concentrate and the challenge has the right amount of difficulty to make it actually interesting and cool. There are many types of solving techniques, the most common are simple boxes, simple spaces etc. To solve them I tried to reason on a single row or column at a time only, then trying another row or column, and repeating until the puzzle is complete but for more complex parts of each level I used the "what if?" reasoning. I searched for contradictions, e.g., when a cell cannot be a box because some other cell would produce an error, I thought "it must be a space" and it worked. A mix of forcing, glue, joining and splitting, and a bit of mercury helped me through the final levels, notably the 4th and 5th. Contradictions are very useful especially after tried an empty cell or space. Basically this procedure includes:

1) trying an empty cell to be a box (or then a space)
2) using all available methods to solve as much as possible
3) if an error is found, the tried cell will not be a box for sure. It will be a space (or a box, if space was tried)

I've also discovered that solving nonogram puzzles is an NP-complete problem. This means that there is no polynomial time algorithm that solves all nonogram puzzles unless P = NP. Little excursus: P versus NP problem is a major unsolved problem in theoretical computer science. Informally, it asks whether every problem whose solution can be quickly verified can also be quickly solved. Since this game was made for Pico Day, and reading the wiki page mentioning that Pico likely would have majored in computer science if he had entered college, I now image him playing a lot with the P versus NP problem just for the fun of it XD

Scroll down the comments below Tom's post and his reply to Oatmeaal back in 2021 and you will find what Pico would have become if events of Pico's School never had happened: https://tomfulp.newgrounds.com/news/post/1182469

Besides the mere element of solving the nonograms, I also enjoyed how this game combined art and gameplay. Each artwork played a role in composing the piece of evidence and this made the gameplay experience even more cool. I LOVED each piece, everyone did an amazing job with their talent and creativity. Really I can't decide which I love the most, each piece entered in my heart. Congrats!

From irl side this period is a bit though but games like this are helping me to feel a lot better and even accomplished because of their level of difficulty. I also discovered to love this type of game. I love this collab, one of the best and sadly I couldn't participate because I didn't have an account back when it was announced, made and released T_T
But if in future there will be another collab like that, I would like to participate and contribute to these gems. Thank you all for making this possible and making us use our brains! You all rock and I wish you all the best!

Fun fact: we know that one of the inventor of this type of game is Non Ishida who, in 1987, won a competition in Tokyo by designing grid pictures using skyscraper lights that were turned on or off. This will led her to the idea of a puzzle based around filling in certain squares in a grid. But coincidentally, a professional Japanese puzzler named Tetsuya Nishio invented the same puzzles independently, and published them in another magazine.

JSuika responds:

yayyy!!!!!!!!! :DD

Yea, 2023's Pico Cross was great ngl! I thought of participating that collab before Pico Day because a lot of people were putting their submissions frankly. :') But overall, I do hope you really enjoyed the game itself! ^^

[Mexican Independence Day Collab Gallery]

I had so much fun participating to this collab, I will upload my finished work soon. Meanwhile I want to congratulate to everyone's contribution. You all did a great job with your creativity and skills. I like them all for their variety of subjects and way to see this day but among my favourites there are dahliaxblack, HapiToons, Aalasteir, omithealien, DosieDonut, Chongus02, Solito, LazyAstronaut3D, MOHD5aqer, BeatleYee, Riveet099, PLJerry, rosarjc, AxolofanX, PepperPotater, Gomogora, NitroOrient, KokoroHatsaru, EmilyRose420's works and many many others.

I love the bright atmosphere each character brings, especially female characters with their vivid-coloured clothes. I like that the bg is simple and doesn't distract from the main protagonists of this collab. The music is lovely but the only thing I feel to point out is that the loop doesn't loop very well. There is a small time gap but other than this it's still enjoyable and relaxing. The long musical piece makes you forget about the loop gap^^

I did enjoy dressing my raven with traditional clothing, I used this photo as reference to be as precise as possible with details: https://turismo.guadalajaravisit.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/MARCAAGUAcharroigcaballo-08.jpg

This occasion gave me opportunity to study a bit more about el charro negro and other traditions linked to this amazing country. Speaking of Mexican culture I still remember when last year in the city I go for University a Mexican woman accompanied us students to visit places of the city she loves. It happened for cultural anthropology course, we visited parts of the city I didn't even know, talked about el Día de los Muertos, its tradition, foods and beverages. In that occasion I fell in love with guava, it has become my favourite fruit. It was amazing listening in rea life, for the first time in my life, Nahuatl language since this woman introduced herself in Nahuatl. It's a language I would like to learn in future. This experience showed me the beauty of seeing your local reality (the city where I go to University) through the eyes of foreign people.

If in future there will be another art Mexican-themed collab and I have free time I will gladly participate again. Congratulations to everyone and Viva México! Viva la Independencia! Vivan los héroes!

p.s. thank you @ElRandomGMD for making me see the small typing error in my secret drawing XD I didn't notice it until now.

ShangXian responds:

p.p.s. CONGRATS FOR THE DAILY FEATURE!

[Valentine's Day Art Collab '24]

After so many months I participated to this awesome collab I would like to review this experience. First of all I loved so much the level of creativity this challenge/collab gave to me. I did tried something similar (St. Valentine-related stuff) in the past some years ago in different places but it didn't left me any memory worth mentioning, this one on the other hand is a different story. I enjoyed so much how this collab made me think in a creative way that combined both artistic skills and the linguistic ability to play with the language in order to make catchy puns.

I always wanted to make a St. Valentine's Day card with a scientific pun in it since I love Science and all its aspects. The problem was to choose the scientific topic and subject. I almost opted for Quantum Mechanics since it can create nice Valentine's Day puns, but then I chose my microraptor OC and I used Paleontology for the purpose. It fit perfectly for my purposes. I loved that this collab allowed me to practice on background too. Backgrounds are my weak point and this occasion was perfect to improve a little bit, plus I missed collabs.

I really like the interface of the gallery, the colours, shapes and animation of the falling hearts make it enjoyable to navigate along with the music, relaxing and catchy at the same time. I see many cool artists with many different styles and messages (I loved every message especially the one about loving yourself too because self-care and self-love are equally important as loving others with care and respect). I looked again at the gallery and I enjoyed it with the same energy I had the first time I saw the gallery.

I want to thank StormyDew for making all of this possible, I hope to participate to something similar the next time, even with a different theme^^
Thank you for the music chosen, I loved it and I would listen to it over and over due to its upbeat tunes that give you strength and hope to go on in the quest for a potential partner. CootieGirl did a great job!

I also commend the talent and styles of the many artists who participated, with their presence they showed clearly how Love has different shapes, hues, thoughts and hopes. Amazing collab, thank you again!

BoiledMilkz responds:

I lost you at "linguistic"

[Sandwich Stacker]

Oh man I remember this game, I used to play it a lot when I was younger and once I tried it I thought "hey, I think to have already played this game" and then after reading other comments my hypothesis was correct. I thank you that you remade this game and made it possible to play it again. I love the graphic, the music so relaxing and tasty ingredients for the sandwich. Now I am hungry and happy.

ElanMakesGames responds:

This review really brightened my day! I'm very glad you liked the game, and thanks so much for checking it out!