ShangXian's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Newgrounds Virtuattack]

What an intense ride trying to be able to defeat each boss and unlock characters. It wasn't always easy because trying to figure out how to unlock 1CC medals got almost jeopardized first times I tried to test some hypothesis. Someone said it's repetitive but I disagree because even if the basic core is a vertical flight where you have to shoot down enemies, the variety of enemies, the dynamics of attacks of each unlocked character, different strategies in boss battles and the objective beautiful pixel art accompanied by the cool music (seriously I would love to add them to my playlist because I love them all but my favourite is the Glitchzone one) make the game very enjoyable and long-lived if you aim at high scores and improving your dodging skills.

Asides from the mere score, I liked the story because as we progress through levels we know something is off. P-bot already warned us in the first level but the fact he was off-line in the third level is foreshadowing for the next one if one pays attention. Admiring ScepterDPinoy's art while playing was a joy for the eye, because I am used to admire it in the shape of artworks but seeing it in a dynamic context such a videogame was quite entertaining and his art is always synonym with quality. I love his attention to details and colours not to mention shapes. It's a highly inspiring art for those like me who like to experiment with pixel art.

The music was another great element of the game which enhanced a lot the 90s Super Nintendo vibes. For those like who lived that era and played those games, seeing this here for NG 30th anniversary was a lovely surprise and this game pays a great tribute to this anniversary. I liked a lot the many references in the game, especially the addition of Peter the Ant, a character I enjoyed to play with in the games he is featured and sadly went a bit under the radar.

As I mentioned above the variety of enemies and attack patterns of both the characters and enemies make the game very lively and I liked trying to figure out how to beat them. I've also noticed that each unlocked character has slightly different enemy appearance, at least in the third level when I played with Sunny Side compared to Nova Pilot, same with other characters in other levels such as the last. Maybe I'm wrong but I liked this variation.

I liked the fact you can increase your score if you manage to hit enemies that appear during extra battles to unlock characters even if this can only happen one time a day since the progress gets reset the next day. Medals weren't easy to unlock especially at the beginning when the requirement to unlock them was to pass each level with no hits. Frankly it was too demanding for those who approach the game, especially those like me XD. In addition to this the large hitbox of the ship sprite, quick attack pattern made this quite unforgiving and I barely managed to unlock the first medal hitless. Because of this I initially gave 4.5 stars but when yesterday I saw the change, and the type of change I wanted to see in terms of medals, I raised to 5 stars. I like when creators are able to change things for the better. Medals heavily rely on positive reinforcement, allowing the game to be long-lived because people are willing to play it again to reach the goal. But if the requirement is too demanding and challenging and it's the sole requirement, then people lose interest and frustration builds up.

The only medal I have yet to unlock is "TRUE GAMER 1CC the game" because I didn't understand what I have to do to unlock it, maybe unlocking all characters in one go?

Besides this I liked boss battles, especially the last one which was very challenging due to that damn pink bullet that follows you and unless you make circular movements in the first 3/4 of the battle and then go at the side of the screen and use zig-zag to avoid its attacks in the last part of the battle, winning this battle is quite difficult. I posted below a video on the strategy I used to avoid being hit.

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I share here some visual tips on how to beat the last boss since it's not that easy being able to unlock last character and win in a single go the game:

https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/6646b448c883aed497788298ef50daf6

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This was a true tribute to a site that made Internet culture history with its priority on creativity and art in every shape. Thank you for making this game, I will play it again to figure out the last medal but also to beat my own score.

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UPDATE 11/07/2025: I finally managed to get the last medal, a true hell for someone like me who is not that used to arcade shooter games (I've played very few in my life), and you know what? I technically unlocked this medal twice, because the first time it unlocked in-game but not on my profile simply because API decided to disconnect the moment I got it, so I had to redo everything with lots of attempts, anger and an immense amount of resentment. Resentment and determination were the fuel that allowed me to finally get it. It was intense and in a way it taught me a lot about myself (I'm not someone who gives up easily if I know I can manage to reach the goal and this applies to everything, not just games).

I forgot to add in my review that I liked how varied the boss fights were, the first one is pretty easy, just position yourself on the opposite side where the tank fires and keep firing, the third boss is perfect for farming points and increase your score (and yes I want to beat my own score) but it's also a fight of resistance (avoid touching glitches) and patience since you just have to position yourself on the side of the battlefield and wait for the perfect moments to hit both Peter and the teacher. Paradoxically the boss fight I found very anxiety-inducing (if you aim at 1CC game medal) is the second boss, because there are no safe zones to locate and you have to dodge the attack in a mimicking way, in some parts, the boss's attacks. Small circular movements to dodge the poop clocks and the boss's fire. To be extra safe slide on the sides. The fourth boss fight is mostly about resistance and dodging skills while the small pink bullet follows you especially in the last 1/4 of the battle. Alternatively you can also go very upwards, position yourself on the sides and keep firing; this way you don't have to worry about getting hit. It's a curious thing I discovered casually while battling P-Bot boss.

Another advice I want to share, and I thank @qwerty741 for telling me (so all credits go to him), is to disable the invert focus which is set on "ON" by default, because doing so will actually slow your movements when you need to perform micro-dodges. If it's set on "ON", pressing shift to focus will speed you up instead of slowing you down, while your default movement speed is slow instead.

Good luck to everyone who aims at the 1CC medal, you will need lots of patience, focused study of enemies attack pattern, level structure and boss fights, training of eye, brain, reflexes and hands movements and resentment!

A suggestion for the creator of the game: I know "SHIFT" key (left to be precise) is the default key of slowing down movements when dodging attacks (if set "OFF"), but how about making key "X" or "C" the invert focus default key? Why am I asking this? Because in my personal experience I have troubles with fingers if I want to slowly dodge attacks in small areas and firing at the same time. Fingers are too distant for my likings and I have to be very quick if I want to perform such act which can be difficult in some parts where there is a fast-paced succession of enemies attacks. And because of this I never used that key. A more close key to the SPACEBAR one would make things easier. But as I said it's just a suggestion.

Last tip I would like to give to others: use Pee Man, after unlocking him, because I found him the best both when it comes to score (my highest score is thanks to him) and the wider attack range due to the nature of his fire or liquid in this case. Pee Man helps a lot more at clearing up areas and enemies. Pilot Nova and Sunny Side are good too, while I found Boyfriend and the white guy, whose name I can't remember, the worst in terms of attack range and type of attack.

Well, that's all folks!

Default responds:

Wow, thank you so much! I'm really glad you enjoyed the game and it's super cool that you managed to unlock all the characters!

1CC means 1 credit clear so True Gamer requires you to beat the whole game without losing a credit. We'll see if anyone actually manages to get that medal legitimately. Might remove it eventually if not

[Blue Vortex]

My current best is 00:01:52.73 but besides this, I enjoyed this game a lot despite its difficulty. I remember I first encountered this game last year but at that time I haven't developed any skill for these types of games, so I pretty much abandoned it to re-discover it yesterday evening with a different mindset. It was an intense experience that made me discover your other games which are challenging but highly satisfying once you understand how to beat it (this is a trait of other games of yours). I can see a potential inspiration from Accelerator but it also has its own charm.

It's an addictive and immersive gaming experience that tests your reflexes and eye ability to adapt to relatively high speed. I feel to give some tips to best optimize the experience:

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First use a mouse rather than the touchpad. Movements are a lot easier to manage and control, and it gives a higher sense of control which is always a nice element in hard games tbh (it may help to keep frustration at check).

Second study the types of obstacles: I've noticed there are the big ones with circular holes that move a different speed, the rotating big cross, and the asterisk. I love the asterisk the most because they have large areas to cross and allow you to see easily the next obstacles, giving you enough time to prepare a strategy.

The rotating cross can be a pain in the ass if you don't make small circular movement with the mouse to enter the empty area and avoid being hit by the cross arm. I personally go past the lower parts of the cross (usually from the left) because it gives me control of movement and prepares me to the next obstacle.

The big ones are relatively easier to manage as long as you just enter the hole the very moment you see it.

First times you will lose a lot because the eye and hand must adapt to the speed and these neon-colours which can be distracting sometimes if you are too focused. Worry not though, the learning curve is pretty fast once you make almost 20 tries. You will notice this once you see the resistance time increasing slowly but steadily.

pro-tip: maximize the advantage you have the first time you start the game because only during this moment, obstacles are away from each other, giving many empty spaces that allow the player to gain time and study better obstacles themselves. If you lose the following games start immediately with more obstacles, making more difficult to reach one minute. So if this happens, just reload the page and you will get this advantage with few obstacles at the beginning of the path not in close-range one from another.

I was already mastering most of the game but once I've noticed this nice exploit, I took advantage and allowed me to get the medal.

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Really cool experience with nice and simple graphic, challenging but easy to manage difficulty and overall satisfying medal. Thanks for making it.

Mantis1 responds:

Thanks for your review and gameplay tips!!

[Claret]

I applaud this game, it was one of the few games that gave me "heart palpitations" due to its strong fast pace combined with the need for near perfect timing to get through certain levels. This game is the opposite of who I am in video games; I love taking my time to study a level, I'm even willing to do very slow and repetitive actions if these then give me a strong advantage towards the end. I love grinding. This game was a step out of my gaming comfort zone. It was an intense, strong experience that managed to combine a good level of raging, skill, timing and satisfying achievements. When I started the first levels I didn't know that I could jump on walls and with wall jumps move to the next platform to complete the level, and I was very disoriented at first XD
Then when I discovered the wall jumps some levels were very easy to overcome others much less so.

Jigsaw, Gungun and Alley were the levels I hated the most due to the many attempts I had to do to complete them, while Obelisk was my favourite because it forced me to think outside the box with that perfect spacing that allowed me to take a huge jump to reach the end. Ultimatum was annoying af but I managed to finish it and it was extremely satisfying seeing last achievement unlocking. This game combined good rewards, that kept the player engaged to continue playing, and challenging levels. The difficulty wasn't always linear though, some levels were easier than others, for example Bowser was easier than previous levels I had to deal with.

I also really liked the twist of the blood killing you if you stay in it too long. The game would have been difficult without the blood, but with the addition of this detail the difficulty level increased significantly which is not bad for games of this type. For someone like me, a game like this was a great challenge that left me with something in terms of video game skills. Obviously I will always be a casual gamer, but this game made me grow in terms of reflexes and eye-finger coordination. Congratulations, it's one of my favorite games among the difficult games made here on Newgrounds and that make you ragequit a lot.

10/10!

larrynachos responds:

Claret enjoyer in 2025?! Let's friggin gooo

[Cherry Against The Sewers [1.2.1]]

This was an interesting game to experience. I liked how challenging is since the character doesn't have any defense against those pesky rats. The pixel art is adorable, the chiptune sounds when you eliminate rats, and the music is fantastic. Each level has a fitting music, even the ending music rocks! I love the tracks, but the Sunset Factory track is my favourite one, it rocks, fits very well the atmosphere and the fact it's the last level and has a lively, aggressive tune. Mastering each level is not easy but once you know how to take advantage and use the rat flow, the levels are not only manageable but also very entertaining to do. It's rare a game with such premises (no defense, instant death in case you are touched, mastering controls and take advantage of your environment, etc.) entertains me a lot, but this game managed to do so.

It's curious that, after I beat the game three times in a row (even getting all coins), I still find the first level of first world one of the trickiest because you don't have wooden surfaces to land on and wait patiently for the rats to come and stun them. A trick that may help is immediately going to the areas you want to cover before too many rats begin to occupy the zone. After mastering the speed, jumps and timing, the game becomes easy to handle. In level third one must be careful not to fall down since there are no platforms in some narrow areas. I liked that because it forces the player to focus globally on the level, stay alert of rats and time jumps. I admit I chuckled when I saw Cherry breaking the fourth wall in the idle animation XD (she looks directly at you).

There is a bug/glitch I've found with rats: some of them seem to be softlocked/stuck inside the tubes they come out and others even remain stuck in the hit animation as if they are about to turn upside down but remain blocked in the animation. It's funny but also dangerous because if you try to jump on them or touch them you get instantly killed because of the partial regular animation along with the stun animation.

I've noticed the game takes a bit to load the first time you play it.

The only medal I'm trying to get is the secret medal, I wonder what I have to do to get it. I thought that collecting all coins would have helped but nothing happened. It mentions Duster Cube but I don't know what it means. Besides this I enjoyed the game, but there is only one thing I feel to criticize because it can be annoying when you try to progress a level but you get stuck because you first need to master it; life system. It's a bit frustrating when you have to redo from the first level after you almost reached the end (the extra lives you can get in the mini games are a nice balance though) but you get killed by one of the rats or miscalculated the jump. Nothing too seriously frustrating unlike other games I could try, because the learning curve is pretty linear and after you can take advantage of the rats and their movement flow, you can reach last level even with one single life (I won fir the first time with one life).

Really nice experience I discovered thanks to DrSaturn2's profile when checking her profile. Keep it up!

YoshehLvl4Artist responds:

wow, I didn't expect one day to read such a detailed review of something I've done, really thank you so much for your comments! I didn't think that someone would really be interested in “mastering” the levels, especially considering that the movement of cherry and the rats is almost completely “fixed” (like, they jump and fall at the same speed, walk always at the same speed, etc...I'll see how to give it more variety).

Regarding the bug of the rats staying softlocked I have it clear and I'm trying to see how to fix it for the next update, the code of the rats is a bloody mess XD

I also want to see how to improve the lives system, I was thinking that every certain amount of points you get a life, but I don't know exactly how many points it should be...

(now that I think about it, the secret medal is a bit unfair...but it involves banging your head against a wall, I'll just say that it's in the third level of some world...)

well, again, many thanks for you criticism dude! hope you have a really nice day :)

[K.O.L.M.]

*clapping sounds*

Bravo, bravo, bravo! This game has officially entered in my personal list of my top 5 most favourite games I ever played here on NG. I wish I had discovered it ages ago, but finally I discovered it today and I played until end. It was an intense experience that blended very well with my nature: exploring slowly an environment, studying it, and completing collectibles 100% if I can, and even in case I can't, I will do it again. I loved the procedural-like mechanics of the gameplay where you gradually build yourself. In a way it reminded me a pregnancy and a birth because the character started off as blind or at least with a very blurry sight, typical of altricial species (species who need parental care since the beginning in which the young are underdeveloped at the time of birth, but with the aid of their parents mature after birth). Our movements were very slow at the beginning because we didn't even had legs and we were defenseless against even the most common enemies, just like a baby that starts his/her first steps in the world. I immediately noticed there were something very off in the mother, her words felt very cold and toxic, almost narcissistic. I say this because narcissistic parents, when they have children, tend to use the golden child syndrome as way to validate their narcissistic behaviours and set of values by favouring a child and scapegoating another in case they have more than one child. I've sensed that when the protagonist mentioned his brothers, I could sense his need to be validated, to please people. Even his brothers were used by this mother as they all ended up falling down one by one. So sad...

The graphic of the game fits perfectly the metroid-like games and the sense of emptiness with this limited colour palette besides the blue, green and red as main background colours of these three big levels. And speaking of levels, I adored exploring them all. The game truly managed to keep me engaged for almost 90 minutes (yes, I've taken my time to explore and simply observe the map. I liked how each of them, and even each sub-section, made you think and try to find solutions while seeing part of the map you have yet to explore. The slow-paced rhythm of the game at attaining upgrades made it very enjoyable to explore and even completing 100% with the letters. I liked getting them all after finishing main story. Hahahahah, the run part gave me anxiety due to the time XD but I enjoyed it nonetheless because with all my upgrades I can go through everything.

Another strong point of this game, and many games should take inspiration from your, is the sense of accomplishment after getting upgrades, and yet the mother was never satisfied. She always wanted more, because she wants control. That's typical of narcissistic parents and people in general (how I hate them with a burning passion due to all the hurt they generate to others, even destroying mirro neurons in their victims that only therapy can re-build from scratch). The game also managed to play with the player's emotions because it created a sense of attachment to K.O.L.M. and seeing it being about to be destroyed hurts even more after everything you did to please that mother.

I've found a funny glitch that happened to me after I tried to get another plate piece for the sentence at the beginning of the game, I show it here:

https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/0c9abd470e4d0177db020c5b69e6e1e9

When I tried to slide through the narrow area, I slipped outside the map and I saw the map changing angle and the camera began to take a look at the direction where the robot fell down XD basically zooming out the map.
I've seen the ball enemy floating outside the map, it was funny because I could go through the area without worrying about it. Nothing wrong actually, I found it creepy and funny at the same time. I simply restarted the game and I was happy, after clicking "continue", that I was in the same area to get the metal piece with the letter.

The music was another fantastic element that added a further layer to the game with its melancholic musical signature, in one of them "Counting down the hours", made me cry while playing it and I had to stop briefly to recover myself. It's a deep, touching game that has all traits I love and want in a game:

-touching music whether it's sad, melancholic, happy or epic, I don't care as long as it suits the mood of the plot and levels.
-engaging gameplay with a strong sense of accomplishment after getting a power-up regardless of its difficulty (I've played some badly-drawn games that satisfied me in terms of accomplishment and I still remember them with affection).
-clear controls (I liked how you were guided, like a child actually, in using the different keys to progress in the game).
-story (it's not mandatory for me that a game should always have a story, but in the case it has one, it should be coherent and add a sense of a developing plot that unveil through the game, even with small hints).

This game had everything I want in a game, this is why I gave it 5 stars but in my heart it was 10 stars, it's truly beautiful and I will play it again because I genuinely love it and I grew attached to the lore. I know there is a second game. I will play it after I will recover from this one. Congratulations for the FP and other trophies, truly deserved and yes "it's kinda like metroid" ;)

The-EXP responds:

Wow, what a lovely in depth review! I'm really glad you enjoyed it! Yeah theres a bunch of errors from the original game and a few more from modern ways to play it but nothing hugely breaking. Maybe one day I'll revisit it and fix it up a little. Thanks so much for taking so much time to write this, very much appreciated :)

[Windowz 98 NetTowns Edition]

Time to finally review this game that I enjoyed so much minus a small thing that I will mention later in the review, but first let's focus on elements that had me spend hours reading most of the web pages (except for fanfiction because frankly I never enjoyed them and most of the time they are not even well written). This simulator superbly managed to recreate the atmosphere of 90s Internet especially in its last years. It reproduced the same vibe and feel even on a visual and sound level. I had my first PC in 1995 where I could play my first games on PC such as Wolfenstein 3D, Duke Nukem 3D and many others (I learnt Europe capitals and countries thanks to a geography game). I had Internet Explorer but at that time I couldn't connect to Internet because we couldn't afford it and my parents didn't even know how to connect to it. So I spent my days looking at that small world icon thinking "wow, that's the window to the world, through that window I can see the world, I can connect to the world, I can know different worlds".

I had goosebumps when I saw that icon, one day I even tried to click on it and I see the image of the computers connecting to each other but beyond this nothing happened (I also feared that connecting to it I would suck up telephone bills XD but that was silly me when I was little, lol). I liked drawing with Paint, this is one of the draws I mad in the game:

https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/4ece16bc6ae0ec0d75b12633ebaff51d

The part I enjoyed the most was Internet Explorer especially Politics and Conspiracies theories. The conspiracy theory I loved the most was the British one XD I laughed my ass off when reading it but at the same time it allowed me to see the thinking process of a conspiracy theorist. I admit I miss those conspiracy theorists because at that time they put effort in their nonsense, now it's just rage, disrespect for science and lack of thinking process. Reading the world events was a jump in the past because I lived all these events and the one that left a mark in me was the Balkan wars and Kosovo wars. I still remember as if it was yesterday when I was about to get on the bus to go to school and I saw two fucking McDonnell Douglas F-15E Strike Eagles flying over my head to go to Kosovo

A bit oh history of this strike fighter: in August 1993, F-15Es from 492nd and 494th FS deployed to Aviano, Italy. In late 1993, NATO ordered a limited F-15E strike at Udbina airfield, targeting Serbian forces in neighboring Croatia. Eight F-15Es armed with GBU-12s took off to attack an SA-6 anti-aircraft vehicle; the mission was cancelled mid-flight over the application of stringent Rules of Engagement. In August 1995, in support of NATO's Operation Deliberate Force, F-15Es flew strike missions against Serbian armor and logistics around the Bosnian capital, Sarajevo. On 9 September, an F-15E deployed the type's first GBU-15 bomb; dropping nine on Bosnian-Serb ground forces and air defense targets near Banja Luka. Then in response to the displacement of Kosovars and the Serbian government's rejection of a NATO ultimatum, Operation Allied Force was launched in March 1999. A total of 26 F-15Es flew the first strikes of Allied Force against Serb surface-to-air-missile sites, anti-aircraft batteries and early warning radar stations.

Why did I mention this? Because this links to a scene I saw on TV during the 1999 NATO bombings of Yugoslavia: the bombing of Hotel Jugoslavija. Maybe this name doesn't tell you much but to me this hotel has a special place in my heart because it was the hotel my parents and I went after they adopted me in Romania. They brought me to this hotel which was one of the oldest luxurious Serbian hotels. It is located in the Zemun municipality. The hotel was opened in 1969 as "one of the most comfortable and most luxurious" hotels in Yugoslavia, and "among top 5 largest and most beautiful hotels in Europe." I can guarantee you that the food was excellent (Serbian cuisine is fantastic, try it if you ever have occasion!), service spot on, the waiters were very kind, everything was perfect.

It was used as an accommodation for celebrities and high officials visiting Belgrade, as president Tito included the hotel in his official protocol. Some of the famous people who stayed in the Hotel Jugoslavija include Queen Elizabeth II, Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, U Thant, Willy Brandt, Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, Buzz Aldrin, Belgian and Dutch royals, Luis Echeverría, athletes, artists and so on. Well, during these fucking bombings the hotel was hit and damaged during the night of 7/8 May 1999. Two attacks, two missiles in the first and one more in the second, left the building unusable. The west wing was damaged, while the annex and the north wing were thoroughly demolished. Reconstruction began in October 1999. Only parts were fully renovated, while other parts were only fixed enough to stop further collapse. The hotel was reopened on 31 December 1999, with the New Year's Eve party.

I was glad the hotel managed to be reopened, but trust me that seeing it ruined because of bombings on television was like being stabbed right in the heart because part of me has been destroyed.

sad fact: the structure was demolished in January 2025
https://creativesunite.eu/article/the-jugoslavija-hotel-is-being-demolished-and-belgrade-is-rapidly-uprooting-the-modernist-legacy-of-the-socialist-era

rest in peace, you were a good hotel....

Thank you for letting me discover možeš da nam pušiš Klintone, as someone who studied Serbo-Croatian, hearing the lyrics was easy to understand overall meaning and now I can't stop singing it XD this is why I love Serbian spirit, they can held heads up even in the darkest moments. Ofc I know how complicated is the Balkan because the more you study about it (and I don't mean just Balkans in the 90s but I mean Balkans from 13th to 19th century and we went through a lot, as Romanian I can confirm), the more you have questions than answers. By the way here the entire video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42PcV8Gch_Q

I loved noticing the singer also sang Bandiera Rossa. Bandiera Rossa (Italian, 'Red Flag'), often also called Avanti Popolo after its opening words is one of the most famous songs of the Italian labour movement. It glorifies the red flag, symbol of the socialist and communist movements. The text was written by Carlo Tuzzi in 1908; the melody is taken from two Lombard folk songs.
Plus I loved seeing all those flags, awww Greece *_*

I found very interesting the part about George W. Bush, I read his biography with interest because I didn't know some elements. A thing that characterized 90s Internet was the massive presence of personalized web pages where people created personal space to share their interests or slice of life. I did enjoy reading these parts and I read in the description of your game that without Internet Archive the game couldn't have been possible and this resonates very much considering that right now Internet Archive is facing a threat of being sued of $700 million by important record labels, here a journal to know more about it if you are interested (sorry for spam, but I think it's important since the game is also a product of this gem, plus in the blog you find other blogs talking about it):

https://yatsufusa.newgrounds.com/news/post/1530391

I liked how that Internet was characterized by these wacky sites, pages, fanpages (seriously the Friends vs Seinfeld had me crack XD, that was the best part of the Celebrity and Pop Culture section). I like how back in the 90s not all people knew how to make decent-looking pages, some pages were a pain in the eyes because of bright colours and bright backgrounds, lol.

And now the only part I feel to criticize: AOL Runner mini game. The game itself is cute and enjoyable but if you aim at getting the last medal, which I suppose is 100 points worth, prepare for a lot of frustration and ragequit. I managed to get the first two medals, but this one is a pain in the ass because:

1) the speed at which the game goes reaches a point that is almost impossible for the eyes to keep the pace. I am trying every possible strategy (keeping an eye on the moving obstacles, using the arrow as focal point, etc.) but nothing seems to work because there is another element that makes the minigame quite unfair

2) unbalance between obstacles and resources (coins and clocks). I see more obstacles than resources and I've noticed that each match changes location and frequency at which resources may appear. In some combinations, like I called them, I can find clocks and coins relatively at the beginning, helping me to reach decent scores and keep up, but in others I struggle and after 300-400 points speed becomes too fast to keep with the eyes.

I sometimes think that only birds and flies could play this game since they have high Flicker Fusion Frequency (FFF) which refers to the rate at which a flickering light appears to become a continuous, steady light. Humans typically have an FFF around 60Hz. This means that if a light flickers faster than 60 times per second, we perceive it as constant. However, many birds, especially smaller, agile species, have a much higher FFF. Some studies have shown that small songbirds have an FFF of over 140hz. This means they are able to see flickers that to us would appear as constant light. Because of this, birds can detect rapid movements and changes in their environment that humans miss. Because they can process visual information faster, they see more ‘frames’ of the action and therefore can very accurately track the movement of the threat. This gives them an opportunity to anticipate the predator’s trajectory and take evasive action. A high FFF contributes to a more detailed perception of the environment so birds can discern the fine details of a predator’s movements, such as very small changes in body posture or direction. This can help the bird to see the very beginning of an attack and, therefore, react quicker.

I think that in order to make more obtainable this difficult medal a nice balance between resources and obstacles would be nice: maybe adding them more at the beginning and then making them less frequent once you reach around 800 points.

I also wonder if velocity increases with incremental speed or if it reaches a maximum and stays that way. Congrats to RomWatt for being the first to have achieved it, I hope others will make it. In the meantime I will try to reach that too because it's the last medal I would like to unlock. I also reached 1123 points but NG servers crashed when I was playing and the game didn't register the score and is still at 1048....

Besides this only negative element I still liked the game a lot and I read and re-read those web pages. Thank you for making it, for the FP and Daily Feature, totally deserved all of them^^

UPDATE 29/04/2025: I finally managed to get the 1,500 points medal of the AOL Runner minigame. It was a pain in the ass but worth under certain aspects because I could train my mind and breath during these constant failures.

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I made a walkthrough for AOL Jumper minigame: https://shangxian.newgrounds.com/news/post/1531535

It will be updated in case of updates and/or changes

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NickSenny responds:

bro...

[Dadd - Les aventures de Teltok Part14]

This game has a really nice visual appeal and I like the soft colours of the environment, it really gives a calm, relaxing vibe of an oneiric experience towards a world full of mysteries to unravel. I like the overall vibe the game gives you and the style is lovely. Controls aren't always intuitive but overall you understand how to use them and which ones to use. I like the sound of footsteps and even though there doesn't seem to be a soundtrack yet, I like the lack of external sounds, maybe adding some natural sounds would give a more immersive experience. Despite everything I like exploring this world, however I noticed a bug that occurs every time I reach this area, shown here in my dump file:

https://www.newgrounds.com/dump/item/9ca9b0f0bdc604d54c276c56bfcdf3bf

Every time I try to go up the first step, the animation seems to glitch and it takes me back to this step. I've already tried reloading the page several times but I still get this problem. This is not the first time I see this game in the UJ section of Portal, and even back then I encountered a bug that blocked my character in a previous area. I understand the need to fix the problem. Now I notice that that bug is gone but there is this other bug. I gave it 4 stars because the game is very promising despite this bug that I hope will be fixed because I would genuinely like to continue exploring this dream world. I hope it will be fixed so that I can also give it a higher rating and a much more thoughtful review.

Best of luck with your game, and congrats for making it with flash back in 2012^^

anthony-p responds:

Thanks a lot ShangXian for playing it : o ) No it's not a bug, it's just because i'm in a "work in progress" and the part where the character can't move is the part i am working on to continue it.
Because this game is a old Flash game project from 2012 and he is only runnig with a very recent RuffleJS emulator : i am testing if the game is running well in Newgrounds and i upload theses Preview to see if people on Newgrounds are arriving to playing it good conditions : o )

Music and other sound are in the original old 2012 version, i'm working on adding it to the game very soon.

I see some comment so this is the proof that my game is working well with others in this page. So i will upload other finished part, and upload very soon all the next parcours.

[OLDCAT / Cat ilusory kill robot]

This probably one of the shortest reviews on a work due to a series of things that made me lower the score from its initial 4 stars (mainly due to the cute pixel art and catchy music which I enjoyed) to 3. The very first thing that is greatly noticeable is the non-existent function of arrow keys, initially when the game was UJ the keys were W and S. I tried to use them and they didn't work, now that I see in the description the keys are Up and Down arrows, they still don't work like HerrGammelig rightfully pointed out. I've noticed that if I press many times I manage to move a bit the character with the Down arrow but nothing happens if I do the same with the Up arrow.

Another thing I've noticed is that every time I reload the page and the game starts an ad appears below the game, nothing too problematic since I can just remove it by clicking on X. It's just curious that it appears, but it doesn't jeopardize the gameplay experience.

Last but not least the joypad that can be used as alternative to the non-functioning arrow keys may be useful but I've noticed that sometimes when I press it down to make the character go down, it seems to freeze and let the character continue going down unless I stop it. This can be pretty annoying if you try to shoot the robots in a fast way.

Another thing I didn't understand is that if I have to destroy all robots in each corner or I have to move up and down across the corner of the planet to kill as much as I can. A strange thing I've noticed that once the game ends (and I still don't know if there is a time limit or not) ending titles (the famous "thanks for playing") go down instead of up like they usually do. Maybe it's a bug or a glitch that needs to be fixed.

I have few suggestions to improve the game and make possible getting the last achievement that is becoming quite frustrating to me (congrats to the first 5 people who got it):

-make instructions more clear both in the description and in the game
-fix the arrow controls since they don't work at all
-add an "option" section in-game where one can decide to switch from arrows to in-game joypad and viceversa
-add description of the enemies in this hypothetical "Instruction" section of the game, where it's explained their weak points and how to avoid their multiplication in order to optimize a strategy.

I understand that a 100 points medal require a lot of effort but with these conditions it gets very difficult for majority of players. Hope this helps, good luck.

UPDATE 19/04/2024: I finally got the last medal, I will share my personal tip on how to get it since I think to have found what might have caused its difficulty to get it.

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The last medal, 100 points worth, is not easy to get and not because of the task itself but of the game mechanics that seem to trigger the game ending. I explain myself better, hoping that others that will get it might confirm or disprove what I think. When you move the character you can shoot robots very closely and wait for them to spawn to kill many in a short time. I've noticed that when I try to apply this strategy when I get closer to 80 the game ends with the "thank you for playing" text and the medal doesn't unlock, maybe I even reached the score but trying to shoot many robots at once will trigger this glitch/bug. So I thought to kill some of them in a fast way (wait for them to spawn, and kill en mass) until I stop and wait in my starting spot for them to regenerate, then I go up or down (I preferred to go up) and kill one or two robots at time, then I wait for them to regenerate/partially regenerate and repeat the process. This slow and more patient way allowed me to finally get the medal.

But of course others more expert than me, who will get it (good luck with that!), might correct me in case this tip doesn't work and if they find a more effective way to get it I will update this tip.

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So my judgement is the same; lots of stuff to improve, starting from the controls otherwise the experience is quite frustrating if you aim at medal hunting.

SketBestReal responds:

Thanks so much, I'm going to fix the controls, maybe there was a code that does a "release" instead of "Pressed" when typing on the keyboard