Score: 4

"Passable"

submission: Red Spriter

date: June 10, 2009

There were some good points to this flash but also some major flaws.

Firstly, you have decent skills at sprite animation. It was smooth, kept it's pace up and sound was synched properly to the animation. The camera angle change was very fluid - as were the zooms in and out. The use of faded sprites and blurs managed to give speed and more impact to the flash.

However, it lacked in plot. As there was no backstory given it's nothing especially worth watching. It has no distinguishing features from any other sprite animation that involves fighting.

Furthermore, the concept is overdone to death. Super mario fighting ANY other character in sprite format is so unoriginal it's not worth doing. If you want to showcase your animation skills, give it a fresher context.

And one more thing that caught my attention was a very long pause in the middle of the animation where you tried to show slow-motion. The problem with it was that there was too little movement and it lasted far too long, which sort of ruined the pace of the flash, which put me off despite the fast recovery.

All in all, good animation but not very enthralling. If you do anything else in the future I hope you take my pointers on board and the best of luck to you.

Score: 10

"I do love sunshine"

submission: Sunshine: Blue

date: August 29, 2007

Firstly, I would like to say that Blue is my favourite colour. Kudos to you.
The sun is kinda cute too.
The song has also become a personal favourite since the sunshine flashes started.
The hidden messages are always good but penispops is a bit over done now.

Only real complaint I have is that the song doesn't loop. That aside, please continue.

Score: 6

"Some good quality, but needs improving."

submission: Jay Short # 1!

date: July 22, 2007

Graphics for this were quite good. They didn't need to be incredibly amazing, and they weren't terrible either. However, the grass and sky was too plain. Maybe adding a little more shading and clouds would help.

Jay himself was very well drawn, however the feet didn't look very consistent. The head was definitely the best part. However, the red bits around his teeth made them look like they were floating.

The way in which you changed the angles was fluidy done, but could use a few more angles in between to make it that little bit smoother.

Loved the little tune playing through the flash. Added a great feel to it. However, the running sound effect did get annoying after a while.

To Improve....
I'd add a bit more animation, such as at the end, show Jay actually eating the dog. A bit of back story on why Jay likes to eat dogs would also help boost your score. People like story lines. So next time, maybe try something about a disturbed childhood.

Good luck in future.

Score: 7

"A flash worth watching. 4/5"

submission: Take you to a Gay Bar...

date: May 7, 2007

This had some very good graphics. The animation was incredibly smooth, and the band members looked quite realistic, but with a distinct style to them. The way they stood and head banged was quite interesting, however their lower halves were far too stationary. The facial expressions were a nice touch, but again they didn't change and I feel that let the animation down just a tiny bit. If you could give them a cycle of three or so little expressions, I feel that would improve the flash a little more.

The way in which after the lyrics were sang you would swap out to a crudely drawn character was entertaining, even if it has been done so many times already.

A nice choice of song, one of which I haven't seen a music video of before this. So you get points for originality there. Lip syncing to the vocals was very well done and deserves a large measure of recognition. I do not feel you can really improve on this area of the animation, except by making it longer. The overwhelming shortness of it was quite disappointing, and it soon explained to me why this did not have a higher score.

The play and replay buttons were fine. Loading time wasn't too long either.

Overall, I feel this has a great deal of potential and has already achieved much of it, but working on those aspects which I have mentioned earlier in the review would help it get that little bit closer to it's ultimate credit to your apparent skill. Good luck with futre projects.

Score: 7

"Memorable."

submission: The Accident##

date: April 9, 2007

First off I think it's important to say that no matter what the visible qualities of this flash were, the message was the most important part. Sure, it might not change anything but it's still something that needs to be hammered into the way people think.

Secondly, the graphics. The boys were incredibly well drawn Especially the one who ran away. I think I liked his drawing more because he didn't have a black outline like the other one. The way they moved was also very fluid and realistic. The way their hair was flung around was quite admirable, and if you could do the same with clothing I feel it would make it even better. Your call though, I don't feel it is absolutely necessary.
The blood was a little strange. It was very good in the first moments of spillage, but when it trickled down the road it seemed to be a little jerky an sudden. However, the glistening effect was very, very well done.
The truck could have had a little more than just a shape that moved, even if it was a very well drawn shape.
The backgrounds were superb. I really noticed the sun and how it gave the sky a red tint.

The sound was good. Realistic noises from the boys, the sound effects were good and there wasn't anything overly intrusive to the rest of the environment of the flash.

I think a replay button would have been appreciated, as it took more than one viewing to really appreciate everything, instead of having to wait a long time for it to go back to the start. I understand that you wanted people to take time out to read the message but if you left that about 4 or 5 seconds and then slowly faded a replay button in, that would be a little better I feel.

Concerning the writing, I think that the title was just a little too bright and harder to read than it could have been, and the font for the ending was just terrible. Everything else had a grace and smoothness to it and then the message was just jerky and harsh.

All in all, a very pleasing effort that makes me want to see more flash from you. Keep it up!

Score: 7

"Good quality."

submission: Global Defense System

date: April 8, 2007

So first we wipe out the human race with a pandemic then we protect the world from asteroids, huh? There must be a kind side to that evil genius behind these games.

At first I was ready to dismiss this as any old defense game. It quickly became apparent that this was going to be harder than most. Only three guns and up to 500 asteroids coming at Earth led to a rather unfair feeling. However, it did add to the challenge and the player needed to upgrade, and upgrade fast. If it wasn't for those short range turrets I think the game would quickly end.

The controls were a little intimidating at first, but then their simplicity became more apparent with prolonged use. The aiming system was ordinary enough, but I think that the weapon switching was a little different. Instead of being given access to each gun every few levels and having a hundred choices that required just as many buttons there were only 6 buttons to press, which usually didn't see a lot of use unless one became absolutely desperate and had to fire off three anti matter missiles at once.

Speaking of those anti matter missiles, I simply fell in love with all the different coloured explosions and the chain reactions they set off. The game would have been, in my opinion, a lot less fun without them.

Unfortunately the sound was a disappointment. The monotone of the laser quickly grew boring and at times just plain annoying. Maybe you could add in a little variety so there is a slightly different noise every three or so shots? Not necessary but it'd be nice if such a thing was done.

All in all, a very well done game that deserves its place on the front page and with a little work could become one of those games that stays on the top 50 for a few years.

Score: 6

"Average, but still okay."

submission: Frax's World Ep. 9

date: December 10, 2006

Well first and foremost, loved the character designs. The cartoony feel to them was great and they really suited their environments. The use of shading was good as was how you drew light onto their hair. The eyes were pretty good as well, and the different head shapes gave ti a bit of variety. However, the Boss's belly was really the wrong shape and looked like it had been rushed. The little tint on his shades was a nice touch.
However, while you put a good amount of effort into the drawings, you didn't animate them enough. Quite often the characters would just stand around and not move at all, which in my opinion ruined an otherwise great flash. You should work on having every character always doing something, even if it's something as little as their chest rising and falling. The gun was another thing that was poorly animated. Instead of having it flick back from recoil every time it was fired, it usually just stayed in the same place. Try to incorporate a bit of reality into the flash next time. Also, there was no flash whenever it was fired and only once did I see a bullet, when the SWAT guy was shot. Don't get lazy when working on things, it really does boost up the quality, and therefore the score.
The backgrounds were well done, but looked a little plain at bits, such as at the very start where it was mostly the wall and floor which had no real distinguishing features other than slightly different colours, but after furniture started appearing it was fixed.
I also thought the sand paper effect at the menu was a nice little touch.

The sound and music was great, as were most of the voices. The only thing that really let it down was when there was a sudden lack of sound (Falling out the window, for example.) If you could try to always have a bit of atmospheric noises, such as police sirens, but not so loud they dominate everything or overrun the voices.
Speaking of voices, Boss's voice was difficult to understand at parts because it was too quiet. Maybe add a subtitles feature so people don't have to turn their volume up? Loved the credits music by the way, but ended far too quickly. You could have played it at the menu too.

Graphically the flash wasn't very violent, which is probably a good thing. The only thing is that a complete lack of noticeable violence made it all a little unreal and not as good as it could have been.

Nice menu, worked fine and had no glitches. Loading time was good and the button worked fine. Next time you could make your own instead of using the newgrounds one as a template, so the play button looked the same as the loading bar.

The humour seemed a little cliche and stereotypical, such as police being obsessed with donuts. Actually, just about every joke seemed to include donuts in one way or another. Maybe spice it up a bit next time so it isn't so bland.

The only other thing wrong with this was that when the Boss called the police, the phone was ringing for far too long and the gaps between each ring was overlong as well.

Overall, this was a brilliant flash, but was dragged down by little mistakes and laziness. Keep your focus, and I'm sure you'll be a brilliant animator! Best of luck to you.

Score: 8

"Another cracking flash"

submission: Pulch: The Good Times

date: October 19, 2006

Instead of sticking to one style and method of drawing you used a good few, allowing for any kind of viewer to appreciate this based on what is their favourite, whether it be lines or just something different. The use of single colour silouhuettes, such as the end after the pulch has collapsed, were a nice artistic touch which showed light direction as well as emphasizing the pulch. The character models were also interesting. Some of them looked very unique. More over they weren't always identifiable as having a gender, giving them a sense of strangeness which you always manage to incoprorate into your flashes. The fluidity and ease with which the flash ran is incredible. The way the pulchs balls swayed gently in the wind as it was about to fall was a nice touch as well, adding enviorment to the otherwise bleak landscape. I also feel that the emptiness of the land in which the flash takes place seemed to increase the need for the pulch in the characters minds. (Coming from my personal views.)

The general theme seemed to use strangeness, evidenced in some of the rather more nightmarish looking characters, but glossing it over with a light humour which made a razor toothed blue monster seem like a jolly natured friend.

The choice of music was interesting, and helped the theme of the flash. It was nice and gentle, giving the impression that the good feelings emenating from the pulch wre almost real. The voices were clear and easy to hear, negating the need for the subtitles, (unless of course the viewer is deaf) although I'm still wondering how to spell quantro or whatever it is. I'll have to view it again later...

All in all, a very impressive flash animation which has no real flaws, and gives a message that seems to say that without happiness and friends, it really is an empty world.

Hope to see more things similar to this, contianing both a message and superb enviroment.

Score: 9

"Impressive"

submission: Recycle*

date: October 18, 2006

Graphically, this exceled. I also get the impression that the flash was just as focused upon the camera angle changes as the content. They were very slick and looked as natural as moving my own head around. In fact it reminded me a lot of Bankomat, which was very similar to this. The backgrounds were also brilliant. They were correctly shaded to show distance, and all the same sort of colour. The glow effect used on the evening sky right at the beginning was fairly realistic too. Speaking of things at the beginning, the loading bar went well with the theme of the flash by being similar to one of the scenes in the flash. The character models were a pleasure to look at. They were not complicated, and had a smooth elegance which seemed to make them melt into the angle changes, allowing maximum fluidity. The style of text was also nice and smooth, and the shadow behind them was a nice touch.

The music also reminded me of Bankomat. Both this and Bankomat used rather 'technical' sounding music which allowed the flash to progress without the use of sound effects or voices. It also seemed to add to the constant changing of view points in the flash in a very subtle, yet determining way.

I wouldn't really call this flash violent, but what with the knives used to extract blood and replace it, as well with other parts of the body, seemed to grant the flash a score in it. However it was not a forced struggle so the rating may be low, but it was all very well done. I just don't beleive that the violence rating and the flash had much in common with each other in terms of meaning.

The Play button was easy enough to press, and not one of those awkward ones where it is only the actual text with a rediculously thin font and tiny size.

All in all, a very unique flash, that was completed to a proffesional standard. I don't really see how this can be improved in any way. Others may request more blood and guts, but I beleive that it would detract from the overall feel of the flash. So in conclusion, well done! Keep at flash as well, I'll look forward to your next.

Score: 4

"Poor, but easily improved."

submission: Pumpkin Crazy

date: October 17, 2006

The loading time was good. Hardly any waiting time, which was good since the flash was only as long as it was.

The graphics... Well the text was in a nice readable font that contrasted nicely with the background, making it easy to read despite it's small size. The glow also helped it stand out and shows you know how to use some flash techniques above simple tweening and fbf. However, I feel you got rather carried away with it, as the glow around the Newgrounds Halloween play button seemed to be just a bit too much. Next time, leave that out.

The background drawings were very good, although I feel I've seen them somewhere before, if not very similar. (Not accusing you of ANYTHING at all.) The animation was all very slick, especially the mouth. It seemed you used a 6 or 8 stage animation for the speaking, which is comendable. It was very fluid. The different facial expressions on the pumpkin, as well as the outfit were nicely done.

The only thing I found to be a great let down was the sound. The voices were too quiet, even after turning my volume up past it's usual. The sound effect you used for the jump seemed out of time as well, by coming just a tiny bit too late.

To improve this, pay special attention to the sound. Also, make sure more is happening. A speaking pumpkin quickly grows boring.

Good luck in your future efforts.