Score: 7

"Great combination of ideas!"

submission: Pac-Xon

date: July 28, 2006

4/5

I was pleasantly surprised by this. I was expecting a cheap Pac-Man clone and instead I found a very clever combination of two different games.

The graphics were adequate, maybe a little on the small side. The sounds were appropriate but sparse. Some tense music would really add to the excitement of the game. And the controls were just slightly off. These aren't huge concerns, and they can easily be fixed in a new version. (And I definitely want to see a new, improved version!)

But it's the concept and gameplay that really made this work. Good job.

Score: 7

"Interesting concept"

submission: Real Life

date: July 27, 2006

3/5

I found the concept very interesting. I may not have completely understood the meaning behind it, but it at least made me think.

For a moment, I thought the second person falling was going to land on the first one, killing him, thus explaining the life and death signs being pointed to the same place. But I was wrong, and from that point the story got a little weird and I don't think I got the whole point, but it's a nicely made piece nonetheless.

The style of artwork was nice, although I could see the background clouds behind the people - were they supposed to be transparent? The animation was decent, and the use of camera angles was very creative. The choice of music really added to the whole style of the Flash, good work there.

Hope to see more like this soon.

Score: 9

"Wow. Just...wow."

submission: I miss you Daddy

date: July 26, 2006

5/5

That was really moving. The simple graphic style and use of music were pitch-perfect. And the story was simply heartbreaking. I got chills all over. Excellent work.

My only complaint would be the dodgy audio quality of the little girl, but it's not a huge flaw and I can certainly overlook it when it comes to the power of the story. Again, excellent work.

Score: 7

"Good, but a bit long"

submission: "The Golden Mushroom"

date: July 26, 2006

4/5

You've definitely come a long way in the animation department. It's almost on par with the Rise of the Mushroom Kindgom series. I was also impressed with the quality of the voice acting. Really well done, although you should consider equalizing the voice tracks' quality so it's harder to tell that the voices were recorded separately. Still, good work.

My only complaints were in the story department - there wasn't much to the story, and it dragged in places. The dialogue was generally good and most of the jokes worked. It just needed some more depth.

Also, the large file size is very prohibitive and might keep people with slow connections from watching it. Just my two cents.

Score: 7

"Looks great, but a fart joke???"

submission: Super Duper Mario 2 VGDC

date: July 25, 2006

3/5

I was hoping for more out of this, and I was looking forward to it too. Like all your flashes, it's graphically flawless, and the sounds are mostly appropriate. But resorting to recycled toilet humor after everything you've done before is disappointing. And it wasn't even particularly funny.

It still looks and sounds great, and I would like to see another one in this style though.

Score: 10

"Brilliant!"

submission: Mario Brothers - Part V

date: June 29, 2006

5/5

The long-awaited and brilliant conclusion to an epic. Definitely worth the wait. And I'm very picky about giving out my 5's. :)

The thing I love most about your whole series is the use of music. Your musical choices are absolutely perfect and help create the mood you're going for. Even when the songs are from different films, you manage to blend them together seamlessly. I have to give you credit for your audio skills. The same goes for the sound effects - you know exactly when they're needed and when they're not.

The graphics are a step up from the previous installments. I could see the extra effort with the lighting and effects. It's amazing that you didn't resort to making custom sprites - but somehow the simple nature of the characters and their animation still works. I'm a little disappointed that you didn't use the Toad sprite from SMB1 (the SMB2 sprite looks a little out of place), and the lack of animation on the Princess is noticeable. Maybe a few custom sprites would have helped here. It's not a big deal - I'm much more interested in good stories and characters than fancy sprites.

The plot unfolded the way I expected it to... for the most part. I won't give away the ending here, but it was definitely very unexpected. (I will say, I was waiting for one of the Toads to walk up and say "Our princess is in another castle!" I think that kind of twist ending would have really worked.) But you stayed the course, and I applaud that. Excellent, excellent work.

Now the big question is, what will you do next?

Score: 4

"Interesting idea, needs more though"

submission: Be a Touchtone Genius

date: June 26, 2006

2/5

It's a nice concept, but there's really not much to it. If you were able to play a series of notes back as a song, it would be more useful.

Interestingly enough, I had used this idea a while back for one of my songs in the Audio Portal, called "Dial Tone".

Score: 7

"Didn't work for me"

submission: Angry Dog

date: June 23, 2006

4/5

I don't know why, but for some reason this cartoon didn't really connect with me. It had all the elements for success - slick animation, well-defined characters, clever dialogue - but it didn't seem to jell for me. I think it may have been the somewhat bizarre choices in music and sound effects. They were a little off-putting and took me right out of the story.

The voices were passable, and the sound quality was sharp. I wasn't too thrilled about some of the adult humor and language, it didn't seem necessary for the story. But some of the dialogue was very funny (the lobster getting crabs, the "Golden Girls" bit, pretty much everything the fish said).

Despite my issues, it's a very well-done animation and I'd like to see more.

Score: 7

"Nice style"

submission: Jimmy & Doiky

date: June 15, 2006

3/5

Nicely animated and I liked your style of artwork. Very understated. The music was also nice and fit the atmosphere well.

Like some other reviewers said, the pacing needs some work and the credits were about twice as long as they needed to be. You could probably cut the framerate in half and they would look fine. The humor was there, but quicker pacing would have helped it a lot. There were also a few "shortcuts" I noticed in the animation, but nothing to really complain about.

(And for a moment I thought the guy was going to steal the other guy's money out of his wallet after he fell asleep. I would've, but then again, I'm a horrible person.)

Score: 5

"Interesting concept"

submission: Vending Vendetta

date: June 15, 2006

3/5

I really liked the concept of the game. The graphics and sound effects were average, and the controls were decent. I would definitely expand on the idea, add more options like bigger machines with more items, etc.