Score: 6
"Great feeling, bad execution."
date: March 23, 2008
For initial criticism, I have to say that too much of the game involved running. I swear, there was a 15 minute long run with only three monsters (slight exaggeration, but you get the point).
The intro idea was great. I'd go as far to say it was a perfect concept. It just took too long. I just watched tv while holding down the right arrow key until I got to something interesting.
One thing that stands out is that the special attack bar refills too quickly. When you use it, it's practically at 25% already from the one monster you just killed with it. Also, the quick-attack is far more powerful than the "strong" attack. Since the enemy has poor hit-recovery, it's just too easy to spam A (holding it down, even) putting the target effectively in a stun-lock.
On a more major issue: when trying to jump over arrows or axes thrown at you, it would never work properly. The projectile would go underneath me, but suddenly it skipped to an animation of me being hit. Terrible collision detection.
For a melee-combat side scroller, having to hold down the arrow key was annoying. It should've been more like the old arcade versions of Simpsons, Ninja Turtles, Xmen, Gauntlet, etc where you move a bit, get attacked, move on, etc.
More customization content needed to be added to the game. It's very, very easy to include item drops, different weapons, and/or a skill system with the foundation that you have in the game so far. Why do you think World of Warcraft is so popular? It's because you get a sense of instant gratification when gaining levels, experience, or points. In any event, some instance of this would be nice in this type of game.
May 4, 2008
Author's Response:
Great review, thanks!
I agree with all your points and will try to improve on the flaws and include some new elements into the sequel for this game. The foundation is set, and I can build on it and try to fix some annoying bugs like the flaw with jumping and the terrible hit detection...