An original and exhiliratingly challenging game.
Ah yes, another defense game that hits Newgrounds, and it's original too. At first, when the tutorial started, I wasn't too sure if I would of liked this game or not because it seemed like it was going to be similar to most other defense games that involved a cannon-like figure, however, as the tutorial progressed on, and as the music started to put me in the mood, I could tell I was in for quite a fun game.
First off, you said this is your first flash game, so it's awesome that you've come with an original gameplay. Great job on that part. Catching colored fragments with your lens whilst destroying colorless fragments provided a difficult yet playable standard for this game.
The music you picked for this game.... I wouldn't of asked for anything better. I love playing games with this kind of environment with calming music such as this. Kudos to you for picking this song, and to the creator of that song, Imogen Heap. (Hell, I even went to his myspace just to download the song)
The game starts our pretty slow, which is probably the only complaint I have for this game. It felt like it was going to take forever to speed up the pace, but later on, I was regretting such desire for faster gameplay, as it was beginning to knock out my life bar. :(
Ah yes, we can't forget about the variety. Every great defense game creator knows that a defense game has to have variety in it to keep the players entertained and interested in the game to keep playing it. It doesn't matter what shape variety takes in the game, as long as there is variety in it. From rapid fire red lasers to full screen blue blasts, and from green auto life regeneration (which I'm glad that you put in there, otherwise I wouldn't of lasted half as long as I did) to yellow slow motion, you gave the player a handful of weapons and upgrades to use at their disposal. Not only did you gave variety in the player though, but you gave it to the enemy too, such as the big colorless fragments, and the colorless fragments that changed course in order to psych out the players. You also gave the enemy different strategies to approach the player.
I've read some reviews already that have complained about the difficulty of the game. To be honest, I think the difficulty is fine as it is. A hint to the players having trouble with the game, if you're stuck in a situation where you have to choose between either sacrificing a colored fragment, or getting hit by a colorless fragment, go for the sacrifice. Just shoot the colored fragment with your red laser, and keep proceeding as usual. It's better to lose a colored fragment, than to lose your life bar.
Unfortunately, even though I thought the difficulty was fine, I still lost anyways. At 7617 pixels (... I forgot what level though, it was like 2 levels after the yellow fragments started appearing), I was bombarded with colorless fragments, and I was unable to use either the blue screen blast, or the yellow slow motion at that time.
So, for a first flash game, I think you did an outstanding job. Sure, I bet there is room for tons of improvement in the game and the difficulty (although I'm still not going to complain about the difficulty), but for now, I think you did well for your first try. I hope to see more flash games from you in the future.
- Nondo
