Great!
This is one of the most inovative and challenging flash games ive ever played. I enjoyed every aspect even though I died alot. I look forward to seeing more from you.
Reviews for "Space Station Jason"
innovative, but...
The GOOD:
The gameplay can only be described as innovative and highly refreshing.
while the innitial game plays like a decent 2D platformer the real trick of the game is that its NOT 2D.
While the gimick of this game is decent the way it was introduced still didn't register with me at some points in the game causing me to get stuck, untill i got out of my 2D world.
The best way to describe it would be the NOW YOU ARE THINKING WITH PORTALS phrase from the game PORTAL.
The games introduction and ending movies are entertaining (even though they don't make much sense).
Space station jason manages to somewhat resemble Super Mario Sunshine's warp worlds (if thats what they're called) in a flash game.
And it can be rather refreshing and suprising at times.
The BAD:
the game is good, but it is sertainly not without fault.
Or actually the game has a lot of faults that I can name.
the first thing to note is that the game forces you to redo the level when you die... and you die easily.
While at first your only enemy is gravity (in space?) you'll soon meet more dangerious antagonists like floating mines, electricity, a rather large benny hill asteroid and laserball shooting robots.
As allready mentioned the puzzles (especially later in the game) can be tough, but some clear thinking and trail and error can usually get you through them.
The NONO this game however has is that it forces you do redo these puzzles every time you die from the very start.
Now mines I could handle, and I wouldn't have minded the robots either... except they returned.
The later levels all sport robots, which if killed drop a goodie (orbs). once killed they're no longer a treat to you but if you die... they all return. Causing even the simpelest puzzle to become a nightmare of trail and error. And because you have to redo the entire level every time you die. this often becomes tiresome and repetitive.
while these levels can all be mastered by remembering which moves to uses at what times this is one of the only game elements I can not stand.
And I doubt anyone else can either unless your a hard core gamer that wants to get every goodie and badge in the game.
this game could really use some form of checkpoint in each of the levels.
After level 14 (the second last level) i really hesitated to play the final level.
It turned out however i didn't have to fear to much of it, since the final level was rather fun and refreshing, and it really saved the game for me (meaning that I actually finished it).
A final word:
While the game is innovative, its anoying to a fault.
The game displays a new type of gameplay which I personally have never seen before and enemy's and tricks are presented in a steady pace.
I would have to give the presentation a high grade because it was rather well done, especially for a flash game.
The lack of checkpoints and the trail and error gameplay however greatly lower the enjoyment of the game to a point where you have to force yourself to finish the game.
The only other game I remember doing this to me was the final set of levels from rayman 3 and I hated those with a vengeance.
For the great presentation and innovation I'd give this game a 9
But due to the anoying gameplay this game doesn't score more than a 6 in my book.
Phantasmagor responds:
Wow an amazing review. I really appreciate that you went into a lot of detail about everything you liked/disliked about the game rather than just saying "This game sucks" or even "This game is the best ever" without explaining why.
You make a lot of great points there and I understand where you are coming from completely. It is now far too late to make any changes though I really wish I could now since you have given me some insight into some of the flaws in the game. I think I really should have had the player start back from the last place they died inside levels, just as they do in the portal world. This would have encouraged players to keep playing through to the end of the game as dying would not be such a big deal and people would not have to replay the same levels over and over!
That being said we were very much going for the feel of older games where players had to be much more patient as they often died repeatedly, as in crash bandicoot. Having to play a level over offers much more challenge and makes dying seem much more daunting as if you just started back where you just were then there would be no consequence for dying and it would make dying seem redundant. It seems though that it may have been a big mistake on our part as many game players these days lack this patience, especially when it comes to flash games.
To sum up I am completely grateful for your long review and the points you raised, my only complaint is that the score you gave is so low considering that you played and enjoyed most of the game. 6/10 equates to a 3/5, and on newgrounds that's not very much at all. While I may have some bias as to how good I think the game is, I still believe the game deserves a slightly higher score
This was great
You actually bothered to put in an intro with some animation. Plus the game play was really good, it was a really good platformer. You add a couple more characters, flashy lights, and a few more bells and whistles and you can go to Nintendo to release it on the DS.
very mell made
I did not enjoy playing the game. I just couldn't get into it for some reason. Having said that, This game looks and plays amazingly. I think people like you are really pushing flash animation and gaming forward. It was crisp, clean, and straight-forward. Mind you, I did only play the first 3 levels before I lost interest, and I did feel as if the level design was lacking. However, I am giving 8 stars for a game that I didn't even like playing, so I think that says something.
Phantasmagor responds:
Thanks for playing and giving the game a chance. You really didn't play far enough into the game however to see the greater aspects of the game. As I mentioned above in the Author comments, you really need to play to level 5 to see the better levels and more interesting game play. The first 3 levels are very simple and kind of bland. I suppose it was a big mistake to make the first 3 levels so simple.
Quite excellent
While it did annoy me having to start at the very beginning, that doesn't mean that the game was any less commendable. I liked how the different levels were accessed in much the same way as the levels themselves are played. Overall, it was definitely a fun-filled number of hours. I suppose it'd have been less if I had better timing and didn't die so much, lol. Overall good game.