Reviews for Naut Land

[Amadel]

This is an interesting game, easy to play, easy to learn. It has some learning from mistakes involved. I also really like the retro feel. What would make this game even better, as some have pointed out, is better usability for the player. When making a game, it's better to either stick to mouse controls or WASD/Arrows for navigating through the game. What I found frustrating with this game was switching between having both hands on the keyboard to having a hand on the mouse between every level. Adding the ability to click Space or another key to move on would be a good start. (I would even go as far as to make the Down Arrow and D key be the button to enter through doors.)

A few more suggestions:
Scrap the going to the level select screen between every level unless there is more of a point to it, such as to go back and better your score. The "Press ESC to quit level" option should be enough for this. For a game like this, I feel most people would want to continuously go to the next levels to complete the game. If you wanted an option to retry the level, perhaps add a couple buttons when you complete it saying "Retry" or "Continue".

The "Press ESC to quit level" and "Press R to Respawn" text in the upper right portion of the screen is nearly invisible and difficult to read on certain levels. I would add a border or drop shadow or something to this to make it more readable with different backgrounds. That or change the background, or add a background color behind it.

The physics feel a little slow, but if that's how you desire it to be, then no worries. It's just a preference thing.

Last but not least, or maybe least if this is intentional, I notice the enemies keep moving when you're transitioning from one side of the planet to the next. This sometimes causes you to stop transitioning on top of an enemy, which kills you out of your control. It adds a little extra challenge to it, timing your transitions, some challenges are more of an annoyance than a challenge. Again, it's a preference thing.

Good luck on future games!

JackAstral responds:

Thanks for the detailed review! I just fixed up the controls now!

[Monkius]

It was fun, but the control scheme and character movement could use some work...

When I am trying to jump across "planes", I have to wait until the character lands to switch planes, and in that span of time, "totally not a goomba" could move its way to where I am about to land. Worse yet, I can't decide to go back mid-transition, either. So as much as I may panic, I'm pretty much committed to colliding this poor fella into one of these freak walking mushroom things.

The control scheme is also a bit awkward... You have to control the character's movement with your dominant hand, and move your non-dominant hand from space to "x" to end the level (which is surprisingly awkward, maybe if it were "r/u" or something [depending on leftie/rightie], I could leave my hand on the keyboard and hit "space" with my thumb and "r" or "u" with my pointer finger.) And when the level is over, I have to move my dominant hand from the directional keys to the mouse again, for the sole purpose of clicking "ok" and then the next level's icon.

I think it would be much more streamlined if you had the controls as WASD/arrows for movement, and space for both entering the portal and continuing to the next level (straight from the "you win screen", no going back to the level select... The latter seems like an unnecessary step to me.) I think with that small change, the players would become more immersed in the game; the levels would just meld into one, instead of harshly breaking immersion in between, and I would have played past level 10.

JackAstral responds:

Fixed the controls, changed the enemy graphic. Thanks for the critisms + review + for playing!

I'll look into speeding up the planet flipping speed asap!

[diegomorh]

Very good game got all medal in like 10 min.
it would be nice if the game was a bit more dificult.

JackAstral responds:

Thanks!

[Cyberdevil]

This is probably the most fun I've had with a game of yours so far! I like the way each level is like it's own little planet. The movement from side to side is far from the smoothest, but otherwise the design seems carefully measured, each enemy just the right length apart, with new foes at just the right intervals, everything getting progressively more difficult as it moves on. Level 12 was probably the only one I died more than once though, but maybe that was just a fluke, it feels like a ladder of progression otherwise. Nice music, nice graphics, nice interface and everything! And you have a definite goal too. Keep it going!

-cd-

JackAstral responds:

Thanks man!

[JJMAJR]

After being a Sonic fan for a while, I have been disillusioned about nostalgia. This game is not really creative, and the gravity is tedious. I know that you may have been trying to make a "Nintendo hard" (just try playing Scrap Brain) game, but the gravity screws up the gameplay quite a bit.

I didn't try the music because I just don't feel the need to listen to it, but anyways, if you take away the veil of nostalgia you get a poor game. I am sorry, but that is how I feel this game should be rated.

JackAstral responds:

Ouch :b Fair enough, thanks for giving it a go anyway!