Reviews for OH MY GATLING!

[TheRxMan]

I will only touch on the flaws as others have covered it before. The overheating is irritating. While it does train you to fire in bursts, you don't have enough damage output that way to survive for long. I agree that the balance needs work. Either adjust the overheat mechanic, add power ups or something. I would suggest after dying clear the board on respawn to prevent from getting overwhelmed. Also the short, squat robots were a bit of a pain because I was reliant on the bullets going on a downward angle to get them, perhaps adjust their hitbox a little so the straight forward shots also connect and the upward angled ones miss?

I did like some of the little touches, like firing moves you back slightly.

The music was nice and low rez fitting the pixely nature of hte graphics. It did remind me of the classic run and gun games like Contra.

I would normally give 4 stars for this (3 for raw game, half for the music and another half for how well it goes together), but given this is your very 1st submission, I'll grade on a curve and go 4.5.

Not a flawless product, but a great start.

Keep up the good work!

fazold22 responds:

Wow man, this is a great feedback really (i need more people saying like this again for my next submissions) Yeah im really sorry about the balance of the game as i mentioned in other comments below. When i see pixel day announced im just thinking "Ohh lets make some hard shooter-defense game with gatling so i can shoot many bullets" and that's it haha!

Huge thanks!

[claydog72]

Wasn't too bad for your first sub, the only thing that bugged me about the game was the overheating on the gun; was quite annoying. Other than that well done!

fazold22 responds:

Oh that overheating thing, actually i added it because John's gatling was too powerful if it doesn't had some kind of "cooldown" and it makes the game too easy (at least for me) and it give me some kind of nostalgia when most video game on NES is absurdly hard LOL.

And actually if i got more time for doing this i really want to add some powerups for get rid that overheating system or just simply make the gun spread more bullets or more damage.

Yeah, maybe im still bad at balancing thing (and naming thing) but thanks for your feedback! Cheers!

[t0tallyKy1e]

I had my first submission for Pixel Day too! This is a great little game, it's equally addicting and fun! My only suggestion would be to maybe have some sort of explosion after dying because if I died once, I had a hard time regaining my footing... although it's possible that it would be too easy in that case.

fazold22 responds:

Thanks for your feedback! Hmm... i think that's a good idea

[Kimiko99]

Giving it a solid 4 here for me. Has a good ground work to be sure reminds me a lot of the old arcade style with their unforgiving quarter eating powers.

While I do enjoy those sorts time to time, this one has a few quirks that got to me while trying to play it, which it seems some have also mentioned as well.

1. Overheat, this isn't a bad idea I do like the idea of it though as said its balance feels a little off beat, i'm firing like 3-5 shots and I'm at like 30%+ it seems like. Making even burst fire hard pressed to deal with when you're trying to quell a hoard of robots, which leads to the next point.

2. The landmine bots, hit box is just not cool. If i'm having to rely on RNG to hit them while trying to blow up everything else while then trying to jump over those without being swarmed it makes it more than a challenge that able with overheat as part of it. Suggestion is make their hit box the same as everyone else. Since they have more speed it still works toward their advantage depending on which side and how many bots are going out. At their current it's alright to handle till you hit the missile bots which then you're getting swarmed having to jump and doge mines + missiles which you're not gonna be able to do well.

3. Not so much a quirk, but more a personal preference here. Power-up's all good stuff has them, and for this it could be as simple as the basics a board clear bomb. Start with one of them and have them randomly drop at say 10% chance or so giving you a supply of 1 out of every 10 bots, could be down to 5% 1 out of every 20 that way.

4. Not sure if this is in there since i keep dying xD, but a boss wave or two could also add some fun into it, though this could be used for a sequel, if you wanted to go that route.

Music was solid, I enjoyed the old style of it, if possible i'd say add some more to it just because it's never bad to have more good music in a game it only enhances the experience of it.

Overall good ground work, good execution few tweaks needed but find me a game that doesn't have something to be tweaked in it.

fazold22 responds:

Thanks for the feedback! Another nice one
I really want o add the updates for the game (well i don't know if it will be an update or kind of sequel) when i have some freetime because im working on another thing, especially i want to add some powerups! :D

[MeGa-wise]

This game has a very nice retro NES feel. I haven't played many NES games, but from those I have, this reminds me of Rush'n'Attack the most. Altrough the gameplay is different the graphic style is very similar.

The mechanics and balance of this game are great. I urge the author not to listen to reviews where people complain about overheat or landmine-bots or respawn or something else being too hard. These people leaving these reviews are just spoiled by the modern abundance of free browser games. They don't have patience to understand the game's timing and mechanics like people did in times of NES when games were scarce. I too couldn't get more then 60-70 kills at beginning, but when I realized you are supposed to tap the fire key instead of holding it and that the robots are already dead before their explosion animation begins and you don't have to wait for them to visibly blow up, the game became much easier and I raised my highscore from 72 to 233 kills in a single try!

The game is great as it is and not much has to be changed, small improvements and tweaks could have been done trough and they are the reason why my rating is 4 stars and not 5. The fallowing minor issues could make this better:

1) This looks like an endless game with aim to reach a highscore. All games like that benefit from public highscore system for players to compete. For all endless games without this feature I reduce half a star from the baseline rating.
2) Fullscreen mode
3) A certain rare combination of enemies is unavoidable - a landmine bot followed straight by a rocket
- It is too wide and cannot be jumped over
- You cannot retreat and wait for them to align because they move at the same speed.
- You cannot shoot the rocket because the indestructible landmine bot absorbs all the fire.
To solve this issue I suggest removing the possibility for landmines to shield other bots or at least greatly reduce that.
4)Is there another level after Construction Bridge? Doesn't look like there is. Therefore the black screen naming the only level should be cut out. The game takes too much time to restart after dying, which can be annoying when you just learn how to play and get used to timing of this game. Maybe the dropping letters of game's title could also be skipped. Although they do contribute to oldschool feel, so that could remain. But the Construction Bridge black screen is totally unnecessary. If there is another level trough then it takes damn too much kills to reach it.

Very fun action on overall.

fazold22 responds:

Wow! Thanks, glad you liked it and im really happy that you noticed my own goal for bring people feelin how hard classic game is (LOL) and well... actually if i had more time back then before Pixel Day start, honestly i really wanted to add powerups and stages, but not then. The black screen is just to show you "dramatic feeling" haha.

Again, thanks for playing ! I've been busy doing client works, so i hope get some good free time to make another things