Kolter's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dreanlike Ball]

This game has a mildly interesting concept. It is too simple though, only using one key for attack. To anyone who thinks it's impossible to win, it's not. It's actually quite easy, you just have to time your attacks. The longer you hold K, the stronger your attack will be. My strategy was to use a fairly strong attack that will keep the opponent on the ground. That strategy made me able to finish the game with a lot of HP to spare.

[You Are Disabled]

Before beginning this review, I will rate the four disabilities in level of difficult/frustration as I experienced it:
1. Spastic
2. Nearly Blind
3. Illiterate
4. Crippled
Fair game, for the message it's trying to communicate. I, too, was very annoyed by the amount of "artificial difficulty" that was in this game. However, realising the message produced from this difficulty - while not making me like the game more - made me appreciate it more. There is no doubt that the game is perdurably dark, and as stated by another reviewer, it doesn't let up and it doesn't offer the player any initiative to keep playing. That message hit the nail on the head; I believe that's the message you were working towards! You depicted in a manner, as dark as possible, the difficulties experienced by disabled people. It's not unnatural for them to be overcome with existential dread. What's the point of it all? Why are they even alive? There is so much suffering!
The player is subjected to a lot of frustration, especially in the "Nearly Blind" and "Spastic" levels. The point is, the game is trying to make you experience the difficulties people with these disabilities face; how they are limited by their disabilities, and are unable to do certain things normal people would find easy, and this is frustrating, just as how it is frustrating for the player to have to experience this.
-MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD-

T
Playing the "Illiterate" disability at last made me realise just how easy the levels actually are when you're not hindered by being unable to control your character or not being able to see ahead. Nonetheless, frustration or not, the game is plagued with a viral darkness.
You didn't really shed a light at the end of the tunnel, and the dark atmosphere settled on the game for the entire duration like a suffocating stygian mist. At the very end, there is an illusion of choice between the Exit and the Wizard's Domain. In all the paths, no matter what you do, you are always forced to descend to the Wizard's Domain.
Another thing I appreciated about this game was the unique challenges ascribed to each disability:
>The cripple moves very slow, and needs to depend on unpleasant people to be able to move around. The cripple is also subject to insults and disrespect because of his unfortunate predicament. In the final hurdle, he is unable to proceed to the exit because he is unable to climb the platform leading to the exit.
>The illiterate cannot read, and thus cannot understand the various signs placed around the game. In the end, he is notified that one of the levers would lead to the exit, and it's unfortunate that the illiterate can't know which one does it because of illiteracy, but it's a lie since both levers lead to the Wizard's Domain.
>The nearly blind has general trouble anticipating obstacles. As a result, the blind has to feel around to determine where platforms will appear, where there is lava, where there are fireballs shooting out of lava. etc. This proves very troublesome, especially when you have to try multiple times before you can figure out how to get through a level. The nearly blind, while less frustrating than the spastic, in my opinion, still proved to be difficult. There would be instances where you would have to feel and predict where the next platform would pop up, and you'd also have to determine the trajectory followed by a shooting fireball. It is made more difficult by the fact that you can't see it. In the final stage, you are made to choose whether to push the lever taking you to the Exit, or the lever taking you to the Wizard's Domain. Again, this is a lie, because the lever for the Exit doesn't work.
>The spastic is just entirely ridiculous! I was endlessly frustrated at how the spastic would move when I don't want to move, and stop moving when I want it to cross to another platform. The spastic would also sometimes randomly run left and die, causing you to have to repeat a level you already finished! Sometimes, it's more than one level you have to go through again, plus the disability which would not go away. In the final stage, a sign reads that the Exit can be reached by going to the top, but as you go to the top, and as you jump the gap, the spastic's spasticness will set in and make the spastic fall into the hole leading to the Wizard's Domain. Unfortunately, this was the first disability I played through and finished.
-END MINOR SPOILERS-
This review has been mostly positive; praising the game for its implementation of the unfortunate disabilities that befall equally unfortunate individuals. The only negative thing I have mentioned was the assorted frustrations I had with controlling the characters, which was a given with a game of this nature. In fact, I've stated that with these frustrations aside, the game still has a message. This is the part where I take issue with the message.
-MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD-
It's fair that you are trying to bring awareness to the difficulties disabled people face, but sometimes it felt like the message was lost, since you tried too hard to make the game dark. Now, I like dark with a purpose, but the dark here seems to be dark just for the sake of being dark. Yes, people with disabilities may have self-esteem issues and they sometimes get verbally abused, but some of the themes you dove into just bordered on ridiculous.
One example of such is the cripple being a sex slave. Seriously? This honestly made me feel less sympathy for the cripple, because it made the cripple's character feel less real. It's like you were trying too hard to make the cripple have extra problems, maybe because there was no way you can have a platformer with a cripple, so you had to do something to make it work, right? Honestly, I don't think the rape thing works at all. The story lines for the other disabled characters was pretty reasonable, in my opinion; it's just the cripple story line I'm taking issue with.
The other issue is just the whole context of the game. It's a work of art, and some emphasis is in order, I understand. Action sequences are often emphasised in films to make it more exciting, and similarly, you tried to overemphasise the difficulties of disabled people by making your game entirely bleak. I don't think it worked at all. I would've liked maybe a bit more realism. Disabled people aren't always depressed, that's not how it works. You shouldn't paint them in that light. I think it would have been nicer if you tried to add in an element of hope, instead of just waving a false reward in front of the players like a carrot on a stick. Disabled people can have some optimism, too! In real life, disabled people can find the exit, and not wallow in self-pity forevermore. That's my main problem: you didn't display how disabled people can be very accurately. This game was just all daubed in black, when the reality is closer to grey. What I mean, is that some disabled people are very pessimistic and they just dredge in self-pity, but other disabled people do find the exit, and are able to live a "normal" life with a little help from friends and family.
-END MINOR SPOILERS-
All in all, I think this art game was mostly effective in communicating the message. Don't get me wrong, I think it did get a lot of things right, and I do think it pushed a lot of buttons and will get people thinking. I'll take into consideration that you only had 72 hours to do this. It is pretty impressive for something whipped up in such a short amount of time. Kudos on concept (though not so much on gameplay :p). I came here looking for something fun to play. While, to be honest, this wasn't fun at all, it was still an experience. While, in my opinion, the message you were trying to communicate is not translated entirely accurately, this game still does a fair job at it. Even though I didn't "enjoy" this game, I did sympathise with the message.
Keep making games!

[Pause Ahead]

Found and finished this on AdultSwim. Nice to find it here on Newgrounds.
This game is quite entertaining and unique! I recommend it, that's about all I'm going to say about this game. If you want to find out more, just play it, you won't regret it.

[Portal Panic]

Let me introduce this review with one statement: This is a good game. It leaves a satisfying feeling upon completion. The multiple usable characters are also pretty nifty especially with the characters having varying skill sets! It was applied really well in the last level before P-Bot where you had to incorporate different characters' abilities to finish the level! Another thing I liked was the level design for all of the levels. While they weren't really extremely puzzling or dauntingly challenging, they were cleverly designed and they worked quite well in carrying the game concept.
@ponxs
You are partially correct about Salad Fingers not being able to damage P-Bot, but being partially correct means that you are also partially incorrect, I'll elaborate on this a little bit later.
But first, think about it logically. If you couldn't damage P-Bot using Salad Fingers then they wouldn't have included him in the party. It would be entirely non-sensical to have a non-functional character in a boss battle. If anyone here wants to read further, I will have to mention that there are major SPOILERS!!!!! ahead. I will first go on the specifics of Salad Finger's abilities then I will explain why ponxs is partially correct about his statement.
<spoilers>
During the pre-P-Bot levels, I noticed that Salad Fingers "attack" is actually a defensive move. I first noticed this in the level where you get Salad Fingers. I too was wondering why Salad Fingers had no "attack". In fact, he actually had a useful defensive characteristic. If you use his "attack" it would cause normal enemies to stop attacking! This should serve as a hint as to what sort of strategy you should use when battling P-Bot. You probably already have an idea of where I'm going with this.
You can beat P-Bot using Salad Fingers by using his "attack" to deflect P-Bot's missiles and make those missiles hit P-Bot; a defensive tactic! Since Salad Fingers has no weapons, he uses a defensive shielding tactic instead, using P-Bot's own projectiles against it. Yes, technically, ponxs is correct, since you can't damage P-Bot with Salad Fingers, because Salad Fingers doesn't have weapons and what you're actually doing is damaging P-Bot with its own weapons, but technically ponxs is wrong too because P-Bot is conquerable with Salad Fingers, though Salad Fingers may not be doing any attacking, he is catalysing P-Bot's self-destruction.
</spoilers>
Now back to the review. The game was well thought out for the most part, the ending felt a bit anti-climatic though. Yes, it was unexpected, and while unexpected is good sometimes, I wasn't entirely satisfied by the ending of the game. Despite that, the entire game as a whole package was really enjoyable, and I would recommend it to everyone in the NG community.

[Balls To The Wall]

Interesting game mechanic.
This game is quite unique, though it is flawed in many ways. For one the design looks a bit lazy and uninspired, and so do the levels. There was a lot of repetition involved, with the only differences being some additional obstacles - there really isn't much variation present. The game itself is not too complex, with the only challenge being not hitting the wall. The simple game mechanic works well actually and at points this does become a somewhat enjoyable game, but really, like I said, there isn't enough variation.
Another issue I have is with the music. It gets very repetitive and annoying, that's about all I'm going to say about that. Also, I think it would be nice to have a title screen. By that i mean a proper title screen with a nice design. The title screen right now is too unremarkable.
Overall, it's an average, not-so-complex, not-so-hard game. Good work on at least making it a little enjoyable. This could definitely see lots of improvements.

[The Dark Cell: Volume I]

Interesting!
Well, that is quite an introductory story you have. The premise and the choose your own adventure style game is engaging. However, the story is way too short no matter what path you pick. If you can make this into a full project, it might be better. Perhaps make it one where the main character has to deal with life outside and keep on his toes to prevent being caught again and put back in his cell. A back story would be nice too, showing the audience where it all came from, and what the man went through. Not too bad a game/story, it just feels incomplete.

[Sudoku Challenge - vol 2]

Fairly good, though I have a few issues.
-There are not enough levels. While the puzzles are mostly good and enjoyable (though not very difficult even at Hard) they suffer from a total lack of variety. I attempted a few puzzles multiple times to see if they would change, and it appears that the same puzzles were being used. Perhaps a Sudoku randomizer would be a good idea to generate random sudoku puzzles. Three or so puzzles at each difficulty is not hardly enough. I think it would be better to have an almost infinite number of puzzles to solve. That would be good.
-The music was a short loop and was very repetitive. It got boring and grating very quickly, you might consider picking a more ambient track maybe? Music that is not distracting perhaps?
-The use of mouse. While I really don't have that huge a problem with this. The game would benefit from allowing the use of the keyboard to input numbers. It would make it more convenient, and would make inputting values a quicker process resulting in better high scores.
This game is not really so bad at all, it could be better though.

[Average Jim Demo]

I will have to be painfully honest here. This game is way too bland, and I don't think anyone would be able to stand 60 levels of this. Firstly, there's no objective. It's a pointless platformer. Demo or not it is still very average, with no redeeming quality whatsoever.
It is also not very challenging nor is it interesting. The challenge only comes from the awkward controls. Why have you programmed space bar as the jump button when W would have been a better choice? Was making awkward controls the only method you could implement to make the game seem hard? Also, where does it lead? What is the story behind it? There's no point to any of it all, just jumping a bunch of boring very uncomplicated platforms.
If you're going to make 60 levels of this, it's better not to. Unless you can make something much more challenging and interesting. This game as it is now is not very good at all. Please make better games in the future.

[Matt H.]

A fair game, though extremely lacking in challenge.
Most calculations are doable in your head and the platforming aspect of it is also way too simple. Other than this, there are multiple other problems. For example the platform mechanism and the controls are flawed. Interchanging between mouse and arrow keys is inconvenient (unless you're left-handed). A change to WASD might have been particularly preferable.
Another adjustment that could be made is by allowing the use of the Enter button instead of having to click "OK" all the time. Another idea might be to have randomly generated math problems instead of having the same calculations over and over again. A bit of variety is good. This is actually a problem that applies for the entire game. There is not enough variety at all, all the platforms are really similar and there are only slight variations to each level.
@Olondor: "I finished level 8 even though I missed the final platform, I'm pretty sure that shouldn't happen." I tested this on a couple of other levels and it seems like it didn't even matter if you reached the final platform, it still states that you've finished. This is another problem that might need fixing.
On a positive note, it is entertaining albeit for a very short while.
In summation, too easy, too repetitive, not challenging enough, etc. It could use some improvement, but it's not an entirely bad game.