Score: 10

"Next. Big. Thing."

submission: Element trailer

date: March 29, 2005

I rarely get this excited about a new author. When there are so many Flash productions out there, one has to develop an air of cynicism towards anything below excellence to prevent oneself from spending their entire life watching merely average work.
Judging by your carefree attitude, I don't think you quite realise the sheer gravity of this trailer.

At the moment, I can consider only three Flash movies that will, when released, be worthy of more interest than this: Fallen Angel, the next cartoon by Adam Phillips, and Pico 2. Why? Because these people will have better animation and will appeal more to the Newgrounds audience. But if you strike before these projects are finished, you will get to bask in the limelight you deserve.

The trailer sold me on three counts:
1. Your drawing is fantastic, but most importantly your frame by frame animation is some of the most realistic and fluid I've ever seen in a single Flash movie.
2. You have a setting which seems to be more original than most other Newgrounds work: a big plus. This setting also appears to feature a variety of bad guys, leaving the door open for lots of action: another big plus.
3. You set the animation to a very uplifting song, which just increased my enjoyment of it.

One key thing you MUST work on to make this a sure-fire success is the plot. Plot is hard to come by in Flash these days, but then so are unique settings and you've already got that down to a fine art.
Don't squander the opportunity with lame-brain predictable story telling, poor writing and unemotional wooden voice acting. You have a great piece of work on your hands. It's not even my work, and I can already think of the fantastic ways this saga could unfold. I hope you can realise them, too.

Best of luck to you in the dog-eat-dog world of Flash movies. I'll be keeping an eye on your future work.

Score: 10

"One of the best puzzlers on Newgrounds"

submission: Orbox

date: March 2, 2005

As some people have pointed out, this type of puzzle has been done before (I've seen it in a PC game called Chip's Challenge), but it's really the way it's been designed that makes it so addictive.

The learning curve was reasonable, and I liked the way new objects are introduced every level or so. I have completed the game, proving that no level is impossible, although the latter ones are very challenging. There is ONE level where the blocks are randomly generated each time you start it, and I'm not sure if you can win that level unless you get lucky with the block placement.

It's great fun, you get a lot of game for a small file size, and for the serious gamer it's refreshing to see such a vibrant & enjoyable puzzle game on Newgrounds. I think there should be a password for each level, though, so that you don't have to play through the entire thing in one sitting.

Good work, keep it coming.

Score: 8

"Evil? I hadn't noticed..."

submission: Evil Josh & Billy

date: February 2, 2005

Hilarious stuff, very reminiscent of the Simpsons (way of thinking and the episode where they go to Australia) and much better than most of the sitcoms on Newgrounds: not excessively random. Theme tune was good, sounded like a MIDI track from the good old Monkey Island games. Two questions: why did an arm appear from the top of the screen to dip the spoon in the concoction, and was there any meaning to the white screen with the scrolling piece of text? Good luck to you on this new series. You've changed the way I look at cutlery (i.e. from afar, through a telescope).