Score: 6

"Great potential, horrible controls"

submission: Dungeon Cleaner

date: October 28, 2009

As others have indicated, using the space bar for jump is insane and difficult to acclimate to. It's as if you didn't actually play your own game or have a very odd use of controls.

Considering that you have the arrow keys as an alternate control, how can a person possibly use the arrow keys, the mouse, and the space bar? It's either impossible or extremely difficult and painful.

Also, you should have the character auto-face the mouse direction. It's completely unintuitive to have mouse aiming yet requiring the movement keys to turn another direction.

The game shows great potential, but frankly I can only play it so much as I can't get accustomed to the control methods. It reminds me of those old Nintendo games that were a ton of fun but agonizing to control.

Score: 5

"Unable to play on LInux"

submission: A blobs tale

date: August 31, 2009

As others have indicated, I'm unable to use the boomerang. I'm running Ubuntu 9.04 32-bit, and the boomerang refuses to function no matter what I do. At first, I thought I just didn't understand how to use it, but after clicking everywhere, click-dragging, double-clicking, drawing loops, and pressing every button on the keyboard, I realized that it must be buggy.

I tested on both Firefox 3.5.2 and Chrome 4.0.202.2, and neither of them worked.

It looks like a fun game. Unfortunately, I'm unable to play beyond the first part where you need the boomerang.

Score: 8

"I really want to love it..."

submission: Armed with Wings 2

date: December 22, 2008

... but I can't. This game is 99% perfect, but there is one specific point that just absolutely kills the entire experience for me: you can't see where you are going when you jump.

There are areas where the view zooms out so you can see where you need to go. This is necessary since you can jump so high and guide your jump by using the directional arrows. However, there are many places where you just have to guess at how you need to jump. I would use the background as a way to track if I'm moving over the appropriate amount, but since you are using parallax, that won't work.

It was quite simply infuriating for me to die up to thirty times in a single point in the game just due to the fact that I can't see where I'm going when I jump.

Give me the ability to zoom out manually, so I can determine when I need the extra view and when I don't.

As it is, I find the game unnecessarily difficult just due to the lack of being able to properly guide my jumps.

If this single issue is taken care of, I would love this game passionately as the style, music, story, and combat system are all immensely enjoyable.

Score: 8

"Would be great if it were intuitive"

submission: Sift Heads 4

date: October 9, 2008

Each mission is a mystery. The description of the mission is extremely vague, gives you no ability to understand who the target is nor what you have to do to successfully finish the mission. To get more information about the mission, you have to start the mission and then opt to show objectives. Basically, this causes instant failure for the quick missions since you're busy looking at the objectives for the first time, something happens, and then you fail. The walkthrough is helpful but shouldn't be required to actually know what the point of the mission is. How professional would it be if I keep failing the same mission and then tell my handlers "don't worry, I think I've figured out what I'm supposed to do now."

One mission that was baffling until I looked at the walkthrough was Bloody Bath. Without looking at the walkthrough, I'd never know that I would have to wait so long to watch for a person popping out of a tub rather than the one that is already in the tub.

Some missions essentially require a specific type of weapon to achieve the objective. The mission description should indicate this.

One last issue I've found is that you can start a mission without selecting a weapon. If you do this, you get 1 shot which doesn't replenish when you retry the mission. Needless to say, this is frustrating. If weapons have been purchased but not selected when you start a mission, the game should notify the player that no weapons were selected.

I've always loved the Sift Heads games. This one has great potential to be another worthy addition, but fails miserably in terms of preparing the player for a mission. I appreciate puzzle games that force me to think outside the box in order to figure out what to do, but this type of game is not a puzzle game. It's a game that combines timing, skill, and quick-thinking. Lack of preparation due to vague and unhelpful mission briefings doesn't enhance this style of game, it detracts from it.

Score: 3

"I want to like this game"

submission: Formula D

date: August 12, 2008

but I simply can't. As others have mentioned, the handling on the cars is horrible. I got decent enough at it to finish three challenges, but the handling is so unrealistic and touchy that its near impossible to get good times on the tracks.

Too many times I would finally finish that second lap, and it wouldn't count the lap, so I would lose the challenge. I don't know if it's due to me going off the track too much or if its a generalized glitch, but it's a huge deal breaker when you finally fight the horrible physics enough to "win" but don't get the lap counted.

The drifting mechanics are so over the top that it's near impossible to back up after making a mistake because the car always "drifts" the opposite direction from where the car should turn when going in reverse.

If you fix the physics, you could have a very fun top-down racer. As it is, it's just unplayable. The game is more of a "can you defeat my horribly hard physics" game than a fun and challenging racing game.

Score: 0

"not again"

submission: Crazy Truck

date: July 27, 2008

I agree with the others. You can't add a single new vehicle, a new splash screen, and a new name and call it a new game.

Score: 5

"Good start but needs lots of work"

submission: Circus Fantastico

date: July 19, 2008

I agree with Syncopated on all points. The fast-forward to next show is a must-have feature. As it is, I spend a few seconds doing the buys, I go surf the web, and then come back after a minute to see the show results.

The theft thing is way out of control. I have already had to start a new game twice because every dollar of show money was taken leaving me with no money to continue on. At best, theft of money should take a small percentage of the money, not all of it.

And instructions... Instructions are crucial and necessary.

When you release the next version, it should have the following at a minimum:
- Start the show now ability
- Detailed instructions
- The ability to turn off the music (when you have to spend an hour to do 60 turns, you really need the ability to stop the music)
- More diverse economy (have the different performers have different results)

Score: 9

"Great fun but frustrating as well"

submission: StormWinds 1.5

date: January 21, 2008

I loved the first version of this game. I like a game that is challenging. So, I love this version as well. Great polish and great attention to detail.

Overall, I am very satisfied. There are two things that just won't leave me alone however and create a felling of dissatisfaction with the game.

The first issue is the selection of turrets doesn't always indicate that you've selected anything. I'll hit the hotkey to select the turret, click to fire, and end up firing the other turret resulting in a lost shot on the one turret and lost time. The core of the issue is that sometimes it will show that the turret is selected, and other times it will not. I have yet to see a pattern.

The second issue is not being able to fully restart a campaign. I have gotten to the point on the second campaign where I made a horrible mistake in turret selections. My money is so low that I can't scrap and start over with different selctions. If I abandon the campaign, and then re-enter the campaign, it is just as I had left it. So, the only option I have found is to restart the entire game from the beginning in order to redo the second campaign.

This is a very fun game that has already found its way onto my favorites. It will be one of my top games if these two issues are resolved. Great work.

Score: 6

"It's interesting"

submission: Myth

date: October 18, 2007

I like what you did here with the hand-drawn images. It's a very fun style.

I do have some problems however.

The main problem is that the narration is almost completely unintelligible. 90% of the lines I could not make out at all. I can't tell if it's because you have a very strong accent, if you are trying too hard to sound a specific way, or if your microphone is just crap. It doesn't matter the reason, but the narration is just too poor and ends up irritating me.

Secondly, parts of the movie are way too drawn out. This is especially evident at the beginning. I sat here waiting for it to start, and I almost gave up because it was just too slow at the beginning.

The last issue is somewhat minor but still worth bringing up. Some of the art looks incredibly good (maps, some of the scenery, etc), but some of the art looks completely out of place and does not match the rest (tiny legs on the horse that look choppy, very pixelated images on top or surrounded by very smooth images, etc).

I really like what you are doing here, but it needs some work before it is truly good.

Score: 3

"I liked it up until the end"

submission: -ESCAPE-

date: September 25, 2007

You had a great game, but the story is ruined when this girl who is trapped in a room has to go to different web sites to find the way out. How does that mesh with the story? I was so put off, that I stopped playing.

I love trapped room games. This one is an exception. Everything to solve the room has to be contained in the room itself. You can't make people rely on outside resources to be able to solve it. If the person who is trapped can rely on the outside world, why doesn't the outside world just come to bust down the door?

In the end, it seems like all the puzzle is meant to do is get traffic to the Armor Games site. If I like a game, I will visit the sites the creator recommends or is affiliated with. I don't need to be forced there.