Score: 6

"An interesting narrative"

submission: Neverending Light

date: February 26, 2009

While the decision to focus on a story may be somewhat of a downfall, it's an inventive jump for flash games and one worthy of merit. The story flows quite well, and leaves many unanswered questions, which is a good grasp of the concepts of horror.

But as I mentioned, downfall.

There isn't really much of a game. Enemies, for the most part, act as incredibly avoidable barriers leaving you to simply find alternate routes. There's no other challenge other than finding your way - not even the classic bottomless pits are hazardous, the gameplay seems to be equal to that of simply navigating a maze with the odd vanishing wall and collecting bonuses.

Also, the direction you're meant to be taken lacks clarity. I must have run around for ten minutes trying to find a 'weapon' with no real guidance of what exactly I was looking for. While the idea that your friend was getting her guts sucked out of her could have potentially added a challenge, it doesn't seem to make any difference in the long run and you can spend as long as you want working out the ambiguities of the tasks at hand.

While the majority of the voice acting was excellent, the voice of Anabel, notably the main vocal character, was incredibly annoying to me. There was a moment of 'Oh she's going to turn out to be the antagonist' in the elevator which never got resolved'. I'm not sure if it's the writing or just how the lines were delivered, there was just something that made her seem so miscast.

The story is the games saving grace, despite the gripes with the actual game itself, it was enough to keep me trying for 15 minutes to work out exactly what I was supposed to do when finding a weapon seemed like it should be worth it, and it was.

Score: 10

"What an awesome game."

submission: The Wheel of Misfortune

date: February 23, 2009

And I'm totally unbiased.

Those having problems with the tomato levels, make sure you have the latest version of flash player installed.

Score: 10

"An excellent game"

submission: Lars' Adventure

date: February 28, 2007

One of the most solid platformers I've played on NG. The engine was defined and well developed which in turn shoveled awesomeness by the bucketload into the rest of the game. Lots of stages with varied artwork through, bosses and all, it's got all the features that full platformers have!

Some of the highlights I got here was the sort of puzzle game feel it also gave to it, with the switches and keys that were hidden just that little bit off screen that you had to explore the level to find them, then memorise the root back. I also loved that continue system, probably the most evil I've ever seen in a game yet, actually showing your score being deducted :-P

So what else could it need?

It's a long game, A save system wouldn't be a miss. Also I feel this game would work very nicely with an online high score system, there dosn't seem to be a fixed high score you can get, given time bonuses (of course it would probably get hacked to heck and back)

Well bloody done.

Score: 8

"Nice arrangement"

submission: Saria's Ragtime Jazz (Zelda)

date: July 19, 2009

The concept and composition is excellent, the only gripe I have with it is it's not a live performance - you can tell it's just recorded straigt out whatever score software you used, which is a hell of a shame as it really sucks the expression out of what has the potential to be a really awesome improvised solo in the mid section.

Score: 9

"Latency"

submission: Town At Night

date: July 6, 2009

Google and download ASIO 4 All, that should fix your latency issue.

Score: 7

"Woah."

submission: PX9 Airbass/Zero Gravity Remix

date: July 2, 2009

ParagonX9 is a man, baby.

Can't believe people fell for that one.