Posts Tagged ‘Newgrounds’
Survival Lab Game Review–I Love A Game That Lets You Learn
This game is one of the biggest reasons that I love Newgrounds. Seriously–I LOVE this place exactly for games like this. It’s called Survival Lab, and it may well be one of the best little games that you’ve never played before. But that’s why I’m here, to point you in the direction of some of these nifty little titles that you may not have otherwise stumbled upon.
Survival Lab is, essentially, a volunteer test subject locked in a small room with a variety of automated weapons, all of which will be firing various kinds of projectiles at you. Your job is to survive and collect coins as they appear.
The interesting part of this is, the longer you survive, the more you’re allowed to “learn” from your time in the lab. You can purchase upgrades for yourself that allow you to move faster, jump higher and take less damage. It’s a small, very simple game that manages to pack a lot more gameplay and variety than you’d expect, and thus, it’s well worth playing.
Water Rocket Game Review–A Blend of Puzzle and Action
Water Rocket, one of the newest games at Newgrounds, poses an interesting problem–how to maneuver a small rocket through a collection of obstacle traps in search of water.
That’s also the entire plot of the game–your home is running out of water at a catastrophic rate, therefore you’re off to collect it in your rocket ship, which you’ll be able to upgrade to improve shield dynamics and fuel consumption of your lateral thrusters, as well as your rate of fall when the thrusters are cut. You’ll also be able to repair any damage you’ve taken, but at the cost of not being able to upgrade rocket components, so there’s a real premium on avoiding damage.
It’s a strange mix of action and puzzle as you figure out how to negotiate levels of progressively greater difficulty , and this highly unusual combination adds up to plenty of fun for anyone willing to give it a try.
Ninja+ Game Review–Out Of Control Ninja Fun
If you remember the fun of eighties classic Bionic Commando, where you swung across platforms via an extendible bionic arm, then you may enjoy a new game I spotted on Newgrounds, a fun little platform hopper called Ninja+.
There isn’t a whole lot of story in Ninja+–you run around and jump on platforms gathering gold coins as you go. You’ll be able to throw unlimited kunai (those small ninja daggers that may or may not be attached to a chain, in case you don’t watch Naruto around the clock) and you’ll be able to swing on a line.
The idea is fun, but I found I had a tough time with some of the controls. Hopping from platform to platform was as fun as advertised, but switching to the space bar to throw kunai was a difficult move for me. In retrospect, I almost wish that the grappling hook had been weaponized instead, completely leaving out the kunai and thereby eliminating the problem, but that’s just me.
But people who like their action games fast and agile will definitely find plenty to love in Ninja+.
How I Buy Petrol? Game Review–A New And Interesting Take on Stupidity
Sometimes, games aren’t good because their gameplay is amazing, but rather because of the story they present. And perhaps one of the greatest stories is strictly related to Newgrounds itself, in the game How I Buy Petrol?
Anyway, How I Buy Petrol? is described as an “interactive epic poem” about one of the Newgrounds forum dwellers, named Sirkom93. One day, he hatched an ingenious plot to get unspecified revenge on his schoolyard chums, which he announced to the Newgrounds forum. This nefarious plot was then relayed to police by a valiant whistleblower named DeckHeadTottie, and Sirkom93 was arrested.
But before Sirkom93 can get his unspecified revenge…you’ll have to help him answer one question: How I Buy Petrol?
It’s a comic riot, because apparently Sirkom93’s mental candlepower aspires to the crustacean range, and his unspecified revenge requires a lot of idiotic behavior on his part. But still–it’s the story that counts here, though you’ll have some interesting minigames to partake in in an attempt to “buy petrol”. Like I said: it’s not about the gameplay, it’s all about the story. Though I have to admit, I’ve never seen real life distilled to a game with such effectiveness and comedic glee.
And Sirkom93’s story would be a whole lot funnier if people hadn’t been in danger…albeit, a rather limited danger.
John Citizen Game Review–He Looks Just Like Everyone Else….
And sometimes, the games on Newgrounds can get kind of weird in their sheer simplicity, this is why we’ve got games like John Citizen to talk about.
Basically, the aliens have landed one of their own on the planet Earth. Charged with the duty of planting a series of Doomsday Devices all over the planet, he’s come to kill us all. He’s armed to the teeth, ready to kill, and indistiguishable from anyone else. He’s John Citizen. And we’re not going to be happy to see him.
The gameplay is pretty simple, run, jump, blast things, avoid spikes–and the worlds all look vaguely similiar with some odd differences. For instance, why do Dubai and the Netherlands look so much alike? And last I knew, Ottawa in Canada was NOT comprised entirely of a long row of spikes with a series of platforms suspended via invisible restraints directly over them. I’m baffled on that one, really.
But one thing is clear enough–John Citizen is a fairly fun and fairly quick casual game that’s worth a few plays.
Blackboard Squash Game Review–All The Fun You Used To Wish Chalkboards Had
I have to admit, I’ve played a lot of games on Newgrounds, and some of them are better than others. But if you’re into action games that’ll make you think like a puzzle game, then you could definitely do a lot worse than Blackboard Squash.
In Blackboard Squash, you play a tiny little chalk outline of a man on a chalkboard. Meanwhile, chalk hazards are continually drawn into life to fall onto you or attempt to crush or skewer you. You’ve got just enough fortitude to withstand five injuries, and after that, it’s game over.
You’ll be playing on different sides of the board every so often, and you’ll have to adjust your control perceptions to match. You’ll have to constantly think and dodge, so you’ll need to be fast and clever to get through this one for any length of time. It’s fast, casual fun.
Pwong Game Review–Ping? Pong? Not Quite.
Ever have one of those days when you’re feeling restless? Like you’ve just slammed a quart of Red Bull laced with Pixy Stix? Got a lot of excess energy to burn off? Then what you need is one of the newest games on Newgrounds, a massive and hyperkinetic version of Pong called, strangely, Pwong.
Pwong, much as the name and my last sentence implies, is basically just a massive, spectacular game of Pong, with MULTIPLE BALLS. And when I say, “multiple balls”, I don’t mean three or four. I mean as many as ten or twenty on the field at one time. Frankly, I couldn’t keeep an accurate count because they were flying so fast. Scoring is the simplest a complex sports game can offer–each ball you miss is deducted from your score, while each ball your opponent misses is added to your score.
Just to give you an idea, at one point I was at negative seventy-five points. Things picked up and I soon got to a hundred and one on my first try. This qualified me for “pre-beginner” rank, and left me feeling vaguely ashamed of myself for the rest of the afternoon. But it won’t stop me from coming back later–nor should it stop you from giving this one a try.
Days 2 Die Game Review–Insane Zombie Blasting Fun
I’m a big fan of zombie movies, and by extension, games that act like them. And I may well have found the toughest challenge I’ve ever taken on in the form of Days 2 Die.
Newgrounds offers me up an incredible zombie apocalypse scenario–it’s just like a whole lot of others. No one really knows how it happens, or when it’ll end, but man, is it ever a brutal one. You’ll be dispatched to survive a legion of the walking dead engaged in attacking you in several different locations, and each wave will get steadily more difficult. But you’ll have a variety of weapons to choose from, and be able to place barricades to help fend off the waves of walking dead.
In early levels, you’ll be able to set up a simple KZ (kill zone) with the help of your barricades, then just stand behind them and blast away. But in the later levels (I found it started around the police station) even the best gun you have is downright insufficient to deal with the dense mobs of highly resilient zombies. Thus, the difficulty level may be just a bit too high for the casual zombie blaster, and even experienced shooter players could be in for a bit more fight than even they can handle.
But either way, you should have plenty of fun with this one, so go on out to Newgrounds and take on Days 2 Die.
2112 Coop Game Review–It’d Be More Fun If There Were More Of It
Well, here’s a game that could have been a winner if there was just something more to it–I found it on Newgrounds, and it’s called 2112 Coop,a game that falls all over itself to prove that less is…well…less.
We start off with an interesting story–there’s a biochemical company that’s been involved in unknown nefarious deeds, and meanwhile, you’re out to get a sample of something to help prove the unknown nefarious deeds. And to that end you’ll kill a whole LOT of security guards. Apparently, committing mass murder of the security guards working for the company committing unknown nefarious deeds is actually somehow LESS nefarious than the deeds the company committing the unknown nefarious deeds is actually doing. I don’t know; I guess we just need to run with it.
2112 Coop plays like Time Crisis with unlimited ammo that manages to conveniently require you to reload after most of the enemies have already been shot. Meanwhile, the security guards are themselves spectacularly incompentent, so you’re not only trying to stop the evil corporation, you’re also ensuring that the gene pool will be improved by removing a series of brain-damage cases from possible reproduction.
You’ll shoot your way through in a surprisingly fun exercise, and when you reach the company’s front doors, you’ll beat the level. You’ll also get a report of your ammunition used and accuracy percentage, as well as the number of head shots you made.
Basically, it’s quick, it’s fun, but there’s just not that much of it there to really enjoy.
Guns N Angel Review–Heavily Armed Teenagers
There’s a lot to be said for the casual gaming experience, especially the casual shooter gaming experience. It’s quick to get into, it’s easy to play, but the experience will often carry you through surprising hours of gameplay as you get into full-on “just one more level” mode.
One game that really does a fantastic job of “just one more level” is Guns n Angel, which not surprisingly I found in the vast array of gaming possibilities that is Newgrounds.
You play as Angel, an adorable tweenage girl with a deep and abiding passion for…firearms. Seriously, this chick’s got more guns than the Republican National Convention. She’s going to be running around with Uzis, shotguns, flamethrowers, and that’s just for starters. She’ll be blasting everything that comes into frame all in the grand and epic pursuit of saving the world, but we really didn’t need that little thread of plot. This one’s all about the run and the gun, folks, and if you, like me, couldn’t get enough Contra back in the day, then you will be all OVER this one.
Death Vs. Monstars Review–Arena Blasting Fun For All
Sometimes it really amazes me how the simplest games can be the most challenging and downright addicting. This is the case with a game I found over at Newgrounds–a diabolical little shooter frenzy called Death Vs. Monstars. And no, that’s not a misspelling.
An “arena shooting game”, you play as Death, in this case represented by a small floating skull that fires little spheres of energy on a regular basis in whatever direction his target reticle is pointed. You’ll fly Death around, trying avoid the monsters and in turn blasting them off the map. It’s a lot harder than it sounds, believe me–especially as wave after wave of enemies fills up the screen and flies at you while you’re firing in what amounts to a cone configuration about sixteen degrees outward in one direction.
It’s a clever little game, make no mistake on that one. There’s lots of enemies and tons of power-ups, so you’ll likely have lots of fun playing with this casual shooting experience. I sure did, even if the difficulty was enough to make me understand why people throw their controllers sometimes.
Portal Defenders Review–More Surprises Than It Should Have
I was surprised further by Newgrounds–and such a thing I hadn’t thought possible–to find a clever flash game there called Portal Defenders , in which a pair of animators attempt to defend Newgrounds from a series of spammers and other internet ne’er do wells.
It plays like an old school fighter, like a Final Fight or even an old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The action is however limited to one screen, featuring three doors from which each wave of enemies emerges. You must then beat the living…well, fill in the blank with your favorite here…out of them. The action is both fast and bloody, and with one critical but highly entertaining difference–every two rounds, you’ll use something called the P-Bot in a Zamboni-style fashion to CLEAN UP THE BLOOD. You’ll get bonus items depending on how well you clean up the arena.
I’ve got to hand it to Portal Defenders–they do a fantastic job with a simple game and a simple theme and even do a good job at infusing it with a note of innovation. I’m surprised and abundantly pleased with what I played.
Bunny Invasion Review–A Step Down From the Original
And today it’s off to Newgrounds to take a look at the progenitor of the bunny-blasting fun of Bunny Invasion 2, the original Bunny Invasion.
A race of genetically modified, bloodthirsty rabbit has broken loose from a research lab upstate, and you play as Mr. Frost, a man who won’t be taking any nonsense from any furry monsters and thus sets out to protect his house from the bunny horde. His house, you see, is the last building standing in town due largely to his protection efforts. You’ll have time between waves to buy weapons and ammunition, as well as a chance to upgrade your house.
Instead of having a simple crosshair reticle to aim with, this time you’ll have to guide two converging red laser sights over the target. You’ll also have fewer weapons available, but you’ll get a multiplier that lets you get more money for killing more bunnies without taking a hit.
All things considered, the first Bunny Invasion is a real step back, but that’s to be expected. The sequel’s the one to play, folks—but Bunny Invasion is still a solid shooter in its own right.
Deadpile Rampage Game Review–For Those Blind Rage Days
You ever have one of those days? Your toast is burnt, your milk’s gone sour, you get cut off in traffic, your boss is a complete…fill in the blank…you know, one of THOSE days!
For those times when you wish that the world only had one throat (thank you, Al Bundy!), belly up to the Newgrounds bar and get yourself a sweet hot dose of Deadpile Rampage.
It’s a plot unto itself, as you use a variety of weapons to blast open a series of rampaging faceless minions and stack the bodies like cordwood. It’s not about how many you kill, or how many shots you fire…it’s all about how high you can stack the bodies.
Seriously, that’s the big objective. You don’t score points for kills, you score points for DEPTH OF BODY COUNT. I took a ten-minute test drive on this beastie and wound up with a whole four foot deep pile. And I had only begun to scratch the surface. It was hard to believe the sheer bloodthirstiness of this game. I was vaguely repulsed by it, but man, if I were torqued while playing, it would be an incredible tension release.
And that’s probably the best way to describe this–it’s a fantastic tension release. You shoot drifts of people. You stack them up. You keep blasting them WHILE standing on the top of your corpse heap. if that’s all you want in a game then you’ll get everything you want. Otherwise, Deadpile Rampage will not be your cup of tea.
Shopping Cart Hero–You Too Can Be On Jackass
One of the great things about writing game reviews is the opportunity to find those little known items that you can play for free. One such item comes by way of Newgrounds, and it’s called Shopping Cart Hero.
Now, you may think that nothing could quite top the sheer weirdness quotient given to us by “You Have to Defecate Upon King Bhumibol”, and you’d be right. But how about a game that lets you jump a shopping cart? With rocket boosters on the side? And full of girls?
Before you start thinking that this is the kind of thing Johnny Knoxville sees if he drops acid (though you’d probably be right), that’s the point of the game. Customize your cart with a selection of upgradeable parts, buy new tricks, and jump your cart to long distance, maximum height and maximum style.
It’s nothing fancy–all the characters are stick figures, and you can forget about anything resembling a story. What it is, however, is a fun little time waster that you can play quickly if you have a couple minutes to spare between websites or YouTube videos or what have you. At the end of the day, it’s a fun game, and that goes a long way.