Butzbo's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Super Recoil Gun]

I think it's a cool concept; we are so used to 'normal' platformer controls, that I'd say this is a fresh idea. Reminds me a bit of Cave Story where you can use a machinegun to actually fly. Only this time the speed makes it insanely though to control; Level 3 got brutally hard early on (I thought I could at least destroy those turrets) and at level 4 I just gave up at the most narrow spike segments.

The music has some sort of odd "peaceful classical/christmas vibe" (atleast that's what I got) that didn't seem really fitting or encouraging for the game.

Of course this is a Ludum Dare proyect; and the priority here is experimentation, which after all led to an interesting result!

[Kram Keep]

An awesome "byte-sized metroidvania"!, could beat it (on normal) in ~30 minutes. The presentation was great, and it managed to be long enough while keeping its small scale, at least longer than what I expected at first.
Some of the platforming bits were a bit tricky, but nothing ridiculously hard to make it seem cheap, and it was fun to end with a boss fight AND an escape sequence. It really seems like you took the most essential elements of the "metroid-vania" genre and made as much as possible within the Ludum Dare limitations.
Makes me wonder If you could keep making more "mini-worlds" like this in a sequence, just a thought.
Good work!

[Skullz]

Nice adventure game, while I can't say I understood the story completely. it was certainly great in terms of experience and atmosphere.
My favourite part of the game (If I understood well) was the moment when the "player" character is gone, and the game makes it look like "you" were an illusion of a skull; it kind of breaks your 'protagonist' condition for a moment, I think it's a nice example of the narrative posibilities that can only be explored within the particular nature of a videogame.

In terms of gameplay it's pretty straightforward; for the most part it's "GO/TALK somewhere", which in this case serves the game's narrative properly, but I think it could eventually include some "puzzle" elements, to make it feel less linear and make the player interact a bit more with the environment, making the user interaction a bit more relevant (and maybe helping to reinforce the atmosphere), just an idea.

Good work, I'll be looking forward for more!

Pizzamakesgames responds:

Thank you for the kind words and analysis, it goes a long way helping me understand the various do's and don'ts of video game design. Very much appreciated!

[A Place in Space]

I like the fact that you go around in circles and the game keeps evolving on each sub-screen as you make progress, it could work as an interesting way to tell a story through the game.
For a Ludum Dare game I'd say it's a great result with an original mechanic proposal around the theme.
Good job!

[Deadly New Zealand]

YEEAH;
I really like this sort of fast-paced "story-driven" games, you don't see them too often.
It's like 50% watching a demented cartoon, and 50% playing a bizarre arcade game. Pixel art was consistent and I'd say it achieved this arcade-cartoonish vibe.

The part about pecking insults was a nice activity by itself, although I wasn't so sure about what was the relationship between that stage and the rest of the story (although the other stages seemed a bit more involved with the 'plot').

I have no idea about the process of making this game, but it left me expecting some more; maybe there could have been a space-shooter stage where you're actually pilloting New Zealand; I think the absurdity could have gone even further. Just dropping some random ideas here.

Anyway, it was a fun little experience and I actually see potential in this style of gameplay.
(also, I liked the idea of having a "Pee break" button!)

Surn responds:

Yeah, I probably should have had a 4th level where New Zealand fights the concept of rugby (which reveals itself to be a Wizard). Glad you liked it.

[Tiny Airships]

A REALLY good 'half-hour flash-game'. Perhaps where it shines the most is in the 'gameboy' styled "green-ish graphics".
A little feedback,though (which may come since i'm studying design), that minimalist pixel-font is a little tricky to read, and as some had already pointed out, 8s look way too much like 6s, etc. there are a lot more legible 'pixel-based' fonts out there ;D.
thumbs-up!

[Muu: Just Another Day]

Great for a first, nice atmosphere!

BUT, what some have already said, it's really frustrating to get through. The jump may be the main problem, it kind of feels 'stiff', like it should have a longer reach. I managed to get the 'trick' of gaining speed by falling on cliffs, but it still demanded 100% accuracy(then I played chicken mode and it was quite a breeze)...
Other than that, great graphics and music. I look forward for a 'sequel'! (or something along the lines, it's an intesting game conceptwise)

[Pixelhate]

SUPER'B, quite repetitive after a while, though.

I liked the concept, spaceships being destroyed literally pixel-by-pixel until...BOOM!
Although, at first I thought i was playing a game with an 'ending' actually, rather than an endless arcade-style high-score based game (atleast that's what it seems like now at level 14, when i've played basically the same stages like 3-4 times each, and i just left the game because there wasn't much more of a variety at this point (and it was rather easy to keep going because of the excess of long-lasting shield power-ups)).
P.S.: Also a pause button would be nice.

[Mishapened Identity]

OHWELL

As said by other reviewers, i also died A LOT before getting to know what was going on, specially when you die on the first half of a second of the game due to unexpected TNT. it could really use a little tutorial, or not having to use the SPACE bar to 'activate' your moves.
Also, on the 'Help screen' keep the order of the buttons as they are in the keyboard -> ASD, as "ADS" as they are now it's quite confusing to look at first.
Anyway, ignoring that, graphics, concept and even the music were fun.
Hope you can fix it because it has POTENTIAL.

Poopoothegorilla responds:

Yeh the TNT is extremely hard to get past, I just changed that ASD ADS thing so hopefully others wont be annoyed haha!
as far as the spacebar goes we were debating whether to have that at all, but then we thought the game would be rediculasly easy... and decided space!

Thanks again for the review and good suggestions!

[Rebuild Chile: The Game]

Pretty cool animation, specially on the intro!
A little thing I wanted to point out (not that much, actually), it's that the 'in-game' ambient feels a little 'generic', I'm not saying you should put "cueca" as the background music, or "empanadas" as icons, (maybe the standard look was the intention since the game is on an english-talking website) but I still think it could have a little bit more Chile on it (yeah, i'm chilean).