Here's an honest critique of the 5 "best" movies and games of the days 18th-20th of April:
I will admit, it's already starting to get demotivating, so I skipped over two whole days. But here it is, the mega-review.
15 submissions.
April 18th
Entries thread: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1534205
Authors: @MojoMontebon @awd @El-Cid @Oswelt @SaveSlothStudios
1st: 0/3
Super low-effort.
There is very little animation, probably took about 1 week tops. It's at least a little more interesting than the previous Sonic animation, but at this point, why bother?
2nd: 0/3
Another "Keanu Reeves Shadow" animation: Again, very small and rushed out before the trend dies.
Shadow's animation is better, but it's 10 seconds long and there's no background, so there's nothing of value.
idk, just stop cutting corners and make something bigger.
3rd: 2/3
Here it is! The grand return of the one and only El-Cid, legendary animator from the golden age of Newgrounds, after almost 5 years since his last animation: The Shooting Stars - Diplomacy Mode.
And it's a bit of a disappointment:
The movie is centered around Klaus Schwab (Wikipedia), aka the 86 yo. founder of the World Economic Forum. The big punchline is that the 3 jokes he tells are very basic and unfunny.
As an animation, it's very MeatCanyon-esque. The background is most likely AI-generated (and gets very blurry up close), most of the movements are in Schwab's mouth, and not the rest of his face.
It just barely gets a 2 because TheJanitor9k and AlmightyHans are both good voice actors. But the only other difference between this movie and several other political cartoon strips satirizing the WEF and Klaus, is that this one drags out for a minute longer than it needed to.
For example: this strip by former Financial Times cartoonist Ingram Pinn.
This Simpsons clip comes to mind.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llE7wT1BKt8
4th 1/3
When I saw "Animation Meme" in the title, combined with the other 2 stinkers, I had low expectations.
It looks like those two people are in love, but they just end up staring at each other.
The animation, though not my cup of tea, is still good. It uses the song "Fighter" by Jack Stauber, which is 30 seconds long, though it only uses the latter half.
The dancing Marge Simpson at the end is still cool.
5th 3/3
This is a strategy card game, made for Ludum Dare 55.
Every turn, you place up to 3 cards with varying strength levels and abilitieson the first column. When the turn ends, each card moves forward, where their strength multiplies. If they reach the castle at the end, they die.
The goal is to make sure the combined strength is higher than the castle's own health, which means you have to be careful about which cards are sacrificed, which row you place them on,
, something that took me a bit of time to understand, and a bit more time to explain in simple terms.
Presentation and theme are both good, good-fitting music, there's a story told through text and illustrations.
All in all, I ended up enjoying the whole experience twice. I only wish I could undo cards before I end my turn.
It should be noted that although this is a 72 hour game jam (ie. 3 days), I can estimate that this is equivalent to 6-10 days of regular development, given that there's 2 developers, and that you usually prepare for and spend more hours of the day if there's a strict development window.
Overall, complete rubbish. The only true saving grace here is The Royal Writ, and even then it's at the bottom.
Total Score: 6/15 (38%)
Best/Favourite:
#5: The Royal Writ
April 19th
Entries thread: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1534238
Authors: @jumpbreak96 @violxiv and co @KimiOmega @Figburn @squidly and co.
1st: 3/3
Great aesthetic, great music selection: Still kinda comes off as a demo-ey character showcase, or portfolio piece, but it's almost a minute long.
Please make a Streetdevil series or at least a short film.
PS: I also noticed a few movies, including some old realistic ones based on DOOM or Madness, have been removed. Like, can't watch them here anymore. Care to explain?
2nd: 3/3
I've seen a few teasers dating up to October, so there's a bit of hype to this, and I'd like to say it's worth it.
It starts with a 60 second training video about a pizza joint for the undead, then the rest of the movie is a confrontation with Suzie, a delivery driver, and a ghost who ends up disatisfied with his order, which ended up costing $3 ($5:62 in today's money, given that this is set in the year 1999).
I think it feels more like a short pilot and would benefit from a sequel or a full series.
3rd: 3/3
This is a fan-series based on the Kirby games, mainly . I haven't watched every single episode, but I can already tell this one good.
This episode is centered around a fight against against a giant monster (lore in the author comments). The Kirbys can't stand a chance, but Adeleine manages to kick its ass.
4th: 2/3
Animated teaser for Contract Rush DX, which is still not done yet.
The animated intro (15 secs) is very cool, and the trailer itself is well-edited, save for a lack of sounds. It does look like a lot of progress was made on the game itself.
5th: 3/3
Ludum Dare 55 entry. You must use "gachapons", ie. you pay money in select machines to unlock random fighters which automatically kill enemies like slimes, rats, and scorpions. Every minute you must pay rent that keeps increasing, money you earn by attacking and defeating enemies with your gachapons. The enemies can't attack you personally, but can kill the gachapons. You can earn medals to
IDK if this is truly endless or not, but it doesn't seem that well-polished or executed. I got up to 400K points. Please send me a video of someone.
Graphics are good, there's a great variety of gachapons, and some good original music. But there are plenty of flaws, even in version 1.2:
First, the directional controls are a bit floaty, though you can use the mouse.
Second: the voices can be annoying, and there's no way to turn them off (that I know of).
Third: a map would be nice.
That's all! Congrats to everyone involved.
Overall, I see a lot of incredible work, If you love video games, you'll love today's entries!
Total Score: 14/15 (95%)
Best/Favourite: #3, 1,#5
April 20th
Entries thread: https://www.newgrounds.com/bbs/topic/1534238
Authors: CumminHam @MD00dles @Kwing and @Cyberdevil, @remusyurov @SleP16
1st: 0/3
Puddle is an original frog character. There's quite a bit of uncanniness to this submission, both the character design itself and the lighting. This is despite the E-rating.
Given the lack of substance and the #1 spot, it doesn't deserve any points.
2nd: 1/3
Animatic + Advertisement to promote SrPelo's Spooky Month merch.
3rd: 2/3
Flash Forward Jam entry: This is a fighting game, the twist is that it's set to a rap battle between two NG users and that you gain an attack bonus if your fighter's verse plays. The battle ends when the song ends, and the winner is declared by who dealt the most damage. I don't know if it's possible to completely knock out your opponent by going all the way..
It's a bit choppy, and the visuals are jank, but I like the idea.
4th: 3/3
It's a retelling of Half Life: Alyx made using paper. I thought this would be similar to Paper Mario, but nope.
Style's good, great background art.
5th: 2/3
This is a rhythm platformer where you time your moves to the beat of the music.
First impressions: looks great.
When I got to play it: pretty confusing.
You're supposed to time your jumps and other moves to the beat to the song, but here, it just makes it difficult to control.
Left-right movement is stiff, forcing me to jump most of the way, and it's not clear on how to perform tricks.
I also couldn't get any of the other moves to work and I got stuck at a breakable wall on the first level.
Overall, yeah this selection is totally generic. Save yourself and go check out yesterday's lineup instead!
Total Score: 8/15 (53%)
Best/Favourite: #4, #3, #5
