MagicalSarai's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Tarnation]

Difficult, but original and intriguing!

I found this game to be a breath of fresh air. While i cursed the heavens frequently... it definitely made me think about what I was doing.

The concept of the game is sound and offers much in the realms of strategy. You have a garden full of seeds and depending on how you drag your mouse... you make a certain color of flower. These flowers attack a certain color of enemy... so on and so forth. The catch is... that you have to consever your seeds and your flowers. Use up your seeds too soon, and a different color enemy will mop the floor with you. Make too many kind of one color flower... yes they will mop the floor with the enemy, but once all enemies of that color are goen... good bye flower army.

There is surpising depth to this game, and I find myself very happy to have run across such a gem. IT is a solid addition to the newgrounds defense category. Well done to the creators!

[Damn Birds]

Addictive and Satisfying

This is an excellent game.

It is fun, because admittedly... everyone wants to pull out a pump shotgun after a bird has dropped a load on them. Heck, people want to shotgun the pidgeons after they drop on a freshly washed car. It's finally time to get retribution, even if on a video gave (because PETA and ARA would never allow us to actually take out the "poor defenseless creatures")

The mechanics are good, the reward system is perfect... and frankly your just going to play this because it is quick fun.

You can pick this game up... play a level... and then leave and not worry about what happens next. You can also just leave it on the upgrade screen for forever... come back to it... and then keep playing. The addition of new birds as the game goes on is also fun. I personally liked giving the goose a face full of buckshot. It made me happy in ways that I kinda feel uncomfortable with.

This game is why people come to newgrounds. It is a good game and should set the bar for the rest of the submission...

[Crimson Warfare]

Like Age of Empires... without the enjoyment

This game has an interesting premise... but mixing defense with RTS ends up being boring, and you just want to shout at your units when they move all over the place and ultimately end up dying... often times consecutively. Not having control over the units is frustrating, but not being a computer... you are forced to click each building and each unit that you want to build. Without a unit queue... you find yourself clicking furiously and rapidly and still not getting desired results. I personally don't like mashing buttons. I don't consider it game play, and when a tank can be taken out with one shot, i throw my hands up.

It was a concept with potential... but it was ultimately annoying.

[Final Defense: Last Stand]

Mediocrity is a curse

This is not a bad game.

That does not mean it is a good game either. For a tower defense game it offer too little in the realm of interest. The basis of the game? Hold down the mouse and shoot little walking enemies until you get enough money to buy things. Upgrade your base to continue clicking and killing... wash, rinse, repeat. The mission mode is boring and most of them just involve buying a certain base equip. and then using it against the enemy.

If you want to kill your mouse, your eyes, and your hands... play this game. If you want something challenging? Well this will definitely challenge you to see how masochistic you can be.

Play this game for a few minutes. Enjoy the visual effects of the tiny soldiers going pop when hit with an artillery shell from an assault tower... marvel at how their tiny weapons can damage a base... and then move on. It's not worth spending much time on this game.

[Besieged]

Intriguing... yet difficult

This game is a standard tower defense game. Monsters walk the path... erect towers... kill monsters. If your castle dies, you lose. It all looks very simple... except there is a twist element thrown in: you can build structures that give you more money, boost your experience gain for your castle, or boost experience on your towers. You have to use your beginning resources to pick the correct towers and structures... otherwise by the time the fifth wave rolls around... you can already see that you are finished.

This game is more difficult than i originally thought, and i find that difficulty enjoyable--to a degree. I've been trying to beat lvl 2 for some time now, and every time I get to about 11 seconds and then I'm toasted. It's starting to get frustrating, but it's not on the fault of the game. I don't believe I've quite figured everything out... and it think it's a good thing. I like games that make me think, and this is a basic tower defense game that will force you to do so. You won't be sitting there--just waiting for the next wave of monsters. You will find yourself carefully watching your resources, trying to keep your eyes on all the enemies and constantly trying to add new towers and structures to provide the much needed edge against the literal hordes of enemies that start to beseige you.

All in all a great game.

[-Red-]

Very unique

I was never bored... not once in the 400 seconds that I played this game. I found that it was easier to stay alive WITHOUT the bonus towers, but it was still a shock to be given that kind of power up. The concept of the game is creative, original, and ultimately fun. I think the sucess lies in the simplicity: point. click. bounce.

The game has sound geometric properties and if you can aim just right... a few blasts can knock away anything. I found the spacebar blast to be superfluous... it took up too much ammo and didn't do enought in my personal opinion, but it was still great just to send a big hulking blast at those planet sized spheres!

I loved this game, and it's good for taking up time at work. Excellent job!

[Knights Castle]

Good idea with bad execution...

This game was really fun in the beginning, but after about wave 10... you get nothing but irritated. The "reflect spell" never works with the freaking wizards that turn you into a pig... and low and behold, a transfiguration spell does more damage than the wixards who throw purple balls of ooze that remind you of that power rangers movie from the 90's (I think that villian wore the same outfit!) So not only can you not attack, not reflect, not kill, and not cast magic while you are a pig... but you are forced to take more damage than you would from a sword strike. Heaven forbid you get to wave 18 where there are dozens of them. I hang my hat up... it's not worth all the clicking. I'll destroy my keyboard before I get to the end of this game, and that is not any fun.

Not only that, but the skill tree tells you nothing about requirements. I wanted lightning, but I click on it after getting the required spells before... nothing happens. Why is this? Do I need to be a certain level? Does it cost more skill points? The tree tells me nothing... not that I could make it far enough into the game after this became a problem. Fire ball did hardly any damage, fire wall didn't stop anything... and damage was minimal. The Healing spells were great until wave 10... when they stopped becoming effective and the time it took for them to recharge was rediculous at best.

I give major points on creativity, but I take away because of the disaparaging difference in ability vs. difficulty.

[Battlefield]

Might as well beat your head against the wall

This game seriously has no point. I've played it several different ways and pretty much--the only way--is to just see how quickly you can build up an uber army of little soldiers and then watch their pathetic animaitons as they apparently hack down a castle. There was no enjoyment from unlocking new units, because by the time I got the wizard... one barrage of arrows from the castle was enough to kill him, where as for the price of one wizard I could get ten soldiers. The same can be said for any other special unit... and the dragon? Come on... that thing made my grandmother look deadly.

All in all I was disappointed at the lack of apparent effort to make the units a viable piece of the game.