BlueMonday1984's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[NG ranks/levels handbook]

Basic as this Flash may be, its also a neat little time capsule of some visuals from Newgrounds' early days.

The Audio Portal ranks are really cool - feels like that should make a comeback.

[Become Level 60]

Well, that wasn't much. Just a button, a few frames, and some music made from TF2 SFX.
The duplicate preloader was oddly interesting - not sure how that came about.

[NG Levels 2014]

A very neatly made archive for Newgrounds' current level icons and auras - both the regular and halloween versions.
Main complaint is being unable to easily swap between the regular and Halloween versions - makes comparing level icons a bit of a hassle.

Anyways, quick heads-up for Cyber - the "NG Level Archives" link under "Nostalgia" is broken - the link (https://ngarchive.aksumka.com/levels) gives me to a 404, and it appears Aksumka's archive has gone down for good. It does seem there's archives of it on the Wayback Machine, so you should be able to fix the link to some extent.

Cyberdevil responds:

Mmm I hadn't considered a comparison between normal/Halloween level designs at all, good idea if I do a new version of this...

Thanks for the heads up on the link. I'm hosting the old aksumka archive on my own site as well now since the official one went down. Not the whole thing, but the file archive specifically (with level icons) can be found here too: https://ngpot.com/archive/

[GTTTATINT!]

A pretty simple, but pretty fun little endless platformer, with some pretty cool easter eggs.
Not sure which video had Cary telling people to one-star this - if anyone knows, provide me a link.

[Deep Snake]

A really cool spin on the classic snake formula - sure, the controls aren't the most intuitive, but I can easily forgive that for a clever and trippy perspective gimmick.

[united we dance]

...in retrospect, its kinda fitting Miniclip's first sub here after 9/11 was a silly little patriotic dance game.

Its a pretty basic gadget all around - naught but a few dance GIFs and a seconds-long loop, but hey, at least it helped raise people's spirits in the aftermath of an era-defining tragedy.

[Miniclip Space Invaders]

A straight-to-the-point remake of a venerable top-down shooter, with a nice audiovisual upgrade and a hefty boost to difficulty.

If you're looking for a challenge, this will certainly deliver - not only are the aliens faster and more trigger-happy than in the '78 classic, missing your shot or having it blocked will leave you unable to fire for longer than if you hit your target, punishing sloppy aiming.

Its a major shame Miniclip's long-dead, but at least this is still playable.

[Waddle Antarctic]

A simple, but pretty fun little title, even if the combat system can be broken clean in half by grinding at the punching bag and pouring all your points into strength. I can see *some* attempt to quell that by having higher-level enemies attack first, but it clearly wasn't enough.

There's a fair number of places to go, things to do and medals to earn outside the combat, so I can't hold it too much against this.

If you're looking for the Golden Astronaut, lick the pavement in the alleyway - you'll find it in the bottom-right corner.

[Advent Chickendar 2023]

A finely done flock of Christmas gifts for a lot of Newgrounds' coolest peeps, featuring hilarious malarkey and a hefty medal count. The Easter Eggs (Christmas Eggs?) were a nice touch, too.

[Pico-Cross Collab 2023]

A finely done murder mystery, with many twists and turns
Plus an abundance of excellent art - the solid nonograms don't hurt.

Fantastically done Pico Day title - arguably one of the highlights of 2023.