Notes and Waves - By @meburningslime
Review of Gameplay - Now, I do not have epilepsy or anything like that, but that theme background really hurts my eyes. I had to turn to full-screen in order to make sure my brain doesn’t explode. Now then, now that my eyes are completely safe, I should say that the intro is REALLY well made. As I entered the game select, I tried to see what level I should start off with. And my goodness, you chose good songs. I decided to start with Highscore by Panda Eyes. I gave up immediately after I failed. So I went to Space Invaders by Teminite and MDK. I tried Nitro Fun’s music as well.
Pros:
- Nice songs/music!
- Lots of color…
- There is the potential of replayability.
Cons:
- The particles move fast for the game screen size. Too fast.
- If you drag your mouse off-screen, you can cheat the entire level by staying there and watching the pellets get shot by Stormtroopers.
- If players choose not to exploit the bug I mentioned above, they are barely given enough time to tell what is coming at them before they get hit by a random pellet.
Art: [4] The intro is very well done, and the icons for the levels are also good. The colors that flash in the background are good too… but the Theme background kills my eyes every time I exit full-screen.
Sound: [5] You picked very great music to play in this game. Sound effects probably would have interrupted the music. Although I wish the death sound was a bit less… anticlimactic…
Story: [X] This game contains no story, so this category will not be graded, nor included in the final grade.
Entertainment: [3] Even though this game has the potential for replayability, there is just too little stuff to replay. Only 3 complete levels, and two levels that have nothing. (See Difficulty for more information)
Originality: [1] Even though you claim to have come up with the idea of shapes that move to the music first, with the existence of Just Shapes and Beats, and how closely similar to each other those games are (such as the colors of the player and hazards, as well as the overall gameplay), I am not convinced. Even the title makes it look like a JSAB fan-game.
Difficulty: [3] This game is difficult. Too difficult. As mentioned in the cons, the projectiles move too fast for their game screen size. I barely have any time to react before my character is pummeled. This is what drove me away from the game the first time I played it nearly 6 months ago, after the Summer Jam 2020. I recommended at the time that the player should have at least has some time to see what happened before they have to try again, but now that I replayed the game, I think that more needs to be done to prevent your players from rage quitting the game, wondering how they are supposed to avoid ninja pellets. And I doubt most people would want to return, knowing they cannot learn from their mistakes this time, because the mistakes are never clear.
Total Score: 3.2/5
Good work on this game, meburningslime. While this game does have potential to be a fun fan-game for Just Shapes and Beats, it is lacking some of the fun from that game. As a JSAB player who has played the game for almost 9 months now, it just doesn’t feel the same way. What I would do is add some more ways that players don’t die over and over again because their mistakes are not clear. For example, don’t pause the game when they die, increase the game screen size (or make the projectiles a bit slower), or give warnings showing where the lightspeed pellets are coming from. As I said, the game has potential, but is lacking some important features.
Congratulations, and thank you for your submission!