This was a nice little diversion. I would comment that at some point I stopped getting all the gem messages at the end of levels; also after finishing the last level (also the last thing for 100%) it dumped me immediately to the main menu (probably similar bug to not seeing gem messages). I hit play again, and I was standing on the door already open, so I went through it and then saw the game ending message. (I feel I also have to point out it was a bit lame of an ending, but what are you gonna do I guess.)
Well I gave this game a very rare (for me) 5/5 for the lovely and unique music puzzle piece aspect. Probably under 20 games since 2008 I've given 5s to (I think they are given out way too liberally, but that's another conversation - can you really tell me Alone on the Ocean or whatever compares to a unique game like this?). My only complaint is that one puzzle in particular (Badinerie) I wound up brute-forcing because the only pieces I had left were all identical, and there were 6 of them. I think 2 I found kind of obvious and the rest I had nfi. Oh and at one point I didn't know what to do but it turned out for some reason I had an unsolved puzzle I didn't know about... so maybe an indicator on the book that there's one sitting there for you? It's usually pretty good about showing you that stuff, but don't know why it missed this one puzzle. Anyway, really well done.
Rated 2/5 for barely being a game. Random point-and-clickiness with obvious right-thing-to-do choices plus a bunch of bad minigames doesn't rate highly for me. However, after my 2 rating, the average went from 3.93 to 3.97, so for some reason you've managed to get quite a bit of appreciation. I guess congrats are in order for that even if I don't understand it myself.
So, he updated the game somewhere else to tell us the other place had better/newer features, but didn't update this version? Haven't gone to the other link but sure sounds like a moneygrab or something.
No, the other version IS on Kongregate. It's a Kongregate link, just shortened. I haven't replaced this version with the newer one, because it would kill the badges. So when I had the new version, I uploaded it like if it was another game, but still on Kongregate. Actually, the new version is *exclusive* to Kongregate. You can't find it anywhere else, as opposed to this version which is widely distributed across the web. But you're not the only one thinking that I'm asking you to leave the site with those links, so I think i'm going to edit those messages to make them less misleading :)
Here's what I shouted to phillyof97 in case anyone else is interested: I just replayed the final boss, and here’s a good one for you. Save a couple bombs for the enemies that show up with him at the start. I used helicopter and frag bombs x3. Helicopter had 620 health going in. I had already beaten it doing the normal swerving, so I just sat in the middle. The super-damaging fuzzy shots never hit me, only normal bullets, which do like 5 damage. So I just sat there the whole time after the enemies were gone and just let the game go. Finishing health was like 440. Frag weapons were at levels 6/7. Hope this helps.
At some point I had 2 balls and they both disappeared and now the game is just sitting there. mcadesigns, you really need to listen to people and give them an absolute 1:1 mouse position=paddle position. The way you have the controls be relative to where you are at that exact moment just makes no sense; no one's brain thinks that way.
This game is an epic failure in every conceivable way except that the ball seems to follow the law of gravity fairly well. As a pinball layout, it's huge fail, and as for how the flipper flips, I don't have any idea how it was made so lousy. The flipper does not start at the bottom when a ball touches it if you're holding it up. (For an example, just hold up the right flipper and it'll go along the side wall forever. Try and time a flip away from there, and you'll be lucky to hit the ball.)
You might want to consider making your icons a little more distinct, a couple of the blue ones especially always look pretty similar to me. For some reason it took me a couple levels to grasp the concept that they could be any 3 touching, not having to be in a line. For me, the numbers for score, level, etc. are all cut off on the bottom. Also, a little animation of the falling would be nice.
The controls seem really responsive in some combinations but not others. Spawning gray balls in a direct collision course with you is lame. I guess mines are just to clear out the gray balls? I dunno, the biggest thing is the controls right now; I don't feel like I can control my ball at all.
@FrostPaladin: It's quite escapable, just difficult. You need to double-jump off the highest ledge you can get to from the fountain to the ledge right above. Very tricky timing, but very possible to do as well. I only kept at it because I figured that spot would've gotten playtested enough that he wouldn't've left something that glaring in the game on release.
Game weirdly locked up for me in wave 43. (I'll just point out that at that point, making progress on repair is nigh impossible.) All the attacking/dying zombies just stopped, wave time stopped advancing, just 1 big zombie was ambling along. When I started moving, all the old zombies didn't move along with the background, like they were some kind of overlay. Very odd, I'm sure I should've won the game before then, but it did at least make it trivial after that happened to finish up.
So I guess I played this 3 years ago when it was new. I only had the hard badge: Carpal Tunnel Survivor Badge ( hard ~ 30 points ) You acquired this badge on Jul. 11, 2008. You know your game is broken when the hard badge is easier (or less maddening/stupid) than getting an easier badge.
Being able to crush multiple things in one blow would be a nice way to add some depth. For those curious, looks like scoring is points + 10 x distance + 100 x best combo.
(cont)
As I stated though, my biggest complaint is that you don't simple remove groups that add up to the target (9 or 11 or 12 or whatever), you only remove them if they aren't touching anything else. That's going to severely limit any potential this game has as the number of setups to score interesting ways is vastly reduced.
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No, the other version IS on Kongregate. It's a Kongregate link, just shortened. I haven't replaced this version with the newer one, because it would kill the badges. So when I had the new version, I uploaded it like if it was another game, but still on Kongregate. Actually, the new version is *exclusive* to Kongregate. You can't find it anywhere else, as opposed to this version which is widely distributed across the web. But you're not the only one thinking that I'm asking you to leave the site with those links, so I think i'm going to edit those messages to make them less misleading :)