Excellence, as expected from Edmund McMillen. More people need to make atmosphere a priority. Obviously this sort of game doesn't appeal to some people, and I admit that a full-length game of this type would get boring without something else thrown in, but experimentation and a focus on immersion and atmosphere are exactly what games (professional and flash) need.
bjorn11: There is a way to skip the prologue. It's called "clicking",
sawyerd01: The game's obviously not supposed to be challenging... It's more like an interactive story.
As for my own personal take, I think the game's pretty awesome. A bit too short, but if the concept were expanded and/or integrated with more traditional gameplay (for instance RPG or adventure style play with actions changing the course of the story, or even a platformer of some sort with different things achieved by different actions) it would make for a really, really excellent game. As it stands, it's already quite original, and in a world of flash games copying commercial games and each other, that's a big step in the right direction.
Physics need work. Inertia is spotty: there when an animal's in motion as it dies, so the corpse bounces out of place, but if you start jumping and let go of either arrow, you stop mid-air. Tons of similar cases where things either move much more easily or much slower than they should. Also, if an animal is on a moving platform, it just slides out from under them. I don't recall it being mentioned anywhere that the animals were at some point coated in teflon and greased up, which is the only condition under which friction would go out the window like that. Pretty cool game, and I already have all but the last badge, but it could use some work.
Pretty good, though the level curve was a bit stupid. The early levels aren't hard to finish, but it's a lot harder (or was for me) to stay under the death quota for them. A lot of the later levels, I actually ended up below par without trying too hard, while 1-3, for instance, was just ridiculous to finish without losing more than 1 animal.
Good idea. Execution, not so much. The waves are too slow, with the waits between them especially bad. Needs a button for skipping to the next wave and/or speed controls. Also needs information listed for the guns; stats, etc. and an explanation of what a "cash gun" is; until I got one I was expecting a ridiculously powerful gun that cost money every time it shot, as opposed to something almost the same as a machine gun that *generates* money. Wish there was a way to know if it's weaker or stronger than a machine gun... It's also annoying how the upgrade panels center the screen on what you're upgrading. Sometimes I want to be able to upgrade something in one place while keeping an eye on the action elsewhere. The upgrade panel should follow you.
Needs a serious AI improvement, or at least an interface that gives you a better idea what the hell is going on. Soldiers in bunkers don't seem to get "decreased firing rate" or whatever it says. They essentially stop firing at all. It's also hard to tell whether a soldier counts as being in a bunker or outside: do they have to be completely hidden? At least one pixel hidden? Something else? Same goes for trenches. The soldiers also seem to make really bad choices about what to fire at. I'll have a downed enemy who maybe *technically* still be alive, but is no threat, and my soldiers all fire at him instead of the guys who are killing them/about to go offscreen. Also needs an ability to select multiple soldiers at once, and to place soldiers near other soldiers more easily, as it's very difficult to get more than a couple in a trench or bunker due to clicking selecting nearby soldiers instead of having the already selected one move.
As stated by others, the weapons don't really seem to have much difference at all. It'd be nice if that were fixed. I had a couple minor responsiveness issues, too: tapping arrow keys briefly sometimes doesn't work at all, and if an enemy's behind you, holding them down results in you running past him, giving him an opening to hit you. Would also be nice if jumping height/distance could be decrease by not holding down the arrow: it's annoying to have to make a full height jump (during which you can't attack unless on fire) just to go up a tiny ledge. Still, really nifty game overall, better controls than a lot of games, and pretty big and interesting. 4/5
It's like if Fantastic Contraption didn't suck. Building with stuff other than sticks and wheels!? Unheard of! Admittedly less polished and doing certain things takes more time, but unlike FC, you don't need to spend ridiculous amounts of time tweaking things to connect at precisely the right pixel to stop the physics from being ridiculous. I'll take a slightly more intricate interface over adjusting the same wheel fifty billion times any day. 5/5
I kind of miss ridiculous/retarded flash games like this. Used to be that 90% of all flash was like this. Most games now are higher quality, but usually ripoffs of actual video games or at any rate not very original. This wad of nonsense gets a 4/5
Pretty good, but too easy. As for the healing cost going up with mana, I'm fairly sure mana regen goes up proportionally with max mana, so if it didn't you'd quickly be able to healing constantly without running out of mana. Game's already very easy, so it doesn't need that.
The physics are kind of annoying. Having the tower sway gradually back and forth while being limited to moving the block you're controlling in set increments makes things difficult. It's also pretty irritating how the blocks stop being in control the second they touch another block, regardless of whether they touch the side or top. Needs to be more like tetris, where you can slide a block over a space or two at the last second to fill in a gap. It would also be nice if there were some way to reinforce or at least occasionally nudge pre-existing parts of the tower. Perhaps forming a gapless row could cause the blocks to stick together a little, and doing something really impressive like having all the same color in a row might turn that row completely solid.
Really great game. I do wish there were some sort of in-game notepad for keeping track of what costs what and where, and ways to automate a couple things: set defaults for what to pick up after fights so I don't have to uncheck a bunch of useless stuff, and have a way to auto-distribute ammo without going into the menu. Wouldn't want much else changed, as I think a lot of the figuring stuff out on your own really helps with immersion (plotting courses, calculating how many supplies you need, etc.)
Not bad, but most levels were a bit easy. The only particularly challenging one was 23, and that was only because the solution made absolutely no sense... After multiple levels of needing the hardhat to keep the top half unpainted, suddenly one of the steps involves painting it without the hardhat and having only half get covered for no reason. A couple were mildly challenging for non-stupid reasons, but there didn't seem to be a particular curve to it. Nice idea, but needs something more, I think.
Really awful lag past a certain point. Desperately needs an option to reduce graphic quality/remove special effects. I realize there's a box to uncheck marked "special effects" if you pause, but it does not appear to do anything.
Best flash game ever made. Admittedly takes some getting used to, and sometimes the physics are a little buggy (seems to vary heavily from computer to computer: sometimes I play and have no problems, other computers the triachnid frequently gets hurt by randomly smashing into the ground.), but changing the controls to something simple would completely ruin everything. Once you get in a little practice, moving the triachnid around becomes easier and faster. Hoping for a sequel soon.
The boss fight is annoying, but then ridiculously easy once you figure out the "strategy". I was under the impression that the boss being in the air=dodging, seeing as he did that, to, y'know, avoid my hits (aka dodge) when he was on the ground. Considering WHILE HE IS DODGING an opening to hit does not really strike me as intuitive at all, especially as the game doesn't ever show evidence of recognizing high hits as going into the air (i.e., if you draw diagonally up, you still come out of it on the ground). Okay game, cool concept, but it needs more to it than just drawing lines in such a way to hit guys in the head and avoid shields, culminating in a boss fight that has nothing to do with actual skill. Add more variety of special moves that take different sorts of lines (diagonal, maybe some shapes like Vs etc.), and possibly change the movement to arrow keys with some sort of jump function.
This game is nifty. It could use a new game+ type thing with more difficulties, and/or a sequel that's longer with more upgrades etc. Also, of course, badges. Looking forward to playing it again to earn them :D
Pretty good! I've seen better programming-based games, but I've mostly seen worse. Has a much more polished feel than a lot of them, but could use more commands and more things for the robot to interact with. I hope you make a sequel!
I like the theme and overall game, but like others I think there's a bit too much luck involved. There are too many situations where unless you get a certain card within a few turns, you're guaranteed to lose. Perhaps allow players to build decks, or even just allow larger hands to make it more likely that you'll have a needed card at the right time.
Way to win with ridiculous ease:
1. Choose men of the west (may work with others, but I used them)
2. ONLY spend points on swordsmanship, increasing armor, and increasing speed.
3. In battle, send out all swordsmen on one row, regardless of enemy units. The only exceptions are if they're sending out really heavy units (giant troll for instance), in which case make sure you're sending your swordsmen on a different row. The swordsmen you get through will easily counterbalance any slow units that you don't fight.
4. Always do the highest % maps first. Doing lower % maps makes the other maps go up in difficulty more.
 "Aether"){kind=icon}
 "The Majesty of Colors"){kind=icon}
 "SeppuKuties"){kind=icon}
 "Eternal Red"){kind=icon}
 "Mud and Blood 2"){kind=icon}
 "Rage 3"){kind=icon}
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 "Escape from really boring island 3"){kind=icon}
 "Kingdom of The Wind"){kind=icon}
 "99 Bricks"){kind=icon}
 "Caravaneer"){kind=icon}
 "Factory Balls 2"){kind=icon}
 "Storm the House 3"){kind=icon}
 "Tri-achnid"){kind=icon}
 "Straw Hat Samurai"){kind=icon}
 "Ether War"){kind=icon}
 "light-Bot"){kind=icon}
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 "Warlords: Call to Arms"){kind=icon}