Score: 7

"pretty good but"

submission: MMPolarity Reconstruction

date: April 29, 2005

This game was very awesome. But there were a few things that were so godly annoying.

I hated it how you were confronted with new situations and challenges when you didnt have 1 clue on how to approach them. It started at the first level with the laser beams coming from wall to wall. I didnt know the color of the shield absorps the same color of the laserbeam. Later i read that you wrote a bit about it in the instructions, but it would have been alot better if you gave the instructions ingame.

Then at level 2 the laserbeams come from down to up between two platforms and i didnt know they pushed me above when i jumped through them! So i kept dying from the spikes every time until i found out.

And at the last level you have to chose between one of the two holes to jump in and then you get confronted with yet another laser beam and you sort of just have to guess what color its going to be. >:(

Make the thing more clear for the people who play this man. Theres no point in being all mysterious about these type of things. Nobody will die in one of the mentioned situations and think 'Hey too bad, this was fun, i still dont have any clue what to do, but lets try again'. It is simply frustrating.

I also liked it better if the camera just moves with the character instead of just a still camera and you walk from scene to scene. Neway, good game, make a sequel or something and make sure you make it more gamer friendly and add some other megaman characters in it. Then you will have a real gem

AITD

Score: 10

"Too awesome for words"

submission: Comfort

date: April 25, 2005

Man, i should really make a favorite author list sometime. Because if i would, your name would be right on top there with a handful of others i really respect on this site.

What an awe-some animation. Iv seen all your other work also including your website and know now without a doubt that you are a real talent. Not only in animation, but also in painting and in the way you manage to tell stories.

All your animations are very surreal with the enormous attention to characters and emotions. I love that, it inspires me also. Whats so impressive is how you emphasise those qualities even more by not using any music or special effects. So incredibly pure and cool how you just let the art and voiceacting speak for itself. That still scene of the goat man sitting on the table with the lady (his mother?) just screaming 'nothing!' the entire time may be one of the best flashscenes i ever seen.

I think you rotroscoped the flash movies you uploaded on this website. I might be wrong, but i dont think it is possible to draw such fluent perfectly timed movement without the use of rotroscoping. Wether you did it by rotroscope or not, this thing still remains incredible.

What i also really love are the small details you put in your animations. I noticed when the mother was throwing the objects out of the closet she threw away the weirdest stuff. I even saw a small female flying. Brilliant, lol. I dont know if it has a meaning or not, but thats the wonderful thing about art. You dont have to justify every decision you make and can just let it open to interpretation. Unlike architecture, heh.

Anyway, its sad that you arent uploading your work here anymore. I bet you dont even visit this site or read these reviews. But this just had to be said. 'Comfort' is (together with the other two) one of the best serious animations on Newgrounds.

AITD

Score: 8

"Nice one!"

submission: Fantastic Realm Chapter 2

date: April 22, 2005

I remember Fantastic Realm being one of the first movies i reviewed when i made an account on newgrounds. I was really overwhelmed by it and thought at the time that it was one of the best flashes ever.

First off, i noticed you wrote a brilliant response to a review of a previous user. 'No doubt, it seemed like some people really have it in for us sometimes. Its funny how vicious people can get when you try to offer them free entertainment!'. Haha that is so true man, couldnt agree more.

Anyway, this episode was in some ways amazing also. Very proffessional and well thought out. The visuals are stunning and posses the right cartoony touch. Same goes for the audio. There isnt much you can improve on the visual/audio area.

I also noticed how many usuers think the story is unoriginal and without surprises. Unfortunately i cant completely disagree with them. It is a very ambitious series and its extremely important that you will manage to give it an own identity in order to become really great. You partly succeeded in this with the castle guard character and the main villain, but overall, it lacks detailness in the way you tell and present things. The evil wizard was just an evil wizard. The pretty girl was a pretty girl and her dumb comical companion was just a dumb comical companion.

I would strongly suggest to take more time and shape every character into extreme detail and add more unique things to them. Everyone loves Xombie, because of his awesome one liners, his confusing purpose and his still warm personality. Everyone loves Darth Vader because of his voice acting, his skill with the lightsaber and the slight sense of good in him. These are just examples, but I think you know what i mean. I was kinda missing that in the characters of this movie. They were there and had their purpose for the story, but nothing more. In the end, it is what seperates a well drawn proffessional approached movie from an epic memorable series.

Anyway, keep it up, you people are definately going in the right direction, and the talent is literally shining of the episodes. Just spend a little bit more time in thinking about how to reach the heart of the viewers.

AITD

Score: 9

"a rare gem"

submission: A Men's Room Monologue

date: April 21, 2005

Brilliant flash. Completely original, hilarious and clever. I love this and i love how it is approached. It really shows how a good concept/idea is worth so much more than some clean visuals.

What made this flash really stand out was the script and the voice acting. They were very fitting and almost Seinfeld quality. The thing was really funny and a joy to watch. Most of the things were so true and recognizable also, which makes it even more enjoyable.

There is no real advise i can give you. You obvious have talent in knowing how to reach the viewers. A talent not many on ng have. Telling you to improve the visuals will just be lame and pointless, that wasnt really the important thing of this flash.

Definately hope to see more of you in the future!

AITD

Score: 6

"Well designed"

submission: Robenstein

date: April 20, 2005

You certainly know how to visually express yourself, that is obvious. But designing things is 1 thing, animating is something else. I could see you still need to learn alot about animating by the way the robot walked and by the general lack of animation in this animation.

The storyline was a bit simple, but still unclear to me. Too bad it was so short or it could have been alot more interesting. It may sound like bad advise, but maybe its better if you concentrate more on making something interesting and cool rather than spending days creating the backgrounds and special effects.

The music was perfect though and so were the sound effects. The thing felt really proffessional, but like i said before it lacked content a little.

Oh and why is that dutch movie Shouf Shouf Habibi your favorite movie? lol I didnt know people in Spain know it also.

AITD

Score: 7

"Pretty good"

submission: Fluete -SE-

date: April 17, 2005

Yes, the thing was very corny, it was full of cliches and the body proportions were off in some scenes, but still i really liked this.

I dont really know how come i liked this piece, but i guess the good choice of the colors and the warm soundtrack helped a bit.

The thing is very strange though in every aspect. Visually, you sometimes amaze at moments, like when the angel was flying above the clouds and you sometimes amaze even more by how rushed some scenes look. Like i said, you have some problems with drawing the bodyparts in the right proportions, but meh, its forgivable. Just keep on practising.

The thing was also strange conceptwise. Im sure it made sense in your own mind, but what are we viewers supposed to think when a rocket is targeted on the girlfriend of the character who transforms in an angel to fly into the rocket and die in the explosion? Maybe you wanted to show how a far a man can go to protect the one he loves, but i think you could have done it in a better, more understandable way. Why chose something so unrelatable and mechanical as a rocket?

The good points were definately the color tones you used throughout this movie. Very nice and they created a warm feeling inside :)

I always admire artists who at least try to tackle the heavier, more difficult themes and you are off from a good start. Its only your third submission and the more you do these type of things, the more you will understand what works and what doesnt. I personally dont think its a good idea when the characters in the flash movie literally sing the words of the chosen song. Just practise more and learn from the minors of the past and you can become a very interesting artist.

AITD

Score: 2

"Terrible"

submission: Review: Alien vs Predator

date: April 12, 2005

No, I am not a legendary frog hater nor someone who doesnt like comedy, but after watching this flash i seriously wonder how anyone could ever rate this higher than average.

First of all, it is pathetic that you dont even do your own flash movies anymore, but chose other people to do the dirty work. I mean what the hell?, do you think you are such an awesome writer and you should continue in that direction from now on? How much skill does it really take to chose a video game or movie as a subject of a flash and make some lame G rated jokes about it.....

What is even more amazing is how other flash artist completely copy your infamous tweened limbs style in their quest for internet popularity. Probably one of the few styles that take the least amount of creativity and talent to create and that can be done within a couple of minutes. Combine it with a teenage theme, some childish jokes and every flash is a winner. It worked for return of ganondorf and Ark and Kerrigan, but there comes a point in an artists carreer when he has to experiment and learn more in order to grow.

Even the topics of every new flash become worse and worse. I mean, making a flash which is about a movie review?!? And just when you think it cant be any lamer, the entire review isnt even funny in an original or rude way, but no, we are supposed to laugh at a girl saying alien vs predator is average and deserves 3 out of 5 stars, Hihihihi!

I eagerly await 'your' next movie review or metal gear solid parody.

AITD

Score: 9

"how awesome"

submission: -LHSM-

date: April 11, 2005

Ah... finally a good flash movie again. After all those weeks of complete shit in the portal i am relieved to see a genuine creative flash again.

One may easily be tempted to dismiss this as a cheap gorillaz style ripoff, but this is so much more than that. Perhaps it was even a bit minimalistic, with the white background and the few straight linework covering it. But as americans sometimes say: less is more.

The style was wonderful. The characters were animated brilliantly (especially the lipsync) and the cartoony style was very well recreated. What worked even better were the traditional scanned drawings you combined within this flash. Simply brilliant. This doesnt always work out well, because it can stand in too much contrast with the overall style of the flash, but it fitted like a condom here, mainly because of the minimal white backgrounds.

The tetris ending was very fitting and was a cool touch to it. I dont know if this is the original ending for the gorillaz music video or if you came up with that. Doesnt matter really, you did a great job, thats what counts.

Take care and hope to see more original work of yours in the future

AITD

Score: 6

"getting there"

submission: The Child That Smelt Odd

date: April 8, 2005

After watching this cartoon i somehow had to think of my alltime favorite flash 'how it will end'. And i wasnt surprised that after i checked your profile i saw that flash also as your no1 favorite.

This is different from your other work indeed. As in it isnt trying so hard to be weird and scary and put the attention more on the dialogue and acting. I like that, more subtlety is always better. But unfortunately i wasnt really all that impressed by it. Where 'how it will end' or 'b&w drama theater' were clever, hilarious and thought provoking in every scene, this was a tad boring. But thats just my opinion. You have alot of fans and im sure they will love it.

AITD

Score: 5

"Not as good as your others"

submission: Hidden Sorrow

date: March 31, 2005

Iv been a fan of your work ever since you made that evanescence flash movie. Especially crayon bear i found very good. Unfortunately i was dissapointed by this one.

Another flash movie that tries to deal with the more serious themes. This isnt a bad thing on itself, but the way you executed it was too simple and unoriginal. Depression, suicide, angel metaphores..... Things we are literally drowned with and things that can be only interesting if it is approached in a more original way. Who was that character, why is she depressed and why are we supposed to feel sorry for her? The entire thing didnt really make sense at all, it was basically just a short semi dramatic situation of a girl comitting suicide.

It helps alot if you make it longer and give the viewer time to attach to the main character. Nobody feels sorry for a hopelessly depressed girl jumping of a cliff. At least not if we dont know what the other aspects of her life are like.

The visuals were good and you are definately improving on that area. Very nice sky and great purple tones. The music selection was good too. This may not be as easy as it seems, because it happens alot that a sad flash gets completely killed by the wrong song selection.

Anyway, this criticism is only for this particular movie. I really do like the rest of your work. And i admire the fact that you experiment and try to make flash in many genres. Adios!

AITD