MajorBanter's Reviews

[Warriors of the Portal]

Incredible effort

I'm a 3D artist for Unreal and Source. That means I understand exactly how much effort was involved in building the character models, their rigging, their animation, the sound, the effects, the particles - all the elements to this movie.

While it has its flaws; mainly the inevitable 'floatiness' or apparent reduction in gravity, and no real sense of power to the blows, that's ignorable out of sheer astonishment at this video.

I mean, LOOK AT IT.

What a sterling, 10/10 effort.

There are times when the lighting isn't very effective, and the scenes can be a little grating - Gooseman's for example felt a little cheesy and out of character - but these are nitpicks that you as an artist will overcome through experience.

The varied endings, subtle interactivity, and sheer quantity of quality work will overcome any basic criticisms. While it wants refinement, that's because of the work, not the compression. I am confident you will achieve it.

And if this reads as gushing, good. That's what I wanted.

[Dot Dot Dot - Animated]

That has got to be

The most awesome piece of voice acting I've heard in a long time.

It's better than John Freeman.

[Billy Mays The Birth]

Bizarre.

It's as if the narrating voice actor was afraid of sounding stupid, so sounded even more like an idiot; which ruined the sound element of the Flash.

Yet the animation was awesome, some other VA work was awesome. It doesn't make sense.

However, the style didn't work. Billy Mays begs for parody and slapstick comedy. Instead you use surrealist humour combined with crap jokes.

Next time, put as much work into your VA and script as you do your animation. Get help if needs be. Because Billy Mays deserves much more.

[Hunters - Stage 5]

I don't see the purpose

Instead of making 6 games, why not make a single extremely good one? The voice acting is weak and generic, the music dull, the gameplay uninspiring and the controls are ridiculous; anyone who knows PC games uses left ctrl to fire. Z makes no sense as a default.

The art style is run-of-the-mill and there's no point in losing marks for that, but as a 3D artist I don't see the point of several games following the same theme. You overextend a mediocre script, and fail to work on the gameplay. It's just a series of cliched scenes and gametypes that I could play in other games on this very site at a much more polished level.

It feels like a semi-rushed mish-mash rather than a true expression of artistic ability. The issue is that it feels much worse than what it COULD be, and that's where it falls down. Clearly there's talent here, but I would never be satisfied with something of this standard. Even the introductory movie for example needs sharpening up, and the actors told to ditch the American sci-fi cliche accents. Arguments are more rapid than your portrayal, and the scene is unskippable. That's not just frustrating, it's also unfitting with the game itself, which is designed to be quick and brutal. Where's the scene setting?

Overall, the programming is fine and the art standard. It doesn't have to be beautiful to be functional. But that's the problem; it's merely functional. Why create six? I don't get it, and it seems like a real waste of time when you could have invested in making something not only original, but also stunningly good.

Uninspiring and I expected better.

[Tuper Tario Tros.]

I'm sure you've heard it enough

But this an absolutely ingenious combination. As oppose to simply being a gimmick, it turns mario into a semi-sandbox, where you're able to use the Tetris mechanic in a variety of ways - to score kills, build climable areas, block pipes and score easy points by setting up boxes.

In any case it's absolute genuis, and the programming is remarkably solid. No bugs, totally clean cut between games and an overall brilliance that is sadly lacking in many games these days. While the name's shit, it's still got a certain humour about it.

Fantastic work!

[D-Day Defender]

Well built

Art style is strangely fitting, the music is excellent, the cut-scenes are well made and the gameplay adrenaline charged.

However, it suffers two flaws in my opinion.

- The 'weapon boost' from the engineers lasts too little time for the effort involved to obtain it.
- It's a very emotional, well thought out game, but once again the UK's role in D-Day is entirely missed. I feel that's not so much an insult but just historically unfair.

[Desolation Road]

I'd just like to say

I love this song.

[Ph0ne & Hopeku - Jew gold]

As we British say, Good Shit

So we begin with a nice, classic, fragmented, slow introduction. Admittedly it's not entirely your own work, but you've expanded on an original theme - a very wise move, because it's absolutely brilliant. Yeah, phat beats; but when we reach 1:20, everything is in the mix, and it's rather nice. A little meh, but nice.

To be able to hold back on the main melody and THEN smack the listener around the ears with the sheer awesomeness of it with a very tight and neat drop is quite simply lush, and music to my ears; if you'll pardon the pun.

Otherwise, it's got both your style and the original artist, and is an excellent reimagining. Neat, tidy and well made. Not thumping trance, and not pounding drum and bass. While it might 'lack' a little in terms of that, it creates an overall better experience. Although I do think it could have benefitted from more 'pounding beatz' to be utterly honest.

Still, can't have everything. Love the sitar.

[Blue brass of the beast]

Best song on Newgrounds

Don't tell Waterflame, but I fucking love this song. I really, really do.

The sheer driving force of it, techno, classic DnB rhythm - it's just so sick!

I would absolutely love a full three minute version someday. Seriously, drop me a PM if you ever think about it, hell - I'd pay for it.

hopeku responds:

hahahaha I guess he doesn't give a fuck but thanks, this is really appreciated ;)

I don't think i'll make a 3min long version but keep on coming on my profile. I'll add more stuff soon!

[Titan Wars]

Fantastic work

But as others have stated, the five limb structure (or the structure that APPEARS to have five limbs) really doesn't work on a humanoid basis.

If you look at the "shivans" from the video game FreeSpace, they're five-limbed aliens with a totally different biology, and it works great. By giving something humanoid five arms, it's very difficult to understand the image. I get a sense of incredible size, power and machinery but absolutely no understanding of how it's meant to look.

It confuses the eye, and that's a real pity.

[Water]

Nice work

In fact, it's top class.

However, I think your water reflection effects are awful, assuming that's what they're meant to be. They ruin the image as a whole and seem amateur and pointless.

The actual drawing itself is fantastic, so I don't understand why you degraded it with those white lines.

[New Land]

Succint and awesome

Very, very smooth. And clean cut. Fantastic work!

Danmolo responds:

Cool!!