After your recommendation

Last month, I watched your flash "the special present", and I asked you for a recommendation for another one of your flashes to watch. You pointed me in this direction-- very good call. This flash is fantastic, beautiful, and just shows how much dedication you bring to your work.

I wasn't really sure what to expect once it started, but I loved the sort of abstract nature of the turtle's journey. The erased previous frames actually made the entire thing look very cool, as it looked as though you were looking at something traveling through time-- almost an after-burner of the turtle's journey, seeing what once was. Fantastic stuff.

The fact that you did that like 1,000 times is immensely impressive, and I'm just fascinated by the quality of the artwork. This is great work, and you were definitely right to direct me here. Well done.

Out of curiosity, how long did this take you to make? I'm just kinda curious I guess.

Sucks to be him

Haha that was indeed, quite brilliant. I loved how the suspense grew throughout the flash, to be honest, I was rather afraid it was going to be something pretty disgusting based on how you had been building.

And then he took it out, and I chuckled a good bit. Fantastic work and very well animated.

Looks like I should check out some of your other stuff... any recommendations on what I should look at first?

I definitely think that in the realm of adult video games, this is a strong sense in the right direction; it reminds me of some very old adult games on this site which had an interactive/RPG focus to them instead of just being some sort of sex simulator.

With that in mind, I ran into a troubling problem; after the awkward encounter inside of the swimming pool (which was very well animated), I found it very difficult to find out where to go next. I traveled East (following where the girl went) and West, and even tried to go home to go back to sleep (especially after the mother mentioned 'go to bed'), but I could simply not find a way to progress.

Now, that might be me being not the greatest at video games, but I figure that it may simply be a design flaw that I wasn't particularly sure what I was supposed to do next. I couldn't find any other way of interacting with the girl in the pool, and I certainly didn't see anything obvious; did I miss something?

Either way, this game is definitely a step in the right direction for adult games in general. Although the walking pace was a bit slow for my liking and the game is unclear in some of its direction, this is a much preferred, somewhat classier alternative to some of the other things found on Newgrounds. Well done.

Brilliant parody

Passage is one of my favorite flash games. It's beautiful in a way which makes you think about your own mortality and how quickly life can pass before us. As you slowly get older, the game becomes harder to navigate and see ahead as you look at your past.

That said, this parody was brilliant. One of the funniest things I've seen in a long time. I laughed my ass off, seriously. "Now this is art!!" The thumps of the couple dying are hilarious, and it was just a fantastic send-up. A fantastic parody of a brilliant game.

Question to Newgrounds: how is this possibly in the "Spam" category? This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. Looks like someone really put this in the wrong place.

Good effort

The song definitely reaches a fantastic happycore high with the melody. When it starts at 0:12, it really makes you want to just start dancing and jumping around, and as it continues to build and repeat throughout the song it really showcases what happycore's really good at; a wonderful club beat. I'm also a big fan of the movement you put in there for the melody at 1:12, which contrasts excellently with the melody you've already built up.

The song really starts out with some trouble in the beginning, however-- it could be my speakers, but the bass comes off as sounding almost like some sort of croaking frog, moving back and forth. It's not the best sound for a dance or trance song to have, but I see where you were going with it-- a catchy bass line plus the moving melody would be fantastic. Is there a way you could edit the bass to maybe not bleed so much? I'd like to see the song where it was more like 2:26, where you have the echo effect going. Instead of putting the entire song in a softer sound though, why not try and have the simpler bass with the happycore melody playing on top?

As I listen to it more and more, the bass actually seems to get more and more catchy, but it still bleeds a lot. Again, this could be my speakers, but it's the only thing that's keeping me from really getting into it. Good luck, and great work!

- Review Request Club

Simply Wonderful

It's been awhile since I've heard a dance song that I feel is "uplifting", but if there was such a song, it would be this. It just has such a brilliant beat, and it feels as if the music consistently strives to go higher-- I love the song at around 1:50 when the higher synths come in and really drive the song upward.

The best part is when the heavy uplifting synthesizers come in (and the great background beat). My favorite moment of the song probably comes down to around 2:32 when the main hook comes in... and what a hook! It just makes me smile listening to it, and it's rare that I hear a song like that. Well done.

The weakest aspects are when it's just the drums: the beginning is especially weak and around a little bit around 4:05, the music itself seems to be drowned out by a rather weak synth beat with a drum accompaniment... those were the only two weak spots I really had with the whole piece, so hence the ten rating.

I can't stress enough, that hook was just simply divine. A job very well done.

Masterful

The audio portal is so troublesome. I'd love to be more critical of the things I listen to, but it always seems that I run into too much quality... anywho, the last time I reviewed one of your works was February of last year -- I figure it's time to get back on the Maestro (and LadyArsenic) bandwagon.

A duel huh? Well, I do hate to say this, but I think you lost Maestro... Mandi's felt more natural. No disrespect or anything, but the haunting environmental effect was just devastatingly effective in the beginning.

I figure that although artists like to read compliments all the time, we reviewers should be critical too, so a few things of note -- these are both minor comments and are both addressed at Maestro:

- I felt that the high strings (probably intended to increase the drama in the piece) at around 2:07 were a bit... shrill. That might've been the intention, but I think it also might've been my speakers -- I adjusted them and it seemed to feel much more natural.

- Though I love the bassoon, I don't think it worked as well in the piece as the oboe did in the opening. That just might be out of my personal preference though.

As for compliments -- well, you guys know that you're great by now. I don't need to inflate your ego. :D

Cheers, and good luck!

A nice effort

I've never been a good artist, so I can appreciate how difficult it is to create high quality artwork. I feel that this, however, is not high caliber art, and does not reach the heights of your other pieces.

On the positive side of things, you use shading very successfully. The darker colors on the right of the piece give a successful illusion of depth, and the eye looks upward at an unknown menace with some curiosity. That said, the simplistic style which you've used here isn't always bad, but it doesn't come out particularly good in this case. The lines are rather thin, and the simple figure doesn't give any idea as to what the image is supposed to convey.

My favorite of your work would have to be "purple castle crasher", which more successfully uses your skills with shading and emotion to show an interesting subject; the mostly blue hues of the alien make for a rather uninteresting viewing.

You have a lot of potential Logan, and as you continue to mature with your art, I have no doubt that your work will only become higher quality. But you can kind of tell that you got bored on this one and just decided to whip something up. Before you begin to work, think about what you're trying to portray, what emotion you're trying to show in your subject; that spark of life is what makes art be art.

On a side note, this is my first ever art portal review, and it's been a pleasure writing it for yours. Good luck!

- Review Request Club