Air Hockey League Nice game! It took me 4 attempts to beat the air hockey stage (I'm genuinely amazed at how you made a good air hockey AI! All the ones i've seen anywhere else are trash and i beat them very easily, but this one made me actually sweat a little!) and another 4 to beat the boss. The boss, by the way, is really cool! I was very surprised by the gore-y horror-y turn the game had, it caught me off-guard! But although it was fun, it could be improved.
For example, the dash mechanic isn't taught anywhere (btw for people who are wondering, you can dash if you hold Z and move at the same time. But you can't dash diagonally) ! WHYY?? It's genuinely such a cool mechanic and such a lifesaver! Yet you don't even know about it unless you accidentally stumble upon it! The air hockey AI doesn't even use it!!! So it's just hidden in the fog of mystery! Unless, of course, you look at the description, but nobody does, som they don't accidentally spoil the game. On that note, about the AI, it's not bad, i said it already, but there's something that bugged me all the time: when i scored and the AI went first, it always shot in one direction, which is very strange and it's a disadvantage for the AI, considering you'd wanna be more unpredictable to win the game.
The controls were also a bit wacky at times, the ball is always faster than the player, so, to quote a stranger on twitter: "chasing after a ping-pong ball is wildly dehumanizing", but in this case, it's the circle thingey (idk what it's called).
The dialogue was weird and made me feel like we don't know way much than we know, or to put in other words, the game has lore but there's no way to find it, which makes me sad. This game has so much potential for lore! Like, who is our opponent on the air hockey stage, what's his story, where did he come from,who's the red gooey boss at the end, who made him (there's no way he just became like that! On second thoughts, no, maybe something did make him that way, in which case, what is that thing that made him so big, evil and gooey?), why does he have children, what's the outside world in the game like, etc. . So many unanswered questions!
And about the big red jelly boss guy, he also has some issues. Like, his hitboxes are very janky. E.g. i hit his head sometimes, but he doesn't take damage, or that we actually don't know how to beat him! I accidentally hit his head after i hit his children (lmao if this was voiced this woud've been such a funny clip to take out of context), so i di9dn't knwo how to beat him at first.
Also, there's basically no replayability. You could maybe add levels, and a speedrun mechanic, and stuff, but idk how to design games well, so that's on you to figure out lol.
Other than that, awesome game! Love the little undertale reference when you transition to the bossfight (like, the undertale barrier is very similar to that cutscene haha), and the music choices are absolutely remarkable!
I think i chose a very cool game that has SOOO MUCH POTENTIAL for my first game on ng (in other words, your game was the first ever game i played on newgrounds, congrats! :D), i'd love it if you made a sequel! Overall, a solid 4.5/5 stars!
P. S. I wonder how long has ng not seen long and detailed reviews like this lmfao
