Yay
haha if theres one person who knows about unfinished flash projects its me, i have not managed to finish a project ive started in flash (besides miscellaneous .gifs) and my folders are full of audio-less movies and games with broken codes...
as far as unfinished movies go, these were great :D
Amazing D:
I didn't check the sprites though, because I don't really enjoy watching animated sprites.
Anyway, I loved the other ones! Especially the cave core story thing. That really had a great vibe to it!
It really scares you and drags you in.
I'd say the other ones (mario and madness shorts) are definitely submission worthy on their own.
They don't seem that unfinished for an outsider.
Anyway. Great job, loved the comments in it, the menu was pretty well done and finish that cave story man!
Well, I've already closed the door on all of these, but thank you for the kind words :D
At Least One of 'Em Ought to be Finished....
JonBro has joined the sad fraternity of nitwits who figure, for posterity's sake, they should combine all their failed experiments together into a single compilation. This is just asking for a ripping when it comes to reviews. Let's begin:
Galaxy Gags:
Thank God a third gag wasn't devised for this lackluster compilation of parodies. For one thing, Mario gets beaten senseless. Jokes based on games must not focus purely on main characters; otherwise, what's the point? You could feature Mario in a dozen different settings or games and it wouldn't make a difference, until you incorporate everything into the joke. You got to pick on everything, not just Mario. Also, the "Ride the Lightning Manta" thing is kind of obscure, even if a few of its relatives have been known since antiquity to do that. If you wanted to be picky, it doesn't even look like one of the Batoideas that have actual electric properties. Therefore, it might confuse or alienate the folks who know too little or too much. It's unlikely that the first scene would pull the audience's sympathetic attention; the others would never be watched as they click "Zero" and search the Portal for another Flash to Blam.
Sprite Movies:
Randy Solem was right to point out how using sprites from the indigenous game made things far easier to pull off, because there was no need for custom jobs to satisfy cross-over power-ups. However, most of these sprite movies are really just towing the line between homage and ripoff, strictly due to how close JonBro's vision emulates the source material. Sometimes, in the case of the Easter Egg (which I did not find), it is just done poorly. Why bother? The "K I L L I T W I T H F I R E" revisions were tongue-in-cheek, but only in a self-deprecating sense. It made me laugh, but not in a good way. Some of the ideas of parodying Randy's sprite cartoons were sound, but I can understand the lack of motivation in crafting a carbon copy if there weren't incentives toward such precision.
"Madness: Termination" Flash:
Here's where my negative sentiment fades, the Flash that made me look forward to the mid-section of crap that made me wish for a way out of watching this tripe. The secret to a good presentation is to start strong and end strong. In this case, "Madness: Termination" was supposed to contain somewhere near an actual plot, not just an action sequence that satisfies an unknown or oversimplified one. According to JonBro's designer comments, this was about a red bandana faceless man in the world of Madness who discovers the assassination for which his best friend was executed for was one of Tricky the Clown's work. It was meant to be a vengeance-driven action thriller, where the red bandana eliminates both Tricky and his gang of 1337 Crew goons. However, JonBro never got to planning an action sequence or having it make sense. While the pace is melodious at best, he does have the general concept of making a drama. The scene he established is almost a stand-alone story, a short, short film where it culminates to a final heartbreaking moment. If that was done in a universe other than Madness, it would be utterly gut-wrenching.
But if you want gut-wrenching, the beginning elements of the Cave Story "horror" tribute was beginning to look incredible. The only complaint I got here is that it never got finished, because JonBro, despite confessing to knowing little about horror through direct observation, he captures some of the tropes of shock value, as well as the underlying premise of confronting one's own darkness through an exterior, personified force, are solid. Also, when you look at a corpse that was once you, and hear it say something like your dying words... my God! The direction this was going, in conjunction with intrepid source material... to leave this unfinished is inexcusable! How many game-based flashes center around actual horror, anyway?
That's it. JonBro has improved over time and we'll leave it at that. For best viewing "experience", skip the Sprites, stick to Madness and "Cave Story Horror".
Good gracious. I'm glad I don't get more reviews from you. You're harsh even when you like something.
I don't mind constructive criticism, or even a low-scoring review, but your pessimism and insults are out of line.