KBJ's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Self-Destructive]

Hey, this is excellent. The learning curve is a bit steep but I suggest to anyone reading this that they should stick with it. Whereas most "art" flashes turn out to be cheap kitschy imitations of drama and always go for the easy plot device, this stuff actually has some depth to it. Well done!

Now to the logistics of the flash, I'm giving you a 5 despite the fact that it was so difficult. This is because I appreciated the story telling and thematic elements (creepy border shrinking) so much. The greatest hurdle to mastering the gameplay was that it wasn't readily apparent, at least not to me, that altering a panel will sometimes changes subsequent panels and not the preceding ones. I did play the Narcissist and the Egocentric, but I still had to resort to the walkthrough. Nevertheless the payoff is really rewarding, interesting, and bit touching what with the picture at the end, I just fear that most people (namely, the pre teens on this site) will give up rather than finish the game.

AthleticDesign responds:

Thank you! I appreciate your appraisal as it is exactly the kind of reaction we have been working for.

While The Narcissist and The Egocentric somewhat prepare for The Self-Destructive, it is still quite a leap. The next chapter in this game will probably be placed between the Egocentric and The Self Destructive to make the build up smoother.

A friend of us who has been play testing the game a lot, found all the previous chapters straightforward and he did admirably on The Self Destructive but still needed some help from us to complete it.