Score: 10

"The CI games end with a third strong entry."

submission: Combat Instinct 3

date: May 9, 2009

This Flash game was the Halo before Halo (while it was submitted to NG in 2002, it came to the internet in late 2001 before Halo's release). It was also a pleasure to help you out with some of the programming. Those aliens are a blast to...uh, blast. My only gripe with this game was that unlike CI1 and 2, this game didn't have as much level variety. In the on-foot levels of CI1 and 2, you're twisting and turning around space ships, enemy bases, nuked wastelands, and wreckages, but in CI3, you're just making a straight trek to a city and then marching through that city with almost the same buildings going by. CI3 also lacked destructible cover which is what CI2 had. The additional weapons are superb. The 2 in 1 minigun/rocket launcher that has one side counterbalance the other while in use is brilliant. I'm surprised Halo or Gears of War hasn't ripped that off yet. It's not your fault, but this game also suffers the texture bugs that CI2 suffers under the Flash 7+ players. Damn you, Macromedia-that-was. I would definitely say the highlight of this game is the cut scenes. The opening as well as cut scene before level 3 were excellently choreographed and felt like a movie. I do think there needed to be a little more chaos going on in the backgrounds on level 1 to bring the player in more (think the first few seconds of level 3 of CI1...CHAOS). Overall, this was a great ending to the CI games and I hope this remains in the minds and hearts of NG users for a very, very long time.

Score: 10

"Still surprisingly good nine years later!"

submission: Combat Instinct

date: April 17, 2009

I was expecting time to not be very kind to this one, but it still looks and plays pretty damn well. It was a gripe back in the day that you couldn't die in CI1, but with casual gaming titles like Bioshock that give you no penalty for dying, you could almost say this game was ahead of its time. I doubt you have the fla anymore, but the only things I would change would be fixing the preloader, changing the music to feature artists in the audio portal, and changing the sound effects to something not from a recognizable game. Those are the only factors that really date this.

Score: 10

"An actionscript marvel."

submission: Hanna in a Choppa

date: November 15, 2008

I loved it. Loved the creativity of the levels. The winch system was a blast to use and you're right: Each level required a different kind of strategy. Even though a silly game like this is superb, have you ever thought to making something more serious using these mechanics?