When it comes to flash games, design choices on behalf of the developers can make or break it. I mean, something plain can be made excellent by great design, but bad design can kill something novel in a heartbeat. Having programming skills are important, but design should also be up there as well. Need proof, here are a few examples:

1. Poltergifts: As much as I like Evil-Dog's music, Sick Death Fiend's art/animation, and Road of the Dead; this was not the best from either one. While it's nice to see something from Sick Death Fiend that isn't zombies for once, that doesn't compensate for the fact that the player's attack is underpowered, this in spite of various weapons and upgrades can be a pain in the ass when dealing with multiple enemies.
2. Heist (by John & Richie of Perfect Kirby fame): This may come as a shock to you, but Pikanjo's submissions have been disappointing ever since Perfect Kirby 3. To Richie's credit, he did make a nice 3D engine directly in flash, but considering the existence of M-Bot: The Game, Nimian Flier Legends, and Sierra 7; I can't really credit him for being the first. However, that's just minor considering what really kills it for me: ugly art style, deplorable character design, and above all, bad controls. Would it not have killed these guys to have added mouse aiming? I mean having to turn and aim with the arrow keys is cumbersome and unreliable as hell. (Even with Joy2Key it's still a major-league pain in the ass.) That and the unreliable jumping mechanics effectively turned what could have been in the top 50 material in to a borderline piece of shit. Plus, the women that Richie draws are ass ugly and unappealing.
3. Insanity Box (and Pox power in general): I can give props to Pox for trying to recreate Wario Ware in flash, but this is a bad case of quantity over quality. For every good minigame that both of the Insanity Box games have, there are two to three that have had little to no thought put into them, which makes it more frustrating than it's worth. And it doesn't help that he couldn't come up with anything funny even to save his ass.
4. Hunters-Relic of Stars: To be honest, I kind of enjoy this game even though it's horribly uninspired. But that doesn't compensate for having to aim while running and bad weapon design. At least Rhete could have added the ability to aim while standing still like Contra Hard Corps or a mouse aiming option. Plus, the weapons could have been done better. Having a machine gun that does less damage than a handgun, a rocket launcher with no splash damage, and a shotgun with obscenely short range is just ridiculous. On the other hand, I do like most of his boss ideas except for Polmire in Stage 5; having a boss that shoots as soon as it opens its eye and closes it as soon as it fires was a dipshit decision on his behalf.
5. SHMUP (by Afro Ninja): Like the last game, I enjoyed this a lot until I got to 3-2 with the bad enemy placement. I mean, having those creatures sneak up behind you with no means of killing them pisses me off. Plus, no matter how much I try, it's impossible to shake them off of my spacecraft.

Of course, what good are examples if there aren't any counter examples?
Mega Man Next Remix by Maelstormm-Even though it would be nice if he switched out some of the songs he chose, I have to admit that Wade here not only knows how to code as if there's no tomorrow; but knows a several things on gameplay design.
Bass Abyss by Iragination-I understand why he wouldn't want to get Capcom into a fury if he did a fully-made game, but still wish that he would start submitting here again. He's one of the most crafty level designers I have ever encountered, and think that more people should consider teaming up with him.
Fancy Pants Adventures by Brad Borne/Dr. Nero CF-I have to admit that I never expected another Louisianian to contribute to this site aside from Grim City, Lil G, Marc M, and Myself. (If there are any more, Speak Up! Although I haven't played this very often, the Sonic-style gameplay is just praiseworthy. I'm surprised that nobody hasn't opted to have him do their game design.
Uniwar LC by Doomhammr-Ah, the forgotten legend of NG. A lot of people may not have heard of him, but when it comes to coding first-person shooters in flash; he gets the job done.

To those whose games I mentioned in a bad light: Sorry for the negativity, but I needed examples to cite.
As for the counterexamples: I think that you guys needed some much-needed coverage.

The Genius of Sappheiros:

This is a neat game that can be summed up as Undefined Fantastic Object meets Romancing SaGa. For People who are unfamiliar with Touhou Project: http://www.touhouwiki.net
As for Romancing SaGa, search for it on Wikipedia.

Touhou Sahouroku, Touhou Project meets Puzzle Bobble/Bust-A-Move:

While we're on the subject of Touhou Project, the ammount of flash cartoons based off of that series is obscenely low, and only a scant few of them are good. Besides, it's time for something different.

Rick's Adventure Legends:

Here's something that MaelstormM is currently working on.

Fortune Summoners:

A really cool RPG platformer.

Vanguard Princess:

This was made by one of the guys behind Street Fighter 3 with Fighter Maker 2002.

Psycho Dream:

A badass Super NES game by Riot Telenet and Renovations in the vein of Castlevania and Valis. This game almost got released stateside, but that got canned when Sega bought Renovations out. I credit Jonathan Wojcik for discovering this.

Popeye-The Tale of Teasing Sea Hag:

This is the third Popeye video game made, and was made by Technos in '94. In case you are wondering, this was another case of something almost getting a stateside release, but didn't seeing that Technos went bankrupt. Also worth noting is that this game has more characters from Elzie Segar's comics than the Fleischer brothers' cartoons.

That's all for the videos, tune in next time for "The Importance of good gameplay design."

These first two are from Otobeya

This is a remix of the normal battle theme from Final Fantasy 3 (NES/DS). In addition, that happens to be my favorite Final Fantasy game.

Here's a cover of one of the My Neighbor Totoro songs, and I'm not really a fan of Hayao Miyazaki's movies.

This next one is by Mr. Aquamentus:

Final Fantasy 2 (NES) battle theme.

This was made by Daveeeey

Finally, here's one from Sabre Mage

MMX8 Jakob Orbital Elevator.

Thoughts on Chiptunes:
When it comes to music that simulates old videogame systems, the ammount of Super-Nintendo-style chiptunes are obscenely low. Mostly it's just NES, Game Boy, and Sega Master System (Non-FM) sounding songs, which while good, are starting to get redundant. It Would be nice if more people tried out some more 16-bit sounding music, and I might have to do so.

Coal Black and De Sebben Dwarfs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXFSsKF rCgY
A lot of you will hate me for posting this, but I thought this was hilarious.

Balloon Land

Here's the cartoon where Misteroo got the Pincushion Man from.
Fun Fact: Ub Iwerks used to work for Disney.

Masha & Volshebnoe Varen'e

Here's a neat little Russian cartoon made in 1979*, but unfortunately I couldn't find a subtitled version.
*One of the only things that the USSR got right.

Leopold the Cat

This can be summed up as Tom & Jerry in reverse; as in the mice are causing trouble for a easy going cat. Like Masha, I couldn't find a subtitled version.

I couldn't find any more old cartoons, but here's Ralph Bakshi's Spicy City...

...Which was another attempt at a TV show.

Yep, this happens to be my tenth year since I signed up here, and it needs to be said that in spite of the innumerable assholic nimrods and great contributors; this site still kicks ass. I got flash from a neighbor in 2004, a tablet in 2005, and have been practicing drawing and animating ever since.
Here's a list of my Newgrounds heroes:
-McFretN
-Evil Dave
-Mindchamber
-Ben Spurgin
-Jeremy Mills (Cell)
-Jeremy Lokken
-Matthias Buhlmann (Genesys)
-Clark Lybek (Visionomud)
-Randy Solem
-Shaun McGlinn (Blordow)
-Krinkels
-Em Kaah
-Splash Khat
-Flamezero
-Daniel Sun (D-SuN)
-Alvin Earthworm
-Doomhammr
-Dave Lovelace
-Dean Packis (Apocalypse Cartoons)
-Fat Dime Stuidos
-MaelstormM
-Kine the Genius
-Andrew Dickman
-Egoraptor
-Iragination
-Zanroth
-Nitro Titan
-Luis Castanon
-Bezo
-]{0mbat/Tabmok99
-Logo/Smac
-Johnny Utah
-Helbereth
-Psycho Goldfish
-Baron von Brunk
-Felix Hildebrandt
-Larry McKee (Malamite Ltd.)
-Sam Haft (sshafty1)
-Will Stamper
-Edmund McMillen (Bluebaby)
-Dan Paladin
-JazLyte/Yung Jazz
-Chakra-X
-Leafworthy
-Adam Phillips (Chluaid)
-Sto0g3
-Zwickel
-Rick Marin (Misterho, not to be confused with Misteroo of Arfenhouse fame)
-Johnathan Wojcik (Scythemantis)
-The Walrus
-Nate Craddock (avantpop)
-Paragon X9
-Nemesis Theory
-Chronamut
-biIIgates
-Xionico
-Proxicide
-R1665
-Nicholas Dobkin (RPGsRok)
-Army Ranger/Nanashi
-Doug Sauncy (Azure St0ne)
-James Franzen (Gosha Dole)
-James Pierson
-Mendoza0089
-Jorn Kemp (Aap)
-Rokkan Saturn
-Jim Ether
-Noiserover
-Steven Lim & Max Mao (Life point 1)
-Leafworthy
-Zombie-Pimp
-Dj Harlock/Cross 666
-Elite Ferrex
-Box Killa
-Jonathan Bradley (Xarnor)
-Jonathan Wrathborne
-Denzel Crocker
-Rob DenBleyker
-Michael Sung (Miccool)
I have more, but this is enough for now.

ConceptArt.org could be complementary to this site:
I found out about this website from Zanroth three years ago, and it has been a huge benefit when it comes to drawing, painting, and animating. Plus, I think that more people from there ought to consider signing up to here and vice versa. (Examples: Rezeroth, Prometheus/Android Arts, Eugene Arenhaus, Algenpfleger, Asa B, Wiggum/Wendigo, William B. Hand, Robogabo, Sammy Hall, Hideyoshi, Zerdron, Randis, Hanny Honeymoon, Velderia, Pavel Sokov, Original E, etc.)
Aside from myself, here's a list of NG users who also have accounts there:
-Misterho
-Zanroth
-Hyptosis
-Spike Vallentine
-Rockwell12
-Zwickel
-Egoraptor
As an added bonus for this part, here's some related links:
Chiseled Rocks
Robogabo's Web Log

That's all that I have to say...

Some Announcements:
Yep, I'm making something for Pico Day, and It's the first time I did something for that holiday. However, I'm not satisfied with the upper body. Therefore, I would like some advice on how to improve on it.

Review requests: If anyone has a flash movie, game, song, or art you would like for me to check out, use the Private Message link to send it and I'll see what I can do. However, I can't promise that I'll review it or give a high score. (This also doubles as the MSN/Trillian/Facebook request line.)

Link dump:
From Stephen Worth's Animation Archive (This stuff may be old, but I thought it was worth putting up.):
Ralph Bakshi on 2D vs 3D
Ralph Bakshi speaks to CGI animators- I have always been a fan of Ralph's films such as Heavy Traffic and Spicy City. It makes you wonder why there aren't more Stateside PG-13+ animated movies being made.
UPA Done Right- I never liked UPA and therefore don't remember a thing about them. (They were the golden age animation equivilent of Notorious and Camp North.)
From The Libertarian Party:
The LP on the Government Shutdown.
From Blogspot:
Marat-Ars CG- This man's take on Mario is pretty fuckin' badass!
From Bnet:
College: A Total Waste of Time & Money- I know that a lot of people will get bent out of shape upon reading this, but it was a long time coming and sorely needed.

Well, that's all today...

Daicon III

This was the very first anime from Gainax, and you'll notice is that they used a lot of copywritten stuff in this and the sequel. However, they weren't threatened with lawsuits, but couldn't release it stateside. As for copyright laws and Tom telling people not to use music in their CD/mp3 collection, this article by the Cato Institute sums up my thoughts on that issue.

Daicon IV

The aforementioned follow up to the above featuring Electric Light Orchestra's Twilight

Mighty Mouse

This is what Terry toons was best known for and I like the Musical/Action mix that they had at times. Too bad Filmation's version sucked, but Ralph Bakshi knew how to do it justice.

Woody Woodpecker

I grew up on this crazy bastard when NBC aired Walter Lantz' classics aside from Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Unfortunately, the new show bored me to hell in spite of being true to its source.

Tom & Jerry (Van Beuren version)

A lot of you may think of MGM's Cat and Mouse, but Tom & Jerry started out as a couple of policemen back in the 20s-30s.

Superman (Fleischer Bros. version)

This may be well-known when compared to most of the subjects posted, but damn it, I still consider this to be the gold standard in action-adventure animation.

Part One

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Part Two

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Part Three

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Part Four

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Part Five

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After seeing this little documentary, I have to say that these subtitle groups need to step back and let the whole purist thing go. Of course, there are times when a proper translation is unfitting for certain character names or speech mannerisms; but keeping random words in Japanese and putting notes on the top of the screen is ludicrous. On the other hand, I'd rather take that over horrid English dubbing that most anime usually get stuck with.

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http://www.severin-films.com/2006/11/1 4/once-upon-a-girl/
I remember seeing a part of this on HBO's shock TV years ago, and I have to hand it to Don Jurwich and William Silberkleit for making what influenced Japanese hentai films. Speaking of which, I don't think that Hentai deserves the hate it gets, considering that pornographic animation has been around since 1929 during the stag film era. That very film was made by Max Fleischer for Little Nemo creator Windsor McCay's birthday considering that McCay worked with Fleischer to adapt his serials into animation. The first pornographic animation from Japan, Suzumi Fune, came out three years later. Of course, during that time, porn was illegal to make and therefore, the creator of that film got thrown in jail. As for this very film, it was the first pornographic animation outside of the Erotic Cartoon Festival that had production value.

Madness, a series that has a lot of fans, and just recently, a shitload of detractors considering the violence-laden nature of the series. Now, I'm not one to trash on Krinkels just for making something that's violent just for the hell of it. That's been done before by many others. Rather, I'm going to comment on how the series has progressed through the years, whose side I'm on regarding the series, and how Krinkels stands up to other cartoonists that have been around Newgrounds for years that aren't staff members.
1. The series progression: This series started out like almost every other series back in 2000-2002, before snotty animation zealots, Legendary Frog, James Farr, or who-have-you; simple, to the point, something that animated cartoons on TV and theaters have never done before. A lot of the animation was just motion tweened, but it looked better than Krinkels' other series, Breadman. Sure, the first two cartoons (Marsh-Mellow Madness and Madness Combat) had no story, but that was about to change when Madness Redeemer came out, in which our 'hero' wanted to get back at the Sherriff who apprehended him. It may be as simple as old video games, but enough to get the point. No unnecessary symbolism, no deeper meaning, just one man on a killing spree. Avenger introduced an element that will be prevalent in all episodes made after it: Improbabilities. This, of course, turned Madness from the usual Newgrounds fare into something surreal and much more abstract than the art style. Also worth mentioning is how one improbability turned an everyday enemy into a force to be reckoned with: The Clown. After that we see, the 'hero' (now known as Hank) killing people in all kinds of ways; Jesus fighting that hero only to get killed by the Clown (Tricky), and trying to bring the world back to normal only to get killed again; and a new enemy who happens to be an amorphous shadow that was responsible for the Improbability Drive. One thing I noticed with this series when it comes to the plot is how Krinkels is telling it. Instead of using violence to enhance the narrative; he uses it to tell the story, reminiscent of Goldilocks creator Em Kaah. Another thing that's worth mentioning is what Shades 90 said in his review of Madness 6.5 is that with every new installment, the plot becomes more and more clear. Aside from the story extols, the animation, timing, direction, choreography, and music have improved as well, thanks to Cheshyre for that last bit.
2. Am I for it or against it? My position on the series: As I may have noticed, as this series has kept going, it has accumulated both big fans and major detractors. Here's a different position: I can understand why people have become tired of this series do to how redundant and oversaturated it has become due to all of the fan flash and knockoffs. Other long running series, such as Miss Dynamite and Retarded Animal Babies, have that same aspect. On the other hand, if Krinkels maintains a consistent level of quality with this (and he has); I'll never defame or insult him and his cartoons. So far, he hasn't disappointed me once. In other words, this leads to my third argument...
3. How Krinkels stands up to other old users that aren't the site staff: As I said before, Krinkels has managed to keep me hooked on this series and many of his other cartoons for years; Unlike some who have either jumped the shark (Sirkowski, Kirbopher, Pikanjo), disappeared (McFretn, Doug Sauncy, Em Kaah), bought into the hypocritical, elitist, one-sided banter of snotty animation zealots (Blordow, Big Army Bug), never were funny to begin with (The Weebl, Legendary Frog), or in the worst-case scenario, died (Ben Spurgin).
4. Fan Cartoons: I have to admit, the only Fan made Madness cartoons that have managed to come close to the originals are With My Mind's Madness, Maximum Ninja (series), Proxicide's sprite stuff, Bunnykill, Xionic Madness (series), and Lemmings: Deus ex Machina. On the other hand, I don't have a problem with fan cartoons as long as it is a good one. Otherwise, I usually just ignore what is either banal or half-assed.

Aside from this, I would like for Krinkels to do more non-Madness flash when he gets the chance. One more thing, Happy Madness Day NG!