Beautiful. Deserving of First Place, in my opinion. Animation was flawless, despite your "experimentation." Great story. Although the battle between money and happiness is a bit cliche, I think it fits your theme and purpose perfectly.

One more thing that struck me was the train ride. It was very symbolic how you used the hammer and shaped holes to show that the man was being forced to do something that didn't fit him. It was a clever usage of your animation skills, and partially why I believe you deserved first place.

To correct hipparata: he didn't have a wife and kids, or at least none were mentioned. The girl playing the music seemed to be his only "love interest," and dare I say it to be so.

Very nice. Fluid. Funny. Smooth beats. Deserving of 5 stars. Can I say more?

Not as Good. But still pretty good,

I agree with Bob. The first one is still the best, and I feel that as you continue with these episodes, your losing the one thing that made your show so funny: randomness. Not to mention as I was watching there were a few moments where it just seemed... empty. I suppose that's from lack of the background music (which also made it funny). BUT, the art and style of the flash was top-notch and the best I've seen in a flash yet. Sadly, I feel as though you focused more on the art, and less on the comedy.

Back on point, your comedic timing in the first, second, and partially third flashes were perfect and made me laugh so hard I pissed myself, but in this one... Well, it had its fair share of funny and somewhat unexpected things (see: "WELCUM TA HELL C:"), but like I stated before, it's losing its charm.

With all out of the way, I give you a nine. Personally, I can understand how hard it can be to make four gut-busting episodes of a show, but unless you can gain back this unpredictable charm thats present in most of your flashes, I suggest not making a fifth one.

Single-Player is a good time waster. Nothing better, though.

Depth of gameplay is limited to random variables, and it seems that any input the player has, like attributes (with the exception of strength) and weapons, doesn't affect the gameplay whatsoever. For example, a gladiator with 100 strength and 10 dexterity shouldn't be able to touch another gladiator with 10 strength and 100 dexterity, but it seems he can in this game. Charisma seems to be upgraded on its own, so i don't understand why its an upgradable attribute. Defense is pointless. I upgraded it several times and experienced no change. The same goes with Speed. Finally, vitality means nothing since most of the time the CPU can hardly crack your armor.

On another topic, the chances of hitting never seem to waver between a weak attack and a strong attack, along with the differences in damage. This completely destroys the concept of weak and strong attacks in my opinion (which seemed to be ripped off poorly from Swords and Sandals), and makes players want to continuously choose strong attacks for hardly any penalty whatsoever.

While on the topic of combat, the single-player CPUs are absolutely awful. There seems to be no set AI in the choice of attack or where to attack. A good strategy, one that I'm pretty sure everyone uses, would be to target the weakest person, and then target their head or body (or an exposed limb) and attack only that part until it loses all of its health. The CPU, however, seems to target a random body part on a random person and attack it, with no plan whatsoever. Thus, combat is ridiculously easy and boring. Finally, the whole live or die idea, while it is a great idea, is absolutely pointless as well. I feel like this part of the game, like a lot of other parts, could add more depth to the element of the game, but does nothing to enhance the play.

Also, the bonuses and abilities in the game were alright. Like a lot of RPG games, some abilities were absolutely nifty while others were completely pointless, once again making a preferred path that most players choose and destroying gameplay features. However, since you're not the only studio that's done that (I should stop myself before I begin venting about the RPG elements in Diablo 3), I'll forgive you.

Now for the good part. Multi-player combat is especially fun and enticing, and it is a highly redeeming quality of the game... when it works. However, small technical issues that can be fixed or one that happens to a few people can be annoying but shouldn't reflect the quality of a game. The art of the game is superb, and enhances the dark and powerful mood feel of being a gladiator. Also, the historical context of the game is refreshingly accurate.

Overall, this is obviously a game that has been well taken care of, and has enjoyed the touch of talented artists. Sadly, where this game attempted to succeed in single-player turn-based combat, it faltered with poorly thought-out RPG elements and added nothing new to the genre. While I understand some things can be poor, I still expected better from professionals like yourselves, and I hope you'll work out a lot of kinks in the gameplay that frustrated many players like myself.

My advice for the future? Continue making RPGs and games, you have a talent for it, you just need to accommodate it with more player input. Like I said before, it seems no matter what you do to a character in this game, there is always that one path that makes it the best for anyone. Regardless, this is a good time waster, as I have lost many hours playing it, and that's why I am rewarding you with 3.5 stars.

Six little things to appreciate about this game.

This is to the artist NOT THE PROGRAMMER!!!!!!

(Spoilers contained. Read at own risk, despite the absense of a plot.)

1. The really, really cute faces on the bombs.
2. The extremely angry faces of the goo- ..flying things..
3. The wonderful landscape art in each of the randomly generated backgrounds.
4. How the skulls in the shop progressively build up over time.
5. The amazing humor for Rufus.
6. How Rufus seems to pull off being badass, yet hilariously ridiculous.

To the programmer:

The game has a great concept. and who care's if it's overused? How many games like this are there really on Newgrounds? Not very many. Its a fun and simple game with an intuitive spin on the usual. However, if it wasn't for the art, I would've given this game a 5 for its gameplay. It has its moments where you feel like screaming "What the hell?!?!?!" and throwing whatever is closest at the screen in a raging fit. Overall though, smooth gameplay and great upgrading system.

To any players having trouble:
Every time you level up, each stat goes up. And it becomes easier to earn skulls. Also, get the explosives upgrades early. It helps a lot, because the more explosives you get, the more bombs you have access to. This means that you get more kills. :3

Great game, but with its kinks here and there!
:D

Yes, Mr. Chipo, but...

I'm with the 25.443787%. :D

Anywho, great game good sir!

A nice short.

I'm not a big music maker, so I wouldn't know what you did to make this. However, like all your other songs... Something is missing. I can never place it. I hear some bass. I think maybe some percussion... Anyways, great song.

Awesome. Love hearing from you again.

A good song. Honestly though, it would help if the song had more of a bass to it. I heard a lot of percussion, and that added a lot of pizazz to the big mix of different instruments you have. I loved the ending. Overall good song, its just I felt something was missing.

Awesome Man

I like your music, send me some updates on future releases. Good Job

Huh... Ironic and Contradicting, yet Enthralling

The art itself is amazing, and for that I give you a 9. However, it's message is contradicting, because Reagan never once launched a nuclear weapon in his lifetime and he was more economically strong than he was militarily, as it was a strategy in the Cold War that won it for us.

While the Soviet Union was building missiles and preparing for a possible nuclear war, Reagan was strengthening the economy in an attempt to further our scientific and military technology.

HOWEVER, now that I'm finished digressing, great art work. Wonderful piece that focuses on the image in the 3D glasses, along with its representation in the modern world.