LOL - numero uno?
Obviously, alot of work has been put into this flash. But seriously guys, does it really derserve the number one spot? Let's examine it in detail to avoid talking out of our proverbial @sses.
Graphics - 5
Is it anything ground breaking or absolutely amazing? Nope. Its pretty average. To be honest, it borders on plain ugly at some parts. The animation is not smooth; panning angles looks rather odd. Lots more flashes here with better graphics.
Style - 5
Once again, nothing spectacular. A simple straight-forward narration; directing is passable - NOT amazing. Lack of smooth transitions between shots; the shots themselves are mostly stuck in mid to long angled, which gets monotonous after a while. Simply put, this flash is not "nice" to look at.
And where is the plot? We see the corporate folks try to take down our protagonists using far-fetched, humourless and wholly stupid methods. Is that supposed to be entertaining?
Sound - 5
The sound quality isn't good - background interferrence in the recordings. The volume of the recordings themselves are not synchronized - when the characters speak with each other, the conversations feel unbalanced in volume, making it seem like they are displaced from a common location.
As for the background soundtracks - nothing screams "generic" more than what we have here. Does the music fit the action? Yea, kinda. But can we replace it with another piece easily? Definately. So why do so many people vote 10 for sound when there is obviously room for improvement?
Violence - 3
Usually, I don't give two hoots about the "violence" component - it is overrated and not really a factor in my enjoyment of an animation. But when a product like this comes along with the clear intent to use violence as an aesthetic, I'll rate it.
Quite simply, the "violence" fails. For a good example of entertaining aesthetic violence, look at "Dad & Me" - nice drawings; nice details; clever concept. What does this flash have? Unmitigated and randomly placed for most parts, the action sequences here are ugly, clumsy in exection and wholly uninteresting.
Interactivity - 8
Gave it a 8 for the pre-loader game, which most designers tend to leave out. Other than that, this work is a straightforward narration which does not allow for active audience participation.
Humour - 3
Video game jokes do not appeal to me. In any case, the "jokes" present are coarse, repetitive and devoid of any substance. The idea of the video game company bosses teaming up to kill our apathetic gamer protagonists is interesting initially. Subsequently, the joke stretches out too long - got worse progressively until it became positively cringeworthy at the gameshow bit.
On hindsight, the only funny thing I find about this flash is that so many people would actually vote a 10/10 for it.
Overall - 5
The effort put in was immense - I'm sure the makers spent lotsa time in recording the character voices and to animate such a long flash. Unfortunately, hard-work alone doesn't equate to greatness. The people who voted 5/5 and gave remarks like "OMFG THIS IS DA BEST FLASH EVER!!!11!" should seriously re-evaluate their voting criterion.
That said, I believe the "Decline" series has a rather grand following of geeks, kids and geeky kids. Therein lies its undeserved no.1 spot.
If you think I'm wrong in my analysis of this flash, please do point out why do you think it deserves a score of 8-10. Remarks such as the aforementioned "OMFG THIS IS THE BEST FLASH EVER!!!11!" do not count - they merely reflect the laughable aesthetic taste of their speakers.
