FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Ganbatte!! Robochan - Demo]

Hey, pretty impressive stuff here! For the most part, it really feels like you're pulling off that retro platformer vibe and delivering a classic experience. Overall the game feels very well-constructed and polished, especially in terms of the graphics and sounds. Even though the second level was a bit of a spike in difficulty, I had fun making my way through, and look forward to its future development!

Having said that, though...if I have to be brutally honest, the game didn't "spark joy" if you get my drift, as after the initially strong impression of the retro aesthetic wore off, the actual core gameplay felt, well, pretty dang generic and a bit boring. Not only did the game completely lack any sort of unique or fun core mechanic to spice things up, but the game's jumping and shooting just felt a bit lackluster, lacking the raw explosive satisfaction that other retro games provide.

Sorry I'm being a bit vague as it's hard to put into exact words for what the sweet science is: perhaps this is something that could be easily fixed up with better FX, but I'm unsure. I love playing a lot of retro games nowadays like Shovel Knight, Cyber Shadow, and so on, and while on the surface level this looks like it should compete with them and their mechanics are not so unique either, this lacks...something, that special gamefeel that they have.

If it helps, the only reason I'm being so harsh is because I think the game has a lot of potential, so I hope I've provided some food for thought! Best of luck in developing this!

WLCSoft responds:

Thanks for being honest about the game! Yeah, the mechanics are pretty basic here. 😅 I have little experience on game developing. I'm working alone, except for the people who made the music, and I didn't know anything about the engine I'm using (GDevelop) before starting this project, so I had to learn from zero and on the fly. That's why I decided to keep it kinda generic. Something simple enough to make while learning. Maybe my next games will come with unique mechanics, at least extra movements like dash and double jump. But for now I'll have to keep it simple or I won't be able to finish it at all. That said, I'm working on stage 3 and I have new ideas for challenges that could make the gameplay feel a little less boring. Anyway, I'm glad you say the game looks good, at least on surface, because I have much more experience with art than with making games, so I put a lot of effort to make it look well polished. I'll take in consideration all the feedback I've received and I think the final version of the game will be better. Thanks again! 😄

[Bunny Bun]

Hmm, I really want to like this game, but my first impression of it was pretty rough!

I definitely do think there is a lot to like here. Sure, the platforming is a little generic, being your standard hop-n-bop with simple upgrades like dashes, but the world felt very mysterious and stylish with the way you rendered it, and I was very curious to see where the story goes. I also think that the gameplay was doing a decent job at keeping things interesting by constantly introducing new elements: breakable blocks, wall jumps, boss battles, upgrades, and so on! I also liked some of the creative enemy patterns, such as the blockers who need to be air juggled, and the cute sound effects for movement/footsteps.

But on the other hand, the gameplay and controls just felt kind of awkward and I was finding it difficult to get used to. There's just so many little things that crop up that don't allow me to get into a flow state with movement: for example, there's this weird delay where you don't cling to a wall immediately but have to wait until you start moving downward, the wall jump controls are odd in that just pressing the movement key without jump makes you jump and there's no way to drop down from a wall cling, there's no coyote time which constantly makes me miss my edge jumps, the way my dash keeps firing off if I try to jump a little too early from hitting the ground, combat feels kind of weird with its hitboxes and knockback, and so on.

There were also just some really weird design decisions, like why is the inventory so limited? Why would I ever want to remove an essential upgrade like being able to dash with some boring passive regen/lifesteal?

All of the above were things I was slowly getting used to, and like I said, I was still intrigued by the story and world, so I was going to keep playing. Or at least I was, until I decided to take a quick break, and was then shocked to realize that, despite the game having very obvious rest benches which you would think would save the game, did not save it at all, and I was forced to start all the way back at the beginning when I came back. Perhaps it is technically not a long game if you play it straight through, but still, why in the world is there no save/continue system?

EDIT: Ok, whew, there is a load/continue option, it's just hidden in the corner for some reason instead of just being front-and-center with the start button. Why in the world...well, if it's there, at the very least I can finish this game! Thank god it didn't erase my data when I started up again after missing it the first time.

That...was a pretty weird ending. I feel like it was trying to be real emotional, but it was such a last-minute exposition dump that it really didn't connect with me. I have no idea what moving the clouds was doing? How...odd.

ErikSwahn responds:

Glad you played it through! I will remember the feedback you gave. I agree with most except the coyote jump mechanic but I do not like it in other games either. It is very good to hear feedback about the story as I am new to that. There should have been more of a "build up" towards the end to make it feel less random and more impactful. I have learned that it is easier to judge than to create good work on your own. Thanks for your review :)

[Coach Fight!]

Hmm, a little bit mixed on this one!

On the positive side, the rhythm game mechanics seem pretty solid. The note charts felt well-timed and to the beat, the notes were properly color-coded to show their type of beats, I liked that you showed that note charts can also have interesting tricks like delayed notes, and so on. The game also just felt polished in terms of presentation, menus, UI, and all that. Certainly feels like you've got a good base to work from for future development!

On the negative side, I don't feel like the connection between boxing and rhythm was made. It felt like I was just playing DDR, but you replace the typical music video with a video of two dudes boxing. Ideally, when I'm hitting the notes correctly, I should feel like I'm having an effect in the fight, like my punches are happening to the beat, but it didn't have any sort of feedback at all and felt like two separate things were happening. As a minimum, I would create better sound effects for hitting notes, with variations for whether you are attacking/defending and how well you did: perfects should be giving me loud cracks, greats/goods should only be giving me jabby puffs, and so on. The way the fight is presented and animated could probably be done better as well: dunno why it has to be so zoomed-out as it further adds to the sense of disconnection, like are we playing as the fighter or the coach here?

If anything, I would actually prefer if the combat was less reciting a note-chart perfectly and more like Punch-Out or other rhythm games like Necrodancer/BPM where you are free-form deciding when to attack and when to dodge based on the opponents movements, all to the beat of a song for extra damage. But I understand that's asking for a totally different game, I suppose.

[Valentine's Day Art Collab '24]

Cute little art collab! Wonderful to see so much entries within this: couldn't believe the way it just kept going and going! Very well done on wrangling all of this together and getting some positivity out there.

Now I give you the loveliest gift I can think of, which is brutally honest feedback (the love nobody asks for, haha):

*The general interface is a bit of an eyesore where everything kind of blends together in bright colors, making certain features like the Previous/Next buttons difficult to read and not pop to the foreground as much as they should. Mayhaps a little bit of desaturation of the background, outlining of text, and other simple elements would help readability.

*I was a bit bummed that the collab chose a very basic slideshow presentation instead of opting for something really creative. I got a bit interested with the heart and candy box on the side as I thought that maybe they had some sort of interesting powers, like the heart being some sort of voting system or maybe sending a message to the artist, and the candy box being some sort of button to go to a random valentine or get commentary from the artist, but it seems like they're just kind of there for no important purpose. I think a more creative presentation would help viewer retention, as without some sort of interesting gimmick, I wouldn't blame a lot of people for getting bored halfway!

*There is some missing functionality that I feel should be present, such as a gallery view, zoom/pan functions for viewing the art, and being able to easily click on the artist's name to go to their NG profile for potential follows and seeing the art in its original NG page (if possible) for potential votes. I feel like more love gets spread this way when you make things easier to interface with!

*It's wonderful that you have so many entries for this, but because the list is so long and it is alphabetically sorted, I feel bad for whoever's username starts with letters like X, Y or Z as I think they're going to get absolutely shafted in that a lot of people probably won't have the patience to get to their entries at the end. Perhaps it would've been better if there were some sort of big thumbnail gallery view where you can see many at once and click on them for more details, or a search function, or maybe the list should be randomly sorted (perhaps you could even make a fun gimmick out of the randomness, like make a mailbox gacha machine that gives letters which you open up to see their cards).

Again, well done on this and your heart's in the right place, but yeah, I'm a big nitpicker and want art collabs to do more than just the bare minimum!

wamyremy responds:

omfg am i gonna be in a FutureCopLGF video.....

(actually probably not, my entry's like wayy too far on the other end LMAO)

but thank you for the feedback! <3

[Hide & Skink]

Cute little game! It took me awhile to figure out what the heck I'm even supposed to do, and it's a bit rough and unpolished leading to some unfair deaths and confusing logic, but I enjoyed the process of figuring out how to manipulate the human to open doors and locks for me by creating distractions with various object interactions. Felt like a very comical version of Hitman or something akin to that, and I would've loved to see even more levels!

As much as I'd prefer if the game was a bit more clear with things like an objective list, guidance markers, sight cones, and so on, I was able to figure it out in the end though experimentation, so maybe there's something to be said for letting the game be a bit vague and not baby the player to create a better challenging experience! But I dunno, I do think that the game could use a little bit more here and there to help: I felt like I got really lucky in figuring out some stuff that I think others would be completely lost on. Food for thought!

[HiveClock: The Game]

Never quite sure how to rate these games that feel like they are just inside jokes for a certain clique that I'm not in the know of. Nothing wrong with making games like this as you don't need to please everyone, but yeah, my expectations were not high when I played this, and I was about ready to quit just a few screens in making my way through what was essentially an art gallery with very minimal and unsatisfying interactions.

I do have to admit, though, that once you get all the way to the end and start going back, I was surprised to see the levels change themselves up. There were even a lot of secrets to find if you get creative with your clicks, like dragging the throne away or if you keep clicking the bee hive to knock it down: almost felt like it has some real potential as a puzzle-y point-n-click adventure! Seeing the whole cinematic at the end too was wild: I have no idea what it was, but I felt like I was seeing some sort of Marvel movie after-credits scene that's supposed to build intrigue, haha!

[Babel Adventure]

Huh, quite the interesting game you got here! I was really worried at first as it seemed a bit simplistic and a bit janky, but I was impressed at how addicted I got to scaling this tower! Something about how you have such a large and diverse cast of enemies and traps, each with their own unique patterns to contend and exploit, and combine that with trying to get coins and the mind-bending nature of using the screen edges to teleport: it creates a really cool puzzle adventure where I loved figuring out the appropriate route to make it through each screen! Not only does it keeps escalating in terms of gameplay mechanics, it does so as well with the weirdness of its story and cool music to create quite the memorable experience. Well done!

Having said that, though, the game is pretty rough and janky, as mentioned before. In terms of feedback:

*There was some jankiness and such in terms of hitboxes being a bit ill-defined and movements being a bit weird, but more so than that, it was so janky that I had a point where I got awkwardly shoved off the screen by some attacks and was stuck in limbo: unable to restart but unable to continue either, moving around in some void jail but unable to get back to the stage proper. Luckily I was still early in the game so it didn't hurt much to quit and full restart, but boy, it felt super unfair and if I was further along, that woulda been quits for me.

*Speaking of the above, it was a real bummer that this game has no save/continue option. It has checkpoints, yes, but if you close the game and come back to it, it puts you all the way back at the start, and while the game might not technically be that long, it just feels bizarre to not include such an option (especially since it would've saved me from that crash!)

*As much as I wanted to collect coins and get items and such, it just felt pointless and not worth the risk since 1) death is plentiful and resets your coins and 2) I couldn't tell what kind of item I was even buying due to a lack of information, and it was such a big risk to spend so much to try something out and get a whole heap of nothing, like that time I bought the red coin 2 pack and I still have no idea what they even did. I like the incentive to get coins as an extra challenge, but I dunno if having an item shop is necessary in this, with the way its been setup.

*While I generally liked all of the enemies and how diverse they were, there were still a couple that felt really bad, like the sudden rocks that would come from off-screen and explode: I get that its an increase in difficulty, but I dunno, it just felt unfair in how you need to memorize it and can't see any sort of telegraph for it so as to help keep it in mind, like how spikes will still have a minimal presence on the stage even when they are retracted.

DaShahRach00 responds:

Hey ! Thank you very much for this review, it is very useful !
mentioned the shop as poorly rewarding for getting parts, thank you for putting the word out there. I should have made sure to provide information on the items we are taking before purchasing them. (ps the red coin when used transforms all the coins visible on the screen into double coins)
And I note the need to have a game that saves for future games!
We will pay more attention to crash issues like this for future games! I'm glad that despite this you continued the game.
Thank you for playing it! And I'm glad you enjoyed the experience ^^

[Burning Down (DEMO)]

For the most part, this is a pretty promising demo! In general it feels like there is a good amount of presentation and charm, and the firefighting gameplay is pretty chaotically fun: felt good to try and get used to all the various mechanics and how to employ them best, like the two hose powers, foam, axing doors and debris, saving hostages, and all that jazz!

Having said that, though, it was in a pretty rough state in a lot of respects, and while I still am overall positive on it, I want to give a lot of feedback so as to make it even better.

*Controls could be really awkward to utilize at times. For example, why are the move keys used to advance text, instead of using a more common button like the interact key or primary fire? Why is reloading so weird in that you can't manually start it until you're totally dry, and once you're in it, there's no way to cancel it midway? Why does the super jump require you to put your cursor so accurately below them instead of just being a double-jump or allowing a looser area to click (perhaps for diagonal shots)?

*The difficulty of the game seemed really rough and unbalanced as well. Don't get me wrong, I like a challenge, but it felt like every map wanted me to do everything almost perfectly with very little wiggle room, and that just felt really bad when still learning things. There could be a few reasons for this: for one, the levels skip forward here and there, so maybe the full game would have a slower increase in complexity instead of throwing me into the deep end. I also thought that water was limited and unreloadable at first so I spent a long time rationing it, and felt silly when I learned that reloads were possible: should water levels even exist? Maybe foam, which I would usually think is meant to be an emergency thing that is just there to help newbies while pros might not even need it, is intended to be very required in this? I dunno, but the game definitely felt pretty overzealous, like it was balanced based on a developer who has gotten way too used to his game and thinks it was getting too easy.

*There were also just lots of confusing points, like while I can understand a person losing health because they're in a fire, I have no idea why a person I've carried away from fire but not out of the building entirely, or the cat on the roof who isn't in a direct line of fire, is losing health. I wasn't sure exactly what foam was meant to be used for in the best way, it felt really annoying to deal with mechanics like the crackly red floors, the fireballs spitting out of fire felt way too hard to snuff out mid-flight than it felt like they should be, and so on and so forth.

*Finally, there were some missing elements that were sorely missed, such as a scoring or ranking system to challenge me and teach me how I could play better. There were also plenty of rough spots like the unnecessary walk back at the end of each mission, as well as the really long and awkward fade out.

Looking forward to the final version and hope this rambling helps at least somewhat!

[Phantom Comedy Theatre]

Certainly a memorable game for its very unique mechanic of being a ghostly hype man for comedians, and the game also has a certain goofy charm to it with its terrible comedy acts, low-effort art, and level scores being delivered as radio reviews. It's neat stuff, and I tried my best to get into it!

Despite that, though, I couldn't help but feel like the game mechanics didn't work out. I did my best to do as instructed: capture the laughs, avoid the boos, take the energy obtained from laughs and inject it into sad or meh viewers, but it just never felt like I was in control or satisfied. Maybe there's some sort of strategy that the game has, like if you keep sad people separated from each other they wouldn't spread their sadness as easily or something, but I couldn't find it and it all just felt aimless. There's also a lot of weird jank, like how clicking on audience members would sometimes be ignored for no reason I could discern.

Again, I certainly give points for trying out a unique mechanic, but I felt like it needed more time in the oven in terms of execution.

[Candle in the Woods]

Cute little game! For the most part, I think the game delivers a decent little story and variety of activities: it was rather impressive that every new screen seemed to introduce a whole new set of mechanics and puzzles to play with!

It's for that very same reason, though, that the game felt rather unfocused: it had a strong start with an element of mystery in using the candle to see hidden paths and to defend yourself against foes, but then it felt like the candle was forgotten in lieu of more standard block-sliding puzzles and hedge mazes where the candle because a dumb impediment that you need to refuel constantly for no real reason.

In addition to that, the game felt rather janky and unpolished: as cool as the block-sliding puzzle during the boss battle was, I got very annoyed when the blocks would be pushed in very awkward ways that I clearly did not intend, making me restart the whole thing.

For a game jam game, it's a bit of a mix: as said, it's got some decent gameplay variety, but I felt like the candle didn't get to shine in an interesting or memorable way, and that's a bit rough especially considering its supposed to be part of the central theme.