FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[coocoocoocoo]

Interesting little game! It's got a cool and chill aesthetic to its presentation and despite not having any overt tutorial or explanation, I liked figuring out how everything worked due to its intuitive nature. Gameplay was pretty neat with a nice variety of enemies and a focus on precision shooting where careless shots will result in a new obstacle that you need to contend with as they loop back around and threaten to hit you with a vengeance!

In terms of feedback, I was a bit surprised that the increase of difficulty is handled through new clock hands that can get in your way, instead of the typical increasing enemy variety and density: not a bad thing but it can make the game feel a bit repetitive. While I was fine with our own missed bullets looping until they hit something, be it enemy or me the player, I was frustrated that enemy bullets will also loop but they will do so forever until they eventually hit you, and only you: it felt too punishing and I'd prefer if they fade out after some time or can also hit enemies.

The appeal didn't last forever for me since I wasn't sure how long the game goes and there wasn't a high score table or anything like that to encourage competition, but it was a nice and interesting experience while it lasted.

true-narwhak responds:

thank you!! im glad you enjoyed it!! and yeah the whole weird difficulty curve, and lack of highscores were absolutely the weakest points in the game. i didnt put enough care into those departments and it definitely shows

[Unprofessional Mischief]

At its core, I think it's a pretty fun shooter with a nice variety in enemies, great juicy effects, a goofy story, neato bosses and so on. Reminds me a lot of games like Gunsmoke, a favorite of mine. Certainly a solid first impression and a good core!

However, while it starts out strong, it feels like it stalls out very early on: once you've gone through one level, I feel like you've pretty much seen everything the game has to offer already. You have to go through too many levels of pretty much the same set of enemies and geometry to eventually make it to a boss, which only after then mixes up the levels with the simplest of additions like someone who chucks bombs in a vain effort to distract you from the fact that yes, you are just playing the same levels still. While the game has purchasable upgrades, they felt very token and don't spice up the runs enough, with many of them feeling very lackluster and boring (like the pipe bomb, which just flashes the screen without even an animation of throwing the pipe bomb or an explosive sound effect). The game being so long also makes it much more punishing with the way it forces you to start all over on death, making me feel less inclined to replay since I don't want to retrudge through so much to get to the cool boss fights.

At the moment it just feels like a classic case of a good game being stretched thin over too much repetition and filler to inflate play time lengths. I prefer a short and sweet experience that leaves you hungry for more than a game which just keeps going until you get bored! If the game was cut shorter, for example 2 levels inbetween boss fights, or if the game had the levels feel more different by adding in more extensive variety and increasing challenge as you go on at a quicker pace than it does now, I think it would be great!

Peti responds:

i wasn't expecting to see you in my notifications so this was a futurecop jumpscare

[Fruity Feline]

Wow, really impressive game! I absolutely loved just how slick and professionally put-together it all felt: the general presentation is so cute and smooth, the tutorial was wonderful in that it used pictures instead of just being a wall of text, and even without the tutorial the game just felt so intuitive and fun with the way everything is laid out! Everything is just bursting with life and as juicy as the fruit you manage!

Having said that, though, I did feel like the game was pretty hard! Maybe I'm just bad, but compared to a game like Tetris where the speed slowly builds up, I felt like this game reaches incredible speeds at, well, an incredible speed! Don't get me wrong, I do like games with shorter playtime commitments, but this was overkill for me, haha!

There were a lot of times where I was playing that I wish I had more control. Yes, the game does have those nice previews at the top that let you plan ahead and it does have the swap mechanic and you can cleverly exploit the pause that comes with scoring points, but those just didn't feel enough to contend with everything. There would be so many times that a fruit would be half-down the track and it'd be too late to do anything to save it due to the rigid nature of the tracks, making it feel so stressful to watch the inevitable unrecoverable failure. If I were to have some suggestions:

I'd love it if, similar to Tetris, we had the ability to make a fruit fall down the track faster so we could get it out of the way and try and prevent scenarios where two fruits are simultaneously falling and need to be dealt with. Either that, or maybe change it so that we can control when the fruits come out from the top, but have them heating up due to impatience if we don't let them out fast enough (similar to fulfilling orders in a restaurant game). Another thing that would be nice is if we could draw/erase our own custom paths instead so we could really be in control and save a fruit that has gotten too far down, though I bet that would be a headache to code, haha!

The swap mechanic also felt pretty useless: usually whenever I'd try to use it, it'd be last-second to try and save a fruit going in the wrong basket, but the fruit it'd swap to would be wrong as well and just add to the headache! If I were to make it, I'd make it so it would smartly swap to whatever basket it is leading to like a get-out-of-jail card (but then have a cooldown on usage since that would be very powerful).

For another complaint, I was a bit bummed out that every play session inevitably ends in failure with a game over screen where the cat is pissed off at you. Kind of kills motivation to get better! It'd be nice if reaching certain score thresholds or a new personal high score would congratulate you in some way, like how in Tetris you can build up to launching the Kremlin into orbit with a high enough score! (Then again, maybe this is the case and I'm just not good enough to reach it)

Even though I'm bad at it, I can't find myself hating this game because I really like how well put-together it is in general!

tonyfinale responds:

Oh wow thank you for your extended thoughts! YES I do lament how there ended up being a bit of a lack in more PROACTIVE things the player is allowed to do beyond just fiddling with the lines. Going forward I def wanna make things that aren't as raw reactionary based.

Alternate end screens depending on your score is also a rly good idea... noted...

[Cauldron Caverns]

It's a decent, cute little game, but I felt like the tunnel trip got old quickly due to the simple flying controls and lack of challenge and variety in obstacles to contend with.

Once I got one bat to the end (which I did on my 2nd try easily) I didn't really have the willpower or inclination to go through it again as the game expects you to since 1) the track just goes on and on and gets boring since it caps out on difficulty early and doesn't throw in any new exciting obstacles 2) the upgrades don't really add anything new or exciting that would make further trips down the tunnel feel fresh (likely it would just make it feel easier which would just make it even more boring) and 3) it didn't seem like there was a clear end goal to reach, making me feel like it would just go on forever with no ending and feel pointless.

It's an ok core gameplay at its heart that could be nice with some further development: at the moment though it's just too simple to justify the amount of grind and commitment it expects. Perhaps you should need to get a set number of bats through with each subsequent set having different control schemes (maybe one of them having a flappy bird-esque movement pattern), perhaps the tunnel could change and there could be other obstacles and new power-ups to try and help combat those, and so on.

Oh and also I feel like the bat should probably be on the left side of the screen, instead of the center, to make it more fair and give you time to see obstacles coming from the right. That is, unless perhaps later on you make certain obstacles fly in from the left: that would justify it and add some variety!

LionJeff responds:

I love your comments :) Would you be interested in being a game tester? lol I feel like your comments would be very useful during active development.

There's a lot to digest here, but another player made a comment with similar suggestions and mentioning a sequel - if we choose to do that, I think we'll be able to incorporate a good amount of game play changes and ways of keeping things fresh. However, we have a few projects that are in process and we're excited to keep working on so we'll focus on those for the time being. You've given us a lot to think on and we will take what we can into these newer projects.

I really appreciate the honesty, it will help our future games be more engaging! Hopefully you'll like the next one a little more! We appreciate the play and feedback!

[Rolus in the Outskirts]

Pretty cool game! Certainly makes a great first impression with its stylish art and professional-feeling construction to its world. The story is a bit too aimless for my tastes without even a hint of some greater goal or motivation beyond this weird crystal, but it was nevertheless fun to check out all the locations, chat with everyone, and just explore, learning bits and pieces here and there. I was really impressed at all the little touches to the environment, like being able to kick or crush cans, ruffle grass, and so on (though there is an odd sound mismatch where kicking a paper milk carton sounds like a tin can): stuff like that can add so much life and make it fun to wander around. Loved the various special events like getting run over or the exploding dog as well. Cool to see the crystal baby respond to events as well like getting hurt or scoring a kill! For the most part I can see myself enjoying the game as a straw millionaire type of game: search around for items to fulfill quests that lead to more quests and so on and so forth, all the while enjoying the dialogue and general weirdness!

Right now the biggest sticking point for me was the combat: it's just so bland. Don't get me wrong, there certainly was a bit of effort in creating a nice mix of various enemies and this whole crystal magic system and such, but it just feels really dry and simplistic and just not fun. I was having a pretty good time just wandering around, talking to the wacky characters and such, then I got into this school dungeon and it just really killed the mood with how repetitive it was, especially since it led me to a dead end (at least it felt like, only later did I realize I needed to move those unnoticeable cans to serve as bait for the mousetraps) and it was so boring to walk back out through the empty halls to the entrance. I suppose it does add some variety and I think it could work, but I almost feel like currently it adds nothing and even hurts the game.

Apart from that, there were some other slight nitpicks here and there: lots of backtracking, lack of music and maybe being a bit too slow in mood, lack of a quest journal or some sort of inventory to help keep track of things, it doesn't stop you from picking up crystals beyond your limit which wastes them, lack of button prompts or a tutorial, not sure of the purpose of benches, and so on. Still, despite all this, the game is shaping up to be a really funny little adventure!

Toony responds:

Interesting to hear you liked the quests but was uninterested in the combat. We plan on keeping the half and half focus of questing and combat, but improving the combat with better dungeon layouts that are less meandering, and more options other than shooting.
Also I really want to better establish that the "greater goal" is getting the cheeseburger.

[Faster Blaster Asteroid Master]

Pretty decent game! Bit surprised to find an asteroids-esque game where you just move in absolute directions instead of using a forwards jet and turning, but nevertheless the game did provide some ok arcade fun of blowing stuff up. The shield bomb move added a bit of variety with the way it vaporizes asteroids (and blocks bullets), and I enjoyed getting close to a tightly-grouped cluster of asteroids to make the most of it.

That said, it is quite the simple and unchallenging game, being just a generic asteroids-esque space shooter that is indistinguishable from hundreds like it which students make for projects every day, and I found myself getting quite bored quickly and killing myself intentionally to end the game since it seemed like there was no end in sight. I was actually surprised to see after the fact when I peeked into the stats menu that there are bosses: I was playing for so long and yet I never encountered one! Definitely could stand to make the game more exciting so as to keep the player's attention with more events and new elements such as said bosses popping up earlier on.

Again, it's decent, but didn't feel like it has anything really unique or exciting to it: kind of the equivalent of a good piece of plain toast. Still, it's well-constructed and didn't have many issues to it (beyond boredom), so it's a good foundation to work from!

LionJeff responds:

Thanks for the play, rating and honest review, I appreciate it!

This game was a little challenge after a hiatus from game development. It took ~2 weeks to get it all put together and so from that aspect, I'm happy with it. True, I wasn't trying to make a world changing game with this, but it sounds like the "make a solid game" goal was achieved for an asteroid inspired game. I like my toast plain some times ;)

I don't blame you for getting bored and I appreciate that level of honesty - if we return to this and make bigger updates, more challenges/events would be a great addition!

FYI - the bosses pop up every 250,000 points and has a handful of different attack patterns for variety. Some attacks can take you out pretty quickly if you aren't careful so the idea of the build up until then is to have as many gun/bullet upgrades as you can have while not losing lives to survive the fights.

[Nutbuster (✨THE CANCELLED UPDATE ✨)]

Hmmm, this was a rough one for me!

The goofy story with funny characters and dialogue, along with the stylish art and world really intrigue me and want to play further. You've got a great dumb protag that kicks nuts and some weird antagonist who can't even pronounce clan correctly, and it just keeps going from there: it's quite the comical adventure! I also always love a good beat-em-up, so the gameplay should've sold me.

However, the game itself felt really awful to play. I want to like it since I really like beat-em-ups and this does seem to make some good steps in the right direction with decent boss design and attack telegraphs and so on, but it just felt really bad. Hitboxes felt terrible where I would keep whiffing my kicks despite standing right next to enemies and enemies would hit me when I felt like they should've and not hit me when I felt like they should. The enemies were dumb and repetitive with no variation to them and with attack telegraphs that delay their blow so long its actually hard to parry than if they were sensibly quicker. I kept trying to pull off parries and other stylish techniques but it never really seemed to work in a logical manner. Finally, for a game about kicking nuts, it looked more like I was kicking people's toes or shins, and our player movelist felt so limited and shallow. It tragically feels like a style over substance situation: the game looks pretty, but it doesn't play well.

The final nail in the coffin was that I've even had the game hard-crash on me multiple times: thankfully the game does save progress but crashes really don't give me confidence in its programming. It kinda feels like one of those games that is only built for the best-case scenario and just doesn't work for anything except that. I can practically hear the ghost of the developer screaming in my ear when I feel that my attacks keep whiffing and that the parries aren't working that I "must be standing in an incorrect position" or "didn't read the tutorial" despite my position looking perfectly fine and I'm hitting all the buttons correctly, among other things. Another example that might help illustrate this, though minor, is that the game doesn't disable functionality during a transition animation: yes, in a best-case scenario the player will wait for the transition to finish before resuming input, but since you don't lock it down, a player can accidently press buttons during the transition and end up activating something else they're not supposed to and ruin the game. True programming should acknowledge that a player won't always move like you want them to and construct a game robust enough to work with that worst-case scenario.

I think I will continue to play to try and see the rest of the story since it is very amusing, but it will unfortunately be a case where I feel like I have to suffer through the gameplay to get to the good story part.

ChalTheChalk responds:

Your feedback was greatly appreciated! I do agree that the gameplay do feel shallow and i acknowledged that (after alot of tries on the game), and i am still a mediocre programmer (despite making 9 games already) so bugs may occur onto this lil buggy game of mine, i am very sorry for the inconvenience that you go through for this and i will try my best to improve the game as much as possible so it can make a much more funner experience than it is rn in the next update, again i am really sorry for your inconvenient experience with the game and hopefully the next update will have more substances than it has rn

[The Wizard Ran: Chapter 7]

This was probably the roughest chapter for me as going through that beginning maze was absolutely interminable. I know I've had some tricky times with some of the other chapters but I feel like they've always ended up being a positive experience, but this...I mean I was legit seconds away from quitting despite my love of the series before thankfully having a chance encounter with the tower where I was able to witness the twist and make my way through the timed pawn-slicing tower climb and get the first ending. Can't imagine what that experience would've been like for a newcomer, though I suppose we are at chapter 7 in a series so you can put more faith in the audience's patience (but still, I'd say you are really pushing it).

Unfortunately, the whole timed pawn-slicing tower climb and subsequent ending didn't really feel satisfying to accomplish, so it didn't really do anything to recover my flagging motivation that was already thoroughly sapped by the maze, so I doubt I will go through the maze again to find any of the other endings, which is a shame because that's always an exciting part of these games. I dunno, it just feels like a real bummer: chapter 6 setup with a heck of a cliff-hanger that really had my hopes high, and I feel really let-down.

Maybe after some time where I wait to forget how terrible of an experience the maze was I'll have the courage to do it again.

EDIT: Hmm, guess I might've screwed myself a little bit by picking the Shepherd first since the others were more straightforward. Probably missing a trick as well.

adriendittrick responds:

thanks for sticking in despite the hurdles :)

[Nyghtmare: The Ninth King]

Hrmm, a bit mixed on this one!

First impression of the game was great, as I loved seeing the really cool title and map screen among other nice little touches that take some good effort to put in where other devs would skip. In general the graphics seemed very well-done and added so much to the atmosphere, and the gameplay itself was delivering some solid Castlevania-esque fun with interesting levels, enemies, obstacles, and solid boss fight patterns.

However, as the game went on, the first impression kinda fell off due to several factors that felt unpolished. It's difficult to nail down what exactly contributes to it, but in general the gameplay felt a bit off and unsatisfying: at first I thought it was just the fact that I was playing with keyboard, but even when I switched to controller, which I felt helped, it still just felt very awkward. For example, it felt really annoying to get used to the delayed attacks despite Castlevania having similar delayed attacks which felt alright: not sure what the difference was, maybe it's because of the jump acting differently or the attacks lacking impact and feedback, especially in the audio department. Speaking of audio, I felt like the music really took a downwards dive in quality on the second level (the second level also felt like it kicked up the difficulty way too high way too fast, what with all of the instant death pits and enemies perfectly positioned to shove you into them).

Moving on from the general feel, there were also just a lot of weird bugs. For example, there's a certain checkpoint that you respawn at on level 2 where you will spawn right on top of enemies and immediately and unavoidably take damage: having that happen really diminished my faith in the game's design as I couldn't believe something like that could be overlooked, and therefore really killed my motivation to keep going on (for if a bug like that was missed, what else might have been missed?)

I think it still delivers a decent experience, but it was very close to feeling like a bit of a style over substance thing: the game looks good, but doesn't exactly feel good to play. Definitely has a lot of potential though, just needs a bit of polish in my opinion.

Elv13s responds:

thanks for the honest review. the spawn bug is fixed in recent builds of the game, this embedded build, in particular, was 0.2.6 if i remember correctly, the full game is much more balanced imo?

[Bore of Time]

Hrmm, it definitely doesn't make the best first impression, what with its very complicated rules that are sadly only explained in a massive wall of text devoid of any pictures or colors that could've helped make the information easier to retain and recall. That, along with the fact that the game just seems to be a randomly generated assortment of levels with no clear end goal making it all seem repetitive and aimless, I wouldn't blame a lot of people for quitting outright from, well, the namesake boredom.

However, I will admit that I actually did have some good fun with the game when I gave it the ol' college try. Wrangling the complicated rules wasn't too bad thanks to the actual gameplay having some intuitive symbols, and utilizing the rules in game lead to some very clever and crafty moments that made me feel good: using the lightning tiles to avoid damage while maneuvering around, setting up yellow kills to recover health, recovering a doomed run where I wouldn't be able to reach the stairs without dying by managing the kill the final enemy and thus freely move to the stairs without taking damage, and so on!

I'm still a little sketchy on the game, but it does have a fun little core that creates clever gameplay hidden in there, so well done on that aspect.

amidos2006 responds:

Thanks a lot for giving the game a chance, sorry for not having a better tutorial as I was rushing to submit the game for the 7drl and I didn't have much time to polish the game and make it easier to learn. I am glad that you enjoyed the main game loop and understood it :)