FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Echo Chamber]

Solid and interesting little game! Combat was pretty rough at times due to the cramped arenas, but it was fun to try and strategize and improvise with your spell combo that you build up. Presentation was overall quite cute and polished, though could use a bit more feedback to help direct the player.

Definitely a bit confusing at first: reminded me a lot of a Pico-8 game where the game doesn't have enough room to dedicate to tutorials/text/instructions so it relies on icons and such instead. This led to me having a rough start where I had no idea how anything worked: turns would happen instantly with enemies warping in all sorts of ways and I couldn't tell how they were moving so fast and even how to attack, haha.

But it didn't take me too long to finally learn how everything eventually worked due to the intuitive design of said icons: soon enough hovering over enemies to see their health/attack power/move stats became second nature. From there, I had a good time building up a unique chain of spells and improvising as best I could with them in the arenas. Of course, I still wish it would be a bit easier in some aspects: would love something like how in Fire Emblem or Advance Wars you can click/hover on an enemy to see their possible movement in red tiles, but it works alright with what its got.

[Volcano Maintenance]

Really fun and frantic action! Overall loved the fast-paced yet strategic nature of the gameplay: had a blast scrambling around to gather fruit and bring/chuck it where needed. The game felt really juicy and satisfying to play at its core, especially when smacking the baddies with fruit. Graphics were simple but very cute and lively, with cool touches like the volcano screen turning transparent if you hover over it. Great concept and nice execution: overall solid all-around!

The only wonky aspects I noticed were that the charge for throwing was way too touchy: if you tap it you throw it a piddly few inches, whereas if you tap it a nanosecond longer you throw it into the goddamn stratosphere. This made it quite frustrating to get a mid-range throw: would like if the charge happened a bit slower to help control the power easier. Other than that, there were some minor things like how the fruit thrown at the catapult would sometimes be layered behind it despite technically being in the launching pod, and I would've loved to throw a baddie at another baddie to damage them: felt confused as to why it wasn't possible when fruit works fine.

A bigger thing to note was that I had a real wild swing with the difficulty. At first, I found the game way too hard: baddies took so much damage and both kept reviving and spawning new ones that it felt so pointless and hopeless to fight them: all I could do was scramble to get as much done before they ruined everything. It was only later on once I learned that a) you can permanently kill baddies if you keep hitting them in their stunned state and b) who cares about killing them when you can pick them up and feed them to the volcano and kill two birds with one stone, that suddenly the game turned on its head and was way too easy! Once I learned those tricks about the baddies, managing everything was a breeze, and when you stack the powerups I got on top of all that, I became unstoppable and went from my highest being a D to suddenly getting an easy S+ and intentionally having to kill myself because my game was going too long, haha (speaking of that, I noticed that the timer speeds to zero if you're in an unwinnable situation with all trees dead: nice touch!).

[Forgotten Dungeon]

I definitely find the game quite impressive from a technical aspect (cool gameboy interface) and find the concept intriguing of going through this dead, already looted dungeon. However, all that intrigue was unable to get me to the end as I found myself getting so bored and frustrated that I couldn't continue.

It was a shame as I did want to see the ending. But between the unsatisfying combat due to the lack of feedback, wonky hitboxes that feel way too big and make it too easy to get damaged, hard to parse visuals because of the overwhelming gray palette and tiny screen, repetitive room layouts made worse by constant backtracking, lack of exciting puzzles or interesting progression since the relics don't do anything, and weird glitches like enemies spawning right on top of me, I just dropped off. I know that some of that, like the unsatisfying combat and muted soundscape, was probably intentional for the atmosphere, but I think you overdid it. Basically, I think you perhaps did too good a job at recreating a forgotten dungeon in that, well, it's forgotten for a good reason, haha!

Also I think I softlocked myself? I died in the eastern wing in a section that is now permanently locked off since the lever I hit to lock it off is within the locked-off section. I could be wrong, maybe there's another lever somewhere that can open it up, but again, the game kind of wore me down that I couldn't be bothered.

[A Date with Death 2]

Really great and charming game! Had a wonderful time playing this as I felt like the humor was top-notch: great dialogue and sequences that were paced and accentuated well despite being quite simple in construction. I did play the original story so this worked great for me: was a little worried how new people would take it since it assumes a lot of knowledge (but then again, should that even be accounted for?) Was surprised how much I loved it considering the bulk of it was pretty much a movie with only a little gameplay.

Speaking of that, though, I have to admit, I do wish the game had a bit more gameplay to it: I really loved the dodging sequences, but there were only the two of them and I beat them both on the first try which made the story feel a bit odd. Since they weren't that hard, it made the hero seem like a god who can do everything effortlessly: it works in a way since they are pretty unflappable, but I'm curious whether the fights were more difficult that perhaps the 'fight for love' would be more satisfying by our repeated attempts. Also, I would've loved if there was a bit more interactivity through a final fight: instead of everything getting resolved through dialogue, maybe you play as death in an interesting twist and dodge obstacles to make your way to the hero and save them from their nightmare, or maybe you play as a depressed hero who moves slowly until death comes in to save the day. But I don't mean that it's a really bad thing the game didn't have a lot of combat: I still loved the game nonetheless, rather I was just impressed with the sequences and wanted more everything from the game!

Really looking forward to the third act if you end up doing it!

[Wigglesmith]

Pretty funny and interesting fumblecore game that I found to be quite fun, at least, after the initial frustration!

I definitely feel like the game starts way too hard way too fast: the first level barely gives you any room for error which can be real frustrating considering you're still getting used to the controls. And boy, did it take me quite a while to get used to the controls: I understand it's intentionally supposed to be difficult, but the game requires you to be so fast and precise, yet any attempt at going straight to pick something up would always cause the arm to flail wildly or rebound in really weird and unexpected ways that'd screw everything up. The initial annoyance increased as well because of the way in that you can collide with the anvil spike that's sticking out for some reason: felt really unnecessary. Definitely a rough start that made me almost ditch the game.

It was only once I got used to just swinging my arms in circles and picking up things as I passed by (instead of trying to go straight forward to the thing I want) that I had any success, and once I did, I had a lot of fun! Felt satisfying to get good at timing the grabs and dealing with the various orders that came in. The only remaining frustration was that I wish I could place another item on the anvil to replace it as sometimes the physics would wonk out and, when I'm trying to get rid of something I didn't want, they'd fall on the anvil as if I wanted them. And ironically, I wish the game would be a bit more forgiving when I'm trying to drop things on the anvil, like widening the accepting hitbox or something. But that wasn't too bad and just felt like part of the challenge of getting skilled at the game enough to avoid those mistakes. Neat little game jam game that I feel could be super fun with a bit more polish overall!

[Soak 'Em Out]

Wow, what a really incredible and fun game! The standout for this game is definitely the presentation: the graphics, animations, sounds and music felt top-notch and very professional. Loved how intuitive and fun the gameplay felt and the awesome touches like how the music increases in tempo along with the difficulty. Was surprised to see some new mechanics pop-up later as the storm increases, like sudden waterfalls from the roof!

Only downside I would say is that the game, at the end of the day, is a bit shallow and not super addictive due to minimal mechanics and how long it can take to ramp up the difficulty to exciting levels on a repeat playthrough, but that's to be expected for a game jam game (seriously, I keep forgetting this is a game jam game due to how good it looks and feels) and nonetheless I loved my time with it while it lasted!

[Portal Defenders: Tower Defense]

Wow, really stellar job with this game! Overall just has an incredible feel of polish and professionalism to all elements, and the gameplay is very fun, intuitive, addictive and satisfying: I could spend all day talking about the little touches like all the amusing audio chatter and the cool risk/reward tactical choice to get money for blowing the whistle, but I don't want to bore you with my gushing, haha! I can barely even tell it's Flash: it looks like it is so much more than what would be possible!

That being said, I do have a few nitpicks with it:

*I didn't like how long it took money and other items to get picked up from the ground. Would love if it would happen a lot faster or if you could influence the speed by mousing over the money drops, or if you technically get the money immediately even if the graphical icon hasn't flown to your wallet yet. Because it took so long to get money after a kill, it led to tons of awkward moments where I technically should have the money since it is moving towards my wallet, but I don't have it yet to spend, which felt unfair since I needed it at a crucial moment.

*I finished a level with 5 stars to spend on upgrades but for some reason wasn't able to purchase an upgrade that costs 5 stars: it would only let me purchase an upgrade that costs 4 stars. Is this because I can't purchase the II upgrade without getting the I upgrade first? It's a bit unclear.

*Would love some information pop-ups to appear when going over stuff like the upgrades for towers. I'm assuming the radar icon means a range upgrade, the fist means power and the shoe means rate of fire, but it's unclear and I was never sure.

*Would like it if, when purchasing turrets, instead of showing all dotted-line range indicators for all options at once, it would only show the associated range indicator for the option you're currently hovering over; seeing all of those circles at once was confusing to parse.

BoMToons responds:

Thanks for the review!

We don't have hover effects cuz it was designed to work for mobile, which doesn't have hover detection. I've been considering whether we could put in coin collection via tapping/clicking though to collect early... so yeah, no "hovering" for coin collection, no "hovering" to show specific ranges, no "hovering" for descriptions of icons... sorry!

Yes, you must get tier 1 upgrades before you can get tier 2, and tier 1 + 2 before 3.

Thanks for playing!

[=KRUDSHOT CAFE=]

Pretty solid game! Had a very stylish presentation all-around and feels like it has a solid core for some fun shooting: everything felt quite smooth, intuitive and well-done. Definitely love all of the juicy effects that the game had, like the ouch effects and the bullets popping up one-by-one for a reload and such.

Nitpicks I have are:
*I think it overdoes it on the whole CRT filter wavy pulse distortion whatever thing. Feels really unnecessary: the game is perfectly cool looking without these flashy effects that just hurt my eyes and make it difficult to read things and ruin the great art assets you've got. I know I can turn it off in the menu, but it starts on by default, so I'm under the assumption that you feel that's the intended experience (and I disagree is all).

*In a similar vein to the above, sometimes I feel like it overdoes it on the juicy effects, especially the 'Ouch' text that pops out of enemies. If you hit them with a fast-firing gun, so much text pops up that it clouds the enemy from vision. Funny in a way, but annoying since it makes it difficult to confirm the enemies status.

*Sounds were a bit muted: would love some more powerful sounds and feedback for enemy kills and such to make it feel more satisfying, as the feedback for shooting enemies didn't feel too great.

*Bit annoying that you can't manually reload from what I can tell, which makes it really awkward where you're left with a few bullets after a fight and start the next fight in a bad spot, unless you shoot into the air inbetween fights to empty it enough to force a reload.

*The cursor isn't locked in game which can lead to clicking outside the game by accident during heated combat and losing focus (and then subsequently losing health).

*While the game was nice, it got rather repetitive for me quickly. The vast majority of the levels boiled down to playing clean-up by fighting the same types of unchallenging enemies over and over. Thank god for the boss fights which spiced up the experience, but they were few and far between. Could definitely use more something to add more variety, like more enemy variety, more objective/special event variety, more interesting weapons/items, etc (and if there are, the game should get to them faster because I was dropping off before I saw them).

To sum it up: I think it's very well put-together and impressive, but overall was very basic and lacking a standout element. The gameplay loop got quite repetitive rather quickly due to a lack of said unique hook, be it through story, gameplay mechanics, pacing, or whatever. Basically, it feels like a very juicy and promising prototype/proof of concept that I'd love to see amped up! The characters are pretty cool looking: something as simple as some extra story intro or narrative to flesh them out and give them an objective in gameplay would help more than you think, at least for me!

Just-a-ng-dummy responds:

Thx for the review as always Futurecop!
I understand the CRT filter isnt for everyone and it didn't really feel in place for a "cafe purgatory." I just ultimately thought it looked neat

I didn't know the sounds were a bit muted, I have a bit of trouble finding the right volume for the sound effects and such, I'll keep it in mind in the future.

A manual reload will probably suit the game as you can just mindlessly strap your finger on the left mouse button with duct tape and keep on shooting.

The repetitive nature is certain due to there only being 20 room in total and 4 for each level. Special event variety is one thing I want to add more: Stuff blocking the screen, I guess more bullet hell type events. The pacing is one of my biggest concerns due to the map size being large and the need to kill every goddamn enemy. I could either reduce the map size or just add more enemy variety.

There is a story going in place, but it's not actually stated in the game, but I do like an extra story or narrative put into a game, so I'll try to implement them like those simple "you are the protagonist do this" lines

Cheers on reviewing all of April's nominated games and the release of Family Tech Support!

[Statistica]

I think it's a really cool concept, and I always love a good edutainment experience, but this felt like a real one-trick point that wore out its welcome rather quickly.

I definitely like the idea of manipulating these distributions to form paths to both the end goal and bonus objectives: reminds me of games like that Kirby game where you draw your own platforms. But it didn't take long for all the levels to feel like they were doing the same thing, over and over: play with the distribution to build a staircase where you want to go, and go there. Even when it introduced a new distribution, it was technically just the same thing with a superficial paintjob, as it was just another curved staircase where you can shift it to favor one side over the other. There was also just some weird and confusing aspects to the game, like the difficult to read small text, how you don't get squished but rather glitch-phase-through platforms if you get pushed into them, and how the HUD pop-ups for interacting with the distributions also count as physical platforms in gamespace, which kept throwing me off when I expected my character to just slip behind them, haha.

It's got some solid presentation and a neat idea, but I don't feel like it was fleshed out enough to provide an experience that would hook me. I definitely felt like it needed a lot more tricky, puzzle-esque levels that have you interact with the distributions in new cool ways. Good attempt though, and I'll admit, I might just be a bit down on it because it doesn't let me hold down click to alter the distributions: so much clicking was really setting off my carpal tunnel, haha!

[Madness Roulette 2]

Wow, this game really threw me for a loop! Had such a confusing start with the game due to the wacky rugpull of the rigged game and being thrown into a whole new game within the game, but it was such a wild trip to experience! Even once I realized that I was tricked, I still spent a long time not sure if I was just misunderstanding what was going on (which just added to the mystery).

Unfortunately, once the initial surprise and mystique wore off, I found myself really getting bored at going through these incredibly bland Windows screensaver-esque dungeons with the same type of basic chaser enemies you see in all sorts of jumpscare games like this. There was also a lot of weird glitchiness with the controls like how clicking the mouse moves you diagonally forward for some reason, and how you can glitch the camera through walls. I felt like the multiplayer was unnecessary and just added an extra layer of confusion to it all that actually takes away from the terror. Sure, it did have some decent spooky sound design and such, but it became incredibly shallow and tedious really fast: I didn't even have the willpower to get past level 2.

I see now that it was an April's Fools joke, so fair enough, but at the end of the day, I would've loved if the game morphed into an awesome spooky game! Just because it's a joke doesn't mean it needs to be bad or low-effort! Just felt like a real missed opportunity: some more inventive maps with more landmarks, a little bit of story or something, some extra mechanics, and this could've not only been a huge twist, but a welcome one at that! Still, thanks for the experience while it lasted.