FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[SnakePit]

Pretty neat game! For the most part it's a rather simple versus battle game with Snake mechanics which isn't up my alley, but the game's presentation and style is very peppy and the battles do offer some element of strategy and depth to them through the inclusion of power-ups, body size influencing speed, and being able to bisect enemies and eat their shed body parts. The game also has a decent amount of modes to play. Basically I didn't have the best hopes for it at the start, but it ended up impressing me!

Keep in mind that this review is coming from someone who only played single-player mode, which while I was very happy to see its inclusion, it might not showcase the game at its best. The feedback I'd offer is:

*While the battles were fun at first, I'll admit that I was letdown by the tournament mode since all of the battles felt largely the same. I was hoping that since the snakes were all different characters, they would have stronger personalities and quirks to strategize around like you'd see in your typical fighting games, but it seems like those only manifest when they get powered up which they never have time to do, and it wasn't until the final boss that they had a ever-so-slight starting advantage to try and pep things up.

*The game is rather simple, and while it does try to inject some strategy and variety, it doesn't have enough staying power to keep me playing and just feels like padding. As said before, all of the snakes feel the same because fights never last lost enough for their special powers to come into play, and while the game does have different fighting modes, all of them except fruit hunt feel pretty much the same.

*The way snakes move can be awkward with the way they stutter around: I understand it might be a tactical thing based on body size and so on, but it just felt weird and felt like the game is lagging, with the worst being that sometimes it would make my inputs get misinterpreted or ignored.

[Mars Underground (full game)]

Wow, this is a heck of a sandbox you've created here! The setting is pretty intriguing and reminds me a lot of other visual novel or timeloop games such as Majora's Mask, Twelve Minutes, Indigo Prophecy and so on. Seriously impressed at the amount of interactivity in this adventure: I typically expect the only interactions in there games to be important ones to the plot, but I like that there was effort to add more than just that as it gives a lot of flavor to the world!

There are some slight annoyances to the game here and there, sure. The intro was a bit annoying to have to sit through before being able to access any sort of options menu to adjust volume and the like. There's also a lot of experimentation and backtracking that can get quite tedious to wait through at times to finally get to the choice or outcome you want: overall the game can be quite intimidating!

Nevertheless it's quite addicting to see what you can do, there's plenty of interesting story hooks to keep me motivated, so I'm looking forward to getting to the final ending eventually!

[Off the Grid - Summer 2024 Collab]

Cute art collab! Always neat to see other artists and their interpretations of each other's characters, and seeing all of this art in this intuitive grid layout with all the information you'd want, topped off with some chill vibes and neat special effects like the intro animation, is great stuff!

If I were to have any feedback, it's that I wish I could speed up the navigation at times, like being able to double-click to skip the sloooow transition and just snap to the next picture immediately. Either that or I wish we could actually free-form navigate as well, like dragging the grid around and zooming in with the mouse wheel as we please. It'd also be nice if there was some sort of credits and information window about the event, perhaps. I suppose I'd like if maybe it had a bit more razzle-dazzle as well: it's practically a sterile room with how white and clean it is, haha! But yeah, this is all small potatoes, as it's generally a nice gallery!

alsoknownas1 responds:

Thanks! As always your comments are super constructive. You're absolutely right that the balance here between minimalism and effects was a bit awkward. Not just because of you--of course--but we're definitely leaning towards the razzle dazzle (or at least novelty) in the next few projects. Would be very interested in your thoughts. Stay tuned!

[Pent's Wacky, Zany Road Trip to Adulthood]

Wow, this is quite the departure from your usual grim and chill horror vibes that your games typically deal with, but hey, it's a welcome surprise nevertheless!

Overall this is a grand ol' adventure that I enjoyed very much, filled not only with a variety of challenges from mind-bending puzzles to deadly obstacle courses, but also loads of goofy characters and amusing interactions. There's just so much wackiness crammed in here that you just can't stop!

It's not without its frustrations, of course. Driving the car through those cramped corridors can be particularly annoying with how wonky and punishing the hitboxes are. I don't like how weird the save system is. I wish I had a sprint button for all this backtracking. The humor isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea, and for those it is, there can always be some hits and misses (for example, I'm down for references to Trumpet Guy, but it might be played out for others, haha). And I spent an embarrassingly long time on the first line-drawing puzzle only to realize how easy it was eventually (I blame the hint guy psyching me out!)

But in spite of all that, I'm glad to have cleared that puzzle and got the adventure going!

[THE SUBSPACE EMISSARY COLLAB]

Pretty neato art collab! I was pleased to see that I got exactly what I expected looking at the title/thumbnail, being a very Smash-esque trophy/gallery view with all the neato bells-and-whistles I could want, from the authentic sounds and 3D rotating art, to various quality-of-life features like clickable artist profile/social links and the different categories for viewing. I can always wish for more, like being able to click on the art and be able to rotate it around as I like, or an actual subspace emissary game where you collect the art, but what is here is perfectly acceptable. Nice work, and nice art!

ElRandomGMD responds:

U are a legend :D

[LITTLE ADVENTURE FANTASY LAND]

Goddamn, y'all are nuts sometimes, you know that? In a good way, of course. Don't you dare go hollow!

Game is certainly quite the wacky experience and boasts some impressive quality on all fronts: not only is the concept of traversing an environment by strategically scaling up body parts very unique and very fun to get skilled at managing, but the game has so much energy, charm and depth to its presentation with loads of voice lines, special effects, challenging enemies and level layouts, secrets, and so on and so forth. Like a good comedian, it's one of those weird games where it's so funny that it feels so natural, like no effort was put in, but clearly a lot was. A fantastic experimental game jam result all around!

It was certainly very memorable, but I'll admit that it wasn't all good memories. The game can be quite frustrating with how random and janky it can feel, mostly from the ragdoll limbs constantly getting stuck in places and throwing off your intended plans. And speaking as an old man, the high energy that this game boasts can be a bit too much at times: the ever-forward momentum and traps and screaming and augh I need to take, like, a week-long break before I try and play again!

[[ROOOM]]

Hrmm, I think I understand what this game might be trying to do, and it's certainly rather unique and experimental, but I just didn't enjoy myself with this, unfortunately.

From what I can gather, the core conceit of it is that you're uncovering tiles to try and find the exit, but every tile uncovered has a chance to be something else: sometimes it can be helpful treasure, other times it can be deadly enemies. In a way, I could see it playing around with risk/reward a lot: do you just try and speed through to find the exit while ignoring enemies, or do you play very cautiously? If you find the exit, do you risk uncovering more, hoping to find treasure before continuing? The spin the wheel modifiers, new enemies and tile types, and so on also add some excitement to the mix.

Unfortunately while that sounds decent enough in theory, the execution left me bored and confused. The scenarios I posted above don't work because there aren't core elements like a timer or score to provide any sort of motivation or guidance to take risks. Many of the enemies were unthreatening statues, and many of the power-ups like omni-vision just completely delete any sort of fun as they are a get-out-of-jail free card. I dunno, I just couldn't get into it as it all felt pointless.

If that wasn't bad enough, the game also just had a lot of annoyances getting in the way. For example, it's cool if you pick up a gun like the railgun where you can blast enemies and clear big swathes of the map, but lord have mercy if you pick up a damn telegun: you're begging for a button to switch back to your fists as you're left uncovering the map at a tediously slow rate until you finally run outta ammo.

As said before, it does feel like an interesting experiment which is good for a game jam, so kudos for taking the risk: it just didn't work out this time for me.

[Bastard Aliens]

Wow, what a fantastic little arcade experience! Feels just as fun, juicy and addictive as any of the classics like Tapper and such, and I enjoyed the simple yet fast-paced typing action!

If I were to have any complaints, it'd be:

*Sometimes you get unlucky enough to have brothers constantly getting sucked up and you're just kind of sitting there twiddling your thumbs. Sure you're gonna get points for it, and perhaps it's necessary as something to keep you on your toes, but still, kinda wish the algorithm always keeps me in action, or maybe you could press some sort of button to push the brother up faster, like how you can stack tetris blocks faster if you want, haha.

*As the waves go on, there end up being a lot of UFOs that blow up at the end and it can get so loud it hurts my ears. Might be nice if the programming was changed so that if multiple explosions (or sound effects in general) happen at the exact same time, it just plays one explosion sound effect.

*And the biggest complaint being that I wish it kept escalating even more with harder words and more elements to look out for to keep you engaged and fighting for your life!

[Striving Perfection: Scalable Dreams]

Huh, quite the interesting game you got here! The whole concept of matching bullet sizes to enemy sizes made for some interesting and intense combat, and I loved the goofy world you've built with so many amusing characters and interactions, as well as little secrets for the observant. Overall I enjoyed myself and thought it was a nice short-n-sweet adventure!

First impressions were a bit rough though, I'll admit, as the game starts out with a combat scenario that's already pretty hard, but which is made all the more difficult because of the player only having one heart (because they haven't been taught the chimichanga mechanic yet), enemies appearing from off-screen to insta-sneak-attack you if you wander too close to the edges, and other small annoyances like bullets hitting obstacles when they look like they shouldn't.

Speaking of the chimichangas, I didn't really like that whole aspect of having to gamble a consumable for health. It's certainly unique and I like that exploration is rewarded, but since you're never sure when the game is going to end, most people will inevitably hoard them and inevitably get frustrated when they can't pass a fight without taking a single hit. And if you do gamble on using them, it feels so bad when you didn't even need it and thus feel like you wasted it, or even worse, if you lose the battle and then have to try it again without any because they're lost forever!

Small thing that I only noticed in retrospect: because of the uncapped fire-rate and the ability to still hurt enemies with any type of bullet, it can actually be way more efficient to kill everyone with tiny bullets instead of, you know, playing the game as intended. It's nice that the game provides some wiggle room in damaging enemies, but I don't feel like it was balanced well.

[BABEL]

Pretty cool game! Reminds me a lot of other escort games like Gyromite, so I had a natural affinity to this concept. Overall, I enjoyed myself and was impressed at the juicy effects like the musical transitions. Only real complaint I had was that the game ended right when I was getting into it! But hey, leaving the crowd hungry for more is pretty much the ideal result for a game jam, so well done in that regard!