FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Archibald: Escape From Misty Grove]

It definitely had a bit of a rough start for me, but I ended up really liking it in the end!

As said, the starting impression was rough. It was pretty difficult to get used to how slow you start as a character: the dodge roll felt so long and so high commitment, and everything about the bow, both drawing it and moving during, felt painfully slow as well. A lot of times I prefer if a game just starts you off with everything set as intended, instead of forcing in this cash shop mechanic to buy power: I prefer to feel like I got better as a player, not that I bought enough power to get to where I should've started in the first place to make things fair. Certain purchases like bombs felt like a rip-off as well: no power and no great utility. The way some enemies start in random starting positions for levels felt really jank as well: you could sometimes get killed by a kamikaze skeleton starting right by you before the camera even finishes loading! And so on.

Having said all that, though, I did like a lot about the game: the enemies felt very challenging and diverse, and I liked how they all had distinct and intuitive patterns to their AI (and kudos on making all of their attacks have telegraphs to them for clarity!) And despite what I said about not liking having to buy power, I still did feel like I was getting better as a player at playing more cautiously and skillfully, recognizing and dealing with the various enemy types efficiently. Indeed, near the end I felt like I turned into a archery god, and I barely bought any upgrades at all. And who can hate a game that ends in a big ol' grand boss fight: not me, haha!

Oh yeah, another minor thing: I found it odd that there isn't a 'next level' button at the end of a level. In fact, I kept hitting 'restart level' unintentionally after beating a level since it was in the spot where a 'next level' button usually would be. Don't get me wrong, I like your map screen and don't mind going back there instead of directly to the next, but those buttons need to be a bit better intuitively placed! Right side buttons should almost always imply forward movement, not backwards!

BonzoChuff responds:

That's a really good idea with the button. Never thought of that!

[PowerPutt Legend]

Wow, very solid game! Basically a very nice NES demake of SNES Kirby's Dream Course. All around it feels very well constructed: good levels, charming graphics, interesting powers/clubs, great variety of obstacles, and intuitive controls. Don't really have much to say: the only nitpicks I can think would be how the slimes can be a bit confusing (the tutorial put such importance on only the pierce spell being able to kill them, but depending on the color which isn't immediately apparent, some can just be regularly hit to kill them) and I wasn't sold on the whole money/exp upgrade mechanics since they felt unnecessary, but I was fine with them in the end as they felt paced well and added some nice variety and choices to the strategy in tackling courses. Well done!

[Gravity Shift]

It's a pretty unique, goofy and interesting game! It, uh, just might be a bit too zany for me, in both a bad way and a good way, haha!

On one hand, the game certainly has a lot of crazy mechanics going for it. Most games could make an entire game just out of the gravity mechanic alone, or just the dash mechanic, or just the grab/tether mechanic, and instead you've got a game using all of those mechanics to create some really crazy levels to go through. While I had a hard time at first even remembering all of the powers my character had, it did feel good to get more in-tune with all of them, choosing which abilities to use at which moment skillfully to beat the levels efficiently. And of course, the game is also wrapped in a very quirky aesthetic with all sorts of goofy props, sound effects, and so on and so forth.

On the other hand, I almost feel like the wealth of mechanics on display here kind of hurt the game for me, as I felt like they didn't all get enough attention and work together well. I'm a quality over quantity guy, and it felt like what we had here was a game that favored the exact opposite. The grab/tether mechanic was a source of constant frustration for me: sometimes things I would grab would drag along the ground, get stuck in walls, glitch out, get thrown oddly, not drop where I wanted, break too easily, or just not be present enough to give me ammo I need, and so on. Gravity switching was fun, but with the camera so claustrophobically close, it was a crap shoot whether I would end up falling safely onto a platform, or more commonly into some spikes I'd never see coming (unless I die and die and die until I memorize the entire level). I don't have many complaints about the dash mechanic, except I wasn't ever clear how many dashes I had or how fast they recharged and so on. With all the mechanics to maintain, levels felt very unfocused and directionless to me: even with the arrows pointing, sometimes the best path is to glitch and damage boost through some spikes to the ending instead or what-have-you: it felt like they were just a crazy scramble where anything goes (perhaps this could be seen as a positive though for freeform).

It's definitely charming and intriguing enough that I do want to revisit it and try and get further, but another part of me just felt like it was a bit too janky. Again, perhaps I just need to learn to work with that jankiness and my old man brain is just too stiff with age for something like this, haha.

gooberthed responds:

mucho texto

[Elizabeth SLAY!!]

Pretty interesting game! Gotta say, while I enjoyed my time with the wackiness of it all, it was a bit rough for me in some respects.

First off, my introduction to the game was a bit confused. My impression was that it seemed like the game had a big focus on combat and platforming, what with the cool introduction of your transformation powers, and I gotta say it felt satisfying to get that vampire combo off on the stompos what with the cool hitfreeze it had! Because of that, I didn't quite like just how many characters there were to talk to: felt like it just kept constantly stopping the pace of combat and platforming to talk to so many people and their goofball nonsense. I just wanted to get to the action! Don't get me wrong, I love the characters and all the charming quirky expressions and dialogue they bring: I just didn't realize that the game was actually all about talking to them for fun and hints and going on a scavenger hunt. Once I realized that, then I was on board and everything was quite the fun adventure! It's definitely partially my fault for making weird assumptions, but perhaps the game could also be directed in such a way at the intro to let you know what you're in for more accurately (heck, maybe combat isn't even necessary for a game like this?)

In terms of other feedback, I did feel like the movement of the character was a bit...I'm not sure, just felt a bit wonky: in particular I think the character felt overly heavy due to the lack of hangtime for their jumps, which made double jumping annoying to time. Also, for such a cheery game, I was surprised at how unbelievably punishing it could be: I spent so much time collecting practically everything only to die from an off-screen shot and have to start all over! It didn't exactly make me want to start it all over, but credit where its due, the game is charming and cute enough that I think I will get right back in there and find out what sort of characters are left to find and gab it up with!

Roksim responds:

Aw gosh, thanks so much for so much feedback!! I certainly understand what you mean, especially with the part where you get shot at - I actually thought it might be too easy, because it's just an enemy who shoots your face, but a lot of players did struggle, so I suppose it was a case of my tester friends just coincidentally all being platformer players already...

I did try to mitigate the backtracking by having a secret portal at the start, did you find the NPC who tells you about it? Like, once you activate the blue platforms, at the start there is a guy who tells you there is actually a secret shortcut in a pit all along that takes you all the way to the Record Player... Sort of a knowledge checkpoint! But I suppose it's a bit wonky as an idea!

And yaa, she is heavy, it's my own preference - I like to really hold that spacebar for full control, so I thought the best approach would be to just make my favorite controls and fun combat! The game might have shifted it's focus during the development from combat to silly NPCs, I still had a whole lot of fun smacking everyone around, so I went with both to have the scavenging hunt be a bit spicy, though now that I know how much the players struggle, I would probably make the Spotos less dangerous... I'll leave it as it is because so many people played it already and enjoyed it, I don't want to constantly shift the difficulty!

TLDR: thanks again for playing!! This is just some explaination for my thoughts as a developer, I really appreciate all the feedback you just gave me, all of it is really thoughtful!!!!

[NG BBS Awards 2021]

Hey, not too shabby! I really liked the presentation to this, with the whole pseudo desktop and all sorts of clickable secrets to find. Yes, there was some clunkiness to it all: you couldn't get the medal for 'Did I Won?' by picking results from the start menu but you would by picking it from the desktop, I found it disappointing that you couldn't click on user's names to see their page, and there was a constant issue of being able to click on items behind the current window you're on which would lead to confusion. But nonetheless I found the experience charming, and a good example of how to spruce up a gallery by presenting it in a fresh way!

[ur a pixel]

It's a little bit clunky in respects: I didn't like how fiddly the movement mechanics were, like how there was no coyote time for jumps, and I didn't like how confusing it could be due to instruction tips disappearing so fast, power ups not being explained (I restarted the game the first time I got a power-up, thinking it was a double jump that I'd lost the chance to use since it didn't respawn), and controls being spread all over the keyboard. However, all of that confusion was worth it for the great rugpull moment of the game suddenly turning 3D and introducing all sorts of new mechanics. What a twist!

3p0ch responds:

Looking forward to seeing your face during the 3D reveal when you post the video :3

[Reelin']

Kind of down on this game, unfortunately, though I think it could have some hidden charm to it.

The biggest problem I had was the onboarding process: while sometimes it can be nice to have a game that doesn't hold your hand, I felt totally lost in this game. I think it would've helped greatly if this game had a journal icon with the tab key in the corner at all times to let you know about its existence: heck, I think the game should start with the journal open on the '?' tab so you can learn the rules and goals in the first place. Another thing that wouldn't helped is having the camera start zoomed out: I had no idea I could zoom the camera out, and it would've helped so much if it started zoomed out earlier so I could more readily and intuitively see the fish in the water that I could catch. It didn't help that even after I learned all of the mechanics (I think) the game still felt a bit overly grindy and monotonous: maybe the slowness is more realistic to fishing, but I feel like the game needs more to keep my attention and maintain the chill atmosphere, maybe by having little animations and tiny emotes and events while fishing.

Despite my complaints and confusion, the game did have enough of an interesting and charming atmosphere to it that made me want to explore, so I think it could have a nice foundation with that. In particular I loved getting on the boat and seeing the water rock it about in waves: very cool touch! Might be neat to see more mechanics come out of those waves, like trying to fish during a storm where you need to ride the waves, or just more atmosphere and sounds to really get the player in the ocean/fishing mood.

[Math Push]

Rob1221 pulls off another miracle yet again! I ain't really a fan of Sokoban games in the first place, and now you add math into the equation? I was all set and ready to really not like it, but once again, something about the smooth gameplay, the simple yet friendly graphics and music, and the gradual, intuitive way it introduces mechanics and ramps up the difficulty bit by bit got me addicted and wanting to play more and more! Gotta love all the 'gotcha' moments that happen in this, like figuring out the minus sign can not just subtract numbers, but also be put in front to turn it into a negative number. Well done all around!

[sam (demo)]

Never have I been so heart-broken to see a demo end so quickly: I absolutely love the concept and mechanics in this game and I need more of this, stat!

EDIT: Went back and did the secret level after the credits, can't believe I missed it the first time around!

[Interdimensional Square Off]

It's a pretty decent shooter, fun and juicy, but without much long-lasting appeal or unique mechanics to keep a player's attention, I found. Probably the best part of the game was the juiciness of it all: screenshake, explosions, ragdolls and the like were in ample supply and made the relatively shallow game, which lacked in enemy variety, levels and cool moves, still feel rather exciting and fun to play. However, the juiciness was a double-edged sword, as I found the default level of shake to be nauseating, and the enemy ragdolls were confusing and obfuscated the enemies (I would prefer that the ragdolls be colored more darker to have them differentiate from the enemies, and that they last a shorter time to stop crowding the screen, though I suppose you could argue it adds to the challenge).

The game does try to help a bit with longevity with the inclusion of achievements and hats, but I didn't find those a big enough hook to keep playing (also was a bit disappointed that you couldn't combine hats and expressions, like combining cat ears and uwu, and that the title screen character doesn't update to reflect your hat choice).

I definitely feel like I would like the game more if it had some meat on its bones (some sort of progression, more enemy variety, more weapons, some sort of unique goal or mechanic, etc), but credit where credit is due, I did still feel it was more addicting and fun to play than I thought it would be judging from all my feedback, so you've got some mysterious 'it' factor going on here: just one of those mysterious parts of game design, I suppose!

Peti responds:

Yeeeea those are good points! I heard a lot of players having issue regarding the ragdoll. I didn't have a problem with it myself, but that just shows I'll have to ask people to playtest next time lol. I wanted to, but got shy......

The reason you can't combine outfits is due to potential conflict, but when you give that example perhaps the outfits could have been split into two categories, a face and hat? That thought never crossed my mind

My focus was defo on having the game "feel good", I found myself cutting features I was afraid would break the flow, such as bosses or more enemy types. While I'm glad I achieved my goal, I'll defo be taking ppl's feedback and wishes with me! I've gotten more comfortable after Pixel Day, so Ill try and get more of people's insight next time by playtesting!

Thanks for the review, Futurecop! Your words are always very insightful and im rly happy you got to take a look at this game, and have a bit of fun with it! pray emoji i dunno if ng will display it correctly ill try: 🙏