FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Capybara Quest]

Not too shabby for a 'my first game' type of project, and it was decently cute in concept, but ultimately I found the game quite shallow and janky.

The basic skeleton is there for a decent platformer, the cutscenes and characters were quite charming, and I like the inclusion of hidden collectables as a bonus for people wanting a challenge. However, there wasn't really anything noteworthy about the gameplay to keep me interested like a unique mechanic or cool levels to traverse: all it had was bog-standard jumping, so eventually it just devolved into very boring affairs of jumping past boring enemies. The hidden collectable yuzus didn't really add anything to the game: most of them were very easy to get and barely off of the beaten path: a far cry from something I was hoping would be like Celeste's bonus strawberries.

Furthermore, the game was incredibly janky and buggy. Music wouldn't play when I would load a game. The first yuzu could be recollected over and over despite disappearing on first collection. The physics for movement were very odd in how you jump upwards like you're on the moon but fall downwards like you're being pulled by magnets, and how despite having momentum and sliding when you stop you can also instantly kill that same momentum by changing direction. And I know you joke about it by pointing out that ladders, amongst the other various janky features, were probably the jankiest of all, and that was funny to see, but still, at the end of the day, jank is jank and it would be better if you just fixed it or found a better solution instead of releasing this as-is.

Certainly could be a nice little game but I felt like this needed way more time in the oven and something to make it really special, be it more polished movement/levels or a unique mechanic. Still, not a bad first attempt if that's what this was: buggy and bog-standard as it is, it had the basic elements down.

[Let the OINK out!]

Pretty neat game! Definitely liked the general presentation of everything along with the satisfying chain reaction explosions. Also loved how the game kept escalating with new obstacles and powers: really helped to keep me hooked!

However, despite all that, I really found myself unable to fully enjoy the game, mostly due to the overwhelming feeling of randomness to it all. It started out strong with the first level, where I felt like you, as the developer, built a wall that I could puzzle out, that I could examine to find the intended ideal starting point to get the most out of a chain reaction.

I thought the game would continue like that where I'd keep investigating to find the ideal starting point, but instead suddenly you wanted me to build the chain reaction tiles myself. This could've worked, but the fact that it was all up to random chance as to how the blocks would end up once you click on them just led to me feeling annoyed, like now I just had a load of busy work before I could blow blocks up, and that whether I could win would just be up to the dice with no real way for me to make the most of it.

I know the game tries to help by giving you some wiggle room and not requiring you to clear the full board, but I just couldn't help but feel like I wasn't in control. Perhaps I'm just impatient and there was a way I could make the most of it, but I couldn't see how, and since I didn't want winning or losing to be up to a dice roll I just ended up quitting. Maybe if it was more like, I dunno, you get an inventory of certain blocks that you can place on the board and you puzzle out the best layout to reach your intended developer solution, it could work for me.

In the end I did get through a decent amount of levels (7 I think) but it was just me placing blocks haphazardly and seeing how the chips fell based on instinct: somewhat fun to watch the explosions and see how it ended up, but I'm not a gambling man and would prefer more strategy and intention.

[Maiden Cops]

Not too shabby of a beat-em-up! Definitely feels like its got a solid core to it with most of the essential mechanics present and the combat feeling decently satisfying. I could deduct some points for it being quite basic, essentially just a reskinned SoR without any unique mechanics to set it apart, but it still felt alright. Good on you for also having seamless controller inputs, even recognizing my PS controller instead of treating it like an XBox controller!

That said, if I come at this as a lover of beat-em-ups, this is pretty rough, especially if you're trying to make this big. Controls were a big issue for me and led to the game feeling really janky: for example, you can initiate a run by pressing forward and then backwards whereas you should have to press it twice in the same direction. I also kept having a special combo go off for seemingly no reason: I wasn't pressing any of the special combinations you listed out. Just really didn't feel like I had smooth, logical and responsive control of my character.

Couple that with other annoyances like enemies having a bit too much health (starter enemies should probably go down with just one combo, otherwise the game just drags a bit too much) and enemies being a bit too powerful with their AI: I'd have enemies punch me too suddenly from way too far away and have enemies just suddenly teleport me into their grab: they should have to get closer or perhaps telegraph their attacks better. Also some attacks just felt really wonky, like how the knee kicks from a grab would only damage once you're pulling your knee back: such a weird delay!

In general, while the core elements for a decent beat-em-up are there, the game felt a bit stiff, slow and repetitive in its current state. Hoping you can get some good feedback here and make it into a great finished product!

PippinGames responds:

The main references for Maiden Cops were Final Fight 3 and SoR.

The game supports, in addition to the keyboard, the three main joysticks (Switch, Xbox, Playstation).

Some bugs reported I'm already fixing, like running, for example.

I'm also making some additions that weren't present in the demo. Like the possibility of performing some combos, enemies bouncing on walls when thrown, and allowing a counterattack when being grabbed.

Complex input combinations to use skills didn't work so well. I think if you press one button is simpler.

As I complete these changes, I will announce them on social media and here on newground too.

Thanks for the feedback, it's helping us a lot.

[Casino Clash]

Not sure what's going on in this one: feels like an unfinished prototype or something? Best I can figure out is that it looks like you've got some sort of RPG fight where you deal damage by playing a minigame with the dice: you can knock dice into each other like you're playing pool, or just blow them up with bombs, and so on, and depending on how well you hit the dice, you deal more damage. Don't really know what the cash items are all about.

The idea definitely has promise to it, I suppose: I do like RPGs like the Mario RPGs where you play fun minigames to determine damage. And it can be really funny and satisfying to see a huge chain reaction happen when you whack the dice and the game gets flooded with damage numbers and causes a slow-down.

Only problem is that this seems half-baked and doesn't have any strategy, story or progression to it: you get so many items to play with, there is no threat to make important decisions, and you just keep getting more recycled enemies with higher HP for no discernable purpose. You can just sit there and wait for dice to fill out and score an easy win: you'd think that, at the very least, you'd be fighting against losing health from enemy attacks so you might be pushed to make the best out of what dice you have, or something, anything!

[my favourite place]

Pretty cool game! Absolutely love the general sense of polish the game has due to the slick presentation, like when it transitions from the level title into the actual gameplay. Gameplay is simple but intuitive and the levels introduced some cool obstacles and boss fights. It does have a bit of wonkiness to it like with the hitboxes for spikes and I don't think the CRT bendy-screen shader is needed as it just hurts my eyes and the game is already decent looking without it, but overall it felt quite smooth.

That being said, I did feel like the game lost me rather quickly, as soon as around level 3. While the game was cool, it was rather basic and never really seemed to do anything really unique or fancy. In fact, the levels always seemed so cramped to the point where there wasn't enough room for you to make any interesting rooms, and it didn't take too long for it to feel repetitive, like it had already shown all its cards and was just repeating with slight variations. Couple that with the overly punishing deaths sending you all the way back to the start and it got rougher to keep playing.

[Sh*t Rainbows Piss Thunder]

Actually had some surprising ideas and variety to it to go along with the goofy premise, but was kind of let-down by general feel of low-effort and jankiness due to weird glitches, confusing design and lackluster graphics. There's some great stuff in here, just buried under some junk that could be buffed out.

While the game starts off rather slow, I definitely was surprised at the mechanics and design on display for the later levels. Gravity switching and stamina management were quite interesting, especially when combined with some of the more puzzle-or-chase-oriented levels where you really gotta focus to make it through. I'd love some more of those later chase levels where you need to keep running and react to obstacles that come up quickly: in fact, wonder if the game would work better if you don't even have a run button and just run automatically.

That being said, I found it difficult to get into the game at first glance because of the really lackluster graphics and boring intro levels, especially with things like out-of-focus fonts, lack of transition effects and so on and so forth. Yes it did have some nice juice to it with the funny voice callouts and fart effects, but even the fart particles were strange with how they would shift along with the body when you jump in a nonsensical way. But even moving on from that to the point where I started to get interested in the game during the later levels, a lot of weird bugs and glitches started to crop up, especially revolving around the gravity switching and collision detection.

Definitely feel like, with a bit of focus on the more interesting and complex levels and a lot of polish to spice up the general presentation and gameplay satisfaction, this could really be great!

TappyWara responds:

Thanks

[Bad Monday Simulator]

Wow, as much as I'd like to be a contrarian grumpy gus and disparage this game for being some sort of Frankenstein nostalgia/meme bait, I just can't because I love it too damn much! As both a kid who loved Garfield and recognizes all the old references and an adult who loves the challenging combat of Undertale, this game gives me everything I want and more. The graphics, animation and just general construction of the game is top-notch and gives off a really professional feel, the combat design is very creative and fun with tons of attacks and phases, and the game just has all sorts of subtle touches and references. It's hard as heck, but I enjoy playing the heck out of it, so well done on this!

Having said that, there were still a few points that bothered me.

For one, as great and impressive as the animations/attacks are, some of them are really long in the tooth and overstay their welcome, making you just get sick of 'em. For example, the "where is my pipe" attack and the kicking of Odie off the table both have these overly long introductions that really start to get tiresome compared to the snappy start of attacks like the Pooky lasers: wish they would get cut to start faster either in general or on repeat attacks at least. Likewise, as nice as the eating animations for items were, I was wishing I could just press a button to skip them on repeat.

Similarly, I feel like the repetitore of attacks per phase can be a bit limiting: it's decent, but I would love if there were just one more attack per phase to reduce repetition and increase the randomization. Surprised to see that he never makes Odie run a different way on the bone attack, for instance. Also, some attacks, like the water drips from the sandwich, just seem way too reliant on RNG to be in your favor since there is no pattern or effective tell for the drips. Luckily, the drips aren't too damaging, but I'd hate to contend with that on Monday mode.

I can maybe understand if these are just part of the whole rage-inducing difficulty to test your patience, but still...anyway, again, despite it all, these are just minor nitpicks for a very fun and great game.

[Somnokid]

Pretty neat game! Certainly has that Team Bugulon quality to it where it just exudes a sense of professionally where everything looks and sounds great, right from the very start with the title screen and menus (elements which usual developers would skimp on). I thought the whole 2 phase sequence to the levels where you have a prep phase followed by a combat phase, along with the risk-reward part of the prep phase where you weigh reviving potential enemies, was a very interesting concept.

I gotta admit though...I didn't really find the game that fun or addictive. Not sure exactly what it is, but it just didn't really hook me. In fact, I found the game very frustrating from how spongy the enemies felt (couldn't believe that even the most basic of enemies take more than a single charged shot to kill, making charging feel pointless) and repetitive (didn't feel like it was evolving with enough new stuff by the time world 2 came around), among other things.

Again, I wouldn't necessarily call it a bad game or anything, and I do think it is quite professionally made and good looking, and that should be applauded (especially considering the time it took to make). But I guess at the end of the day, all that doesn't always equate to a fun game being the result, at least in my case. But hey, this is all just part of the fun of experiments in game dev, so best of luck in the future!

[Slim Wall Reslimed]

Auuugh, this was a really rough one for me! I want to love it so bad, but I came away feeling frustrated.

When the game works, it absolutely nails it: the smooth feeling of speed and momentum that you get from dashing in and out of the blocks is sublime, and the game delivers so much great challenging content to go through! This game gave me the need, the need for speed!

But goddamn, the game really felt unpolished: when it wasn't bugging out and glitching me into areas I shouldn't be in and just being wonky with collision detection, it was constantly dropping my inputs leading to tons of unfair deaths. The game desperately needs to iron out the jank: first and foremost I would suggest some sort of coyote time mechanics to allow for easier edge jumps and last-second jumping out of blocks, because even when I tried to get used to this game's unforgiving input buffering and hit my inputs earlier than I traditionally would, it would still drop them tons of times.

Please, please, if you can, release a more polished version of this game! The core mechanics here are fantastic and deserving of more work than the two weeks challenge can offer.

Oh, and I also liked the tunes.

[Temple of Kashteki]

Wow, really great little adventure here! Gives me Celeste vibes from the similar type of bubble mechanics and the professionally-made graphics, animation, and game feel (well, I did feel like the size of the orb hitboxes were a bit too small, but otherwise everything felt pretty smooth). Just moving the character around by itself was a delight, and once you add everything else, it was awesome. Definitely had a blast playing this: it started out a bit slow, but eventually really ramped up the challenge with some hard layouts and then ended it with a great boss/chase setpiece. My only real complaint is that I wish there was even more to it, as I felt it ended before the challenge could peak and get really crazy and creative, haha!

I did have a weird bug where my movement would freeze for a second at random times? But I think it was something on my end: seemed to resolve itself once I unplugged my controller? Since, maybe worth investigating to see if something weird is going on there. But otherwise, it's all good.

SECURAS responds:

Thanks and also thanks for making the video. The feedback is most appreciated. I apologize for the movement bug but I really could not replicate it. Unfortunately, browser games sometimes are more or less friendly depending on the browser so that may explain it. I really only tested using chrome. I would have liked to make more but I really had no time. This was made for a game jam and I only had a week to make it. So I just did the basics and, as usual in game jam games that are to be played for less than 10min, I made it very accessible.

I did enjoy that you quickly picked up on my "fake challenge" rooms that look like a complicated challenge but actually run almost automatically. Not everyone gets it so its clear you have an eye for level design. I needed to place these rooms to give confidence to the player. Then, when the real challenges come along, the player will have an extra boost of confidence. I also had zero effort rooms right after harder rooms for a similar effect... To calm down the player and avoid a death right after beating a challenge. You never want to kill someone's streak.