FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[UNWORTHY]

Hmm, this feels like an unfinished draft for a Hades clone. There's some interesting ideas in here, but none of them feel like they got time to coalesce into anything.

For example, the combat could be interesting, but right now it's too easily exploitable with the way you can snipe enemies from afar with impunity because they are too dumb to pathfind their way to you, and even if they could, it begs for more art-related mechanics, like having to draw symbols or encircle enemies with paint to attack.

I don't feel like the whole aspect of having to draw a picture while going through the maze is well-integrated either. There are some token attempts at having godly powers operate based off of ink levels, but that doesn't compel me to draw anything, especially when I doubt the game has an accurate judging apparatus at the end, and when the drawing tools feel bad and only work when you move the mouse slowly.

With a bit more time I'm sure this could've been something nice, but I suppose them's the breaks for getting too ambitious with a game jam prototype. I admire the chutzpah, at least!

[ZAH'S REVENGE 3]

I'm never quite sure how games like this are going to turn out! My instincts scream at me to not bother because it's just gonna be some weird low-effort style-over-substance nonsense packed with in-jokes, but another part of me is a hopeless romantic who hopes to see some enchanting outsider art like Cruelty Squad or EYE Divine Cybermancy or what-have-you.

Well, I gave it my best go, and while it did surprise me at the start with how much I got into it from all the secrets and goofy interactions you could find, eventually it just got a bit too repetitive and weird for me to bother continuing. Didn't help either that it hurt my eyes to look at it! I think the straw that might've broke the camel's back was falling down that toilet pit where there's no way out except to restart the game. Fear and Hunger can get away with it, but not this!

[A City Capture]

Huh, this is quite the interesting one! I'll admit my first impression of it isn't the greatest: the controls for both the player and the frame are very finicky, the stage layouts are very intimidating at first with so many ways to go but with a tiny time limit, there are lots of frustrating obstacles that get in the way like barely-visible spikes and seeker drones that come from off-screen, and I don't like having to go through a forced tutorial before I can set my options or replay the game.

Nevertheless, in spite of these myriad issues, I thought the concept of racing to find a matching spot on the map for a picture was very intriguing and somehow found myself getting addicted to mastering the controls and beating level after level! In a way, this is a pretty good game jam result, in that while it's very rough in terms of execution, there's definitely some gold buried underneath here that's begging to be mined and polished so that it shines brilliantly in the sun!

[Deep Snake]

Cool stuff! I feel like this is a perfect game jam result, in that, while it does have some rough aspects like a lack of music and some confusing design choices like the apple which doesn't change size, the overall concept is very memorable and the gameplay execution of it has resulted in an addictive and trippy arcade experience that I can't help but love and wish I had even more of!

Now excuse me while I chase this 31st apple: I swear I'll catch up to it at some point!

dietzribi responds:

the 31st apple is just very close to the loop point, if you see it disappear go back "away" from it and you'll get close to it again.
I'll leave it to you as homework to think why the apple doesn't change size ;)

[Go Figure]

Neat little puzzler you got here! Mechanics are pretty solid and interesting to work out, there's a nice sense of progression, it's got quality-of-life in that it saves your progress and has an undo button, and the whole glitchy aesthetic is not only an interesting visual style, but it made me compelled to keep playing more than I normally would as I wondered if it would lead up to some sort of interesting twist!

Unfortunately, my dumb brain can't even get past the 'classic' puzzles around level 9, so I'll never see whether the glitchy aesthetic was just a visual style or if it actually does lead somewhere. Oh well! Still a cute little puzzle game nevertheless.

[Clocks of the BBS 2024]

Hmm, this is a rough one for me! Nothing against the artists featured as their work is lovely, and I always appreciate these collabs being put together and fostering the community. Heart's in the right place and all that jazz!

But if I have to be honest, this collab presentation is pretty much the most bare-bones minimal-effort thing you could put together, lacking any sort of charm or energy to make it appealing for the general public to look through and get interested in the cool art. It's just your basic slideshow setup with no bells and whistles, some of the art has been distorted from resizing, and there are no quality-of-life features like a gallery view/table of contents or being able to click on the artists to go to their pages directly. In a way, I suppose it's appropriate for the creators of B, so you got me there, but still, I'd like a bit more, no, a lot more!

[SUPER FREAKING WEIRD FREAKING BOWLING]

Hmm, quite the weird game (obviously)! Reminds me a lot of something like Kitten Cannon, and I liked the steady progression of learning how the heck the game works, getting new wild powers like rockets, bats and divebombs, as well as new obstacles like raised floors and ooze. There were plenty of confusing design choices like the camera that's uncomfortably zoomed-in and the awkward rangefinder that's supposed to balance that out, but I tried my best to roll with it.

However, it didn't take too long for me to become quite disillusioned with the game. It felt like it stalled out quickly and just got really repetitive, what with the pins always lined up the same way and the small amount of obstacles to contend with. Frustrating as well too because there were plenty of times I knocked down all the pins but it only counted some of them as down for some reason. I tried to get all three parts of the whats-it, but I just got bored.

More so than that, though, the game just felt like wasted potential, for I've got all these wacky powers but there isn't really anything that's challenging me to use them all to their fullest. I was hoping the pins would go from their standard bowling lineup to being more scattered, something more like a 'break the targets' course you'd see in Smash Bros, and you'd have to look ahead and strategize how best to approach it and use your powers to zip around and somehow hit them all. Alas!

[OUTSIDE]

Good sliding puzzle game you got here! While the game isn't necessarily the most unique or memorable as it retreads familiar territory that is awash with many other sliding puzzlers, it nevertheless is solidly crafted in all aspects and makes for a pleasing experience: charming presentation, chill vibes, an addictive sense of progression due to the well-paced introduction of new mechanics and complexity, it's got it all down-pat!

[Goblins Revolt]

Pretty neat little mini RPG! It's a bit rough in a lot of aspects which made my first impression not the greatest, but it nevertheless had enough charm to its presentation that I couldn't help but stick with it and before I knew it, I had made it through with a full clear on medium! There are some pretty neat strategic concepts at play here, such as how you can't always use a bunch of turns for a full map clear or constant rests since that would allow the enemy to grow too strong, and how the intuition resource is not just used for map intel but battle intel as well. Another big aspect that I always appreciate is when an RPG makes it so that you can't just attack and heal over and over, but need to use buffs and debuffs in strategic ways, as well as a nice variety of enemies with strengths/weaknesses instead of just punching bags, and that was done here quite well!

As said, despite my enjoyment, I did have a bit of a rough time with it. In particular, the UI/UX wasn't the best: I'll grant you that the game does have some nice tooltips for the most part for stuff like attacks, but there were a lot of other places where I wish I could get tooltips or a log or more information, but I couldn't. For example, the text that pops up for enemy stat increases, as well as plenty of other text, can be very difficult to read due to how fast it can go by with no log to refer to, as well as the text not being outlined so it gets hard-to-read when it's overlapping something else. Some information was also just conveyed in a confusing manner: I don't understand the two totals for goblin assignment, some buttons react on hover to let you know you can use them whereas others don't, and so on. Finally, it's also missing some quality-of-life like an options menu, the ability to save/load, and so on. Still, as said before, it's not too shabby!

Drowsierstone responds:

THANK YOU FOR THE REVIEW :D

I agree with all the things you mentioned and I do plan on remaking the entire game from the ground up somewhere in the future as this was made to a be uni project ,where our deadline was getting closer. So many cool things had to be cut and also the code in this game...could be improved XD and I did want to add the quality of life features you mentioned but construct 3...has wierd way of doing things. But I will keep everything you said along with others as great critiques to keep in mind for the future :D Thank you!

[Beetle Battle]

Not bad for a boss rush prototype! Obviously it's a bit simplistic in terms of presentation and mechanics, and is lacking content, having only one boss in total, but the boss pattern is varied, fun and challenging to battle so you've got decent fundamentals. Looking on the bright side: while overall the package presented here is a bit paltry and only a prototype, all things considered, it did leave me hungry for more instead of outright dismissing it, so I'd say it shows promise and I'd love to see a future enhanced version of this!

litroj responds:

Thanks for playing and feedback! I will sure comeback to this game after I finish my other projects!