FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pistol for President]

Pretty goofy and interesting game! Couldn't really tell whether it was being totally goofy or had some clever design to the question/answer gameplay and that led to some frustration and confusion as I went back and forth with the Blade party (until winning despite losing the last debate), but nonetheless it provided a few good laughs with its weird concept so it was a nice experience.

Again, I couldn't quite tell if there was a strategy to this game, as a lot of the time the questions and answers generated were total nonsensical gibberish, and even when I thought I was playing sides right suddenly it would shift around. Part of me thinks that's just how the game rolls, in that it's random and silly and I should just accept that and not think hard about it, but part of me would be disappointed if there really is no logic to the madness since I feel it would be a cheap way out. Guess I'll do a few more debates in the future to see what I can figure out since there do seem to be a lot of secrets and achievements hidden in there.

It's silly, but some other feedback I had was about the title and the sound effects. For the title, I found the gun silhouette in the first P to be really bad: it just sticks there like a tumor growing off of it, makes the P look like an F, when you totally could've just made the curve of the P be the trigger of a gun and it would've fit perfectly, among other potential solutions. About the sound effects:, why in the world didn't you use more gun and knife themed sound effects? When I hear Revolver talking, I want to hear gun shots and shell casings and hammer cocks for every syllable, not the weird chicken squawking you've got playing, haha!

Kejayco responds:

Thanks for the feedback!

[The Lesser Evil]

Really fun game! It's a rather simple game at its core, but the variety of unique curse cards, varied enemy behaviors and overall smooth, professional presentation and gamefeel really help elevate this to a new level. A lot of the curse cards were very creative and led to fun and interesting decision-making as well as shifts in gameplay strategies: only a few cards, like the one where it removes your cursor, were stinkers (because the game doesn't lock your cursor, so it just opens you up to clicking outside of the game and losing focus...though having said that, there is still a very tiny dot where the crosshair would be, so what's going on there?) Anyway, I got all the way through my first time and the only thing I wanted to do was crank it even harder and see what all the other curse cards were like, so well done!

[Punch the Stool John]

It's a simple but charming game that's fun and addictive...is what I'd like to say, but I feel like it has a lot of weird jank to it that is unfortunately holding it back.

Don't get me wrong, I love the goofy concept and presentation as it really charmed the pants off of me: the crowd cheering as you rack up a combo, the paper menus, heck, I even loved dying in this game because I liked to see the animation and hear the music for it, so you're definitely good there. And the music kicks so much ass!

But the game itself feels very rough and confusing. For one, the difficulty felt like it was cranked way too hard: things start getting way too fast to react to in a short amount of time, and even when you fail it doesn't reset the ever-increasing speed to let you recover. Feedback was very inconsistent as well: usually when I hit a stool it'd increase my multiplier, but sometimes it would stay the same for no discernable reason. Balance design seems a bit strange as well: you're punished for getting hit by something or jumping over a stool, but you aren't punished for punching every object that comes your way (despite it turning the game into a very boring one). There were plenty of weird glitches too like being able to be hit by and hit a stool at the same time.

Definitely feels like it has a lot of potential but just needed to be cooked/polished a bit longer before being released.

TheGorondorf responds:

Thanks for the honest feedback!

[ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ]

Pretty interesting and experimental game in a lot of ways, but for the most part, I found it a bit too frustrating and non-deterministic to keep my interest. The game is certainly varied and complex, and I enjoyed seeing all of the creative AIs and properties assigned to the letters: really made for interesting 'ant farm' or 'game of life' situations where you could just watch all the entities go and marvel at how they interact with each other (and with you). The gameplay was promising in that it provided some interesting puzzle situations...or at least, what I thought could be interesting puzzle situations. Most of the time it felt like I could see what ideal puzzle solution the game was going for, but whether I'd actually get that solution usually felt like it came down to sheer luck. Sometimes I'd get the AI to behave in a way that worked for me in a clever, satisfying way, sometimes the AI would just do random things that would stall the game out (even soft-locking it), sometimes the AI would just solve the puzzle for me without any intervention from me: it just felt so haphazard! Again, perhaps that haphazardness is part of the appeal and I'm just being fuddy-duddy for not embracing it, but I just couldn't fight the frustration from the randomness and non-deterministic AI ruining the pacing and fun.

Oh, and a silly nitpick: when the level says 'press any key to continue' upon completion, you actually can't press any key, because if you press r, it restarts the level instead of continuing, haha!

adriendittrick responds:

thanks for the in depth review as always!

[Horse with a Human Mask on a Tightrope]

I gotta say, I didn't have the best first impression with this game for what I hope is obvious reasons, but bloody hell if I didn't end up loving this game once I got into it! It took a while to grasp the controls and how everything works (especially coming to terms with not being able to turn around on the tightrope), but once I did, what I found was a really stylishly complex boss gauntlet with a surprising amount of strategy (such as jumping from the center of the rope and using the weapons to propel yourself around) and variety to it all, and boy do I love me some boss fights. I still think there is a lot that can be improved: for example, I wish the telegraph markers for boss attacks had some sort of way of telling the player how long they have before it goes off, like changing the color of the marker redder as it gets closer to happening or something, but all in all it was quite the incredible experience nonetheless! I dunno how the heck you conjured up this unique batch of mechanics, but I think it really paid off in a charming, goofy way.

jefvel responds:

Thanks for playing and the thorough review! Yeah there are a bunch of things that could be improved, like the danger zones as you said. Something I'll keep in mind in future games :)

[Ninjack Rabbit]

Pretty fun score-attack game! I definitely had some confusion at the start with how score is calculated, since I thought killing enemies or gaining height would be how to get higher points, but points being given through burning floor lanterns did provide an interesting strategic risk and tension to it all. Combine that cool chaotic concept with some nice presentation through art, animations and other neat bits of polish like the music transitions between gameplay and death, and it felt pretty solid and good to get better and better at this ninja jumpin' game!

While I had fun for the most part, I did think the game was a bit janky (I didn't like how lanterns could burn if you jump close to being on top of them but don't actually land on top of them) and there were some frustrating aspects (character moves so fast, don't like the cramped spaces in the levels, and I wish there was more pressure-sensitivity for jumps so you could get strategic short/medium/tall jumps based on how long you hold).

[Kattonauten]

Oh man, I really wanted to like this one as I think it has a really cool concept, charming presentation, and fun, challenging physics gameplay, but I bounced off of it as hard as the game makes you bounce off of walls.

There are just so many frustrating issues with the game that put me off it. For one, I feel like the game moves wayyy too fast in general which makes it feel way too sensitive and touchy: feels impossible to get the precise movements the game wants when one slight twitch can send you blasting in crazy directions (though perhaps it's just my old reflexes). Game was very difficult to parse as well: there were tons of obstacles I couldn't make out from the monochromatic background or even tell were obstacles in the first place (like those small pulsing circles), there were tons of times where I thought I tipped too hard and crashed myself but I didn't and times where I swear I was perfect but it crashed, and I kept glitching like falling through the cracked blocks even though they I didn't break them, and so on and so forth.

Controls were frustrating as well: I wish when I was holding the button to hover to the ground that it wouldn't start charging up a jump immediately, instead it should wait until I release and press/hold the button once again. I'll give you credit in that I do plan to revisit this: despite my frustration I think there is a lot of potential in this and I'd like to give it another go to see if I can get used to it, but for now, I consider it a botched attempt at a challenging game as the controls and confusing design get in the way too much of the actual challenge to be had.

[Space Huggers]

Hmm, for me, this seemed like a pretty cool tech demo, but not quite a fun game yet. I definitely thought that a lot about the game, such as destructive terrain and the way objects react to destruction (like falling and even crushing), the rain/fire effects, ragdolls and so on were pretty neat, but the game itself just felt very aimless, directionless, and bland to me. The lack of music and instructions, randomly generated mish-mash levels that can be a pain to get through, confusing radar which doesn't tell you whether an enemy is above or below you, overly simple combat, and fire being a death sentence lead to me getting bored rather quickly. Looking into it now and seeing that it had to be made to fit such a small file size and such puts it in a new perspective and such, so I understand and appreciate it for that, but it is what it is and just didn't leave a good impression on me in terms of fun. I'd definitely be interested if this does get worked on further with a new enhanced version.

KilledByAPixel responds:

Thank you. When you are on fire, just roll! It's easy to put out the fire. I can understand wanting to see more variety and polished game. The next version is gonna take things to a whole new level.

[BATTERY ACID]

Pretty cool game! I'm always down for some Megaman Battle Network esque combat, and this had a pretty solid rendition of that, especially for a game jam game. I liked the system where you need to put yourself at risk to gather up static to keep yourself going and get more powerful in turn (though I got confused since I thought they were bullets I needed to dodge at first haha) and I liked the satisfaction derived from parrying bullets back at enemies. And of course, the boss fight was super cool as well, though he was a bit weak and didn't do as many interesting attack patterns as I'd like (though it was nice how he amped it up the more he got hurt). There was some slight jank with the game, such as the absolutely grating sound that happens when you get lasered, but nothing too serious: all in all, a cool experience, and I'd love to see more enemies and such added to this if possible!

This is gonna be a weird complaint, but I do kind of wish the game would just end when you kill the boss. Maybe I'm missing something, but I'm pretty sure that things just keep on looping over and over with no further meaningful progression once you beat the boss the first time: to me, it kind of makes it so that the game drags on until you get sick of it and quit, leaving the user with a worse impression then if the game ended with a satisfying explosive finish to the boss (and then giving the user the option to start over to get a better score).

EDIT: Weird, I gave it another go and it actually started to throw other bosses at me! Was I just really unlucky, or did it glitch to keep repeating the first boss? How odd, but glad I tried again as the other bosses were pretty neat!

[Portal Golf]

Pretty cool game! I find the concept and gameplay very fun: intuitive to grasp but with a lot of tricks to learn to get those challenging silver and gold medals. But more so than that, I absolutely love the amount of polish that this game has: the pitch-shifting sounds of collecting coins, the satisfying explosions for collecting medals at the end of levels, the great animated outlines and shaded coins showing your previous run results that let you plan further bit-by-bit, the fluid placement and movement of portals around the walls, and so on and so forth. All of it really gives the whole game a very professional look and feel to it: well done! The only bad things about the game that I could think is that the levels themselves could maybe have a bit more pizazz or something to them instead of just being the same drab walls, and that I wish there were even more levels to go through, haha!

Frenchie14 responds:

Great review and spot on feedback! Looking forward to seeing you play in your monthly review video! :D