FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[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

[Spooky Music Machine]

Cute little app! Was impressed by the amount of functionality it has, such as the record/play/save options, and I liked the charming olde-style presentation to it all. While the audio is nice, I do wish it had some sort of visual feedback when working with it: felt like the main touch plate was begging for some sort of waveform or sound visualization to appear in it, both to let you know you can interact with it in the first place (I wasted too much time fiddling with knobs, not even realizing I was supposed to put my mouse in the touch plate since it was static) and just to get extra satisfaction, but it's ok and I guess adds to the olde charm. There were some other actions I wish I could do, like click to preserve a position on the touch plate while going to fiddle with the knobs, since as it is now you cannot use knobs while touching the plate since the mouse can only be on one at a time.

Anyway, it was pretty cool! I'd admit though, I was almost expecting some sort of jumpscare, the device starting to act in odd ways or finding hidden scary functionality, haha!

KittyhawkMontrose responds:

Thanks for playing! Yeah, with a mouse, it's pretty limited what you can do, like choosing to use the touchplate or use the sliders, but the cursor on the touch plate is an idea worth exploring. Haha, a jumpscare would've been funny, but we were trying to make a real instrument. Honest. XD

[Neon Shadows]

Pretty interesting game! I found the fusion of stealth gameplay with speed-running to be a rather fun combination to work with, and indeed I found myself getting addicted to trying to make it through the various levels in this. Definitely a good "elevator pitch" concept at work here. Game was quite stylish despite being having rather simple graphics and had good pacing by introducing new mechanics and ramping up the difficulty bit-by-bit.

It's a little clunky in some respects, and I don't agree with all the mechanics such as the lasers which don't telegraph when they are going to appear, the weird ways enemies reset or rather don't reset upon player death leading to inconsistent setups, and the fact that enemies will still chase you despite leaving their cone of vision (have to break line of sight with a wall instead), but I found it rather enjoyable nonetheless.

[TREES' ADVENTURE - Demo]

Pretty neat demo, but a little rough on the edges (though of course, being a demo, that is to be expected). I think it definitely has a pretty good core to it for now: speeding around and bouncing off of walls and springs felt great when you get your momentum going. Definitely seems to be going for Sonic-esque gameplay and I'd say it's getting close.

That said, I did feel like the demo was lacking some polish (I know, duh, but still). For one, the game seems to lack any amount of coyote time which made it feel bad whenever I jumped from the edge of a platform and it used my double jump instead of making it count as my first jump. In a similar fashion, walljumping felt very awkward in that if you try to press a direction and jump instead of just jumping (which is very typical), unless you do it perfectly in sync you'll usually just fall off the wall and double-jump instead of actually walljumping: I think there should be a bit more stickiness to walljumping, a bit of a half-second buffer where you can hit a direction without immediately becoming unstuck from the wall. Moving beyond controls, with the power-ups and springboards and such having no sound-effects or sparkles or what-have-you and instead just disappearing instantly made the worlds feel very hollow and unexciting, which also combined with a general lack of direction in terms of their being too many routes and no story to work off of. Finally, and this is just my opinion, but the climbing ability felt a little weird and misplaced with the way it kills your momentum and allows you to go up anywhere: almost felt like cheating when I remembered to use it. Again, it might be that I'm being silly in pointing those things out because they are obvious and going to be addressed in the actual release, but I want to play it safe.

Also, I tried to play this game with a playstation controller and it didn't work unfortunately: just something to note for you to look into if you can!

UnlimitedTrees responds:

thank u. ive been gettin a lot that the game is very unpolished atm and yea, it is what it is. the game's pretty early in development and this demo really is just a little slice of what i have planned, so while the base ideas r there everything is lacking polish which i didnt have the time for with this demo. im glad u and other peopl r able to enjoy this demo, i hope i can rlly make the final game something special so every bit of criticism helps.

for the playstation controller, i dont own one so im unable to test it but i may look into that later down the line. ive mainly tested with an xbox one controller and keyboard, hopefully some day i can make input stuff better and cooler.