FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[GRUNGE]

Wow, really cool game! Definitely has all that and a bag of chips: cool graphics, sound and music, interesting combat mechanics, satisfying feedback and effects, good enemy variety and progression, all packed with a humorous and wild story/aesthetic. Found myself getting super addicted to this, making it all the way to the final boss on my first go!

I'll admit that my first impression wasn't that great: I actually didn't know what to do on the first level as I didn't realize I just needed to keep fighting through the wave till it ends (it took so long I thought the enemies wouldn't stop spawning and I needed to go down a path or open the door but couldn't figure out how). Glad I stuck with it though, but maybe could use a bit more direction or signals?

If I was to have a small nitpick, it's that one, I feel like the debris from broken items should be darkened or something to let you know you can't pick it up anymore, and two, I found the health system a bit weird at times: I'd throw an enemy at another, always expecting both the one I threw and the target to die on collision, but one would always remain. Don't know why that annoyed me so much, haha. Throwing enemies and objects was awesome though, especially if you shake 'em up first.

Speaking of that, as a side note, I also found it weird that the game seems to try and dissuade you from shaking the enemies up before a throw, since I found it really fun (not sure if it was meant to be taken in earnest?)

(also I do have some beef with how the mid-boss-fight-cutscene where your boss shows up to give you a weapon ended up getting me killing during his drop-off)

[Apocalypse Of The Damned (ALPHA)]

I think this shows a lot of promise, but it's definitely quite rough at the moment. Understandable of course, since it is an alpha, and hopefully I can provide some nice feedback so it becomes better in future!

For the good, I liked the whole Scott Pilgrim-esque graphics and animations: very cute and bouncy all-around. I think it showed some solid fundamentals for a good beat-em-up, as I really like the hit-freeze and feedback from punching enemies, as well how you worked in some strategic elements in the moveset, where you can use the punches for combos/damage while using the kick as a spacing tool.

For the bad, I'll admit, there was a lot (though again, it's an alpha):

The worst was probably the enemies, which felt very boring, brainless and generic: they mostly just felt way too spongy and moved way too fast and straight-forward instead of having any personality or interesting patterns to them. Groups of enemies were a problem as well since the game seems to not let you hit multiple enemies with your attacks even if they are overlapping: I can understand if this is intentional but it felt very unsatisfying and frustrating.

Next was the animations and controls. Again, while I generally liked them, there were a couple of stinkers like the kick attack. Also while the controls were alright, there was some stiffness to it and just general jank in the actions/reactions that could be smoothed out. I also spent a long time in confusion in just trying to play the game, not realizing that the controls weren't interchangable, but supposed to be one for one-player and another for two-player (I was trying to use the numpad as player one).

Feedback was another one. While I do like most of the feedback as said before due to the great effects and hit-freeze, there were some oddities like boxes/trash cans having a bloody hit mark/sound for feedback when it makes no sense and having infinite health meaning I couldn't destroy them, and there were also some weird cases where I could hit an enemy that was in the process of dying/exploding (feels like those attacks should whiff).

Again, looking forward to seeing how this shakes up as a huge beat-em-up fan!

[Dubstep Raven]

Another great RatThing game with that distinctive goofy yet gritty/grungy style and straight up action gameplay!

I gotta say though, I did feel like this was one of the more weaker RatThing games lately. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed my time with this: the powers were cool, it felt really satisfying to chain together shooting and possessing, dodging bullets in slow-mo was neat, and as usual the story and bosses were neat. I'd say its core is very good and polished.

I just felt like the levels were a bit repetitive and ended up dragging on for me: the enemy variety wasn't that great and the enemy formations you tackle as a player felt very haphazard, practically randomly generated. I say that because it didn't feel like the difficulty curve was well-designed: you can get some tough formations at the beginning where you gotta get to the shielder first though some crazy bullets, then suddenly you can go through several levels with no shielders and really easy enemies. Just felt all over the place, and it didn't help that the backgrounds weren't changing and it wasn't introducing any new enemies either. Again, it was still fun, but it's just near the bottom of my RatThing ranking as it were, haha.

[Sulka]

Gotta say, it didn't make a great first impression on me since a lot of the first levels were spent on some pretty basic platforming. Once the game introduced the cool gravity powers, though, I was hooked and really loved the creative and challenging levels that were set up for this ability! C'mon, don't hold that stuff back, gimme that good stuff straight into my vein right from the start, haha!

[Cactu-Sama 2]

Nice to see a sequel to Cactu-Sama as I liked my time with that and also enjoyed my time with this! All-round it was a cute little game with some great challenges that mostly relied on a nice 'gotcha' system where you need to avoid taking what seems like the obvious route, as it is usually a trap.

If I were to have any complaints, there would just be a few minor nitpicks. For one, I found the game to be a bit more muted and less peppy that the previous one: movement felt a little more stiff, sound effects were more quiet, and events that used to have a bit more fanfare like completing a level were unfortunately silent now. I also felt like the story setup was a little weak: I mean, it is a little amusing to just see the balloon drift away and read "oh noes" but it did just kind of confuse me since we don't even see what cactu is doing: is it his balloon? Is he sad? Where is he? Is he even chasing after the balloon? You might say of course, it's obvious he's chasing after it, but every level just has us picking up puzzle pieces for some reason, so what the heck is he doing? Haha, anyway, still a cute game.

Diemorth responds:

I'm glad you liked this new version of the game! :D

You brought up a lot of relevant points, the game is actually a little quieter. I really tried to prepare the game for the story, but we ended up not developing it much, the story ends up looping and I think it can be a good start to have that defined in the case of a sequel. They are certainly points that we will pay attention to.

Thank you for the game compliments and for playing! :D

[Mr. Godot & Watch]

Solid short and sweet platformer! It didn't do anything revolutionary or anything, but it was solid all-around: cute graphics and animations, smooth controls/movement, a good assortment of challenges and some cool music to tie the whole package together. The aesthetic is a little weird in how some elements conform to it with the slow FPS movement while others don't, but eh, it's all good, I ain't gonna nitpick about that. If I were to have any major nitpicks, it's that I found it a little weird to get used to the preserved side momentum in jumps when you let go of movement, and that the death system was a bit too punishing in that it takes away all of your diamonds, instead of just the ones that you haven't 'banked' yet by using a checkpoint. I just took it as a challenge that you're pushing the player to go for a perfect run, haha.

[LawnMower City]

A decent game, but I found it to be a bit shallow. While it was fun at first going through the levels and mowing the grass, it all just ended up feeling quite boring and couldn't keep my attention. While the levels did advance in complexity somewhat by introducing new enemies like tanks and turrets, I actually thought the levels were randomly generated at first because they all just felt so similar with no progression or style to them. Furthermore, I wish the mowing of grass felt a little bit more satisfying: perhaps if the sound was more similar to that grating hum of an actual mower or electric shaver it'd be better, and also if the mower would slow down when mowing grass to give it a bit of friction feedback, I dunno. I also found the controls a bit weird at first since I expected pressing up to move the mower diagonally up-right because of the isometric angle, but instead it moves directly up. I got used to it though and maybe more people prefer that way, though, so eh, it's understandable.

[Strainge]

Cute little adventure game! Liked the whole timeloop mechanic and using it to solve the various puzzles, such as getting the right answers for the conversation and such. Some of the meta aspects, such as the suitcase code and the inspirational messages were ok, but came across as a bit shallow due to the short length of the game not letting it build up to it at all. Just felt like the whole screen shattering and such wasn't necessarily part of an overall theme and just shoved in there to try to elevate it and and make it fancy-like. If these elements had a bit more time to cook, such as maybe making another puzzle solvable through using outside sources on the computer (like maybe using Google to search for that artist's painting or something) it could've built up to me figuring out the suitcase code myself, instead of just having the game slap me in the face with the solution, I dunno. Anyway, apart from that, there were a bunch of little grammar/language issues here and there, but nothing too serious to make it not understandable: just could do some some proofreading before publishing.

[LeviRamirez NFT Generator]

Whoa, Nice Fuckin' Tits, Levi, dayum! Where's my right click? I need to save these gems!

Anyway, y'all are crazy. But at least you're not as crazy as people into NFTs for real.

LeviRamirez responds:

I want you.

[Blocks Must Fall!]

Pretty chill puzzler! It's not gonna shake the world up or anything, but the game felt like a very smooth and well put-together experience, with a decently paced progression of mechanics and difficulty. The crisp art and relaxing music really gave a calm, professional vibe to it all, so well done in that regard.

Having said that, and it's perhaps a silly complaint, but I did feel like the game was maybe a bit too minimalist and relaxing in terms of feedback and effects. Heck, I actually thought the game didn't even have sound effects at all at first since they were so muted. I wish perhaps there was some more feedback to make blocks fall and progressing through levels more satisfying, as without it, it did make the game slip from chill/relaxing to maybe a bit boring for me as everything started blending together. Again, I understand if it's against the aesthetic you're going for, though.