FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Paw Pals]

Cute game that surprised me with how addictive it could get! Tutorial at the start was a bit annoying: I'd prefer that it only move forward when I click, as a lot of the time when I was still reading it jumped forward without me clicking and I had to restart so I could read it all. The way the game presents information could be a bit better as well: could really stand to have some sort of event feed to give reports, especially balloon reports which I could never read because I was always working on other stuff and they're tucked away from sight and disappear so fast. I also didn't really know what fish did and why/how it was depleting and how that had an effect? Would love to see feedback/reports from the game on what is happening (if it's supposed to be food, maybe if I'm out it should play a stomach growling and put status symbols over cats to show they are hungry or stressed or whatever). Basically there was a lot of confusion over many aspects of the game for me. Despite all that, though, I found myself wanting to play more and more as I tried to build up a good set of teams that worked well with each other based on their personality traits and such. I liked their little pop-ups that told you if they were enjoying each others company: that's exactly the type of fun feedback I wanted for all the other stuff I was confused about in the game, haha! Overall, it was definitely a little half-baked due to confusion and repetition, but I still had a decent time, so kudos!

[Gemini Blast]

Interesting idea, but a little lacking in terms of execution. It definitely has a rather interesting control scheme for a shooter, but as fun as it was to learn how to control and shoot effectively, once I was as good as I felt I could get, there wasn't much left of the game besides it: the game seemed to just loop forever with the same few enemies. It did seem to be upping the difficulty as I went by increasing the enemy density, but in such a slow, incremental manner it just felt arduous. The guns were kind of fun to switch between, but at the end of the day it felt that, instead of switching guns to fit various scenarios, it was more that I was forced to switch to laser to deal with the blue balls that can't be dealt with any other way, and then I can go back to using whatever gun besides laser. Again, not necessarily bad, but it just felt a little half-baked (which is obviously understandable for a game jam game, so no worries).

[Coming Back]

Decent horror game! Definitely had some solid spooks to it: I liked the way you cleverly used the special effects to blur crucial information from readability, and the chase scene and such were neat set pieces. I also appreciated the multiple endings as a nice hidden touch. Overall, though, I did feel like the game was a bit goofy which did kill the horror aspect: it was just so short and simplistic in both graphics and story it was difficult for me to take seriously and get immersed. The goofy way my character walks around, the speech bubbles with very plain text that doesn't even change to show other people talking, the cliche-ridden story, etc. I do like it when games are short and sweet, but I felt like I was speedrunning this game with how fast it went through all the plot elements so bluntly, haha! Could definitely be helped with some more polish to the presentation and maybe some more interesting story elements, but still, it's a good attempt!

Primajin responds:

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate you taking time to write your honest opinion!

To be entirely honest I just don't agree with some of it, it is super short no doubt but that was deliberate and the same goes for the very simple but stylised artwork, I really like how it looks and feels personally and love how the atmosphere turned out, the story is somewhat cliche I guess but it's also not as simple as "angry ghost chasing ex who murdered her" it was more meant to be about people feeling trapped in their own life, her for hanging on to a broken relationship because she's made a life with him and him for not accepting the guilt of what he did and blaming her instead, this is why he gets trapped forever in the alternate ending if he doesn't accept what he did.

Thanks though, I do appreciate good feedback!

[As one against our end]

Bit of a mixed bag for me! I like the whole concept of building up your party, strategizing an ideal formation, and dealing with the issues that the geometry brings in having to improvise new formations as you move through it all, among other things. Quite the goofy adventure with a lot of interesting characters to deal with!

But on the other hand, it felt like it was just really weird to play. I kept expecting to attack immediately when I cross my targets over something instead of having to wait an extra turn, and I keep losing track of everything as my targets flip-flop as I turn around and there's so much overlap. Considering the theme as well, I found it odd that you could totally leave behind party members as they go off-screen, and you only need one party member to reach the end gate instead of requiring to gather them all up. In general, the game felt strangely executed to me and unrealized, like it was just really haphazardly designed with the bare minimum, leaving it up to RNG to do all the heavy-lifting, instead of designing interesting levels with cool enemy formations and clever geometry obstacles to wiggle your party through. Part of me wants it to be more like a puzzle game, almost like a Sokoban game or something where your party members can be both helpers and obstacles to your progress, but maybe that's me wanting it to be something it's not.

I guess I was a little confused, and maybe I'm being unfair. It's like I was at odds with myself: part of me felt like it could work if I was just patient and took the time to keep rearranging my party into optimal formations by running into walls and such, but another part of me just felt like the game was too chaotic, difficult to parse, and annoying that I just gave up and went with a more reckless approach where I kept pushing forward and operating off instinct (which worked for awhile but eventually led to my death). Maybe it's just not my cup of tea at the end of the day. Still, quite the interesting one that I'll most likely go back to and give it another go, despite my gripes and confusion.

adriendittrick responds:

thanks for the well thought out review!
The RNG does do a lot of the heavy lifting and I really didn't design this as a puzzle game, more as a roguelike with a core movement premise.

I initially wanted this to be a game about interesting formations but really it became a game about levelling up and growing with various characters hhaving to micro manage them all!

[MOLE]

Had a blast playing this! Felt like a very smooth and challenging one-button version of Super Meat Boy! Definitely a very interesting approach to the game: I always enjoy seeing these minimal-input experiments and I felt this was a great example of them at their best. Level design was quite varied with lots of fun obstacles, and I loved the little touches to the game, such as the way the mole belly-flops on death: with a game as tough as this, it's good that even death is fun, haha!

My only complaint was that, as smooth as the game was in general, there were a few annoying parts where the time-freeze from collecting keys threw me off my jump timing, and sometimes the game would eat my jump inputs for some fast-paced jumps, requiring me to input way earlier than I expected. All in all, though, very solid job!

It's not necessary, but if you make some bonus levels for this, I'm down to play 'em because I really want more of this!

[Jumphase]

Very nice game! It's not as much of a brain teaser as some of the other puzzlers you make, especially the top-down tile ones, but that wasn't a downside for me, as the fun action of the platforming made up for it in spades! Felt like the game had a good momentum to it where you can go through levels at a fast pace: not saying it was easy, but it had a nice smoothness to the difficulty curve for me where it wasn't a brain-buster but it wasn't a no-brainer either. Another good edition to the more action-platformer side of Rob1221 entries!

[Space Thread]

Fun little game that's short and sweet! Felt like it had a good tutorial that taught the mechanics and way to progress very well, and it felt fun to race around using the dash strategically to win. I only had minor confusions during my playthrough with me not realizing I could pick up items other than white things, and with me thinking that carrying items was burdening the character for some reason: other than that it was great! Oh my god, though, I was literally 1 pixel away from home with my haul that would've completed the game and I died to time over, aughhh! But even with that defeat, I had to come back and beat it, and I did on my second try with a whole minute and change left!

Elastiskalinjen responds:

Thank you :)

Yep, maybe I should have left some random debris in the ship, then it would have been more clear!

[Trail Of Pigs]

Damn, it's got a rough start, and the game can be a bit frustratingly hard at times, but boy if I didn't end up getting enraptured by this! It's like The Last of Us meets Oregon Trail or something, haha!

Like I said, first impression was definitely pretty rough. The tutorial just vomits a wall of text at you (without even establishing context through story) that is difficult to read and remember everything (would be helpful if there was a button where you could bring up the tutorial later to see if you forgot something), the menu functionality can be a bit confusing at times (why does the button to pause have a play symbol and the button to play have a pause symbol?) and the controls can be confusing to grasp (Sneaking is a bit confusing and I thought for the longest time that once someone gets close and starts stabbing you there's nothing you can do: turns out it was because I was running and apparently you can't shoot while moving).

Once I got past that initial hump though, I had a blast! Well...as much of a "blast" as someone can have going through a traumatic and depressing journey of brutal survival, I suppose. The game really immerses you into the direness of the situation with all of its aspects and makes you consider every action due to the limited resources: stealth wins out over shooting if you can handle the risk of it (and my god do you want to avoid seeing the horrors of shooting). Sure, it ain't perfect: the game can be a bit annoying at times with how sometimes a hunt is just a total wash with nothing found due to RNG, but it does fit the theme you're going for, so hey, I guess it works. Man, the places my mind went as I started to get into my role in this game: my god, the darkness of it all! Again, really cool game you've got here!

Stopsignal responds:

Awh man, i was really hoping i'd get a review from you, you always hit the nail on the head when talking about places to improve! I was kind of afraid you wouldn't see it, this makes me happy, hahahah

Thank you so much!! I think what i learned with this game is that, even if the mechanics make sense to you while making the game, you still need to tutorialize everything correctly, there is no other way. Stagger tips, inmerse people slowly, always have a way to show tutorials and help if people need it, if the mechanics are complex enough.

Also learned that people can endure and play a hard game even if it is incredibly punishing, if inmersed enough on its world (at least i think that? it does seem that the inmersion played a really positive factor with lots of people, and that's awesome!)

I really have to give a second try to this concept, make it again from the ground up. One day. Still, it was fun to do for now! Thanks, Futurecop! I still hope your name comes from that one mech game, FutureCopLapd, hahahah

extra: i am still seeing all reviews from everyone, even if not replying. it's just too many reviews to reply for now, but i'll try to get aorund to it! :)

[SACRIFIGHTS]

Pretty neat game! Loved that it was basically a really cool boss rush where you get stronger and stronger as you fight in order to fight a big boss at the end: definitely my cup of tea! Loved the whole atmosphere to the game and all the cool touches to it, like the way the house shifts as time progresses, how you can't eat your own heart if you try, and how the timer changes on the last day.

Combat was decent, but a bit of a mixed bag. It's certainly alright, and has a lot of neat upgrades as you go, but it felt a bit annoying to not be able to move in a separate direction than you can shoot, and the camera just feels way too zoomed in. A lot of the fights started to feel very samey as well: mostly devolving into the same strategy of circle strafing very similar bullet patterns in the same cramped cellar you have to fight all of the demons in.

Pretty odd at times: really didn't grasp the systems initially as it dumps a lot on you quickly and I didn't like how you can totally softlock yourself by running out of resources which forces you to sleep over and over with no way out. Maybe it'd be nice if you could get yourself out of a softlock by sacrificing some blood/health to summon a boss as a last resort, or at the very least, maybe instead of being forced to sleep bit-by-bit, the game notices you softlocked and just fast-forwards you to the last day?

This is a bit silly to say, but it might actually be a bit too easy? I was just playing around and intentionally softlocked myself early on by wasting resources and just slept until the final boss since I was curious how hard it was gonna be. Well, the answer was that not hard because I destroyed 'em on my first try even with my gimped character (well, he still had a few upgrades, but still)!

Anyway, I griped a lot there, but I still had a great time with this, so well done!

[PICO NIGHT PUNKIN']

I'm always a bit mixed on these demakes. I mean, on one hand, the game is awesome! It plays very well and it is an incredibly faithful remake to Friday Night Funkin'. But on the other hand...it's so faithful in its recreation that it copies everything, even the things that could've been improved upon (for example, there is still no result screen for seeing your score and sick/great/good/bad tallies, and you aren't penalized for not holding hold notes, among other things) and at the end of the day, the reason it is fun is because it is based on another game, and if I just wanted to play Friday Night Funkin', I can play Friday Night Funkin', haha! Most of the time when I think demake, I think Daikatana being changed from an FPS to a Zeldalike in order to fit on a Game Boy: to me, that's a really neat case of trying to capture the essence of the game in a genre that fits the lower platform better. This game is just straight up as good as the original and is made in the same form as the original, which is good but...oh whatever, I'm rambling.

This is obviously quite the technical achievement and very impressive at the end of the day, and I had fun playing and listening to the new remixes, so I'm rating it highly, but yeah, just wanted to ramble and share my confusion on demakes, so, uh, there ya go.