FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Spooksville, USA - The Sequel to Heck House]

Wow, quite the upgrade from Heck House, and not just in terms of graphics, but gameplay as well! I ended up getting really addicted to this game: it's just so moreish in the way you can keep discovering items, putting them to use, getting another item, using it, and so on, all in a rather intriguing playscape.

I felt really clever not only figuring out the puzzles, but spreading out the team, making use of their shared inventory to scout out and recover items while minimizing travel time. That being said, the game kind of screwed me over by making some puzzles require some specific people to do them like cutting the fish (which was confusing because I didn't know each person's name from outside the game or inside). I can understand it, as it makes each character more interesting, but it felt bad that not only it ruined my strategy, I felt it also hurt the pacing by forcing backtracking.

There were some other confusing aspects, like the lack of explanation for basic controls and what buttons do anything at the start. Also, I had no idea how to save my game, and the load menu freezes if you try to exit it. But overall, it felt like a pretty fun and interesting adventure game!

EDIT: Made it to the ending and did the ritual and everything! Was good to dig up all the secrets. As funny as the joke about it being too complex to draw the ending, man, I was hoping for a big explosive payoff! Oh well, at least the gags afterwards were funny. Felt a bit silly as well that the ritual plays out automatically when you have everything: I would've preferred to use each item manually so as to feel clever. Anyway, nice work!

AxolStudio responds:

Thanks for playing! Your comments are very helpful - although I probably won't be changing this game, I will keep them in mind for future projects!

BTW: P / Pause shows some info/details about the character you have selected which might help with the few puzzles that required a specific person.

[YRKKEY'S PARADISE]

What a crazy experience! I'd complain that it starts off way too difficult and is confusing to figure out what you're even doing, but I think that's actually the greatest strength of this game in how weird of a journey it is and how fun it is to discover and experiment. Game has a lot going on with it: building a computer, playing a weird game, replacing parts and dealing with the puzzle-like stacking elements, talking with people, all while trying to figure out the ultimate goal, if there is one. There's so much life in the little touches the game has, like the whole fake OS, instructions given through diegetic manuals, and the way the computer components light up, among many others. I got really dragged into the game by the subtle way it escalates the story, dropping hints, building up intrigue and oddities, solving clever puzzles, and then suddenly the barriers between worlds came crashing down in a bizarre finale. I'll have to admit, even though I finished it, I'm not sure what exactly to think of it, and there were some frustrating elements like the awkward combination of smooth movement with forced grid alignment, but it was just such a unique concept and execution that intrigued me. What a trip to paradise!

[Jump Forge]

Quite the impressive game and editor; It's like a mini Mario Maker! I had both a fun time playing through some featured levels in the listing, as well as making my own level called 'The Basics'. The editor was very easy to grasp how it worked due to the great HUD design and control scheme, and I liked how it had all of the essentials like having to play test your level. Uploading was a breeze! I also liked how animated and charming the presentation was: menus swish out, blocks make sounds as you place them down, and so on.

In terms of complaints: the gameplay is a little simple, so even as impressive as this is, the appeal does wear off rather quickly. Lacking a tutorial or buttons on screen, the game is a bit confusing at first to learn how to control anything. I wish your character would freeze when you enter build mode so they don't get in the way (and it'd be nice if there was some way where you could just have the character float around with no gravity perhaps). Also with no built-in levels to work with, it is a bit overly reliant on having the good luck of finding a good user level to play for fun (and I have no idea how to vote or feature levels that I find for others). But I can definitely see myself coming back to make maybe one more level: it just works so well!

Prox276 responds:

As always, I greatly appreciate it! I can't overstate how much I look forward and value your
reviews each time I release a game! :)
You rarely get to see in-sight this extensive and honest. Thank you!

[Roguebot Rumble]

I think there's a pretty decent concept here, but at the moment, the execution felt very rough for me, leading to a bit of a mixed bag feeling.

To start, it was very confusing for me to figure out the rules of the game: eventually I grasped that it was a bit of a defense game where you try and stop a lemmings-esque swarm from entering your portals, but until then, I had no idea. The energy bars on the portals are so tiny that I barely noticed them, and even when I did, I was confused why, when the enemy enters one of my portals, that it adds energy to their portals instead of damaging my portal, which I felt would make more sense. Furthermore, when I beat the level, I actually thought the game either bugged out or required me to manually quit out to proceed to the next level because I didn't notice the exit portal. I notice you do have little signs that point to objectives, but they disappear so fast: maybe they should stay present all the time, or at least stay for the entire duration of your first level experience to serve as a tutorial.

The combat was alright once it got going, but it was a bit annoying that you don't start with a full array of moves: instead you only get your combos piece by piece very slowly, making combat feel very boring until then. I understand that maybe it helps teach the players the moves, but it just took so long to get to the good stuff and I felt unfairly gimped. Having said that, combat still did feel somewhat lacking even with the combos since the game didn't seem to require any strategy for their use, like using heavy punches for greater knockback or to break shields over using light punches, which could maybe double as mobility options for getting around the arena faster. I'd push myself to use the combos to keep myself excited, sure, but more often than not, I'd screw myself over since it would be better and faster to just take them out with the same mash combo over and over.

Levels were a bit tricky as well, since they fluctuated in difficulty and thus, didn't feel like they gave a good feeling of progression or story to the game. This issue is a bit exacerbated by the reliance on user-created levels as well. The character also had a floaty way they moved which caused me getting caught a lot on geometry or having no way to engage with an enemy without bumping into them, causing damage and frustration.

Again, I think it is a really neat concept that could definitely work: when you have the right level with a right combination of enemies to fight strategically, it can lead to some really hectic and fun brawls where you need to improvise. But at the moment, I just wasn't get the scenario much of the time. As down as I sound on it, I still feel its a good core that I had fun with, and I look forward to the continuation of RogueBot that you allude to, which hopefully this feedback can help in some way with.

MindChamber responds:

this was a fair and thoughtful critique, and I agree on all counts, thanks for taking the time to review

[Binary Quest]

Started off a bit odd with me being asked to play again when I haven't even started yet, but once I got in, I was having fun with this cute, goofy adventure! I like the sheer amount of possible endings to go for, and all the humorous dialogue from the characters. I think I ended up liking the smithy the most: he has so much extra dialogue that you can screw around with, haha. Also loved the little touches like the game begging you to stay if you try and quit (uwu).

There are some oddities and nitpicks to it I had. A few times when I hit some buttons too fast, like talking to someone and then walking away, the text boxes would glitch out in weird ways. There were also a few cases of typos and weird phrasing from characters in the script. The numerous screens between the smithy and the troll were a bit overly long at times and annoying to deal with on replays: could maybe cut out one of the field screens to keep the pace up (though perhaps I'm missing something important in those screens).

I haven't found all of the endings, but I do plan on going back in to see what I missed; thanks again for this short and sweet quest!

[Neon Rhythm]

Now this is my jam! Goddamn, this game really impressed me with how well it's put together in all respects. The art and story is wonderful with all sorts of goofy characters and a real light-hearted charm to it all: even the game over screen is funny with the grumpy ghost. The gameplay is tight and responsive with notes occurring exactly on the beat from what I could tell (so much that all you have to do is follow the beat, not look at the purple pad). The note charts are super challenging and crazy, and of course, are set to some real bumpin' tunes. Heck, even the options menu is great with a variety of well-needed control schemes (I keep going back and forth between liking default and toggle) and the ability to practice them in a safe zone.

Just to throw some more praise on this, I love all of the little touches that were put in, such as little quips at the beginning of a battle, and the variety of dialogue that plays when you retry a stage. Also, I really appreciate that the game tallies up your notes and scores for grades and personal improvement (though I wish there was a way to press a button to fast-forward or skip the tallying process).

If I were to have any complaints on this game, it'd be that man, it can be a bit difficult to get used to the controls (I keep hitting movement on the beat when I need to only hit space on the beat, augh, so used to DDR), the game escalates a bit too quickly in difficulty (I guess to compensate because there are so few songs), and I wish the top screen had a bit more going on, like maybe showing different damage states for the player and enemy as health gets lower, perhaps. And, of course, my number on complaint is that it's over too fast! Gib me more, more, more!

Not to throw shade or start anything, but hell, move over Friday Night Funkin: you got some real competition here!

EDIT: By the way, I found a funny bug. If you start up a song, and then click out of the game and scroll down (say, to write a review, perhaps), when you go back up to the game a bit later...bullet hell!!!

EDIT 2: Woot, finally found the secret boss! Orchid still remains supreme as the most difficult song though.

[Some Robot Game]

I think this game is a great prototype for a future game, but in its current state it is a little lacking (to be fair, though, I understand if this is just a jam game).

It took me a bit to realize how the game even plays without a tutorial or anything, but once I realized that you fight the bots by unscrewing them at key points which causes their bits to fall off, I was really impressed. I really like the boss rush focus, chaining together all sorts of combinations of giant robos to fight, as well as the feeling of progress as the bits get detached. The way slightly unscrewed bolts could serve as a foothold added an extra strategic element to it as well. Fascinating stuff to see work.

Again, though, while the boss battles are cool, there just isn't enough story or variety to them to keep interesting for long: all of them start blending together since, as much as they superficially look different, they all pretty much have the same set of attacks. Speaking of attacks, while some of them are designed well with great telegraphs, others just fire off with no warning leading to sudden deaths you just can't foresee. While it is part of the strategy, battles can also become a bit frustrating at times when bolts just can't be reached because they are on an arm that's overlapping with the chest, for example, and you just need to wait around for it to align itself in a good way. The duck you control can be a bit overly floaty to control at times, leading to mistakes and lost time. Finally, while I like how stylish the respawn mechanic is, with the way you spawn out of a thrown egg, it takes a long time to actually happen and there were a lot of times where it screwed me over and just got me instantly killed on spawn.

Again, this whole boss battle mechanic is something really special, and I would definitely love to see this more fully fleshed out in a bigger game! I will wait for the release with bated breath, though I understand if it doesn't happen.

[Mad Pirate Skeleton Bomber]

I wasn't a big fan of the way the bombs switched back and forth, but once I got used to it and saw how the levels were constructed to work with it, I ended up loving what a cool design decision it was! Love how satisfying and fun it is to get through the challenging levels by getting better and better at utilizing the bombs in all sorts of ways: you start off easy with simple bomb jumps, but later on you're chaining together complex combos like jump into wall-bounce into bounce and so on. It's a bit silly in a way, but the bomb switching did add a necessary complexity and rhythm to the game that felt good to get under control and tame with skill.

The game did have a few wonky aspects. I kinda hated how the player has a bit of a momentum to their movement and ends up drifting: this made me end up going into a lot of spike walls which had bigger hitboxes than I expected. (I understand it's most likely necessary because of wall bounces and such though). Speaking of hitboxes, the hitbox from a bomb explosion also lasted a bit longer than I felt necessary, creating weird scenarios where you run into a dying explosion and well, die. I wish the game had a cursor lock so I wouldn't click off the edge of the screen and end up losing control. A minor nitpick, but I didn't like how when you're looking at the notes it doesn't pause the game. But really, I feel all my complaints are quite minor compared to the fun I had.

Anyway, well done on this! I had a blast, bombing along through the levels, all to an addictive jaunty pirate tune that's still stuck in my head!

EDIT: Woohoo, Galleon Bertha is complete! What a wild ride and amazing ending: didn't think the game would escalate that much!

saantonandre responds:

Thanks once again for your well thought reviews Futurecop! glad you're on newgrounds satisfying devs hunger for feedback.
I've already watched your gameplay on twitch, I just couldn't wait for the March video :)
I've gotta say, while I failed at showing what were supposed to be the "main solutions" on most levels, my players never cease to amaze me by planning the most complex uncontemplated routes, hahah.

I'm glad you enjoyed the main mechanics! switching was in fact a necessary ingredient for the design of this game, not just to add complexity but in order to keep freedom of movement and being able to shoot unlimited bombs at your pace, with no cooldowns or ammo system, yet having to give a purpose to your inputs. Not having to switch would have so many not-obvious implications.
Yet, I know how it's bold to expect players to adapt to it. I'm happy whenever I see players like you putting effort to slowly find some entertainment.

I agree on the wonky aspects, which I may have subconsciously ignored as I got used to them. I can fix some right away. (EDIT: just implemented cursor lock and adjusted some hitboxes)

I also agree on the tunes, Tim really did an amazing job!

[Synth Drift]

This game has a pretty cool concept, but it felt a little drab in execution for me. I did like the feeling of driving the car: pulling off drifts and cool maneuvers were really fun to do, especially when the levels started putting interesting sets of obstacles to weave through.

But that's the core of my issue: the sense of challenge felt really lacking and bored me. I felt like I had to go through practically half of the game until I got to a level that showcased any semblance of challenge, and even then, the levels were just repeats of old levels with a death wall tacked on. The spike wall that closes in takes way too long to appear, making most of the levels easy to complete without pushing yourself to drive in cool, risky, drifty ways. I did have some fun at the very end with some of the challenging courses, but it took so long to get to that point, and then it was over.

I wouldn't mind the lack of challenging levels if, at the very least, the game ranked you against some par times that you try to beat by retrying the stage and optimizing your movements. But ideally, I would like a combination of both: challenging levels and a ranking system. Again, it seems like a game with a decent core, but it doesn't have systems in place to promote a cool way to play.

[FireBlob]

Very nice little puzzle platformer! Felt like this was solid on all fronts: decent music and sounds, cute art, and very nice level design that both introduced mechanics in a great psuedo-tutorial way and also expounded on them bit-by-bit to create a nice sense of escalating challenge. Don't have much complaints except for a few nitpicks here and there: my only real complaint is that I wish there was even more levels as I couldn't help but get addicted and blast through all of them, haha!