FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[[ROOOM]]

Hrmm, I think I understand what this game might be trying to do, and it's certainly rather unique and experimental, but I just didn't enjoy myself with this, unfortunately.

From what I can gather, the core conceit of it is that you're uncovering tiles to try and find the exit, but every tile uncovered has a chance to be something else: sometimes it can be helpful treasure, other times it can be deadly enemies. In a way, I could see it playing around with risk/reward a lot: do you just try and speed through to find the exit while ignoring enemies, or do you play very cautiously? If you find the exit, do you risk uncovering more, hoping to find treasure before continuing? The spin the wheel modifiers, new enemies and tile types, and so on also add some excitement to the mix.

Unfortunately while that sounds decent enough in theory, the execution left me bored and confused. The scenarios I posted above don't work because there aren't core elements like a timer or score to provide any sort of motivation or guidance to take risks. Many of the enemies were unthreatening statues, and many of the power-ups like omni-vision just completely delete any sort of fun as they are a get-out-of-jail free card. I dunno, I just couldn't get into it as it all felt pointless.

If that wasn't bad enough, the game also just had a lot of annoyances getting in the way. For example, it's cool if you pick up a gun like the railgun where you can blast enemies and clear big swathes of the map, but lord have mercy if you pick up a damn telegun: you're begging for a button to switch back to your fists as you're left uncovering the map at a tediously slow rate until you finally run outta ammo.

As said before, it does feel like an interesting experiment which is good for a game jam, so kudos for taking the risk: it just didn't work out this time for me.

[Bastard Aliens]

Wow, what a fantastic little arcade experience! Feels just as fun, juicy and addictive as any of the classics like Tapper and such, and I enjoyed the simple yet fast-paced typing action!

If I were to have any complaints, it'd be:

*Sometimes you get unlucky enough to have brothers constantly getting sucked up and you're just kind of sitting there twiddling your thumbs. Sure you're gonna get points for it, and perhaps it's necessary as something to keep you on your toes, but still, kinda wish the algorithm always keeps me in action, or maybe you could press some sort of button to push the brother up faster, like how you can stack tetris blocks faster if you want, haha.

*As the waves go on, there end up being a lot of UFOs that blow up at the end and it can get so loud it hurts my ears. Might be nice if the programming was changed so that if multiple explosions (or sound effects in general) happen at the exact same time, it just plays one explosion sound effect.

*And the biggest complaint being that I wish it kept escalating even more with harder words and more elements to look out for to keep you engaged and fighting for your life!

[Striving Perfection: Scalable Dreams]

Huh, quite the interesting game you got here! The whole concept of matching bullet sizes to enemy sizes made for some interesting and intense combat, and I loved the goofy world you've built with so many amusing characters and interactions, as well as little secrets for the observant. Overall I enjoyed myself and thought it was a nice short-n-sweet adventure!

First impressions were a bit rough though, I'll admit, as the game starts out with a combat scenario that's already pretty hard, but which is made all the more difficult because of the player only having one heart (because they haven't been taught the chimichanga mechanic yet), enemies appearing from off-screen to insta-sneak-attack you if you wander too close to the edges, and other small annoyances like bullets hitting obstacles when they look like they shouldn't.

Speaking of the chimichangas, I didn't really like that whole aspect of having to gamble a consumable for health. It's certainly unique and I like that exploration is rewarded, but since you're never sure when the game is going to end, most people will inevitably hoard them and inevitably get frustrated when they can't pass a fight without taking a single hit. And if you do gamble on using them, it feels so bad when you didn't even need it and thus feel like you wasted it, or even worse, if you lose the battle and then have to try it again without any because they're lost forever!

Small thing that I only noticed in retrospect: because of the uncapped fire-rate and the ability to still hurt enemies with any type of bullet, it can actually be way more efficient to kill everyone with tiny bullets instead of, you know, playing the game as intended. It's nice that the game provides some wiggle room in damaging enemies, but I don't feel like it was balanced well.

[BABEL]

Pretty cool game! Reminds me a lot of other escort games like Gyromite, so I had a natural affinity to this concept. Overall, I enjoyed myself and was impressed at the juicy effects like the musical transitions. Only real complaint I had was that the game ended right when I was getting into it! But hey, leaving the crowd hungry for more is pretty much the ideal result for a game jam, so well done in that regard!

[UNWORTHY]

Hmm, this feels like an unfinished draft for a Hades clone. There's some interesting ideas in here, but none of them feel like they got time to coalesce into anything.

For example, the combat could be interesting, but right now it's too easily exploitable with the way you can snipe enemies from afar with impunity because they are too dumb to pathfind their way to you, and even if they could, it begs for more art-related mechanics, like having to draw symbols or encircle enemies with paint to attack.

I don't feel like the whole aspect of having to draw a picture while going through the maze is well-integrated either. There are some token attempts at having godly powers operate based off of ink levels, but that doesn't compel me to draw anything, especially when I doubt the game has an accurate judging apparatus at the end, and when the drawing tools feel bad and only work when you move the mouse slowly.

With a bit more time I'm sure this could've been something nice, but I suppose them's the breaks for getting too ambitious with a game jam prototype. I admire the chutzpah, at least!

[ZAH'S REVENGE 3]

I'm never quite sure how games like this are going to turn out! My instincts scream at me to not bother because it's just gonna be some weird low-effort style-over-substance nonsense packed with in-jokes, but another part of me is a hopeless romantic who hopes to see some enchanting outsider art like Cruelty Squad or EYE Divine Cybermancy or what-have-you.

Well, I gave it my best go, and while it did surprise me at the start with how much I got into it from all the secrets and goofy interactions you could find, eventually it just got a bit too repetitive and weird for me to bother continuing. Didn't help either that it hurt my eyes to look at it! I think the straw that might've broke the camel's back was falling down that toilet pit where there's no way out except to restart the game. Fear and Hunger can get away with it, but not this!

[A City Capture]

Huh, this is quite the interesting one! I'll admit my first impression of it isn't the greatest: the controls for both the player and the frame are very finicky, the stage layouts are very intimidating at first with so many ways to go but with a tiny time limit, there are lots of frustrating obstacles that get in the way like barely-visible spikes and seeker drones that come from off-screen, and I don't like having to go through a forced tutorial before I can set my options or replay the game.

Nevertheless, in spite of these myriad issues, I thought the concept of racing to find a matching spot on the map for a picture was very intriguing and somehow found myself getting addicted to mastering the controls and beating level after level! In a way, this is a pretty good game jam result, in that while it's very rough in terms of execution, there's definitely some gold buried underneath here that's begging to be mined and polished so that it shines brilliantly in the sun!

[Deep Snake]

Cool stuff! I feel like this is a perfect game jam result, in that, while it does have some rough aspects like a lack of music and some confusing design choices like the apple which doesn't change size, the overall concept is very memorable and the gameplay execution of it has resulted in an addictive and trippy arcade experience that I can't help but love and wish I had even more of!

Now excuse me while I chase this 31st apple: I swear I'll catch up to it at some point!

dietzribi responds:

the 31st apple is just very close to the loop point, if you see it disappear go back "away" from it and you'll get close to it again.
I'll leave it to you as homework to think why the apple doesn't change size ;)

[Go Figure]

Neat little puzzler you got here! Mechanics are pretty solid and interesting to work out, there's a nice sense of progression, it's got quality-of-life in that it saves your progress and has an undo button, and the whole glitchy aesthetic is not only an interesting visual style, but it made me compelled to keep playing more than I normally would as I wondered if it would lead up to some sort of interesting twist!

Unfortunately, my dumb brain can't even get past the 'classic' puzzles around level 9, so I'll never see whether the glitchy aesthetic was just a visual style or if it actually does lead somewhere. Oh well! Still a cute little puzzle game nevertheless.

[Clocks of the BBS 2024]

Hmm, this is a rough one for me! Nothing against the artists featured as their work is lovely, and I always appreciate these collabs being put together and fostering the community. Heart's in the right place and all that jazz!

But if I have to be honest, this collab presentation is pretty much the most bare-bones minimal-effort thing you could put together, lacking any sort of charm or energy to make it appealing for the general public to look through and get interested in the cool art. It's just your basic slideshow setup with no bells and whistles, some of the art has been distorted from resizing, and there are no quality-of-life features like a gallery view/table of contents or being able to click on the artists to go to their pages directly. In a way, I suppose it's appropriate for the creators of B, so you got me there, but still, I'd like a bit more, no, a lot more!