FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[show]

Solid game! I'm not sure what the theatre theme has to do with creating platforms under your feet, but hey, it was a decent game with an interesting graphical theme/presentation (and cool music, of course), and it had a good escalation of difficulty with some rather clever puzzles that I felt smart figuring out! It took a little bit of getting used to the controls at first, because a lot of the time when I jumped the platform would be placed in a position way off than I was expecting: maybe you fall too fast or the platform should be created at the player's position instead of below them or something, I dunno, it just felt kinda off, but I got used to it, like how you get used to a light gun with a crooked sight, if that makes sense. Glad I got a seat to this show!

[RetroShooti (DemoScene)]

Very cool and crazy shooter! Has a real professional design to it both from a UI perspective and a gameplay perspective: the menus and UI have a ton of great options to them and aren't a slouch in terms of graphical presentation to get you amped up, and the gameplay is crazy with a huge variety of enemies and powerups all in a satisfying chaos of of explosions. Definitely really solid so far, but in terms of feedback that could be worked on:

I though the text for the controls on the 'how to play' screen were way too small and difficult to read: the font makes Xs look like Ks when they're written that small, for example. Would love to see images be used for controls instead of just bland letters, even if it is just an image of a keyboard key with the letter on it.

I wish there was an option to allow the turn around button to be a toggle instead of a hold: for some reason, my natural instinct was to assume it was a toggle and it was difficult to play by holding it down. Might just be me: maybe it works for most people.

My biggest issue, which might not even be an issue, was that the current gameplay, while fun and explosive and crazy, seemed to be a bit lacking in terms of direction? It might be my fault, going in and expecting something like Gradius, where you go from level to level, all showcasing different enemy types assembled in interesting ways in varied planetary terrain. This game did have a lot of enemy variety, and a lot of crazy power-ups, and interesting bosses, but it all just felt so scattershot and random, like a Jackson Pollock painting where enemies were just slapped everywhere on screen with no rhyme or reason. It just felt like I wasn't progressing at all in the game: with no significant change in background or design, I felt like I was just flying in the same bit of space getting nowhere fast, shooting enemies for no purpose. I was facing bosses every now and then, but they were tiny and started to repeat fast and became annoying bullet sponges in their repeat encounters. That's not necessarily a bad thing: it might just not be my cup of tea, and I did still have a lot of fun for what it was. Game definitely is still very well put-together and has bucketloads of potential left, so hopefully my feedback can help in some way!

[Jiminy]

Cool escape room game! I really liked the atmosphere that the game had with the ambient sounds and the gorgeous (in a spooky way) art design. Puzzles felt nice as well for the most part: I felt clever figuring out ones like the door handle turning, but other ones like the mast cutting seemed weird since it didn't seem logically possible. I liked how the items moved around, like how you actually look through the magnifying glass, instead of just clicking a magnifying glass icon on an object like most point n clicks do (though there seems to be a bug when I try to use the stick since it doesn't appear).

[Slime Rider]

Great, professionally designed and charming little puzzler! Game just oozes style everything, even at the very start with its animated intro that shows the basic functionality of the game and the cool transitions between levels. Puzzles were great, with excellent level design that let you practice new mechanics in a safe level, and then escalates it with challenging levels afterwards that have a good variety of 'gotchas' to teach you good habits. I liked the inclusion of a speed-up button (I guess I got lucky by getting to play the updated version, judging by the comments, haha): I nearly forgot it existed since I didn't need it for awhile, but luckily you put the icon in the upper-right as a friendly reminder just when I started to get a little frustrated by having to wait, haha. Top shelf stuff, this!

Criobite responds:

Thank you, it's good to hear you like the game! Been working a lot on learning how to make better games in general and I'm glad it's working out.

[Fields of Sagebrushes]

Pretty neat experience that had a lot of cool atmosphere to it helped by the graphics and sound. Unfortunately the experience for me was killed a lot by the UI design, which when you have a visual novel should be your bread and butter. Events were really confusing at first as it was difficult to tell which choice I had highlighted and what element to click, and I had no idea why I also had to highlight a character to choose them or anything like that. At first I thought the white markers on the status bars indicated what our current level was within the black bar, but then the black bars moved and I realized that they were the actual status indicator themselves. Many times there were interactable elements on the screen that could still be clicked and highlighted despite no longer being interactable, like the town choices when you have no choices left, or the other confirm button on screen when you're traveling. Another thing that hurt the game for me was the lack of event variety (I was already getting repeats very early on before barely even leaving the coast) and the fact that there were long stretches without any actual story tidbits to keep me hooked. It's still a pretty neat game, but I just wish it had a bit more polish to it: would love to see an updated version!

danidre14 responds:

I appreciate your review whole heartedly, and thanks for playing my game again! :D

This was a lot of first times for me, but I'll make no excuses, I understand your critiques on the UI; like we left it there for the user to figure out, seemingly by intuition.

With the encounters, we've nearly 50; it's really odd that you got so many reoccurring, the algorithms weren't in our favour in this one time you took a run through with it.

But definitely, it would've been amazing to polish the story and expand; other than the few we whipped up last minute. I too would love to see an updated version!

Again, thanks for playing, and I appreciate the critiques and feedbacks :)

[Laser Dames]

Another interesting concept! I definitely do like me some stylish games, and this was an interesting fusion where it felt good to lure out enemies to build a super-combo-chain finish on them. UI design is a bit drab though and made it difficult to track things with text overlapping power bars and such. At the moment the game does feel a bit too quick and can be beaten by just spamming and such, but I love the concept and would love to see this fleshed out more with a tighter design. Music was cool as well: as usual I like how it escalates by building on itself more and more as you progress.

adriendittrick responds:

thanks again for the review :)
Eventually you'll have reviewed my entire catalog lul.
Also yeh this would benefit by some quality of life improvements, but I only had 9 hours.

[Grim Pawn]

Pretty neat puzzler! Graphics are a bit drab at times (especially the player character, which I can't tell what the heck they are), but it still works to build a grim atmosphere. Levels felt really well put-together with a good escalation of difficulty, and I loved the aspect of poems serving as good hints for new mechanics. Was a bummer that the game doesn't seem to save progress at all: I was really hoping to continue where I left off!

TheMikirog responds:

The game is fairly short, so I didn't bother adding the save feature in. It's still possible to beat earlier levels in seconds to get back to where you left off.

[Waterworks!]

I'm not one for these card games typically, but that makes it all the more impressive that I ended up getting addicted to this game! I attribute this to its incredibly professional graphics and UI design: every element on the screen is so intuitively put-together so that, even by ignoring the tutorial info dumps at the beginning, its easy to figure out how the game works nonetheless. I love how every element can be hovered over for an info pop-up so you can learn and remind yourself of all of the elements of the game at your own pace. Definitely a great example of juicy UI design that games should aspire for!

[Complex]

Pretty cool game, but it is (ironically, given the title) a bit too complex that makes it very confusing at first, and given the extremely punishing gameplay with no checkpoints or continues, very easy to give up on, unfortunately. Firing has a weird input issue where it would ignore my inputs most of the time, and the interact button was weird since it makes it look like you could unlock a door from a distance by hovering over it, but it only works if you're right next to it. Graphics and animations are really cool, but the lack of music and any major art differences between levels really makes it feel like you're making little progress. Once you get into the game and figure out how everything works, its great, but until then it can be really confusing.

[Flail Fall]

Haha, pretty funny concept! It's an interesting take on ragdoll mechanics in a 2d environment, and using them in a strategic manner to figure out the ideal route for each puzzle setup was pretty fun! Was a little annoying to have to wait for the stun to wear off after each jump, and also dying respawns you a bit too fast which can lead to another immediate death if you were holding a button and run into some spikes. Some of the controls were also a bit counter-intuitive, like how you don't have even the slightest air-control at all and it wants you to dash before jumping when it is so often the other way around in games: can feel a bit frustrating because of this. Nonetheless, I had fun, and I wish there was more to this game to get through as it ended just as it was starting to get really in the groove!