FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Mazza]

Hmm, as much as I want to appreciate this goofy adventure for its great graphics, creatively gross enemies and wacky characters and dialogue, it really felt like all of that was just jangling keys trying to distract from the fact that the actual core gameplay behind it all is very boring and generic. Even worse was that the game just felt very awkward to play, what with a lot of the hitboxes being unintuitive, and the camera snapping around too quickly when I'm just trying to adjust my jump to the left a bit. Didn't help either that the game had no save system.

Maybe I'm being a grump or too old for toilet humor, but this was a miss for me. I don't think it's necessarily bad or anything, it's ok, but just a bit bleh. Pull your finger out, mate, haha!

[Wishlist]

Hmm, it's certainly an amusing meta concept, but while it was good for a few chuckles, the actual gameplay felt quite shoddy and undercooked, leaving me a bit cold on the execution.

As said, there's some nice ideas in here. I enjoyed watching the game evolve as more and more mechanics, themes, genres, art and so on got added to it, and I thought that it was interesting that some of the cards make you play in non-obvious ways to get likes, such as 'the creature' making you want to intentionally lose for likes.

But overall the game just felt very plain, repetitive and boring to play. Even worse was that the game didn't even seem to function properly: for example, the hitboxes felt very awkwardly sized and the graph kept resetting to the first pip instead of continuing onward. I was also really disappointed that there was no ending screen to show the release of the game and how much money it got versus its wishlists and so on: instead it just starts over but doesn't properly reset the variables.

I know you can probably just say that it's intentionally shoddy to reflect what a game is like during alpha or only farming for likes, but I still want this overall game I'm playing to be fun, and this wasn't. Would love to see a more fleshed-out version of this as I feel like it could be a great Warioware-esque experience if done properly.

[Happy Corp. [Alpha] [Updated 5/14/2024]]

Hmm, I really like the concept and vibes that this game has going for it, but the gameplay got really boring and tedious quickly for me. Thank goodness that it is only in alpha at the moment then as it has room to grow from feedback!

As said, the presentation and vibes that the game has are cool. I loved the whole intro sequence and the corpo talk, and the idea of plopping down this arena around a city block and smashing it to pieces through a Breakout-esque game was very amusing!

But while the gameplay was amusing at first, it soon became annoying, with so much time dedicated to just watching the ball bounce around and miss the few remaining buildings. The best I could hope for was to get some power-ups like the twin guns, but that just feels like cheating when I think the core gameplay of bouncing the ball should be fun and interesting enough on its own. Sometimes I would intentionally let the ball fall through just so I could get a chance to aim it, and I don't think that's a good sign!

In terms of feedback:

*As hinted at above, I wish there was someway that the core gameplay of bouncing the ball could be more fun. Maybe you could be able to subtly control it, like through magnets or side-paddles? Maybe the buildings should be less spongy? Maybe you should be able to decide how powerful the initial paddle hit is by holding down the button? Up to you!

*Considering the game is about being pressured by corpos, it's odd that the gameplay is incredibly easy: the penalty for dropping the ball is nothing to be worried about as it is so easy to accumulate loads of cash. I like the cash system in concept where you are penalized for moving and ball-dropping, but you need to make it harder so it doesn't become a non-issue, or maybe just replace it with a lives system.

*Could use some more info pop-ups to make certain events more clear, like money popping up when you do stuff that gets you money, and negative money popping up when you get penalized, as well as power-up names popping up when you grab a power-up as it was very unclear what each power-up was even doing.

*Would be nice to be able to see the ball when it goes behind the buildings.

saltandpixel responds:

If you hold down, you can use the magnet feature.

[WEIRDCORE PALACE]

I'm probably taking this too seriously and am just going to be laughed at, but yeah, I wasn't really vibing with this game.

Don't get me wrong: I really did want to vibe with this! As much as the game seems weird and low-effort, it has a certain sense of outsider-art charm and mystique to it that intrigued me and made me want to figure out what secrets lurk within.

But I just got fed up, as all the game seemed to be was just going from room to room talking to people saying weird stuff. It was so goddamn tedious with the way that I couldn't read at my own pace as there were no options to fast-forward text or proceed to the next line or exit when I wanted: instead I just had to stare at the slowly advancing text. I can understand that sometimes it is done for effect, like with jumpscares, but c'mon, there are ways to get both.

Finally, the game ended for me when I got softlocked by a character asking me for a joke, and despite trying every single button on my keyboard and the mouse, I wasn't able to select an option to proceed.

Be as artistic and weird as you like, but a shoddy game is a shoddy game. Hoping to see future games have a bit more construction put into them.

[Rabbit Hole 1.06]

NOTE: This review is from playing the Steam version.

Wow, this is wonderful stuff you got here! Overall it feels very polished and well-constructed in practically every respect, though with obvious standouts being the cute art and presentation, generous amount of settings and quality-of-life, a large variety of wacky weapons, enemies, events and characters, great boss fights, as well as the rather intriguing story that the game has hidden away, what with these weird books you can pick up and the locked door in the library.

Ok, that's the good stuff out of the way. Now it's time for the feedback:

*I'm a bit conflicted on the combat, especially from my first impression, where I found it a bit too generic in terms of mechanics and I didn't like the cramped levels you fight in since it felt like there wasn't room to move around to dodge or express myself. For example, the fight against the Tank Twins is awful as you only have a small amount of room in an already small room to move without bumping into enemies. I'm warming up to it, but still, felt like it could be doing more.

*Dodge roll is a bit annoying to get used to: it feels like it is such a slow and high-committal move, and I disliked how I had no control over its length or duration. I'm getting used to it and I can understand if it's built the way it is intentionally to make it challenging or make you consider other moves like jumping over attacks instead, but even considering that, it's still rough.

*Sound department is a bit of a letdown at times: right when I noticed that the starting AK47 and Pistol have the same sound effects I was worried, and rightly so as practically every other gun has the same sounds too. The water gun didn't have any sounds at all!

*Wish the game would pick a lane when it comes to enemies dealing damage: simple enemies without actual attacks like the turnips are fine for contact/touch damage, but I don't think enemies with actual attacks like bullets or slashes should hurt you on contact, rather they should only hurt with their attacks. So annoying to get poked by Magnolia's sword in her idle stance: felt very awkward.

*Pixel font is very confusing at times: B's look like 8's look like 0's was the worst example, but there were other times where I wasn't sure what I was reading.

*For some reason, the game would default to the wrong monitor when I tried to open it from Steam. I 'fixed' it somewhat by dragging Steam to my main monitor and starting it up there, but even then that only seemed to work sometimes.

*No pause menu in game? There were times I wanted to pause to answer a call or to quit/restart the game, but there was nothing and I just needed to alt+F4 instead.

*As much as I want to like the weird and wacky guns that are in the game, they are a bit too wacky at times and I found myself constantly gravitating towards the more standard guns for safe consistency. Bit disappointing since I feel like I'm missing out: maybe they can be rebalanced?

*I should get an achievement for beating Magnolia with only melee: call it something like 'fair fight', haha!

Anyway, I know that's a lot more words for feedback than for praise, but I'm still very positive on the game and think you did a great job: I'm just hoping that I can help you make it even better as I see you are dutifully patching it!

ShortCakeCafe responds:

Hi! Thanks for the feedback!

There is a pause button but it's bind to "1" instead of escape for some reason. (I think I forgot to reset the default binding before compiling in the last update, sorry!)

Truth is, I'm pretty limited to what I am able to change due to the game being made in scratch, however I'm working towards fixing what I can!

As for the roll, it's very intentionnal that it's a high commital move. In my opinion, the dodgeroll shouldn't be free quick dodge, it's an active commitment which punishes you for using it for no reason. Changing it now would be very problematic as fights are built around it.
However, I have heard a lot of complaints about it so i'll work towards making it feel better in any future game with rolling.

Anyways, I'm glad you enjoyed what you played despite the issues!

[Bunker 45]

Call me lazy or paranoid or whatever, but I really don't want to have to create an account just to play this game!

Based on the trailers, I'm sure it's a lovely game, and I'd like to give you the benefit of the doubt that you aren't going to maliciously misuse the data you've gathered, but I think it's just too much of a roadblock to put in front of players when A) I don't even know if the game is worth the hassle B) there are loads of other games I could be playing instead that don't ask for this stuff and operate just fine with saving and all that C) there are plenty games that use accounts but also allow you to use a 'guest' account to take a peek and see if it's worth it D) having to make an account and be online makes me worried about the longevity of the game and ability to access it in future E) from what I hear, it's not even a multiplayer game, so why?

[The Legend of Quintavius]

Hmm, this one was pretty rough for me and I found myself quitting rather quickly.

For one, the game is absolutely overloaded with too much exposition and dialogue, and even when the game isn't delivering text, it's giving these cutscenes with incredibly slow pacing. I'm sure it's a very nice LOTR-esque story, but I don't want to have to get through all this text before I'm allowed to get a taste of what the actual gameplay is!

Having said that, though, I don't think the gameplay was worth slogging through all that text and cutscenes to get to. I like the concept of supporting your army by healing them and attacking monsters and so on, but it just felt overly simplistic and monotonous with how easy it was to just loop between healing and fireballing. Even worse was how healing and fireballing felt so unsatisfying due to a lack of feedback, and the fighting of allies vs enemies was so dull and muddy, lacking any sort of pizazz. Perhaps the game gets better with enemy units that challenge you to use different tactics, but after 2 boring fights, I wasn't inclined to stick around and see, especially since I'd need to read through another bookload of text to get to it.

As said, it's not a bad concept as I've seen other games like 'HEAL ME PLZ' explore this concept as well and be quite fun. But the execution here felt quite lacking and it seemed more effort was put in the story than the gameplay.

Also, a little side note: I was confused as to why the game requires you to use the mouse to advance text when everything else is done using the keyboard keys? Feels weird to be forced to switch back and forth instead of just sticking with one control scheme.

[DEMI DAGGERS]

Hmm, bit mixed on this one as it can feel a bit more like an impressive tech demo/port than a fun game, but I still found it to be a decent experience!

As said, I'm not too familiar with Pico-8, but from the little bits I've picked up over time, I'm sure putting together something like this within the limitations of the system was very impressive, even more so when you give the player all these fancy editing tools. Overall the game does seem to capture that Devil Daggers vibe decently, and it even adds its own little twists on the formula with these spiders and acid spewers and such.

However, as much as I wanted to get in a trance and dagger some devils all over the place, I did have a lot of issues that made the experience a bit rough for me.

*First and foremost, the default controls were a bit awkward. Not sure why the mouse sensitivity is so damn high by default, and I'm not sure why ESDF was used over the more commonplace WASD, especially since it doesn't seem to use the extra keyboard real estate to map any other buttons: maybe it's a regional thing? Also why do you only jump on releasing space instead of on pressing it? There was also a weird issue where I kept having to refocus the window by clicking on it when transferring between scenes, like between picking up the daggers and starting the game proper.

*Next, the gameplay felt a bit awkward in a lot of respects. Devil Daggers is great in how smooth, fast, and sharp it feels, and this felt like the exact opposite, unfortunately. The character feels like he moves much slower, the visuals are much more blurry and hard to parse, and the hitboxes for objects felt confusing in that I would miss thing I felt I was hitting spot on, or I would get hurt by enemies I thought didn't hit me (actually, most of the time it was the opposite, I'd actually not get hit by enemies I thought were gonna hit me).

*Couldn't tell if the audio was trying to pull off some sort of 3D audio to help me keep track of enemies around me since it felt like the sound just kept devolving into this crackly chaos.

Eventually I kind of got used to the different feel and had a good time, but still, a bit of an awkward first impression!

freds72 responds:

thanks for the detailed feedback.
the mouse sensitivity is in my todo list.

some more visual cues on where are ennemies may indeed be needed.

[Le Chat Fonce and the Secret of the Clock Tower]

Hmm, bit mixed on this one!

On one hand, the initial impressions were pretty high! Feels like the Chat Fonce series has had a serious graphical facelift, and I felt like the 3D environments and movements were very nice and smooth! I liked the way that the camera was flexing its skills by framing the scene at the start, and speaking of the camera, the way that it is more zoomed-out now helps deal with the rather cramped and claustrophobic feel that the previous games had, which made it much easier and enjoyable to navigate the world.

On the other hand, though, the game still didn't do quite enough to impress me to keep me engaged the whole way through, and I found myself dropping off midway. The world just felt rather dull and lifeless, all looking very similar, lacking any sort of special effects, sound or pizazz. It didn't help either that certain quality-of-life features were absent, such as how if you press a key while text is being typed out, it skips to the next line instead of just filling out the text as it properly should.

It's cute, and I like the upgrades, but could still use a bit more meat on its bones for an appealing experience, I think!