FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Golf Adventures! 2]

Pretty good mini golf game here! Overall it feels very smooth and well-presented, its got loads of content and variety, nice subtle touches like the sound quality, and has a surprising amount of quality-of-life options! Well done all-around!

While I am overall positive on the experience, I did encounter a few bumps along the road that I'd give as feedback:

*I don't know if it's just me being stupid, but I kept second-guessing myself and getting confused as to whether I was supposed to drag my mouse in front or behind the ball to power up the swing. For some reason, when I see that power bar stretch out from the ball, I see that as the club back-swing, not the intended path of the ball? Again, maybe it's just me, but I wonder if something about the visuals could be changed to make it more obvious.

*I did find it annoying that you don't have enough camera control to see the entire course at once, which makes it feel very unfair as you can't plan out your strategy. Sure you can zoom out the camera, but 1) I feel like it should be zoomed out by default and not make me do it everytime 2) zooming isn't enough to get a full picture as I need panning too and 3) using the mousewheel to zoom makes the browser window scroll because you didn't lock the cursor to the game.

*I felt like it was a bit tricky starting out? It's not that bad, but some of the early courses required some crazy level of precision (going up those hills and having to land in that tiny flat spot inbetween was terrible) that I felt should've been left for later courses once you've warmed up to the game.

*I'm not sure what the continue option is? Why is the next level, the obvious and most-used button you're going to select to continue with your adventure, not put at the top of the list for easy access?

Aleksander-Sats responds:

Thank you so much for really well detailed feedback! I really appreciate it! :D
So here is my response to all that! :)

"and has a surprising amount of quality-of-life options!" We are going to very soon actually release update v2.1.0 which is primarily a Quality of Life update, we are adding a bunch of nice improvements as well as fixing many bugs.

*I see. I didn't think people could get confused but Thanks for the feedback! I will try to make it more obvious which way you are shooting in 2.1.0! :)

*We are adding Freecam in 2.1.0 which you can access in the pause menu, it works great so far! 1) Personally we find the default zoom fine. it's how it is in the prequel so I guess the main reason is due to that. 2) We read into that issue where using the scroll-wheel causes the whole page to scroll. The last time we checked, it's an issue with the webpage and not our game and there isn't much we can do about it apparently. I did however find something else so perhaps it's fixable, well see. In any case if it isn't fixable, we already added a camera zoom slider so you don't have to go to settings for that due to this scrolling issue. 3)

*A bit tricky? Hmmm well we've done more than at least 10 full playthrough's to bug test everything and I don't find it tricky. That being said I am skilled versus a novice thanks to that so I can't really well tell sometimes. The main strategy is using walls and doing 45 degree angles. We have significantly improve the balance on the difficulties of levels compared to the prequel. Seriously the prequel is quite difficult (*cough* Ice 20 & Mech 30).. Anyway back to topic. Perhaps we can switch around the level order to smoothen the difficulty.

*The continue buttons main purpose is really to unpause. That being said you do have a fair point as there are many ways to unpause including pressing the same button you pause with. (Now that I am thinking about it, it is rather pointless.) I guess we will remove it.

[Rocket to the Top]

Oh, man, this is a rough one for me! I actually do quite like the challenge that this game brings and found myself getting a bit addicted to mastering the controls. But lord have mercy, the first impression was absolutely brutal, and 9 times out of 10 I probably would've noped out of this pronto! It's probably a testament to how good and polished the general presentation and feel of the game is that somehow compelled me to give it the benefit of the doubt and keep trying until I grew attached.

As said, the controls of this game are so hard to acclimate to: not only are they highly unorthodox, everything is just so fast and unwieldly, requiring such precise and light tippity-taps of the keys, culminating in a hopeless unrecoverable feeling if you stray even slightly. It cramps up my hands with how bloody delicate you need to be! Would love if everything was just slowed/powered down a bit overall to make controlling and adjustments easier.

In a way, while the game is quite challenging, it is forgiving, but I feel it does so in an awkward unsatisfying way. Typically a game like this would require you to clear the board of coins all in a single trip, with any crashes resetting the board. However, this game instead makes it so that only rubies are reset upon death, meaning that you could, as long as its within the time limit, make a bunch of separate suicidal runs to collect all the coins and then exit.

It's generous in a way, but death and frustration are much more so in this game with the method it chose, I think. I dunno about others, but I would prefer a game where I need to collect everything in a single run but the controls are much slower and smoother, than this game with unwieldly controls but you have as many runs as you want in a time limit. I know it's silly since the two methods kind of equal out, but it just feels better one way!

In terms of some quality of life, I wish there was a way to restart the level if you're in a 'dead man walking' state, aka you can see that you don't have enough time left to collect everything and make it to the exit. Also, would like a way to immediately retry/go back to a level you just beat: sometimes when I was trying to finish collecting everything I brushed past the exit and ended prematurely.

This one is definitely for the hardcore masochists!

platformalist responds:

Hi FutureCopLGF! Thanks so much for the thoughtful review <3

I agree that this game has appealed more to people on the hardcore side of things, and I'd be lying if I said that your response didn't mirror a few of my playtesters. Once I'd realized how tough the game was for folks unaccustomed to the controls, the game design was done and it didn't make a ton of sense to revisit and make the core of it easier (which would have required a full rework of ... well ... everything!). So it was like - polish this thing for the masochists to enjoy, get it out the door and make my next game easier!

Again, really appreciate your detailed, thoughtful review. :)

[RECURSION]

Pretty neat puzzle game! The concept is nice and gets iterated upon with lots of different obstacles, the presentation and warpy music have a sort of goofy yet mysterious charm to it, it's got some nice quality-of-life like forgiving hitbox collision, and so on: it's a solid short and sweet game that hooks you in effectively, so well done overall!

If I were to have any feedback:

*Some of the puzzle advancements and level design felt kind of silly. For example, the aspect of the finish line heart changing to have color outlines felt like a dumb trap 'gotcha' mechanic. Having to move through the long pipes by transitioning from one direction to another was also a bit awkward. In general, I felt like the middle portion of the game had some weird overly complex levels, then suddenly the final few levels had more straightforward and easier levels that I enjoyed involving the moving color-swapping balls: maybe the order could be rearranged for a better difficulty curve?

*It seems like you can exploit the game by moving diagonally? It requires some precision on your inputs as if you aren't exact it will switch the color, but if you make sure to press two directions at the same time, you can move through the level diagonally while keeping the colors the same the whole time. I was able to use this to skip a lot of elements that would've required me to route through the course differently.

*Would've loved if there was some sort of par score system, like getting medals for making it through a level with minimal color swapping: would've been fun to find the ultimate optimal route. Also, while the game is short, I would've liked a continue or level select option if you need to take a break.

*Ending was a bit of a bummer, though I'm not even sure what the story was in the first place, if there even was a story? It feels like there is, but it's very vague.

[Mini Over Game]

Hey, this was a pretty neat little arcade game you got here! The whole aspect of having to play multiple mini-games simultaneously was rather novel and challenging, and I enjoyed trying to juggle them as best as I could. I like the variety of games present (though I wish there were even more and it kept escalating further) and the general presentation and construction was polished. I also liked the little weird touches the game had, like the way you can click and hold on the title graphic to make it shrink and invert for some reason: felt like Mario 64, haha!

I definitely did have a bit of a rough time learning the game at first, as the game doesn't make the controls very apparent: for example, I didn't realize I had to switch to using AD when the third game popped-up as I assumed it was also going to use the arrow keys. It's be nice if the control prompts were made larger and were given clearer warning.

This is just me, but I also thought it would've been interesting if some of the games had overlapping/intersecting controls, like if they all had to be controlled with the arrow keys and you had to manage when that would clash in clever ways, but it's fine as it is: just food for thought!

Also, I'm not sure what difference the difficulty choices make: to be honest, they seemed to be the same to me, but maybe I'm missing something subtle.

[Blood of Vladula jr.]

Hmm, a bit mixed on this one!

For the most part, I do think this is a pretty decent platformer adventure. I enjoy that there are a lot of bonus secret collectables that can be challenging to get, and I also felt like the levels are paced well, always introducing some new elements like breakable floors, movable platforms, new enemies, and so on, to keep things interesting. The premise and graphics are also rather cute and charming.

On the other side, though, it really does feel like a bog-standard platformer with nothing special to it: just the bare basics. As said, it's ok, but it is easy to lose interest and move on since it isn't supplying anything unique, nor is it particularly well-done or juicy.

I will say that some of the controls and rules were a bit difficult to figure out at first. For example, I had no idea I could double-jump (or rather bat-hover) for the longest time, and I feel lucky that I had a chance to see the pick-up prompt to let me learn about picking up and throwing enemies. I also found it annoying to figure out which enemies can be jumped on and which can't: it seemed so arbitrary. I also felt like the jumping physics were a bit awkward with the way you immediately start going down instead of retaining some momentum when you let go of the jump button.

[Diner in the Storm]

Wow, this was a really cool point and click adventure! I had a bit of a worried first impression at first, seeing the weird graphical downgrade of the title screen compared to the thumbnail, thinking I might've been duped with some low-effort nostalgia bait, but once everything got going proper, the game mesmerized me with how intriguing it was! The rich amount of choices, spooky events, and interactions present really impressed me, especially since it still felt very well-paced and not bogged-down from them. Great stuff all-around!

As much as I do like it, though, I dunno if I have it in me to see every ending, as much as I'd like to. Wonder if there could be some way to fast-forward the process, like to skip straight to the part after the generator, though I suppose since you can have effects on trust from practically the beginning, it might be unavoidable. For now, I've only got ending #5.

[Fit Cats]

Hmm, not much to say here! It's pretty much a suika game clone, but where other suika game clones put an interesting twist on the mechanics or add a lot of juice/pizazz to the experience, this one just seems to be a palette swap where fruits are replaced with cats. It's not necessarily a bad game as it still recreates that addictive suika gameplay, but it's just not that exciting: I had an ok time, but easily grew bored of the repetitive music, weird sounding cut-off meows, and so on.

[Ice And Fire Tower Defence]

Hmm, I think the game is rather cute and I'm always down for a fun tower defense auto-battler game, but I had a really rough time with this as it just felt very confusing and mindless.

I really wanted to engage in a tactical fight with the enemy, but the game just moves too fast and doesn't give enough feedback or information to give me something to go on. It would've been so helpful if there were tooltips where I could learn unit attributes like their role, strength and weaknesses, and it'd also be helpful if I could see how well my troop attacks are doing, such as with damage number pop-ups or health bars, as it all gets lost when they stack up into a chaos of combat where I can't tell if they're attacking or getting damaged, winning or losing.

Because of all that, and the way that resources seemed to keep growing faster than I could spend them, the gameplay just devolved into spamming, with both teams pretty much equalizing in the center and making no progress. I tried to experiment myself to find out unit properties, but it all just gets lost in the chaos due to a lack of feedback.

Perhaps I'm just missing what the ideal strategy is, but I don't think the game is doing well enough at giving me enough information/hints to find it. Still, I think you're on the right track, and the UI and all that was decently put together.

octopus58 responds:

Hello, thanks for checking out the game! I understand it might be a bit intimidating because of the speed, I purposely went more for a think fast and adapt design. There is a wiki article if you are interested describing unit attributes, types, hints, etc but I understand that it not being accessible straight from the game can be a little frustrating. I've seen people adapt a few strategies, and I linked a somewhat simple one in the description as a video, but I do see some people struggle a little with finding an efficient strategy (especially with spacing out troops). I do appreciate the feedback though, it feels good to know all the different thoughts and ideas. Thank you again!

[Sine Surfer]

Hmm, this is a decent little arcade game you got here! The whole aspect of being stuck to a track and only being able to slow down or speed up makes dodging a rather novel experience, and the enemy design, such as the muncher that is always chasing you, adds a nice element of push-and-pull that forces you to speed up away from slow, boring, cautious play. It's a nice, simple game and I had a few times where I got into a really addicted trance state, so well done.

If I did have a few points for feedback they'd be:

I was a bit disappointed that the game didn't evolve past its initial setup: would've loved if, as you reach certain thresholds, the game starts introducing new enemy types, obstacles, and so on. With only a incremental speed upgrade, the game starts to get quite dull, and the unlocking of flavors isn't that exciting.

Speaking about flavors, I was confused on what the point of the flavors were at first. Call me an idiot, but I kept selecting new ones, starting a game, and being confused as to why nothing was different, only to realize later on that you need to press a button to activate them: feels like an unnecessary step as you'd think selecting them would just immediately change it.

Was a bit disappointed that the game doesn't save your previous top score and flavor unlocks on a revisit.

Also, it's a minor wish, but I wish that the character itself would change to reflect its life, instead of the life counter being tucked away in the corner where it is difficult to see in the action. In a manner similar to Balloon Fight, you could've made the character lose a ball for every point of damage they take.

Roverkibb responds:

I'm glad you enjoyed it! I agree that I could have made the flavour selection a bit less complex since a lot of people seemed to have trouble with that. Lots of good suggestions here too. I wanted to keep the game very very simple since it was the first one I planned on fully developing and releasing, but I'll keep your ideas in mind if I ever make a sequel (working title: cosine surfer).

[Shape Crash]

Pretty decent puzzle game you got here! For the most part, it seems like a twist on the suika game which removes the size-growing aspect and replaces it with a more simple and traditional match-to-disappear system. Because of this, I didn't necessarily find it as novel or interesting, but it still felt well put-together in terms of overall construction and presentation. It didn't blow me away, but I didn't hate it either: it's ok.

If I had any complaints they'd be that:

It's not that complex of a game, but I felt like the help/tutorial section could've been done a bit better: right now it's just a big wall of text which is difficult to read. Ideally it could be spaced out or edited to be shorter, or even better, it could be replaced with more images/animations/video demonstrations.

I had a bit of a bad first impression, since I played the game on easy, where it's, well, a bit too easy: there just isn't enough variety in piece types to create a fun sort of stacked-up chaos and improvisation that the game wants, leading to me being bored to tears. I know you could say it's my fault, but I didn't know any better and lacked direction: perhaps the game should just direct the player to the ideal experience with just a single difficulty, or maybe having the difficulty increase as you go up in levels, and so on.

I also really feel like the game needs some music, or more pizazz to make up for the lack of music: without it, the game can be painfully dry and silent.

EDIT: Revisited on hard mode and had a pretty good time: really warmed up to the game! Final score: 7470

JacksonTXG responds:

Aside from the music, I can probably make the experience more catered to the player by making some adjustments to the overall gameplay. For the tutorial, I can see your point, and I'll try to make it short and simple in the future. As for the origin of this game, it's quite simple: I planned to make a Halloween game with the same match concept but with different candies in different sizes, but failed to finish on time. I soon refined the design with this project. Thanks for the feedback, and for playing the game.