FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Kid Phoenix Demo]

Hmm, it certainly shows some promise as a cool speedrun precision platformer. The art is nice and the obstacle course you've setup is decent and so on and so forth...but man, the controls just felt not only terribly unintuitive, but randomly inconsistent!

Out of all the control issues, walljumping was the biggest issue. Whether it be trying to jump up the wall or jumping away from the wall, nothing seemed to work properly. Trying to jump up the wall was inconsistent: sometimes I'd jump up as expected, but a majority of the time the character would just stutter and not do anything. Jumping away from the wall felt bad because there is no split-second stickiness when you press away from the wall which means you typically lose height from the brief period between inputting the movement and then the jump command: if you try to input them at the same time or too fast to compensate, though, you end up not jumping away from the wall properly.

The only way I could get walljumping to work somewhat to make it through the game was to awkwardly let go of the wall and then try to jump up or away from that neutral aerial position, as jumping from a wallcling position wouldn't work properly, as discussed.

Other than that, there was just a lot of other awkwardness. The character would end up feeling overly sticky where I'm just trying to jump up between platforms and even though I'm practically going to land on top of it, the character keeps stopping and going down to cling to the edge of the platform instead of just getting on top.

As a side note, I totally forgot that diving even existed as a move: I wonder if someone could be done to make that more important or useful? It was also weird how the water cannons only sometimes shoot water? Dunno why they are so inconsistent: it is intentional, or a bug? Also the torch checkpoints should keep your fire bar maxed as long as you're standing next to them instead of draining: I don't think I should have to walk away and back to refill it.

I want to like this game, but it definitely needs some work between this demo and the final version. Hopefully this feedback helps and it is reborn from the flame with new vigor!

[The Test of Insanity]

Cute game! Feels very much like a successor to The Impossible Quiz, what with its wide variety of questions and minigames, and its focus on mind-bending trickery and lateral thinking. As someone who already played The Impossible Quiz back in the day, I was already very familiar with the tricks this game was playing (for example, the math question where the answer is clicking on a number within the question) so I didn't have too much trouble making my way through, but all in all, it was a nice, enjoyable, goofy adventure!

If there were any complaints, it'd be:

*As said, it might just be because I'm already familiar with this kind of game, but I made it through rather quickly and was left hungry for more, so yeah, it's a bit short! Also it is kind of rehashing a lot of stuff that's come before, so I'm not quite sure if it has its own unique voice or appeal yet: in a way, the game kind of makes you want to go back and play the Impossible Quiz instead of seeing this as the superior version.

*The game felt a little bit dry, especially with no music: could maybe stand to have some more aspects to pep it up.

*I feel like it was somewhat awkward to have the scroll-clicking game as the very first thing you encounter. For a quiz game like this, I feel it'd be better to start with something more standard, like the question about fish, then later on you can get into the more action-y minigames. It's not bad, just made the pacing a bit strange, but maybe that's just because it actually took me a while to figure it out and I'm just compensating, haha.

jacklehamster responds:

Thanks, great feedback!

[WOP]

I feel bad reviewing this because I actually have no clue what the whole Drake and Kendrick beef is (sorry I live under a rock) but nevertheless, while I might not understand all the references, I can appreciate the humor and effort put into the game: there's just so much to play around with like different backgrounds, music, and characters all with their own animations, and there's a lot of charming touches like how if you idle, Drake gets a chance to sneak in a cheeky attack. That's quite impressive that the game is so neat despite me not understanding anything! Also this game just really feels like classic Newgrounds Assassin material: topical humor and beating up celebs never gets old!

I gotta admit though, that once you look past all of that (which again is very easy for me to do because I'm not familiar with the source material) the game just feels very shallow and is kind of style-over-substance. While most clicker games have an addicting sense of progression to them with all sorts of unlocks, the unlocks in this game barely feel noticeable and don't feel to be leading anywhere: once you play the game for a few seconds, you've pretty much seen everything it has to offer. In a way, maybe the game is too generous, giving you all the fun toys right from the start: I feel a bit silly holding that against it, haha!

You should get bonus points if you slap him to the beat, and especially to the wop!

[The Newgrounds Bug Collab]

Yowza, what a cool art collab! I love to see art collabs that present the art in a very creative and compelling fashion, and this game delivers that in spades with its wonderful Pokemon-esque world that you explore in! I enjoyed all the people and things you can interact with in the world, and I enjoyed the zoo with all its marvelous bugs and fancy cages, and very much appreciated its plaques that contain links to the artist's profile. I couldn't help but wish the game was full-on Pokemon with being able to collect and battle these critters, but I understand that's a big ask and I already applaud the effort that was put into this: well done!

In terms of feedback:

*I found it very odd how the bugs move around: instead of smoothly transitioning between grid spaces like the player does, they insta-teleport around. It's kinda scary, almost like they're SCP-esque monsters! I'm guessing it was done because it was too much to ask the artists to make walk cycle sprites in addition to all the directional poses, but even then, I wouldn't mind and would prefer a more smooth and slow movement instead of the teleporting, even if it looks a bit odd that the legs don't animate.

*The glass in front of the cages, particularly the thick upper line of them, really bothered me as it is constantly blocking the bugs and not allowing me to see them clearly. Wish it was made thinner or transparent or taller so it doesn't end up occluding them.

*The place is absolutely huge! Wish there was something like a map so I could easily get a read of the museum layout and plan out my trip, and I also wish the map design had more shortcuts and would constantly lead into the lobby instead of having long stretches that lead to dead-ends that you then need to backtrack on. Could stand to have some fast travel checkpoints (I thought this is what these elevator door things were) and maybe change up the colors of some of the rooms to represent different wings and allow you to mental map the facility better.

Frosty responds:

thanks for the good reviews as always!!

[Pumpkin's Sky Tea]

Pretty cute game! Love the presentation and vibes that this game gives off, and as a fan of games like Euro Truck, Elite Dangerous, New Horizons and so on, the trading aspect alongside some SHMUP combat was very compelling and right up my alley! The inclusion of meaningless but amusing aspects like a meow button were very charming, and the goal of the game being to purchase cat pictures was hilarious (and not a bad motivation!)

However, as cute as the cat pictures were and all that, I had to admit that the game quickly became repetitive and just wasn't keeping my attention. The SHMUP gameplay felt very shallow and never seemed to evolve in any interesting way as the game went on, making it end up feeling like annoying filler before long, and the trading was all the same as well. Trading was a bit of a bummer too because while I want to buy cat pictures periodically as I play for a reward, that seems like a dumb idea because it removes my trading power, so its better to just keep trading and buy all the pictures at the end in one fell swoop, which makes it such a slog.

I think what this game really needed was some sense of progression: typically the charm of these trading games is upgrading your ship for bigger cargo loads or faster speed or the ability to utilize new routes, giving it an addicting sense of escalation. In this game, however, your ship remains the same and all routes and goods are open to you immediately, and since all you blow your money on is cat pictures, it feels like a loss and makes everything else feels unchanging as you just run the same loop over and over.

All in all, it's still impressive given its a game jam game, and the cat is very cute, but yeah, just wish it had a bit more meat to its core gameplay loop!

Chris responds:

Thanks! I agree with a lot of what you have said which is why I plan to make another and build on it a bit. The short time frame for the game jam was quite limiting in what I was able to pull off.

[Late Awakening]

Pretty decent puzzle game! It's got that usual brokellusion stylish and smooth presentation and feel, but in a rather unusual and welcome twist, this breaks free from the puzzle-platformer genre and is refreshingly different with its mouse-based controls and puzzles! The game overall has a lot of novelty going for it with many wildly different puzzles: you start out with what you'd expect, being these Irritating Stick/Operation games where you move the mouse through a deadly maze, but later on the game changes up significantly with Flappy Bird clones and all sorts. It feels reminiscient of a warioware game, or one of Bart Bonte's abstract puzzlers. Overall, it is quite fun!

While the game does have a lot of novelty and that does keep things fresh, at the same time it felt like the game didn't have a strong unifying vision: none of the puzzles get time to breath or evolve in interesting or challenging ways before they are put away for some new toy. As such, the game rarely feels compelling: rather it is just distracting me from how little there is. Not the best analogy, but I wanted a big burger I could really sink my teeth into, but all I got was a small pack of trail mix: sure it technically has a lot of flavors in there, but it's just not that satisfying as a meal.

In addition, there were a few bugs and other complications. I had a block-pushing puzzle bug out on me and complete before I was even finished with it for some reason, and the mouse moves very oddly and out-of-sync at times which can be a huge detriment for time trials where precision is key. Speaking of time trials, I probably can't even beat this game because my old man joints just can't deal with the rapid clicking that is needed for the final circle-growing venn diagram puzzle: wish it would allow me to click and hold, or perhaps make each click grow bigger so less are needed (and you could keep the difficulty by increasing the rate at which they shrink, so it still maintains its balancing aspect).

[Xhive]

This one was a bit of a surprise!

Once I saw that the levels were randomly-generated, I got really worried because this usually results in some rather unexciting combat and potentially unfair/unbalanced moments due to haphazard placement. After all, the whole reason I like SHMUPs is because how elegantly their waves and sequences are designed for maximum coolness.

However, while I do still wish it was handcrafted, I had a lot more fun with how this turned out than I thought, most likely because of the enemy design and how they can create a lot of interesting and challenging patterns naturally. So yeah, neat little game, and the graphics and effects are quite juicy!

If I were to have any complaints, it's that sometimes the juicy explosions can be a bit too much, in that they can cover up critical information such as bullets. Visual clarity could also be helped a bit if the color palette was widened a bit so that enemies could be more easily differentiated in the chaos.

[Starship Bullet]

Hmm, not much to say: seems like a decent Asteroids-esque arcade game that should be fun, but ultimately it didn't hook me or keep my interest for long as it feels rather generic and overly simplistic, repetitive due to the lack of variety and a bit frustrating due to the controls and way the world and enemies are designed (for example, it's very easy to crash into enemies due to the camera not giving enough leeway or them just spawning right in your way).

[DEAD DETENTION #1 (Rescribbled)]

Neat visual novel you got here! The story is a bit too goofy and packed with anime cliches for my old man sensibilities, but I was really impressed at the stylish sketchbook presentation and overall smooth, polished feel to the gameplay and interface. Where a lot of visual novels are very static and filled with portraits talking at each other for hours that can sap my energy, this had a lot of unique art, minigames and so on to keep things lively and engaging.

While it is pretty promising, there were a few points that I feel could use some work:

*I was a bit disappointed with the minigames, particularly in that there is no way to fail at them, making them feel rather pointless. I would much prefer if winning or losing at the minigames would branch the story in different and exciting ways, or affect your character's stats which can make differences later on in the actions they take, similar to other more action-based visual novels like Indigo Prophecy, Until Dawn, and so on.

*I like the idea of decisions affecting your stats, but this episode didn't provide any instance where we could see how those stats affect anything. Perhaps it is planned to only have effects way later down the road, but I'd like to see proof of the system in action early on so I don't feel like I'm being sold a false bill of goods (ever heard of Mass Effect 3?) For example, it'd be nice if being negative earlier on makes you reluctant to help out in finding the sister, so the story branches there, though perhaps only for a bit before he rejoins and helps out.

*There was a distinct lack of quality-of-life features, such as there being no save/load feature, no text log so you can review things being said, no skip feature, and so on. I can understand being hesitant with save/load features so that people need to live with their choices instead of save scumming, but still, what if I need to take a break and want to continue later on?

Looking forward to seeing how the rest of the episodes develop!

JackAstral responds:

All good suggestions - thanks! I’ll keep some of those in mind for the next ones :-)

[The Gauntlet]

Hmm, for the most part I liked what this game was trying to do! The whole death-gameshow aspect reminds me of something like Smash TV or The Running Man, and I liked trying to react quickly to make it through these randomly-generated deadly obstacle courses while also grabbing any bonus cash that I could, which usually requires taking an extra risk. As frustrating as it was that I could barely make a dent into my debt, I can begrudgingly appreciate that it's probably the point, haha!

That being said, the game didn't keep my attention for long as I started seeing the same room layouts over and over only a short bit into the game, many of them quite sparse and not that exciting, making it all feel rather repetitive. The controls were also rather frustrating with me constantly accidently activating the dash when I didn't want to because I'm trying to move back and forth quickly to stay on a platform, for example.

The worst part of the game for me was the whole metaprogression and daily login stuff: it felt completely unnecessary and threw off the balance of the game. I had no idea that revives were a limited item that you can only recover once every 24 hours, and so I blew all five on my first run, thinking that it would be like any other game where I'd get them back on a new run, and now I need to wait five days just so I can have a fair chance at playing again? Why on earth would you incentivize players to stay away from your game and be so unfair and punishing?

Also a small nitpick: the music in the intro is so loud that it drowns out the voice actor. There could definitely be some audio balancing here and there.

blit-blat responds:

Starting with the revives - it’s to incentive people to download the app, where they can buy more revives. Yes, in-app purchases are scummy, but I’ve got bills to pay! Think I’ve tried to get the balance right, this game is no means pay to win!

There’s 100 rooms (101 if you include the start screen), so you shouldn’t see too many repeats early on. That said there’s no restriction on the rooms, so it possible to see level A, B, A, B, etc back to back, depending on how RNGesus is feeling! Something to look into, along with the Audi balancing.

And yeah, it’s definitely meant to be hard (but still possible!) to pay off your debt! No one escapes the gauntlet!