FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Detective Bass: Fish Out Of Water]

Nice game! It feels a bit clunky and awkward for controls and graphics in some minor respects, but for the most part I found the game quite engaging and addictive to go around and collect all of the clues, especially due to the very amusing and varied dialogue/mouth-sounds/portraits between the characters and the way it kept adding and tying up threads. The notepad mechanic was pretty impressive with how it kept track of all the various clues and let you present them to whoever for their response. I also liked how the music subtly changed as you moved through rooms.

As mentioned, there were a couple of rough patches here and there, but nothing too major:

I didn't like how the intro moves along without your input, making you read faster than you might be comfortable with.

Interacting with the notepad was a bit clunky at first: for example, my first instinct was to look for a back-button for certain things, like going back to the list of people after looking at an individual, and I kept trying to click off the notepad in empty space to close it only to realize I had to click on the notepad icon itself to close. Those and other aspects like it were fine and I got used to it, but it just felt a little unintuitive.

There were inconsistencies in signaling for interactions: for some reason, despite everyone having an exclamation point above them when you can talk to them, the salmon filet doesn't have any response which made me think I couldn't do anything with it at first, then the frying pan does get a highlight despite the salmon not having one...weird stuff. Because of this, it made me really unsure if I was missing clues and whether I should just be spamming the interact key to get something that might not be highlighted.

There were also some weird interaction logic, like how you can have the food ready for the captain and show him it directly, but that doesn't work: you need to go back and redo the question about the business contract and that leads into giving him the pie. Speaking of that, you can also have all 6 people who dislike the chef's food ready to go, but the chef will brush you off the first time you bring this up despite being ready: it's only until you repeat the same question that you bring up you have all 6 (this led me on a weird goose chase since I figured I needed one more since he didn't react the first time despite it). Similarly, you just have to talk to a lady normally to ask about make-up instead of being specific and asking them about the clue about the make-up, for some reason.

I liked it, but I did have to admit that I got pretty annoyed once I discovered that it had no save/load function. Yes, I imagine it might not be that long of a game if you played it straight, but it can be rather arduous with the amount of interactions and questions you need to make, and now realizing I would have to do that again...yeah, kinda kills my motivation. Yes, yes, I know, it was most likely cut because of game jam time limits and all, but still, its a bummer.

[Super Gravoor]

Pretty decent little game! Reminds me of other games like Irritating Stick or Super Monkey Ball with this maze-like thread-the-needle arcade-style gameplay. It's certainly a simple yet fun concept, I liked the polished presentation, and for the most part I felt like the game did a good job at changing up the layouts and introducing new mechanics and hazards to keep things interesting.

However as I got further I slowly started to lose my interest due both by the game recycling similar levels/hazards, having some really long and/or annoying trial-and-error levels, and also just being a bit bland in general. It just got kinda repetitive. I certainly wouldn't call it bad, but it wasn't quite great either: was just a merely good, average-ish game.

When I first started the game I thought it might be a bit more faster with the movement being more momentum-based and drifty and wall-bouncy like Super Monkey Ball, so I was a bit let-down that it was so slow and plain and so punishing for hitting walls: not saying that the game needs to be like Super Monkey Ball, and it's my own fault for having weird expectations, but it did feel like the game lacked a certain je ne sais quoi, leaning itself to that 'blandness' I felt.

In terms of other feedback:

I found it a bit odd that, when you pick up a key, that the doors remain and wait for you to approach before they open and then re-close: typically I'd expect the doors to disappear immediately when you pick up the key, or leave behind a ghost of where they were. The fact that they were still there kind of threw me off: sometimes I would think 'wait, did I not pick up the key?" when I saw they were still there.

I wasn't a big fan of the levels with the false exits, or the landmines, or the doors that suddenly appear out of nowhere to close on you: those mechanics just felt like pretty annoying gotchas that didn't add much, but rather detracted from the experience.

There were also some weird bugs like, when growing big, only some of the rock dudes would get scared while others remained stoic, which made me unsure whether I could barrel into them or if they were immune exceptions for some reason.

[Waha's Robot Daze]

Hmm, quite the interesting and unique game! For the most part, I like what it's going for with this mix of adventure/exploration and block-based puzzle segments alongside more classic arcade puzzle challenges, with a quirky story of an outta-time witch narrative tying them altogether. The twist of having both segments done through a character you move around was nice as well since it kept things consistent and was a fun inversion of typical arcade puzzlers which are done with the player as some unseen godlike force. Was also impressed at the freedom allowed in the arcade segment, where you could make matches with blocks still falling, or blocks being help up by the player, when you're expect matches could only be made by in-place blocks. It's pretty dang cool for the most part!

The game was somewhat rough for me in a lot of aspects, though, and dragged the experience down a peg.

*The biggest fault I could find was that, overall, the controls and movement felt very finicky and needs a real delicate hand, which served to stress me out. It was impossible to make quick and precise combinations of movements reliably because of the weird lagtime and dropped inputs: hell, something as simple as turning around on the spot was tricky as if you linger on the key a bit too long you can end up moving and screwing yourself over.

*Another aspect that lent itself to this rough feel was the lack of inbetween animations: the fact that actions such as placing a block down or going to the top of a tower of blocks happen instanteously just not only felt so cheap, but also made it very confusing as the amount of displacement done in such a short timeframe can be staggering. If there were just a few frames where the blocks or player glides into position from an action, at the very least, it'd help a lot to make it feel less janky.

*The adventure also started to feel quite repetitive with re-used environments and awkward transitions: a great example of this was a weird segment of three arcade segments done in sequence with all of them looking the same and all of them starting with you awkwardly standing right by the trap with no elegant transition animation of walking in from off-screen. It made it all feel so disconnected.

*There were also a lot of weird unexplained facets, like what was the goal to get out of the arcade sequences: is it a certain point limit? Having to clear the board? Making a certain amount of matches? I'd get out of them all eventually by playing, but it'd be nice to be able to determine whether I'm making progress.

*The save system was also quite frustrating: I made it past a whole sequence of arcade games and fell down a pit into an exploration segment. I quit and then came back later to continue, only for it to put me all the way back at the start of the arcade game sequence!

[Painstaking Deliveries]

Hrmmm, I hate to say this, as I'm typically a fan of these games, but I just found this experience to be quite boring and lacking any sort of interesting hook or escalation. Yes, the characters and story are very quirky and amusing, the artwork is quite charming with a lot of cute easter eggs, it's neat that you were able to setup this old-school Wolf3D-esque gameplay, I liked the spooky pitter-patter of the zombies as they get closer, and so on, but I just wasn't having any fun: a real style over substance situation, unfortunately.

There were just so many things that didn't feel right to me that led to this really tiresome and bland feeling:

*For example, when a game about delivering pizzas makes it so that the act of delivering has no fanfare or feedback to the point where I wasn't even sure whether I delivered anything since all they do is just shuffle the box, you're really starting off bad.

*You've got a decent variety of enemies, but they're all functionally the same and don't encourage any sort of interesting new strategies of play: you can easily shoot them or just plain ignore them. I really got my hopes up for the stalker enemy thinking they'd be something cool like Nemesis, but no dice.

*Speaking of shooting, it felt very unsatisfying and pointless despite there being some good flinching/dying animations. In theory those animations should've helped give satisfying feedback, but there was just something missing that caused a lack of connection for me.

*It didn't help either that you stay in the same level the entire game, which is not only incredibly small and thus easy to feel like you're just running laps and delivering to the same locations over and over, but has tons of weird annoyances like being unable to walk over a fallen-over fence and a flat-on-the-ground stop sign.

*I also didn't know why there was this system of restocking pizzas back at the base, but they seem infinite, so why is this busy work even here?

As I was playing this, I was just under the assumption that this was some sort of sacrificial test game for your first foray into 3D FPS design: hoping that's the case and we get something cooler in the future by working from this.

[Leap Hero]

Developer, you really need to take a good, long hard look at yourself because I fear that you might be insane.

Why in the world did you hide an excellent Celeste-esque challenging precision platformer with smooth feeling physics and a unique tongue grapple mechanic behind not only one of the most boring bog-standard platformer segments, but then try to actually dissuade the player from continuing? I mean, do you want people to hate your game and miss out? Part of me admires the courage, but as said before, another part of me questions your sanity. Seriously, 9 times out of 10 I would've quit at around the second or third level of the starting sequence because it bored the hell out of me and I would feel fully within my right to assume the rest of the game would be just as boring.

So yeah, as said, the game is definitely pretty neato in many respects (at least eventually), but it does have some rough patches (yes, other than the fact that it starts terribly).

*For one, I found the most satisfying aspect of the game was jumping on enemies, but not only is this discouraged by the sword, but enemies are inconsistent in what you can jump on: for example, why can you not jump on bees when they would be the most exciting to be able to jump on for air travel? I can understand not being able to jump on porcupines, sure, they are spiky, but a bee's stinger isn't on its head! I'm hopefully that jumping on enemies becomes the main attack as the game goes on because it is infinitely more interesting and satisfying than the sword.

*During the platforming, I would have a lot of times where the spikes would screw me over by having hitboxes that were a bit too large. For example, I would tongue grapple so as to fly through a narrow gap that has spikes on the ceiling and floor, yet I would scratch a spike as I go through and die: if my tongue was able to go through without hitting spikes, so should I! There were also times where the spikes were just placed in very annoying spots that you wouldn't be able to see ahead of time, turning it into an unfair bit of trial-and-error until you memorize everything, and even then it's annoying to make jumps to platforms you can't see.

*The boss fight was pretty neat, but it was a bit tiresome with how much it forces you to wait: would like if it was a bit sped-up and not idle around as long as it does.

Again, I can appreciate that the game 'gets good' after a bit, but I would much prefer if the game just started good in the first place! You do you if you want to be a crazy auteur performance artist who isn't afraid of getting an unfair impression from impatient people (who have every right to be impatient), I guess! At least I made it far enough this time, haha!

tkab-games responds:

OMG thank you so much for the review, all I can say is.... YES WE ARE CRAZY xD the purpose of this demo is to really test how much we could hide the game selling point.

From what I've seen so far, most people get to the plot twist, but even so the final game will have a shorter "prologue". Thanks a lot :D

[Jimathon Goes To Business]

Quite the funny little game! Reminds me of other similarly goofy games like Kukkiyomi or Warioware or this one puzzle game I forget the name of where you control where the eyes look in social situations.

For the most part I found the game quite fun, being these varied puzzles and interactions to go through that are solved by clicking and dragging in inventive ways, like chucking cars in your way to get through a traffic jam, or more delicately shoveling cereal into your mouth. There were also a lot of fun fourth-wall tricks like clicking and dragging the very tutorial prompt and credits around.

However, I was a bit let-down by how short it was: felt like it was just starting to get good and then bam, it's over. To add insult to injury, it ends with a downer ending of failure that made me really disappointed. It was only by luck that I noticed there is a 'promotion' music credit that made me realize there might be multiple endings: otherwise I wouldn't have thought it would be the case because it wasn't clear whether there was some sort of grading system and how it works.

While I was a bit unsatisfied, take that as a compliment that I got really hooked, and would love to see a more expanded version of this or other similar goofy stories!

As a side note, I did have a bit of a rough time with the controls. For example, I expected that as long as I just pick up the clock and let go, it would crash to the floor with gravity, and then even when I tried to swipe and let go to throw it, sometimes it wouldn't happen. I got used to it, but it was a bit wonky, though luckily getting used to them works as part of what makes it feel like an adventure, I suppose.

jessejayjones responds:

Thank you for the thoughtful review! I'm glad you found it funny and enjoyable! :)
This was done for a game jam by me and my friends over a weekend, so that's why it's so short. There was even an extra mini-game idea we cut for time, and because it didn't fit the control-scheme, where you would mash your keyboard to write business reports, lol!
But I appreciate the feedback, and I'll keep all those thoughts in mind if we ever make another game like this. Cheers!!

[MAGE-KESHIFT]

Wow, it could be my bias as a boss fight lover talking, but I found this to be surprisingly very promising and cool!

It's certainly rough around the edges and unfinished, but the bosses showed a lot of effort put into their unique attack patterns and suitable telegraph animations for them, and the general gameplay of catching the bosses attacks and throwing them right back into their face was very satisfying, especially when combined with the charging mechanic and the risk/reward it brings! In a way, the general gameplay reminds me of something like Titan Souls, but with combat more akin to some sort of weird fusion of Kirby and Sekiro, what with the general way you parry/suck&blow attacks from the boss.

While I did have a good time with this, it definitely was pretty confusing to start out with and there were a lot of weird quibbles that got in the way:

*I spent way too long trying to just smack the enemies with the orb before realizing we were supposed to throw objects at them and the orb was just a tool for that, haha! Maybe the starter room could teach this concept a bit more: I know it subtly tries to by making you throw the key at the door, but maybe it could be a bit more clear.

*Input registration was very unforgiving and a bit annoying. For example, if after an attack, but before you've recovered, you hold down the attack key, it will not start charging when you finish recovering: instead it requires that you wait until you've recovered and then press and hold the attack button anew.

*Collision detection was very odd: there would be times I would charge up and throw an object, but because my back is to the wall and the object was technically behind the wall, it would rebound off the wall and go out-of-bounds. Plenty of other strange bounces as well, and sometimes the feedback from a throw would be difficult to see as they'd just go way too fast to even be seen.

*Found it odd that you can't pick up objects if you walk over to them while already charging: it will only pick them up if you start charging while already next to them at the start. I understand it might be intentional as, in the context of intercepting fireballs thrown at you, it would be too easy if you didn't have to time your button press to nullify them parry-style, but in the context of a rock just being on the ground that you want to pick up, I think it would make sense to be able to scoop it up in such a way.

Definitely found this to be quite the promising prototype that I'd like to see more from!

FishDev responds:

Thank you for the feedback!! I plan on getting back to working on this again once I'm done with another game. Also, thank you so much for the compliments on the boss designs!! I put a lot of work into that, I was pretty inspired by Wizard of Legend. I definitely need to do some balancing though, as I've gotten a lot of complaints about the difficulty haha

- Yup, an actual bonafide tutorial is planned. This was made in just a month for a game jam so I wanted to spend more time on the actual game itself.

- I'm sorry but I'm not sure what you mean by this. Is there any way you could elaborate?

- Lol yeah I've seriously gotta make those walls one-way or something

- I try communicating that by having the range circle flash at the start, that doesn't continue as you charge, but I could use a more noticeable method, the flash is def pretty subtle.

[Calico]

Damn, this is quite the tricky one! Due to it trying to explain the rules as best as it can, as well as having a nice level of polish and presentation to it, I gave it the ol' college try and came out...somewhat understanding it and having fun? Maybe? Maybe not?

I appreciate the inclusion of a tutorial, especially since I feel like Pico-8 games usually cut them since space is at a premium, but unfortunately even with the tutorial, I still felt hopelessly lost as it just drowns you in a bunch of information without enough examples or guidance. Trying to figure out the rules through playing is also a bit tricky since there is no real feedback on a step-by-step basis to guide you: it's only when you complete a large goal that you receive a badge, and since you can't hover over the badges (or various other facets of the interface) to see a tooltip that explains them, that doesn't help much either.

Having said that, I still tried my best to play it. While I couldn't understand the top goals very well, I was able to (I think) successfully intuit a general beginner strategy, which is trying to surround the goal tiles with matching groups of colors or patterns as a primary focus, while at the same time trying to make connected matches of colors to earn badges as a secondary focus. The interplay of these two goals creates some interesting strategy of figuring out where to use colors or patterns and where to arrange them to maximize points, especially when you combine it with the outer tiles as well. I'm still lost on the larger goals to strive for and other rules, but I felt like I was able to at least get this much from the tutorial and have a decent time, so well done in that regard!

LouieChapm responds:

I really appreciate this writeup ! The tutorial I *REALLY* struggled with , trying to fit ~11 pages of board game manuals into a single pico8 cart was tough !

The top goals function more or less the exact same as the colour group badges , a "5+" indicates that you need to have 5 or more tiles of the same pattern in a single interconnected group , and then little shape icons indicate that you need to create that shape with tiles of the same pattern .

Not too complex on it's own , but fighting against all three scoring goals are what made me fall in love with the board game !

Hovering over the badges for a tooltip on how they were awarded is a really good idea ! I wish I had just a couple hundred more tokens xD


Thanks for playing mate ! The comment is appreciated <3

[Space Vikings Demo]

Hmm, it's a decent little top-down shooter with some alright presentation and craftsmanship: if this was something submitted in a game jam, some student project, an early prototype that was looking for feedback before releasing, or something like that, I'd probably feel ok with it and find it quite promising, but since this is supposed to be representative of a final released product that is expected to tantalize and make me pay for it, I feel like that changes the context considerably and makes me much less inclined to be kind. To that end, I find it very lackluster, unfortunately.

As said, there are certainly aspects of it that are quite promising. For the most part, it's got all the basic elements needed for a roguelite shooter, and delivered in a decently polished state. The menus, presentation and general gameplay feel smooth, there's a good level of enemy diversity with well telegraphed attacks, all of the interactions feel mostly intuitive and have explanations/tooltips to help.

On the other side, the game feels incredibly boring in how bog-standard it is: it's just yet another top-down roguelite shooter to add to the enormous pile that has so many other more incredibly examples to choose from, especially since this is lacking any sort of unique idea or twist that it brings to the table. I couldn't even get a feel for what the long-term progression, story, or goal is from the demo: I assume you go down more floors filled with similar rooms but with harder enemies, but I can't say that for sure, and I don't know what kind of unlocks we are getting or why our heroes are doing this.

The boring feeling also extends to the game's lack of juice, both in terms of visuals and audio: combat arenas are empty rooms devoid of any decor or obstacles, combat feels rather dull due to a lack of punchy feedback and the zoomed-out camera that makes everything feel so tiny and inconsequential, enemies feel like placeholder assets that haven't been coded to have animations yet for their attacks, and players feel like placeholders as well due to their lack of animation and lack of being able to see the weapon you're holding in game, instead seeing this lame placeholder arrow.

There were a couple of other annoyances I had playing the game, like not realizing that putting a mod into a gun is a permanent choice that can't be reversed unless you pay a blacksmith for it, and that there's no way to quickswap or assign numbers to guns in your inventory, instead having to awkwardly drag them to the equipment slot mid-combat. The game really didn't do a good job at giving me a glimpse at the possibilities of loot, as all I got was the same log weapon over and over: it was funny the first time, but the second and third? Guess I got unlucky, but for all I know, that's all the loot table has to offer.

Again, it's not that bad of a game and is somewhat promising, but in its current state it's just an average clone with merely the bare essentials in place: it doesn't have anything enticing or a unique identity it brings to the table that would make me want to spend money on it: I may as well just reinstall Gungeon or spend a bit more cash to get something way more worth it.

[Chroma Wheel]

Decent little arcade game! It's simple, but thanks to some moderately juicy feedback and intuitive design, the gameplay is rather addictive and fun: had a good time trying to be efficient at matching the color patterns as time went on and the game got faster and faster. I like that the game only has balls come from the left or right, as if they came from above or the bottom it would feel very unfair given the screen ratio and how far you can look ahead.

The bonus mode was ok, but a bit questionable since all it does is award you a bunch of points all at once, and it's not like you even need to keep a chain/combo up to get it as it just happens inevitably. It's like, mathematically, you could just make every ball give you two points instead of one and just get rid of the bonus mode and it would all equal out. Just feels a bit pointless: I'd like it much better if you need to do something special like a chain/combo to get the bonus mode, and it'd be nice if it gave you health pip as a reward instead of points, perhaps.

It's ok that the game is simple, but it really felt like you see everything it has to offer in no time flat. Was a bit disappointed at the difficulty levels since all they seem to do is change up the amount of health you have: would much prefer if hard mode started you off faster than the other modes, or maybe has more interesting events happen as the game goes on, like balls that have more unique trajectories like spinning around to hit the opposite side (similar to Undyne boss fight).