FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Wizard Ran: Chapter 7]

This was probably the roughest chapter for me as going through that beginning maze was absolutely interminable. I know I've had some tricky times with some of the other chapters but I feel like they've always ended up being a positive experience, but this...I mean I was legit seconds away from quitting despite my love of the series before thankfully having a chance encounter with the tower where I was able to witness the twist and make my way through the timed pawn-slicing tower climb and get the first ending. Can't imagine what that experience would've been like for a newcomer, though I suppose we are at chapter 7 in a series so you can put more faith in the audience's patience (but still, I'd say you are really pushing it).

Unfortunately, the whole timed pawn-slicing tower climb and subsequent ending didn't really feel satisfying to accomplish, so it didn't really do anything to recover my flagging motivation that was already thoroughly sapped by the maze, so I doubt I will go through the maze again to find any of the other endings, which is a shame because that's always an exciting part of these games. I dunno, it just feels like a real bummer: chapter 6 setup with a heck of a cliff-hanger that really had my hopes high, and I feel really let-down.

Maybe after some time where I wait to forget how terrible of an experience the maze was I'll have the courage to do it again.

EDIT: Hmm, guess I might've screwed myself a little bit by picking the Shepherd first since the others were more straightforward. Probably missing a trick as well.

adriendittrick responds:

thanks for sticking in despite the hurdles :)

[Juurru]

Another solid adventure game! Overall it feels like a well-polished short and sweet puzzler with a neat little concept that gets expanded on in an elegant way with levels that both intuitively teach the player and keep them hooked. Presentation is great as well, not only in the game itself but in other aspects like the cool level-select screen and the nice little cutscenes. No major complaints I can think of as I quite enjoyed my time, except that maybe the dotted line for underground movement boundaries should still be present even in normal play so you can plan ahead, and that I wish the movement when you're holding down the button would be faster so I don't feel inclined to mash!

[Nyghtmare: The Ninth King]

Hrmm, a bit mixed on this one!

First impression of the game was great, as I loved seeing the really cool title and map screen among other nice little touches that take some good effort to put in where other devs would skip. In general the graphics seemed very well-done and added so much to the atmosphere, and the gameplay itself was delivering some solid Castlevania-esque fun with interesting levels, enemies, obstacles, and solid boss fight patterns.

However, as the game went on, the first impression kinda fell off due to several factors that felt unpolished. It's difficult to nail down what exactly contributes to it, but in general the gameplay felt a bit off and unsatisfying: at first I thought it was just the fact that I was playing with keyboard, but even when I switched to controller, which I felt helped, it still just felt very awkward. For example, it felt really annoying to get used to the delayed attacks despite Castlevania having similar delayed attacks which felt alright: not sure what the difference was, maybe it's because of the jump acting differently or the attacks lacking impact and feedback, especially in the audio department. Speaking of audio, I felt like the music really took a downwards dive in quality on the second level (the second level also felt like it kicked up the difficulty way too high way too fast, what with all of the instant death pits and enemies perfectly positioned to shove you into them).

Moving on from the general feel, there were also just a lot of weird bugs. For example, there's a certain checkpoint that you respawn at on level 2 where you will spawn right on top of enemies and immediately and unavoidably take damage: having that happen really diminished my faith in the game's design as I couldn't believe something like that could be overlooked, and therefore really killed my motivation to keep going on (for if a bug like that was missed, what else might have been missed?)

I think it still delivers a decent experience, but it was very close to feeling like a bit of a style over substance thing: the game looks good, but doesn't exactly feel good to play. Definitely has a lot of potential though, just needs a bit of polish in my opinion.

Elv13s responds:

thanks for the honest review. the spawn bug is fixed in recent builds of the game, this embedded build, in particular, was 0.2.6 if i remember correctly, the full game is much more balanced imo?

[Bore of Time]

Hrmm, it definitely doesn't make the best first impression, what with its very complicated rules that are sadly only explained in a massive wall of text devoid of any pictures or colors that could've helped make the information easier to retain and recall. That, along with the fact that the game just seems to be a randomly generated assortment of levels with no clear end goal making it all seem repetitive and aimless, I wouldn't blame a lot of people for quitting outright from, well, the namesake boredom.

However, I will admit that I actually did have some good fun with the game when I gave it the ol' college try. Wrangling the complicated rules wasn't too bad thanks to the actual gameplay having some intuitive symbols, and utilizing the rules in game lead to some very clever and crafty moments that made me feel good: using the lightning tiles to avoid damage while maneuvering around, setting up yellow kills to recover health, recovering a doomed run where I wouldn't be able to reach the stairs without dying by managing the kill the final enemy and thus freely move to the stairs without taking damage, and so on!

I'm still a little sketchy on the game, but it does have a fun little core that creates clever gameplay hidden in there, so well done on that aspect.

amidos2006 responds:

Thanks a lot for giving the game a chance, sorry for not having a better tutorial as I was rushing to submit the game for the 7drl and I didn't have much time to polish the game and make it easier to learn. I am glad that you enjoyed the main game loop and understood it :)

[A Hollow Heartbeat]

Interesting little point n click adventure game! For the most part, I felt like the game was pretty intriguing what with its atmospheric sound coupled with its well-done background art, along with its rather bizarre world to explore. Definitely kept me hooked and wanting to see more of this world.

For a horror game, however, there were a lot of aspects that unfortunately took me out of the experience, such as multiple typos in the text, sound effects like wood creaking that occur on certain screens instead of just part of the atmosphere, the almost comical entrance and exit of the hand in the well, and so on: these could definitely use some polishing up as I feel like the horror atmosphere is well-crafted when these issues don't pop up, but when they do pop up, the immersion bubble is popped and takes time to get rebuilt.

While I did overall enjoy my time, I ended up getting stuck and unsure how to proceed, and bummed out that when I tried to come back and play more, there was no continue option, meaning I'd have to do everything over again. It wouldn't take too long to get back, but it definitely doesn't help motivate me, especially since I feel like I might've just missed an aspect that the game unfairly doesn't direct or clue in your attention to, such as the few times where there is an unintuitive 'up' option that is present. We'll see what happens!

EDIT: Damn, I take back what I said about the game being a bit too comical and such: the more I got into the game, the more it gave some really eerie surprises, incredibly evocative imagery and subtle spooks! Really wowed me, and impressed at all the various endings you can get!

Fakewisdom responds:

Wow, that's a long review! Thanks
I seriously underestimated how important, and expected, save features are for web point and click games these days, i saw complaints about it in multiple languages :P
With the way i built the game it would be hard to implement, but maybe i will
The room with the machine functions as a hint system in the early game, it tells you to look for the attic, i thought it was enough but i accept that it wasn't :/
Wish you told me where the typos were, i think i found a few but my english is still not there

[Pimbo's Pudding Panic]

Cute little adventure! I like that we got two different adventures for the price of one as a nice twist and hook, and while they were a bit short, they had their charming aspects to make up for it, such as the text adventure's multiple amusing endings, and the platformer's wild and wacky physics. In the end, I did enjoy my time, particularly with wrangling the platformer's controls and getting all the pudding hidden in its challenging sections.

However, there were a lot of aspects to the gameplay that were a bit hard to stomach. The text adventure felt quite lifeless with the way buttons don't even respond to hover-over or press and there were no pictures or sounds to pep it up a bit. The platformer just felt a bit too wacky to the point of confusion where jumps would send you up with inconsistent height for no discernable reason, or sometimes not even reading your jump input at all. There was also the fact that a single death in the platforming section boots you all the way back to the start, which given how janky the controls can be, can feel really unfair and frustrating. I'll admit that this was before I knew how short the game was, so in retrospect it's not that bad, but I was strongly considering quitting a few times when I wasn't aware of how close I was to the end at first, and I wouldn't blame some others for feeling the same.

tydaze responds:

I agree with you on all of your points! This game was rushed to meet the deadline of the game jam and there definitely were a lot of things that could be improved. I think I'm done with this game as is, but I'm definitely taking what I learned to apply to future projects. Thank you for the thorough review!

[Monkey Fcuk!]

Bit of an awkward game to get used to at first, but quite the novel experience that reminded me a lot of one of my childhood favs: Pac-Man 2 The new Adventures on SNES! The whole aspect of learning the various typing commands, having to manage the upsides and downsides of moods, and the crazy level arrangements really gave the game quite the interesting puzzle element to it all that I found quite addicting to conquer!

Despite that, the game did have some clunkiness to it that was difficult to ignore. For one, I felt like the bus driver was a bit too chatty at times which kept killing the pace: I know he's trying to help and all, but sometimes I just wanna play and figure out the puzzles myself without all the hints! There were also a lot of times where you're caught in a cramped situation where you can't enter commands fast enough comfortably even with the up command. For example, on level 2 I was frustrated that you can't jump in a direction when you're standing still, like you can't 'jump left' or something like that, you can only jump straight up when still, meaning you need to rapidly type 'go left' and then 'jump' very quickly before you fall off the edge immediately to your left. There were also just plenty of weird collision issues and general wonkiness. It wasn't ever too bad to get me to stop, but still, it made it feel a bit undercooked.

But the biggest part that killed it for me is that it had no save/load system! I got all the way to the third world and wanted to see how it ended, only to find out after coming back that I'd have to do everything all over again in one sitting. I dunno if the game was fun enough to have me put in the effort to replay all of it just to continue, so yeah, bit of a bummer that it might be left unfinished!

NothanyTPM responds:

Can't explain how the process went completely (since I only did the art), but from what I've heard from Sodoj it was a pretty rough development.

A lot of the wonky-ness came from the fact that they only had a few days to finish the game, and already spent a good chunk of that time scrapping it to redo it in a new engine halfway through the Jam. Play-testing was also only done on the second to last day, and I only got to test the fist level.

I will admit as well that the game isn't the best, and I pretty much encountered the same problems as you. Not 100% sure if Sodoj is going to patch the game later-on, or if they'll just abandon it, but I can say that you've pretty much saw everything in the game.

There's only like 2-3 worlds, and no proper ending, so it would have been disappointing regardless.

Still, you gotta admit that it's a decent little concept.

[My Aunt's Cats]

Wow, didn't expect a Pico-8 game to be a point-n-click adventure, and a Clock Tower-esque one at that!

For the most part, I felt like this was a pretty short and sweet adventure! It was a bit confusing at first with the way it just dumps you in with no story or prompt to work from, but luckily as long as you follow your natural instincts to explore, everything starts going as it should. Presentation was really slick and solid, especially in terms of graphics, and I thought the touch of having a mood indicator for your character was cool. I felt like the chase scenes were pretty well-designed in how it naturally leads you around to discovering water, and later you have to outwit them by circling around to get to the basement door. Loved the cute little ending of the monster disassembling to feed on the cat food surplus, haha!

There were a few clunky and buggy aspects to the game, like how dying feels rather awkward and almost like it didn't happen clearly, and I had a weird case where it used my brass key on the stairs but then gave me it back after dying but I didn't use it again afterwards? Also in general some of the chase scenes were a bit weird with how it can spawn you in an unexpected position away from the door after going through said door, instead of just putting you in front of the door as it does when outside of a chase scene, and then spawning the monster behind you shortly after.

[M.U.N.K.E.]

I was very glad to see that, despite its low-effort thumbnail not giving a great first impression, that this game actually did have some effort put in to providing an unexpected memorable experience! The use of text prompts to move the tank around was quite novel and fun to get used to, especially as the game only gives you limited fuel and starts to add in all manner of obstacles that can throw you off. I was also very pleased to see all the secret commands you could enter: not only did it recognize the classic 'die' command, but a bunch of others like 'shit', 'fuck', 'newgrounds' and so on, all providing amusing responses. Looks like the monkey hasn't heard of 'chdonga' though, haha!

All that being said, the game did end up losing its luster rather quickly. Since you can just drive in absolute directions instead of having to turn, as well as being able to stop easily at any time to avoid overusing fuel, and obstacles not being that punishing in the first place, the game wasn't that challenging to completely conquer in no time flat. The levels also seemed to stop introducing any new elements past a point very early on that made it feel like the game just kept going on and on with no point and ending in sight despite me trying my best to keep continuing. I'm not even sure if there is an ending to the game with the way it just keeps going. To top it all off, I eventually died because my car glitched between two bricks and suddenly drained all my fuel instantly (I'm assuming when it got wedged inbetween it got in a bit of a crash loop).

So yeah, quite the memorable first impression, but didn't feel like it had enough content or challenge or sense of progression to last as long as it does: would've preferred if the game had more to it or just ended early before it ran dry to leave a better impression.

[Fat Fish Aquarium]

I'm always a little wary of these Ant games as I'm never quite sure whether the low-effort presentation will actually cleverly hide a well-constructed game, or if it will play as bad as it looks. It's a gamble, and in the case of Fat Fish Aquarium, I really wanted to like this game as it made a very solid impression with its goofy yet well-made retro Windows aesthetic and nice little touches like being able to click on the fish on the main menu. Gameplay looked like it was similar to idlers like Insaniquarium which I enjoyed, so I thought I won the gamble and was experiencing one of the great Ant games: I was all set for fun!

As the gameplay went on, however, I found myself feeling once again that I had been tricked, duped, and bamboozled. Yes, the gameplay did seem to be somewhat similar to Insaniquarium at a glance with its money generation through feeding the fish, but it was lacking all of the interesting management and strategy, and worst of all, the progression was criminally slow, like even worse than the progression of trying to play a free mobile game without spending money. I spent 10 minutes with the game and in that time, I wasn't even able to acquire enough money to buy a single other fish: call me impatient, but I don't feel like I should've had to wait even 2 minutes for such a simple thing to happen! It was just ball-achingly boring to only be able to wait on my single fish to generate anything, even worse since all I could do as a player was feed it and listen to its one single om-nom-nom soundbite over and over.

If I were to try and be nice, I suppose there could be the argument that the slower pace makes this more like a true idler game: something you leave on your second monitor as you do something else and only check on it every now and then, similar to a real fish tank. Unfortunately I don't think it works in this manner either as the amount of atmosphere and ambiance and simulation that the aquarium provides is very shallow, what with its repetitive and minimal variance in sounds, braindead AI and lack of random events.

So yeah: nice first impression, but it was all style over substance as I felt like the game lacked any fun mechanics or depth, and to put insult to injury, it progressed at a speed where I would expect the heat death of the universe to happen before I would be able to get all of the achievements.

AtreyuGilbert responds:

Yeah, I feel like pacing could definitely be improved. I remembered my original prototype of the game I showed to Ant as reference was actually a little faster paced, and I hope he can actually fix the pacing eventually. Thanks for your review!