FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[The Wizard Ran: Chapter 6]

Goddamn you Albatross! I was on track to collecting all of the orbs and you just had to go a-murderin' the two hunters and lock me into another ending I wasn't going for! Now I gotta do minesweeper all over again! Arrrghh!

Anyway, another fun chapter in this thrilling adventure! So far I've got three endings: murdering by Albatross (goddamn you Albatross, I'm trying to avoid killing those two since it plays the sad music), story ending with jumping into the tear (didn't expect the game to actually put important stuff into the main ending as a lot of it is contingent on doing additional endings from previous games, and you've had a pattern so far of the main ending being the ignorant 'run away' ending, so I'm interested to see where it goes as it was pretty epic) and the 3 orb ending (which, as silly and low-effort as that boss fight was, it was actually pretty intense haha). Had a blast getting all of these and will see how many others I can get.

(Little bug I found: if you go to the south wall of the research room you can peer into the blue dimension? Probably just some malfunctioning collision, but you never know with this game, haha)

adriendittrick responds:

thanks for playing :)
The blue dimension was indeed initially a bug but I've discovered it and put a bunch of respawn demons in it (the ones that appear when you press R) so now it's a feature :p

[Billiard Hero]

I really like the concept of this game, where you don't know what the rules are so you just make up rules as you go and it gets all crazy like a game of Calvinball! Definitely very promising and I feel like the general construction of the game is very juicy, smooth, and cute. As the levels went on and started to introduce wacky elements like balls that move, I enjoyed the challenge of trying to think of the best way to handle it. But, overall I found myself having a bad time, unfortunately.

Call me impatient, or maybe I just suck at billiards, but I feel like the game takes way too long to get to the good stuff. Too many of the early levels are just whacking around balls with very uninteresting changes like different weights and such: fun at the start, but it was such a slog to power through and I found myself quitting around level 5 as even though it introduced a new ability, said ability wasn't explained very well and didn't seem to change much, so I lost patience. I know you said that I have to be patient at the start, but I think that's more up to the game developer to create a well-paced game for all potential players, not beg and guilt-trip your players to keep going.

It didn't help either that the controls of the game were really janky and unrefined. Because the game doesn't lock the cursor within it, you can't make powerful shots when the ball is near the edge of the screen because your cursor will go off-screen and not register when you let go to make the shot. So I felt really cramped and unable to control as I'd like. Combine this with what I said before about the early levels being too simple and yet simultaneously a slog by having really big quotas and requiring annoyingly precise shots, I found myself frustrated and don't see myself making it to see the more interesting later levels, which is a bummer since the screenshot previews make it look cool!

Would love if maybe there was a save/load feature in this: that'd make it so I don't have to play it all in one sitting and take take it bit-by-bit.

EDIT: I did end up going back to this and playing it to completion because it was just so intriguing: what a really bizarre and cool game!

[Cannonballin']

A nice short and sweet arcade game! Nothing crazy or revolutionary, but I had a pretty good time playing the game over and over to eventually beat the record. The strategy of balancing your limited air against hitting bubbles to keep you down longer was interesting to work around, and in general the game felt decently put-together with some funny touches like the intro cinematic (love the 'you<' sign that pops up, haha).

My only complaint would be that I do feel like the whole thing just moves annoyingly fast: I know it's to make the game hard and I appreciate it that it's a little challenging and I was able to eventually beat the record through skill, but it did sometimes feel a bit frustratingly random due to the speed. The game was also a bit lacking in terms of special effects and music, which might've given it a bit more pizazz.

[It Was All For The Tuna]

Seems like a decent chill grindy game, but I felt like the game was a bit lacking in variety and lost me rather quickly.

Don't get me wrong, the game is very cute and feels well-constructed with a really chill atmosphere, along with nice touches like some impressive water effects. Despite the fishing because rather simple, I didn't mind it so much and rather found it satisfying and clever that it was all done with such minimal controls. All-in-all it feels like the game should be good, but...

Call me impatient, but it didn't take long for me to get bored with the game. I understand that you're supposed to fish up tuna and upgrade your ship, but I didn't understand why or for what purpose. Felt like the game had these way too long periods where you're just left wondering "is this all I'm supposed to be doing? just fish the same fish over and over, which don't even change their AI to challenge my skill in a different way?" If there were some sort of objective like delivering certain fish to a certain port to fulfill orders, or a time limit on said orders, or anything, maybe I'd be on board, but the game simply wasn't fun or complex enough to fish just for the sake of fishing. Without a goal, the big quotas between upgrades felt pointless and way too long, like the game's small amount of content was being artificially inflated with boring grinding.

Maybe it's just not for me: I want more objectives, but maybe some people are good with just fishing for no purpose. Looking at the spoilers for the twist ending that everyone else is saying, maybe it's good that I didn't play for long and a sign that I'm not so easily addicted, haha!

[Barvest: The Iconic Bug Harvest of 2005]

Hmm, not too shabby, but it did let me down a little unfortunately!

For the most part, the game is pretty cute: while some of the controls were a bit janky (I felt it was a bit too difficult to build up momentum to turn a hang into a swing, and I was able to web some bugs without even spinning around them), I did in general find the movement mechanics and world fun to explore. It was a bit intimidating to explore at first due to the large scale and small draw distance, but it seemed to be cleverly constructed to have notable landmarks and a looping structure so I didn't get lost. The spinning mechanic was kinda neat in a Battle of Hoth way, and all-around I found the game quite impressive for a game jam game.

That being said, I did feel like the game took way too long to use its notable features in any interesting or challenging way: for example, it isn't until the very last boss that you need to use any brainpower in spinning a web around the bug, and it isn't until the very last area do you get some complex platforming that utilizes the grappling web to pull off challenging maneuvers. Because of that, I feel like I was left wanting more: not necessarily a bad thing, but I wouldn't blame some people for losing patience before getting to what little good stuff this game has.

[Gutcorp]

This one was a real oddball for me: it looks like it should be cool, what with its flashy graphics and presentation, crazy shooting action with neat enemy telegraphs and effects, interesting body part management system, and so on, but I found it to be very bad to actually play.

The combat of the game just felt very limp and unsatisfying: despite there being some visual feedback for attacks like screenshake and the enemies flashing and sparking, it just felt incredibly lackluster, especially due to the lack of sound. Speaking of sound, the lack of music or some sort of background track was a real bummer as well: why do you have music for the equipment room but not actual combat? In general the audio was a huge let down with so many elements being completely silent, such as the aforementioned lack of a 'enemy hit' sound.

The game was also just very confusing with me having no idea what was going on and what the objective was. I know I had to fight, and eventually I figured out I had to stand in these circles for body parts to spawn, but so many elements were unclear. How does it determine what body part gets hurt, and can they get hurt from usage like durability wear-down? What is the energy bar, and why is it not filling up when I'm picking up energy? Why do I lose a body part I've swapped out in a previous round instead of putting in my inventory for later use?

There are also just so many little nitpicks that drag the game down, such as the fact you still make footprints when you jump, the screen wonks out every time there is a transition, and certain guns don't work as you would explain (like the knife not reflecting projectiles like it says).

It's very promising, and it's understandable from a game jam game, but it's definitely in a very rough state: feels like maybe the visuals of the game were put first and foremost without a smooth, core gameplay. At the very least, I'd love to see a finalized version of this game that is polished up and builds on the interesting body concept: there definitely are a lot of good things in there that I'd hate to see go to waste, but right now it's like a writhing mass of muscle and skin with no skeleton.

Frogrammer responds:

hey! thank you so much for the feedback i have now watched the video and can answer. i agree with literally everything you said, it's fairly a bad game with big potential and great work from the art team and the composer, unfortunately we couldn't fix the bug in the web but there is a main track for the game that has a chance of not playing, and it sucks cuz its a banger track. anw yeah the visuals were pretty much of a focus at first (the body getting procedurally animated), and then i had to recode a lot of stuff as we were changing the design of the game throughout the jam and with scope this big, that obviously affected the quality of everything so it turned out to be a very messy wrap. no tutorial, no clear telegraphing simply cuz we had no time. thank you so much for being this straightforward, i appreciate your honesty and time :)

[Space Harvest 9000!]

Hmm, I think it could be nice, but I found myself frustrated and confused with a lot of aspects.

In theory, the concept of handling farming through a series of actions that have randomized areas is novel, and could create some interesting strategic play and improvisations where you have to make the most out of each action. But for the most part I should found myself utterly confused and irritated since it was completely random and without any ability to plan beyond dumb luck: perhaps if you were given a preview of the next area similar to Tetris, or if you were given a set of action cards and a set of area cards each round that you can combine, then I'd feel more in control and less annoyed.

There were also other slight annoyances, such as the full area of effect not being visible if you have part of it going off-screen (would prefer if the full area is always visible, but highlight the part outside in a different color), the rules being unclear for how to plant and harvest (is overwatering bad, can you still grow an in-progress crop in ground that has faded from tilled, where will the seed be planted if I have a triple area but only 1 seed on me, etc) and due to the lack of a separate hand action or perhaps the cursor changing to a hand icon when over a fully-grown crop, I was unsure how to harvest things as I was fearful of destroying them with a click from one of the tools (perhaps harvesting should be automatic at round end).

It's a game jam game, so it's perfectly fine to experiment like this, and it's understandable the game is not as juicy and polished as I'd like, but in the end, this felt pretty bleh for me. Not a bad idea though.

[Frozen Helm]

Huh, interesting little game you got here! Kinda like a fast-paced small-scale Metroid game where you get all the abilities at once and just blaze through to find all of the pots and hidden upgrades like the necklace and ring (but no dad's helmet, boo). Was a bit intimidated at first due to me thinking I'd get lost and backtrack loads on the map, and I was bummed out that there was no ranking at the end for time or collecting all the items, but all-in-all I had a good time making my way through this game: everything just seemed to flow and go fast and make a real smooth, short and sweet experience!

There were some slight annoyances like how the 'jump-through' tiles look exactly the same as non-jump-throughable tiles when you flash freeze them, leading to confusion on routes until everything melts and you can tell the difference once again. Also, in general, I felt like the main character moved almost annoyingly fast, and I didn't like how there was a constant ticking clock of my mana running out, intensified by the fact that using abilities makes it run out even faster which made me not want to use them which sucks because they are cool to use: just a subtle feeling of stress over my whole playthrough due to these factors, which was a bummer. Don't get me wrong, I like playing fast and furious, but I wanted to do it on my own terms, haha!

Oh, another weird thing is that I never learned how to do the ice lance, so my playthrough was actually a bit more stressful since there was never a way to permanently kill the enemies: I didn't mind it so much and think it could actually work better like that, but I suppose it added even more stress to mana usage since it required more use of it over and over.

[Anne & the Carrot Islands]

Hey, not bad at all! For the most part, it's a well-done and solid puzzler with a cute presentation and theme. It's not necessarily gonna set the world on fire or anything, but it was paced well and addictive with the way it escalated the challenge and introduced new mechanics, and it just felt good to play due to the chill music and nice animations and subtle sound effects. I also appreciate the inclusion of a save/load system.

If I had any complaints, it'd be that the jump animation can be a bit wonky and that the lack of input buffering makes you have to stall your successive inputs until the animation is done to move multiple times instead of being able to queue 'em up, but it's all good: the real complaint is that I'd like even more levels and an cute ending to top it off!

[Harvestigator: An IRS Tax Auditing Game]

Hah, quite a charming little game! Loved my time with this Papers Please style gameplay and am definitely going to go back and shoot for a 3 star and great endless mode score. All-around it felt very well-constructed, and I absolutely love some of the more interesting and subtle design choices like having a fancy menu where you bring a paper into the tray to designate a choice instead of just pressing a button, and how you need to investigate the file while the farmers gripe and grouse at you in an amusing way (Papers Please had it easy where most of the people you deal with stay silent, this is way more realistic!)

I'd say the only real downside to this is that I wish it was even longer with more story acts and more complexity to the forms, like maybe even rules that loop back to other rules with all sorts of double-checking and so on. I understand its a game jam game so it's impressive that all this was done in the time limit and I should be grateful, but still, I want more, so take it as a compliment that you made me hungry for more!