FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Crazy Office Escape Part 1]

Not too shabby! Nothing super special or anything, but it was a decent little escape room point-n-click adventure. The presentation is a little cheap looking and lacks pizzazz, and I wish it had a little more flavor text through extra fun little examine clickables instead of the only clickables being mandatory elements for progress, but I still had an ok time finding objects and solving the puzzles: felt pretty clever figuring out some of them like the capital letters on the search bar.

I got bummed out though because I got pretty far and wanted to take a break, only to come back, try and continue, but end up getting sent wayyy back near the beginning, losing a bunch of progress. Yes, I could probably quickly do it over again and get back where I left off, but I was already starting to get lost and lose steam anyway so it was the final nail in the coffin that killed my motivation, unfortunately. Still, had fun while it lasted!

[Pad of Time]

Oh man, this is a rough one for me: I really want to like it as it seems like it has a lot of heart to it, but there were just so many little problems that added up over time that ruined my experience.

The game certainly has a lot of charm to it that gives a great first impression. For example, I love the multitude of animations for the characters: not only do they look cute in general, but they have all these subtle animations for idling, standing near ledges, running into walls and so on that give them a lot of life. The time travel mechanics were quite novel as well, hoping back and forth through time periods to get through obstacles added a cool puzzle and experimentation element.

But as I played, it seemed to be a classic case of style over substance, and my interest in the game lowered little by little due to so many issues:

The game in general just had so much jankiness to it. The physics/gravity for jumping seemed very unnatural and inconsistent, and the boundaries/colliders for objects were very awkward: there were tons of times I'd get stuck in places at random for no reason, like walking down a flat road to suddenly stop as if I was blocked by a wall despite there being nothing in the way. Just overall the game felt super rough, like as if I was metaphorically always stubbing my toes or catching my shirt on a nail, and it needs to be sanded down and polished for a more smooth platforming experience.

I hated the trial and error that the game had. The levels seemed to have so many spots where I couldn't tell whether it was a drop to the floor below or a death pit, so all I could do was leap of faith. Teleporting through time could screw you over as it not only costs power which gave me such paranoia in using it, but you can end up teleporting into thin air and falling down and down, losing so much progress. Just so much getting lost and being unsure how to proceed.

There were minor issues that gave it a rather unprofessional feel, such as many typos and weird capitalization for dialogue and menu options, a full screen option in the menu that doesn't work if you use a controller instead of a mouse, and many compressed graphics that looked super blurry and terrible compared to the more sharper uncompressed graphics.

While the time traveling mechanic was ok, it was rather annoying to deal with at times due to the very limited places it could be used and the difficulty to tell what would happen. Similarly, the rotation mechanic felt like it was barely being used and when it was used, it wasn't used in an actual physics way where you can move things bit by bit, but rather used to just trigger an object animation. All of this just made the mechanics feel incredibly token and pointless: no freedom to experiment or have fun in interesting, unguided ways.

I could go on, but you get the picture. Again, I do think the game is promising in concept and already has a decent start, so with some considerable polishing and bug-fixing and some minor redesigns to the mechanics, I think it could become a fun little adventure in execution as well. Best of luck!

Markanime responds:

Thanks for your honest review. You can clearly see the strengths and weaknesses of this game. I started developing this game back in 2014 with Unity 4 in my free time with less knowledge than I have now, and sadly this game carries that.

I'm really confident that if I have the chance to publish a new game you will notice a huge improvement.

[Run Run Rudolph]

Pretty fun arcade action! Felt like it made a really good first impression with it's amusing story and dialogue, and I found the general gameplay loop of trying to build up combos with low-tier items to build enough higher tier items to then combo to build higher tier items and so on, all while managing their looming expiration and other stage hazards, quite engaging and addictive, especially due to the satisfying special effects for it all.

However, after a bit of time with the game, it started to lose its luster.

The rooms just started to be the same thing over and over and while it tried to introduce obstacles like enemies, the difficulty/placement was all over the place, which made the sense of progression lack: instead of rooms slowly having more and more hazards and new rules to contend with, they would go back and forth between hard and suddenly easy. The enemies never shook things up in any considerable or fun way either: they'd usually be a non-issue or too annoying.

With the enemies and rooms all being the same, I at least hoped the game would drop some nuggets of funny story and intrigue to keep me engaged, but no, once you rescue your first reindeer, all of the other ones go in silence.

I found the design of the game quite questionable as well. The fact that the room score thresholds were based off of total score over the entire game, instead of score within that room, meant you could cheese them by stockpiling from previous rooms: felt it would work better if each room was its own level with self-contained rules and challenges, like time-limits or objectives. Maybe it's just trying to help but allowing you to have an easier time in future if you SSS-rank previous rooms: I guess that makes sense and maybe I'm just too stiff to accept that design.

I also thought level skips were a very strange power-up. I mean, if the game is so repetitive that even the developer seems to realize that by having room skips as a power-up, I think the solution should be to make rooms more interesting or just make the game shorter instead so it makes the amount of content better, haha! Again, I guess it's trying to help since you get them from SSS-ranking rooms, so again, maybe I'm just looking at it from an unfavorable light, but it's just strange and I wanted to give my first impression.

Having said all these gripes, though, I did still find the game quite fun: perhaps it just might've worked better as a shorter, sweeter adventure, instead of being stretched too thin that the length doesn't match the amount of variation on offer. It is repetitive, and I'm not sure if any amount of rethinking more positively about the whole level skip/scoring will help. but I'll probably give it another go with a fresh mind!

EDIT: I did give it another go and did feel better about it as long as I thought about the level skips like a cool 'nuke' powerup that I got for doing a room so well: funny how just changing the name like that completely recontextualized it for me and made it fun! Brains can be silly sometimes.

[Soulkoban]

A funny little adventure and an interesting combination of two genres! Quite novel to see sokoban puzzles, which are usually just standalone puzzles on a level-basis, all be within this interconnected world where their solutions unlock doors and such. While the puzzles were fun, the real star of the show for me was the characters you can talk with: so many amusing interactions to be had with all these little mini-quests and hidden dialogue/events! Definitely enjoyed my time trying to get as far as possible.

At the end of the day, though, it didn't quite win me over. I got too annoyed and paranoid at the prospect of having to pixel hunt all these tiles for medallions or these weird red-coin-esque hidden tiles that add up to a medallion, I didn't find the sokoban puzzles to be that intriguing or difficult (felt like they started hard and then just got easier and easier), and I eventually got stuck not sure where to go, so I found myself stopping, despite wanting see more dialogue and story since it was the best part.

Still, despite my minor gripes, I had a good time as it lasted and I bet there is some good stuff waiting for people more patient than I!

[Peter: Aner]

Quite the interesting game! Certainly made quite an impressive impression, what with its cool intro that builds up anticipation, very stylish shots and cinematography, as well as its incredible animations for both player and boss. Felt like I was in Shadow of the Colossus, taking on a huge goliath as a little guy with nothing but a sweet, satisfying parry and down smash. I enjoyed the experience of overcoming the odds and toppling this beast! Revenge for Peter the Ant!

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, it is a bit of a case of style over substance where it doesn't take long for the epic looking combat to get ruined by annoying pacing where you can't do anything but wait for the enemy to attack (and they can take a damn long time to do so), weird animations for both boss and player like when you walk into the boss and start pushing him which glitches his animation out, awkward combat where you'd think you would have to play footsies and dodge their stomps in addition to parrying their blows but nope (i mean c'mon, you're an ant and you don't have to fear feet?), and so on. It's just rather shallow in terms of function and the game ends so quickly.

Despite the game overall being quite bleh if you look at it deeply, I gotta admit I still was wowed and did want the game to continue forth with more bosses and more challenging patterns, so if you feel like it, I'd love to see a more polished continuation of this as I love me some boss fights and love me some parries.

BingoWaders responds:

im very happy so many people like it (and the SotC inspiration), and I agree one hundo percent that the game has a big lack of game. The original plan actually was to make a sort of gauntlet of bosses each with different quirks. proved to much for a month and 1/2.
The mechanics that i managed to put in were a whole new world for me believe it or not, but i also learned a lot, so if i continue developing on this concept (likely), it will have better combat for sure.

[The Wizard Ran: Chapter 4]

The saga continues! Certainly another interesting chapter with that classic charm, and I'm happy to play, but I gotta admit, it did feel quite small compared to the rest. If this was titled as a 'bonus' or 'holiday' chapter I probably wouldn't have any complaints, but to consider it as a real chapter and part of the main series...it felt lacking in comparison.

Don't get me wrong, it was still quite a trip figuring out what the heck was going on initially, learning the murder mystery mechanics, seeing the 'secret' party room, witnessing the hot spring ending with Shades and Sharps who I was already kind of liking in a Team Rocket-esque way, and so on. I found it kind of funny that I had more luck just blaming someone at random than actually following the clues, which never seemed to work despite it all.

In the end, though, I just wasn't as impacted by this game as the others. The murder mystery mechanics felt quite shallow with barely any randomization or differences to juggle with everyone always positioned and dressed the same and so on (and it didn't even seem to logically work for me), there weren't any cool connections or hints to other chapters that I could see (yet), and it was just over in no time flat without a significant sense of story, progression or challenge. The game also had some annoying glitches or confusing controls, like accusing someone you're just trying to talk to for the first time (or accusing yourself by accident, like I did the first time, haha).

I haven't gotten all of the endings, of course, so perhaps there is something substantial hidden here that I'm missing out on, but even considering that, I felt quite satisfied just doing the main endings for the other games with the rest being a bonus, while this had very little to munch on in regards to the main endings and thus almost needs something else to make it stand up in comparison. I suppose take it as a compliment that you overdid it for the other chapters (especially 3), and hey, you can't win 'em all when you're experimenting! Still looking forward to more!

[DEAD PETALS]

Pretty cool game! While it isn't necessarily anything incredibly unique, being somewhat of a basic twin-stick shooter with simple bomb-esque powers, it is nevertheless quite charming, eye-catching and satisfying to play with its psychedelic visual flair and bombastic juicy effects.

While I do think it is a rather basic shooter, that's not to say it doesn't make a bunch of smart decisions. The risk-reward management of the hyper bar and gem collection, the subtle de-saturated colors used on companion bullets to signify them not being dangerous, the clear and impactful damage feedback for both enemy and player, the sheer variety of enemies and bullet patterns, and so on all combine to create a beautiful chaotic battle you can get into a trance fighting through.

That being said, I think there is definitely some room for improvement that I would love to see:

*For health and hyper being so important to monitor and manage, I find it very strange to have them be so tiny and crammed in the corner where they are barely noticeable. Would love if they were made more prevalent, not just by increasing their scale, but also perhaps by using symbols or bars instead of boring and difficult-to-parse-during-battle numbers. Would love if the hyper bar was a big glowy bar that stretches across the whole screen so it feels great to fill it up, and I'd love if the amount of left-over health would temporarily appear dead-center when you get hit, for example.

*Would love if the tutorials were not just walls of text which are very difficult to parse and remember, but instead images, symbols and pictures. In addition, I'd prefer if power-ups used logical and iconic symbols as well, such as a plus sign for health, instead of having to memorize this bizarre and unintuitive color scheme you've got (which again, isn't explained with pictures or examples of the colors so it's difficult to recognize them in-game). With more intuitive symbols and such, you wouldn't even need a tutorial in the first place!

*The sense of progression felt quite lackluster, with the difficulty curve going up and down in strange ways. Some runs I'd encounter a super hard boss early on, other runs I'd keep encountering the same easy boss repeatedly. Yes, there were some changes that made me feel like I was getting somewhere, such as bosses spawning more and more along with minions, but still, it all just blended into a mush.

*I found it odd that, once you kill all of the enemies in a wave and enter the power-up selection phase, the game doesn't automatically clear the board of bullets (similarly, it was odd that killing the boss doesn't clear his minions away). Just felt a bit against standard conventions and confusing to remember.

*While the game is a visual treat, the same can't be said for the audio department, which has like two sound effects (one which drones on and on and just becomes static) and no music, which really dulls the experience and compounds on the sense of no progress being made (changing music can be a great way to make you feel like progress is being made, and music would also be great to get you into that combat trance).

Still very impressive for a jam game, and I would love to see a more enhanced version of this: maybe it could be the next Hyper Demon!

bandaloo responds:

thanks for playing! all the points you bring up are good. for a followup game, UI and difficulty curve are things i definitely want to work on.

and yeah, the fact that bullets don't clear on wave completion is kind of unconventional for sure. i don't know if i'll keep it for the next one. i think i could justify it if there was some bonus for clearing waves quickly, so there's a risk vs reward aspect for pushing forward and letting the screen fill with bullets. right now, it's just risk, lol.

as for the game progression, you fight five bosses, and then there's a "boss rush" segment. after which you'll fight the (fake) final boss. then some creepypasta bullshit will happen and the game will change a bit, and you'll be able to fight the true final boss on the next run.

[Steptile]

Cute little puzzler! Makes a great first impression with the amount of effort put into the stylish title screen and menus: they're almost as fun to navigate as the actual gameplay, which the game doesn't slouch on either. Love the well-paced challenge with slowly-increasing complexity in the puzzles and introduction of new mechanics at just the right time where you could be getting bored, and I love the little touches to the game like the bouncy animations and ability to headpat the player character: really makes the game feel nice to interact with despite its simplicity.

All-in-all it felt very well put-together with a real professional feel to its construction. I will admit that it didn't quite excite me or keep me hooked as much as other Kultisti games, perhaps being a bit too chill and too basic/seen-before for its own good, but nevertheless I admire the craftmanship and plan to revisit to finish.

[Vermin God]

Quite the spooky tale! Only familiar with SCP in the most casual sense (in that I know what it is, but have no idea about this vermin god), but this really kept me enthralled and wanting to learn more about what's going on. Bit bummed out that I found myself getting to the end so quickly, but I enjoyed it the whole way through and I still want to go back and try some other options to see what other horrors I can find. My favorite part of the game was absolutely the effort put into the large amount of drawings to depict all of the scenes: most visual novels like this you only have a few static backgrounds to look at in which stiff characters pose their small set of poses, which can get real boring real fast, whereas this goes above and beyond and elevates the moments so much with incredible depictions. I also liked the sheer amount of interaction options, including the silly ones like staring at the lights forever at the start, haha.

There were certainly some oddities to the game and parts that I feel could use improvement:

*Found it confusing that there were certain sections where there were several options to choose from, all of them being "..." instead of what they actually represent (notes, surgical equipment, drawer, cage with rats, etc). Not sure if it was intended as part of the mystique or effect of the anomaly? Didn't make sense though since all of the other options are clearly labeled and represent what they are.

*As much as I liked it that death/failure seamlessly looped you back to the start as if it was just part of the story all-along instead of giving you a game over and continue prompt, it was kind of annoying to get back to the part you want to continue from afterwards: would much appreciate a 'skip already seen text' option like you see in other games where you go over the same paths a lot like the 999 series.

*As much as I like the art, there were some times where I don't feel like the art was capturing the moment well enough. The two parts that stood out to me were the vomit scene, where instead of looking like gross and horrendous maggots on the floor, it looked more like she threw up some chef boyardee spaghetti and meatballs into a clear water puddle, and the scene where she's running has her pose not quite capture the arm-flailing panic she was having.

*Could stand to maybe have a bit more variation in music, sound effects, and so on to build the mood more. Also the way text scrolled was very odd, where it seemed like short sentences scroll slowly and long sentences scroll fast, instead of them moving at a fixed rate (also wish there was an option to control this rate).

Looking forward to seeing more chapters: consider me hooked!

[The Wizard Ran: Chapter 3]

Wow, this series continues to impress! From top-down adventure to 2d platformer to now a full 3d maze adventure, things just continue to get shaken up in more ways than one!

This chapter echoes most of my typical praises (mysterious and deep interconnected mystery) and complaints (janky, low-fi confusing graphics and a premise that's maybe a bit too confusing for its own good), but in this one for particular I feel like it has the most impressive 'basic' run. While the other chapters felt a bit short and lacking if you just do a straightforward ending 1 run, with only the other endings making up for the lack of content, this one is the exact opposite where the main adventure was incredibly rich and deep that I felt satisfied with it.

Figuring out how the navigate the maze, learning the rules and enemy behavior, finding secret lore, going through multiple levels that kept escalating the challenge until a grand finale, seeing all these weird subtle touches like the trees morphing: this was quite the adventure and kept me enthralled the whole way. I still don't know how to deal with the green diamond enemies, but I felt incredibly clever when I learned to move slow with the final set of enemies to avoid them attacking me, and similarly felt clever in dealing with avoiding Shades in the end.

That being said, this game did have a lot of rough edges. There were some programming issues like how I was really annoyed that my conversation with Shades got interrupted by an enemy: I wasn't even able to retry the conversation with him on a restart because he stayed activated past that despite me not hearing what he had to say. But more so than any programming issues were the design choices: with a world so vast and difficult to navigate due to the low draw distance and awkwardly posed copy-paste graphics that makes checkpointing/landmarking difficult, there is absolutely, positively, no friggin' way I am going to replay this and find all of the lore or all the hidden decay spots. This game brought me back to PTSD from all those early 3D mazes you'd see on the NES, like the one in Mafat Conspiracy, where they are just terrible to navigate. Part of me wants to rise to the challenge and build a map or something, but no way no how, especially when dealing with enemies and the paranoia of checking everywhere for decay spots.

As with the others, despite my complaints, I still had a really cool adventure, so big props for making something like this. I feel like this one had the highest highs since the adventure really sucked me in overall and delivered a very eventful and memorable experience, but also had the lowest lows in that it was such an awkward, confusing, traumatic ordeal that I really don't wanna touch it again, haha.

Right, back to chapter 2 to check on some things...