FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Sleep When I'm Dead]

Wow, considering this is a 'scrapped game', I was surprised at how much it blew me away!

Everything about this game just felt so bloody charming! Wonderful characters with great portraits (would've loved to see more expression variants), a goofy story that made me laugh a bunch, stellar graphics/music/sound, and super great combat that has very satisfying feedback and depth to it with charging/blocking and a ton of unique enemies to fight! Seriously loved the combat, especially the whole boomerang aspect of the weapons which felt good to plan multiple hits with. Just all-around felt like the game was very professionally put together on all fronts and delivered a solid short and sweet adventure that will stick with me. And what a twist at the end, learning that she made Treat Day in the first place!

In terms of complaints, well, there's the obvious one that it felt like it was over too quickly and kinda rushed the ending (albeit in an amusing way): I could've easily seen this being a much bigger adventure with tons of levels and story to go through (but then again, maybe it's good that it kept things short and sweet instead of extending too long to the point of getting sick of it).

There was also some slight annoyances here and there: found it confusing that you need to hold charge to pick up items in magic circles (why not just walk over the magic circle instead), I felt like pots/crates were too tedious to break considering you can't pierce through them and they can take multiple hits, and the controls weren't explained well so I had no idea about the charging/blocking mechanics at first. Also I have no idea what the purpose of the dash was: it has no invincibility and barely moves faster than walking (at least Suzy had an ok dash).

Again, if this is a 'scrapped game', I'd love to see what you consider a finished one, because goodness gracious this was a treat!

[Robo-butcher]

Hrmm, it very much feels like a 'my first arena shooter' game: promising and ticks all the boxes needed, but not really exciting or fun in its current state when compared to its contemporaries.

Overall the game just feels incredibly bog-standard: it's technically got everything needed for an arena shooter like enemies and powerups and abilities, but there's nothing special, unique or really satisfying about the gameplay to get me hooked. So much of gameplay is spent fighting these really boring, spongy enemies that pose no threat. The game also just has an overall lack of presentation with an incredibly boring HUD, weird graphics, and stock sound effects.

Don't get me wrong, the game does have some nice things like the very satisfying way enemies explode, and I do think the game gets good in the later stages by having a larger variety of enemies that pushes you to play much more focused. But the time it takes to get to the point where there is a large variety of enemies takes way too long, leaving you stuck in an overly simple and boring repetitive loop: I could easily see people dropping it before getting there or refusing to redo the boring start when they die, which is a shame.

Pitigamedev responds:

Thank you for your honest feedback. I hope to do better next time!

[Sunken Dungeon]

Definitely had a pretty rough start with this game: I thought I understood all of the rules such as attacking on green, blocking on red, hover over backpack to see items, and so on, but my first couple of runs were filled with confusion. The enemies and items are so tiny, the wheels are hidden behind them which makes it difficult to see, I found it weird that you had to be holding block at the end of the red instead of clicking at any time during red, and I had no idea I had to hover over an enemy to target them for attacks when you didn't need to do it for blocking, and so on and so forth! Definitely could've used a better tutorial/intro, or maybe some more subtle elements to make things intuitive, like highlighting enemies/items when you hover over them to signify targeting. Could also just stand to have some more special effects to make things satisfying, like gibs or explosions for attack/damage feedback.

Once I did grasp the game, I thought it was kinda cool! The wheel was a neat take on stuff like the judgement ring from the Shadow Hearts series combined with Punch-Out attacking/blocking mechanics, and combat in the later stages can turn into a chaotic and fun multi-tasking affair where you gotta pay attention to multiple wheels for appropriate attack/block timings. Very fun and challenging! The game does a good job at increasing the complexity as well, going from one to many opponents, though I do wish the game had a bit more of a sense of progression through story or pit stops/checkpoints: as it is, it can end up getting quite repetitive.

It's definitely still a bit rough in terms of its execution, but for a game jam game, I think it's a success because I feel it introduces a neat combat system concept that could be expanded upon, and I find that's the whole point of game jams in the first place!

[Emerald and Amber]

Hey, this is a pretty cute game! All around this feels pretty well-crafted: nice title screen and menus, a creative sticking mechanic to serve as a hook, charming graphics and presentation, a good escalation of complexity with a variety of obstacles and mechanics to contend with, and little subtle touches like the enemies getting happy when you die (and sad when one of them dies). Easily got addicted to making my way through the levels and finished before I knew it: a short but sweet experience!

I'm kind of stumped for any major complaints: if I had to nitpick I'd say that the game isn't as challenging as I'd like, and it's not necessarily wow-ing me or blowing me away with something really fresh as it is just a, in a way, simple puzzle platformer of which they are many like it (albeit this is a well-crafted one, as said). Of course, my biggest complaint would most likely be that I wish there was even more levels to play!

[BAR-I-TONE]

Pretty bizarre to see this one for the 3 star jam! I felt like this game was really cool: a fresh new rhythm-based concept, stylish visuals and presentation. Then I noticed how bloody hard it was and thought to myself, ah, so that's how they're planning to get 3-starred, huh.

So yeah, I do feel like the game gets way too hard way too fast: the first level starts out promising by starting out slow, but then it immediately starts using all 3 characters in rapid-fire overlapping fashion, requiring you to hit fancy melodic beats instead of simple strong beats that are hard to grasp without knowing the song beforehand. It's just so much! If the game were to start you out on some simpler levels and build up the difficulty bit-by-bit, or maybe overhaul the system so it's not so difficult to ascertain the beat due to the way the drinks overlap and phase through each other in an illogical fashion (and it's so tough to time green because her drinks have lower screen real estate making it difficult to react), it'd feel so much better!

Having said that, though, I did like rising to the challenge, and something about how well-crafted and charming the game looked made me want to persevere, where more low-effort games would've just made me feel like I got trolled and quit. At heart, it's a cool and unique rhythm game! I still think it's excessive and could be balanced much better, but again, if this was your intention as part of the jam, to have it be so unbalanced as to get the intended 3 star, then I guess I understand (but hate it because I think the game should just be done well in a legit fashion!)

[Cross Strike]

Game definitely gives me some MegaMan X and Guardian Legend vibes, what with the cool slick shooting action and really unique jet transformation. For the most part, the game feels well put-together with some solid graphics, music, sound effects, etc and good juice/special effects to the various actions you can do (even something as simple as walking and jumping feels great due to the nice sounds and visual effects). Enemies are nice as well with a good variety and intuitive attack telegraphs. Felt like it had some good progression in getting more abilities that open up previous parts of the map as well as an anime-as-heck story.

Overall I feel like this game is pretty dang cool, but there are some nagging aspects that I felt really hold it back!

*I thought the whole transformation mode was pretty cool, but it felt so token, like something you can only do at certain zones clearly made for the jet and nowhere else. Would love if the jet mode was something you could integrate into combat more and such, like being able to use it to dodge or pierce certain enemy defenses, but it felt underutilized and the corridors too cramped to use it anywhere beyond the designated zones. I also just didn't like the jet mode because it felt too fast: felt like I was playing Sonic where you're moving too fast you can't react to things in time, so it's too scary to use.

*I hated that I couldn't hold down the fire button to autofire: I understand that it's because you have a charge move later on, but it's such a pain for carpal tunnel users. Firing is especially bad since there technically is no limit to fire rate: it goes as fast as you can press, so it feels open to being cheated by mashers.

*While it was cool that the level was big and all interconnected with gates being opened from later powers, the level just felt so maze-like and boring due to the bland, sterile graphics, and constant use of cramped boring corridors. Over and over you're walking down similar looking hallways, seeing the same save rooms, dealing with the same lock traps that pit you against two enemies: so repetitive! Everything just looks the same and not only really drags the game down but also makes it confusing to navigate: would love more varied graphics, room designs and landmarks to keep things fresh and let you build a mental map (could also maybe have a map screen on pause).

*Felt annoying to have to make so many leaps of faith or miss seeing things due to not being able to see high or low enough: would love if the game let you hold down/up to be able to peek ahead.

I gripe a lot, but that's just because this is definitely a promising game with some cool ideas and I want to really love it and its sequels: hope this feedback can help make it even better! Loved the cool boss fight and hope to see you continue this connected lumina cinematic universe you're making!

Yword responds:

Really sorry about those issues... But thank you so much for the valuable feedback, I will note them down!
And thanks again for playing too! :)

[Run, Billy, Run !]

Hmm, bit mixed on this one!

On one side of things, I think the game is quite fun! There certainly are an astounding variety of crazy obstacles to contend with that assemble in all sorts of fresh tracks, it feels good to move fast and be as efficient as possible, the music gets you amped up, and overall the game is quite charming with its little quips and style.

On the other hand, I felt like the game was super wonky, bordering on unfair at times.

*Jumping physics could be really bad when it comes to jumping off of moving platformers: jumping when a platform is moving up and you're sent to the moon while jumping when a platform is going down makes it so you practically don't jump at all. I get that sometimes games make you inherit some of the momentum from the platform you're standing on, but here is feels excessive and unintuitive.

*Physics for the 'slippery' floors was also weird: felt more like they were 'sticky' floors.

*It sucks that when you pop a balloon accidently it never respawns, so all you can do it wait for death since you need them to proceed.

*The distance tracker is completely bunk: you can have tracks that make you run to the left to progress and it decreases your tracker as if you were backtracking!

*The game also ended up getting a bit repetitive: if you have a long run going, you can end up seeing the same recycled traps over and over. This wouldn't be a problem if the traps would get more intense the longer you go or remix little things about them to keep you on your toes, like Warioware does, but for this its literally the same thing over and over, so it gets boring because once you've conquered it, there's no challenge to it.

Definitely a nice concept and a good attempt, but just felt like it needed some more time in the oven!

FFuriousDuck responds:

Hi !

Thanks for your review, i totally agree with you, i'll fix all this mess in the next update !

Take care !

[Rederic]

Hrmm, this was a rough one for me!

Definitely showed a lot of promise at the start with its solid and fancy title screen. Gameplay was decent as well: nothing great or unique, but good basic platforming and combat where you jump, slash and shoot at a good variety of enemies and find secret treasures. I especially loved the subtle but intricate touches that the game had, such as having enemy telegraphs/warning exclamations or showing all of the gold items you pick up going into the bag (though it does this wayyyyy too slowly that it gets real monotonous, haha). Some neat stuff!

But lord almighty did this game feel clunky. I dunno if I'm unlucky or something, but I just kept getting softlocked through various glitches and had to restart the game several times. I had a time where my character got frozen, dunno how: they could still move but they couldn't attack or shoot their bow anymore. I also had a time where my character fell through the floor into the void when I was just trying to see if I could interact with a door by pressing up, down, e, and so on. There were also other subtle glitches like money having weird collisions, enemy exclamations popping up when they die as if they were going to attack, and so on. Also some enemies like the wizard goblins were just annoying at their keep-away game, haha!

It's super glitchy and clunky, and isn't the most exciting game, so it definitely needed more time in the oven for me. But the core structure and some of those little touches in there showed me that there is some good promise for development in the future, so best of luck!

[Salmon Jam]

Hmm, a bit mixed on this!

On one hand, the game is pretty decent and reminiscent of deckbuilders like Slay the Spire and all that jazz. Despite it's simplicity, I did have fun trying to strategize and use the various cards to the best of my ability, and I think its designed rather intuitively that I was able to grasp how to play despite going in blind. Definitely feels like it has the basic core structure in place for a promising game!

However, the game does feel incredibly underbaked and unpolished in its current state. So many aspects feel so clunky: there's no music, it feels very dry, the 'combat' title is left on clearly non-combat phases, sprite/text layering is all screwed up and leads to unreadable text at times, the output for damage is confusing (why when I block all damage does it both play a punch sound instead of a block sound and still popup a number like I got hurt, for example), it's not clear at times how you're supposed to proceed with all these buttons and such left on screen, and so on and so forth.

Furthermore, typically with jam games I like to see brand new concepts or wacky ideas get field tested to see if they are worth more work, but this is just a deckbuilder that is imilar to other deckbuilders, so there's not much to gain here (though obviously it's not a sin to be unoriginal, lord knows I am). At the end of the day it's a jam game so I don't want to be too tough on it, but it's out here and you can't always count on people respecting that context so I do want to deliver the best feedback I can think up.

[Beck Gets Bitches!!!!]

Well, considering it was for the 3 star jam, I'd say you've done an excellent job at earning this 3 star: whether you want to take that as a compliment or an insult, I'll have you decide, haha!

As said, it very accurately captures that feel of a 3 star game. Playing this puts a picture in my head of a newbie creator who was very proud at being able to pull off very basic player movement and collisions: it's nice as a step forward on their journey to game dev improvement, but it definitely doesn't make it a good game or ready for the limelight.

I almost actually want to dock points (or add points? this jam is confusing) because the game does show a little bit too much effort in putting bonus characters like Pepsi man and also just having a lot of goofy sounds: it shows a bit more craft and professionalism that you wouldn't see from a legit 3 star game. However, you clutched the 3 star in the end by having a score counter that doesn't properly reset: good save!

Taka responds:

Thanks bro! However I didn't know the counter didn't reset right LMAO
Good thing I made sure to do mid testing HAHA