FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Dark Sword Demo]

Pretty cool game that I quite enjoyed, but unfortunately feels quite unpolished in a lot of areas!

For the most part, I found the game very cool and reminiscent of something like Titan Souls or Shadow of the Colossus: a mysterious and dark world/story, tons of stylish bosses with sensational attack patterns to them, an interesting core combat mechanic of switching between melee and ranged, decent juicy effects, and so on. I also thought it had some great touches like how the gun puffs when you are out of ammo, and how you have black orbs swoosh over to you when you slash an enemy: really illustrates the mechanic to the player in a subtle way. I love me some boss fights and so I had a pretty darn good time here!

I will say that the game is pretty dang janky, though, which kinda holds it back. There were a lot of sloppy graphical effects like the boss bullets spawning at a different location than the spark effect for them being generated, you can take hits so fast with little invincibility time and insta-die, in general it can be difficult to tell when you get hit at times due to vague hitboxes, reflecting bullets with the sword is inconsistent as sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't for no reason I can tell (reflecting bullets also makes things a bit too easy), it feels silly that you can walk around when the game is still fake-loading and hasn't faded in yet after a level transition, and it seems like attacks aren't actually limited in fire-rate so technically people with better non-carpal-tunnel hands (or a macro) could have an unfair advantage, and so on and so forth.

While the game does have a lot of little things that hold it back, the broad strokes are still pretty cool and I enjoyed myself. Bit of a bummer that there is no save/load as I was near the end but just wanted to take a little break, only to see all my progress erased. I'll see if I can revisit it later on, maybe once the final boss area has been developed.

EDIT: I know I already said it before, but damn, some of the bosses in this game are just jank as all hell and don't feel good to fight. They look like they should be great to fight with all the fancy effects and attacks they have, but everything is just so untelegraphed and inelegant and confusing to parse. Eventually quit at the final boss: I kept trying but it was just so ugly as it seemed like the only way to win against him was to spam dodge like hell until he finally finishes his pattern and stands still for a nanosecond to let me get an attack in, and my arms/hands just can't keep up with that amount of button mashing or inelegant design. Again, neat game in concept though.

MrDoth responds:

Thank you very much for your review and for letting me know all these things, believe me I'm working since a few days ago to release an update that fixes most of these problems, thank you again that you have dedicated so much time to the game, and I had not thought about the save/load, I'll write it down to add some slots :D

[Subpixel]

Huh, quite the interesting experience! I love the way the game progresses bit-by-bit by introducing this crazy gravity mechanic and creating all sorts of obstacles based around it, and the fact that the controls shift along with the gravity actually added a fun little mind-bending challenge to get used to it all. Had me quite hooked!

Unfortunately, I felt like the game had some very strange jumping physics at its core that made it incredibly inconsistent and frustrating: like at times I think I'm doing a tiny jump forward and it sends me blasting forward instead, and vice versa (think it has something to do with whether you are holding a direction when you jump or when you press it afterwards and so on). This, when combined with other strange stuttering physics nonsense, wonky and unclear transition periods between gravity zones, and the later levels which focus a lot on hidden platforms which adds a lot of trial and error, made me quit before reaching the end. Still, I think I had an ok time with it while it lasted: would love to see more like this, if only the main physics mechanics were polished up for consistency.

[Fantasy Madness: Bloodbath]

Pretty neat vampire survivors-esque game! There's a lot of games like this, but I felt like this one did a pretty decent job at differentiating it slightly with its goofy themes and animal-based attacks. For the most part there's an alright level of polish put into the combat with explosive kills and blood being left behind and all that jazz. Had some good fun here!

It could just be because there are so many games like this out there, so competition is fierce, but overall I still had some feeling that this was lacking, despite it technically being quite decent. I'm not sure exactly what it is, but I did have a slight feeling like I was never clearly feeling the feedback from my attacks: felt like everything easily got lost in this chaos and I couldn't tell what was doing anything, where other similar games have you feel like you can still pick out the individual attacks from all the different weapons you have despite it being so chaotic. For example, the game told me my butterflies did the most DPS out of all my weapons, but it never really felt like they were attacking: it felt like they were just flying around me not doing anything. I will say there was a rare exception to this, being the toucan bombers which felt really good whenever they announced their arrival and streaked in for big numbers (though it happens so rarely that it's a bit of a bummer).

Apart from that, there were also some weird bugs and odd design decisions, like how you can exploit the dumb pathfinding of enemies and the fact that they collide with geometry and other enemies to group them up behind a wall and keep them out of your hair practically forever. Also it feels like the color palette and general presentation is a bit too bright and saturated and cartoony, leading to everything kind of blending together and making visual clarity difficult (possibly another symptom of me not being able to see the attack feedback that well).

I also dunno if I agree with the whole equipment system and gold gain: I don't like the feel of sacrificing potentially fun equipment for your current run to use for a later run, just feels like an easy way for me to start optimizing the fun out of the day: "I'll just make this run terrible to make another run better!" Just let me have fun without worrying about all these logistics!

Again, the game certainly provides some good fun, but at the moment, I'd say it falls behind a lot of the other popular games in this genre: doesn't mean it's bad, but comparison is inevitable. Hope you continue to work on the feel of the game and other aspects as it is very promising!

NightSteed responds:

Big thanks for taking your time and sharing a complex and insightful feedback (including the video you made recently)! We also appreciate you including our game in your Top 10 of NG games :)

Regarding the gold/earning system, we recently updated the game and now you gain gold by playing, therefore, selling items should be just an extra (and optional) way of earning some gold and getting upgrades. The amount of gold reward depends on the game mode you play and your performance (how many elites you kill, how long you survive etc.). This is not final ofc, but should give demo players much more opportunities on testing the upgrades, without necessity of “sacrificing” items earned.

Without getting into details, we just wanted to let you know that we are seriously taking all your remarks into account and we will surely implement some improvements in regards to issues mentioned. Mostly in regards to visual and skill readability. We hope you will check on it and share your thoughts again once they are implemented!

[Game]

Huh, I guess it's kind of like a museum for viewing old prototypes that you've made, or something like that? Was certainly an interesting experience, almost like going to an outsider art gallery with all of these weird experimental games presented in this strange world.

Unfortunately, I found myself losing patience with the games quickly: I'll give them credit that they are kind of interesting in how strange they play with the rules, like how objects keep scrolling vertically and you use coins to double-jump and so on, but at the end of the day, they just felt incredibly frustrating, unintuitive, janky and just plain unfun to play in my opinion. Usually when it comes to these weird games, I like figuring them out and enjoy the challenge and awkward experience, but here, I was wanting to quit almost immediately, haha.

Well, hopefully others are able to appreciate it more: guess I'm just not the intended audience!

[JOIN THE SQUAT demo]

Hmm, kind of a mixed impression on this one!

I certainly do find the overall aesthetic and story of the game to be quite mysterious and stylish, so it did compel me to keep playing. Furthermore, I do think the game has a lot of promising aspects like the very intense boss fight with a pretty neat pattern to it: always love me a good boss fight!

But overall I found the game very wonky and not very impressive:

*The beginning platforming section felt really boring and bog-standard with no unique mechanics or satisfying movement to show off.

*Climbing and swimming being just unlocks to your jump limiter without any new movement tech or physics or animations to them felt super lazy and bad.

*Speaking of swimming, it and other aspects felt really dry and lacking of nice effects: for example swimming should have splashes when you enter/exit, at the very least.

*The hitboxes for the boss were very wonky with tons of times where I'd jump on him and hit him, but the game would also say I got hit too at the same time, leading to an unfair feeling death.

*The game also lacked an auto-fire option which, when combined with the large health of blocks, made me click way too much and flare up my carpal tunnel.

*The fire button can technically keep firing at fast as you can press, so its possible to cheese the boss by mashing the fire button at an incredibly speed: I feel like it should be limited to a certain fire rate.

Just feels like it is in a rough state at the moment, which I suppose is to be expected for a demo, but still! Despite my rough time, I do still feel like the game has some promise, so hopefully you can continue work on it! I do appreciate that the game has saving so it continues where I left off instead of making me go through the start again!

omgmac responds:

Thank you for your detailed review FuturecopLGF, I like your suggestions :)

[Maple's Maid Service]

What a cute game! I typically love my games to have a lot of action and guns and challenge and all that jazz, but this game made me really enjoy just wandering around helping all these nice characters.

I was really impressed in general with the game's cute graphics, nice characters and their dialogues, and wholesome premise, but even more so I was impressed at all the little touches that go into making the game feel charming and alive, like being able to bump into trees to make them shake and make leaves fall, being able to kick balls around and even into the water, giving head pats, and just being able to plop down on a tree stump or bench for a little sit whenever you like! In general I love the almost overwhelming sugary-sweetness that this game has: even if you clean your room and go to bed immediately, the game still treats you nicely in the ending screen even though I felt like I didn't deserve it, haha!

The only complaints I can think of at the moment is that it can be a bit confusing getting used to mapping the town at first: I had so much trouble figuring out where the pizza deliveries were supposed to go since they give street address style directions but there are no street signs or house numbers to help (I did like how you can go back and ask for directions though!) It's actually probably because I stumbled upon the pizza quest too early before I could map out the village and there's no way to opt out. Also there are some weird graphical annoyances, like how the broom sweep graphic is kinda lazy and can be layered really awkwardly, like it goes behind a fence you're standing in front of and such. There are some weird audio annoyances as well where music will just cut out or not play and you need to hard reset it by transitioning areas to get it back on track. Oh, and I would've loved even more emotes and character portraits for various emotions!

Overall though it's a lovely little adventure and I look forward to getting a full heart run! Gotta admit though, I wish there was a save/load function since its a lot to do is just one sitting!

EDIT: I spent way too long literally pushing the sheep to the barn without realizing that they were already set to follow me once I pat them.

EDIT 2: Woo, I finished all the tasks! Finally, proof that I'm a good person.

Peti responds:

I've been anxiously waiting for this review to come out, as soon as monthly voting began every notification made me incredibly nervous lol bc I didn't know when you'd finally see this. To hear that you enjoyed the game and was impressed by it means the world to me. Thank you, I can finally rest easy now! 🐇💕

The only thing I can add is that music not looping/not always playing is intentional, so that the player can listen to the ambience sounds. Similar to Stardew Valley or Minecraft.

Congratulations on finishing all the tasks, and thank you sm for the great review service as always! You ARE a good person!! 🙌🐇💕

[Lights Out (NGPD2023 Demo)]

Not a bad little game, but at the moment it is a bit undercooked in my opinion. The game has a cute retro game-n-watchy aesthetic to it, and the puzzle-like gameplay of shutting off all the lights and then racing to the finish through the darkness is pretty cute and has a strategic element of jugging safe spots that eventually must be eliminated. But with so few levels, it feels like the game is over before its barely started, so we don't get to see the full extent of the mechanics, leaving me feeling very unsatisfied. Not only that, but some of the design seems very strange: I had one level with the battery that I had no idea how to interact with it, but I was bizarrely able to still finish the level because the door stayed open once I turned off all the lights despite turning a light back on.

[MimiQuest]

Not too shabby! Certainly made for a fun and challenging little fight: definitely not for the faint of heart as it expects you to already be familiar with a lot of Undertale mechanics and starts off hard, but I like a challenge and stuck with this until I got my genocide ending.

For the most part I had a pretty good time and it felt like the game was pretty well constructed overall. Loved that there was so much to such a short game: lots of fun interactions with amusing flavor text, lots of cool patterns to dodge, lots of neat touches like how the music kicks up a notch past the half-way point, and so on.

I did have a few grumbles as I was playing, with some of it I felt justified and others were just brief annoyances or confusion:

*I took a long time to realize that you just have to not move in the blue water: I thought the whole mechanic for that was to race to the top since it has that gap there (also just used to the blue and orange being used for beams, I guess).

*Speaking of water, I found the orange water to be super annoying since there were plenty of times I kept moving but it treated the brief nanosecond of my shifting directions as enough to be considered idle and make me take damage.

*Speaking of taking damage when I shouldn't, there were a lot of times where I swear that I didn't touch something but I still took damage: just felt like the hitboxes were a bit wonky and larger than they should be, like the hitbox being the bounding box instead of the exact shape of the object. For example, I felt like the water hitbox was a square which made making me hit it even though I'm inbetween a wave on the top which should be a safe pocket, and so on. I dunno, maybe it is being generous but it's just me being bad, haha.

*Some of the patterns were just super frustrating in that you have to memorize the pattern instead of being able to intuitively react to it. I'm primarily speaking of the blue/orange chain sequences where it'll trip you up by having a telegraph for orange, and then a telegraph for blue, but the orange will be super slow while the blue is lightning fast so you technically need to dodge the second one first. Once you know, you know, but until then, ugh!

For now I've just got the one ending for a normal kill: I've been trying to play around to see if I can get anything else but no luck so far as whatever the conditions are, they must be pretty obtuse. We'll see what happens!

EDIT: And there we go, pacifist ending woo!

[DRILLBIT!!]

Pretty neat little game with an interesting concept! As usual from a Jack game, I overall found the game to have a very polished level of construction and juicyness to it all, as well as being a wacky and unique concept, so for the most part the game was pretty neat.

Having said that, though, I did feel kind of awkward in my impression of it. I'm probably thinking too hard about it, but I was a bit confused on how you're supposed to play.

I assume the intent is that you drill down and make some educated guesses on letters until you get close to what the answer is, and then once you know what it is, drill and get the remaining letters you need. But it felt a bit awkward since, as much fun as it is to drill, it felt like the game was better played if you just idle around and think about the solution, which is pretty boring. Later on it kind of forces you to keep drilling with the wave of dirt, which I feel is good pressure to keep you drilling and take risks but it's almost too harsh too fast and just makes it frustrating instead of interesting.

Furthermore, I wasn't sure about scoring, like whether a big depth was a positive or a negative: it seems to think that a big number for depth is good since it has achievements for it, but shouldn't a big depth technically be bad since it would kind of imply that you needed to take so long to finish a word? Though thinking about it, the letters are randomly placed, so its not really up to the player on how deep they might have to dig until they get the right letters, unless the course is seeded in such a way that there's always an optimal solution at a certain depth, and every bit of depth past that would be suboptimal. And if depth is a positive, can't you just cheese it by digging down and down, ignoring letter blocks and the word solving? I dunno, haha!

Apart from that, there were also some minor annoyances like how letter blocks, one that I need and another I don't, would spawn right on top of each other, and I found the drilling a bit too wild and janky to reliably get just the one I want without inevitably getting the other one and being penalized.

For the most part I think it's a neat game: a little shallow (ironically) but certainly juicy and interesting enough to be a nice experience for a time.

[Picayune Dreams - Demo]

Ok, listen. I know it, you know it: the game is pretty darn cool. Super-duper cool. So as much as I'd love to spray you all with a hot load of the same ol' praise you've probably heard a million times, I'll spare you that and get right to the nitty-gritty: feedback.

As said, I'm overly very positive on the game, so most of this is just nitpicks: I didn't find any serious dealbreakers. Forgive my verbosity:

*I found myself surprised at how long levels felt. For example, when I played the second level, it felt like it just kept going on forever as it all devolved into a mish-mash of constant enemies. It was fun, but the fact that I noticed it did make me feel like it was getting a bit repetitive. Might be due to a few things: the game might've introduced too much enemy variety too early and then plateaued, or maybe the game wasn't having enough unique events happen (like those moments where suddenly a big circle of enemies encloses you).

*As cool as the reboot process after a death was the first time, is there a way on subsequent runs we can just press a button to fast-forward through all the heartbeat ponging stuff and just get to the stats and ability to go back to menu?

*The exp pickups being numbers created from damage is novel, but I felt like it was kind of less than ideal. For one, it makes it very difficult to be able to tell the damage your individual weapons are doing, which makes it both confusing to determine how strong they are at first and makes it less apparent and thus less satisfying to see them grow bigger from upgrades. Second, I found myself regularly forgetting to pick them up since they both just blend into the background and aren't very distinguishable from each other in intensity as something like blue/red/yellow gems are, making it unclear what to prioritize to pick up (is there a big number in this sea of numbers that's worth going for or are they just a bunch of worthless 1's made from scratches of my laser? hard to tell with peripheral vision in this chaos).

*Skills points...bit unsure on some of these. For example, some of them feel like they should be weapon pickups instead, like the scream pushing back enemies when you get damaged. In general, I'm also just not sure if they are even necessary as a system: I guess metaprogression can feel nice but sometimes it can be annoying that you feel like you can't actually play a "fair" game until you've spent time and grinded all the unlocks, like why aren't they just part of your base toolkit?

*By default I feel like the game put the sound effects (specifically weapon hit feedback) too soft and the music too loud. Maybe you guys got sick of hearing the weapons drone on and on during dev so you turned it down, and maybe I'll get sick of it eventually and wish I kept it to your settings, but for right now, I feel like its more satisfying to hear the hit feedback in a louder fashion.

*The story is very cool and mysterious, but I almost felt like the game gave too much away in the first memory? Lore is an awesome thing to collect and I was looking forward to playing farther to get more of the mystery unlocked, but I practically feel like I already understand everything from just the first boss memory so my drive is a bit diminished as what else is there to strive for? I could be underestimating the carrots you have left to dangle, however, if you pardon my pun.

*Some boss phases can be a real pain for certain loadouts: for example when the rabbit boss flies to the edge of the screen and is shooting circles at you, I felt like a chump since my loadout was all melee and I couldn't reach him even if I kept moving towards him. Luckily he has a phase after that where melee is good, but just be aware of this going forward in designing. Is it my fault I didn't diversify my loadout, or is it games fault it didn't design the boss or ensure I get provided enough versatile weapons? I think it's fine, but food for thought.

*As both a programmer and a lover of mystique, I should've loved the weapon descriptions done through psuedocode, but in reality I just found myself confused and annoyed. You can eventually learn what the weapons do through experimentation, though having said that I actually still don't know what a lot of stuff does for certain. Maybe a bit more clarity would be nice while still preserving the codey theme?

*You probably already know it, but this is just another Vampire Survivors clone (or maybe Risk of Rain clone, or whatever else if you keep going backwards) so as stylish as it is, it is probably gonna get a lot of flak for being in an incredibly saturated market. I certainly think this is doing a lot better by having a very unique style and having a more powerful story and mystique about it, but still, whatever else you can do to differentiate it, do it.

*I liked the enemies that sleep until you hit them, whereupon then they come running at you, but I think when I had a laser I never saw them asleep again: wonder if the range on the laser is too much and creates off-screen aggro?

*Apologies if you watch my video of me playing: I did way better once I played it off-recording, haha.

Best of luck on your continued development!

(Note: all of this is from playing the Steam demo as you advised)