FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Jimmy Blitz and the Rocket Dice]

Wow, I really loved the heck outta this! It's a simple game at its heart, but I thought it did an excellent job at using the dice theme to create a very clever game concept that's fun and intuitive to play. Got really addicted to playing through each level as it hooked me by escalating the stakes through more complex and varied objectives. It's not even part of the game mechanics exactly, but my favorite part had the be the dialogue and the music, particularly the little stings at the end of levels: just so bloody charming!

I don't have many complaints: sometimes the rocket physics of the dice can be a little janky where one seconds I'm struggling to get them to move and the next second the slightest tap suddenly flips them like crazy (but it just adds to the comical appeal), switching dice can be a little confusing when you're got more than two since you're not sure where you'll end up, and I wish there were more prominent visual indicators when you're getting too sus and when you're using slow-mo, like screen tinting or other special effects (since sometimes I wasn't sure if slow-mo was doing anything since it was so subtle). Rather, the biggest complaint is that I wish there was more! Just as I was starting to feel like I was getting really skilled at the controls and wanted something to really challenge me to prove my worth, the game was over! Oh well, consider it a compliment that I just wanted more and more from this! Maybe an enhanced version someday? But of course, you're free to just leave it as a very nice game jam game.

[All Right on the Knight]

What a bizarre game! I'm not quite sure what I think of it as it took me on quite a trip, with various ups and downs.

It definitely started out a bit rough, what with the weird entry zone where you've placed plaques on tops of pillars which, since the up button is used to both read and jump, make it impossible to jump off of the pillars except through awkwardly abusing coyote time (deliberately jumping way late). Definitely not a great first impression, but once that was settled, I moved on and the game started proper and was a decent gauntlet of obstacles.

Indeed, the game was a fun little challenge at first until I noticed that a lot of obstacles seemed to be built to flow a little too perfectly...a bit of an experiment later and suddenly the game had no challenge to it, since all you had to do was hold right and the game played itself! As clever as it was to realize the hidden meaning of the title and fun to watch the game beat itself like one of those auto Mario Maker levels, I felt cheated: I was hoping for a good challenge but the game was built to offer none! Why even bother continuing...

But then the game revealed a bit more to it. Yes, I could technically keep blasting through the levels by holding right, so there wasn't any challenge so to speak. But the game seemed to realize this fact and have fun with it, such as the level which can easily be beaten by turning left and walking a few steps, or by insisting to go right to go on a grand journey. Indeed, now the game was an amusing and comical story as you read the tablets of knights debating the honor of going right and so on and so forth, just like how I was debating what the game was all about. Not only that, but the game actually did have some challenge to it, but not in an obvious manner, but rather where you can stop holding right and attempt to reach hidden areas with bonus tablets to read for more amusement. What a mysterious game!

It wasn't quite what I wanted, and I don't fully agree with it on some levels, but it was a bizarre adventure and not something I'm going to easily forget, so kudos on this weird metagame!

TmsT responds:

Thanks for sharing your experience in such detail! Seeing you come to understand the layers of trickery in the game while demonstrating it for your video totally made my day. Not to mention provided valuable feedback I can learn from, sometimes confirming weaknesses I wasn't entirely sure about but didn't do anything to fix, other times enlightening me about other stuff I hadn't really considered. The whole game is basically a joke that I took too seriously, but in the end I'm happy you gave it an honest play - and that you found it bizarre!

[Little Mother]

Hmmm, bit mixed on this one. Started out pretty strong, but didn't build up or explain enough to whatever the heck it was rambling about in the end.

On one hand, I felt like the overall presentation of this was pretty cool with its storybook-esque graphics and I loved the little touches like how the music changes as you go further and further. Despite how simple and boring the gameplay was on a technical level, those techniques coupled with the myterious story kept me hooked and looking forward to seeing how everything resolves, so it was definitely an interesting experience in that regard. Very atmospheric and unsettling.

But on the other hand, I don't really like how everything ended up in the end, and it felt like it ruined the experience for me. Where at first there was intrigue and mystique, it quickly devolved into rambling hoity-toity metaphorical mumbo-jumbo that just felt silly since it came outta nowhere. Ooooo, life and death, pain and suffering, ooga booga: it felt really flat and jarring to come up so suddenly. I really don't know what the heck it was all talking about: perhaps it is something important, but I don't feel like the game properly built up to it, and to be honest, how could it since it was so short. It's like it was trying to speedrun to some sort of 'deep' ending but without immersing us into it first, cheapening it. Similar to getting advice on cooking from someone who's never cooked in their life, whatever the game was talking about wasn't able to be taken seriously by me.

It didn't help either that the game had some bits of shoddiness to it that ruined the mood, like the weird way your character overlaps obstacles with their legs in front while the body is still technically behind due to awkward layering. Would love if perhaps this game was expanded upon to give enough time and design to give whatever it was trying to say the pathos it deserves.

[RUN FOR THE HILLS! YOUR FAVOURITE NEWGROUNDS USERS ARE COMING FOR YOU!!!]

To be honest, it's not really much of a game, but from what I understand this isn't meant for mass public consumption but rather meant to be an inside joke: just a fun little gag collab to celebrate being friends and colleagues with these wonderful Newgrounders. So considering that, I can relent on the more harsh criticism and just accept it for what it is: just a goofy game where it's fun to see the various ways you can get killed, and for that, it's almost like a cool interactive art gallery.

However, even considering that, there is still some minor criticism I'd like to point out at the game. While most of the Newgrounders have their names in their kill screens, some of them are absent, and that can make it difficult to follow and determine who is who. Sure, you can see their nametag for a brief moment before they kill you, but it's really not much time at all as they move very fast. Would love if there was more consistency in the kill screens, where they all have a good picture, the name of the killer, and their method of killing. And while we're on that, I think it would be great if there were a link to the user's profile on the kill screen as well: it'd be great if someone could get killed by someone, laugh at the killing and get curious at who they are and be able to immediately go to their profile. Just some food for thought!

LeviRamirez responds:

alright fine we will add you to the game

[HYPER JUMP]

While it might be a rather simple game with simple graphics, the amount of polish this has really elevates it to be an exciting and addictive game!

Unfortunately I only seem to be able to play it in an incognito window (seriously, if I try to play it normally I get an error on initial load that says 'null function or function signature mismatch'), but when I did get to play it, I had a blast! It may not have the most complex graphics, but it makes excellent use of leaning, squashing, stretching and other subtle techniques to make the player character feel incredibly smooth and satisfying to move. Couple that with the juicy special effects for all the obstacles you must contend with of which there are many exciting variations, and you've got a fun, high-octane scramble of a game that I kept coming back to see how much farther I could get!

Only major complaints I had (apart from the aforementioned bug stopping me from playing the game) was that 1) I wish there was some music to the game to really help increase the intensity (I'm sure you can find some great musicians here on Newgrounds!) and 2) I wish some of the obstacles like bombs were more easily identifiable from the collectibles since you can easily get them confused in an unfair manner from their similar looks, especially as things ramp up and there's so much going on that clouds your vision (though perhaps that is the point, to be unfair in a troll-y way)

[Ascension]

Pretty neat game! Definitely felt very well constructed and polished, with the presentation and gameplay having a very smooth and satisfyingly retro feel to it all. Visuals were cool with the growing fire which can make enemies transform from their spooky dark versions to their more normal light versions.

The big problem for me was, as good as the game looked and everything, it really didn't take very long for me to get bored of it and quit. As the levels went on, they never really changed or escalated in any significant way to let me know I was making progress, and without any information from the game on a possible story or goal to strive for, I couldn't figure out whether the game was actually going to end at any point or if it was just randomly generating the same level over and over in a pointless loop. The smallest hint I got was the music changing after a few levels, but that was very superficial. It didn't help either that there didn't seem to be any challenge to the game: enemies were easy to take down, the fire doesn't die down to force you to move fast, and there doesn't seem to even be a way to lose since dying just keeps reviving you with no punishment and allows you to recollect your lost goods with barely a problem.

Again, really feels like if the game just changed things up a bit by upgrading the levels more significantly as you make progress, or at least having some sort of known goal to strive for, it'd be great when coupled with how well put-together the game is. But without that, as small as it is, it brought an excellent game like this down quite significantly. Good work nonetheless, though!

[GIMMIKO CLASSIC]

Wow, had a really good time with this! Definitely one of my favorite GMTK dice games I've come across: combat is really fun and juicy with all sorts of explosive chaos and satisfying feedback, there's a decent variety of enemies with different movement patterns to shake things up, loading the dice to spawn attacks from a throw is a really cool concept, there's a nice layer of strategy in both macro -building your ideal dice- and micro -having to manuever to retrieve your dice-, and all-around the game just has a really goofy and charming presentation!

Only complaints I can think of is:

1) I felt like the game was a bit difficult to figure out how it worked: don't get me wrong, it was quite the fun adventure to piece it together, but I really felt like the shop menu could've been a bit more intuitively designed in terms of placement of buttons and such (for example, the Go button almost looks like something you can buy; maybe it should be in the bottom right corner instead?) and for there to be some sort of mini tutorial or how-to-play present.

2) As much as the game was fun and keeping things interesting by introducing new enemies, I couldn't help but worry that it was just pointlessly looping and getting repetitive: would've really helped if there was some sort of story or goal to strive for that was pointed out at the start that would let me know what the objective was. Doesn't have to be anything big: just any sort of text blurb or little cutscene at the start would've been sufficient.

3) As much as it was fun to see all the chaos spawn from the dice and cause chain reactions with the enemies, it was really difficult to parse what was friendly and what was an enemy. There were a lot of times where I'd run from things like a miko stick or bees, not realizing they were my friends! In a similar but different vein, the Yuki-onna's wisps looked very similar to the dead ghosts of the wisps as well, so sometimes I'd be dodging the ghosts for no reason thinking they were still alive, haha. To sum it up, it would definitely help if there was a better way to identify friend from foe, like outlines or something.

Again, definitely super impressive for a game jam game: would love to see if you expand upon this, but it's already quite good for what it is if it's left as such!

Tombdude responds:

We're working on a pretty huge overhaul of the game!! : ]

[Morbsweeper]

Pretty cool game! As expected from a LumpyTouch game, it definitely has a really professional level of polish to it: while the game is quite a simple Minesweeper-clone with some minor additions at its heart, the game overall felt more than that due to its really excellent presentation, solid construction and satisfying juice to it with all its special effects, feedback and animations. I particularily found the 'morb mode' very funny with how reminiscient to a pinball multimode with all the flashing displays and events popping up (though I do feel like it is way too difficult to acquire except for crazy Minesweeper elites). Only big bug report I had was that the music doesn't loop for some reason.

That being said, while I did enjoy my time, once the initial luster fell off, it did feel a little...pointless? Again, I'm not going to knock it since I had a good time while it lasted, and clearly a lot of effort and polish went into it, but at the end of the day, it really felt like nothing more than a Minesweeper reskin (albeit a very well-made reskin) with barely anything new or interesting brought to the table, just superficial changes like a more forgiving difficulty that doesn't force a restart for a single mistake and a fancy hyper mode for fast play. I'm probably thinking on it too hard, but I just couldn't help but feel like this was just blatant memebait, just a shallow pandering game to stay relevant and garner fans. And again, I'm not against memebaity games as I loved the Sansfield game, but that at least brought a lot of cool mechanics and new stuff into play, whereas this...it's just Minesweeper.

I still admire the effort and construction that went into this, but that almost makes me wish it was brought onto something new and exciting. But again, it's still a neat game and clearly, in a very ironic fashion, I'm overthinking it.

[Five Nights at Fulp's]

Pretty neat game! I'm not really familiar with FNAF at all, only having glanced at it being played but never played myself, but if there ever was a time to it get into it, it was nice to see it in this Newgrounds version! It's a little clunky in some respects as it has some general smoothness problems and lack of graphical fidelity, and I think it forgoes that informative audiospace from the games in favor of either plain silence or goofy jokes (for example I was getting callouts from Tomar despite him not being a factor in the early levels, so why? unless I'm mistaken). But besides that, it's got the general gist of it enough to be fun and brings its own interesting ideas with some unique monsters like Pico. Also I do appreciate that you made the game over state just a goofy Tomar punch instead of a jumpscare shriek: it allows my delicate heart to stay at peace, haha.

Game does have some slight annoyances to it like how finicky the monitor can be (thankful that there was an option to just use spacebar instead of the mouse), and there were some weird bugs like an incessant meow (maybe an easter egg?) and also a weird bug where it'd play a fart noise every time I brought up the monitor (maybe an unintended feature?) Also, of course, as a newbie to FNAF, I was a bit lost at how the rules worked, but I suppose that's just part of the charm and I did have fun trying to figure it out, though it could be frustrating and unclear at times.

Again, well done on this: I'll try and push forward through the remaining nights as best as I can!

Frosty responds:

the meow occurs whenever you press on the stepford plate. ty for the review!! also regarding the fart noise, its a bug and i have no clue what causes it lol, i think on the scale of bugs that's one of the funnier things that could happen so i just kept it in lol.