FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pokemon Variance Collab]

Pretty decent art collab! It's not exactly the most creative or interesting presentation, being your bog-standard slideshow, but it nevertheless has a good amount of effort and design put into it, what with its stylish pokedex interface, neat lore to go along with the art pieces, links to the artist profiles readily available, and random/gallery view options. There are some rough edges here and there, such as how difficult it can be to read the text (outlines are preferable over angled drop shadows, as well as higher contrasting colors from the background) and how the gallery view scroll bar isn't visible when you aren't over it, but overall it's not too shabby. Neat to see so many creative pokemon variants!

[Twigi's Twisted Costumes]

Cute little dress-up game! It's not really my kinda jam, and it is rather simple and lacking the depth of other dress-ups I've played, but it still has a nice amount of costumes to pick from, some fun interactions from wearing complete sets, and a lot of goofy nonsense like the spooky/twist buttons and achievos, so yeah, not too shabby for a quick chuckle!

[TapTapBOOM]

Huh, this is quite the fun little mobile game! The standout element for me is definitely the presentation: there's just so many flashy effects, transitions, and juice in every single action that the whole experience feels so lively and satisfying! It's not all superficial, though, as I think the game does a good job at evolving the gameplay over time, introducing all sorts of new obstacles and puzzles to contend with. Fun stuff!

I got pretty confused at how the game progresses, though. Initially it starts out as a physics puzzle game where you try to plant bombs at key points to collapse these structures in a way that all of the green blocks go off-screen, and I liked this! Later on, though, it turns into a completely different game where bombs are largely relegated to being used to press down buttons with no room for any sort of creativity or experimentation, with the puzzles being solved through other elements like plungers and sliding blocks. It just feels like the core identity of bombs is completely lost! Like, instead of making this new dynamite/plunger mechanic, why didn't you make it so that the second bomb you place could be triggered separately from the first bomb? That way players would actually need to puzzle out the second explosion, instead of just relying mindlessly on the fixed dynamite placement!

I guess you could argue that it's novel how the game changes, and if I turn my brain off and just play, I think it's fine and very addictive, but I can't help but feel like it is rather confusing, like you just gave up on the initial premise and then made a completely different puzzler and the bombs just remained as a vestigial property.

Chaz responds:

That's fair (and very valuable) feedback, thanks for pointing this out!

[Deep Deep Deep Nightmare Demo]

Hmm, this is a pretty neat game! It's pretty blatantly a top-down shooter clone in the vein of games like Binding of Isaac, but for the most part it's got some solid construction to it: enemy/weapon variety is nice, the graphics and story are cute, there are nice quality-of-life features like controller support and a testing area in the hub, and everything just feels very smooth and polished overall. The standout element for it is definitely the boss fights, which were pretty cool with some interesting and challenging patterns. It's pretty impressive!

Since you're going for a commercial release on Steam, though, I feel like I have to be a bit more critical since that's a much bigger arena you're stepping into. And to be honest, I don't think this game has enough going for it to stand out in that crowd, as to me, it just felt rather generic and derivative, all stuff I've seen done before, but better elsewhere. There's nothing wrong with imitating your favorites, heck, we've all gotta start somewhere, but when looking at this, I see no reason to play it over the original deal, nothing that sticks with me or hooks me in or, most importantly, makes me whip out my wallet.

I can offer some slight feedback here and there, such as how I think the feedback for damaging enemies should be more satisfying, possibly by adding blood splatters, and that the weapons are rather boring and could use some more exotic choices, but those are all just minor: the core gameplay loop of simplistic arena combat just doesn't have enough spice to it, apart from the boss battles which I mentioned before. It would be up to you to see if there's something special you can add to this game to make it stand out, something to finish the sentence of 'it's like Binding of Isaac, BUT..."

That's just me, though, and like I said, the game does have a very nice look and feel to it, so you should be proud of what you've accomplished, and best of luck on the release!

[Slime 3K Demake]

Hmm, this is a bit of a weird one!

It's like, on one hand, I think this game is a pretty neat recreation of how an early Survivors-esque game would work and feels quite authentic. But at the same time, that authenticity is a double-edged sword because, well, an early attempt at a Survivors-esque game would probably feel like this does, where it just doesn't quite land with me, feeling quite rough, janky and not as satisfying since the way these games work haven't been iterated upon yet, and the capabilities are also limited by the system. I guess take that as a strange compliment that, uh, you pulled it off?

I want to like it and think it's charming in some ways, but the core gameplay just didn't feel satisfying and addictive like I'd want, and it just felt awkward with weird hitboxes and confusing when I couldn't figure out the rules, like when I'd go to a shop to get a power-up or when I'd just be thrust into a new level. The sense of progression and enemy design felt really strange as well, with all sorts of crazy spikes and unfair starts.

[Color Maze]

Not too shabby! It's not necessarily anything noteworthy, but it's a competently made and decently fun puzzle game that provides a nice more-ish experience as the stakes escalate from level to level with enough special effects to feel good. Nothing to write home about, but perfectly fine for a bit of fun!

If I were to have any feedback, it'd be that I wish the game had input buffering so you could do rapid sequences of moves a bit easier, and that it'd be nice if the game had a bit more pizazz to it. Also some of the ways it would recycle maps felt kind of bad, and I swear there was one time where it repeated a level it had already done before? Maybe it was a misinput on my part, but I don't think so.

Pitigamedev responds:

Thank you for the feedback!

[Anzu Castle Gracula]

Oof, this is a rough one for me!

I definitely want to give this game a lot of credit because I feel like it is really pulling off this whole retro DOS metroidvania it's going for, both in terms of style/presentation and in terms of the old-school difficulty design. A big sprawling map with all sorts of routes and upgrades to find, a huge variety of unique enemies to contend with, and that glorious DOS/pixel aesthetic, what more could I ask for?

But as much as I want to keep playing it because of how promising it looks and feels, I keep bouncing off of it because of the difficulty design. I'm someone who actually enjoys a lot of old-school difficulty, but man, this game just felt absolutely exhausting to play, especially when it starts pulling all sorts of bullshit like enemies respawning/entering from the sides of the screen. And perhaps I'm just the unluckiest bastard to play this, but it seemed like every single route I took would end up with me at a dead-end, staring at an item out-of-reach without some other sort of power-up that must be down another route I should've taken first if I had any damn clue where to go.

The final nail in the coffin for me was the lack of a proper save/load system: I made it to a statue and saved, hoping to revisit after a break, but when I selected continue at the main menu, it put me back at the very start! Perhaps it's one of those classic save/loads where it only saves your items collected and not your position, but ugh, it just feels so bad and eliminated the last remaining vestiges of my motivation!

So yeah, this game is something I both absolutely want to play, but also never want to see again: oh, the duality of man!

EDIT: I keep coming back to this to try it out, especially now since I know I can save, but jeez, this is hard to love! Did it seriously weaken my power after defeating the first boss? Enemies that used to take 2 hits now take 3! I don't think I can take this: this game is for like next-level masochists.

EDIT: ...surprisingly I keep coming back for more punishment. Actually making some decent headway now with another boss down and double jump acquired. What an odd experience, to be tossed back and forth between love and hate, haha.

RainbowCemetery responds:

i love u but half the description is a disclaimer about the save system D:

[Reincarnation: ADDO Remastered]

Wow, this is a fantastic little point-n-click adventure game, and I'm saying that as someone who never played the originals (sorry) so there's no nostalgia blinding me! Seriously, the overall presentation and feel of the game is very high-quality and would fit right alongside any of the classic greats! I got right into playing this and seriously enjoyed not only the puzzles, but all of the goofy dialogue and extra interactions you can do: always love it when you can interact with stuff in nonsensical ways and get back a funny response!

If I were to have any feedback, it would be:

*I wish the way that interactable objects would get highlighted was more clear: the way the cursor reacts by rotating is quite subtle and can easily lead to you missing objects as you're scanning the environment. I'd love a more prominent glow, for example, for either the cursor or the object.

*I found the usage of directional audio a bit strange: sure, it makes a bit of sense for people on the left/right sides of the screen to have their audio come from the left/right ears, but in a way it feels very unnecessary.

*The introduction scene was pretty awkward since it not only had the audio desync, but it cut-off into gameplay before it completed, at least as far as I could tell.

*There's no save/load functionality? I got pretty far into the game and, wanting to take a break, went into the options to try and save, but upon not seeing any options, I figured it would have some sort of autosave, but oh, the disappointment when I tried to load my game on a new session and found I'd have to start all over! I really don't want to have to redo everything, even if I can try and skip the dialogue to make it go faster.

[Wizard Brew]

Hey, this is a pretty neat game! I'm always down for a little job-sim like potion brewing, and to combine that into a crazy and chaotic competitive battle royale was quite the interesting fusion! Having to collect ingredients and brew potions while dodging bullets and screwing over the competition by messing with their pots or just outright killing them was wild, and overall I felt like the game was a very polished and intuitive experience with both a well laid-out tutorial and all sorts of tooltips and feedback within the game itself to help you along. I even liked all of the goofy extra touches it had, like how the 1st place wizard scorches the runner-ups, haha! Well done!

Having said that, I did have a few things come up in terms of feedback:

*It felt quite frustrating with the way the screen is setup, as the camera is so zoomed in and unable to see forward that you just can't get a good handle on the environment or see threats coming, so it felt impossible to dodge attacks or keep track of anything.

*I was very reluctant to deal with other wizards and found myself wishing I could just collect ingredients and brew and that's it. Don't get me wrong, I understand why the competitive aspect is there and I think the game is better for it since it would be too simple without it, but I just found it annoying and pointless to try and deal with other wizards. It's kinda like how a lot of people enjoy Dark Souls but don't want to engage in PVP. If I had my way, I'd make it so that you have to journey into a separate area, some sort of dangerous forest with monsters to collect ingredients, instead of cramming everything into a single area filled with absolute chaos, but that's just me spitballing.

*There were some minor sound errors with some music only playing out of my left ear for some odd reason.

Definitely a cool game, but it might be something I technically love in theory more than actually playing it, if that makes sense, haha! It's cool enough though that I want to revisit it at some point, hopefully embracing the chaos on that second try!

Sjhillustration responds:

Thanks for the feedback! It was my first game, so it was difficult to get a balance without making the game either too hard and complicated, or too easy and not fun.

The one thing I had hoped for is that it was chaotic, as it was supposed to be a game jam, knowing I had a limited time (I didn't even come close to finishing it in time lol) that having it be a hard, almost multiplayer style game would give it a bit of a challange so people might play it more than once if they liked it, as it only lasts 3 and a half minutes.

I'll check out the music/sound issue. I hadn't noticed but there might be some audio that's spatial by accident.

I honestly thought only 10 people would play this, so I'm grateful for everyone that did!

Thanks for playing!

[Help Me Clean My Kitchen!]

Hey, it's nice to see this game come back again in a new form! It's a rather short and simplistic puzzle game, but its cute and goofy vibes as well as weird and experimental design make it quite the unique experience, and I couldn't help but get addicted to playing it over and over till I got the best ending! Still haven't gotten the secret ending yet, but I'm sure to be back to get it when I have some time: so fun to play around with the various choices and watch how everything turns out after all, like some sort of ant farm or fish bowl!

Even though the game is technically quite simple in that you're just figuring out the order to hit the buttons in, and you could technically just brute force that without paying attention to anything, I like the way the game lets you slowly intuit how the order should work out by paying attention to the various interactions that play out, like how you can't introduce water too early because you need the sink to flood to clean the floor, but at the same time you need to be careful with fire and ice during that waiting period since they can mess with the water/oil to create messy situations, and so on. There's something so magical about how it roped me into paying attention to the animated interactions, the way it becomes much larger than what it technically is, if that makes sense.

I enjoyed my time with this and my only real complaint would be that I wish there were even more goofy scenarios/levels to play through, as I just can't get enough!