FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Stella Pro Skater]

It's a simple game, but it's not too shabby! I like the way it builds up the tension at the start by slowly tilting the hill as it really sold the speed build up, and I found the act of jumping around to be some good simple fun. Game has a decent assortment of obstacles to contend with, especially the cars which were a big highlight. Bit weird that the game always starts at 300m on the score board: you'd think it would display your previous high score or something. I like the touch that you crashing and sliding down the hill still adds to your score: reminds me of something like Kitten Cannon.

While for the most part I was able to skillfully dodge around obstacles and get the 1000m achievement without much trouble, I did feel like I couldn't trust the game to always build a fair assortment of obstacles, and that really bummed me out and kept me from getting addicted to this game. It just felt like my runs depended on the whims of the games random generation: some runs would have barely any obstacles, while others would practically stack 3 or 4 obstacles on top of each other to form an unwinnable scenario. Still, for a little game jam game, I guess I can't expect you to build some sort of super algorithm to ensure that only fair configurations of obstacles are generated, so I'll accept the bit of fun I had.

As a side note, I did find it a bit disappointing that you didn't even bother creating a different graphic for when Stella jumps: looks so silly for her to stay stock-still when jumping, and lazy considering you did create all sorts of other wonderful graphics for crashing, haha. Oh, and Stella is cute.

[Figure Fumble!]

I do think the game shows a lot of promise: the presentation is very lively and charming, the graphics are cute and filled with juicy effects, and the act of swiping to throw your little figures around is both intuitive and very satisfying. It can be very amusing at just how chaotic it can get when you have tons of figures bonking around everywhere!

But all that satisfying flinging and charming presentation felt like smoke and mirrors, as the game was, at its core, incredibly, pathetically simple. The entire game is without challenge as there is no time limit that I can see and the enemies are totally unthreatening and don't force you into employing any sort of tactics: the enemies may look different, but they are all the same in that they are nothing against the tidal wave you can summon by brainlessly swiping up and down on the screen forever and ever, amen. There's just no design to it that I can see!

The only thing in the entire game that showed any aspect of challenge and required any sort of thought was the very final boss (I think it was the final boss? it was for me at least since I quit shortly after), where you need to build up an army of 100, but you need to smartly maneuver around the spike floors and the bosses ground pounds lest your guys get killed and you need to build them up again: while I enjoyed this, it was far too little, far too late. I'd much prefer if the game had a greater focus on more interesting combat scenarios and clever design like the final boss instead of just having a bunch of gacha to unlock.

Again, it is a satisfying prototype that does show some promise, I just think that too large a portion of it is without any sort of actual gameplay design to show, and that left a really bad first impression.

[Snow Yourself]

Hmm, I think it's a pretty unique and creative concept, but unfortunately maybe it was a bit too unique for me as I just couldn't wrap my head around it and found the controls to be very unintuitive and clunky.

It started out pretty strong with the first few puzzles: I had some minor issues understanding the controls and grappling with the camera, but for the most part it was ok as I enjoyed shaping myself around and thought there were some interesting tricks like shaping myself within the slanted pit to form the shape since doing it on flat ground wasn't feasible. I did feel like the aspect of finding of the snowballs to be able to actually start to create the target shape was unnecessary filler/busywork, but I guess without it the game might be too easy? It almost felt like finding the snowballs was the hard part while building it was the easy part, when it should be the opposite.

Later on, tho, it just got more and more weird: I solved a lot of puzzles through some ways that I felt were not the intended way, like exploiting physics by chucking snowballs, but I just didn't know what else to do since I still found many aspects, like the whole remote controlling of snow based on your circle of influence, to be very unwieldly and difficult to parse. Eventually I got stuck at the puzzle where you get some gray outlined snowballs: I imagine they had some sort of property that I needed to utilize, but for me, they just felt very frustrating to manipulate as they'd get stuck on things and eventually glitched through the floor for me. I also found it weird that, when you get into an unwinnable situation like dropping your snowball down a bit, the game doesn't automatically reset.

Again, I think its a unique concept that has merit, but overall the game just felt very janky and difficult to control and understand, and that got in the way of what could've been some enjoyable brainteasers.

[Towerland]

Hmm, I think it's got a decent core to it with all the proper elements for a roguelike shooter as well as an interesting visual appeal/aesthetic, but as it is now, I found the game to ultimately be very shallow and boring.

The enemies were dumb, unthreatening and lacking in any sort of creative attacks, the player feels stiff with a slow projectile that lacks any sort of satisfying feedback (for hits, that is, as deaths feel satisfying with the way they gib), the dungeons were way too linear and without any sort of interesting paths or obstacles to shake things up, and there was no loot or objects to be found in the dungeon to spice up the run during it: instead it is replaced by a very boring statistical upgrade menu at the beginning of a run that you can barely notice its effects.

Considering it takes after Binding of Isaac, I was very surprised to see so many features lost, such as loot, shops, branching paths, and so on and so forth. In general, the game just felt very plain, like a prototype that only has the bare essentials and missing any special sauce to it all. It also was janky in some respects with the money magnetism being pretty weak, movement a bit too stiff and acid puddle hitboxes being way too big, to name a few.

I will say, though, that I'm not the biggest fan of the Binding of Isaac because of its, to me, interminable slow start of every run (which I think you've unfortunately recreated too faithfully here with the hero's slow and piddly projectiles) and some other aspects, so I will grant that perhaps I'm just not the ideal audience considering that this does look to be following in those footsteps.

As said, I think it is a decent prototype for a game that can only get improved from here!

[Stress Quest]

Wow, what a crazy good time! It's a simple game, but I love the amusing story concept of managing stress and love the madcap race to do all sorts of quests like a warioware game. Presentation is great with its very stylish cartoon graphics and everything so animated and full of life. Got really addicted to this and just had to play it to try and get a higher score!

I do have a few nitpicks with the game:

For one, I wish the map screen didn't have to involve scrolling around: I found it very unwieldly and clumsy to control, and was super frustrated when it screwed me over by not allowing me to click on quests fast enough. I would've preferred if the map was static/small enough that everything just fits on the screen without scrolling needed.

Two, there were a few minigames here and there that I felt were a bit confusing: for example, the cooking minigame was difficult to parse at first as you can barely tell there is a pot to put ingredients in and I thought I just needed to click the ingredients in order. Also I found it disappointing that winning the duel minigame doesn't even give you an animation of the bandit being blasted away.

Three, the sound mixing was a bit out of wack: some minigames like the slay creature one and the cooking one have barely audible sound effects while others have perfectly audible sounds.

Four, some minigames were a bit too forgiving: I won the photo one when I had like one pixel of the serpent in frame, haha.

These are just small nitpicks however: in general I had a blast playing this! Would love to see if this game had some sort of campaign to it, like a week long saga where every day gets harder and harder with a bigger quest variety, more tough deadlines, and faster speed increases: almost a bit of a shame that it just has the one difficulty mode at the moment!

[Little Fellas]

Hmm, seems like a decent concept, but at the moment it just didn't seem to have much to it.

Usually with these types of games it can be really fun to see how the little guys grow and evolve as it can change their behavior pattern so that they have all sorts of fun dynamic interactions and such on their own accord that are fun to watch, similar to a fish tank or a game of the Sims or Spore or whatever.

Unfortunately here, the little guys just seem like boring shells with no personality or autonomy: they just exist for you to directly make them breed or feed instead of it happening organically. Because of all of the guys being boring shells with no personality, I felt no reason to want to breed or grow them into evolved forms since it was purely cosmetic: what's the point?

Not only that, but the controls were frustrating as well: was never sure in what way or how long I needed to shake to get them randy, and a lot of times my shakes would end up chucking them into the wall for insta-death.

Again, I think it could be a good idea and it floats some interesting ideas around like how you have to sacrifice units to feed others, but in the end it just felt repetitive to grind out all the different forms and it just hurt my arm from all the shaking.

0chin responds:

Its a bit hard to animate all of that in two weeks of work with some of us working actual jobs on the side and only 2 animators. Maybe with an update we’ll add more 👍🏾

[Vizzy & The Lost Cat]

Fun little platformer you got here! Loved the manic and fast-paced platforming fun that the game had, the good amount of enemies/obstacles/layouts to the levels, the satisfying juicy effects for things like collecting loot, and the smooth controls. All in all felt well-constructed and fun: fun enough that despite not getting to the finish line on my initial playthrough, I have now already replayed it to get all the way to the top!

While I'm overall feeling good about this game, there were some nitpicks to be had:

*Enemies felt like there were a bit too spongy at times: I would prefer more of them to take less shots as this sponginess coupled with not being able to hold down to auto-fire really dud a number on my old man hands.

*I know it's probably part of the appeal and to add replayability, but it was quite frustrating to not have any way to backtrack: so many times I'd jump up only to realize that now I had missed a yarn ball and had no way to get it without restarting the entire game. Argh! This also extends to the doors: I'd prefer that you have to press up or something to enter as sometimes I would accidently go through by just passing by when I wasn't finished yet exploring.

*While the enemies do explode with loot in a satisfying way on death, I still found it a bit lacking that the enemies themselves did not explode with a graphic or sound or shake or any feedback: I know they overlap so some might say what was the difference, but it just bothered me slightly.

*Found death a bit overly punishing: I got practically all the way through the game, only for me to die once near the end and lose all of the money completely! You'd think it would just take a certain amount or just restart me back to the amount I had when I entered the level.

*While the levels do a good job at mixing things up, especially with the levels that had moving/rotating platforms, it still did feel slightly samey at times, especially due to the same graphics and music being used over and over. Maybe add a bit more variety or cut it shorter so that the time commitment matches more closely with the level of content. It's not that bad though: there are practically in sync already.

*Unsure if there is a bonus ending or anything for collecting all the yarn balls and a high score of cash? Kinda of felt pointless since it felt like it didn't make a difference at the end.

Nice work!

[Pengu's Bubble Gun]

Not too shabby for a Bust-a-Move clone! Certainly has all of the basic elements in place: controls felt smooth and intuitive, making combos gave a satisfying pop, and so on. However, ultimately it felt like a bit of a shallow clone and I lost interest rather quickly. For one, it was a bit lacking in juice: felt so bad that both the cannon fire and ball clacking into place didn't have any sound effects to go along with it, and you weren't rewarded for big combos with more explosive feedback. The game just didn't have much excitement or progression to it, what with the never-changing gray background and low-energy music, really slow progression of levels, and lack of any exciting bonus modes.

The one unique aspect of the game as well, being the Pong-style minigame, was a wash for me. I actually kind of found the Pong-style minigame a bit annoying: might've been because the collision physics of the ball/paddle were a bit wonky or maybe it just happened too often, but I preferred the cannon-style gameplay and was always bummed out when Pengu took a combo I was building up away from me: I wanted to get it using the cannon!

Again, not bad for a game jam game, as it is a good prototype for a Bust-a-Move game: with a bit more meat on its bones and some unique mechanics, it could shape up to be really good!

[Apocalypizzapie]

Pretty funny and goofy game that, unfortunately, due to weird kicking controls and a lack of progression to the enemy variety and obstacles, did not entertain me long enough to stop me from wishing there was a time counter to let me know how long I had left. It definitely had a solid first start what with its funny story and satisfying kicks, but seems like a classic case of too little content being stretched over too long a time.

I actually found the jump attack really satisfying to pull off: loved bouncing off of enemies and building up a combo where I never touched the ground. Watching them fly across the screen and explode was just great! But I really hated how incredibly unintuitive it was to tell where enemies would be launched. I so wanted to pull off these awesome attacks where I'd launch UFOs from the sky into the tanks and cannons, but the aiming just seemed random and uncontrollable. Likewise, I found it great that I could also kick projectiles back, but it never seemed worth it since it always seemed to hurt me (or rather, the pizza) as well, no matter how hard I tried to time it. Not only that, but there were plenty of times where I would kick an enemy into another, only for it to not count and be ignored for some reason.

If this game just had a bit more meat to it with more enemies or some such, and the issues with the kick control were rectified, I think this game would be dynamite, and I'd love to play it more to get all the endings. Unfortunately for now, I will settle for my ending C, which was rather funny thanks to the charming presentation!

[Mini Musou]

Hmm, not too shabby! Like a Musou game, this does a decent job at making it feel satisfying to cleave through swarms of enemies: it's nothing super great, but it's satisfying enough feedback considering it is a jam game.

Unfortunately, while it is initially fun to run about and smack enemies, the novelty doesn't last that long. With only one enemy type, a simple combat system, and this very small map with no other objectives, it easily becomes very repetitive to just keep going up and down, cleaning out the bases over and over. To add insult to injury, the controls can be a bit janky: not too bad to do the normal combo attacks and movement, but I had a ton of difficulty trying to do the charge and dodge moves.

It's not bad as a prototype or skeleton for a musou game: as said, the cleaving through enemies is fun, so if the controls were ironed out and more content like new enemy types were introduced and maybe some sort of story/objectives or escalating difficulty to the game were added, I think it could be quite fun! To sum it up, if possible, please focus on making the mechanics more involved rather than thinking more booby costumes will be enough to keep me distracted, haha!

cheesycoke responds:

Thank you so much for the feedback!! Yeah enemy variety is something I wanted from the very beginning but unfortunately couldn't get realized in time. I def would like to expand on this eventually with more enemies, boss fights, etc but that story/objective idea is really interesting! Has a lotta potential I'll keep it in mind, seems fun to mess with.

Also oh god yeah I was fucking around with the controls until the very end. Lotta back and forth of trying to get certain functions working, really needs some polish there. Very unfortunate though, was hoping the booby costumes could distract from that (but for real appreciate the feedback!)