FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[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.

[[BTNverse] The void rolls back]

Quite the interesting trip but....I dunno, as much as I like a weird game that doesn't hold your hand, I could barely parse what the heck was going on and its initial mystique was rapidly replaced by irritation and boredom.

As far as I could figure, I just kept trying to place down connecting roads as best as I could to head towards an edge of the playing field, picking up the powerups spawned from placement as I go. Kept trying to compare it to games like Loop Hero or something to provide any footing to work off of, but that proved fruitless. Had no idea what the heck was going on in combat: I thought that maybe each sword symbol would multiply my inherit sword number for final damage, but the result was always different than I expected (and typically didn't matter since nothing seemed to pose a threat, going through life like One Punch Man).

Heck, that was pretty much the entire game, not just combat: had no idea what anything meant and just tried to proceed and pay attention to the effects to guess what symbols meant and what the rules were, but ultimately I never felt like I grasped what was going on and, after making it through several worlds, eventually just got bored and left, especially after the worlds seemed to be getting out of order (I walked backwards to a border I just passed and ended up in a new world instead of the one I was just in???)

Bit of a shame: definitely seemed promising at first with the weird mechanics, interesting character classes and bizarre world, but it lost me due to not providing any instruction nor intuitive feedback/symbols that I could parse myself. I always admire whatever sort of weird experimental game you come up with as they are always quite the trip: this one might have been a miss for me but that's just how the chips fall sometimes, so keep on truckin'!

[EMBER SKULL]

Wow, pretty solid arcade fun to be had here! All in all I feel like this is well put together and delivers quite well on all aspects: the combat is fun and fast-paced with great enemy variety that has unique AIs and attack telegraphs, there are a good amount of fun powerups and arena obstacles and great bosses to make runs feel different, graphics and animations are very juicy and the feedback from shots and blowing up enemies with huge chain reactions from items were so satisfying, and so on and so forth. Had a good time playing this a few times, getting good enough to loop over and over!

That being said, while I did have a good time, there are plenty of nitpicks I could make. For one, I was disappointed that the game doesn't have any sort of goal or story to it and instead starts looping as early as arena 4: as much as I did like how the enemy variety and such did keep improving on successive loops, it just started to feel repetitive and pointless, especially with how easy some of it could get without even needing items to cheese it. Also bummed out that there didn't seem to be any primary weapon upgrades, just subweapons, and that I would have to ditch old subweapons just to try new ones. Speaking of all that, I found it a bit confusing that I couldn't see what items I had already purchased and was unsure what would happen if I purchase duplicates: would they stack or just get ignored? There was also some confusion with visuals as, while most player bullets are yellow and enemy bullets are red, there were weird instances like items that would spawn 'friendly red' bullets that I thought I had to avoid in all the chaos.

Oh, and while this game does call itself a 'roguelite', I think that's a misnomer since that typically implies that some sort of progress or upgrade is carried over with each attempt, whereas this game just has you start from scratch each time. But whatever, it's all rogue this, rogue that, I think people just use those terms interchangeably nowadays, so I'm being needlessly pedantic.

Overall though, those nitpicks were small potatoes and again, I had a great time with this. Only reason I'm being so nitpicky was because I liked this so much and hope that you make even better games in the future!

CheeseBaron responds:

Duplicate items stack, some items are removed from the item pool if you have them though (primarily the panic device and the corrupt halo).
And i just hoped that since all the actually dangerous bullets are bright red (unless i forgot some somewhere) people wont be too confused by more dull projectiles that dont deal damage to you.

If i ever make some sort of super big improved version of this game ill likely add different primary weapons and an actual ending, but thats only in the far far future.

Thanks for playing!

[Capybara Quest]

Not too shabby for a 'my first game' type of project, and it was decently cute in concept, but ultimately I found the game quite shallow and janky.

The basic skeleton is there for a decent platformer, the cutscenes and characters were quite charming, and I like the inclusion of hidden collectables as a bonus for people wanting a challenge. However, there wasn't really anything noteworthy about the gameplay to keep me interested like a unique mechanic or cool levels to traverse: all it had was bog-standard jumping, so eventually it just devolved into very boring affairs of jumping past boring enemies. The hidden collectable yuzus didn't really add anything to the game: most of them were very easy to get and barely off of the beaten path: a far cry from something I was hoping would be like Celeste's bonus strawberries.

Furthermore, the game was incredibly janky and buggy. Music wouldn't play when I would load a game. The first yuzu could be recollected over and over despite disappearing on first collection. The physics for movement were very odd in how you jump upwards like you're on the moon but fall downwards like you're being pulled by magnets, and how despite having momentum and sliding when you stop you can also instantly kill that same momentum by changing direction. And I know you joke about it by pointing out that ladders, amongst the other various janky features, were probably the jankiest of all, and that was funny to see, but still, at the end of the day, jank is jank and it would be better if you just fixed it or found a better solution instead of releasing this as-is.

Certainly could be a nice little game but I felt like this needed way more time in the oven and something to make it really special, be it more polished movement/levels or a unique mechanic. Still, not a bad first attempt if that's what this was: buggy and bog-standard as it is, it had the basic elements down.

[Let the OINK out!]

Pretty neat game! Definitely liked the general presentation of everything along with the satisfying chain reaction explosions. Also loved how the game kept escalating with new obstacles and powers: really helped to keep me hooked!

However, despite all that, I really found myself unable to fully enjoy the game, mostly due to the overwhelming feeling of randomness to it all. It started out strong with the first level, where I felt like you, as the developer, built a wall that I could puzzle out, that I could examine to find the intended ideal starting point to get the most out of a chain reaction.

I thought the game would continue like that where I'd keep investigating to find the ideal starting point, but instead suddenly you wanted me to build the chain reaction tiles myself. This could've worked, but the fact that it was all up to random chance as to how the blocks would end up once you click on them just led to me feeling annoyed, like now I just had a load of busy work before I could blow blocks up, and that whether I could win would just be up to the dice with no real way for me to make the most of it.

I know the game tries to help by giving you some wiggle room and not requiring you to clear the full board, but I just couldn't help but feel like I wasn't in control. Perhaps I'm just impatient and there was a way I could make the most of it, but I couldn't see how, and since I didn't want winning or losing to be up to a dice roll I just ended up quitting. Maybe if it was more like, I dunno, you get an inventory of certain blocks that you can place on the board and you puzzle out the best layout to reach your intended developer solution, it could work for me.

In the end I did get through a decent amount of levels (7 I think) but it was just me placing blocks haphazardly and seeing how the chips fell based on instinct: somewhat fun to watch the explosions and see how it ended up, but I'm not a gambling man and would prefer more strategy and intention.

[Maiden Cops]

Not too shabby of a beat-em-up! Definitely feels like its got a solid core to it with most of the essential mechanics present and the combat feeling decently satisfying. I could deduct some points for it being quite basic, essentially just a reskinned SoR without any unique mechanics to set it apart, but it still felt alright. Good on you for also having seamless controller inputs, even recognizing my PS controller instead of treating it like an XBox controller!

That said, if I come at this as a lover of beat-em-ups, this is pretty rough, especially if you're trying to make this big. Controls were a big issue for me and led to the game feeling really janky: for example, you can initiate a run by pressing forward and then backwards whereas you should have to press it twice in the same direction. I also kept having a special combo go off for seemingly no reason: I wasn't pressing any of the special combinations you listed out. Just really didn't feel like I had smooth, logical and responsive control of my character.

Couple that with other annoyances like enemies having a bit too much health (starter enemies should probably go down with just one combo, otherwise the game just drags a bit too much) and enemies being a bit too powerful with their AI: I'd have enemies punch me too suddenly from way too far away and have enemies just suddenly teleport me into their grab: they should have to get closer or perhaps telegraph their attacks better. Also some attacks just felt really wonky, like how the knee kicks from a grab would only damage once you're pulling your knee back: such a weird delay!

In general, while the core elements for a decent beat-em-up are there, the game felt a bit stiff, slow and repetitive in its current state. Hoping you can get some good feedback here and make it into a great finished product!

PippinGames responds:

The main references for Maiden Cops were Final Fight 3 and SoR.

The game supports, in addition to the keyboard, the three main joysticks (Switch, Xbox, Playstation).

Some bugs reported I'm already fixing, like running, for example.

I'm also making some additions that weren't present in the demo. Like the possibility of performing some combos, enemies bouncing on walls when thrown, and allowing a counterattack when being grabbed.

Complex input combinations to use skills didn't work so well. I think if you press one button is simpler.

As I complete these changes, I will announce them on social media and here on newground too.

Thanks for the feedback, it's helping us a lot.

[Casino Clash]

Not sure what's going on in this one: feels like an unfinished prototype or something? Best I can figure out is that it looks like you've got some sort of RPG fight where you deal damage by playing a minigame with the dice: you can knock dice into each other like you're playing pool, or just blow them up with bombs, and so on, and depending on how well you hit the dice, you deal more damage. Don't really know what the cash items are all about.

The idea definitely has promise to it, I suppose: I do like RPGs like the Mario RPGs where you play fun minigames to determine damage. And it can be really funny and satisfying to see a huge chain reaction happen when you whack the dice and the game gets flooded with damage numbers and causes a slow-down.

Only problem is that this seems half-baked and doesn't have any strategy, story or progression to it: you get so many items to play with, there is no threat to make important decisions, and you just keep getting more recycled enemies with higher HP for no discernable purpose. You can just sit there and wait for dice to fill out and score an easy win: you'd think that, at the very least, you'd be fighting against losing health from enemy attacks so you might be pushed to make the best out of what dice you have, or something, anything!

[my favourite place]

Pretty cool game! Absolutely love the general sense of polish the game has due to the slick presentation, like when it transitions from the level title into the actual gameplay. Gameplay is simple but intuitive and the levels introduced some cool obstacles and boss fights. It does have a bit of wonkiness to it like with the hitboxes for spikes and I don't think the CRT bendy-screen shader is needed as it just hurts my eyes and the game is already decent looking without it, but overall it felt quite smooth.

That being said, I did feel like the game lost me rather quickly, as soon as around level 3. While the game was cool, it was rather basic and never really seemed to do anything really unique or fancy. In fact, the levels always seemed so cramped to the point where there wasn't enough room for you to make any interesting rooms, and it didn't take too long for it to feel repetitive, like it had already shown all its cards and was just repeating with slight variations. Couple that with the overly punishing deaths sending you all the way back to the start and it got rougher to keep playing.