FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Homecoming]

Damn, this is quite the short and sweet journey you've crafted here! Well, sweet as in it is a very memorable and powerful experience, not sweet for the actual content, which is anything but (and I wouldn't have it any other way, gimme that raw darkness)!

From a technical perspective, there's a lot to like here. While typical visual novels are just talking heads over static backgrounds and can be rather stale and lead to emotional disconnect due to the limited poses not having enough variety to match all the nuances, this blows them outta the water with an impressive amount of stylish animations and various effects that only serve to elevate the emotions on display and give it a real cinematic flair overall that enraptured me.

The content was also some pretty powerful stuff, and despite the game being rather short, I felt like it didn't feel too much like it was on 'fast-forward' and lacking punch from such an aspect as I've seen happen to other short stories. There was a lot to resonate and feel familiar with, and it was certainly interesting how, without much context or a peek into their history, it can be easy to initially side with the mother in feeling like the protagonist is overreacting, but at the same time when you hear the mother say that she wants to, sigh, not bring up that 'gender' stuff, you can take a guess that there's a lot more of that faux-politeness dogwhistle old-people-stuck-in-their-ways just-asking-questions sexism that's been going on for years which is much more frustrating and realistic than your typical overt screaming sexist strawmen depiction.

The ending is a bit of a surprise: when I first experienced it, it was definitely a 'wait, what, that's it?' moment. I mean, don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting everyone to talk it over, reconcile and walk into the sunset, but boy was it weird as heck how sudden of a stop it was! Still not quite sure how to feel on it. Part of me wants to feel like it was very intentional and powerful, similar to something like how No Country for Old Men also chose to omit showing certain scenes and denying the audience closure for reasons, but another part of me feels like the story just hasn't, I dunno, emotionally closed the loop or whatever. Pondering on it.

It's silly and you're probably sick of hearing it since you've ever acknowledged it in the description, but yes, it does almost feel like this game is more movie than game. No, not every visual novel needs choices and paths and puzzles to qualify for game status or anything like that, but still. I mean jeez, you can't even control the text in the game: it proceeds at its own pace and won't fast-forward if you try to click while it's filling out, for example. Anyway, it's not that important and I could be missing the point, but would love if there was some more powerful use of the medium to elevate this experience somehow. Obviously you can get more creative, but maybe it could be something like presenting nice and mean dialogue choices when talking to the mother but being unable to click on the nice ones to represent the inner turmoil: I remember Night in the Woods doing some scenes like this, like when Mae was drunk and trying to talk to Bea and despite best efforts to say good things they just didn't come out right.

So yeah: high-quality experience overall, love the effort into the cinematics, love the raw personal emotions, puzzled at the ending and wish there was more story and gameplay but still found it memorable nonetheless. Thanks for sharing, and if you watch the review, I'm hoping it will be amusing to watch an old fool like me try to keep up, haha! Ugh, this brings me back to playing games like To The Moon and missing obvious elements...ok I'm rambling sorry

Side-note: I was fine with it at first, but now my brain keeps seeing the little nose shade spot as if it was a mustache. Everyone's got mustaches! C'mon, brain, reset already and see it like it was before!

Bleak-Creep responds:

As far as the text speed options go, I'm very amateur at programming in Flash and setting this up the way it is is about the extent of my abilities. I did have Intrapath to get the audio to sync properly when moving backward on the timeline, and I know he could set up text speeds too if I had him go back.

At some point I do want to go back in and add a few little branches to the narrative; not anything that would change the destination, but in the way of little asides that would just give folks a way to discover more about the background of the characters and their relationships. I think it would help it feel a little more "game-y" too.

I also really like the suggestion of making some dialogue choices that you can’t actually pick too. I’ll probably have to incorporate some of that when I go back in.

As for the ending, I've gotten a lot of comments about that one, but I really liked the idea of leaving things just as messy, if not even messier, as they started. There's not really any easy answers to be drawn from a situation like this, but I really just wanted to lay out each of the pieces for the audience and have them determine what "should" be delivered in Clara's speech.

Thank you for playing too! I was hopeful you might like this story, because I know in the past your critique was always that they were a bit too simple, so I'm happy to know I've finally muddied it up enough. :)

[Eat Spajeje 2: Back for Seconds]

Heh, amusing little April Fool's game! Good for a brief little chuckle at its goofy and energetic presentation and concept, but if I were to be serious, there's not much to it. Wish the feeling of eating spajeje was a bit more fun and responsive where I could control the tempo of bites directly with my clicks like a typical clicker game: didn't like how I needed to wait until the bite was completed to click again. Looking forward to Money Man!

Ant responds:

Yeah it’s just an April fools game, nothing special here.

[Piñata Poppers]

A decent Suika Game clone with some nice art and effects (I like the fusing animation), but nothing exactly memorable at the moment as it's essentially just a reskin. I was hoping that the pinata theme might mean that there is something about breaking them or whatever to add a bit of unique spice, but no, it's ultimately just a visual theme without gameplay consequence.

The game is also a bit glitchy as I got a double game over, once when the game ended and then again shortly after when I was on the title screen and I guess the game kept going? Also the score text is a bit too difficult to read as its bright yellow on bright blue: better contrasting colors or outlines would help here.

At the end of the day, it feels like the kind of mobile game that is made to trick older folk into buying thinking it's the original, or the kind of game you make for your programming 101 class as a first step into game dev. Not bad, but not good either, just serviceable.

UnitedFailures responds:

I appreciate the constructive feedback :)

We originally had a pinata breaking mechanic but removed it because it disrupted the natural difficulty escalation of the game. Maybe will bring it back if we think of a good way to integrate it in.

Our next update that we'll release this weekend will mostly just be implementing the feedback provided by other commenters and patching some bugs (like the one you experienced o_o). Updating the score text is also a good suggestion, I'll take a look at that.

[Space Girls Can't Swim]

This cute visual novel starts off pretty strong with a neat intro, a goofy story and some gratuitous cheesecake, but once I got to the end it ultimately felt a bit unsatisfying and shallow, making me feel like I got clickbaited by booba: a tale as old as time!

That's not to say that the game doesn't show some good effort and design, as there definitely are some aspects that are pretty cool. For example, while it starts off slow, the game really picks up in the amount of unique images and graphics it showcases during the story, which is much more enthralling than just looking at people posing all the time in front of a static background. The story was quite amusing in general, the minigames were an interesting activity, and I also thought that the way the game will continue the story from a loss is a lot more interesting than just giving a game over or restart.

However, as said previously, it started to fall apart for me. The story just felt overly shallow and simplistic with problems being introduced and resolved faster than you can blink, and choices felt pointless, sometimes literally, such as choosing who to explore the hotel with. Considering it's a game about making choices and seeing all the different endings, it's completely absurd that it doesn't have a skip or save/load function to get past stuff you've already seen before. And while I don't like to harp on about typos, this is a visual novel which is all about text, and the script was absolutely flooded with errors: hell, it even got one of the main character's name incorrect constantly (Constella, if you're curious)!

CubePunks responds:

Haven't heard anything about typos - It's 32 full pages of text, if you spellcheck the game we'll give you credit.

[Lampyrinth]

While it does have a certain nostalgic old-school Flash appeal to its visuals and gameplay, I found this pretty underwhelming, as the gameplay has no spice, no sense of challenge, threat or engagement to it, but rather tedious busywork as you just walk around the maze, pull a lever to get a key, go back to that same lever to pull it to open the way to the key door, unlock it, and so on, over and over. It just felt so tiresome.

Considering 'lamp' is in the name, I was really hoping that the game was doing something unique with light and shadow: perhaps the lamp would serve as a time limit, perhaps you would reflect light off mirrors to solve puzzles, or use the light as a limited resource to fight enemies, and so on. Instead, the only thing that seems to happen is mazes get so dark that you can't see the effects of buttons and levers you use, adding even more tedium and backtracking to a game that already has it. Sure, it's impressive with the way shadows are generated by the light, but that only makes this game a neat tech demo, not fun.

Obviously my heart goes out to you that the game files were lost so I'm slightly forgiving of elements like the FPS counter getting in the way, but I still want to be honest with what we got, and if I'm being honest, the core gameplay would likely still be quite unappealing to me even if it got polished up a bit more. It's not necessarily bad, but not really good either, just merely serviceable.

I did like some of the small fancy touches it had, such as the way menus are actually levels that your character moves around in to select options.

Veinom responds:

I was going for Zelda-like dungeon puzzles, but with a lay-back feeling, simple controls, without time restrictions or enemies. The challenge is to reach the end and find all the fruits and diamonds. You also need to be fast, or you lose points.

The game loop might seem a bit boring to you, but it was mainly made for people who like searching for secret items, while using their memory and thinking, in any pace they see fit. Thank you for taking the time to tell me your constructive thoughts.

[Who's That Pokemeat? (Pokemon Mystery Meat Collab)]

Pretty cool art collab! The theme is a bit too gory and gritty for my tastes (though obviously very appropriate for Newgrounds), but nevertheless I felt like this was well put-together in terms of building up the mood with atmosphere, and while it is a slideshow at heart, I liked that it creatively enhanced the experience with a story and quiz game (which I suck at because I don't know any pokemon past the original set, haha!) I also liked that it had links to the artists when viewing their artwork: definitely a nice feature for encouraging follows and such.

If I were to have one point of feedback, it might be that perhaps it would be best if the quiz had the questions randomly sorted for every attempt, as that would feel more fair, as it would make it more likely for every artist to be seen. With the current setup, the artists involved in the last questions have a very low likelihood of being seen due to the extreme difficulty of making it all the way to them, which can be a bummer for them!

EmsDeLaRoZ responds:

I actually like your point on the shuffling for the artworks. I'll consider it for future works (if I ever get back to something of this style). Also glad u liked it despite everything else :)

[Florisher]

Interesting little arcade puzzler you got here! The whole 'inverse minesweeper' is a pretty cool concept and I was impressed that I was able to understand all of the mechanics (well, almost all of them) and win a game without even checking the 'how to play' guide!

Something about the game feels a bit...off to me though. Not quite sure how to describe it, but I guess I just felt like the game and its scoring was a bit too much up to luck since you can't detect certain things like the purple blocks, and I found some mechanics really weird, like how I don't think the reveal abilities are worth it when I was able to beat the game every time even when I was just mindlessly clicking (though I guess I didn't get full points, though I'm not quite sure I understand the point system), and so on. Whatever, it's still pretty fun and interesting!

amidos2006 responds:

The point system is equal to how many water tiles that branch passes through.

For example, if u have a branch that passes through 1 water tile, if we extended to go to another u get 2 points. If that branch reached another one after the 2 water tiles, it becomes 3 points and so on.

For perfect score, u need one branch to touch all the water tiles after each other and use the rest of branches and exploration ability to achieve that

[Happy Corp. [Alpha] [Updated 3/8/2024]]

Hmm, I really like the concept and vibes that this game has going for it, but the gameplay got really boring and tedious quickly for me. Thank goodness that it is only in alpha at the moment then as it has room to grow from feedback!

As said, the presentation and vibes that the game has are cool. I loved the whole intro sequence and the corpo talk, and the idea of plopping down this arena around a city block and smashing it to pieces through a Breakout-esque game was very amusing!

But while the gameplay was amusing at first, it soon became annoying, with so much time dedicated to just watching the ball bounce around and miss the few remaining buildings. The best I could hope for was to get some power-ups like the twin guns, but that just feels like cheating when I think the core gameplay of bouncing the ball should be fun and interesting enough on its own. Sometimes I would intentionally let the ball fall through just so I could get a chance to aim it, and I don't think that's a good sign!

In terms of feedback:

*As hinted at above, I wish there was someway that the core gameplay of bouncing the ball could be more fun. Maybe you could be able to subtly control it, like through magnets or side-paddles? Maybe the buildings should be less spongy? Maybe you should be able to decide how powerful the initial paddle hit is by holding down the button? Up to you!

*Considering the game is about being pressured by corpos, it's odd that the gameplay is incredibly easy: the penalty for dropping the ball is nothing to be worried about as it is so easy to accumulate loads of cash. I like the cash system in concept where you are penalized for moving and ball-dropping, but you need to make it harder so it doesn't become a non-issue, or maybe just replace it with a lives system.

*Could use some more info pop-ups to make certain events more clear, like money popping up when you do stuff that gets you money, and negative money popping up when you get penalized, as well as power-up names popping up when you grab a power-up as it was very unclear what each power-up was even doing.

*Would be nice to be able to see the ball when it goes behind the buildings.

saltandpixel responds:

If you hold down, you can use the magnet feature.

[Rabbit Hole 1.03]

NOTE: This review is from playing the Steam version.

Wow, this is wonderful stuff you got here! Overall it feels very polished and well-constructed in practically every respect, though with obvious standouts being the cute art and presentation, generous amount of settings and quality-of-life, a large variety of wacky weapons, enemies, events and characters, great boss fights, as well as the rather intriguing story that the game has hidden away, what with these weird books you can pick up and the locked door in the library.

Ok, that's the good stuff out of the way. Now it's time for the feedback:

*I'm a bit conflicted on the combat, especially from my first impression, where I found it a bit too generic in terms of mechanics and I didn't like the cramped levels you fight in since it felt like there wasn't room to move around to dodge or express myself. For example, the fight against the Tank Twins is awful as you only have a small amount of room in an already small room to move without bumping into enemies. I'm warming up to it, but still, felt like it could be doing more.

*Dodge roll is a bit annoying to get used to: it feels like it is such a slow and high-committal move, and I disliked how I had no control over its length or duration. I'm getting used to it and I can understand if it's built the way it is intentionally to make it challenging or make you consider other moves like jumping over attacks instead, but even considering that, it's still rough.

*Sound department is a bit of a letdown at times: right when I noticed that the starting AK47 and Pistol have the same sound effects I was worried, and rightly so as practically every other gun has the same sounds too. The water gun didn't have any sounds at all!

*Wish the game would pick a lane when it comes to enemies dealing damage: simple enemies without actual attacks like the turnips are fine for contact/touch damage, but I don't think enemies with actual attacks like bullets or slashes should hurt you on contact, rather they should only hurt with their attacks. So annoying to get poked by Magnolia's sword in her idle stance: felt very awkward.

*Pixel font is very confusing at times: B's look like 8's look like 0's was the worst example, but there were other times where I wasn't sure what I was reading.

*For some reason, the game would default to the wrong monitor when I tried to open it from Steam. I 'fixed' it somewhat by dragging Steam to my main monitor and starting it up there, but even then that only seemed to work sometimes.

*No pause menu in game? There were times I wanted to pause to answer a call or to quit/restart the game, but there was nothing and I just needed to alt+F4 instead.

*As much as I want to like the weird and wacky guns that are in the game, they are a bit too wacky at times and I found myself constantly gravitating towards the more standard guns for safe consistency. Bit disappointing since I feel like I'm missing out: maybe they can be rebalanced?

*I should get an achievement for beating Magnolia with only melee: call it something like 'fair fight', haha!

Anyway, I know that's a lot more words for feedback than for praise, but I'm still very positive on the game and think you did a great job: I'm just hoping that I can help you make it even better as I see you are dutifully patching it!

ShortCakeCafe responds:

Hi! Thanks for the feedback!

There is a pause button but it's bind to "1" instead of escape for some reason. (I think I forgot to reset the default binding before compiling in the last update, sorry!)

Truth is, I'm pretty limited to what I am able to change due to the game being made in scratch, however I'm working towards fixing what I can!

As for the roll, it's very intentionnal that it's a high commital move. In my opinion, the dodgeroll shouldn't be free quick dodge, it's an active commitment which punishes you for using it for no reason. Changing it now would be very problematic as fights are built around it.
However, I have heard a lot of complaints about it so i'll work towards making it feel better in any future game with rolling.

Anyways, I'm glad you enjoyed what you played despite the issues!

[DEMI DAGGERS]

Hmm, bit mixed on this one as it can feel a bit more like an impressive tech demo/port than a fun game, but I still found it to be a decent experience!

As said, I'm not too familiar with Pico-8, but from the little bits I've picked up over time, I'm sure putting together something like this within the limitations of the system was very impressive, even more so when you give the player all these fancy editing tools. Overall the game does seem to capture that Devil Daggers vibe decently, and it even adds its own little twists on the formula with these spiders and acid spewers and such.

However, as much as I wanted to get in a trance and dagger some devils all over the place, I did have a lot of issues that made the experience a bit rough for me.

*First and foremost, the default controls were a bit awkward. Not sure why the mouse sensitivity is so damn high by default, and I'm not sure why ESDF was used over the more commonplace WASD, especially since it doesn't seem to use the extra keyboard real estate to map any other buttons: maybe it's a regional thing? Also why do you only jump on releasing space instead of on pressing it? There was also a weird issue where I kept having to refocus the window by clicking on it when transferring between scenes, like between picking up the daggers and starting the game proper.

*Next, the gameplay felt a bit awkward in a lot of respects. Devil Daggers is great in how smooth, fast, and sharp it feels, and this felt like the exact opposite, unfortunately. The character feels like he moves much slower, the visuals are much more blurry and hard to parse, and the hitboxes for objects felt confusing in that I would miss thing I felt I was hitting spot on, or I would get hurt by enemies I thought didn't hit me (actually, most of the time it was the opposite, I'd actually not get hit by enemies I thought were gonna hit me).

*Couldn't tell if the audio was trying to pull off some sort of 3D audio to help me keep track of enemies around me since it felt like the sound just kept devolving into this crackly chaos.

Eventually I kind of got used to the different feel and had a good time, but still, a bit of an awkward first impression!

freds72 responds:

thanks for the detailed feedback.
the mouse sensitivity is in my todo list.

some more visual cues on where are ennemies may indeed be needed.