FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Orphanarium]

Cool little metroid adventure you got here! Got quite addicted to finding all the various tools and weaving my way through nuns by climbing around on cupboards: really captured that 'Home Alone' vibe of being a little kid avoiding scary adults!

Really shocked me with the amount of depth the game has in terms of endings: I beat it the first time with the bad ending but couldn't see how the game could be anything but that, but then ended up getting the good ending after realizing how many other tools and routes there were to find! Also thought it was great that the routes all led to big moments, like terrorizing the nuns or having a huge boss fight. Really cool stuff and I can't believe there's even more potential endings I could get beyond those two!

It had a few rough spots here and there but nothing too major: if you stop crawling through a gap it should keep you in crawl mode instead of standing you up and glitching into the geometry, and speaking of crawling, I would've loved the ability to peek downwards if I crawl as there were a few times I jumped and ended up getting hit by something I couldn't see below. Also the game could be a bit plain when it comes to special effects: having the same death animation for everything, certain actions not having any sounds or particles, that kind of stuff.

Veinom responds:

Crawling is underused. It only occurs in the basement for gameplay variety. It would be easier to just remove it!

I do agree about the special effects. I wanted to add some visual and sound effects for the Mirrors, but I kept failing, so I left it as it is.

Thank you for your input and I'm glad you enjoyed this little adventure!

Edit: Thank you for playing the game! Your video was very well made :)
https://youtu.be/of8wxqPhZpw?t=17852

[Kwing VS Cyberdevil]

Hah, this certainly gave me a few laughs and a lot of nostalgia, though for the latter, not exactly in a good way, as it was reminding me of the many terrible Flash-based 2D fighters I've played back in the day, and this unfortunately was just as an awkward mashfest as those were, lacking any sort of coherent feedback or sense of strategy despite my best attempts. Would've loved to have something simple yet deep like Divekick or Footsies, but this ain't it.

Looking past it as a fighting game, however, it was still an amusing experience: the raps were very cool, I loved the goofy animations (those speed lines for walking back and forth, omg), the menus and presentation were neat, and so on. The concept of having more power when it's your turn to rap is neat too. Could definitely be neat, but in its current state, probably better as an audio portal entry instead.

Cyberdevil responds:

Tough critique man, though I do appreciate the honesty. After testing battle mechanics again and again you probably do go a bit blind as to the optimal experience...

The difficulty curve seemed pretty balanced to me in how you wouldn't win all too easily as either one or the other character here, though victory does probably require more so finding and abusing shortcomings in AI response than actually combining moves in as thought-out and rewarding a way as possible, and with limited moves the tactics required are bound to seem a bit repetitive. Valid point on the need for more coherent visual feedback too.

I do think the strategy basis is here, but probably not ideally presented, or balanced, or timed, whatever most impedes the sense of intentional progress... the difference between attacks and block responses could definitely be clearer. Maybe you need more visible openings and lapses in enemy attacks for which you'd best time your own to give a clearer sense of strategy, or more visible forewarning with attacks, so you can dodge or counter accordingly... though personally I do enjoy that more aimless classic button masher battle variety too. :)

Ah well, glad you had some fun with this anyhow, and that the speed lines at least delivered! If there do be more fighting Flashes for the future: good points to consider here.

[Hell's On Hold]

Hah, this was quite a cute and challenging job sim you got here! Love the stylish presentation you got here with cute touches like the brochure tutorial and such (though the colors can be a bit too loud and hide elements at times), and the gameplay was quite addictive and fun to puzzle out! It certainly was a bit confusing and intimidating at first to figure out where to start with the client and how to figure out where they went wrong when it could be anything, but surprisingly I was able to make it through somehow!

It's nice and I probably shouldn't expect more considering its a game jam game, but I had such fun that I couldn't help but be a bit letdown at the low amount of dialogue variations and the lack of any sort of concrete end goal or sense of progression and escalation, as it did make it quite repetitive and made me eventually leave bored. There were also some clunky aspects like how there was no way to fast-forward text. But hey, for a game jam game, I think it did what it had to do: provided a nice concept that I'd love to see a more fleshed-out version of!

OblivionCreator responds:

Thanks for the feedback! To be honest, a lot of the issues with it getting boring over time were kind of known by our team shortly before release, but there wasn't much time to fix things, especially as I was working alone (on the coding side) on the final day trying to piece everything together.

Honestly the reception has been incredible so far and everyone on the team is definitely considering a full release with actually fleshed out dialogue/characters - (Though I'll make no promises on anything!) - At the very least I'd like to get a version released that matches the original vision we had for the game.

[awesome calculator]

Hah, amusing little joke game! Doesn't have much to it so I struggle to call it a game, but it nevertheless did gave me a nice little chuckle from how 'epic' it tries to make calculations be and from all the various secrets and references it has. I had no idea what that 9 plus 10 gag was: I guess I'm getting old. Would've loved to see more calculator or number related achievos: can't believe you don't have one for 69, or 80085?

Deaen responds:

its a project i made in like 2 hours even i wouldnt call it a game i have 0 idea why its this popular lmao

[Gem Frenzy]

Hmm, this is a pretty decent and fun little job simulator! The presentation is a bit lackluster and inelegant, but I found myself getting quite addicted to the loop of making sales and upgrading the business, and I liked the complexity of having to find time to stop tending the front and go mine up some resources. Not too shabby!

While it was ok, I did think the game was rather rough:

*As said, initial impression from the rather lackluster graphics was pretty bad, but it goes deeper than that: the initial load time was so damn long too, and in my opinion, I wouldn't blame a lot of people for not even getting the game a shot because of that.

*The game has a distinct lack of pizazz, particularly in that pulling off actions like completing an order for a customer doesn't feel satisfying, and when that's the main driving force of the game, well...that's bad.

*Starting out the first day without any initial resources caught me off guard and led to me failing the first few customers as I scrambled to get my bearings. I know there was a tutorial and everything but still, throw me a bone here and slow down the pace when just you've just started!

*While I got used to it eventually and even enjoyed it, the way the movement mechanics for mining works is very odd. I don't know why you can't just use a more intuitive setup of allowing the user to move directly how they want to.

*I had an ok time but I started to get bored pretty easily as the game seems to lack depth (pardon the pun). All it was doing was adding more and more gems, but the core process of the game remained the same: would've enjoyed more complexities being added, like maybe different forges. It didn't help either that going up and down the stairs felt more like an annoyance than a challenge.

*I found it absolutely bizarre that you can get orders and collect ores that are beyond your storage capabilities. I started to get some orders that wanted the bright green ore, and I felt so bad that despite collecting them, I couldn't actually construct the gem because I didn't have the chest for sorting that ore yet. All I could do was let the clock run down and watch the customer leave in a huff!

pabten responds:

Hi! thank you for your feedback, we fixed the loading screen

[Knight and Prison of Ice]

Hmm, there's a lot I do like about the game in theory, but something about the execution left me a bit cold, if you pardon the pun.

I do find the whole combat aspect of summoning your sword to make it hit everything during transit to be rather creative and fun, and the additional powerups you can acquire add a bit of variety. The subtle way that the turrets have symbols above them to let you know their shot pattern is also very nice and makes things feel fair. I also found the world, while simple, to have a certain amount of cool flair, like the way you reset by stabbing yourself with the sword. Certainly has a lot of potential!

As said though, I don't know exactly what it is, but the game lost me rather quickly and I just didn't find myself that compelled to go back and replay much. Maybe it's just a bit too dull or not juicy enough: the constant turret enemies can be a bit boring, and the dungeon rather repetitive and plain, and the combat doesn't have enough depth. There was also some annoyance where I would get hit by things I felt shouldn't have hit me, such as the tiny lingering darkness particles from the wrath of the dungeon: feels like those things should be superfluous and I should only have to dodge the main body or a significant mass of the darkness. It was also awkward how you could get hit by the wrath of the dungeon when you're standing above it: it's like yes, in a 2D sense I'm technically overlapping with it, but in a 3D sense I shouldn't be getting hurt because I'm not making contact with it, I'm only 'behind' it, if that makes sense.

voidgazerBon responds:

I truly appreciate your feedback. It's very helpful! Thanks a lot.

[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.