FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[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 5/14/2024]]

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 1.06]

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.

[Shirogami's Maze Pocket]

It's nice and I'm sure it may appeal to the classic maze-lovers, but I couldn't really get into it: not only does it feel too overwhelming with the way it's so jumbled together, making everything look the same in that it's difficult to make a mental map, it doesn't look appealing either or engender a sense of adventure. I tried my best and, credit where it's due, I did start to see some patterns and routes in the maze, like funnels where wrong ways send you back to the start, but again, I just ended up feeling bored and not wanting to deal with it. Some of it might be down to me not being a fan of the genre, perhaps, but I'd still say that some work could've been done to make it more appealing.

cidoku responds:

I think you're right about a lot of that. It's a learning experience. Thank you for the nice review.

[Corn Collab]

Wow, this was quite the rollercoaster ride!

Initial impressions were a bit rocky, as once again I was seeing an art collab where it's going with the unexciting, bare-minimum-effort slideshow presentation. Well, bare-minimum-effort isn't completely fair as I did have to admit that it had a certain sense of style and grace to it, what with its crisp layout, cool music and nice subtle effects for buttons and transitions, as well as these weird joke pop-ups. I also liked that there were links to artist's profiles when you click on their names...or at least there should be, as only some of them work (poor Chdonga gets shafted, for example).

That all changed when I got to the poetry section, however: what an experience that was! Great voice acting, a nice variety of different poetry cadences and styles, cinematic presentation, and so on! This is the kind of interesting creativity that I live for in art collabs, and I'm really surprised you don't lead with this as the hook since it makes a much stronger impression! Course, there are still a few weird errors that bodge the work up, such as janky audio cut-offs, but still, very memorable indeed!

riot100233 responds:

ea sports

[Palm Cracker]

Wow, pretty cool fake-OS puzzle game! Reminds me a lot of something like Hypnospace Outlaw, and similar to that, I really enjoyed digging deep into this! I liked how educational it is in learning about various cyphers while still being fun (imagine that, learning being fun) and also how it is more than just figuring out the cypher code, but then taking those hints which are used to solve another puzzle hidden within another app, and so on. Cool stuff!

I have to admit that I am having a bit of a rough time with the game, though! For some reason, ever single cypher I've tried to learn and use feels like it was explained in a rather confusing manner which made me completely misinterpret what it was going for. I'm not sure if you're intentionally trying to not explain it clearly so as to not make it too obvious and make the player do more work, or if you're actually trying to be clear and you've just chosen a weird way to explain. Could also be me just overthinking it or something.

For example, when going over the third cypher, it says that letters are placed on separate rows, where every other letter is placed on the lower of the two. This makes it sound like, if you were to scramble EXAMPLE, it'd be:
E A P E
X M L
I understood that, but then it gives an example of LITERATURE being scrambled, but it's not following the same pattern of every other letter alternating rows, and instead it looks like it splits the word in half, putting the first half on the top row, and the back half on the bottom row. This made me really confused in solving the puzzle as I was trying to follow what it showed instead of what it said. Eventually I realized my mistake and it was just a confusion between encryption and decryption, and I do feel silly, but again, I wonder if it was just a weird way to explain.

Anyway, I'm very much enjoying myself, and while I haven't beaten it yet, I'll give it my best!

EDIT: Got confused with the puzzle with the grid and cross, especially since it didn't open up a code book to learn from, so I just looked online for 'cypher grid and cross' and figured out about pigpen that way from wiki. I assume that's not intentional and maybe I was supposed to unlock the book somehow, but eh, learning is learning, haha!

Deklaration responds:

Hey, thanks for the review! You're correct that some of the books describes the encryption process, and that you're supposed to use it to decrypt. That might be a bit confusing though, you're right. I'll take a look at it. Also, my English isn't the best, and it's most noticeable when I try to explain stuff in the most clear way possible.

And yeah, it's pretty cryptic that you're supposed to pick out the correct letters once again in the ICU app, just like you did before. I think most people found out that the letters in the pig pen are clickable by just trying to click stuff out of frustation and realizing that the letters are more than just an image. But, I guess an additional clue wouldn't hurt. I'll add one in the next update that's going live in an hour or two.