FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Arcane Board]

Hey, this is a pretty solid Slay-The-Spire-like with an interesting tetris block twist! It's certainly an intriguing concept that I had fun learning the strategic ins-and-outs of, all helped along by the the game is designed with all sorts of tooltips, highlights, animations, feedback and other subtle hints to make it all intuitive and easy to learn. Definitely a great first impression!

If I were to have any complaints, it would be that as cool as the game was, I found myself falling off after a short while. It just felt like it takes so long to get to the good stuff of actually launching big attacks since it takes so much prep work and lucking into getting the tiles you want, and when you combine that with spongy enemies and a huge map, it all can really drag out and tire someone as impatient as me. But I don't know whether that's an actual fundamental issue with the game, or just me being the unintended audience: up to you to decide, and for me to maybe give it another try to see if I change my mind once I get good enough!

Other than that, there are some things I would like spruced up a bit, like the very tiny text that's difficult to read even in fullscreen. But for the most part, this is very promising and professional stuff!

FancyReckless responds:

Thanks for the feedback! You're certainly not the only one that feels like the game is quite slow paced at times and I often get that feeling as well. I'm experimenting with stuff that could improve that, hopefully there's some trick I will figure out to make it more dynamic, but meanwhile I will try to reduce health on some earlier minions.

[Winsley's Guardian - Demo]

Hmm, I think this game has a pretty good foundation for a Zelda-esque adventure set in contemporary times. All the necessary bits and pieces seems to be in place: you've got your items, your slashy combat, cute art and menus, dungeons, boss fights, and so on...but it unfortunately didn't have any sort of spark or hook that caught my attention and made me want to keep playing, rather, it quickly bored me.

Some of my issues are attributed to aspects that can be fixed, and perhaps are already planned to be fixed in a future release, since this is a beta. For example, the lack of music really made everything feel so dull and without a sense of atmosphere. Even worse, it felt like I wasn't making any progress on my journey since it lacks the excitement of hearing a new track when you transition into a new area. There were also some glitches like how if you walk to the side of the slingshot boss, you can get stuck if he walks into you and get comboed to death with no way out.

Other issues aren't so easily solved. For example, I found the story kinda boring and with an odd sense of motivation: we've got a mysterious dream at the start which is cool and could set up some sort of quest, but then suddenly we're searching for an owner of some blanket we randomly found in the closet? Why is the blanket important? Makes no sense. And the other issue is that this does just seem to be yet another Zelda clone that lacks the smooth and satisfying feeling of the original and isn't bringing anything interesting to the table to set it apart.

As much as I'm being down on it, I do think it has some promise and I'd like to see how it evolves over time. If the game got polished up with some music, a better story/motivation, and some other stuff, I think it could be great.

Elv13s responds:

thanks for the review, the game is already finished and its already out as we speak. physical copies are available at https://guardiangamesstudio.com/. The dream intro issupposed to teach the player the basics of the world, before going into the real story...story revolves around Winsley's life and is much more of a cozy slice of life rather than an action adventure game. Thanks for pointing out issues, I strived and tried to address them in the full release. This is the beta demo that I am allowed to show publicly so some bad reviews might come from it being in early stages. But I assure you, this is a wholesome cute and heart warming experience. its not perfect but its still a good game in my eyes.

[sillinder's somewhat uneventful tuesday noon]

Oh wow, this is some amazing stuff! Really feels like a NES hidden gem with the way it pulls off the aesthetic so authentically with fantastic visuals and audio, and the gameplay is wonderful with how good the movement feels, how interesting the levels are to explore with loads of neat secrets and new mechanics being introduced like shroom power, and so many other great things like the crazy boss fights (seriously, that second boss is like something straight outta Cuphead). It just feels like a damn good adventure and practically drips with charm from every pore!

Again, it's amazing stuff that you should be super proud of, but if I did have some feedback, it'd be:

*Curious about some of the aspects like the cockroaches that fly away: are they some sort of bonus speedrun objective, like you need to reach them fast enough to hit them before they fly away? Also curious about the little baubles you pick up: they get sucked out of you at the end of a level, but I was never sure if I was having any sort of effect with how many I gathered: does it matter?

*The map can definitely be a bit confusing to navigate at times. Plenty of times I'd walk to the side of the screen thinking it was a transition point but it wasn't, and plenty of times I'd walk where I thought it was ground but was actually a ledge or other such things. But at the same time, I feel like I'd always find the right way to go without too much issue, so hey, it still flows well in the end.

*My biggest issue with the game is that it doesn't seem to have a save/load system: got really bummed out when I got all the way to the third level and wanted to take a break, only to come back and realize I'd have to do everything all over again from the start. Maybe the game isn't technically that long in reality, but c'mon, some checkpoints between levels would be much appreciated.

sillylittlepyro responds:

very glad you enjoyed and very flattered!!!

that is indeed how the cockroaches work, however i havent yet added a reward for getting all of them so theyre just kinda there for funsies right now.

the bits absolutely 100% do not matter and will be of absolutely no importance in the full release.

i dont know how to do saving in html so i just didnt bother, but there will definitely be saving in a full release.

[Skatorio]

Oh man, this is a tricky one. It's weird, and I like weird, but maybe it's a little too weird for its own good!

As said, it's a pretty fascinatingly weird game that took a lot of time to try and figure out. Having to freeze enemies by grazing past them like a bullet hell or Y's bump combat, avoiding going back on your own ice to not break the combo while also trying to cover the ground with as much ice as possible, and so much more: it was quite unique! I like learning about scoring systems like this, and being incentivized into getting high scores to unlock new levels like its Mario 64 was right up my alley.

Unfortunately, the game was very confusing and not only did it take me a long time to learn the mechanics, I actually still don't feel like I have a good grasp on what I'm supposed to do. For example:

*For the longest time I thought the 'combo breaks' were referring to chaining freezes in rapid sequence, not avoiding going onto your own ice: yes, there is a small X reaction for your character once they start sliding, but I didn't even notice it at first, let along connect the two together.

*I found it very strange that for a game that seems to be scoring you based on time, it was rather annoying that one of the scoring goals was filling up the map with as much ice as possible: a goal like that just inflates every attempt with so much annoying busy work to redo. I get that it's challenging how the two goals of not breaking the combo while putting as much ice as possible are opposed, but still, it just felt tedious.

*I kept getting confused at the scoring results: I'd get an S in combo breaks and an A in ice coverage, and yet my total score was B or C. How does that make any sense? You'd think it would average out to be A at the very least. That made me think that perhaps my time was influencing it the total score, but if that's the case, why don't I get a letter grade for time? Because time doesn't have a letter grade, you'd think it would be a separate goal, which does match what it says in the description, but then what's going on with my score?

So yeah, I like how weird and unique this is, but man, I just got lost and didn't feel like I ever got my feet under me. At the very least, good on you for trying out something weird like this: always down for some experimentation over just more of the same!

dreamcastgh0st responds:

Thanks for the review! There's definitely a lot of places where the scoring system could be more clear, and that's my biggest regret with this game. I've been meaning to do a little write up in response to one of these comments to clarify it for everyone, so here we go--

Percent iced is pretty self explanatory, and you're right, combo breaks is based on how many times you stepped back on your own ice. I was hoping the little indicator that pops up would help make that clear, but I guess it wasn't enough for a lot of people. (Side note: The UI in the top left 'shatters' and changes colors too in order to indicate your current combo break rank! This isn't really meant to help with tutorialization, but if you're not sure if you've broken your combo yet, you can just check up there and it'll show you. The color of the meter indicates your percent iced rank, and the color of the background behind it is your combo based rank. The best color is, of course, icy blue-- the others all match up with the colors of the rank icons on the level complete screen.)

As for the total rank, there's no excuse for this one, it's super unclear. Time isn't taken into account at all-- it's a totally separate metric, just so that people can go for speed once they've reached a level of mastery of the game. I was hoping that would be more obvious since it's the only thing on the ranking screen that didn't have its own rank associated with it, but honestly, I should have left it off of that screen entirely. I think literally every single person who's played it has gotten confused by that, whoops lol.

Basically, for every rank below perfect either element is, you'll go down one rank. That sounds confusing, but it's basically like... S+S is a perfect rank, each A moves you down by 1, B moves you down by 2, C by 3, etc. So an A+B => C, since it moves you down three ranks. This system, for obvious reasons, sucks, and honestly I might patch it to fix it. But unless that happens, I figured it was best to leave some sort of comment so curious players could figure out how it actually works.

Anyways, thanks for the thorough review! Gave me a good excuse to talk about all this, and I'm glad you enjoyed it despite some of the flaws!

[SENTINEL - Echoes of the fallen]

Hey, not too shabby for a survivors game! I'm reluctant to play yet another survivors clone as there are so many, but overall the game feels pretty well-constructed and fun, with some great touches that made a fantastic first impression, such as the well-animated main menu, as well as some amusing chatter like your operator chewing you out for not paying attention to your health, haha! Game also sports some good fundamentals: I liked how there was a good amount of enemy variety, for example.

It's nice, but if I had some feedback, I'd say:

*Gameplay felt kinda dry and not that satisfying. Could stand to spice it up with some more loud, addictive and impactful special effects, especially for hits and collecting gems, a more vibrant environment, and more special events like mini-bosses, waves, and so on.

*As mentioned above, this game is just yet another survivors clone, with its own unique qualities being purely aesthetic, such as the mecha theming. Would love this game to have something more substantial, some sort of unique mechanic, twist, hook, whatever you wanna call it!

Would love to see how this develops, as I think you have a good foundation to work from!

NuelSquare responds:

Thanks for the feedback! I really appreciate that you took the time to comment on my game and give your opinion. I'm still constantly developing the game, adding content and improving the gameplay.

What I mainly thought of as the unique mechanic is the perk system, but I think it still has a way to go to make it as I envision it, anyway, thank you very much for your comment!

[Reverie Channel Act Zero]

Huh, this was pretty interesting and ended up hooking me more than I expected! I'm not one for RPG Maker games, but the wild world you've constructed in this was very intriguing and kept things fresh with so many perspective/map changes, cute characters, goofy dialogue, dramatic cutscenes and so on: it's quite the crazy ride and looks like a lot of effort was put into it!

Having said that, there were a lot of rough spots that made it difficult to continue on, despite how weirdly attractive the world you've made was:

*While I did try to enjoy the ride, I couldn't help but feel like I opened up a book right in the middle and started reading. Just that awkward feeling where I don't know these characters and the world as well as I think the game expects me to. Maybe I'm wrong and it is just intentionally starting 'in medias res', and nevertheless I do feel like I got the gist, but still, the vibes just felt off, like trying to butt into a conversation between friends.

*The pacing started to get thrown out of whack as the game progressed. Going through the dungeon the first time was interesting, sure, but oh my god you need to backtrack through there over and over and over! Also I hated how I got this key that I want to use now, but I keep getting interrupted by Peter and Eva chaining phone calls one after the other! And that big maze level almost made my eyes glaze over: boy did I feel lucky making it out of there without too many wrong turns since I would've quit otherwise.

*Kinda wish the game had a little more to it than just walking to talk to someone, over and over and over. Don't get me wrong, I'm not asking for the game to have unnecessary combat shoved in there, but I do wish there were a few more puzzles or minigames or special events or something where I actually need to use my brain and feel like I'm playing the game instead of doing busy work.

*There were a few times the story confused me. For example, we found a pass to go on the trivia show from a nervous kid, but then Noir took it and dipped, leaving us high and dry. If that's the case, why are we then allowed to walk into the waiting room and attend the gameshow? Shouldn't it be Noir, because they've got the pass? Why are we allowed in?

*There were also some weird technical issues, like the time limit for the trivia gameshow wouldn't function properly. I'd answer a question within the limit but then before he states the next question, he says I ran outta time...and then he says it again! Very weird.

While I had some rough spots, I do still think the game has a certain attractive charm to it, so well done in that regard! As said, I shy away from a lot of RPG Maker games because they typically are just generic fantasy stuff with lots of exposition before gameplay, but I like this game's weird world and how quickly it cuts to the chase. Lotta potential here!

PlasmaSpade responds:

Thanks for playing! I apologize for the issues that you faced in the game.

When it comes to the story, it's kind of a side story/prequel so I can see how it can get confusing to try and understand what is going on. So I'll try to add some dialogue that gives some more context.

I know I tried to make subsequent visits to the dungeon slightly different with the small interactions that happened between those visits but I do see the issues with going back and forth without much happening.

With the directions I tried to add a task menu along with a map for the dungeon, but I know it can become a lot to remember certain locations and where to go next. I'll make additional changes to make the dungeon less tedious and confusing to navigate. (I'll make an update to have it be more clear that the interactions for Peter and Eva are optional as well)

Honestly I know there isn't much to do so whenever I get the chance there will be more stuff to do (and see) besides walking and talking to characters.

I'm going to add a notification for obtaining an item, like how there is the notification for a task or interaction so it becomes a little clearer (the dialogue does seem to read as if Noir took it so I'll fix that).

Sometimes RPG Maker does some weird stuff when it isn't played in the editor, so there can be a few oddities. I might've also added some duplicate text for the game show by accident.

Again, thank you for playing and also for the feedback. It helps out a lot and I'll make an update to fix the issues that you mentioned.

[Double-Barrel Sniper]

NOTE: I played the downloadable version instead of the web version.

Wow, this is a pretty cool game! I love me a fast-paced movement shooter and this delivered in spades, reminding me a lot of other crazy games like 'My Friend Pedro'. When you get into the zone and are pulling off stylish move after stylish move in rapid-fire sequence, embracing all the crazy tech like boosting yourself with a shotgun blast and sliding everywhere, it feels fantastic! The cherry on top is the music and the way it gets more intense as things get crazy: it's so damn motivating!

As said, when the game is working as intended, it's great, but there's a lot of times where the game isn't working and it gets in the way of the fun:

*The biggest issue for me was trying to work with the physics and momentum and all that jazz: I know it's part of the challenge to master the systems, but with this, it just felt really glitchy, unresponsive and unintuitive at times, leading to a lot of weird unintended movements and unfair deaths. Here's a simple example: if you come to a dead stop, walk backwards a few paces, stop, and then hit the slide button, you will end up sliding backwards which makes no sense as you should clearly slide forward!

*The slow-mo system is too overly generous, allowing you to gain huge amounts of bar with every kill made during slow-mo, leading to you being able to keep it on practically indefinitely. This makes the difficulty of the game go kaput as it's too damn easy: I want there to be a valid reason to switch back to regular time and blast people with the shotgun, but there's none because of the way it's balanced!

*Speaking of the shotgun blast, I found myself wanting to avoid using it not just because slow-mo is so generous so why bother, but the shotgun blast feels like it misses half the time. I'll clearly overlap someone with a shotgun blast and they'll be right as rain: why? I dunno what's going on with it.

*I really wish the game had a better scoring system. It feels weird that it only tracks your time and allows you to clear levels without killing everyone: shouldn't killing everyone, or at least a specific target, be part of the goal as a sniper? If killing isn't important enough to be scored, why didn't you just call the game Double-Barrel Runner?

*The ending is amusing with how goofy it is, but I have to admit that I was disappointed that it just ended like that. C'mon, give me a good boss fight, or at least a cutscene of us killing our main target, some sorta CEO or whatever.

It's rough around the edges, but I had a nice time playing this game: would absolutely love if you were to polish it up and add a proper ending/story/boss/etc to this!

NonsenseNHReal responds:

Thank you for the in-depth feedback! I will keep these in mind when I'm ever working on an actual fleshed-out release. I admit, it's a bit rushed at times but yeah, had a lot of fun making the project.

again, thanks for playing! :]

[Die for the Lich [v0.5]]

Wow, for being so early on in development, this feels very impressive already!

I'll admit, it's easy to feel like this is just another Slay the Spire-esque roguelike to add to the huge pile of other clones, so I'm a bit skeptical. Nevertheless, I do feel like it made good strides in providing a pretty unique experience with its synergy of items and dice rolls: trying to hit criticals by using certain dice and then trinkets to influence luck was quite satisfying and strategic. I also really loved how intuitive it was to learn the game naturally from how it highlights the appropriate objects to indicate what you can do, and how it doesn't infodump you at the start, but instead teaches you things as you encounter them. Just overall has a professional look and feel to it that delivers and smooth and polished experience: well done!

If I were to offer any feedback, it would be:

*Right now the level is very long and stuffed with rather simple trash mobs whose special effects help you more than hinder you, making it feel rather repetitive. Has a very 'when are we going to get to the fireworks factory' kinda vibe. Would love more unique enemy types and even mini-bosses to serve as checkpoints and events to spice the journey up!

*It's pretty simple to intuit what they are, but it'd still be nice if there were some info pop-ups when you hover over the map icons just to be sure what they are.

*It'd be nice if there was a save/load functionality so you wouldn't have to start all over if you take a break mid-run.

*It's a very nitpicky thing, but I wish the dice looked a bit better: something about the way the numbers on them are just some default system font that can sometimes be awkwardly offset just looks kinda cheap or placeholdery. Would love a more custom font and presentation that looks more seamlessly integrated, something where there is no visual separation between dice and number.

*There's plenty of other feedback that I can think of, but most of it falls into the generic desire for 'more stuff' which I'm sure you already have planned once you've got the fundamentals down, such as more heroes to pick from, changing your starting loadout, a story or narrative events to serve as motivation, unlocks, modifiers/difficulties blah blah blah I won't waste your time listing it all.

Definitely very promising! It's a silly thing to say, but it has a certain quality to it that I think makes it worth whipping the wallet out for, if that makes sense, haha!

MadNukin responds:

First of all, thanks for taking some time to give as some feedback.

I agree that the enemies need some some improvements and we are planning to address that in future builds.

Map needs, info, I agree!

For the web version we won't be adding save and load.

We got some better looking dice in v0.3, because of you.

We want to add more characters, it's in the near future for sure.

Glad you think the game has potential to bring some bacon :)

[RETRO RAMPAGE]

Interesting little Asteroids-esque arcade shooter! It feels a bit amateurish in its construction, feeling like a game from a first-timer or perhaps for a game jam, but at the same time it has a good sense of energy, some nice juicy effects and good enemy variety that keeps you on your toes! Having to deal with the recoil of your shots, especially your charge shots, adds a bit of risk/reward to how you play as well!

It's pretty decent on paper, but something about its execution left me a bit cold: still somewhat fun, but just not as fun as I thought it would be. A few factors to point out would be:

*I wish the damage feedback was a bit better. When I first played the game, I didn't even think I could break the bigger asteroids because my shots seemed to be not affecting them at all, and it was the same for enemies too. Even when I learned that my shots were damaging them, it still felt rather unsatisfying. Would love if, say, cracks formed on asteroids as you damage them, or enemies would turn redder or whatever.

*I know you can't do it because the game has a charge shot mechanic, but boy do I wish I could just hold down the trigger to keep shooting automatically: my old man hands can't keep clicking like this!

*The charge shot is pretty cool, but it is kind of annoying how much it sends you back when you fire. Yes, it is a neat element to consider as part of the strategy of the game, but even accepting that, it can still be frustrating! It's also frustrating that the charge shot can't pierce through smaller asteroids or enemy bullets: feels like such a waste when it hits those!

*Wish I could use the arrow keys to move around instead of WASD: having to have my hands cramped together instead of spread out, as well as having to use my left hand to move instead of my right, was a bit annoying.

*Music was way too loud without any sort of volume control, and kind of weird and dissonant, not pleasant to listen to in my opinion.

It's definitely pretty promising for a simple but fun arcade shooter, but it just had too many little aspects of it that got in the way of the fun. A good attempt, though!

SepticDolphin responds:

These are some very good and valid points. I'm definitely going to update the game in the future and take these things into account. Thank you for taking the time to write this, this is very valuable :)

[Fossil Rumblers Time-Stop Over DEMO]

Man, maybe I'm missing something, but I bounced off of this game hard, unfortunately!

The game does show some decent promise to it. The interface is pretty well-constructed and intuitive, and the game has a rather stylish look to it with a nice sense of energy from the music and effects. The gameplay is also rather...uh...unique, which did draw my attention, but...yeah, I just didn't know what to do with the gameplay!

I love tower defenses because I love puzzling together a perfect formation that counters what the enemy is throwing at me, factoring in stuff like arranging towers in a way that effectively uses the territory/ranges that they cover to synergize with each other and promote their strengths.

With this, though, all I had to work with was two towers that were both the same thing, being melee attackers with one being slightly stronger and more expensive. There was no way to arrange the towers so that they could cover or synergize with each other or...anything! Placement didn't matter: all I could do was arrange a line of meat that the enemies would just walk up to one-by-one and pummel. It was so bloody boring! It didn't help either that the first level goes on for so damn long, especially since you barely have any tools or units to play around with.

I dunno, maybe I'm missing something, but it felt like that's all I could do beyond healing or throwing bombs which felt lackluster. As a side note, there were also some minor issues like how:

*I wish the HUD would make it more obvious what units you can buy and what you can't by making them brighten up when you have enough cash.

*I wish you would just display the health bars above units instead of having to click on them to get a health display for just one of them.

*I was a bit puzzled why some of the units had more health than each other despite being the same? Is it just random? I don't think I upgraded them or anything, just feels silly that a win could be up to luck.

*I also found the music to be way too loud and was praying for some sort of options menu where I could fiddle with the music levels, but alas!

As down as I'm being on the game, I want it to be good as apart from the bizarre game design, it does look pretty neat and shows some promise!

EDIT: Hmm, while I still stand by the game having a pretty rough first impression, I tried revisiting it and I do think it gets better as the levels go on, with towers having limited aggro capabilities so things become a bit more frantic and strategic, so it does have that going for it. There are still some slight annoyances like how I wish I could right-click to cancel whatever I have currently selected and if I could see health bars at all times, but still, it's better than I thought!

VoiDdraig responds:

Thanks so much for giving a try to FR! for sure the project is'nt completed yet and need lots of fixes/balancing and polish that are on work now! again the feedback is really apreciated and taking on count all to improve with the next updates~

about gameplay by the moments even when it's a tower defense i wanna keep it a bit away from the puzzle feeling (it's really rushed and need lots of work to be polished rn) depends more on improvistaion than planification but u still can use strategy as the horde gets frenetic "basic in some point" for sample you can place the units far from the entrance so the new ones can be placed closer so they can fight maintainig the damaged ones safe till die or get healed and when you get the change to get plenty ranged units protecting them with more cannon fodder (yeah they are not supposed to survive all the horde but u can manage to keep them alive healing right on the moment they almost die) so u need to constantly keep an eye checking units untill level ends instead of pasively wait

Honestly all the minor issues are important stuff to be work (on wip rn, no new updates till everything works without bugs)
-the hud units will glow when you got enough Fossil energy
- enemies HP will be show too (including a visible hp bar)
-units HP are randomized for testing (an evolution of the units is possible tho but as a future feature)
-Sound parameter control is a must

Fun fact: We need to include an advise to let players know when new units are unlocked, cuz actually level 1-3 adds a range unit! "anomalocaris"