FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Courtroom69]

Not too shabby of an ace attorney parody! For the most part, the game seems setup quite well with humorous dialogue, comical characters, and an intuitive interface: just feels well put-together! Despite lacking some certain niceties like music, I easily found myself getting sucked into the experience and wanting to see the case all the way through (and not just because of the cheesecake!)

However, while I did stick to it the whole way through, I was left a bit let down! Not only does the game end on a weird cliffhanger, making the whole thing unresolved, but the case itself and my involvement in it were rather unsatisfying. The mystery wasn't that compelling, I never had a nice 'eureka' moment where I felt like I needed to deduce anything, the game was so forgiving that you could just brute force your way through, and all of the revelations didn't come from me, but rather from the characters knowing information that I wasn't privy to, so I didn't even have a chance! It really felt like my involvement wasn't necessary, and that's a bummer.

Veinom responds:

I was working on a version that tries to fix that issue. I wanted to get it ready before you play it but I needed 1 or 2 more days of work. I remember that you make monthly videos, and I had that in mind in case you picked my game.

Thank you for playing!

[Windowz 98 NetTowns Edition]

Pretty fun little toybox to play around with! Even though it doesn't necessarily have an investigative plot like Hypnospace Outlaw to give it a sense of purpose, this psuedo-OS is nevertheless amusing to poke around in, laughing at the gags, playing the games, checking out all the goofy webpages, and even spotting little hidden goodies like the Abandonwear link.

If I were to have any complaints, it'd be that I can't find a way to reverse the colors back after click on AoE2, necessitating a complete restart, and that'd it be nice if it had a save system so I don't need to go through the whole internet connection process again every time I wanna check out the web. Oh, and I hit tab to switch input fields by instinct when entering info on the internet connection, only to be called a cheater: it's a false conviction! Otherwise, nice work!

Kolumbo responds:

ayy thanks for playing!

there is a way to revert to normal colors, it's the Overlay setting inside Display Properties. or you can start Solitaire which gets rid of all customization effects.

as for everything else, good points! there was supposed to be a site that requires a password which can be found by browsing NetTowns - that should hopefully incentivize the player to click through - but it's stuck in the .fla file as i can't seem to export a .swf

[Fun Home: Part 1]

Pretty neat horror game! The vibes and feel of the game were quite strong and the general gameplay loop of gathering items while evading a stalker was solid!

I enjoyed myself while playing this...for the short time it lasted. Yes, while it is very cool, damn was it small in all regards: small house, small amount of interactions, just a single enemy, no tricks or new mechanics being introduced as you get farther, and quite the lackluster ending. It's a bit unsatisfying, but I'll still say that as a proof-of-concept or prototype, it's very promising and I'm looking forward to seeing how it evolves in the second part! Leaving me hungry is a bit bad, but also a bit of a compliment!

Some small notes of feedback:

*I can't say I've encountered a control scheme like this before, where the arrow keys are used as buttons instead of for movement. I got used to it, but it was definitely rather confusing: perhaps you could use a more universally accepted control scheme instead in future.

*Certain goofy aspects like the clown's general attitude, as well as the iconic Ganon laugh on death, while amusing, did kinda kick me out of experience and made it less immersive and scary. It's fine if that's the kinda vibe you're going for, but I figured I should mention it just in case.

*It'd be nice if it created a special checkpoint right before the start of the first chase sequence so if you die, you can start off right there instead of having to go through and mash skip to get through their introduction all over again.

deathink responds:

Thank you very much for your in-depth comment.
Yeah, the game is very small right now, but as you mentioned, it is a proof of concept to people and it looks like the kickstarter is going to go through so I will be able to expand on it!!
The controls is a constant thorn in my side with any 2D/keyboard games. I have controller support running on steam already, but I'm still looking into options and trying to lean how to implement them better.
The bathroom should have an auto save right before that first chase sequence. I'll look into it and check if there is a bug.
Lastly, the goofy stuff. This is a little tricky, as I have far some far goofier things planned int he future. But I also have some startlingly darker stuff too. I kinda wanted to remind people they were playing a game, and it will make sense in the future. The fact that you knew that laugh means you are the type of person this game was meant for. While new gamers can I hope enjoy it, there will be kind of a secret conversation us retro gamers will be having. I just hope any of this makes sense when I fully implement the game.

[PSYCHExFUSE]

Wow, this one surprised me! These kinda games aren't really in my wheelhouse as I don't typically get into these surreal horror adventures that much, but this game did a lot to win me over and before you know it, I kept wanting to play more and more! Reminds me a lot of other games I've gotten to in the past, such as Ib.

A few aspects that stood out to me that I enjoyed:

*Obviously what comes to mind first and foremost is the surreal and mysterious vibes that the game has through the weird characters and abstract world. The vague plot, trippy art design, subtle sounds and so on all come together to create a cool and intriguing atmosphere that is far removed from that typical RPG Maker look and feel!

*I love examining stuff and reading all of the flavor text that can come from it, and this game delivers that in spades. The reactions are charming while not being too verbose, and amazingly, there are parts where you can examine the same object but from a different point and get a new reaction, such as some of the big murals, and even parts where you can examine an object multiple times to see something new, like examining the tilted painting until you align it. So cool!

*A lot of these games can end up just being a whole bunch of walking around which can bore me, but this felt like it did a good job at keeping things interesting by peppering in special events: search for something here, a small puzzle there, a chase sequence, a new encounter, and so on. Basically, this has some good pacing in my opinion.

*Some nice quality-of-life features are in this, such as the generous checkpointing for chase sequences to reduce frustration from retries.

*I'm not sure if it's there, but I'm curious as to whether certain actions and choices will have some sort of influence over the ending or our character. Either way, it's nice to be able to express myself a bit here and there and not feel locked into our role.

SewingwithDaydream responds:

Lovely review! We're so glad you enjoyed :)

[5 min without TV !]

Pretty cute little game! The game has a very charming look and feel to it, and I like the concept and challenge of stacking all sorts of furniture awkwardly together to somehow build up a tower. All in all, seems like a very short and sweet little arcade game that is fun to go back for a higher score!

Unfortunately, I suck at it! I'm willing to admit that part of this is probably a skill issue, which is why I'm still overall positive on it. But I do have to admit that there are some frustrating aspects with the game itself that get in the way of my enjoyment, like how sometimes the game would remove control of an object before it even makes contact with the tower which leads to less than optimal placement, or how sometimes I just get myself into what feels like an impossible jam to get out of because of how terrible a huge portion of the items are to work with. Can't help but wonder if there could be some subtle changes made to keep the feel but reduce frustration, like maybe a grace period for moving pieces even after making contact, similar to how it works in Tetris.

As a side note, do the youth of today even know about TV static and antennas? Boy, I feel old...

Dominoobscure responds:

Thank you! Glad you still appreciate the game even if it's really flawed. So yeah, I think we could have handled the placement a bit better your frustration is legit. I too think the hitbox for dropping furniture could be more accurate, but I didn't have time to fix that during the jam nor after haha

[ZIMA - Temple of Souls]

Seems like a pretty promising adventure game! There wasn't that much to chew on, being just a short demo, but the journey through the temple was filled with a decent variety of traps, obstacles, and hidden treasures to contend with, and I really enjoyed how the dog is an actual sidekick that you need to work together with! There's enough on display to make me want to see the final product, so I look forward to it!

If I were to have any complaints:

*I hate to say it, but the main character is pretty ugly and awkward in how she animates, especially for the basic walk cycle which looks incredibly stiff. It's like she is made of jello with the way her body proportions warp wildly from pose-to-pose. Could definitely do with a touch-up, I'd say.

*You should probably remove the shadow effect from the player character as it actually makes the world seem more flat since it doesn't distort based on other background objects.

*In the sword fight stage, there were a few times I got hit or killed for seemingly no reason, as the enemies didn't get anywhere close to me or the dog. Maybe some of the hitboxes are messed up? Dunno what happened there.

*I have no idea why you made it so that you need to jump against a wall to knock it down when you use your fists to break or hit everything else in the game. If you need to make a special sign that pops up to teach people to do something they'd never figure out on their own, you've messed up!

Not a complaint, but just a little note! That part where you fall into the water and tentacles come up to grab you if you don't move out fast enough? I recognize that reference! That's straight from the start of Out of This World (aka Another World) from Eric Chahi!

protomation responds:

Thank you for playing and for the brutally honest feedback, I appreciate it. Lots to think about for sure. ( Over a bottle of whisky. )

Glad you picked up on Another world! Just a quick nod to a game that had a huge impact on me years ago. It is kind of the type of atmospheric game I'm going for.

[Character Select Collab]

Not too shabby of an art collab! It is just your standard gallery presentation at heart, which is a bit of a letdown, but it does a decent job at adding enough bells and whistles to the overall presentation to make it match the fighting game theme, and it was rather amusing to see all of the characters rendered through other game creators like Soul Calibur!

That being said, I really wish the presentation and interactivity was a bit more spicy and exciting. Compared to character selects that you see in games like Marvel Vs Capcom 2, Under Night In Birth, Smash Bros, and so on, this just lacks charm and feels so sterile and lifeless, even when you go to the trouble to play the music which couldn't be included in the game (yes, I'm the one bitching about it, sorry, haha). I'd love some more cool effects like an announcer calling out the names for when you make a selection, voice barks from the characters, background animations, maybe make the bios display their special/super moves and their motion inputs, and so on. I just can't help but want more!

Obviously this is a big ask, but it'd be so awesome if this actually had a fighting game component attached to it where you can face off two selected characters. Not a full proper game, of course, that's way too complicated, but maybe just an automated rock/paper/scissors CPU match where you watch them take turns doing their moves and you can gamble on who wins or something.

TheJamarillo responds:

That would be so cool!

[Panthalassa Demo (Web Version)]

Holy moley, this is some crazy shit you're peddling here: I love it!

Definitely seems like quite the surreal and wild point-and-click adventure, like some bizarre mish-mash of old edutainment games like the Magic School Bus and Cruelty Squad, most notably in terms of theming and interface design. It's confusing to grasp, but that's just part of the fun, and I loved messing around with all these alien systems to learn about their functions, kinda like learning a whole new language: like what in the hell does deep-frying eels have to do with restoring power??? The wild art design brings it altogether with some fascinating and mysterious vibes that keep me wanting to dig further. Great stuff!

It already looks to be in a very promising state, but if I were to offer any feedback:

*I hate to say this, but could the characters in this game just please shut the hell up? I love examining objects and reading flavor text in these games, but this is a case of too much of a good thing: it got really annoying and tedious to listen to these goobers yap on and on and ON for every single examined object. The intro in particular was really annoying because I couldn't even get a chance to examine anything when I open it with my own eyeballs before they interrupt me. It seriously feels like all dialogue exchanges could be cut in half across the board and nothing would be lost. Not having everything explained to me so directly as well would increase the level of mystery and allow me to have fun pondering the situation.

*I understand it adds to the vibes, but the amount of post-processing effects was ludicrous to the point of hurting my eyes. Still, the game does offer the options to turn them off, so that's nice.

*It might be intentional to add to the mystique, but I got a bit confused as to who 'I' am at times, like am I a separate person interfacing with Magellan and listening in, or am I actually Magellan? And is Magellan now the floaty white/green alien thingy? Not quite sure, but I'm sure it would become obvious over time.

*As said, I love figuring out how the machines work, but boy was I having a tough time figuring out how the offering machine works. I swear I'm following the instructions properly, but it wasn't clear whether clicking the center is how you confirm the offering or if it only flushes, whether I need to turn on and then off the pipes or just leave them on as I adjust intensity, and so on.

*I ended up playing the Steam version of this as the web version you've got here is wayyyy too tiny to be legible, especially when you're got all these post-processing effects distorting the text even further.

Consider this wishlisted, and I will attempt to spread the word as I know some other people who love this kinda stuff!

MeiaCalca responds:

Thanks for the lovely review! The feedback is very apreciated as well.

To answer your question about the offering puzzle, it works like a password, you need to input the correct combination of symbols at the correct intensity and then press the center button, if it glows red then you have typed in something incorrect, green means that you have attracted a sea creature to the observatory and blue means that you have already typed in that combination.

In terms of "who" you're playing as in the game, you will have to keep guessing

Thanks for playing and sharing the game!

[Faith in Despair - Demo]

Wow, this one really surprised me!

I'll admit that I wasn't quite fair to this game on first glance, as I sighed heavily when I saw that it was yet another roguelike deckbuilder to add to the mountain of others. But that makes it all the more impressive that it won me over in the end!

I think a big aspect that helped get me into it was just how well-crafted the interface and the tutorials were: everything just felt incredibly smooth to manipulate and intuitive to understand, and when there was ever anything that wasn't obvious at first glance, there was something to help me along, like the various tooltips, battle log, and subtle signals like the golden lines, as well as being able to slow down the game speed.

The mechanics were also very interesting and added a lot of strategic flair to the game. Having to wager whether it's worth damaging my despair to play another card, moving around the condition/effect orbs from my inventory or from other cards to build my up army with all sorts of cool effects, determining the best way to handle the enemy to keep their orb effects from firing off: that's just so much depth to this! I can't get over some aspects like how free you are to move orbs around, even from existing spell cards onto your creatures!

All that aside, the game also just had a really dark and hallowed vibe to it. Some fantastic work here!

muddasheep responds:

Thank you very much for your kind words! I'm glad you still gave the game a try and that it won you over in the end.

[Pigment]

Hey, not too shabby!

I'll admit that my first impression of this wasn't that great, as there is a lot of rough spots to this in terms of the movement, some mechanics not being explained that well, lack of effects like a death animation, lack of a save/load feature, and so on. Definitely felt like a 'my first game' project, or something done on a short time frame that wasn't quite finished or given a polishing phase.

But I stuck with it and was surprised to find a rather decent puzzle game! I liked the very creative color/paint-based mechanics you unlock, and while it starts off simple, the later puzzles get rather tricky in how they make you use 'em! All that, and the overall presentation gave off very cute and pleasant vibes.

indyot responds:

I appreciate the review! I saw your video, and I gotta say it feels so fulfilling to finally watch someone play the game. It was in fact my first game, and I did not expect this much attention. Thank you so much for playing my game!