FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[JARED]

Whenever it comes to games like this that look kinda crappy, I always hope that it is some sort of trick that hides a very impressive game past that veneer. I've been surprised a lot on Newgrounds with games like that, but unfortunately here it just seems to play it straight where yes, it is indeed that bad.

It got my hopes up with its amusing awkward narration and level design that seemed to have some sort of pathing to it with interesting leaps of faith, and I did have a couple of laughs at my deaths where you just stretched a spike very long to create a death zone. But the awkward narrator voice is already something I've seen a hundred times before and executed better, and the level didn't take long to get frustrating with its awkward collision and confusing pathing, not to mention the annoying controls with jumps that you can't control the strength of.

I know it's all for the 3 star jam so it was somewhat intentional, but I think you overdid it somewhat and fell below the standards of the jam. Maybe that's admirable in a way? Most other people couldn't help but make their games too good for the 3 star jam: at least you played it straight.

SoftwareDrinkware responds:

I did actually have other stuff I was going to make for this, and it came a lot worse than I wanted lol. I got confused with the dates when you needed to submit the games and ended up just cutting out everything I had planned for it in fear of missing the deadline and instead threw together this heap of work with what assets I had made. In the end though it sure is mid lmao. Nice in depth review though, I appreciate it <3.

[Peter the Ant Clicker]

Cute game with a pretty decent first impression, but didn't have the clicker appeal I'm looking for.

Everything was pretty ok when I started out: graphics were nice, I liked how buttons reacted when hovering over them, I thought it was cool that the score counter reacted on a digits basis instead of the entire number, I liked the strange little character in the corner that gives info, and above all it's Peter the freakin' ant, what could go wrong!?

Unfortunately the game didn't really have much to offer beyond that. What I really like about clicker games, and other similar upgrade-based games like Vampire Survivors or Risk of Rain, is seeing the absolute fireworks display that ends up happening over time as you build up and up. All of the upgrades in this game were practically invisible though: if you were to take a video of someone just starting out and someone in the endgame for this, they'd look practically the same, and I found that incredibly unsatisfying. C'mon, wheres an actual animation for bonking Peter with a hammer that actually changes to represent what hammer you have? Where's all my moles I've bought and why aren't they on the screen clicking away and helping me out (why's it only the glaggles that appear, and why are they so static and boring)? I want more excitement and a sense of progression! Also the game just goes by so bloody fast, it has no challenge or sense of pacing: despite not liking it so much, I ended up getting all of the achiveos in no time flat.

I appreciate that the game at least tries to have sound effects for all of the upgrades, but it felt very lazy and also descends into eardrum-destroying territory, making me almost not want to upgrade. With a little more elbow grease into the visuals, I'd say this could be fun, but at the moment, no go. Still, I understand I'm probably taking this too seriously, so jokes on me, haha!

Roza responds:

not reading all dat

[Cards with Personalities Classic]

Pretty neat game! I definitely took the hard way by not reading the instructions provided, but despite my initial bumpy first impression (which I suppose is my fault) I still felt like I got to terms with the game and ended up having a good time, which is quite the achievement!

I feel like the game is very well constructed: love the various animations for actions like having a card get highlighted and float when it is selected, and the effects that act out when you play a card, like how the icons zip up to the top part of the HUD and add to the counters. These elements, along with other subtle things like how the screen shakes and plays a bad sound if you attempt to do something you can't (instead of just giving no response), the way it warns you if you try and end a turn too early, and the contextual control instructions always displaying at the bottom so you know your options, not only make the game feel fun and juicy, actually make this complex game rather intuitive without even needing to consult the outside instructions. Despite my rough start, I felt like I was able to gather all the info I needed to be able to play within the game from trial and error.

It definitely could do a bit more to help, but I understand the Pico-8 template is limiting with the space it has available (I mostly mean screen space, but I imagine data space as well) For example, why does the game even bother starting without just forcing the first draw? I understand not forcing a draw later on since there can still be remaining choices, but I feel like that would help a player see how to start out and hit the ground running instead of starting blanky at these cards they can't do anything with. I felt like you did a pretty dang good job with the limited space already, though.

There were a few bugs I experienced here and there, like where my cursor would remain over an empty card slot and it'd give me options to use it as if it still existed, only for it to not respond to those options and for it to disappear once I move away from it. It was also sometimes tricky to navigate around, for example where sometimes when I go up it takes me to the graveyard instead of the boss which I expected. I also still am not sure I understand the destroy card option.

These card games aren't really my jam so I'm not the intended audience, but I gotta give big props to this game for hooking me in despite all that and the initial confusion: the juicy and reactive menus just gave the game such a good feel to it that I put faith in it and wanted to push on and learn!

Elastiskalinjen responds:

Thank you! Yeah, there is a reason there are very few card games in pico8, and I was fighting with the limitations both in screen space and in tokens the whole way. That's why I decided to revisit it and create a full version with a tutorial, better guidance in general and also tons more content!

[The Wizard Ran: Chapter 2]

Wow, this game is really going places! I feel bad for calling it the most 'sane' adriendittrick game I've experienced: I suppose it still makes some sense as it's probably the most potentially straightforward if you just mainline the first endings, but doing so would miss out on all the crazy interconnected elements that this game has!

Learning information like names and ages from this and going back to previous chapters to plug it in and see what happens, or knowing that information in future chapters might help with mysteries like the maze and so on is very fascinating! It's like a weird Virtue's Last Reward or Majora's Mask experience but spanned across multiple games, or perhaps like a Metroid map, where every time I play one of these games, new paths blossom forth on the mental map of the current and previous chapters to gain access to other endings and so on.

Of course, even discounting the mysteries that cross games, there were plenty of cool mysteries in this game as well. Learning how to exploit coyote time to get through the jumping puzzle, the amusing way the camera was used to hide spikes (look at the platforms above to figure out where they are) or to allow you to eavesdrop on conversations, those strange entities or upcoming traps, being able to race to grandma and get access to a boss fight that I have no idea how to beat: so much craft and care in the experience!

The game does still overall have a janky, clunky feel to it all with stiff movement and odd/inconsistant physics and collisions. Exploiting coyote time to get through the jumping puzzle was a bit of an odd stretch: typically I'd call it bad programming if a game is built like that, but for a weird game like this I guess I give it a pass. Luckily the game never demands any perfect play and it's quite generous with restarts and continues, so it's not necessarily an issue, but it can still have a subtle effect in making the game feel somewhat unprofessional to a player, diluting its appeal and potentially making a player less willing to stick with it despite its hidden charm and depth. Course, the clunkiness and low-effort look can also give it another layer of 'mystique' to certain players, so its a mixed bag.

Again, major props in creating this hidden depth through this series with its inter-connected mysteries: it's a ballsy move since I can't imagine everyone is going to experience everything on offer, with a vast majority most likely just getting the general first endings and that's it. Hell, I doubt even I will uncover all of the mysteries in this, and I'm a fan! I really admire the effort in crafting this.

Oh by the way it took me an embarrassing amount of time to get the pun: their name is Ran, as in, The Wizard Ran.

adriendittrick responds:

oh cool, you've played the second one :)
Yeah I'm glad this series is having a nice amount of success! (so far I have 4 chapters out and all 4 chapters were nominated for game of the month X) ) next one might be a bit more janky too :p

I will be experimenting a lot with this series though, so you should expect more rough edges here and there. But also specifically for those games I don't mind players being less willing to stick around, the TWR series isn't for everyone and that's normal. Add to that the fact that those games take about 2 days for me to make.

[The Wizard Ran: Chapter 1]

Certainly an intriguing game! It's one of the more 'sane' adriendittick games I've played as it is quite straightforward, which is a bit of a shame in some respects, but it still has plenty of weirdness and subtle craft and charm to it, what with all its hidden endings, lore and deep story, ambitious mechanics like guard AI and a sandbox that responds to various player behaviors, and so on. Had a good time figuring out my escape in the first run and then playing around and seeing what else was there, like changing responses based on gathered information and watching the characters react. Could certainly be considered as shallow if you just do it straight for the first ending, and the game is a bit janky with low-fi graphics which can give a bad impression, but again, the hidden and subtle elements to be found are impressive.

As said, it was pretty janky in some respects: my first run had the guard glitch out his pathing and act oddly, then suddenly start attacking me, eventually knocking me clean through some walls (which I didn't know I could phase through yet) and killing me. Subsequent plays had the guards pathing go awry many times as well. The stealth mechanics felt really unreliable as well: I got seen by someone who had his back turned to me (this might've actually been because they just started to walk upwards, but they don't have up/down sprites, only left/right sprites, so it treated them as walking upwards while looking left at me despite going right previously).

Looking forward to seeing the rest of the chapters!

adriendittrick responds:

thanks as usual for the great review :)

[Santa Clauminid (Demo)]

Hmm, not too shabby, but in its current state it is quite rough.

The game certainly did have some nice things about it: some of the more subtle special effects like how the sleigh and gun arm tilt based on direction was nice, and I liked the way the enemies exploded (especially the bosses). I also liked how it tried to do some interesting stuff like rewarding risky play (grazes) with MP to use for a special attack, being able to change powerups by shooting at them, and it looked like it had some sort of present dropping mechanic that could create an interesting multitasking challenge.

But the game also felt really janky in many ways. There's a few obvious ones like in how short it was and how the Santa boss was absolutely nothing, but in terms of other complaints:

*For example, I kinda hated how power-ups blocked bullets which would actually end up not only giving cover to enemies behind them but also make it too risky to pick up since you could get insta-shot by someone right behind them due to the lack of attack telegraphs.

*Doing grazes felt incredibly awkward because the actual hitbox of the character felt very vague and ill-defined, and it wasn't worth it anyway since you barely get anything out of them and the payoff special move is pretty lacklaster, being just a rapid-fire gun, similar to your regular gun, instead of a cool bomb or beam or some such.

*The present dropping mechanic felt really silly and not emphasized enough: it only comes into play briefly later on and it's not worth the risk to engage in it. Maybe if the present dropping gave you power-ups back it could be worth the risk to keep an eye out for houses, or maybe if it was an objective you have to accomplish to beat the level or keep an acceptable score similar to Paperboy it'd feel crucial. I definitely feel more importance should be given to this mechanic as it could be a clever and interesting Christmas themed twist on typical ground-bomb weapons seen in space shooters.

My biggest complaint though, as stated before, was that the game just felt really rough and unfinished: more of an alpha than a demo, I'd say. Not only was the game overall a bit rough and stiff with things like how static and unanimated enemies, space shooter games are kind of a dime-a-dozen and this didn't really bring anything interesting to the table to hook me in and want more, which should be what a demo does first and foremost.

I certainly think this game could be cool in a finished version, what with if the bosses and enemies become better, more mechanics like present dropping get expanded and so on, but it's hard to see that potential in its execution at the moment. Still, fingers crossed!

Chdonga responds:

Thanks for the long review LMAO.
I'm glad you see potential in this. I actually started working on it in '21 but stuff got in the way and it was even more rough than what I released this year. Hopefully I'll be able to finish it by winter '23!

[Aurora]

Wow, this game is amazing: can't believe this one got missed out on for the best of the month for November! Ok, that's a lie, I can easily see why people might've skipped this one as this is some Avengers Level Threat nerd shit that is niche as heck and might've been updated before I got my hands on it, but still!

This game heavily reminds me of some of my favorite Zachtronics games like TIS-100: very similar feel of messing around with building instructions for tiny systems that move inputs to outputs and reading manuals to figure out how everything works.

All-around I felt like the presentation and construction of the game was very professional and solid: loved how the game had a really cool story and theme to it with its cutscenes and style that made progressing more than just wanting to solve puzzles, and despite being a very complicated game, I felt like the HUD was very intuitive in how it was laid out and operated, especially due to the way you could hover over things to get tooltips which made me practically not even need the manual (that being said, I loved how the manual was in-universe crayon scribblings from Sasha: adds so much charm and immersion to the whole experience)! I ended up getting quite addicted to this and loved solving not only the puzzles but the puzzle of understanding how to be able to solve the puzzles in the first place!

While people rating the game low because of the complexity of the game could be taken as them just not being the target audience, I do think the game could have some slight room for improvement:

For example, I spent an incredibly long time stuck on the Dye Mixer program because I had no idea that moving a color onto another color would combine them: it seemed silly to expect that over a more logical overwrite/replacement of colors, and so I got stuck trying to get something done with add/subtract color and just got confused. I feel like I had a similar experience in TIS-100, but in that, I feel like there were more hints/example code in the manual that helped me learn these kinds of unobvious tricks, whereas in this there was nothing I could find.

Speaking of the manual, as charming as I think the it is, it might be a bit too obtuse and confusing to decipher its chicken scratchings: perhaps it could've been written a bit less busy or something to make it easier to read. I do appreciate the in-game manual which has both the crayon drawing and an attempt at deciphering it on the side.

It did feel like the game started to get to some complex stuff pretty early on, what with complicated jump commands and the like within the first four levels: as a programmer I appreciate it cutting to the chase and not babying me, but maybe for general public there could be some more tutorial-esque levels to let you learn concepts, maybe some programs that are finished but 'broken' where you fill in some missing lines, you know, simple stuff like you did for level 0, before letting them loose and writing their own stuff. I mean this is some college-level tough stuff that automatically assumes familiarity with binary numbering and assembly and so on: I like it but feel bad for everyone else!

Could also maybe make to have the manual have it's own dedicated shortcut button on the HUD instead of hidden away in the esc menu: I think that's an ok place to have it, but in my experience it took me awhile to find it so perhaps if it was more prominent people might have an easier time (instead I used the manual found in the description since I couldn't find it in-game).

Seriously can't believe something was made in a week: well done on this and hopefully you can take it as a compliment that it was missed out on as it's definitely niche stuff that isn't meant for mass appeal (though perhaps with some better tutorials and slower steps you could do it, but most likely at the cost of reducing its mystique).

EDIT: Getting a weird bug with Blue Green Separator: the program works, but it just keeps spinning its wheels after going through the first string of example inputs and never moving onto the next set. I've tried refactoring my code several times but it doesn't seem to have an effect: very strange!

EDIT EDIT: Bug with Blue Green Separator has been fixed woo~

crow-seeds responds:

Late reply, but thanks for going through and playing! This was super helpful, did not realize that color combining could trip people up haha, will probably make some edits to the manual.

The game was inspired by Zachtronics! I really found those games to be really fun because of the fun in trying to decipher how to operate the different mechanics in the game. Once you take the time to learn the mechanics, programming in it becomes a sort of flow. Like you code in this almost alien-like language almost natually, and then when you run the program and see all these complex dot sequences move up and down, you're like "Holy shit, I wrote this. I wrote this indecipherable block of code" and it just works! It's similar to when you first learn how to code, where it's painful to learn but really fucking rewarding. Wanted to make a game like that for programmers like me and you, but also able to be picked up by non-coders (Which it actually did! People who aren't in the field like JimmyCarlos and qwerty741 aren't programmers, and they actually beat all 11 levels in the main game!! Like holy shit, JimmyCarlos even beat it in a version without a text translation of Sasha's drawings!!!).

Maybe making it a free game on Newgrounds isn't the best target audience (though I want the game to be on a free platform, I would feel bad taking someone's money!). I don't really care about score or being front-paged nominated for best of the month (If I did, I would be making drastically different games, though views would be nice, especially on the multiplayer games!). I just thought it would be really funny to make a machine coding game, a completely alien and extremely different game from what you would typically see on this site, for Robot Day. The judges didn't really like it, but I didn't really expect them to!

Anyways I'm going on for way too long, Aurora is my favorite of all the games I've made by far, and I'm really glad there were people who genuinely enjoyed this nerdy programming game! I wanted to make a game that reflected the theme of a "robot day", and by making it about the true essence of making a robot (Like the low-level coding shit in real life, not the cool laser shooting stuff in pop-culture), it hopefully embodies what a "robot" themed game could be!

[『さかさま MOOD』]

Hmm, certainly a strong contender for 3 stars coming from the leader himself, but does it maybe do too much?

It's certainly got ups and downs...

It starts off strong, as the game certainly is rather shallow and insubstantial, being something like a single minigame from a Warioware collection, feeling like a paltry serving that begs more content.

However, just like a Warioware minigame, it has a rather charming and funny design to it in general and is filled with many variable interactions like not only hitting the bomb, cheese or Tom, but also kissing the forehead or, uh, nape, that are great to witness and belies the facade of shallowness.

Shikashi, the way you get those interactions is awkward and strange since not only is the hit detection kind of vague, the game is not robustly designed enough to always generate a scenario where you have a chance to kiss the lips for maximum points, forcing you to have to frustratingly accept a forehead or nape kiss.

Sarani, it sucks when you die and the game just skips whatever the event that caused your death and goes straight to a restart: feels very awkward and reduces what should be a strong point of the game.

Chinamini, there isn't a way to succeed at all, only death, so what point is this game?

Demo, as short and shallow as it was, it did make me have a memorable fun little time, while a 3 point game would probably not induce any emotions in me beyond boredom, so perhaps it deserves more credit? Hrm, tabun...ma ii ka!

panpikidaan responds:

FuturecopLGFさん、、、
Kiku is Big Fan..I look forward to your next YouTube video Upload(((o(*ﾟ∀ﾟ*)o)))

[Newgrounds Rushdown Rivals]

Hell yeah, I love me a good beat em' up and this delivers in spades!

All-around I feel like this game looks and feels wonderful and has a very professional level of polish and huge amounts of content. There's just so much to love, like the great variety of enemies and bosses to fight, all the referential humor, the combat with its fantastic feedback and subtle guiding auto-aim/stickiness and clear attack telegraphs, tons of characters to play with all sorts of distinct playstyles and unique hidden techniques like whacking back bullets with Pico's bat, the great menus and controller support and so on and so forth. I probably can't even list all of the positives about this game because they are innumerable and also subtle: so good you don't even necessarily notice it (but you sure as heck feel it from how fun this is)!

If I were to have any nitpicks, it would be:

*Would've loved to see character stats/bios being accessible on the character select screen instead of only in gameplay: can end up going back and forth if you end up picking someone that doesn't gel with you because you didn't have a chance to study beforehand (though I felt like I loved all the characters I tried).

*Sound was kind of weird if you wear headphones. If you walk to the right side of the screen, you'll end up hearing footsteps coming from the right side of your headphones as if someone is to the right, not realizing its your own footsteps. Basically, its kind of strange that the 'ears' are centered in the center of the screen instead of tracking on your character: would be much better for a more informative audio, I think, but maybe some people playing view themselves as an outside observer and not the character so it makes more sense to them, dunno. Maybe it's because it can be a 2P game?

*Was a little disappointed that there was no story or campaign after it seems to be building it up during the tutorial: instead you just play in separate arenas at your leisure that largely have the same enemies to fight, not much unique stage hazards or geography or variety in minibosses, and in general no major differences between them except the final boss. Because of this, unless you're a score/difficulty junkie, it can feel like it's lacking a sense of progression and being a bit repetitive, like once you've seen one level you've seen 'em all (except for the boss, of course).

*I do love how simple and mashable the combat system is, but I was a bit confused and unsure whether it had a deeper strategy to go for beyond just comboing to get powered up. Would love to learn some strategies like how to proc 'vunerable' status on enemies and any other neat tech, as so far I couldn't find anything definitive in my attempts to research it. Think it could create a whole new deeper level of strategy and intention in the combat if there were enemies with certain weakpoints that you need certain moves or timing to exploit and get 'vunerables' with: as it is you can kind of just mash through everything no matter what, even if they're a shield enemy which you think would need another approach (which is a positive in some respects).

*While most of the characters are awesome and unique, some seem rather imbalanced and confusing in design: for example, Pico has the ability to whack back bullets with his heavy attack bat, and Hank has the ability to parry bullets or attacks with his special, yet Cassette can only parry specifically melee attacks with a very tightly timed up attack (why so specifically only melee? just seems so limiting and hard to pull off when I feel it could've easily just reflected any damage like Hank, but I dunno, maybe she'd be OP if she could)

*Weird mouse bug: if you're using the controller on the menus but stop moving for a second, the selection will suddenly snap to what your mouse is pointing to when I'm not making any major mouse movements to make it think I switched control schemes.

*I do find that the characters move a bit too fast and snappy: they all remind me of Fox from Melee whereas I liked playing characters like Marth for more slow, controlled movements. This game, however, has enough auto-aim and subtle guidance that it's not an issue: just an initial personal preference thing that bothered me slightly.

*Difficulty can be a bit wonky and up to luck at times: sometimes you get a round that gives you a lot of health and assist trophies, other times you're on your own. Sometimes you get a wave of normal enemies, sometimes you keep getting Dad-bot popping in over and over who is seriously way too spongy and way too much of a mini-boss to be within those waves of normal mooks. Maybe there's some way to reduce RNG, like a way to guarantee health drops (for example, I liked how Pico gets a free psuedo-health point for getting his combo up) and hand-craft the enemy waves for each level?

*I could see some people complaining about the fact that the boss fights have random mooks popping up in them: usually this design is treated as the boss not being strongly designed enough to stand on its own, random mooks being a cheap way to artificially increase the boss difficulty. I don't really have a beef with it since I think it works with the chaotic nature of this game, but maybe something to think about.

*Not sure how assist trophies work? I pick them up and they happen after a weird delay of time, or sometimes they don't even happen at all? I would expect them to either be used immediately or go into my inventory and press a button to use: maybe I am using them and not realizing?

*Medals seem to sometimes work and sometimes not? I got some of the medals like the assist trophies and some minibosses, but none of my full clears as Pico, Cassette Girl, Hank, etc.

Christ, I know that's mucho texto up there, but again, the above are very much nitpicks that didn't really hurt my great experience with this game, I just wanted to point em out just in case. Sorry I dedicate so much text to that instead of the positives, but well, it's kinda what I do, haha. Well done on this game!

Spagato responds:

I appreciate the detailed criticism as it's the best way I improve. Your feedback last year really helped with the development of this one and I'm glad I delivered :^)

Thanks again for playing! Please keep doing what you're doing. It really helps me and probably others as well.

- I'll probably put a way for players to see the movelist on the character select in the future

- That's probably a bug since the game has a listener in the center of the camera. I'll see if I can adjust that so it's not so weird.

- Ah the story, I REALLY wanted to make one and put one in, but the work was HUGE for a free fan game lol. That might come in the future but I don't think for the web version as the loading times for this game is already crazy.

- The armor just gets destroyed by damage or specific moves that do more armor damage (usually on attack2)

- I wanted every character to have something unique for themselves so they won't overlap each other as much as possible. I was going to make her kick reflect but that might make Pico's bat look outdated so I made Cass the only character so far with a melee counter hit. I gave Hank the parry because it looked cool like his character and I wanted him to play as risky as possible so the reward had to be high.

- I think the dadbots are a little tanky, might nerf their health next patch. You do get a guaranteed hp from foamy if your health is low and he usually spawns more likely when you're low.

- I wanted the minions to change a person's strategy mid-fight and make them move around more. I haven't gotten a complain about that yet luckily, but I'll keep an eye on this one.

- The assist comes out when there are a lot of enemies on screen, but much faster if a boss is present. When I play-tested the game I noticed the assists kept being wasted alot so I tried to make it "take and let it do it's thing" as much as possible. I'll try to adjust the times, maybe that might be the better option.

- That's my bad :( . I'll try to fix the medals asap.

[K I S S I N G]

I know you most likely tried to make this too confusing and wacky to grasp in order to get the intended 3 stars, but I'm sorry, this game was just too interesting of an experience that I gotta rate it higher than that!

Something about the way the game presents itself had a certain charm or mystique to it behind it's low-effort facade that made me think this really had something to it, and I feel vindicated since what I found was a really fascinating and unique puzzle game. Don't get me wrong, it did take quite a few tries to figure out how the heck everything works and I can see how some would be frustrated, but for me the entire process was a great journey, like being an archeologist and figuring out what these hieroglyphs meant, and everything finally coming together and getting me a win gave me a real sense of accomplishment. I think you struck a pretty good balance where there were enough hints put in place (the arrows next to the rows of keys, the origin points on the character/number symbols) that people could figure out the logic without being too obvious so as to keep the mystique: reminds me of something like La-Mulana level puzzles.

Really fascinating stuff: like a piece of outsider art this was fascinating to delve into and figure out what makes it tick!

Emrox responds:

I will gladly accept the label of "outsider art." Glad you liked it! Maybe if they do this jam again I'll have to go even weirder.