FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Palmer's E-Girl Adventure]

Hah, another grand entry into the 3 star jam! It certainly takes a lot of the right steps to earn that 3 star, what with its very bland and bog-standard shooting gameplay, incredibly short length, stiff and unanimated characters, lack of polish/special effects, nonexistant challenge, and the cherry on top: a score counter that doesn't even properly reset on replay. Certainly a strong contender!

However, I feel like the game does show a little bit too much effort in some areas with some rather fancy touches. First, of course, there is the obvious inclusion of a dab charge shot with its own comical animation which also does increase the depth of strategy in the game by a tad. Then, there are some nice touches like how enemies get increasing battle scars as they take damage, and the fact that the game does have a decent variety of enemies and puts them into handcrafted formations. Finally, the game does overall have a bit of charm to its cheapness what with the flailing e-girl and goofy compressed visuals and so on. I dunno, I think I gotta punish you by increasing the score a tad!

maxxjamez responds:

Thank you for this

[27 pages [DEMO]]

Hmm, it definitely didn't make the greatest impression on me. The game overall just has an incredible feeling of blandness due to the lackluster graphics and almost complete lack of sound: whereas other games make aspects like jumping and such satisfying through visual effects and sounds, this game had absolutely nothing and therefore felt dull. If the intention was that the game is currently in a prototype/demo state where the graphics are placeholders and the sounds will be added later, than I can understand: just want to point it out nonetheless. The game also felt a bit aimless without any sort of theming or story to prop it up on (though I don't hate games that just cut to the chase and focus on gameplay).

Even if we look past the graphics and sounds such and just focus on raw gameplay, though, I felt like it was compromised due to the wonky controls. While regular jumping and movement seemed alright, it never felt like I could have confidence in my wall jumps, as many of them would not work and give me a much shorter jump than I expected for no reason I could discern, other than the controls being not as forgiving as they should be. This is a critical issue for a challenging platformer as I feel the more challenge there is, the more the controls need to be perfect so to make everything feel fair.

Having said that all that negative stuff, when the game worked and you look past the lackluster graphics and lack of sounds and so on, the game did have some fun obstacle courses to go through that kept getting more and more complex. I easily found myself getting addicted despite it all, so I think there is a lot of promise in its core here: hope the game can get fixed up a bit for full release.

jonaspatrik responds:

Thanks for the honest review. This is the reason why i made this demo.

[Robo-butcher]

Hrmm, it very much feels like a 'my first arena shooter' game: promising and ticks all the boxes needed, but not really exciting or fun in its current state when compared to its contemporaries.

Overall the game just feels incredibly bog-standard: it's technically got everything needed for an arena shooter like enemies and powerups and abilities, but there's nothing special, unique or really satisfying about the gameplay to get me hooked. So much of gameplay is spent fighting these really boring, spongy enemies that pose no threat. The game also just has an overall lack of presentation with an incredibly boring HUD, weird graphics, and stock sound effects.

Don't get me wrong, the game does have some nice things like the very satisfying way enemies explode, and I do think the game gets good in the later stages by having a larger variety of enemies that pushes you to play much more focused. But the time it takes to get to the point where there is a large variety of enemies takes way too long, leaving you stuck in an overly simple and boring repetitive loop: I could easily see people dropping it before getting there or refusing to redo the boring start when they die, which is a shame.

Pitigamedev responds:

Thank you for your honest feedback. I hope to do better next time!

[Cross Strike]

Game definitely gives me some MegaMan X and Guardian Legend vibes, what with the cool slick shooting action and really unique jet transformation. For the most part, the game feels well put-together with some solid graphics, music, sound effects, etc and good juice/special effects to the various actions you can do (even something as simple as walking and jumping feels great due to the nice sounds and visual effects). Enemies are nice as well with a good variety and intuitive attack telegraphs. Felt like it had some good progression in getting more abilities that open up previous parts of the map as well as an anime-as-heck story.

Overall I feel like this game is pretty dang cool, but there are some nagging aspects that I felt really hold it back!

*I thought the whole transformation mode was pretty cool, but it felt so token, like something you can only do at certain zones clearly made for the jet and nowhere else. Would love if the jet mode was something you could integrate into combat more and such, like being able to use it to dodge or pierce certain enemy defenses, but it felt underutilized and the corridors too cramped to use it anywhere beyond the designated zones. I also just didn't like the jet mode because it felt too fast: felt like I was playing Sonic where you're moving too fast you can't react to things in time, so it's too scary to use.

*I hated that I couldn't hold down the fire button to autofire: I understand that it's because you have a charge move later on, but it's such a pain for carpal tunnel users. Firing is especially bad since there technically is no limit to fire rate: it goes as fast as you can press, so it feels open to being cheated by mashers.

*While it was cool that the level was big and all interconnected with gates being opened from later powers, the level just felt so maze-like and boring due to the bland, sterile graphics, and constant use of cramped boring corridors. Over and over you're walking down similar looking hallways, seeing the same save rooms, dealing with the same lock traps that pit you against two enemies: so repetitive! Everything just looks the same and not only really drags the game down but also makes it confusing to navigate: would love more varied graphics, room designs and landmarks to keep things fresh and let you build a mental map (could also maybe have a map screen on pause).

*Felt annoying to have to make so many leaps of faith or miss seeing things due to not being able to see high or low enough: would love if the game let you hold down/up to be able to peek ahead.

I gripe a lot, but that's just because this is definitely a promising game with some cool ideas and I want to really love it and its sequels: hope this feedback can help make it even better! Loved the cool boss fight and hope to see you continue this connected lumina cinematic universe you're making!

Yword responds:

Really sorry about those issues... But thank you so much for the valuable feedback, I will note them down!
And thanks again for playing too! :)

[Run, Billy, Run !]

Hmm, bit mixed on this one!

On one side of things, I think the game is quite fun! There certainly are an astounding variety of crazy obstacles to contend with that assemble in all sorts of fresh tracks, it feels good to move fast and be as efficient as possible, the music gets you amped up, and overall the game is quite charming with its little quips and style.

On the other hand, I felt like the game was super wonky, bordering on unfair at times.

*Jumping physics could be really bad when it comes to jumping off of moving platformers: jumping when a platform is moving up and you're sent to the moon while jumping when a platform is going down makes it so you practically don't jump at all. I get that sometimes games make you inherit some of the momentum from the platform you're standing on, but here is feels excessive and unintuitive.

*Physics for the 'slippery' floors was also weird: felt more like they were 'sticky' floors.

*It sucks that when you pop a balloon accidently it never respawns, so all you can do it wait for death since you need them to proceed.

*The distance tracker is completely bunk: you can have tracks that make you run to the left to progress and it decreases your tracker as if you were backtracking!

*The game also ended up getting a bit repetitive: if you have a long run going, you can end up seeing the same recycled traps over and over. This wouldn't be a problem if the traps would get more intense the longer you go or remix little things about them to keep you on your toes, like Warioware does, but for this its literally the same thing over and over, so it gets boring because once you've conquered it, there's no challenge to it.

Definitely a nice concept and a good attempt, but just felt like it needed some more time in the oven!

FFuriousDuck responds:

Hi !

Thanks for your review, i totally agree with you, i'll fix all this mess in the next update !

Take care !

[Beck Gets Bitches!!!!]

Well, considering it was for the 3 star jam, I'd say you've done an excellent job at earning this 3 star: whether you want to take that as a compliment or an insult, I'll have you decide, haha!

As said, it very accurately captures that feel of a 3 star game. Playing this puts a picture in my head of a newbie creator who was very proud at being able to pull off very basic player movement and collisions: it's nice as a step forward on their journey to game dev improvement, but it definitely doesn't make it a good game or ready for the limelight.

I almost actually want to dock points (or add points? this jam is confusing) because the game does show a little bit too much effort in putting bonus characters like Pepsi man and also just having a lot of goofy sounds: it shows a bit more craft and professionalism that you wouldn't see from a legit 3 star game. However, you clutched the 3 star in the end by having a score counter that doesn't properly reset: good save!

Taka responds:

Thanks bro! However I didn't know the counter didn't reset right LMAO
Good thing I made sure to do mid testing HAHA

[Biome Conquest]

Not too shabby! Feel like, despite being a very simple and drab game in theory, the construction of this felt quite polished and well-done overall. My favorite part was how, despite the game not really teaching you much except how to drag a tile onto the board, the game subtly teaches you all of the other rules through how it animates effects, such as how tiles will fade colors to signify territories being conquered, or how numbers pop to signify them getting reinforced, or how the tiles snap to a position so it's always clear where you are going to place something. Other games would just have that stuff happen instantly and it'd be too fast to notice and grasp what happened. Nice stuff!

Unfortunately, at the end of the day, I didn't have too much fun with this. That's partly my fault: this just isn't my type of game and most likely it is built for two players facing off each other instead of a computer for maximum enjoyment. But even then, other games that aren't in my wheelhouse have been able to hook me through means of progression or juice or other such things, so this game could be seen as lacking in that respect. Curious whether the game would be better if you could preview the tile of the next move, like you'd see in something like Tetris: maybe that'd allow you to plan ahead and strategize more? Anyway, as said before, while it ain't my game, I appreciate the effort in construction.

rvh86 responds:

Thanks for your review! Previewing the next move would've been a nice addition too the game.

[Stall]

Hmm, not too shabby! I think the game actually does a pretty decent job of building up dread with its graphics and sound. I liked the way events progressed and thought some of the events such as looking at your watch upon seeing the graffiti, the appearance of the hole in the wall, and the bloody bag being dragged were highlights for me. It's definitely a little bit sparse and lacking polish so it's not as immersive as I'd like, but it's decent and showing promise.

The big killer for me in this was the controls: I appreciate the attempt at creating these smooth analog controls where you can fine-tune how you open doors and such, but compared to games like Amnesia which do it very well, this felt painfully awkward. Just the way you get your movement locked down when not only you're trying to use a door, but examine other objects, felt so awkward and difficult to disengage from. The worst was the chase sequence which I felt was ruined by this: not only do you feel like you have to exploit it by moving diagonally to get enough speed since the initial scare comes too fast, but unlocking and opening the door at the end fast enough was an exercise in frustration. There was also some other silly aspects like attempting to leave without investigating the hole getting you jumpscare killed: didn't feel like a satisfying way to guide the player to the hole naturally.

Oscura responds:

Thanks For Trying The Game, This Was My First Time Trying Out Something Like This So I Wasn't Sure How Well The Features Would All Work Together.

[Darkraid : Delilah]

Wow, getting some great retro shooter vibes from this one! Dunno what this one is doing buried underneath everything else as for the most part it hits all of the important pillars for a good shooter to me: nice gore and feedback for shooting, nice enemy variety, good combat telegraphs, a great old-school shotgun, interesting levels with all sorts of enemy formations, secrets, and so on and so forth! Found myself easily getting addicted to blasting through the demons!

If I had to point out some parts I feel could be worked on:

Jump felt really bad: not only is it incredibly short, it also screws up if you try to jump too close to a stair, making you awkwardly have to step back to jump.

Weird that you don't carry over anything between levels: yes, some games do allow you to start fresh upon death, but usually that's only if you die in the level and restart instead of load, not if you just got into the level from a previous one, no?

No way to restart after dying apart from going to the menu and selecting restart level? I know that makes some sense, but that extra step feels unnecessary: feels like you should be able to just click fire and have you restart the level right there.

No save/load feature? I don't mind it so much as I always try to beat levels without save scumming, but still, I'd like to be able to save my progress in general if I want to take a break.

Picking up items is kind of lackluster and uninformative due to the same sound effects being used for everything: maybe use different sounds and flashes of color to signify what you're picking up?

And the big one: while I think it's great overall and that the aesthetic is kind of unique, it is perhaps lacking a unique hook (or gameplay that feels so good that it doesn't need a hook). There's just so many boomer shooters out nowadays that I can easily see this one getting shunted to the bottom of the pile despite being good: just feels like another Doom conversion mod. Dunno exactly what the best approach would be: maybe more wacky weapons akin to something like Blood or Heretic instead of the more standard shotgun and rifles? I did feel like the initial slow-orb-fire pistol and melee combo was pretty neat, only for it to get overshadowed. Maybe play up the story angle more with dialogue and objectives and events? It did feel like apart from quips at the start of the level, everything was quiet and directionless. Maybe some sort of unique combat ability like glory kills that adds some spice and strategy to the combat? Up to you in the end.

Borington responds:

Thank you so much for the detailed review! I 100% agree with the list of your issues, and these features will be added for the desktop version (though some might be added as a quick update to this version as well). As for the hook, that's exactly the problem I've been struggling with, but I hope the story I'm working on can make the continuation something special.