FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Punch the Stool John]

It's a simple but charming game that's fun and addictive...is what I'd like to say, but I feel like it has a lot of weird jank to it that is unfortunately holding it back.

Don't get me wrong, I love the goofy concept and presentation as it really charmed the pants off of me: the crowd cheering as you rack up a combo, the paper menus, heck, I even loved dying in this game because I liked to see the animation and hear the music for it, so you're definitely good there. And the music kicks so much ass!

But the game itself feels very rough and confusing. For one, the difficulty felt like it was cranked way too hard: things start getting way too fast to react to in a short amount of time, and even when you fail it doesn't reset the ever-increasing speed to let you recover. Feedback was very inconsistent as well: usually when I hit a stool it'd increase my multiplier, but sometimes it would stay the same for no discernable reason. Balance design seems a bit strange as well: you're punished for getting hit by something or jumping over a stool, but you aren't punished for punching every object that comes your way (despite it turning the game into a very boring one). There were plenty of weird glitches too like being able to be hit by and hit a stool at the same time.

Definitely feels like it has a lot of potential but just needed to be cooked/polished a bit longer before being released.

TheGorondorf responds:

Thanks for the honest feedback!

[ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ]

Pretty interesting and experimental game in a lot of ways, but for the most part, I found it a bit too frustrating and non-deterministic to keep my interest. The game is certainly varied and complex, and I enjoyed seeing all of the creative AIs and properties assigned to the letters: really made for interesting 'ant farm' or 'game of life' situations where you could just watch all the entities go and marvel at how they interact with each other (and with you). The gameplay was promising in that it provided some interesting puzzle situations...or at least, what I thought could be interesting puzzle situations. Most of the time it felt like I could see what ideal puzzle solution the game was going for, but whether I'd actually get that solution usually felt like it came down to sheer luck. Sometimes I'd get the AI to behave in a way that worked for me in a clever, satisfying way, sometimes the AI would just do random things that would stall the game out (even soft-locking it), sometimes the AI would just solve the puzzle for me without any intervention from me: it just felt so haphazard! Again, perhaps that haphazardness is part of the appeal and I'm just being fuddy-duddy for not embracing it, but I just couldn't fight the frustration from the randomness and non-deterministic AI ruining the pacing and fun.

Oh, and a silly nitpick: when the level says 'press any key to continue' upon completion, you actually can't press any key, because if you press r, it restarts the level instead of continuing, haha!

adriendittrick responds:

thanks for the in depth review as always!

[Horse with a Human Mask on a Tightrope]

I gotta say, I didn't have the best first impression with this game for what I hope is obvious reasons, but bloody hell if I didn't end up loving this game once I got into it! It took a while to grasp the controls and how everything works (especially coming to terms with not being able to turn around on the tightrope), but once I did, what I found was a really stylishly complex boss gauntlet with a surprising amount of strategy (such as jumping from the center of the rope and using the weapons to propel yourself around) and variety to it all, and boy do I love me some boss fights. I still think there is a lot that can be improved: for example, I wish the telegraph markers for boss attacks had some sort of way of telling the player how long they have before it goes off, like changing the color of the marker redder as it gets closer to happening or something, but all in all it was quite the incredible experience nonetheless! I dunno how the heck you conjured up this unique batch of mechanics, but I think it really paid off in a charming, goofy way.

jefvel responds:

Thanks for playing and the thorough review! Yeah there are a bunch of things that could be improved, like the danger zones as you said. Something I'll keep in mind in future games :)

[Ninjack Rabbit]

Pretty fun score-attack game! I definitely had some confusion at the start with how score is calculated, since I thought killing enemies or gaining height would be how to get higher points, but points being given through burning floor lanterns did provide an interesting strategic risk and tension to it all. Combine that cool chaotic concept with some nice presentation through art, animations and other neat bits of polish like the music transitions between gameplay and death, and it felt pretty solid and good to get better and better at this ninja jumpin' game!

While I had fun for the most part, I did think the game was a bit janky (I didn't like how lanterns could burn if you jump close to being on top of them but don't actually land on top of them) and there were some frustrating aspects (character moves so fast, don't like the cramped spaces in the levels, and I wish there was more pressure-sensitivity for jumps so you could get strategic short/medium/tall jumps based on how long you hold).

[Space Huggers]

Hmm, for me, this seemed like a pretty cool tech demo, but not quite a fun game yet. I definitely thought that a lot about the game, such as destructive terrain and the way objects react to destruction (like falling and even crushing), the rain/fire effects, ragdolls and so on were pretty neat, but the game itself just felt very aimless, directionless, and bland to me. The lack of music and instructions, randomly generated mish-mash levels that can be a pain to get through, confusing radar which doesn't tell you whether an enemy is above or below you, overly simple combat, and fire being a death sentence lead to me getting bored rather quickly. Looking into it now and seeing that it had to be made to fit such a small file size and such puts it in a new perspective and such, so I understand and appreciate it for that, but it is what it is and just didn't leave a good impression on me in terms of fun. I'd definitely be interested if this does get worked on further with a new enhanced version.

KilledByAPixel responds:

Thank you. When you are on fire, just roll! It's easy to put out the fire. I can understand wanting to see more variety and polished game. The next version is gonna take things to a whole new level.

[Portal Golf]

Pretty cool game! I find the concept and gameplay very fun: intuitive to grasp but with a lot of tricks to learn to get those challenging silver and gold medals. But more so than that, I absolutely love the amount of polish that this game has: the pitch-shifting sounds of collecting coins, the satisfying explosions for collecting medals at the end of levels, the great animated outlines and shaded coins showing your previous run results that let you plan further bit-by-bit, the fluid placement and movement of portals around the walls, and so on and so forth. All of it really gives the whole game a very professional look and feel to it: well done! The only bad things about the game that I could think is that the levels themselves could maybe have a bit more pizazz or something to them instead of just being the same drab walls, and that I wish there were even more levels to go through, haha!

Frenchie14 responds:

Great review and spot on feedback! Looking forward to seeing you play in your monthly review video! :D

[Spooky Music Machine]

Cute little app! Was impressed by the amount of functionality it has, such as the record/play/save options, and I liked the charming olde-style presentation to it all. While the audio is nice, I do wish it had some sort of visual feedback when working with it: felt like the main touch plate was begging for some sort of waveform or sound visualization to appear in it, both to let you know you can interact with it in the first place (I wasted too much time fiddling with knobs, not even realizing I was supposed to put my mouse in the touch plate since it was static) and just to get extra satisfaction, but it's ok and I guess adds to the olde charm. There were some other actions I wish I could do, like click to preserve a position on the touch plate while going to fiddle with the knobs, since as it is now you cannot use knobs while touching the plate since the mouse can only be on one at a time.

Anyway, it was pretty cool! I'd admit though, I was almost expecting some sort of jumpscare, the device starting to act in odd ways or finding hidden scary functionality, haha!

KittyhawkMontrose responds:

Thanks for playing! Yeah, with a mouse, it's pretty limited what you can do, like choosing to use the touchplate or use the sliders, but the cursor on the touch plate is an idea worth exploring. Haha, a jumpscare would've been funny, but we were trying to make a real instrument. Honest. XD

[TREES' ADVENTURE - Demo]

Pretty neat demo, but a little rough on the edges (though of course, being a demo, that is to be expected). I think it definitely has a pretty good core to it for now: speeding around and bouncing off of walls and springs felt great when you get your momentum going. Definitely seems to be going for Sonic-esque gameplay and I'd say it's getting close.

That said, I did feel like the demo was lacking some polish (I know, duh, but still). For one, the game seems to lack any amount of coyote time which made it feel bad whenever I jumped from the edge of a platform and it used my double jump instead of making it count as my first jump. In a similar fashion, walljumping felt very awkward in that if you try to press a direction and jump instead of just jumping (which is very typical), unless you do it perfectly in sync you'll usually just fall off the wall and double-jump instead of actually walljumping: I think there should be a bit more stickiness to walljumping, a bit of a half-second buffer where you can hit a direction without immediately becoming unstuck from the wall. Moving beyond controls, with the power-ups and springboards and such having no sound-effects or sparkles or what-have-you and instead just disappearing instantly made the worlds feel very hollow and unexciting, which also combined with a general lack of direction in terms of their being too many routes and no story to work off of. Finally, and this is just my opinion, but the climbing ability felt a little weird and misplaced with the way it kills your momentum and allows you to go up anywhere: almost felt like cheating when I remembered to use it. Again, it might be that I'm being silly in pointing those things out because they are obvious and going to be addressed in the actual release, but I want to play it safe.

Also, I tried to play this game with a playstation controller and it didn't work unfortunately: just something to note for you to look into if you can!

UnlimitedTrees responds:

thank u. ive been gettin a lot that the game is very unpolished atm and yea, it is what it is. the game's pretty early in development and this demo really is just a little slice of what i have planned, so while the base ideas r there everything is lacking polish which i didnt have the time for with this demo. im glad u and other peopl r able to enjoy this demo, i hope i can rlly make the final game something special so every bit of criticism helps.

for the playstation controller, i dont own one so im unable to test it but i may look into that later down the line. ive mainly tested with an xbox one controller and keyboard, hopefully some day i can make input stuff better and cooler.

[Gravitate]

It's a rather simple game without much to it, but I gotta admit, I found myself getting somewhat addicted to it! There's just something satisfyingly zen or trance-like about the game: it felt really good to get better at going with the flow, feeling out where the center of gravity was, and then setting up gravity slingshots to get to the end with as minimal input adjustments as possible. I think you definitely chose the right words to serve as a prompt to direct the player: don't fight gravity, harness it. Having said that, the game is definitely a little wonky at times, what with sometimes having the next level be won immediately by having the portal spawn right on top of you and such, and the game felt a bit lacking in terms of special effects like audio, but it didn't bother me too much. Bit of a bummer that, for a score game, it didn't get integrates with Newgrounds high score tables: I wanted to get good and flaunt my score for this (though I'm sure people got higher than 45, haha)!

DMG-84 responds:

Thanks for playing, I really enjoyed watching you play it on your stream and I really appreciate the feedback, it was fun watching you ‘get’ it. Keep up the great work!

[RUBRIS]

Oh man, this game is as tricky to review as the puzzle gameplay is, haha!

It definitely looks really cool and professionally made from a graphical standpoint, and the gameplay concept is quite interesting and really mind-bending to wrap my head around and get good at. But man, as much as I tried to get used to it, I just ended up getting so damn frustrated at how backwards the design felt! Every second I was playing this, it counteracted every natural instinct I had: every brain cell was crying out to be able to be able to move/rotate the incoming blocks in different ways or be able to fine-adjust the camera to an inbetween angle so I could see more of the cube I'm working with instead of having my visuals blocked by the very pieces I've already placed.

I guess it's partly my fault for coming in expecting it to be like 3D Tetris from Virtual Boy or other puzzlers which are more focused on the controlling the pieces instead of the receptacle and not accepting the game's rules for what it is, but man, it just felt like it was impossible to get good at this, and not just because of my past influencing me (for example, the not being able to see more of the cube because of it being blocked off by placed pieces and the camera only offering straight-on angles with no x-ray vision was a big issue). To me, I can't really decide if this is some sort of avant-garde puzzler that is breaking conventions and really challenging in a brand-new way, or if it's just an experiment that sounded good on paper but just isn't fun or fleshed out enough on execution.

sarnyoger responds:

humanity just wasn't ready