FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Hours of Reflection]

Pretty nice little story game! I liked the gloomy atmosphere that was well realized and amplified through the detailed pixel art and moody music. There were certainly a lot of beautiful landscapes with nice composition in their shots, along with nice touches like parallax and fog. I had fun going back and forth in the story, retrying different decisions for various endings: surprised at some of the outcomes, like being able to walk off the cliff, or getting the kid to shoot you as part of toughening him up.

Unfortunately, as emotional as the game seemed to be going for, I unfortunately found the game too short to really make any of the emotional beats hit as hard as they could. For example, that twist of getting the kid to shoot you could've been a real powerful moment, but it would require a longer game that takes some initial time to really immerse you and make you love the characters: in a game like this where you barely know anyone and are used to retrying over and over, everything unfortunately becomes a bit comical, similar to how a horror game becomes less scary once you die for the first time and retry. Speaking of that, I also found that the language of 'game over' upon death made the death all the more weaker since it spells it out that its all just a game, nothing serious. Was also disappointed there wasn't a cool twist like you becoming the zombie in the beginning if you march out of the city and get the ? ending, and maybe you can fight back against biting the character, but that's me overthinking things and turning it into a weird time loop, haha.

Definitely a really nice proof of concept and does a good job at building a gloomy world in short order: would love to see a game like this become even bigger to make it all the more immersive and powerful.

Miroff responds:

Thank you for this review. My friend Vonka reminded me about the contest 3 days before the end. There were many plans, including the continuation of the game after turning into a zombie, shooting was also planned. A lot had to be cut out and a lot had to be abandoned in order to make the game look complete at the end. We want to develop this lore and write a new story.

[Pack Your Bags]

Holy mackerel, what a game! It ain't exactly the longest game or anything like that, and it ain't the hardest game for rhythm gamers out there, but damn if it wasn't an incredible experience! Loved the music and all the cool action that happened on beat and how everything kept escalating: what a cool music video it all made! I also loved the little touches like the game had, such as the tons of ways your character can die, including smacking against the door right at the very start, haha!

If I had to nitpick any part of it, it's that I found some of the notes and feedback confusing at times: having to do a hold note immediately after a hold note, or a tap note immediately after a hold note, would make me unsure when I was allowed to let go of the hold to transfer and how fast I needed to hit the following note. Sometimes the screen would shake after letting go of the hold and I couldn't tell in the heat of the moment whether I timed it right and it was a good shake (of me kicking ass) or a bad shake (of me getting hurt). On retrospect, it looks like the hold notes go grey subtly to indicate when you can let go: why not instead just make the hold notes shorter, to end when you can let go in the first place?

Anyway, I'm definitely going back for that flawless!

jefvel responds:

Thank you for the review, and glad you liked it!

Yeah, the long notes are a bit confusing, I might have to shorten them a bit to make them feel better, as you said. Not sure why I made them reach into the next not in the first place actually.

Good luck on getting a flawless finish!

[UFO Blocks]

Wow, solid gameplay here! It's simple, but I found it to be very intuitive and addictive! I easily found myself coming back over and over to play the endless mode and getting in an almost trance-like state of chaining. Again, it's basic, but something about it is just constructed well and satisfying to play, so kudos on that!

The only feedback I can think of is just minor stuff, like how I wish it taught the controls a bit more (I had no idea how to proceed on sprint mode for a while haha) and that I thought the gray blocks couldn't be chained at first due to their color making them seem 'inert'. Oh, and I did wish that the game gave some more feedback and different sounds for making combos bigger than 3 and such.

Oh, one more feedback! I did try to make a cool combo where I chained a horizontal row, and then tried to chain a horizontal row right on top of it during the blinking. Unfortunately, it didn't allow me to do this as technically I was making a chain on top of an unstable blinking platform (and once the blinking platform was gone, the left over wouldn't form the chain anymore since one block would fall through). So technically, the game was reading the future and correctly seeing that my chain was illegal and wouldn't hold up even though it did temporarily. But still, I felt a little let down that the game didn't let me do a cool trick like that. Maybe a case where the game was too smartly programmed to not allow it, haha. Oh well!

bluswimmer responds:

Thanks for the feedback!

Seen a few people mention that the grey blocks seemed like garbage blocks at first, and honestly, I REALLY should've put in something that explained the controls. Should I expand on this game further I'll try to resolve those issues.

[Archibald: Escape From Misty Grove]

It definitely had a bit of a rough start for me, but I ended up really liking it in the end!

As said, the starting impression was rough. It was pretty difficult to get used to how slow you start as a character: the dodge roll felt so long and so high commitment, and everything about the bow, both drawing it and moving during, felt painfully slow as well. A lot of times I prefer if a game just starts you off with everything set as intended, instead of forcing in this cash shop mechanic to buy power: I prefer to feel like I got better as a player, not that I bought enough power to get to where I should've started in the first place to make things fair. Certain purchases like bombs felt like a rip-off as well: no power and no great utility. The way some enemies start in random starting positions for levels felt really jank as well: you could sometimes get killed by a kamikaze skeleton starting right by you before the camera even finishes loading! And so on.

Having said all that, though, I did like a lot about the game: the enemies felt very challenging and diverse, and I liked how they all had distinct and intuitive patterns to their AI (and kudos on making all of their attacks have telegraphs to them for clarity!) And despite what I said about not liking having to buy power, I still did feel like I was getting better as a player at playing more cautiously and skillfully, recognizing and dealing with the various enemy types efficiently. Indeed, near the end I felt like I turned into a archery god, and I barely bought any upgrades at all. And who can hate a game that ends in a big ol' grand boss fight: not me, haha!

Oh yeah, another minor thing: I found it odd that there isn't a 'next level' button at the end of a level. In fact, I kept hitting 'restart level' unintentionally after beating a level since it was in the spot where a 'next level' button usually would be. Don't get me wrong, I like your map screen and don't mind going back there instead of directly to the next, but those buttons need to be a bit better intuitively placed! Right side buttons should almost always imply forward movement, not backwards!

BonzoChuff responds:

That's a really good idea with the button. Never thought of that!

[Gravity Shift]

It's a pretty unique, goofy and interesting game! It, uh, just might be a bit too zany for me, in both a bad way and a good way, haha!

On one hand, the game certainly has a lot of crazy mechanics going for it. Most games could make an entire game just out of the gravity mechanic alone, or just the dash mechanic, or just the grab/tether mechanic, and instead you've got a game using all of those mechanics to create some really crazy levels to go through. While I had a hard time at first even remembering all of the powers my character had, it did feel good to get more in-tune with all of them, choosing which abilities to use at which moment skillfully to beat the levels efficiently. And of course, the game is also wrapped in a very quirky aesthetic with all sorts of goofy props, sound effects, and so on and so forth.

On the other hand, I almost feel like the wealth of mechanics on display here kind of hurt the game for me, as I felt like they didn't all get enough attention and work together well. I'm a quality over quantity guy, and it felt like what we had here was a game that favored the exact opposite. The grab/tether mechanic was a source of constant frustration for me: sometimes things I would grab would drag along the ground, get stuck in walls, glitch out, get thrown oddly, not drop where I wanted, break too easily, or just not be present enough to give me ammo I need, and so on. Gravity switching was fun, but with the camera so claustrophobically close, it was a crap shoot whether I would end up falling safely onto a platform, or more commonly into some spikes I'd never see coming (unless I die and die and die until I memorize the entire level). I don't have many complaints about the dash mechanic, except I wasn't ever clear how many dashes I had or how fast they recharged and so on. With all the mechanics to maintain, levels felt very unfocused and directionless to me: even with the arrows pointing, sometimes the best path is to glitch and damage boost through some spikes to the ending instead or what-have-you: it felt like they were just a crazy scramble where anything goes (perhaps this could be seen as a positive though for freeform).

It's definitely charming and intriguing enough that I do want to revisit it and try and get further, but another part of me just felt like it was a bit too janky. Again, perhaps I just need to learn to work with that jankiness and my old man brain is just too stiff with age for something like this, haha.

gooberthed responds:

mucho texto

[Elizabeth SLAY!!]

Pretty interesting game! Gotta say, while I enjoyed my time with the wackiness of it all, it was a bit rough for me in some respects.

First off, my introduction to the game was a bit confused. My impression was that it seemed like the game had a big focus on combat and platforming, what with the cool introduction of your transformation powers, and I gotta say it felt satisfying to get that vampire combo off on the stompos what with the cool hitfreeze it had! Because of that, I didn't quite like just how many characters there were to talk to: felt like it just kept constantly stopping the pace of combat and platforming to talk to so many people and their goofball nonsense. I just wanted to get to the action! Don't get me wrong, I love the characters and all the charming quirky expressions and dialogue they bring: I just didn't realize that the game was actually all about talking to them for fun and hints and going on a scavenger hunt. Once I realized that, then I was on board and everything was quite the fun adventure! It's definitely partially my fault for making weird assumptions, but perhaps the game could also be directed in such a way at the intro to let you know what you're in for more accurately (heck, maybe combat isn't even necessary for a game like this?)

In terms of other feedback, I did feel like the movement of the character was a bit...I'm not sure, just felt a bit wonky: in particular I think the character felt overly heavy due to the lack of hangtime for their jumps, which made double jumping annoying to time. Also, for such a cheery game, I was surprised at how unbelievably punishing it could be: I spent so much time collecting practically everything only to die from an off-screen shot and have to start all over! It didn't exactly make me want to start it all over, but credit where its due, the game is charming and cute enough that I think I will get right back in there and find out what sort of characters are left to find and gab it up with!

Roksim responds:

Aw gosh, thanks so much for so much feedback!! I certainly understand what you mean, especially with the part where you get shot at - I actually thought it might be too easy, because it's just an enemy who shoots your face, but a lot of players did struggle, so I suppose it was a case of my tester friends just coincidentally all being platformer players already...

I did try to mitigate the backtracking by having a secret portal at the start, did you find the NPC who tells you about it? Like, once you activate the blue platforms, at the start there is a guy who tells you there is actually a secret shortcut in a pit all along that takes you all the way to the Record Player... Sort of a knowledge checkpoint! But I suppose it's a bit wonky as an idea!

And yaa, she is heavy, it's my own preference - I like to really hold that spacebar for full control, so I thought the best approach would be to just make my favorite controls and fun combat! The game might have shifted it's focus during the development from combat to silly NPCs, I still had a whole lot of fun smacking everyone around, so I went with both to have the scavenging hunt be a bit spicy, though now that I know how much the players struggle, I would probably make the Spotos less dangerous... I'll leave it as it is because so many people played it already and enjoyed it, I don't want to constantly shift the difficulty!

TLDR: thanks again for playing!! This is just some explaination for my thoughts as a developer, I really appreciate all the feedback you just gave me, all of it is really thoughtful!!!!

[ur a pixel]

It's a little bit clunky in respects: I didn't like how fiddly the movement mechanics were, like how there was no coyote time for jumps, and I didn't like how confusing it could be due to instruction tips disappearing so fast, power ups not being explained (I restarted the game the first time I got a power-up, thinking it was a double jump that I'd lost the chance to use since it didn't respawn), and controls being spread all over the keyboard. However, all of that confusion was worth it for the great rugpull moment of the game suddenly turning 3D and introducing all sorts of new mechanics. What a twist!

3p0ch responds:

Looking forward to seeing your face during the 3D reveal when you post the video :3

[Interdimensional Square Off]

It's a pretty decent shooter, fun and juicy, but without much long-lasting appeal or unique mechanics to keep a player's attention, I found. Probably the best part of the game was the juiciness of it all: screenshake, explosions, ragdolls and the like were in ample supply and made the relatively shallow game, which lacked in enemy variety, levels and cool moves, still feel rather exciting and fun to play. However, the juiciness was a double-edged sword, as I found the default level of shake to be nauseating, and the enemy ragdolls were confusing and obfuscated the enemies (I would prefer that the ragdolls be colored more darker to have them differentiate from the enemies, and that they last a shorter time to stop crowding the screen, though I suppose you could argue it adds to the challenge).

The game does try to help a bit with longevity with the inclusion of achievements and hats, but I didn't find those a big enough hook to keep playing (also was a bit disappointed that you couldn't combine hats and expressions, like combining cat ears and uwu, and that the title screen character doesn't update to reflect your hat choice).

I definitely feel like I would like the game more if it had some meat on its bones (some sort of progression, more enemy variety, more weapons, some sort of unique goal or mechanic, etc), but credit where credit is due, I did still feel it was more addicting and fun to play than I thought it would be judging from all my feedback, so you've got some mysterious 'it' factor going on here: just one of those mysterious parts of game design, I suppose!

Peti responds:

Yeeeea those are good points! I heard a lot of players having issue regarding the ragdoll. I didn't have a problem with it myself, but that just shows I'll have to ask people to playtest next time lol. I wanted to, but got shy......

The reason you can't combine outfits is due to potential conflict, but when you give that example perhaps the outfits could have been split into two categories, a face and hat? That thought never crossed my mind

My focus was defo on having the game "feel good", I found myself cutting features I was afraid would break the flow, such as bosses or more enemy types. While I'm glad I achieved my goal, I'll defo be taking ppl's feedback and wishes with me! I've gotten more comfortable after Pixel Day, so Ill try and get more of people's insight next time by playtesting!

Thanks for the review, Futurecop! Your words are always very insightful and im rly happy you got to take a look at this game, and have a bit of fun with it! pray emoji i dunno if ng will display it correctly ill try: 🙏

[PICO VS BEAR DX]

Wow, what a blast from the past! Overall I found it quite impressive and smooth to play: I loved the fresh coat of paint over everything that makes it more readable and pretty, and I loved the cool additions like new boss fights, new point-n-click puzzles, charming voice acting, remixes to boss mechanics, and so on!

I do have to say, though, that as much as I like it in general, there were some more questionable design decisions that make it a bit of a lesser game than the original for me.

For one, I found it really odd I couldn't hold down the trigger to keep firing the machine gun like you could in the original: having to tap fire each shot not only is illogical, but it really wears down my old man hands. Tap fire makes sense for the shotgun, sure (which I had no idea how to switch to manually), but for the machine gun, I wish I could hold it down.

While I do like a lot of the additional bosses and changes to some of their mechanics, some of them were worse overall for me. I didn't like how you couldn't skillfully shoot the grenades out of the air anymore like you could before in the first boss fight, I didn't like how the attack telegraphs for the grenade rolling down the stair were behind the player making them difficult to see, I didn't like the awkward spawning for the bear duo boss where sometimes the minion would instantly respawn giving you no time to shoot the main bear at all, and so on and so forth.

But the biggest one for me was the inclusion of the point-n-click adventure parts: don't get me wrong, I like me a point-n-click, but when you combine it with the hard difficulty boss fights and fact that death means starting all over, it can get really monotonous to redo those sections over and over again: the original was just a boss gauntlet so it didn't have this unnecessary busy work. Yes, you get a few lives to ease the pain, but really, I almost feel like the game should just have infinite lives instead of relying on this awkward half-measure.

Also the hint system was really silly and pointless: it gave me a hint on how to beat the shadow boss when I was already way past that, haha!

Again, I have to reiterate that as much as that is a big block of text right there complaining about everything, I still did overall have a ton of fun with this and, no matter how much I died, I never wanted to quit, I wanted to get right back in there to see what craziness happens next! Just, uh, let me rest my carpal tunnel for a sec...

[Tankmas ADVENTure 2021]

Quite the nice collaborative experience as usual! I was a bit unlucky in that I was following it at first but then lost track (due to sickness and work) and missed out the later days, including Christmas. So really, all I got to experience was the initial period where there wasn't much to do (though I did like the cool intro experience where you discover the village), and then the after period where I missed all of the potentially cool events! Sigh...well...maybe next year, haha!

Anyway, if I was to have some feedback, it would be:

*When opening presents, I found the text at the bottom (title, artist, link to page) to be both a) very difficult to read due to it being gray on gray (either outline the text or make the difference between text color and background color bigger to make the text pop) and b) not obvious that it's a clickable link due to the pointer not changing to a hand and the text not highlighting when hovered over. These mistakes just made it look a bit unprofessional, especially considering its the main selling point and surprising it was overlooked.

*I kept thinking I could click on things to interact with them and move around due to the presence of a mouse-pointer on screen, but I found you could only move with the keyboard and interact with space bar. Why even have a mouse pointer then? Though I swear when I started, I thought I could move and interact with the mouse, so what the heck is going on??? (Now the mouse is working again? Dunno why it stopped working for awhile...though even with it working, it can be difficult to figure out where to actually click on things to interact with them)

*For such a potentially social game where you get to walk around with other people opening presents and hanging out at cafes and such, I found the game to be incredibly anti-social: from what I could tell, the only method of communication was a heart emote and that was it, no other emotes, no chat, no coop mini-games or activities, nothing! I could understand not wanting to have a public chat that just gets spammed with racial epithets or what-not, but it still felt odd that, for the most part, you couldn't really communicate or play with each other. (Though of course, I got in late and never got to experience the theatre, so maybe there was something there and maybe the cafe as well)

*Are the cafe graphics glitched or something? All of the images for the drinks and food are exactly the same (it's kind of understandable for drinks, but all the food is just the same image of a plate of mish-mash). Perhaps it's an intentional joke and I'm not getting it, but it just seems odd.

*There were periods where I visited where there were tons of clone avatars lined up in odd formations, like a wall of Pico clones and what-not. Wasn't sure if it was intentional or not, like whether it was just a funny joke set up by the developers or people hacked the game or something: just made me confused on whether to laugh or be worried, if that makes sense.

Anyway, Merry Tankmas all!

SantaDrella responds:

Rest assured about the clones. It's festive tradition that we've been doing since the release of this game! Everyone can do that by opening more tabs so it's pretty much not hacked lol