FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Pain Reaction]

Very cool action-packed game! Game is packed full of that satisfying Prox276 game feel I've come to expect: some good ol' explosive pixely fun! I love how the screen-shake is used to effectively signal the most important events, being an enemy being hit (so you know you aimed correctly) and an enemy exploding (so you know you need to look for revenge projectiles), which felt like an improvement over other games more haphazard screenshake. I like how the levels ramp up in terms of difficulty with new and interesting enemy types and other difficulty tweaks, though I wish the boss would also improve in some aspects as well. I wish the rocket would only appear in your hand when you're ready to fire: its a bit confusing when it looks like you should be able to fire but you still can't, and only showing it when you're ready would help, I think. I got a bit confused when enemies were dying from their own buddies projectiles: in a way, its neat, but it felt a little unsatisfying to me that I didn't get to take them down myself, but that's just me (probably because it doesn't screenshake when this happens?). Solid game all-around!

By the way, I love the goofy drooly face the basic imps make when you hit them, haha.

Prox276 responds:

Thanks! Your thorough and constructive reviews are something I think of from the moment I start a new project and it's one of the things that motivate me to do my best and create something that improves on my past games! I really appreciate it! :)

[Puzzle Crafter]

Game does kind of have a clunky look and feel to it with the simplistic visuals which aren't professionally tiled/spaced in any manner along with a general lack of juice, but it is still somewhat impressive how intuitive and neat the level editor is, along with the decent variety of levels and mechanics shown in the adventure mode. Game could be helped a lot with some better visuals and FX, just some minor things like glass shard particles when you shatter a glass block, for example, and maybe giving the finish block a classic checkboard finish-flag pattern on it. I also think that having the game elements be tiled/on a grid would help with designing the levels as it would make placement of elements more uniform, leading to more consistent physics simulations. Adventure mode was a bit lacking in that, while it had coins and such, it didn't seem to track them in anyway to have you try for a par/perfect score or anything like that, especially since if you don't get them all at the end it just shuffles you to the next level anyway instead of letting you retry for a better score. Also the boosters need some help as they blew out my eardrums when you had that level where a box was constantly triggering their sound, haha! Basically, its a bit rough at the moment, but I think it has some decent potential!

larrynachos responds:

Thank you for the review and suggestions! I've been meaning to give it some TLC updates but I'm actually working on two new games right now! I'll definitely take your suggestions into consideration when I hop back into this project though!

A grid system for the editor is something I've wanted to try but couldn't implement with the current setup. The adventure levels are the same way because of that. I think there's only 1 or 2 coins that you can't ever collect, most of the coins are there to show that you're still on track, even if you bumped something and changed your direction slightly. It's more of a guide tool if anything.

Yeah that boost level needs some changes, but at the moment you can knock it off of the boost with the ball that's sitting above it. That's something others have said too, so I'm gonna make sure that gets fixed next update!

Thanks again for the feedback, it's very helpful!

[Forgecore]

This was a real surprise hit for me! From such a somber, dark atmosphere the last thing I was expecting was a goofy physics rocket platformer, but man was it fun and totally fit! I absolutely love the way the game delivers its story through the rising challenges brought forth with every new game mechanic: moments like trying to get to the top of the mountain through the snowy winds were absolutely intense and memorable! I also really like the subtle way the heat gauge gain slows down a bit just when you're about to overheat: very user-friendly and just adds to the intensity of pushing the limits. This game definitely delivers a great and unique experience though difficulty and gameplay, similar to games like Getting Over It. Only complaints I could see would be that maybe its a little too hard (obviously subjective) at times which could lead to the intensity of the story being lost and the game being abandoned from frustration. For example, while a level like 'the city' is fairly dynamic with the player struggling against the enemies however they can, other levels like 'the mountain' kind of require memorization of traps from previous failed attempts to pull off a perfect run (since you need to know the exact timing where you should build up enough heat to last through the period where you should no longer touch the snow and stay airborne from then on). I could be wrong on this though, but anyway, I had a really great time with this, so kudos on a job well done!

morazor responds:

Thank you very much, I'm glad you've enjoyed it so much!
The mountain was a surprise to me, I didn't realize it could be so hard, probably because I completely overlooked the most intuitive strategy that most people tend to use. Sometimes it's hard to put yourself in the shoes of a new player that doesn't know all the tricks.
Anyway I understand that some people enjoy having a more relaxed experience and focus on the narrative aspect of the game: in that case having a difficult challenge can merely feel like an annoying obstacle. With the game already released, changing the mountain level would feel unfair for those who already beat it, so I've slapped together an easy difficulty setting to give a overall more approachable version of the game.
These are for sure some valuable lessons to be learned. I'm thankful to everyone that played the game and shared their experience, hopefully this will make my next games better <3

[Pullfrog]

Really neat idea and an interesting game to play! Definitely has a nice feel to it with a lot of love shown in the various aspects of its creation, and I had fun figuring out how to play the game and deal with the chaos. Has a weird mysterious element to it as well which serves as another nice hook. I did get a bit confused on the execution at times, however. My initial expectation when playing was that I would shoot my tongue at something, it would attach and freeze the block, and then I would press a direction to indicate where the tongue would move the attached block to. However, it looks like the only thing the tongue can do is pull it towards you (when it works, which seemed sketchy at times), which I felt limited it greatly (for example, you can't pull a block to the wall because of this since you'd get squished). Because of this, I found myself relying less and less on the tongue pulling and more and more on the tongue being able to destroy blocks, which I felt was way less appropriately frog-themed. Basically, I think the tongue pulling is the most iconic feature of this and it should've had a lot more usability given to it to make it the best, instead of having it compete with the destruction mechanics which I feel might've been built to compensate and reduce frustration from the tongue being bad. Still, had some good fun nonetheless!

afk-mario responds:

You are totally right! we try to compensate a little the fact that you can't push pieces on to the walls spawning more pieces there, but I understand how it can be frustrating.

The pulling feels like it doesn't work at times because we try to have at least one block of distance between you and the piece so you don't get squashed more frequently it's not the most elegant solution and we have talked about different ways of dealing with it, but maybe now that the conditions for it to work are more clear it makes it less frustrating :)

Thanks for playing and the review!

[[BTNverse] Universal Thief]

Holy mackerel, this mighta been one of my favorite games yet from ya: the concept really surprised me since I was just expecting a more common type of thief game (like Thief, if you can imagine that) but I should've known better than to expect the ordinary from you, haha! It didn't take long for me to absolutely love the whole strategic element of stealing moves for an ideal loadout to deal with challenges in your way, all in a crazy Earthbound-esque environment. Really very impressive design in building all of these sorts of moves that can serve all sorts of purposes! I haven't beaten the whole game yet, but I'm looking forward to: I honestly thought it was gonna end with you stealing the boss ID, and that would've been satisfying, but it just kept going!

EDIT: I am the alpha and omega, the beginning and the end of this game rocks

adriendittrick responds:

thanks for the great review as usual :)
Have fun beating the rest of the game when you have time!

[RetroShooti (DemoScene)]

Very cool and crazy shooter! Has a real professional design to it both from a UI perspective and a gameplay perspective: the menus and UI have a ton of great options to them and aren't a slouch in terms of graphical presentation to get you amped up, and the gameplay is crazy with a huge variety of enemies and powerups all in a satisfying chaos of of explosions. Definitely really solid so far, but in terms of feedback that could be worked on:

I though the text for the controls on the 'how to play' screen were way too small and difficult to read: the font makes Xs look like Ks when they're written that small, for example. Would love to see images be used for controls instead of just bland letters, even if it is just an image of a keyboard key with the letter on it.

I wish there was an option to allow the turn around button to be a toggle instead of a hold: for some reason, my natural instinct was to assume it was a toggle and it was difficult to play by holding it down. Might just be me: maybe it works for most people.

My biggest issue, which might not even be an issue, was that the current gameplay, while fun and explosive and crazy, seemed to be a bit lacking in terms of direction? It might be my fault, going in and expecting something like Gradius, where you go from level to level, all showcasing different enemy types assembled in interesting ways in varied planetary terrain. This game did have a lot of enemy variety, and a lot of crazy power-ups, and interesting bosses, but it all just felt so scattershot and random, like a Jackson Pollock painting where enemies were just slapped everywhere on screen with no rhyme or reason. It just felt like I wasn't progressing at all in the game: with no significant change in background or design, I felt like I was just flying in the same bit of space getting nowhere fast, shooting enemies for no purpose. I was facing bosses every now and then, but they were tiny and started to repeat fast and became annoying bullet sponges in their repeat encounters. That's not necessarily a bad thing: it might just not be my cup of tea, and I did still have a lot of fun for what it was. Game definitely is still very well put-together and has bucketloads of potential left, so hopefully my feedback can help in some way!

[Slime Rider]

Great, professionally designed and charming little puzzler! Game just oozes style everything, even at the very start with its animated intro that shows the basic functionality of the game and the cool transitions between levels. Puzzles were great, with excellent level design that let you practice new mechanics in a safe level, and then escalates it with challenging levels afterwards that have a good variety of 'gotchas' to teach you good habits. I liked the inclusion of a speed-up button (I guess I got lucky by getting to play the updated version, judging by the comments, haha): I nearly forgot it existed since I didn't need it for awhile, but luckily you put the icon in the upper-right as a friendly reminder just when I started to get a little frustrated by having to wait, haha. Top shelf stuff, this!

Criobite responds:

Thank you, it's good to hear you like the game! Been working a lot on learning how to make better games in general and I'm glad it's working out.

[Fields of Sagebrushes]

Pretty neat experience that had a lot of cool atmosphere to it helped by the graphics and sound. Unfortunately the experience for me was killed a lot by the UI design, which when you have a visual novel should be your bread and butter. Events were really confusing at first as it was difficult to tell which choice I had highlighted and what element to click, and I had no idea why I also had to highlight a character to choose them or anything like that. At first I thought the white markers on the status bars indicated what our current level was within the black bar, but then the black bars moved and I realized that they were the actual status indicator themselves. Many times there were interactable elements on the screen that could still be clicked and highlighted despite no longer being interactable, like the town choices when you have no choices left, or the other confirm button on screen when you're traveling. Another thing that hurt the game for me was the lack of event variety (I was already getting repeats very early on before barely even leaving the coast) and the fact that there were long stretches without any actual story tidbits to keep me hooked. It's still a pretty neat game, but I just wish it had a bit more polish to it: would love to see an updated version!

danidre14 responds:

I appreciate your review whole heartedly, and thanks for playing my game again! :D

This was a lot of first times for me, but I'll make no excuses, I understand your critiques on the UI; like we left it there for the user to figure out, seemingly by intuition.

With the encounters, we've nearly 50; it's really odd that you got so many reoccurring, the algorithms weren't in our favour in this one time you took a run through with it.

But definitely, it would've been amazing to polish the story and expand; other than the few we whipped up last minute. I too would love to see an updated version!

Again, thanks for playing, and I appreciate the critiques and feedbacks :)

[Laser Dames]

Another interesting concept! I definitely do like me some stylish games, and this was an interesting fusion where it felt good to lure out enemies to build a super-combo-chain finish on them. UI design is a bit drab though and made it difficult to track things with text overlapping power bars and such. At the moment the game does feel a bit too quick and can be beaten by just spamming and such, but I love the concept and would love to see this fleshed out more with a tighter design. Music was cool as well: as usual I like how it escalates by building on itself more and more as you progress.

adriendittrick responds:

thanks again for the review :)
Eventually you'll have reviewed my entire catalog lul.
Also yeh this would benefit by some quality of life improvements, but I only had 9 hours.

[Grim Pawn]

Pretty neat puzzler! Graphics are a bit drab at times (especially the player character, which I can't tell what the heck they are), but it still works to build a grim atmosphere. Levels felt really well put-together with a good escalation of difficulty, and I loved the aspect of poems serving as good hints for new mechanics. Was a bummer that the game doesn't seem to save progress at all: I was really hoping to continue where I left off!

TheMikirog responds:

The game is fairly short, so I didn't bother adding the save feature in. It's still possible to beat earlier levels in seconds to get back to where you left off.