FutureCopLGF's game Reviews on Newgrounds

[Portal Patrol]

Game certainly has some stylish presentation to it that got my hopes up, and I do think the basic gunplay is rather juicy as well as the whole concept of recruiting AI partners potentially interesting, but it feels like the game shows you everything it has to offer in a few seconds, and without any sort of sense of progression or evolution through new enemy types, new partners, boss battles, or other changes, it just feels like a rather boring, repetitive, and simplistic game.

I'm bummed out because it looks great on first glance and made me think of greats like Portal Defenders, but really doesn't have enough meat on its bones for a satisfying and addictive experience: real style over substance case here.

Doesn't help either that managing the AI partners feels very frustrating in how weak they are: I'd much prefer they be invincible, even if it made them much weaker to balance it.

Tyler responds:

Appreciate the feedback my dawg. I live for FutureCopLGF reviews. I agree with everything you said, we want to make an updated version. Your feedback is valuable.

[Citizen Pico: Pico's School IV]

Hmm, it's a decent little point n click adventure pico fangame that certainly has a nice sense of nostalgia to it and an interesting future storyline, but I couldn't help but feel rather underwhelmed by it!

The storyline has a lot of potential as an interesting sequel...but it's over before you know it and barely makes any sense. The world is large and it's got a lot of nice environmental interactions like opening lockers and turning on faucets...but none of it feels particularly meaningful as there are no fun easter eggs or flavor text, leaving the world feeling empty.
It's got puzzles...but it reuses the box moving twice for no reason and having to shoot the skull pile makes no logical sense (why not move the skulls out of the way like the boxes?) It's got a cool final boss fight...but it's a very dumb and simplistic DPS race that's way too punishing as it makes you play the whole game over if you die.

As said, certainly has some potential, but it just felt rather short and unsatisfying to me. Good attempt, at least! Oh yeah, one more thing: the music is way too damn loud!

Kolumbo responds:

Pleasure reading your review, thank you!

Most of the negatives you listed I agree with, they're a product of poor planning and cutting corners to make it on time. Not an excuse, but it is what it is.

On the bright side, if I do another one sometime down the line - or something similar - I now know how much time stuff takes, so avoiding these issues should be easy!

Thanks again

[Pico's Date]

I'm not usually one for visual novels, but I found this to be really enjoyable! The dialogue and characters were quite humorous and charming, and there was an incredible amount of amusing choices and creative endings that made it so addicting to replay over and over! Definitely feels like there was a good amount of effort put into this: was surprised at how many of the endings and events got custom art to present them instead of just fading to black like so many others would do.

If I were to have any complaints, it's that there is a brief period at the start where, since nobody has nametags yet, it can be confusing to determine who is talking, be it Pico, the main character, narration, internal thoughts, and so on. Yes, I know it was done somewhat intentionally as the character's haven't been introduced yet, and there's an amusing joke in there, but it would still be nice if there were some placeholder nametags even before they've been introduced, with names like '???' or 'You/MC'.

Also I've recently switched from Velveeta to Kraft, but thank god I answered with my old preference first!

Hattsoff responds:

Super glad to hear that you enjoyed it! And thank you so much for your feedback!! I'll try and keep that name place-holder in mind for next time! If you didn't get a chance to peek through the description ('cause it's long, and I don't blame you if you didn't look X,D) this is actually my first game!

The idea was to make something that I've been wanting to see for a super long time now. A Pico dating sim set in the Pico's School universe and treated as a Pico game first and a date sim second. :3

I won't yap your ears off anymore, but I do plan on making other Pico related games like this one! I have an idea or two already brewing on the stove. <3

(He never liked that processed powder cheese flavor. He doesn't explain it, but you can easily just add milk and shredded cheese just as easy and it doesn't taste nearly as wack. I dunno, he has standards with his cheese I guess LOL)

[PICO.exe]

Despite the fact that this creepypasta stuff kinda makes me roll my eyes and I'm certainly not a fan of getting my eardrums blown out, I feel like I gotta give this some credit as it did have some decent effort put into it and pulled off a fun little experience. Certainly a lot of fun tricks like the way it triggered the pop-up and remembered my refusal from the first time when I tried to refuse again by freezing, and I thought the whole alternate take on the Pico's School story was amusing. Sure, it cribs a lot of stuff blatantly from Undertale and such, but hey, I kinda did that too in one of my games, so who am I to cast stones?

You'll laugh, but I actually didn't even realize there was a whole 'game' portion attached to this as my first session had me just refusing and then leaving, haha. I'll admit, though, that it might've been for the best as I did find the 'game' portion to be a bit meh and so inelegant that it actually took me out of the whole experience, so perhaps there's a better way to do that aspect (like maybe it shouldn't let you retry as it kind of reduces the amount of terror you feel).

mrstiK101 responds:

Heya! Tysm for da critical feedbacks

That freezing part was TOTALLY unintentional, but I guess it ain't a bug no more. It's a feature XD.

And I later realized the kill or be killed part was from flowey, I guess playing undertalefor 100+ hours did something to my brain.

I had to time crunch, so i coudn't add any gameplay to it, but the next versions might have a LOT of gameplay, I have some stuff in my mind about it.

Thx

[Core Breach - CAMERA update]

Not too shabby! For the most part this game feels very well-constructed, both from a presentation and gameplay mechanics standpoint. I enjoyed the combination of snake movement with shooting, and the decision to have your bullets feed from your health as well as have currency left on the ground too long turn into enemies added a lot of strategic depth! Pardon the pun, but this game feels like it has a pretty good 'core' in place, and I got quite addicted to the frantic nature of the battles!

In terms of feedback:

*It's not too bad, but I'm a bit miffed at how the camera moves during combat, as I feel like it is completely unnecessary since the battlefield is already perfectly fit to the view, and moving it only serves to cut off parts of the field or throw off my aiming. I say just keep it static positioned.

*As nice as it is to keep the data bits being spent, it can take too long for them to be spent when costs get high (which can happen as early as the 2nd upgrade). I'd say either speed it up for high costs so that spending always takes around the same amount of time no matter what, or allow us to click to speed it up even further or even skip it.

*I swear there were a few times where the controls would bug out on me, like I'd try to activate an ability and it just wouldn't go off, leading to me dying because I was counting on it to get me out of a jam. Even though I don't think it's because it was still on cooldown and I just didn't see it, I'd argue that if it was the case, I'd like more feedback then, like for it to play a sound and pulse red if I try to use when it isn't available.

*Shop could use a few more niceties, like being able to see our current abilities so we can decide whether we want to get an upgrade before choosing it (and be able to back out of an upgrade and pick something else if desired).

*Was curious whether the upgrade room could have a bit more strategic purpose to it. For example, even if the upgrade room is finally open to you, maybe there could be a bonus for putting it off, like maybe you get a score streak if you stay in the game long and it resets once you go for an upgrade, or maybe the enemies keep getting harder but going into the upgrade room blows them up and you want to save that for when things get too hairy for maximum gains.

*My biggest complaint is that while the game is nice, it ultimately feels a tad bit pointless, lacking a sort of long-term goal and sense of progression/evolution: perhaps if it had a stronger narrative, plot setup or acknowledged ending you're going for, or more interesting checkpoints or changeups like bosses, stronger enemies or different biomes with new mechanics or obstacles and so on.

Looking forward to seeing how it evolves! As said, it definitely has a good core to it, which means you've already got the most important part in place.

EDIT: I'm liking a lot of the recent changes that have been made! I agree that I think the game works better without the overall metaprogression and that it should be run-based, for example.

GamesByLaurence responds:

Wow first of thank you for taking the time to give me this valuable feedback!!

I was super happy to read it as my new update that is coming out later today addresses a lot of your comments!

As for the camera movement I understand what you mean. I have tried to move it less.. It used to be a lot more zoomed in! I find that keeping it static kind makes the game feel very slow. I will experiment a bit more with it!

The spending of the data bits being slow has been resolved! A couple of people have pointed out that it takes far too long and it now takes a fixed amount of time no matter the cost.

I believe you not being able to use your skill was due to not having one body piece. Some attack skills require at least one body piece to use so it could have been due to that. However you are completely right... feedback is needed! I will patch this in today before releasing the new update.

As for your feedback on the shop. I plan to add a way of seeing your current worm stats at a quick glace.. and I also felt that there should be some more strat involved when it comes to passive skills.. The passive buffs are no longer permanent and the data bits no longer carry over from breach to breach. This allows two things as I see it. By not spending your hard earnt data bits on passive buffs you go for higher scores. As spending data bits lowers your score multiplier. It also means that everyone is on the same playing field and the game rewards high skill rather than players that have grinded out the buffs. I believe this adds a little bit more strategy. I am also tihnking about adding a combo system that rewards players who stay out of the upgrade zone for longer.

As for your last point I also understand. At the moment there is no narrative in the game. It's in my head! I need to work on placing more purpose and story into the game so that players get more of a drive to keep playing! Bosses are definitely on the list! I have added new challenge waves and a new wave system to the upcoming patch later today which I hope also adds some flair into the game.

Thanks very much for your feedback.. it is super valuable and I hope you like the changes that are coming in todays patch!

[Resident Evil Ebola 6]

Hmm, review of this one is similar to the last one: in general it is amusing and somewhat charming in a very old-school nostalgic NG Flash kind of way, but it is also very clunky and awkwardly designed with egregious hitboxes and enemies that hit you mid-death, as well as being very overly linear and lacking any sort of survival horror feel to the way you can cheese it.

That's not to say there haven't been some improvements: I feel like the game is a bit more intuitive with better highlighting for interactables, hit feedback was a bit more clear, chapter selection allows for better replay, and so on. I dunno if it's for me, but I can understand plenty of people having fun with the wild trip this game takes you on.

As a side note: what kind of name is Cleon? Couldn't you have just called him, I dunno, Leo?

MetaMike responds:

Edit: I saw your breakdown video and your reaction to Cleon had me hollering lol. I appreciate the feedback!!!

[Hollow Floor - Demo]

This was a very nice short and sweet metroid game you got here, and I'm looking forward to seeing how it evolves!

I really liked the way the game evolved and recontextualized the world with the inventive powerups you've made: going from only clambering on vines to getting the airwalk ability was neat and was a breath of fresh air from the typical double-jump unlocks. Gave me real VVVVVV vibes!

Game also had a decent amount of challenge to it, especially with the gauntlet for the first gem, though having said that, the game also felt very fair with the way you don't deplete airwalk energy if you stay still, and the way you snap to certain height levels with the airwalk which prevents awkward 'off by a pixel' situations.

I also enjoyed discovering the secrets you've put within the world and ended up going back and collecting all of the coins after my first run!

In terms of feedback, I will say that the text is a bit hard to read, with it being overly small and oddly blurred for some reason. I'll also say that, since the game is stated to come out on Steam, I'm not sure whether it has enough going for it in that respect. It's nice, but I don't think it has enough of a hook, a spark, a sense of style yet to make it stand out. Maybe if I knew more about how the adventure and mechanics would evolve, but I'm not seeing anything for that. Again, I had a great time with this, and I don't mean to bring you down, but that was within the context of a bitesize adventure that was free on Newgrounds: not the vast and overwhelming jungle of Steam releases with loads of competition. I need a trailer that shows more gameplay of what's to come, or a bit more of a tease at the end of the demo!

amidos2006 responds:

Thanks a lot :) This game is a small bit size game that has been in production for 2 years :) I originally would put it for free but I thought charging something as small as $3 is enough to cover some of the costs :)

I am glad you enjoyed it and liked it :)

[Scummoner]

Fun little open-world chaos sandbox you got here! Gave me Goat Simulator or Untitled Goose Game vibes with the way you can both just cause chaos by committing genocide, or be more creative and seek out ways to optimally ruin days or interact with the environment to unlock achievements, with the latter being my favorite: going rock fishing, raining on the birthday party, and so on were all very clever! Definitely pretty fun, and I was really impressed with the smooth and professional construction to the game: not only was the gameplay very juicy with funny effects, but the menus and tutorial were very elegantly presented!

If I were to have any complaints, it's that sometimes the world would be less reactive than I wanted. For example, I'd try to set red barrels on fire to cause an explosion only for them to remain static (trying to crush the barrels doesn't do anything either), and sometimes people wouldn't react to my actions, like how I tried to dispense karmic justice on the car scammer but nobody cared and they continued like nothing happened. I suppose it's understandable for a game jam game, but still, it's also understandable that I'd assume it would be there considering what it is!

bobatealee responds:

Super good feedback!! Thank you, looking forward to implementing many more interactions at some point =)

[Tales From The Arcade: Fartmania]

Hah, quite the goofy and fun little precision platformer you got here!

It's a bit lackluster in some respects for me: graphics got a bit monotonous with the way they never change as you progress and everything is just constructed from the same copy-pasted blocks, I was really hoping the boss would evolve in a more challenging way in the final phase since the laser guns from the second phase were already a non-issue, it was annoying how I couldn't control the speed of dialogue and would have to wait for it to reset if I accidently interrupt them with a fart, and in general it just didn't have enough to keep me motivated throughout to collect all of the pigs and I instead just rushed to the ending.

But for the most part I still found it to be a nice short and sweet adventure: the game feels progressively more challenging as you go with the introduction of moving blocks and more tight maze-like structures, there were some interesting easter eggs like getting into that area with the ghost, it felt well-constructed and intuitive with a good amount of juice/pizazz to its presentation, and obviously the game has a lot of charm to it with the goofy dialogue and premise, and I loved how it reacted accurately when I farted to taunt the aliens at the end, haha! Well done!

As a side note, I found it a bit weird how it seems like the game should start with you going down the pipe, but that just leads to the easter egg credits room, and instead you're supposed to go to the fart meter? Then again, I wonder if that's intentional as it was only through the easter egg room that I realized I could mid-air fart, since I needed to do that to reach the exit. Was a bit curious about that!

Emptygoddess responds:

Haha, yeah. Pretty sure we wanted people to go check out our silly dev room!

[THE NINTENDO 64 COLLAB GALLERY]

I mean, there's certainly some nice art in here and it's wonderful to see so many people collaborate, but if I have to be honest, this presentation is incredibly lackluster, being your bog-standard uncreative slideshow with absolutely no amount of pizazz to help elevate the experience. Where's the music, where's the animations, where's the gallery view, heck, where's the navigation UI? I mean jeez, it's almost impressive how low-effort it is: I don't think you could mathematically get any lower, this is like absolute zero!

In addition to that, there's not even any artist credits next to the work, nor a link to their NG profile page, so if I like a piece of art, I don't know who I should be potentially following or getting a commission from (except the ones who signed their work, which some artists prefer not to do)! Shouldn't that be the main focus for these collabs, to get eyes on these cool artists?

Again, heart's in the right place for getting this together and all, but you've got to craft a better way to present this art to get people interested and make it fun: the artists did their part, now it's up to you!

ElRandomGMD responds:

This game was made on Bando's Comic Wizard by @KittyhawkMontrose, it not have many features, but she said that in a future will be add them.