This is one of the rare negative reviews that actually enjoys the auto runner controls.

The auto running can be pretty fun, if you let yourself forget that this is the sequel to one of the best platformers of all time. It's sometimes boring, and often annoying, but it's a different game to the original, and focusing on jump timings instead of speed and momentum introduces a whole new feel for the game.

But beyond that, the gameplay is a very mixed bag, with level design and difficulty that's all over the place: My first world was brutal, second felt fair, and third was ridiculously easy. But that could be forgiven if it wasn't for 2 massive issues.

The first is that the timings of many chunks is way too precise. In SMB, the controls were simple, but with every retry you could do something different: Change your speed, your jump angle, your air control... But here, you have 1 button. So if you get stuck, you're doing exactly the same thing over and over, and it's exhausting, because the only difference is pressing that button 0.1s sooner or later.

This is especially true for the Dark World, where passing them can feel like a fluke. If you don't have speedrunner levels of control and timing, you're going to get stuck in this trap of endless death loops where you feel like you're doing the exact same thing repeatedly. But then, if you finally pass the the troubling part, that's just the first segment of a chunk! So you need to figure out the timings of the next one immediately, inevitably die, and then you're back to trying to pass that first part all over again. There's "git gud", and then there's playing to absolute frame perfection, in quick succession, which is what too many of these chunks, especially in the Dark World, demand.

The second major problem is with the chunks being random. Instead of a tailor-made experience with a difficulty curve that feels intuitive and levels that feel iconic, you get stitched-together levels that mix incredibly difficult chunks with others that feel either easy or tedious. There's just no flow to each level. It's not helped by chunks with long sections that end in cheap deaths, where dying means doing the same thing repeatedly just to try the final tricky jump again. This is highlighted by the Dark World levels, which are just more random chunks, rather than variations of a classic level you've already trained yourself on.

Compare this with the original, where even if there's a hard part, every retry improves your skills: The further you go, the faster you become, the better your reflexes, the more you know about how much distance and control your jumps and movement have. But by forgoing manual movement, learning to beat one chunk quickly doesn't teach you anything, other than how to beat that one chunk. There's no transferable skills that you're honing with each success and failure.

It's made worse by how long the levels are: After a few hours, hitting a difficulty wall feels like a slog, because it's just tedious challenge after tedious challenge, with no breaks, and no feeling of relief once you get over the hard part. It's just onto the next chunk, and potentially headfirst into the next wall.

And because levels are made of strung-together chunks, if you can't beat one chunk, then you can't beat the entire level. I have one level where I legitimately can't see a way to beat it, and there's a lot of hard chunks in that level, before the unbeatable one, so trying again means having to go through the whole thing all over again. This is not fun. As mentioned above, the original SMB already solved this problem by keeping levels short and focused. If you wanted to retry a challenging part in SMB, you're there within seconds. Not so with SMBF.

The A+ times are super annoying too, as getting them is needed to unlock the Dark World levels. Sometimes you'll beat them with 5 seconds left, other times you'll only just crack the time with a fraction of a second remaining. It rarely feels like you're trying to best a time that was set by someone who ultimately wants you can beat it; no, it feels like you're fighting against a machine.

---

The real shame is that there's potential for a very enjoyable game here. Behind the disjointed difficulty, overly precise timings, and failures of the randomness, there's some great level design and interesting mechanics, and I've had a lot of fun with them. But they focused on the wrong thing, adding a ton of level chunks without ensuring the player gets to see the best of them. Are they really ALL so good that they should be randomised? I've played enough of them, and the answer is a definite no.

They should have stuck to shorter, hand-crafted levels, ensuring that the base game is fun, using the absolute best chunks to really showcase what the game is capable of. Then offered the roguelike, randomised worlds as add-on content or a bonus mode.

It's also not helped by the annoying bosses, which feel too drawn out. If the point of the "5000+ levels" was to add replayability, they really had to nail the bosses (which never change), else nobody would want to replay the game. But they failed hard here, and facing one feels like a slog, rather than an exciting challenge that you'll want to replay endlessly.

Plus:

- The music is repetitive and dull.
- There's no option to restart a level from the pause menu (the mapped buttons don't work).
- You have to watch a cutscene every time you change worlds (and see its completion %).
- Character unlocks have weirdly vague descriptions, and only change your skin.
- Collectibles (mostly) also require those vague challenges, so feel pointless.

---

So, should you play SMB Forever? If you like autorunners, cheap deaths, levels that seem to be legitimately unbeatable, and you don't mind all the other caveats I've covered, then yes! There's a good enough amount of stuff to like here. But definitely not at full price. The vast majority of players won't get $20 worth of playtime from this.

Just keep in mind that, despite its extremely long development time, it's still an unpolished mess of a game. I've had fun, but I've also had a fair bit of boredom, lots of disappointment, and a huge amount of pointless frustration.

Note: I also have about 2 hours on the EGS version.

[b]This is one of the rare negative reviews that actually enjoys the auto runner controls.[/b] The auto running can be pretty fun, if you let yourself forget that this is the sequel to one of the best platformers of all time. It's sometimes boring, and often annoying, but it's a different game to the original, and focusing on jump timings instead of speed and momentum introduces a whole new feel for the game. But beyond that, the gameplay is a very mixed bag, with level design and difficulty that's all over the place: My first world was brutal, second felt fair, and third was ridiculously easy. But that could be forgiven if it wasn't for 2 massive issues. The first is that the timings of many chunks is way too precise. In SMB, the controls were simple, but with every retry you could do something different: Change your speed, your jump angle, your air control... But here, you have 1 button. So if you get stuck, you're doing exactly the same thing [i]over and over[/i], and it's exhausting, because the only difference is pressing that button 0.1s sooner or later. This is especially true for the Dark World, where passing them can feel like a fluke. If you don't have speedrunner levels of control and timing, you're going to get stuck in this trap of endless death loops where you feel like you're doing the exact same thing repeatedly. But then, if you finally pass the the troubling part, that's just the first segment of a chunk! So you need to figure out the timings of the next one immediately, inevitably die, and then you're back to trying to pass that first part all over again. [b]There's "git gud", and then there's playing to absolute frame perfection[/b], in quick succession, which is what too many of these chunks, especially in the Dark World, demand. The second major problem is with the chunks being random. Instead of a tailor-made experience with a difficulty curve that feels intuitive and levels that feel iconic, you get stitched-together levels that mix incredibly difficult chunks with others that feel either easy or tedious. There's just no flow to each level. It's not helped by chunks with long sections that end in cheap deaths, where dying means doing the same thing repeatedly just to try the final tricky jump again. This is highlighted by the Dark World levels, which are just more random chunks, rather than variations of a classic level you've already trained yourself on. Compare this with the original, where even if there's a hard part, every retry improves your skills: The further you go, the faster you become, the better your reflexes, the more you know about how much distance and control your jumps and movement have. But by forgoing manual movement, learning to beat one chunk quickly doesn't teach you anything, other than how to beat that one chunk. There's no transferable skills that you're honing with each success and failure. It's made worse by how long the levels are: After a few hours, hitting a difficulty wall feels like a slog, because it's just tedious challenge after tedious challenge, with no breaks, and no feeling of relief once you get over the hard part. It's just onto the next chunk, and potentially headfirst into the next wall. And because levels are made of strung-together chunks, if you can't beat one chunk, then you can't beat the entire level. I have one level where I legitimately can't see a way to beat it, and there's a lot of hard chunks in that level, before the unbeatable one, so trying again means having to go through the whole thing all over again. [b]This is not fun.[/b] As mentioned above, the original SMB already solved this problem by keeping levels short and focused. If you wanted to retry a challenging part in SMB, you're there within seconds. Not so with SMBF. The A+ times are super annoying too, as getting them is needed to unlock the Dark World levels. Sometimes you'll beat them with 5 seconds left, other times you'll only just crack the time with a fraction of a second remaining. It rarely feels like you're trying to best a time that was set by someone who ultimately wants you can beat it; no, it feels like you're fighting against a machine. --- The real shame is that there's potential for a very enjoyable game here. Behind the disjointed difficulty, overly precise timings, and failures of the randomness, there's some great level design and interesting mechanics, and I've had a lot of fun with them. But they focused on the wrong thing, adding a ton of level chunks without ensuring the player gets to see the best of them. Are they really ALL so good that they should be randomised? I've played enough of them, and the answer is a definite [b]no[/b]. They should have stuck to shorter, hand-crafted levels, ensuring that the base game is fun, using the absolute best chunks to really showcase what the game is capable of. Then offered the roguelike, randomised worlds as add-on content or a bonus mode. It's also not helped by the annoying bosses, which feel too drawn out. If the point of the "5000+ levels" was to add replayability, they [b]really[/b] had to nail the bosses (which never change), else nobody would want to replay the game. But they failed hard here, and facing one feels like a slog, rather than an exciting challenge that you'll want to replay endlessly. Plus: - The music is repetitive and dull. - There's no option to restart a level from the pause menu (the mapped buttons don't work). - You have to watch a cutscene every time you change worlds (and see its completion %). - Character unlocks have weirdly vague descriptions, and only change your skin. - Collectibles (mostly) also require those vague challenges, so feel pointless. --- So, should you play SMB Forever? If you like autorunners, cheap deaths, levels that seem to be legitimately unbeatable, and you don't mind all the other caveats I've covered, then yes! There's a good enough amount of stuff to like here. But definitely not at full price. The vast majority of players won't get $20 worth of playtime from this. Just keep in mind that, despite its extremely long development time, it's still an unpolished mess of a game. I've had fun, but I've also had a fair bit of boredom, lots of disappointment, and a huge amount of pointless frustration. [i]Note: I also have about 2 hours on the EGS version.[/i]