ZeusDeeGoose's 1 Year + 50 Follower Celebration, hope you enjoy the review!

On April 27th, 2023, a young and scrappy little spirit named “zeusdeegoose” would enter the realm dubbed Backloggd. Hot off the trails of a game that infuriated him to no end, he started to write. The words echoed in his mind. “Ragequit on World 3 Boss. There was much frustration during my time with the game and as a whole, it leaves a lot to be desired.” This would become the start of something greater, and spiraled into nearly a hundred reviews spanning across several games. Life was simple for him, and he was happy. This was until a fateful day. On February 22nd, he was reminded of his not so distant past. It haunted him to no avail, but he knew what he had to do. So, he started to write. And write, and write, and write. With his demons finally sealed off, he now rests knowing well that the task has been completed. What was on this pact? You shall find out, soon enough.

If you didn't know, Super Meat Boy was the indie darling from Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, and Danny Baranowsky, who did the music. It was supposed to be a one-and-done platformer, with McMillen and Refenes have stated that a sequel was unlikely, at least until 2015, where they said that it could happen eventually, after Forever released. At GDC 2011, Tommy began prototyping for what would become Super Meat Boy Forever. And thus, started the 9 year long agony. Damny left in around 2015, and Edmund eventually left in 2017, leaving only Tommy. Development was essentially reset, with a new goal in mind. This time, however, Forever was bulked up to be the sequel to Super Meat Boy that EVERYONE was waiting for. And after numerous delays, Forever was finally released on December 23rd, 2020… to no avail. Critics gave a lukewarm reception to the game. There were some 9/10s, a concerning amount of 8/10’s, but a majority of critics were in the yellow on this game. Meanwhile, the Meat Boy fans who’ve been waiting for 9 fucking years with no game were understandably pretty pissed off. But they weren't just upset. They were FLABBERGASTED at how bad the game actually was. I was genuinely curious. Could this game be that horrendous? I wanted to buy it, but due to the Epic Games deal, I held off on it until 2023, where I finished Super Meat Boy, and then I bought Forever almost immediately afterwards. My feelings were almost entirely negative, and after a while, I straight up refunded the game. With no regrets, I moved on to other, better games. And that brings us to today. Where it was free on Epic Games for a week (Fuck Fallout ig). And, as a celebration for gaining over 50 followers on this site, and as well as being the first game I ever logged here, I guess there’s no better time to FINALLY re-review Super Meat Boy Forever. SO, after a long period of waiting, Super Meat Boy Forever is finally getting the long ass review treatment it deserves. Let’s-a-go.

Right off the bat, I do have a few compliments before we get into the absolute slaughterhouse that is this game. First off, the presentation and music of the game is actually pretty decent. A minor issue I had with Super Meat Boy is that while the art was good, the game didn’t have a very punchy style. Super Meat Boy Forever fixes this. Each asset has a clearly defined outline, making it easier to distinguish different things from another. It doesn’t look as good as the prototype, which had Edmund’s art style as Newgrounds-y as ever, but what are you going to do, I guess. The main menu is fucking intense, too. Solid music, neat animations, it’s great. On that note, the music is mostly alright. Solid beat, okay instrumentation. I think my favorite one has to be World 3 Light, overall. Once again, it can’t top Danny B, but I can’t see how you could replicate that original style. On the gameplay side of things, I really love the idea of the fist punch. Had this game not’ve been an autorunner, I’m sure it would’ve been a solid addition to platforming.

Aaaaaand this is the reason why Super Meat Boy Forever is so hated within the community. The auto-running mechanic is where nearly all of the faults of this game lie within, and I wish I was joking. Super Meat Boy Forever is the first game that has made me simultaneously bored and frustrated. The auto-running, straight to the point, completely hinders what the original game tries to do, and this would not be a problem for a little spin-off game, but when you blow it up to a goddamn sequel it just doesn't work. Comparing the controls of Super Meat Boy compared to Forever is like comparing a huge mansion to an apartment. In Super Meat Boy, you had a large degree of control, and it felt almost perfect. Sure, you stopped oddly fast, and some say it might be too fast, but simply seeing how far you can stretch the game's controls to do what you wanted was a massive appeal of the first game. Quite literally, in fact, because of the “Quantum Mario” replays system, encouraging speedrunning. So comparing it to Super Meat Boy Forever really shows how flawed this game is from the start. In Super Meat Boy, you could always take levels at your own pace. If you died, it was no issue. You respawn, and try again until you won. In Forever, you're constantly moving and it just gets annoying. Overshot your jump ever so slightly and want to correct it? TOO BAD, FUCK YOU. This issue permeates throughout the entire game and it just feels frustrating each time it happens. It's simply impossible to correct yourself, and while this wouldn't be an issue if the level design was factored with this in mind, it often expects you to be able to do some pretty damn tight platforming, combined with the fact that it forces you to deliberately fight against the main point of the game, the auto-running. What do you have to assist you in these masterfully crafted levels? A punch and a dive kick. Admittedly the punch is somewhat satisfying to use, but it feels pretty imprecise when it comes to platforming. The hitbox could be just a little bigger, I guess? And then you have the dive kick, which isn't used much at all. Now, the second biggest issue with the game. The motherfucking level design. Not only did I mention why the controls suck ass to begin with, this is compounded with the very, very poor level design. Combined with the aforementioned issues with the controls, the level design doesn't feel built around them. Each death that I had never felt genuine. Compared to other contemporary platformers like Celeste and the like, 99% of the deaths I had felt like I had to memorize the level just to succeed, when it was unclear to begin with on what to do. Some levels I even found straight up impossible, as far as I know. It's even hard to pick out a specific level, because all of them felt like I was just going through the motions. No rhyme nor reason, they just were. In the original game, I could remember almost every level because they were all distincive and cohesively designed. Not to mention, they were actually fun and tested your skills. Super Meat Boy Forever on the other hand, shows you one gimmick and just keeps milking it, without any fun behind it. It feels like a generic Mario Maker level with how everything was laid out. Yeah, the original had gimmicks, but they were mostly well designed and all distinctive from one another, not to mention they added to the platforming challenge in a genuine way.. Forever just feels so limited in comparison. Like, change the direction of my punch, slow motion, it's all just so bland. Not to mention some of these are literally copy pasted. The weird, translucent spikes that put you on a timer? Yeah, how about gas that does the same thing? The levels are also ridiculously long, too. Super Meat Boy was a very fast paced game. Most levels were less than 30 seconds to exacerbate the speed of the game, and they were also very replayable, with the speedrun community thriving to this day. Forever’s levels can take over 5 minutes at times, and by the time I was done with a level, I felt really burnt out. Not to mention, like the original, they have a replay system that absolutely no one would use? It's supposed to be for speedruns and whatnot, but… it's a randomly generated autorunner. How do you even compare times at that point? It would be up to Lady Luck. And also, speedrunning sucks btw. It's just “spam punch, dive” over and over again, and it just hurts your wrist at some point. Oh yeah, did I neglect to mention the quite literally randomly generated level design? Yeah, I'm not kidding. When you create a new save, you get to choose the seed which bases your levels on. It's a concept I'm somewhat mixed on, because the levels I did get between seperate saves felt completely different, but at the same time, randomized levels weren't necessary and contributed to a poor difficulty curve. It's a relatively small point, but one you can decide if it's bad or not. What isn't randomly generated is the bosses, and just like Super Meat Boy, it is still my low point of the game. Unlike Super Meat Boy, however, Forever's bosses are just straight up awful. It once again runs into the issues that come with the auto-running genre. A lot of these bosses will make you want to snap your controller in two. They require so many do-or-die scenarios that they feel like luck half of the time. Once a, Super Meat Boy exemplified the core elements of the game, by requiring good platforming skills, which is all but absent in Forever. In Forever, the average boss goes like this. Take down it's shield. Do damage to boss, but not too much, lest you die to the boss’s shield. Rinse and repeat and it’s just not fun. This was my ultimate breaking point with the game. I got to the final boss, I had zero idea what to do, so I straight up uninstalled the game. I was DONE. I didn’t feel like playing anymore because it was an utter waste of my time. I have so many games I have to play on Epic, but this? Nah.

This game feels like it wants to be the genre defining game that Super Meat Boy once was, but in the end, forms a soulless husk of what Meat Boy once was. This is what happens when you blow a simple phone game up to the size of a full blown sequel. And I know I’ve been comparing it a lot to Super Meat Boy, and it’s unfair I guess, considering how good it was, but even detached from Super Meat Boy, Forever remains as a largely unenjoyable experience. Unfortunately, we’ll never know if a true sequel will ever be made, because Tommy has stated that a return to the platforming goodness of the original was unlikely. And until then, that’s how it’s gonna stay for the end of time.

I want to thank everybody for the constant support over the last year. I’ve had a lot of fun writing these overtly long reviews, and I hope you’ve had just as much fun reading them. Here’s to another year of long ass game reviews, have yourself a good one, and take care!

My opinion on the Zero games have been somewhat contrarian. Zero 1 was my second favorite game in the Zero series, 2 was a (somewhat small) step back for me, and 3 is the only one in which I hold the majority opinion, in that it's the best Mega Man game. From what I can gather, I'm in the minority when I say that Zero 4 is the absolute worst of the Zero games. There's just so much wrong with Zero 4. Just, good god. This game is the definition of “If it isn't broken, don't fix it”, and its new and reworked mechanics leaves me frustrated, longing for the mechanics from Zero 3. First off, probably the least offensive change here. The Cyber Elves from Zero 3 are now just one Cyber Elf, and you level it up, which allows you to choose different cyber elves (although you get one at a time). As someone who barely used the cyber elves in all of the Zero games, due to ranking requirements (which I'll get to later with this game), this personally didn't phase me too much. It wasn't a big hassle to get used to, and I actually found it a little easier to follow than the Satellite Elves from Zero 3. Not to say that I necessarily prefer Zero 4’s system, but this is one of the few somewhat positive changes I found to Zero 4. Almost everything from here on out is downhill. Zero 4 introduces the crafting system, and is how you get your body parts in this game. By defeating enemies, you get a random part from them, which is used in the crafting. However, there's almost no indication on how to craft anything of use. 99% of the time, you'll just get a junk part, so I said “Fuck it” and went to the StrategyWiki. Just do this, it'll make your life so much easier. What Zero 4 also changed is how you get access to the elements, and on paper it's not a terrible idea. Zero 4 gives you 8 bosses to select at the start, so it wouldn't make sense to just have 3 randomly placed elements out of the 8 bosses. But at the same time, the way you use the elements is so impractical. The elements are now infused with the EX skills, which isn’t a great idea because the EX skills were to simply add to your overall moveset and combat capabilities, and relying on them for weaknesses is just a really, really terrible idea. Mega Man Zero 2 and 3 NEVER forced you to go for the EX skills if you didn’t want to, or couldn’t. You still had the charged Buster and Saber shots if you needed to use an element. Zero 4 however, essentially requires you to get it if you want to be taking down these bosses, lest it takes decades just to kill a single fucking boss. And somehow, someway, it gets even worse. First off, how you get the skills is dumb to begin with. One of the silliest gameplay mechanics I've seen in gaming is the FUCKING WEATHER SYSTEM. I AM NOT SHITTING YOU, the fucking Weather of a stage impacts if you can even go through the weakness chain to begin with. Each stage has 2 weather settings, one in which the weather is favorable, the other is better for the enemy. You have to play on the unfavorable stage to get the skill, but that’s not all. The weather changes the stage itself too. It's not just cosmetic. And 99% of the time, the level is just designed to piss you off. Doing an all EX Skills is a fucking nightmare and a half for this game. You’re practically forced into it either way, so I ended up suffering and doing every mission with unfavorable weather. It sucked, needless to say. It’s just so perplexing on why they chose weather of all things. I could imagine some people going in blind and finding an inconsistent difficulty curve thanks to the randomized weather. The weather system also means that your rank is essentially useless now, and lowers the skill ceiling from literally every other Zero game. A replacement wouldn’t been nice, but oh well. That also brings me to the stage design, which is absolutely garbage. I don’t know if the original level designers were affiliated with Zero 4 at all, but this is more irritating than fucking Mega Man 1. Compounded with the level design issues of the weather system, is the lact of a solid third weapon. For context, Zero 1 had the Triple Rod, which was a great addition to the combat. Zero 2 had the Chain Rod, a decently useful platforming that was a little bit finicky to use. Zero 3 had the Recoil Rod, which took the best parts of the Triple Rod and Chain Rod, being a great addition to combat and exploration. Zero 4 attempts to continue this tradition with the Zero Knuckle, rest in peace Shield Boomerang, which fails at both the things that the Recoil Rod exceeds at. It’s almost entirely optional, too. I only used it a grand total of two times in my entire playthrough; once to get an actually well hidden subtank, and once in the final set of levels. And it sucks in combat, as it allows you to steal the weapons of other enemies, but it’s pathetic. It does pitiful damage, and overall you’re just better off sticking with the Ol’ Reliable, the Z Saber and Buster combo. Back on the topic of level design, Zero 4’s levels are filled with gimmicks that don’t even enhance the quality of the stage, once again just to piss you off. The sun overheating you, dealing almost half your health bar? Sure! Insta-kill crushing blocks that are near pixel perfect to dodge over and over again? Why not? Long strands of vines which block your path that constantly respawn? Goddamn, they’re pulling out all the stops with this game! The level design in Zero 4 is a major downgrade from any Zero game preceding it, and it’s actually infuriating how hard this game drops the ball when it shouldn’t. Zero 3 was nearly PERFECT in gameplay, with few falters in game balance and challenge. Zero 4 just feels like scrapped mechanics from Zero 3, and I really want to love this game. I’ve loved (or at least respect) all of the games in the Zero series, but Zero 4 just doesn’t do anything right to be worth a playthrough. Zero 4 is a disappointing conclusion to the Red Bomber’s legacy, with poorly thought out mechanics holding it back constantly, and poor level design to boot. I would’ve personally suggested skipping it, if it weren’t for the fact that it’s the conclusion to Zero’s saga, so idk. Do whatever you want. I got all of the Steam achievements, and I will never touch Zero 4 for the foreseeable future. Have a good night.

I have gone on record saying that I firmly believe that Zero 1 is better than 2. I first tried playing the DS version of Zero 2 on the Mega Man Zero Collection, and this time I tried the Switch version, which has the save state checkpoints, because some of my issues with Zero II came with its rather obnoxious difficulty. Unfortunately however, my opinion on Zero II hasn't changed much from the last time I played it. I find Zero 2 to be a downgrade in several ways, first being the level design. I have very mixed opinions on Zero 2’s level design. On one hand, Zero 2 eliminates most of the cheap stuff about Zero 1’s level design, but it's bogged down by some really finicky gimmicks. Zero 1’s level design didn't have many gimmicks from what I remember, but Zero 2 really dives into this concept a whole lot more, to mediocre results. The level concepts are mostly fine, but in execution they're more tedious than fun. For example, the factory has you hitting bombs to explode areas of a wall, but more often than not, the bombs don't travel where you want them to go, which gets annoying pretty fast. Occasionally, the level design does actually take good advantage of the gimmicks, however. For example, in the Arctic stage, the ice is used in the intro to build up momentum so you can get a Cyber Elf, which is a nice test of skills. But examples of this are few and far between, unfortunately. The level design also occasionally uses the Chain Rod, a hook shot that just feels so god awful to use. It transfers your momentum awfully, and it just feels forced whenever used. You also have to use it in a lot of do-or-die scenarios, and combined with the poor momentum translation, it gets annoying really fast. This is kind of a nitpick and doesn't make sense with Zero 2’s levels, but something I really liked about Zero 1 is the interconnected world. Not only did this encourage exploration outside of levels so you could memorize the layout before heading into the mission, but it gave Zero 1 a great sense of worldbuilding. It made all the stages feel like they mattered, but this is all but gone in Zero 2. Once again, since you teleport to stages in Zero 2, it wouldn't make sense, but then again, Mega Man X did this, even though each area wasn't interconnected. Once again, a nitpick, but still. My mixed opinions of the stage design also translates into the bosses, unfortunately. They're not awful, but some of these fights get super fucking annoying. Jesus christ, actually ASS FUCK the Phoenix boss, and I hope it never rises from the ashes of hell ever again.

Occasionally, Zero 2 can be an improvement over its predecessor. For one, the level up system from Zero 1 is much, much faster, cutting down on the grinding in the game. A much needed improvement overall. I also like the forms and EX Skills, as well as the fact that the Sword now ignores i-frames, which kind of made it harder to go back to Zero 1 TBH. But in my humble opinion, Zero 2 is a bit of a step back from Zero 1. It's not awful, but once I beat it the first time, it felt like a lot could've been done better.

While I beat Devil May Cry first, I'm reviewing this one now as it's the most fresh in my mind. Devil May Cry 2 is the infamous sequel to Devil May Cry, a game which had its own share of problems, but was overall enjoyable. Devil May Cry 2 on the other hand, has good gameplay on paper, but in execution, it plays a whole lot worse. Starting off, the improvements.

The amulets were a cool idea, and you can upgrade your weapons. Oh, and you can quick swap guns, now, and the controls are ever so slightly better.

Alright, now the downsides. For one, DMC2 is absolutely WAAAAAAAAAY too easy. DMC wasn't too difficult, but if you weren't prepared, you could easily die. DMC2 feels patronizing in comparison. If you've ever heard of DMC2, you've heard of how infamously overpowered guns are, and it's ALL true. Guns tear through enemies in this game, and also juggle enemies. Swords are nigh useless in this game because there feels like there's little combo game here. Unlike the delay based systems of DMC1 (ex. Attack, Attack, Small Delay, Attack), DMC2 has the player hold the stick in a specific direction to pull off an attack (ex Attack, Attack, hold Left, Attack). I didn't even know this was possible until the 5th mission; I had to look it up on the wiki. And even then, most of the attacks push away your enemy instead of keeping them in one spot, which is usually the opposite of what you want. And even if you did want to use the moves, half of the time it doesn't even work, but thankfully this game doesn't rank you based on the variety of moves you use, but rather how long you can keep up the damage, and how much you dodge attacks. So in the end, who should give a flying fuck about the swords? Half of the bosses encourage using guns anyways, and if ANYONE knows ANYTHING about DMC2’s awful boss design, it's the fucking INFESTED CHOPPER. I'm serious, 90% of the battle is just you shooting at the chopper off-screen, dodging easy ass bullets, and it gets old and repetitive FAST. You do this for about 2 minutes, and it's really irritating. The other bosses also lack the satisfaction of DMC1’s boss design; they're far too easy to bruteforce. The only time I actually died to a boss was the Infested Chopper fight, not even to the boss itself, it was that burning building climb with me trying for over a minute to get on a platform that I fell off of, because DMC ain't no Mario 64, that's for sure. Could they not cut that shit out from DMC1? Aaaand that's where I gave up essentially. It wasn't really fun to begin with, and the Infested Chopper as well as several other DMC fans tell me that DMC2 isn't worth finishing. I didn't even try out Lucia for god’s sake, I was just that uninterested. DMC2 is absolutely not worth any more of my time, and it's probably gonna stay that way for a while.