Delicious FruitFruitless's Profile
Send a PMJoined on: Mar 16, 2020
Bio:
Hi everyone, I'm Fruitless, that guy you're probably familiar with by now for some reason or another. I'm just here trying to have some fun and hopefully not cause any problems.
My rating scale works in intervals of 2 points, and my difficulty scale works in intervals of 5.
-10/10: absolute must play, reserved for only the highest quality fangames out there
-8/10: high recommendation, but not quite among the best of the best
-6/10: a perfectly fine and well-made game, but with some flaws holding it back
-4/10: an ok game, but I can't guarantee you'll enjoy it
-2/10: outright bad and unfun, and an experience that I just can't recommend to most people
-0/10: absolute garbage, reserved for only the lowest quality fangames out there
Additionally, my favorites list is reserved for games I felt were an 8/10 or higher.
I try not to be too harsh of a critic, although I do tend to internalize a game's flaws more than its strengths, especially with higher difficulty fangames, so that likely affects my reviews. I've tried to adjust my ratings to get around this problem, but keep in mind that this is a thing that does happen.
I'm also not good with words in general, so if there is something I liked or didn't like about a game, I might not be able to explain it well or why I felt the way I did. I still try to explain if you would like the game or not, but it's still something I struggle to get across, so keep that in mind too.
One of my goals as a reviewer is to be consistent in what I find fun between games, although other factors or biases may creep in sometimes. I try to avoid that happening, but just keep in mind that it is a thing that happens sometimes.
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792 Ratings!
217 Reviews!
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Fruitless
For: I wanna stop the Simulation
For: I wanna stop the Simulation
It's been a wild ride to get to this point, but let's see just how this ride ends.
I Wanna Stop The Simulation was the final game in the Marathon series, before WannaFest 22 came in and continued it. It has some pretty big shoes to fill following the rest of the series, and I'd say it fills those shoes very well, and then some.
-The first stage is quite an unusual stage for this series, based on RunMan: Race Around the World. Here, you can't actually die, so instead you just dash forward through all the enemies in your path. You can also bounce off the walls, which you'll need to do to reach certain parts of the stage. It's a lot of fun to just bounce around without a care in the world, and it's a very easy stage overall, until the end where you face off against Chompy. This isn't an actual boss, though, since you're just supposed to reach the end before he eats you. This one actually requires to learn the layout of the stage, resulting in an actual challenge this time, but it's still easy to learn.
-And now for yet another Mario stage, this time based on Super Mario Bros. 2. As is usual for the Mario stage in this series, this stage brings out the most traps out of any stage in the game, and this time it goes all out with them. This stage never stops with the creativity of the traps, containing much more variety than the series has shown before. As for the gameplay besides that, you have the usual mechanic of picking things out of the ground to throw at enemies, or picking up the enemies themselves. However, I'd say more of the stage is spent just doing regular platforming, which I thought was fun too, dealing with moving platforms and Beezos flying at you from the sides. The stage ends with a boss fight against Birdo, who is the exact same as her original SMB2 version...until you enter phase 2, at which point Mecha Birdo suddenly appears, in a direct reference to I Wanna Be The Guy. It's similar to the original fight from that game, but with enough differences to stand out as its own thing. The biggest difference being the last phase, where you pluck bombs out of the giant egg platforms she shoots at you and shoot them back at her. Great reference to the original, and great fight.
-Following that is a stage based on Baba is You, and anyone who's played that game knows exactly what that means. There are words dictating the behavior of everything—yes, everything—in the screen, but you can rearrange these words to change how the map works. At first, this stage doesn't really focus on mind-bending puzzles as much as it does the platforming itself, and while some Baba fans might see this as a disappointment, I still thought it was a fine take on that game. However, by the second half, it leans far more into the puzzle aspect, requiring a lot more back and forth with the various rules of the screens. If you're looking for actual focus on puzzles all the way through, then there was actually a recent release, I Wanna Be The Baba, which I've heard does exactly that, so maybe check that out if this stage doesn't sound like enough to you. Back to this game, surprisingly for a puzzle stage, there's a boss at the end...or more accurately, a "boos", since Ghost is Boos, I guess. Anyway, the boss, or uh, "boos", mostly stays at the top of the screen, forcing you to jump on other things it shoots out to get enough height to reach it. It's generally a pretty open fight despite the smaller arena, so the attacks are challenging but fair, not to mention creative.
-Onto the main alternate physics stage for this game, based on The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. This stage is top-down instead of the usual view, and sees you going through a bunch of rooms in a row shooting tears at enemies and collecting upgrades. Unfortunately, the rooms aren't randomized like in the original game, although supposedly the items you get are, unless it's just a difference between versions. Being based on The Binding of Isaac, obviously the physics are kind of slippery, but generally the rooms aren't precise enough that this would be an issue. The enemies you fight against are pretty basic, just moving around and occasionally shooting projectiles at you, but the way they're laid out makes for varied and interesting level design. There's also more references to other fangames here, whether in the items you collect, or the bosses of the stage, and even some of the secret enemies you can encounter in some of the rooms. Oh right, the bosses of this stage. Well, I got the upgrades earlier, so I didn't get to experience much of what these have to offer, but they also looked pretty basic. Biff just jumps around the room and fires off random bursts of bullets, and The Elephant Crew is more interesting, due to each boss having their own attack pattern and YoYoYoDude even turning invisible, but it's still easy with the scrMakeCircle upgrade.
-And next comes Spelunky, a game I had basically no interest in checking out in the past, so it was interesting to play through this. Here, you have a whip instead of a gun, and can pick things up off the ground, which can both be used to defeat enemies or bait traps, which can also be picked up and used. Given the arrow traps being more visible and all the same thing, I was expecting to not enjoy this, but I actually did, due to them being placed in areas that aren't too far in the way, or that are fun to bait from afar. That's not all, though, since while you lose your regular gun, you get an even bigger one instead! Unfortunately only in some screens, and not all of them, but it's still fun to use, since not only does it hit hard, but it's also a great movement tool thanks to the knockback. Watch out, though, since this knockback is so strong that it could end up killing you if you aren't careful. After that is the boss fight with Mr. Ribbit, which also makes use of this gun. Both uses of the gun are showcased here, as you can't damage him unless you're on the same part of the screen as him, and some attacks are harder to dodge on certain parts of the screen too. Said attacks are also fun, and make use of the unusual arena and choice of weapon well. Except surprise, there's a second phase! You get to bring the gun into here too, but not to shoot the boss, since it's an avoidance. The attacks here are also well-designed, and there's even some extra indicators in some attacks like the bouncing bubbles to keep you from getting caught off-guard in an unfair situation.
-And now Contra! Although your hitbox is bigger in this stage to match that game, your physics are the same (I think), except for the ability to shoot in 8 directions. This was the best part of the Metroid stage in the last game, so I'm glad they brought it back here. It's not just the regular gun, though, as you also get some upgrades in the stage that you can collect to increase your power. The curving shot is the only one that is worse to use, but other than that, the rest of these upgrades really increase your power to kick some ass. As for the enemies themselves, they're placed well, being fun to plow through without being too overwhelming. However, I do remember it getting kind of crowded near the end, it's been a while since I played this so I might be remembering this wrong too. Anyway, the boss is the Tower of Death, which throws a bunch of attacks at you at once, including some enemies from the stage too. The first phase is just a warm-up, though, as the second phase throws even more at you, including chasing after you and making you go backwards through the stage. Even though the time limit isn't particularly tight, it's still a tense fight, while not being unfair.
-Up next is Super Castlevania 4, easily the best stage in the game, and one of the best stages in the series overall. The reason for this is the stage's main gimmick: the whip. This is a stronger weapon than the whip you got back in the Spelunky stage, since you can aim it in multiple directions, which I'm glad this game does for 2 stages in a row. Still, the whip is the only thing you get here, meaning all the enemies can be fought from close range, and all the attacks are designed around this fact to ensure you're able to do this. But that's not all the whip can do, as there are blue orb things around the stage that you can grab with the whip to go flying towards them. I know this is gonna be a controversial opinion, but this is another gimmick this game does super well, as the routes you get led through with this are always super satisfying. After that stage is the boss fight against Simon Belmont, meaning a battle of whip versus whip. He does have a couple of other attacks using his other weapons, but it's mostly close-range combat and knowing when not to be in his face. Wherever you are on the screen, though, it's still a fun fight. This fight also has a phase 2, where you fall down a pit and have to ride a platform back up while dodging a bunch of enemies coming at you. It might seem like a lot, but it's actually more simple than you would think, I got it on my first try. Overall fantastic stage, now I'm tempted to check out the Christmas Deliveries series of games from this same maker.
-And now for the last stage, which takes a bunch of gimmicks from the previous Marathon games and makes new screens out of them. These are generally the same design as the original stages, so if you liked those stages, you'll like this one too. If you don't, though...let's just say you will feel likewise here too. I say this because one of the stages chosen is the Mega Man X stage from I Wanna Find A Cure, janky minecarts and all. The rest of the choices here are good though, I like them just as much as I liked the originals. It's not just the stage that takes from the previous games though, as this also happens in the boss fight against...the games themselves. These fights take from the final bosses of their respective games, with some status effects added by the command prompt in the corner. It's a fun spin on the original bosses, although Glitch Kid's platform attack did feel kind of messy sometimes. The Bow was at least easier to reliably hit than before, so there's that. After that is the true final boss of this game, Bonzi. He's similar to the Bow in that you have to shoot at his bullets to hit him, but far more of his bullets will work for that than with that boss. It's overall a very random fight, but the randomness was very balanced, since you can just shoot directly through the bullets that would otherwise wall you. The fight ends with the Marathon games coming back again, and this part was also designed well, apart from a really bad transition to the I Wanna Run The Marathon attack.
And that's the main series done! Obviously WannaFest 22 exists, but that's by a different team, so that's a different thing, I guess. For this series, though, this was a great game to end it on. Great gameplay, great production value, great creativity, and I didn't even mention all the easter eggs hiding in the game. It's definitely worthy of being the finale to this series, and I would absolutely recommend it along with that series, or just on its own too.
[0] Likes
I Wanna Stop The Simulation was the final game in the Marathon series, before WannaFest 22 came in and continued it. It has some pretty big shoes to fill following the rest of the series, and I'd say it fills those shoes very well, and then some.
-The first stage is quite an unusual stage for this series, based on RunMan: Race Around the World. Here, you can't actually die, so instead you just dash forward through all the enemies in your path. You can also bounce off the walls, which you'll need to do to reach certain parts of the stage. It's a lot of fun to just bounce around without a care in the world, and it's a very easy stage overall, until the end where you face off against Chompy. This isn't an actual boss, though, since you're just supposed to reach the end before he eats you. This one actually requires to learn the layout of the stage, resulting in an actual challenge this time, but it's still easy to learn.
-And now for yet another Mario stage, this time based on Super Mario Bros. 2. As is usual for the Mario stage in this series, this stage brings out the most traps out of any stage in the game, and this time it goes all out with them. This stage never stops with the creativity of the traps, containing much more variety than the series has shown before. As for the gameplay besides that, you have the usual mechanic of picking things out of the ground to throw at enemies, or picking up the enemies themselves. However, I'd say more of the stage is spent just doing regular platforming, which I thought was fun too, dealing with moving platforms and Beezos flying at you from the sides. The stage ends with a boss fight against Birdo, who is the exact same as her original SMB2 version...until you enter phase 2, at which point Mecha Birdo suddenly appears, in a direct reference to I Wanna Be The Guy. It's similar to the original fight from that game, but with enough differences to stand out as its own thing. The biggest difference being the last phase, where you pluck bombs out of the giant egg platforms she shoots at you and shoot them back at her. Great reference to the original, and great fight.
-Following that is a stage based on Baba is You, and anyone who's played that game knows exactly what that means. There are words dictating the behavior of everything—yes, everything—in the screen, but you can rearrange these words to change how the map works. At first, this stage doesn't really focus on mind-bending puzzles as much as it does the platforming itself, and while some Baba fans might see this as a disappointment, I still thought it was a fine take on that game. However, by the second half, it leans far more into the puzzle aspect, requiring a lot more back and forth with the various rules of the screens. If you're looking for actual focus on puzzles all the way through, then there was actually a recent release, I Wanna Be The Baba, which I've heard does exactly that, so maybe check that out if this stage doesn't sound like enough to you. Back to this game, surprisingly for a puzzle stage, there's a boss at the end...or more accurately, a "boos", since Ghost is Boos, I guess. Anyway, the boss, or uh, "boos", mostly stays at the top of the screen, forcing you to jump on other things it shoots out to get enough height to reach it. It's generally a pretty open fight despite the smaller arena, so the attacks are challenging but fair, not to mention creative.
-Onto the main alternate physics stage for this game, based on The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. This stage is top-down instead of the usual view, and sees you going through a bunch of rooms in a row shooting tears at enemies and collecting upgrades. Unfortunately, the rooms aren't randomized like in the original game, although supposedly the items you get are, unless it's just a difference between versions. Being based on The Binding of Isaac, obviously the physics are kind of slippery, but generally the rooms aren't precise enough that this would be an issue. The enemies you fight against are pretty basic, just moving around and occasionally shooting projectiles at you, but the way they're laid out makes for varied and interesting level design. There's also more references to other fangames here, whether in the items you collect, or the bosses of the stage, and even some of the secret enemies you can encounter in some of the rooms. Oh right, the bosses of this stage. Well, I got the upgrades earlier, so I didn't get to experience much of what these have to offer, but they also looked pretty basic. Biff just jumps around the room and fires off random bursts of bullets, and The Elephant Crew is more interesting, due to each boss having their own attack pattern and YoYoYoDude even turning invisible, but it's still easy with the scrMakeCircle upgrade.
-And next comes Spelunky, a game I had basically no interest in checking out in the past, so it was interesting to play through this. Here, you have a whip instead of a gun, and can pick things up off the ground, which can both be used to defeat enemies or bait traps, which can also be picked up and used. Given the arrow traps being more visible and all the same thing, I was expecting to not enjoy this, but I actually did, due to them being placed in areas that aren't too far in the way, or that are fun to bait from afar. That's not all, though, since while you lose your regular gun, you get an even bigger one instead! Unfortunately only in some screens, and not all of them, but it's still fun to use, since not only does it hit hard, but it's also a great movement tool thanks to the knockback. Watch out, though, since this knockback is so strong that it could end up killing you if you aren't careful. After that is the boss fight with Mr. Ribbit, which also makes use of this gun. Both uses of the gun are showcased here, as you can't damage him unless you're on the same part of the screen as him, and some attacks are harder to dodge on certain parts of the screen too. Said attacks are also fun, and make use of the unusual arena and choice of weapon well. Except surprise, there's a second phase! You get to bring the gun into here too, but not to shoot the boss, since it's an avoidance. The attacks here are also well-designed, and there's even some extra indicators in some attacks like the bouncing bubbles to keep you from getting caught off-guard in an unfair situation.
-And now Contra! Although your hitbox is bigger in this stage to match that game, your physics are the same (I think), except for the ability to shoot in 8 directions. This was the best part of the Metroid stage in the last game, so I'm glad they brought it back here. It's not just the regular gun, though, as you also get some upgrades in the stage that you can collect to increase your power. The curving shot is the only one that is worse to use, but other than that, the rest of these upgrades really increase your power to kick some ass. As for the enemies themselves, they're placed well, being fun to plow through without being too overwhelming. However, I do remember it getting kind of crowded near the end, it's been a while since I played this so I might be remembering this wrong too. Anyway, the boss is the Tower of Death, which throws a bunch of attacks at you at once, including some enemies from the stage too. The first phase is just a warm-up, though, as the second phase throws even more at you, including chasing after you and making you go backwards through the stage. Even though the time limit isn't particularly tight, it's still a tense fight, while not being unfair.
-Up next is Super Castlevania 4, easily the best stage in the game, and one of the best stages in the series overall. The reason for this is the stage's main gimmick: the whip. This is a stronger weapon than the whip you got back in the Spelunky stage, since you can aim it in multiple directions, which I'm glad this game does for 2 stages in a row. Still, the whip is the only thing you get here, meaning all the enemies can be fought from close range, and all the attacks are designed around this fact to ensure you're able to do this. But that's not all the whip can do, as there are blue orb things around the stage that you can grab with the whip to go flying towards them. I know this is gonna be a controversial opinion, but this is another gimmick this game does super well, as the routes you get led through with this are always super satisfying. After that stage is the boss fight against Simon Belmont, meaning a battle of whip versus whip. He does have a couple of other attacks using his other weapons, but it's mostly close-range combat and knowing when not to be in his face. Wherever you are on the screen, though, it's still a fun fight. This fight also has a phase 2, where you fall down a pit and have to ride a platform back up while dodging a bunch of enemies coming at you. It might seem like a lot, but it's actually more simple than you would think, I got it on my first try. Overall fantastic stage, now I'm tempted to check out the Christmas Deliveries series of games from this same maker.
-And now for the last stage, which takes a bunch of gimmicks from the previous Marathon games and makes new screens out of them. These are generally the same design as the original stages, so if you liked those stages, you'll like this one too. If you don't, though...let's just say you will feel likewise here too. I say this because one of the stages chosen is the Mega Man X stage from I Wanna Find A Cure, janky minecarts and all. The rest of the choices here are good though, I like them just as much as I liked the originals. It's not just the stage that takes from the previous games though, as this also happens in the boss fight against...the games themselves. These fights take from the final bosses of their respective games, with some status effects added by the command prompt in the corner. It's a fun spin on the original bosses, although Glitch Kid's platform attack did feel kind of messy sometimes. The Bow was at least easier to reliably hit than before, so there's that. After that is the true final boss of this game, Bonzi. He's similar to the Bow in that you have to shoot at his bullets to hit him, but far more of his bullets will work for that than with that boss. It's overall a very random fight, but the randomness was very balanced, since you can just shoot directly through the bullets that would otherwise wall you. The fight ends with the Marathon games coming back again, and this part was also designed well, apart from a really bad transition to the I Wanna Run The Marathon attack.
And that's the main series done! Obviously WannaFest 22 exists, but that's by a different team, so that's a different thing, I guess. For this series, though, this was a great game to end it on. Great gameplay, great production value, great creativity, and I didn't even mention all the easter eggs hiding in the game. It's definitely worthy of being the finale to this series, and I would absolutely recommend it along with that series, or just on its own too.
Rating: 10.0 100
Difficulty: 55 55
May 14, 2026
Fruitless
For: I Wanna Find a Cure
For: I Wanna Find a Cure
Every great saga has to have a low point, and unfortunately we've reached that point right here.
I Wanna Find A Cure is the third game in the Marathon series, following up on 2 massive successes the prior 2 years. However, after those, we get this game, which unfortunately doesn't stack up to what we got in the past, instead giving us a lot of issues that are very hard to look past.
-After the introduction telling us why we're even going on this adventure, the game immediately starts into another Mario stage, this time based on Super Mario Bros. 3. This stage actually brings over a lot of mechanics from that game, from the slide, to more kicking enemies into blocks, to even the powerups. Unfortunately, the Tanooki leaf isn't used well at all, it's just used to slowly kick Spinies around. At least the rest of the level design is fun, with some more well laid-out cycle segments, not to mention actually making good use of the slide, despite that being a finnicky mechanic to use from what I remember, since it's been a while since I last played this game. And we can't forget about all the traps, especially that one trap on the white platform. The stage ends with a boss against...Princess Peach? And apparently she's a ghost, like Yoshi in the previous game. Whatever, the point is, the boss itself takes a bit of learning on some attacks, while others require you to be careful to not let the screen get too crowded. It is kind of a complicated boss, but I still like it.
-The next stage is based on Mega Man X, which also gives you a new ability, that being the dash. This is mapped to the control key and unfortunately not remappable, but control is still a good enough spot to put it. This being a Mega Man stage, there's also more enemies to fight, but unlike I Wanna Run The Marathon, you actually get to shoot them this time. The combat is the fun part of the stage, but there's also another mechanic to this stage, that being the minecarts you ride on. This is another part I don't like, since the movement of the minecarts is so erratic that even with the rail visuals, you can't calculate where you're gonna go on it, possibly leading you into an enemy or spike. The boss fight against Armored Armadillo also takes place on the minecart, but luckily it only moves forward in a straight line, letting you focus on only the attacks. Despite taking place on such a small minecart, it never feels too crowded, although I did pull off some absolutely stupid dodges during the clear attempt, including one abusing the semi-solid properties of the minecart.
-After that is a Cuphead stage, this game's major showcase of production value. All the old sprites are there in their hand-drawn glory, but also some new sprites drawn by RandomErik, based directly on popular fangames. Aside from the outlines looking really big by Cuphead standards, they look great and really fit into the world. As for the stage itself, it of course has some enemies to shoot at, but they also fire pink projectiles sometimes which you're able to parry. The mechanic did feel kind of hard to use mainly when it's a killer projectile instead of a regular non-killer parry object, but luckily it's rarely forced to use anywhere. Just shoot at the enemies from far away and you should be fine. As for the bosses, there are actually 2. The first one is Geezer, who throws a set of 3 other bosses at you, those being Kermit, HungryTag, and the Bread. They're all easy on their own, and Kermit even makes use of more parries, but the last one of these adds the Geezer virus on top of it which messed me up sometimes, and then you get a choke phase at the end which I thought was manageable. The second boss is Rubicante from I Wanna Be The Crimson, who can summon and turn into other かーにばる bosses, but also Demon Lord Biff for some reason. This one is more unpredictable than Geezer, since he can turn into any boss at any time, but aside from Scarmiglione bringing back parries again (which did feel more responsive than before) and Barbariccia being potentially bullshit at some points, it's a fun phase. There is a second part of this phase, mostly involving enemies filling the screen that you need to clean out, and more projectiles to parry if there's no other way through. Overall, great production value and great stage.
-The next stage is based on The End is Nigh, another precision platformer. It's one of the longer stages in the game, at just over 60 screens. Despite being based on such a notoriously difficult game, it's not actually that hard of a stage. The main gimmick here is that you can grab onto ledges to cross distances you wouldn't normally be able to, though other gimmicks like moving spikes, poison gas, and even moving ledges get added later. I feel like it is a bit too long, but at least it comes up with a lot of uses of these gimmicks during this time, while not being frustrating either. This stage doesn't have a proper boss, instead ending in a chase sequence against a giant wall. It's basically more of the same, but this time under a time limit, meaning it's just as much fun.
-Speaking of constantly moving forward, BIT.TRIP RUNNER is the next stage. Here, you're constantly running forward, and need to react to what's in front of you. You only get a single jump at first (you get a second one later), but you can also kick enemies when they're in your path, or just slide under them. Learning the movements is definitely the hardest part, as the camera is so zoomed in that you get very little time to react. Actually pulling them off is a lot better once you've already learned them, except for some moments like some screens just ending with a gate jump you have to do with an extended sliding hitbox. This stage doesn't end with a proper boss either, instead having an extended auto-run segment based on I Wanna Classic, also with the song "WINNING COME BACK!" by the pillows. The layout is unfortunately lifted directly from that game, but it's still a lot more readable than the rest of the stage, due to the camera being more zoomed out. Makes sense, since it is the longest part of the stage, after all.
-The next stage is another one with non-standard physics, based on Celeste. Here, you get the movement abilities from that game, mostly dashing and wall-jumps. For some of the least vanilla physics in this game, it feels surprisingly fluid, which is the most important part of a movement-based stage like this. As for the actual levels you go through with these physics, they're also fun. It starts out easier to help lean you into these new physics, before getting into actual challenges later. The levels use a lot of moving cycle objects in more intuitive places, but also a couple of other gimmicks like walls and floors that grow killers on them when you touch them. Combined with the dash mechanic, it's a stage with some really fun platforming to navigate around. The boss is yet another platforming stage instead of a proper boss for the third time in a row, just do more platforming like before but with Mr. Oshiro chasing you the whole time. He basically never appears in an unfair spot, making him a fun addition rather than a frustrating one.
-SUPER. FUCKING. METROID. You all knew this part was coming, it's the most infamous part of the game, to the point where the next game in the series, I Wanna Stop The Simulation, even added a line in the readme saying "No metroidvanias!" There's a very good reason for that: this is easily the longest stage in the game, taking up about half of the length of the game, compared to the other 7 areas. As for the stage itself, it's a Metroidvania, so you obviously go around collecting stuff to unlock more of the stage and make traversing through it easier. The map you travel through is also giant, so the saves you have to play through are also super long. Luckily, you also get HP to deal with it easier, and some of the upgrades even give you more of it. Good thing too, since some of the enemies can be annoying to deal with if there are too many of them in a single room, since a big cluster of enemies is really hard to dodge, especially with some enemies absolutely not being designed around group encounters like this. As for how the stage works as a Metroidvania, it definitely feels like one, since you start out feeling helpless and lost and eventually learn to get through the map more easily. However, I did get lost and have to consult a video sometimes, especially due to all the fake blocks all around the map. Plus, as the stage went on, I got tired of the map being so big after a while. Something that could have helped with this is a teleport item somewhat into the stage that makes it so you can warp between checkpoints you've already unlocked. This would come with the consequence of reducing re-exploration through old areas and making it easier to miss items, unless you're smart enough to look at the old rooms yourself. After that marathon of a stage (no pun intended), we finally get to the boss, Security Robot B.O.X. Assuming you collected all the items in the stage that will help here (increased damage, speed dash, and max HP, along with required ones like Ice Beam), it's a fun boss for the most part, with a lot of creative attacks that are rarely unfair, although bad RNG moments do pop up sometimes. Without all these upgrades, I'm not sure, but from what Plasma told me, it's not a very good experience. Even if you do get hit at some point in the fight, there is one attack that can spawn enemies, which are still capable of dropping health. There's also some intermission attacks, but they're mostly fair, assuming the previous attack doesn't decide to randomly screw you over. Finally, the last attack is really RNG-based, which is kind of a problem when you realize this attack is at the end of the fight.
-Finally, after all that, we get the final boss against the Bow. It's a 2-phase fight, with the first one taking place on solid ground, and the second one on a downward descent. Here, you have to dodge the red shots it shoots at you, while also redirecting its green shots back at it. The issue is when it decides to spawn green shots in the first place, not to mention if you're able to even react to it. In between that, there's some intermission attacks with a mini-boss you have to shoot at. There are all mostly fine, except for the snowman that can just spawn whatever whenever, resulting in bad RNG sometimes. As for the second phase, this is where the RNG starts to really become a problem. Here, you have to dodge some attacks from the boss on some rising platforms, as well as shoot a button to drive a stake into it when it's lined up with it. The problem is that the platforms are so small and move so fast as the fight goes on that some of the RNG attacks just become unfair on them. That's not to mention the fight just destroying your platforms at a later point, forcing you to roll the dice with the spawn location of the next ones. Finally, hitting the boss is also such a tight window that you can easily miss it, dragging this fight on for even longer. So yeah, overall not a very well-balanced fight to end the game on.
In theory, this game should have been something amazing, due to the production value and variety of mechanics being super high. However, the game we ended up getting just has too many flaws to be able to reach that level, whether those be janky mechanics, RNG garbage, horribly uneven pacing, you name it. Similarly to I Wanna Warp The Worlds, that doesn't make the game as a whole outright bad, just not as good as what came before. It's still a good game, but don't come in unless you're not expecting absolute perfection, or if you're already going through the Marathon games and made it up to here.
[1] Like
I Wanna Find A Cure is the third game in the Marathon series, following up on 2 massive successes the prior 2 years. However, after those, we get this game, which unfortunately doesn't stack up to what we got in the past, instead giving us a lot of issues that are very hard to look past.
-After the introduction telling us why we're even going on this adventure, the game immediately starts into another Mario stage, this time based on Super Mario Bros. 3. This stage actually brings over a lot of mechanics from that game, from the slide, to more kicking enemies into blocks, to even the powerups. Unfortunately, the Tanooki leaf isn't used well at all, it's just used to slowly kick Spinies around. At least the rest of the level design is fun, with some more well laid-out cycle segments, not to mention actually making good use of the slide, despite that being a finnicky mechanic to use from what I remember, since it's been a while since I last played this game. And we can't forget about all the traps, especially that one trap on the white platform. The stage ends with a boss against...Princess Peach? And apparently she's a ghost, like Yoshi in the previous game. Whatever, the point is, the boss itself takes a bit of learning on some attacks, while others require you to be careful to not let the screen get too crowded. It is kind of a complicated boss, but I still like it.
-The next stage is based on Mega Man X, which also gives you a new ability, that being the dash. This is mapped to the control key and unfortunately not remappable, but control is still a good enough spot to put it. This being a Mega Man stage, there's also more enemies to fight, but unlike I Wanna Run The Marathon, you actually get to shoot them this time. The combat is the fun part of the stage, but there's also another mechanic to this stage, that being the minecarts you ride on. This is another part I don't like, since the movement of the minecarts is so erratic that even with the rail visuals, you can't calculate where you're gonna go on it, possibly leading you into an enemy or spike. The boss fight against Armored Armadillo also takes place on the minecart, but luckily it only moves forward in a straight line, letting you focus on only the attacks. Despite taking place on such a small minecart, it never feels too crowded, although I did pull off some absolutely stupid dodges during the clear attempt, including one abusing the semi-solid properties of the minecart.
-After that is a Cuphead stage, this game's major showcase of production value. All the old sprites are there in their hand-drawn glory, but also some new sprites drawn by RandomErik, based directly on popular fangames. Aside from the outlines looking really big by Cuphead standards, they look great and really fit into the world. As for the stage itself, it of course has some enemies to shoot at, but they also fire pink projectiles sometimes which you're able to parry. The mechanic did feel kind of hard to use mainly when it's a killer projectile instead of a regular non-killer parry object, but luckily it's rarely forced to use anywhere. Just shoot at the enemies from far away and you should be fine. As for the bosses, there are actually 2. The first one is Geezer, who throws a set of 3 other bosses at you, those being Kermit, HungryTag, and the Bread. They're all easy on their own, and Kermit even makes use of more parries, but the last one of these adds the Geezer virus on top of it which messed me up sometimes, and then you get a choke phase at the end which I thought was manageable. The second boss is Rubicante from I Wanna Be The Crimson, who can summon and turn into other かーにばる bosses, but also Demon Lord Biff for some reason. This one is more unpredictable than Geezer, since he can turn into any boss at any time, but aside from Scarmiglione bringing back parries again (which did feel more responsive than before) and Barbariccia being potentially bullshit at some points, it's a fun phase. There is a second part of this phase, mostly involving enemies filling the screen that you need to clean out, and more projectiles to parry if there's no other way through. Overall, great production value and great stage.
-The next stage is based on The End is Nigh, another precision platformer. It's one of the longer stages in the game, at just over 60 screens. Despite being based on such a notoriously difficult game, it's not actually that hard of a stage. The main gimmick here is that you can grab onto ledges to cross distances you wouldn't normally be able to, though other gimmicks like moving spikes, poison gas, and even moving ledges get added later. I feel like it is a bit too long, but at least it comes up with a lot of uses of these gimmicks during this time, while not being frustrating either. This stage doesn't have a proper boss, instead ending in a chase sequence against a giant wall. It's basically more of the same, but this time under a time limit, meaning it's just as much fun.
-Speaking of constantly moving forward, BIT.TRIP RUNNER is the next stage. Here, you're constantly running forward, and need to react to what's in front of you. You only get a single jump at first (you get a second one later), but you can also kick enemies when they're in your path, or just slide under them. Learning the movements is definitely the hardest part, as the camera is so zoomed in that you get very little time to react. Actually pulling them off is a lot better once you've already learned them, except for some moments like some screens just ending with a gate jump you have to do with an extended sliding hitbox. This stage doesn't end with a proper boss either, instead having an extended auto-run segment based on I Wanna Classic, also with the song "WINNING COME BACK!" by the pillows. The layout is unfortunately lifted directly from that game, but it's still a lot more readable than the rest of the stage, due to the camera being more zoomed out. Makes sense, since it is the longest part of the stage, after all.
-The next stage is another one with non-standard physics, based on Celeste. Here, you get the movement abilities from that game, mostly dashing and wall-jumps. For some of the least vanilla physics in this game, it feels surprisingly fluid, which is the most important part of a movement-based stage like this. As for the actual levels you go through with these physics, they're also fun. It starts out easier to help lean you into these new physics, before getting into actual challenges later. The levels use a lot of moving cycle objects in more intuitive places, but also a couple of other gimmicks like walls and floors that grow killers on them when you touch them. Combined with the dash mechanic, it's a stage with some really fun platforming to navigate around. The boss is yet another platforming stage instead of a proper boss for the third time in a row, just do more platforming like before but with Mr. Oshiro chasing you the whole time. He basically never appears in an unfair spot, making him a fun addition rather than a frustrating one.
-SUPER. FUCKING. METROID. You all knew this part was coming, it's the most infamous part of the game, to the point where the next game in the series, I Wanna Stop The Simulation, even added a line in the readme saying "No metroidvanias!" There's a very good reason for that: this is easily the longest stage in the game, taking up about half of the length of the game, compared to the other 7 areas. As for the stage itself, it's a Metroidvania, so you obviously go around collecting stuff to unlock more of the stage and make traversing through it easier. The map you travel through is also giant, so the saves you have to play through are also super long. Luckily, you also get HP to deal with it easier, and some of the upgrades even give you more of it. Good thing too, since some of the enemies can be annoying to deal with if there are too many of them in a single room, since a big cluster of enemies is really hard to dodge, especially with some enemies absolutely not being designed around group encounters like this. As for how the stage works as a Metroidvania, it definitely feels like one, since you start out feeling helpless and lost and eventually learn to get through the map more easily. However, I did get lost and have to consult a video sometimes, especially due to all the fake blocks all around the map. Plus, as the stage went on, I got tired of the map being so big after a while. Something that could have helped with this is a teleport item somewhat into the stage that makes it so you can warp between checkpoints you've already unlocked. This would come with the consequence of reducing re-exploration through old areas and making it easier to miss items, unless you're smart enough to look at the old rooms yourself. After that marathon of a stage (no pun intended), we finally get to the boss, Security Robot B.O.X. Assuming you collected all the items in the stage that will help here (increased damage, speed dash, and max HP, along with required ones like Ice Beam), it's a fun boss for the most part, with a lot of creative attacks that are rarely unfair, although bad RNG moments do pop up sometimes. Without all these upgrades, I'm not sure, but from what Plasma told me, it's not a very good experience. Even if you do get hit at some point in the fight, there is one attack that can spawn enemies, which are still capable of dropping health. There's also some intermission attacks, but they're mostly fair, assuming the previous attack doesn't decide to randomly screw you over. Finally, the last attack is really RNG-based, which is kind of a problem when you realize this attack is at the end of the fight.
-Finally, after all that, we get the final boss against the Bow. It's a 2-phase fight, with the first one taking place on solid ground, and the second one on a downward descent. Here, you have to dodge the red shots it shoots at you, while also redirecting its green shots back at it. The issue is when it decides to spawn green shots in the first place, not to mention if you're able to even react to it. In between that, there's some intermission attacks with a mini-boss you have to shoot at. There are all mostly fine, except for the snowman that can just spawn whatever whenever, resulting in bad RNG sometimes. As for the second phase, this is where the RNG starts to really become a problem. Here, you have to dodge some attacks from the boss on some rising platforms, as well as shoot a button to drive a stake into it when it's lined up with it. The problem is that the platforms are so small and move so fast as the fight goes on that some of the RNG attacks just become unfair on them. That's not to mention the fight just destroying your platforms at a later point, forcing you to roll the dice with the spawn location of the next ones. Finally, hitting the boss is also such a tight window that you can easily miss it, dragging this fight on for even longer. So yeah, overall not a very well-balanced fight to end the game on.
In theory, this game should have been something amazing, due to the production value and variety of mechanics being super high. However, the game we ended up getting just has too many flaws to be able to reach that level, whether those be janky mechanics, RNG garbage, horribly uneven pacing, you name it. Similarly to I Wanna Warp The Worlds, that doesn't make the game as a whole outright bad, just not as good as what came before. It's still a good game, but don't come in unless you're not expecting absolute perfection, or if you're already going through the Marathon games and made it up to here.
Rating: 6.0 60
Difficulty: 55 55
May 11, 2026
Fruitless
For: I wanna be the ULTRAGUY
For: I wanna be the ULTRAGUY
Rating based on Hard mode.
A sort of fake ultra-private fangame made by CocoaKitteh, and while it does match the style well enough, that doesn't necessarily make it the most interesting thing in the world. It has some stages, but they're mostly pretty basic, either just being a straight line or ending with an annoying spike drop. There's also traps, but they're nothing interesting either, mostly just being flying spikes.
So far, this game doesn't seem very promising, but there's also a couple of bosses, which are the most interesting part of the game.
-The first boss is Mario, a rather short boss with only 4 attacks, most of which are easy. The exception is the fireballs that come from the ceiling—which fun fact, this attack was actually later re-used for I Wanna Animal, which was made around the same time—with a gap that passes incredibly quickly and you have to get through. Luigi can also catch you off-guard if you're not careful.
-Herobrine is a much better boss, with some fast-paced attacks that are fun to dodge and not unfair (the only potential exception to this is the spikes from the floor attack, but only the first time you get there). I especially liked the attack where the TNT lands on the floor, it just feel really epic for some reason.
And after that, and a single other screen, the game just...ends. Yep, as part of the ultra-private fangame tradition, it just ends on a demo screen.
So uh, it's certainly a game that exists, to say the least. It definitely managed to pass as an ultra-private from the time, but as a game, it's just ok. Really only recommended if a fake ultra-private fangame sounds interesting to you, or if you really like this old style of fangame for some reason.
[1] Like
A sort of fake ultra-private fangame made by CocoaKitteh, and while it does match the style well enough, that doesn't necessarily make it the most interesting thing in the world. It has some stages, but they're mostly pretty basic, either just being a straight line or ending with an annoying spike drop. There's also traps, but they're nothing interesting either, mostly just being flying spikes.
So far, this game doesn't seem very promising, but there's also a couple of bosses, which are the most interesting part of the game.
-The first boss is Mario, a rather short boss with only 4 attacks, most of which are easy. The exception is the fireballs that come from the ceiling—which fun fact, this attack was actually later re-used for I Wanna Animal, which was made around the same time—with a gap that passes incredibly quickly and you have to get through. Luigi can also catch you off-guard if you're not careful.
-Herobrine is a much better boss, with some fast-paced attacks that are fun to dodge and not unfair (the only potential exception to this is the spikes from the floor attack, but only the first time you get there). I especially liked the attack where the TNT lands on the floor, it just feel really epic for some reason.
And after that, and a single other screen, the game just...ends. Yep, as part of the ultra-private fangame tradition, it just ends on a demo screen.
So uh, it's certainly a game that exists, to say the least. It definitely managed to pass as an ultra-private from the time, but as a game, it's just ok. Really only recommended if a fake ultra-private fangame sounds interesting to you, or if you really like this old style of fangame for some reason.
Rating: 4.0 40
Difficulty: 45 45
May 7, 2026
Fruitless
For: i wanna na
For: i wanna na
Hasi temporarily breaks his hiatus (his actual return wouldn't come for another 5 years) to bring us another avoidance, with the song "What's Inside" by Pinocchio-P. Immediately you can see a lot of difference from his previous stuff, as a lot less of the game relies on RNG than before, instead using pattern attacks, a lot more than what he's shown off before. They're pretty fun patterns to learn and pull off, but when RNG does show up, it's still fair for the most part, aside from a couple of moments like the spinning flower or the ReHasi flashback. Oh right, this game also contains some short segments from a couple of Hasi's previous avoidances (hence the Medley tag), which I thought was a neat thing to include.
The big problem with this game, though, is the difficulty balance. The patterns may be fun, but that doesn't mean their difficulty is always evenly distributed. It's mostly easy at first, except for the infamous orange circle (which there is ways to make easier, but it's still a mess to get through most of the time), but past that point the difficulty ramps up a ton. There is no better example of this than the final attack, which requires such precise movement throughout very specific points on the screen, navigating around cherries that come from outside the screen borders, and let me remind you this is at the very end of the fight, meaning have fun replaying everything again to get to here.
Despite all that, it's still a fun game, even if the balance could be much better. I'd recommend it if you want to experience the start(?) of Hasi's modern era as a maker.
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The big problem with this game, though, is the difficulty balance. The patterns may be fun, but that doesn't mean their difficulty is always evenly distributed. It's mostly easy at first, except for the infamous orange circle (which there is ways to make easier, but it's still a mess to get through most of the time), but past that point the difficulty ramps up a ton. There is no better example of this than the final attack, which requires such precise movement throughout very specific points on the screen, navigating around cherries that come from outside the screen borders, and let me remind you this is at the very end of the fight, meaning have fun replaying everything again to get to here.
Despite all that, it's still a fun game, even if the balance could be much better. I'd recommend it if you want to experience the start(?) of Hasi's modern era as a maker.
Rating: 6.0 60
Difficulty: 60 60
May 7, 2026
Fruitless
For: I wanna warp the worlds
For: I wanna warp the worlds
The follow-up to a legend, but does it hold up quite as well?
I Wanna Warp The Worlds is the second game in the Marathon series, and the sequel to I Wanna Run The Marathon. Naturally as a sequel, it bumps up the production value, something you can easily see from the intro screen, and it only keeps going from there. But production isn't everything, let's look at if the gameplay is at the same level.
-Unlike the previous game, this game jumps headfirst into the Mario stage, this time being based on Super Mario World. This stage also deals with using enemies to get across, but this time, you can't do it on foot, so you have to rely on everyone's favorite dinosaur, Yoshi. The game comes up with a lot of ways to use this mechanic, from using him to jump across moving enemies, to doing regular platforming with him and escorting him to a point where you need him, to even killing a bunch of Yoshis on top of a platform to open a path. Even besides the gimmick, the rest of the stage is still fun, with some fun cycle movements, especially in the tower climb at the end which felt pretty tense with the lava. Of course, all these Yoshis you're killing can't possibly be happy with you, which is why the boss of this stage is the Ghost of Yoshi's Past. This is a fight with multiple phases, and just like in Super Mario World, you attack the boss by using the enemies he throws at you against him. He also sometimes throws multiple attacks at you at once, but it's still fairly designed, plus the attacks themselves are also fun, making this a great first boss for this game.
-After that comes the Terraria stage, which is where I unfortunately have to start making some complaints. Here, you start without a gun or even a double jump, locking you out of some paths at first and forcing you to collect some new weapons in order to make progress. The problem isn't the level design—it's actually designed well around the abilities you're expected to have. No, the issue is the weapons themselves, which are kind of annoying to use. The sword is only a mild issue, since the only problem is the swing speed being kind of slow, otherwise it works well enough as a short-range weapon. The bow, however, is the real problem, since it's rather cumbersome to aim, and even though you can spam arrows to make up for this, that doesn't mean much when half of them aren't even hitting the thing you're trying to hit. Back to the stage itself though, you also encounter multiple bosses along the way, the first one being the Big Slime. Just whack it with your sword and watch out for the mini-clones it spawns of itself, and you should be fine. Eye of Cthulhu, on the other hand, makes you use the bow, which comes with the aiming problems I just mentioned. Once you get used to that, the fight is fine for the most part, except for a potentially really bad transition on the last phase.
-Next comes a stage based on Shovel Knight, once again including the original weapon from that game, which lets you stab at enemies or even pogo-jump off of them. It's not just enemies though, as there are also bubbles that you can jump on, sometimes even being multi-use. This stage again finds a lot of uses for this gimmick, including having to jump on every enemy in the room to progress, or timing your jumps to navigate around moving enemies. The pathing is a bit hard to figure out at first, but once you do, the movement is really smooth. After that is the boss with Black Knight, who uses the shovel just like you. He also uses some other attacks with a lot of projectiles, but you can actually parry them with the shovel and redirect them back towards him, which is a great way to reward skilled shovel-wielding. Even besides that though, the attacks are still fun, with you trying to get hits in as he flies around the room.
-And now DOOM! And yes, I mean it, this game actually has DOOM in it, 3D graphics and all. Unfortunately it is just the unmodified E1M1 layout, but it's still crazy that this exists. The stage itself is also fun, with relatively simple enemies, but a lot of them. Luckily, it doesn't get too crowded, so the regular gun should be enough to deal with them. The fact that the enemies are resprited to look like fangame bosses/characters is also a nice touch, especially with the sort of hellish/evil twist added to them, since this is DOOM after all. Overall a very surprising stage, but one that works surprisingly well on a lot of different levels, not to mention this fangame now has the honor of being able to say it can run DOOM.
-The next stage is based on Super Meat Boy, a rather simple stage mechanically, since all you get to work with here is a slightly more slippery wall jump. Being based on Meat Boy, however, it ends up being one of the more difficult stages in the game, due to the precision required in your movements. This is mainly due to the sawblades which require you to pass by them when they spin at a specific angle, but besides that, the stage is still difficult yet fun. I also like the attention to detail, with the use of squash and stretch on the Kid's sprite, or the meat stains that stay on the blocks. The boss of this stage isn't exactly a proper boss, more of a race against a clone of yourself called Brownie 2.0. It's much more open and empty than the rest of the platforming, but that makes sense due to the speed you need to win the race. It's still fun, just like the rest of this stage.
-And now another production marvel stage, Undertale! It starts out pretty boring, with some empty hallways and a puzzle that takes a long time to get through, but after that, the actual gameplay begins. This stage pits you against 2 bosses: the button and the gate jump. They both use the Undertale system where you have to use diplomatic solutions rather than resorting to violence right away, and the dialogue they came up with for these moments was pretty nice. The button's attacks are only really a problem if you rush forward through them, and the gate jump is a much longer fight, starting out slower in phase 1 before you regain regular physics and the pace gets faster again. It did feel kind of unfair sometimes, but it was fine for the most part, especially since you get HP to breeze through the fight if you do get walled.
-Up next is Kirby Super Star, which gives you 4 copy abilities you can collect to give you new abilities. It doesn't start out very promising, but the moment you pick up the Fire ability at the start, that all changes. Some of the more agility-focused abilities like Fire or Fighter get the best segments, but that doesn't mean the others aren't fun to mess around with too. This is also another stage that makes use of clever routing throughout the screen, due to having to go through the screen with one ability to be able to reach another and access another route you can now take. The abilities even get carried over to the boss fight against Meta Knight, a fight that requires a bit of learning, but is definitely fun when you get the hang of it. One thing I will say, though, is the way you get the abilities in this fight in the first place is kind of weird, since they're just on the sides of the screen, making it easy to collect by accident, but also hard to collect if you're on the wrong side of the screen. Then again, what else were they supposed to do for this, so whatever.
-Onto the final stage, which takes from previous stages this time. This time. though, everything is all glitchy and messed up, causing a lot of weirdness with the music and visuals, but also with the gameplay. There's rooms featuring some of the gimmicks from the original stages, but with certain spots which teleport you to another part of the map. This is mostly done well, aside from one part of the Kirby Super Star screen with a rather stupid cycle to figure out. Finally, there's the last boss, the Delicious Fruit. While it might seem underwhelming to have a cherry as the final boss, the boss itself proves that suspicion wrong very well. It incorporates a lot of the glitchiness from before, whether that be skipping backwards in time a couple seconds, teleporting all the small cherries up a bit, or even teleporting you to a room with Miku, this boss throws a lot at you. While this might seem like a lot, it never feels unfair, due to the game being generous with open space when the glitchiness is at its worse. The error message was way too unconvincing though, unfortunate on that part.
Another great game, but it unfortunately doesn't hold up to the first one. I don't know what it is, maybe it is that cloud of nostalgia I've been trying to avoid, but I guess this is just less my type of game than the other one. That doesn't make it a bad game in the slightest though, I still loved it, just not as much as Marathon. Still a very high recommendation, especially if you liked the first one and want more.
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I Wanna Warp The Worlds is the second game in the Marathon series, and the sequel to I Wanna Run The Marathon. Naturally as a sequel, it bumps up the production value, something you can easily see from the intro screen, and it only keeps going from there. But production isn't everything, let's look at if the gameplay is at the same level.
-Unlike the previous game, this game jumps headfirst into the Mario stage, this time being based on Super Mario World. This stage also deals with using enemies to get across, but this time, you can't do it on foot, so you have to rely on everyone's favorite dinosaur, Yoshi. The game comes up with a lot of ways to use this mechanic, from using him to jump across moving enemies, to doing regular platforming with him and escorting him to a point where you need him, to even killing a bunch of Yoshis on top of a platform to open a path. Even besides the gimmick, the rest of the stage is still fun, with some fun cycle movements, especially in the tower climb at the end which felt pretty tense with the lava. Of course, all these Yoshis you're killing can't possibly be happy with you, which is why the boss of this stage is the Ghost of Yoshi's Past. This is a fight with multiple phases, and just like in Super Mario World, you attack the boss by using the enemies he throws at you against him. He also sometimes throws multiple attacks at you at once, but it's still fairly designed, plus the attacks themselves are also fun, making this a great first boss for this game.
-After that comes the Terraria stage, which is where I unfortunately have to start making some complaints. Here, you start without a gun or even a double jump, locking you out of some paths at first and forcing you to collect some new weapons in order to make progress. The problem isn't the level design—it's actually designed well around the abilities you're expected to have. No, the issue is the weapons themselves, which are kind of annoying to use. The sword is only a mild issue, since the only problem is the swing speed being kind of slow, otherwise it works well enough as a short-range weapon. The bow, however, is the real problem, since it's rather cumbersome to aim, and even though you can spam arrows to make up for this, that doesn't mean much when half of them aren't even hitting the thing you're trying to hit. Back to the stage itself though, you also encounter multiple bosses along the way, the first one being the Big Slime. Just whack it with your sword and watch out for the mini-clones it spawns of itself, and you should be fine. Eye of Cthulhu, on the other hand, makes you use the bow, which comes with the aiming problems I just mentioned. Once you get used to that, the fight is fine for the most part, except for a potentially really bad transition on the last phase.
-Next comes a stage based on Shovel Knight, once again including the original weapon from that game, which lets you stab at enemies or even pogo-jump off of them. It's not just enemies though, as there are also bubbles that you can jump on, sometimes even being multi-use. This stage again finds a lot of uses for this gimmick, including having to jump on every enemy in the room to progress, or timing your jumps to navigate around moving enemies. The pathing is a bit hard to figure out at first, but once you do, the movement is really smooth. After that is the boss with Black Knight, who uses the shovel just like you. He also uses some other attacks with a lot of projectiles, but you can actually parry them with the shovel and redirect them back towards him, which is a great way to reward skilled shovel-wielding. Even besides that though, the attacks are still fun, with you trying to get hits in as he flies around the room.
-And now DOOM! And yes, I mean it, this game actually has DOOM in it, 3D graphics and all. Unfortunately it is just the unmodified E1M1 layout, but it's still crazy that this exists. The stage itself is also fun, with relatively simple enemies, but a lot of them. Luckily, it doesn't get too crowded, so the regular gun should be enough to deal with them. The fact that the enemies are resprited to look like fangame bosses/characters is also a nice touch, especially with the sort of hellish/evil twist added to them, since this is DOOM after all. Overall a very surprising stage, but one that works surprisingly well on a lot of different levels, not to mention this fangame now has the honor of being able to say it can run DOOM.
-The next stage is based on Super Meat Boy, a rather simple stage mechanically, since all you get to work with here is a slightly more slippery wall jump. Being based on Meat Boy, however, it ends up being one of the more difficult stages in the game, due to the precision required in your movements. This is mainly due to the sawblades which require you to pass by them when they spin at a specific angle, but besides that, the stage is still difficult yet fun. I also like the attention to detail, with the use of squash and stretch on the Kid's sprite, or the meat stains that stay on the blocks. The boss of this stage isn't exactly a proper boss, more of a race against a clone of yourself called Brownie 2.0. It's much more open and empty than the rest of the platforming, but that makes sense due to the speed you need to win the race. It's still fun, just like the rest of this stage.
-And now another production marvel stage, Undertale! It starts out pretty boring, with some empty hallways and a puzzle that takes a long time to get through, but after that, the actual gameplay begins. This stage pits you against 2 bosses: the button and the gate jump. They both use the Undertale system where you have to use diplomatic solutions rather than resorting to violence right away, and the dialogue they came up with for these moments was pretty nice. The button's attacks are only really a problem if you rush forward through them, and the gate jump is a much longer fight, starting out slower in phase 1 before you regain regular physics and the pace gets faster again. It did feel kind of unfair sometimes, but it was fine for the most part, especially since you get HP to breeze through the fight if you do get walled.
-Up next is Kirby Super Star, which gives you 4 copy abilities you can collect to give you new abilities. It doesn't start out very promising, but the moment you pick up the Fire ability at the start, that all changes. Some of the more agility-focused abilities like Fire or Fighter get the best segments, but that doesn't mean the others aren't fun to mess around with too. This is also another stage that makes use of clever routing throughout the screen, due to having to go through the screen with one ability to be able to reach another and access another route you can now take. The abilities even get carried over to the boss fight against Meta Knight, a fight that requires a bit of learning, but is definitely fun when you get the hang of it. One thing I will say, though, is the way you get the abilities in this fight in the first place is kind of weird, since they're just on the sides of the screen, making it easy to collect by accident, but also hard to collect if you're on the wrong side of the screen. Then again, what else were they supposed to do for this, so whatever.
-Onto the final stage, which takes from previous stages this time. This time. though, everything is all glitchy and messed up, causing a lot of weirdness with the music and visuals, but also with the gameplay. There's rooms featuring some of the gimmicks from the original stages, but with certain spots which teleport you to another part of the map. This is mostly done well, aside from one part of the Kirby Super Star screen with a rather stupid cycle to figure out. Finally, there's the last boss, the Delicious Fruit. While it might seem underwhelming to have a cherry as the final boss, the boss itself proves that suspicion wrong very well. It incorporates a lot of the glitchiness from before, whether that be skipping backwards in time a couple seconds, teleporting all the small cherries up a bit, or even teleporting you to a room with Miku, this boss throws a lot at you. While this might seem like a lot, it never feels unfair, due to the game being generous with open space when the glitchiness is at its worse. The error message was way too unconvincing though, unfortunate on that part.
Another great game, but it unfortunately doesn't hold up to the first one. I don't know what it is, maybe it is that cloud of nostalgia I've been trying to avoid, but I guess this is just less my type of game than the other one. That doesn't make it a bad game in the slightest though, I still loved it, just not as much as Marathon. Still a very high recommendation, especially if you liked the first one and want more.
Rating: 8.0 80
Difficulty: 50 50
May 7, 2026
3 Games
| Game | Difficulty | Average Rating | # of Ratings |
|---|---|---|---|
| I Wanna Be The Blast | 49.8 | 6.8 | 8 |
| I Wanna Eat The Macaron | 71.0 | 7.6 | 4 |
| I Wanna Be The Unlimited | 75.0 | 9.0 | 4 |
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