3.5/5 ★ – heyvladislove's review of The End Is Nigh.

The End is Fuck You, Idiot. The amount of bullshit you are required to endure to 100% this game is ludicrous so I haven't gotten all the endings as of writing this, though I intend to finish the Nevermore level at some point. Still, having finished the original ending, gathering 450+ tumors along the way I feel like I can talk about this game now. The controls and the hitboxes are supremely precise, the air control is super tight which allows the developers to utilize verticality to the highest degree. Mechanically speaking, the game is fantastic, I see people are divided on whether or not it's a spiritual successor to Super Meat Boy and I think it is. Yes, this is a platformer with more of an emphasis on methodical precision of movement and exploring, but what I've found is every level has a unique fast way of completion and once you understand the pattern behind it and get into the rhythm of any given stage you really understand how fast you can beat these. This discovery and the first 75% of game along that were convincing enough for me to consider this game as one of the greatest platformers of all times. The music slaps, of course, and I'm not much of a Ridiculon fan, to be honest, but I liked their take on the classical compositions we've all heard before. While they are great I really miss Danny Baranowsky as the composer for these games, he has a really unique touch that elevated the previous games to stratosphere. I also crave and adore the art direction and style. Maybe it pulls on the nostalgic strings for me since I've grown up with McMillen's games that all share the same vibe but nevertheless it's simple and effective. However the game grinds to a halt in the last 25% becoming not just challenging like it was up to that point, but straight up annoying and frustrating. What's even more disappointing is that some of the features that made the game unique are dragged down too in this part. The tumor mechanic where you have to collect it and escape the level by any means except for teleporting becomes the point of inconvenience rather than a desired challenge. The aforementioned precision of movement and hitboxes become awkward and almost unpredictable at times. I saw one review celebrating this game for not having auto-targeting missiles but there is such a wide array of other nonsense that it renders that celebration useless. The birds and the chain-chomps are the fucking worst here. And there are actually sections with auto-targeting bullets so it's almost the same thing anyway. Ledge grabbing also becomes infuriating because you have to rely on it with speed in mind and it's wonky in that respect. I also mentioned the art style and I hate to admit it but it gets in the way at later stages where enemies almost blend in with the environments. The dynamic level design is also sometimes unintuitive since some of the stuff you have to do to unlock a tumor isn't very clear. Speaking of teleporting — first of, the game does not make it clear you can actually teleport from the menu, so I thought you could do that only from the warp points. The map itself needs slight quality of life update — I get that revealing the level number which contains a secret would be too much, however they could've at least add the level numbering for the regular levels where you might miss a tumor. And sure, once you get there, you can glance at the corner to see if you collected the tumor but you have to get there first. Which in turn reminds me that you have to play the whole stage from the beginning if you missed a tumor somewhere in the middle. The cartridges are the concentration of the bullshit. And what sucks is that you really need to beat them the best you can if you want to have a chance in Nevermore. Why? Because only the tumors you get in these retrolevels actually serve as lives. Imagine my surprise when I realized the game wanted me to beat another 20-level stage with just 5 lives. I didn't mention it in my Mario collection review but what those games have in common is the late-game difficulty spike and The End is Nigh being obviously influenced by Mario franchise took that approach to heart. To summarize, I started this game once before, realized I only had 200+ lives when this mechanic was introduced and abandoned it there. That was dumb of me, of course, since the lives are restored with every stage and even 200 lives is actually plenty to spare. Which leads me to believe I enjoyed TEIN much more on a second playthrough and the game probably benefits from that like none other. It's a great platformer with my favorite controls, music, and visuals which are undermined by some of the level designs later on.