I really, REALLY hate being negative about games, contrary to my most popular reviews on this site. Who wants to just bitch and moan about how bad a game is? Sure, it’s fun after the moment, but the hours you spend leading up to the review are dreadful. This very fact was tested by The End is Nigh. Coming in from an outsider’s perspective, I was very intrigued by Nigh. A game created out of the stresses that comes with game development? Sounds interesting! And plus, it’s a game created by Edmund McMillen, who created some of my personal favorites! It’s going to be a great time, right?
You can already tell where this is going. I’m sorry, but this has to be the biggest letdown I’ve experienced in gaming so far. I just don’t like The End is Nigh. Coming a few years after Super Meat Boy, the platforming legend that it still is, The End is Nigh feels like it barely took any hints from that game’s design. And it tries. So, SO hard to embody what made Super Meat Boy so special. But it just fails. And no, to clarify, I am not disappointed that this game isn’t a renamed Super Meat Boy 2. What I am trying to say is that it simply fails to lives up to the design quality of the classic that was made by the same developer. And it suffers heavily from that. First off, the level design. I really don’t like it. Not at all. It’s rooted deep in trial and error, which is not a bad design for a game, but compared to other games like it, it’s just not as fun. The End is Nigh has numerous chapters with 20 levels within each, but the skill ceiling is simply far too low to warrant replaying any of them. The End is Nigh barely lets you toy around with it’s level gimmicks, nor does it have satisfying controls for a modern game. While the controls themselves are fine, you don’t have any major abilities to use, so most levels become very generic, and quickly. The level design itself is passable, but I don’t think they were very captivating to play. It’s just going through the same song and dance over and over again. You just grapple onto cliffs, move here, move there, and bam, onto the next stage. It’s a complicated issue, and I don’t even know why I don’t like the levels. There’s no bullshit or anything, but I thought the level design was just too standard. In this adventure, there are little gimmicks in your way, so eventually all of the levels kind of blend in and aren’t interesting at a certain point. Are they challenging? Kinda. Not hard enough to stand out from other more difficult platformers, but I guess it isn’t New Super Mario Brothers 2. But I didn’t pop off when I beat a hard level, I breathed heavy and moved on. This is also more of a personal nitpick, but I wish there was some feeling of accomplishment with beating a level. What if it was like Katana Zero and Super Meat Boy, where you’re shown a replay of all of your runs? Not just unceremoniously switching to the next level. So, if there’s no extrinsic value of enjoyment in the stages, why should you want to replay them? The Tumors. And you’ll want to collect as many of these as you can, which I’ll explain later. The tumor collecting itself also doesn’t feel that great in my opinion. Once again, it’s rooted deep in frustrating game design, and you don’t feel accomplished when you grab one. Nor does securing a tumor feel great. Once again, in Super Meat Boy and Celeste, Bandages and Strawberries weren’t placed haphazardly. There were designated areas to collect them, which furthered your enjoyment (and skills, most importantly) of the game. In Super Meat Boy as well, you actually got shit for completing the game, like new characters and whatnot, not just an achievement on Steam (an issue I have with Celeste but that's beyond the point). But in here, it’s like doing chores on a chore list. It's not as satisfying, and I only exhaust like I did in the main game when I finally secure it. And shockingly, that’s all of my major issues with the game. Yeah, a short list no doubt, but the game never deviates from the norm. By the end of The Past, I was extremely burnt out with the game. When I went back to the first chapter (thankfully you don’t have to backtrack), I lost all hope for the game at that point. And then, the game decided to suckerpunch me in the dick. You know those tumors I brought up? Yeah. Now that’s your fucking LIFE COUNT NOW. I had 30 fucking tumors going in. And there were 20 levels in a single chapter, meaning I had to do each level while dying only ONCE EACH. Seriously, FUCK THAT DESIGN CHOICE. No game I have EVER played in the 21st century has cock-blocked your progression like this. Either have no lives or NOT, especially when it’s not even COMMUNICATED TO THE PLAYER. I thought Super Meat Boy had no lives to avoid players getting frustrated, so where did that design element go? Seriously though, what the FUCK is the correlation between the amount of tumors I got in The Past compared to The Future? This design choice single handedly ruined my opinion of The End is Nigh, and proved my point that this game is so poorly designed. I already wasn’t having too much fun to begin with, but pulling this at the halfway point is seriously sadistic design. Oh, but what if I wanted to go back to collect all of the tumors I needed? I essentially needed to REPLAY THE ENTIRE GAME OVER AGAIN. I’m not even kidding, the Fast Travel only allows you to warp to the beginning of each chapter, NOT the individual levels within said chapters. Why not divide each individual chapter up into 3 to avoid this issue, or better yet let us travel to each level? It’s not that hard. These two design choices killed all motivation to continue. The level design kind of sucked to begin with. I’m not interested in redo-ing the entire game but slightly more irritating.
The End is Nigh was such a letdown to me. I think I’ve explained well enough why I didn’t enjoy it, so I don’t really have anything more to say. Uhhhhhh play Blaster Master Zero ok thanks bye
You can already tell where this is going. I’m sorry, but this has to be the biggest letdown I’ve experienced in gaming so far. I just don’t like The End is Nigh. Coming a few years after Super Meat Boy, the platforming legend that it still is, The End is Nigh feels like it barely took any hints from that game’s design. And it tries. So, SO hard to embody what made Super Meat Boy so special. But it just fails. And no, to clarify, I am not disappointed that this game isn’t a renamed Super Meat Boy 2. What I am trying to say is that it simply fails to lives up to the design quality of the classic that was made by the same developer. And it suffers heavily from that. First off, the level design. I really don’t like it. Not at all. It’s rooted deep in trial and error, which is not a bad design for a game, but compared to other games like it, it’s just not as fun. The End is Nigh has numerous chapters with 20 levels within each, but the skill ceiling is simply far too low to warrant replaying any of them. The End is Nigh barely lets you toy around with it’s level gimmicks, nor does it have satisfying controls for a modern game. While the controls themselves are fine, you don’t have any major abilities to use, so most levels become very generic, and quickly. The level design itself is passable, but I don’t think they were very captivating to play. It’s just going through the same song and dance over and over again. You just grapple onto cliffs, move here, move there, and bam, onto the next stage. It’s a complicated issue, and I don’t even know why I don’t like the levels. There’s no bullshit or anything, but I thought the level design was just too standard. In this adventure, there are little gimmicks in your way, so eventually all of the levels kind of blend in and aren’t interesting at a certain point. Are they challenging? Kinda. Not hard enough to stand out from other more difficult platformers, but I guess it isn’t New Super Mario Brothers 2. But I didn’t pop off when I beat a hard level, I breathed heavy and moved on. This is also more of a personal nitpick, but I wish there was some feeling of accomplishment with beating a level. What if it was like Katana Zero and Super Meat Boy, where you’re shown a replay of all of your runs? Not just unceremoniously switching to the next level. So, if there’s no extrinsic value of enjoyment in the stages, why should you want to replay them? The Tumors. And you’ll want to collect as many of these as you can, which I’ll explain later. The tumor collecting itself also doesn’t feel that great in my opinion. Once again, it’s rooted deep in frustrating game design, and you don’t feel accomplished when you grab one. Nor does securing a tumor feel great. Once again, in Super Meat Boy and Celeste, Bandages and Strawberries weren’t placed haphazardly. There were designated areas to collect them, which furthered your enjoyment (and skills, most importantly) of the game. In Super Meat Boy as well, you actually got shit for completing the game, like new characters and whatnot, not just an achievement on Steam (an issue I have with Celeste but that's beyond the point). But in here, it’s like doing chores on a chore list. It's not as satisfying, and I only exhaust like I did in the main game when I finally secure it. And shockingly, that’s all of my major issues with the game. Yeah, a short list no doubt, but the game never deviates from the norm. By the end of The Past, I was extremely burnt out with the game. When I went back to the first chapter (thankfully you don’t have to backtrack), I lost all hope for the game at that point. And then, the game decided to suckerpunch me in the dick. You know those tumors I brought up? Yeah. Now that’s your fucking LIFE COUNT NOW. I had 30 fucking tumors going in. And there were 20 levels in a single chapter, meaning I had to do each level while dying only ONCE EACH. Seriously, FUCK THAT DESIGN CHOICE. No game I have EVER played in the 21st century has cock-blocked your progression like this. Either have no lives or NOT, especially when it’s not even COMMUNICATED TO THE PLAYER. I thought Super Meat Boy had no lives to avoid players getting frustrated, so where did that design element go? Seriously though, what the FUCK is the correlation between the amount of tumors I got in The Past compared to The Future? This design choice single handedly ruined my opinion of The End is Nigh, and proved my point that this game is so poorly designed. I already wasn’t having too much fun to begin with, but pulling this at the halfway point is seriously sadistic design. Oh, but what if I wanted to go back to collect all of the tumors I needed? I essentially needed to REPLAY THE ENTIRE GAME OVER AGAIN. I’m not even kidding, the Fast Travel only allows you to warp to the beginning of each chapter, NOT the individual levels within said chapters. Why not divide each individual chapter up into 3 to avoid this issue, or better yet let us travel to each level? It’s not that hard. These two design choices killed all motivation to continue. The level design kind of sucked to begin with. I’m not interested in redo-ing the entire game but slightly more irritating.
The End is Nigh was such a letdown to me. I think I’ve explained well enough why I didn’t enjoy it, so I don’t really have anything more to say. Uhhhhhh play Blaster Master Zero ok thanks bye
I tried to get into it, but it just wasn't my cup of tea. Not a bad game at all respectfully, I guess I just don't like these types of platformers.
Very fun and fair precision platformer. All challenges are manageable, even the bonus ones, which are possible for the average player, except perhaps for one or two of the cartridges.
Edmund is a sick sick bastard, this game is so good
Very difficult, and kind of confusing in the way it lays out the context and narrative to the gameplay, but it's another masterwork platformer from McMillen. Can't go wrong.
Un platformer 2D par Edmund McMillen (Meat Boy, Isaac) dans une ambiance post-apocalyptique très réussie.
Si vous avez trouvé Super Meat Boy ardu, The End is Nigh est d'un niveau supérieur (surtout dans le postgame).
Ici, fini les enchainements de niveaux, le jeu nous propose un map ouverte avec des collectables à récupérer.
J'ai particulièrement apprécié la bande-son qui réinterprète des musiques classiques.
Si vous avez trouvé Super Meat Boy ardu, The End is Nigh est d'un niveau supérieur (surtout dans le postgame).
Ici, fini les enchainements de niveaux, le jeu nous propose un map ouverte avec des collectables à récupérer.
J'ai particulièrement apprécié la bande-son qui réinterprète des musiques classiques.
Pretty decent. I wasn't compelled to get 100% completion but I'm satisfied with it. It's pretty challenging at times but never feels unfair. Edmund's dark humor is the usual and the absurdity of the plot can get some laughs out of me. The music is lowkey pretty good, using rock versions of classical music works surprisingly well.
self-harmers will love this
Edmund's creation = masterclass
The platforming gameplay is solid. It just doesn't have enough hook for me. Felt a little repetitive and unrewarding.
First ending accessed from returning to Ruins 1. Collected 180 tumors.
The End is Nigh is overcompensating for the slightly unreliable context sensitive wall jumps of its spiritual predecessor Super Meat Boy by trading them for much inferior ledge grabs. The result is a movement system which is predictable in both senses of the word: decidedly consistent and awfully drab. There is an acute lack of those eureka moments, otherwise occurring when skillfully overcoming a tricky gauntlet in any of the better precision platformers out there. The one real surprise is the addition of a punishing game over-system during the latter half. It adds pressure and demands steady and confident maneuvers. A decent idea but it does not save the core movement from mediocrity.
The End is Nigh is overcompensating for the slightly unreliable context sensitive wall jumps of its spiritual predecessor Super Meat Boy by trading them for much inferior ledge grabs. The result is a movement system which is predictable in both senses of the word: decidedly consistent and awfully drab. There is an acute lack of those eureka moments, otherwise occurring when skillfully overcoming a tricky gauntlet in any of the better precision platformers out there. The one real surprise is the addition of a punishing game over-system during the latter half. It adds pressure and demands steady and confident maneuvers. A decent idea but it does not save the core movement from mediocrity.
This game has been in my backlog for a while, but I only beat it just recently
Good game, didn't like it as much as Super Meat Boy but I definitely recommend it. Edmund McMillen simply doesn't miss
Good game, didn't like it as much as Super Meat Boy but I definitely recommend it. Edmund McMillen simply doesn't miss
Better than Isaac
The End Is Nigh, my friend
I will be brave
Pick up the pieces of a dream I save
I miss the sound of your voice
Inside my head tonight
I will be brave
Pick up the pieces of a dream I save
I miss the sound of your voice
Inside my head tonight
I think I like this game even more than Super Meat Boy? Extremely underrated!
I LOVE ULTRA HARD GAMES. its super meat boy but better,
Don't got much to say with this one but I had fun with The End Is Nigh. Despite some occasional difficulty spikes (mainly in the second half) and some finnicky mechanics there's a solid platformer here with plenty to do for completionists and a fantastic OST. Definitely more a fan of Edmunds non-platformer stuff but still a solid time.
7.5/10
7.5/10
A trilha sonora de músicas clássicas rearranjadas me ganhou demais. É uma sequência espiritual de Super Meat Boy, segue a mesma premissa de gameplay, já é difícil normalmente, mas para quem quiser os coletáveis se torna um absurdo.
celeste is dogshit in comparison to this
Pretty good follow up to meat boy, far better than meat boy forever.
Really fun platforming, and so much extra content to play through. However, the movement felt inconsistent at times. The ledge-grabbing sometimes worked, but usually not when you wanted it to. Jumping on enemies' heads sometimes killed you even when you did it perfectly. This led to some rage-inducing moments where it felt like I was doing everything perfectly but the game just didn't want me to win. Ash's voice acting was also kind of bad.
Celeste for people who like torturing themself
Meant to be fun for meat boy fans
Uma das maiores joias do mundo dos jogos de plataforma. Trilha sensacional, dificuldade perfeita.
Just didn't click with me.
Not as fun as Super Meat Boy
This review contains spoilers
The reveal after putting together your friend that you have an extra 120 more levels before you beet the game is fucking incredible and gut wrenching. I may never finish this game
Gamer time
This is a good platformer game.
Difficulty of the game is correctly balanced, the later you are in the game, the harder it gets.
Also you can finish this game on the keyboard, while gamepad is of course recommended, it's not needed in this case.
Story is average however, nothing too special.
Difficulty of the game is correctly balanced, the later you are in the game, the harder it gets.
Also you can finish this game on the keyboard, while gamepad is of course recommended, it's not needed in this case.
Story is average however, nothing too special.
Best precision platformer I've personally played. I love the thematic consistency throughout the game, the dark themes and oppressive atmosphere.
But what I love the most is the gameplay. Incredible level design, a character that feels fantastic to control, and less emphasis on speed, but more on precision.
The game is also deceivingly long. When you just thought you were done, the next portion of the game opens up. It goes on and on, and keeps delivering high quality.
The retro carts are a nice addition as well. Collecting 1000 rings in The Super Mega Cart was not the most fun task, but everything else was just fantastic.
If you enjoy tight platformers, give this one a go.
But what I love the most is the gameplay. Incredible level design, a character that feels fantastic to control, and less emphasis on speed, but more on precision.
The game is also deceivingly long. When you just thought you were done, the next portion of the game opens up. It goes on and on, and keeps delivering high quality.
The retro carts are a nice addition as well. Collecting 1000 rings in The Super Mega Cart was not the most fun task, but everything else was just fantastic.
If you enjoy tight platformers, give this one a go.