Don't download with high expectations. Usually when I play free games, I'm left feeling "Wow! how is this game free when it's this amazing?!". This is not one of those games. The jumping system is awkward, you have to stand and wait for too long for circling lasers to go by in order to progress, the reward system is unsatisfying, and the boss fight at the end is very frustrating and not in a good way.
The jumping system: is objectively only mediocre, but if you've grown accustomed to Mario jumping systems like I have, it's very frustrating to work with. How jumps work in Mario is that if you just tap the jump button, you jump a minimum height of about twice your character's height and if you hold it for a bit longer, you can jump a bit higher, but when you let go of the jump button mid jump, you still fly a little higher making a normal arc. In this game, if you just tap the button, you do an awkward little jig that clears no ground at all. That's because, while you still have a maximum jump height, there is no minimum. What's worse is that the jump only follows a normal arc if you jump the maximum height. Anything shorter than the maximum height, what happens is you follow the max height's arc until you let go of the jump button, at which point you immediately start falling as if you hit a roof. It feels unnatural and, while it's not a nightmare to get used to, it never feels very good.
The lasers: Idk man, I just hate waiting for more than 2 seconds for lasers to move just to be able to move out of my hiding place.
The stars: Similarly to most 2D platformers, this game gives the option to collect 3 stars by following a more difficult path. Being a completionist, I got every star... I think. The fact that I can't tell is a serious problem in my opinion. You see, the reward for collecting all 3 stars isn't the knowledge that you're better than other people, it's an extra heart. You can't even look at the levels and see if you collected all the stars. It doesn't show you. On top of that, hearts are practically worthless because most things in the game kill you instantly.
The Boss Fight: The finishing boss sucks to fight. Maybe it's okay if it fits the kind of playstyle you normally take in a game, but it did not fit me at all. I like to run into battle with no shield, wielding my giant sword two handed. I dodge or I die like a man. The boss fight forces you to hide for two attack stages, during which it is completely damaged immune, and then switches to a vulnerable stage, at which point it stops attacking completely. You are forced to hide and then run out to attack while there's nothing at all to dodge. You can't even get more than one hit off if you're brave. Only one hit works.
My second problem with the boss is the arena it's in. I won't go into detail because I've used enough words already, but, in the arena there's lava at the bottom. I died more times to the lava at the bottom than to the boss's attacks. It feels so reverse-hype to die to something the boss doesn't control at all while fighting the boss. It doesn't feel satisfying to finally beat the boss when the lava at the bottom is telling you the whole time that this boss isn't the real threat, the game's bad mechanics are.
Oh, also the avatar moves all weird whenever standing on anything moving.
I have other problems with this game, but they're all nit picky and would be a headache to write down.
Overall, 3/10, would not play again, was expecting Mario vibes and I got Cool Math Games vibes except CMG is more fun.
