There IS a Mario Forever game named “Mario Forever Remake” that is basically the remake of the original game, but it thankfully doesn’t give you malware. I think there needs to be a PSA for people who want to play Mario Forever, by telling people to avoid the original game and instead download the remade version.

I'm Polish and Mario Forever was... basically my first interaction with Mario series. We liked to play it just for funsies when I was a kid, even though I was bad at this type of games back then. Plus, to this day, I've NEVER finished it to the end. What happened to PC version is unfortunate, but I still hope this game will be supported as much as possible, be it even fans. Mario, trurly forever! Also, Bowser's battle theme SLAPS

Heya, former Buziol Games forum mod here (went by "Mr. E" back then). Softendo *is* Buziol - they rebranded back in 2006. After the success of Mario Forever, the developer started releasing games with installers that explicitly said things like "this also installs such-and-such toolbar, you can't install/play the game without it." First one I remember of that sort is Urbagility 2, where the player character was that Poppy Bros.-looking guy in yellow you can see in Softendo's logo. If he did this to Mario Forever itself, it must have been after I left, but given the precedent while I was there, the "no-life loser" you mention here who put malware into the game was likely Buziol himself.

Years ago Mario Forever was like one of the games every old school computer had.

Duuude I remember Softendo, I don't remember if I played Mario Forever but I do remember downloading a crappy Zelda game from there that was basically just a sidescrolling puzzle game where you can't jump and push blocks. I vividly remember the opening explaining the story being so strange, because it for some reason called Link "Linkus" and explicitly called the planet the game takes place on "Zelda Planet". lmao

I haven’t played the original, but I did play the even more bizarre “New Super Mario Forever”. I got pretty far too. It’d be interesting to see a sort of follow up, but considering the software itself.. yeah

Mario Forever used to be great, sad to see it turning into malware.

This fangame is the first contact i had with Mario, but knowing that it has malware made me feel sad, but Mario Forever Remake is my salvation. Such memories...

I remember back in 2010 I saw one of those shady ads for this game and I'm like dad can I please download this and he's like "idk it kinda looks like a virus" and I said "don't be silly dad trust me it's from nintendo I'm sure they wouldn't put viruses in it" and then sure enough, I came home from school one day and he was panicking because the screen was flooded with pop-ups. Luckily I think I was forgiven because I knew how to fix it by using system restore

I feel like you never explained what the malware actually was and what effects it could have on your computer. It's not that I don't believe you, but you should always show some video proof or screenshots of whatever the main subject of your video is. Especially when the term "retrospective" is used in the title instead of just "review" which this basically is because I'm still in the dark about a lot of the history behind this game which should never be the case with a proper retrospective.

This is the kind of virus Dr. Mario can’t even cure

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="331">5:31</a> You could argue the Weird Mushroom from Mario Maker 1 is pretty close to this. Damn shame it didn't return in 2.

I think i was lucky enough to get a version without malware. Definitely worth it cuz this game kicks ass.

Mario Forever is still existing until now, many fans (including me) are creating it's own game using their own engine. :) But TheMarioVariable created the best MF game ever and a remake of the original game along with his team called "The Forever Team". It's called Mario Forever Remake with the latest version 4.0. It contains the original MF levels (v4.0 or v4.4 i think) and lots of levels under the category named "The Forever Team Zone". It can be found just in the pipe below after you enter the save game room. The following are: 1. The Minus Worlds: Worlds -1 to -12 - can be played after finding its secret passages each world. (It will give you a signal that a minus world passage is near.) 2. Worlds 9 to 13 3. The Letter Worlds: Worlds A to Z (sadly it's removed because the developer wants to make this series in a standalone game named Mario Worker: The Letter Worlds Series) 4. World of Tanks 5. Mario Forever: The Lost Map 2 (two versions) 6. The Underground Zone, levels include: a. World U b. The Underland c. The Underworld d. The Underearth e. The Underhell f. The Undermine g. The Underzone 7. The Power-up Laboratory Zone, power-ups include: a. Ice Flower b. Cloud Flower c. Boo Mushroom d. Hammer Suit e. Super Flower f. Propeller Mushroom g. Red Lui h. Goomba's Shoe 8. Remake of SMB World 1 9. More Secret Levels, it includes: a. World 9 (MF 6.0 Version) - can be found in World 9-1 b. Lakitu Party - can be found in The Underland - 2 c. World -7-A - can be found in World -7-2 d. Human Lab Tower - can be found in Human Laboratory World - 3 10. Hardcore World 3 - can be played after beating HW 1 and 2 11. The Forest Level

Wait... Bowser in a tank?? I remember this!! Thank you for reminding me one piece of my childhood.

Oh yeah, I think a lot of polish people played this game at one point and deemed it the most frustrating Mario fangame ever made. Most causes of pc destructions were by the users themselves.

This game is dangerous not because it contains malware, it's dangerous because it damages your mental health. You'll see what I mean when you get to the map 8 levels

Mario Forever was my favorite game, and I played this game in 2009. It's a cool game, I never knew it was supposed to be a malware. Like the game looked harmless and fun. I would love to play this game again some day.

This game was fucking amazing until buziol became softendo. Then it all went to hell.

Dr Mario, but mario utterly destroys your computer

I never thought I'd hear of a Mario fangame that causes malware. Yikes. Granted, most of it is probably outdated and at most would be benign considering how updated Windows Defender gets frequently but it's important to exercise caution and you're definitely a real one for looking out for us. Also, I'll definitely give the SNES version a whirl since ROM hacks are more my thing anyway but since we're on the subject of fan games, you should definitely check out Mushroom Kingdom Fusion. The game is near complete to the point where it actually feels like a full game, and you can crossover with other franchises like Sonic, Zelda, Castlevania and Mega Man. That's not even the best part, the best part is that it won't give you malware! lol Still, good video as always Meech!

You should take a look at super mario 63, a 2d mario game with elements from 64, sunshine, and galaxy! It was a flash game, so I don't know if its still available.

mario forever was my childhood, no joke

I used to play this and other free Mario games in my browser all the time. I’m shocked I never got malware. Well, I haven’t learned my lesson, so I might as well go back!

Thank you for this video! I'm from Poland and I loved to play this game when I was a kid on dad's PC with Windows XP. Brings so much memories!

Ah, this game... I remember playing it even back in 2005/2006, when the first(?) version (2.16) was still relatively new. It's funny how this fangame is older than a few of my online friends, haha. I hold memories for this fangame like not many other games, since it was one of the first games I've played in my life, alongside the original Sonic trilogy and other Genesis games, as well as the Chicken Invaders games. I miss being a kid sometimes with memories like those flowing through my head... I ran upon this video randomly, and it's really cool to see someone with a large following shine a spotlight on this old but gold gem! Shame that most versions are malware now... When it comes to versions, I still remember downloading version 4.4 a long time ago. It wasn't associated with Softendo, and it works perfectly fine. I haven't seen any later version (5.0, 5.1 or 6.0, if I remember correctly) that wasn't either from Softendo (seriously, every time a level loaded from entering it or dying, it opened a link to their site on your browser, like, piss off), or just straight up malware. However I forgot when I downloaded 4.4, so the download may be lost to time, who knows, let alone remembering where I got it from... I didn't care much though, since 4.4 has all the extra content the last version has. All the newer versions add is some eye candy. I did not know there was an SNES ROM hack remake though, I'll see if I can check that out. (Again, despite still having the safe 4.4...) Maybe then I'll actually beat Hardcore World 2, even if it takes me savestates and rewinding... It looks like some physics stuff was slightly changed, for example, the jumps on the Rare Jumping Lui look _a lot_ higher. You talk about how funny the massive amount of Toads at the beginning is, or how out-of-place it is for Bowser to ravage a village with tanks, but the funniest(?) part is when you beat the game, Mario and Peach return and go inside the castle, and then it fades to black... Then it fades back in and it says "Nine Months Later..." ...yeah you can guess what happened. Except not really, it's still ridiculous... I have to agree on the Beetroot being almost useless. Even as a kid I much preferred the Fire Flower, although I still liked the concept. I agree on the stage design, it's pretty interesting while not feeling too bland. Hardcore World 2 though? Nah, that can go screw itself... One thing that wasn't mentioned is that Mario can't crouch jump, at least in the PC version. Maybe that was changed in the ROM hack, but it's not a big deal, it's not like there was anything in the game designed around it. Although my kid self couldn't get past 6-4 for years, lol. It was one of those levels where you have to pick the correct path, otherwise you run forever. I managed to find the path myself, though! I also couldn't get past 1-4 before I found out about running. This was actually my first Mario game, so it's what got me accustomed to holding the Run button at almost all times in Mario games. Also I'm definitely not the only one who, as a kid, thought it was weird that World 2 had 5 levels, but World 5 only had 3, without a castle, even. On a tangential note, one time I was watching PangaeaPanga's 1000 Expert Level Challenge for Mario Maker 2, and someone had actually recreated this game's 8-3 in it! It was really nice to see! The original music was also really good. The one in 5-2 can be found on modarchive(dot)org under the name sirens.mod, I was pointed that out by someone on Discord. It was apparently a track made all the way in the 90s. I don't know where to find the rest though. The Bowser theme I always found weird (especially when I was a kid), but eh. When it comes to the actual Mario music, it was always funny having to double take and go "oh this is the source of that music" when I saw videos of Super Mario World and Yoshi's Island. Visual presentation is also really neat as you said, the backgrounds are really pretty, heck, I also really liked the world maps Mario walked on to get to the next level. Added a little charm. Some of the secrets were the coolest stuff when I first found them out. Especially the human lab. Yeah, it's weird, but picture me when I was around 6-8 years old, on the first version of the game, without any other content except for that world, and I thought there was only the power-up life shop next to the save file select. And imagine my surprise when I manage to get over what I thought was a wall and discover this new freaky world that I had never heard of before, it felt like I discovered something that not even the game developer knew of. It's a feeling I... haven't felt for almost any other game, since I just resort to the internet for guides on secrets nowadays. There's also secrets like Funny Tanks, Koopa Troopa Liberation, Starman Running and the secret "Koppa the Devastator" [sic] fight, which was shown but not mentioned. As well as warps to World 4 in 1-2, to World 3 in 1-4, and to World 8 in 3-1. Once again, thanks for covering this game (and again, shame that the PC version is mostly malware nowadays...), even though this is the first time I've heard of your channel. Awesome review, and I love having memories of when I was a kid playing this game flow through my head again. Have a good one!

Thanks for the new vids. Always on time when nobody else posts vids

This showed up on my recommended and I am glad for it. Cool content!

Mario Forever may hack your computer and get into your personal account, but at least it doesn't hack into your brain and set fire to it due to how monotonous and dull it is like Nintendo Switch Sports does. Can't wait for next video, dude!

This was the first mario game I ever played, but I don't remember it having viruses. Perhaps because it was an old version?

Good video lmao loved the Bonzi Buddy cameo

This thing destroyed my family PC as a kid, and my first laptop. Despite, I really want to play it again, is there a safe port or mod of it? I really hope you are able to cover the Mario space shooter and survival minigame that are seemingly made by the same guys too.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="735">12:15</a> - <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="738">12:18</a> Super Mario Bros X: *laughs hysterically*

I can't belive this game is already 20 years old.

This took me back in time, when I played this amazing game on my PC.(keeping aside the malware of course lol) It was very popular in 2000's. Then Daniel's game vault, mungo, mariovariable formed an amazing community of this game and brought back it's craze in 2010's. Glad to see that people still give attention to this game. It has been a long time since I have played it or last time I have seen or heard about it

These new power ups are nice. I'd like to see them implemented in other games.

Your provide no citations for any of your claims. I've played Mario Forever several times and never had any problems.

reccomendation:play super mario crossover,its a fan remake of the first smb but with various characters from nes games being playable,it has a lot of care put into it and I want to see what you think about it

I remember very well playing the Buziol era mario forever at 3, without my father having any concerns of malware (he was the tech genius back then) the game's colorful graphics made me love the game, i still have the hard drive of that computer plugged in via usb with those cases for the hard drives to be portable, and considering i dont carry the hard drive anywhere, its staying on my main computer as a shortcut.

Judging by how many people's first exposure to Mario and Nintendo in general this game was, me included, it's absolutely baffling to me how Nintendo themselves haven't done at least one Mario platforming game for PC.

I used to think that the only unsecure version was the New Mario Forever game, which actually you couldn't close it until you restart your computer. But well, amazing video and thanks for making me remember my past.

The first videogame I ever played! I still remember playing it with my big sister and getting blown away by world 5-2's soundtrack. Not to mention how scared I was of Bowser's portrait in the final world 😅

I think this game looks fine. For some reason it reminds me that Super Mario Wacky World suppose to exist. I wish someone completes that game so we can all enjoy it. The thing that could have saved the CD-I should happen.

I played Mario Forever as a kid it worked fine but it has malware? I didn't know of that is it possible it was pre-malware? Or did it always have malware?

I fail to see why this video is called a retrospective, when all you did was just review the game (not even the original, not even the fan-made remake of the original, but an SMW port, which feels DRASTICALLY different from the original). You've also provided no proofs about the "malware" in the game. It's important to know, that the installers themselves were the only questionable units, where you'd have to agree or disagree with the installation of a toolbar and that's it. What baffles me is that you haven't even tried to play the fan remake of Mario Forever which you can 100% consider safe if you're still overly scared of downloading original versions. Sadly, this video doesn't bring any retrospective to the game, only skimms through what it has to offer and then calls it the most dangerous game.

This video is so underrated, your editing style reminds me of some of the reviews I've done before. Keep up the good work!

I really want to play this fangame now but I don't want to have a virus, is there any way to play it safely?

Hell, I played Mario Forever Flash as a kid. Tons of Softendo Flash games, in fact. Never had any problems!

The first time I ever heard of super mario forever was during one of Vargskeletor Joel's windows destruction streams.

Not even kidding with this: I saw "Super Mario Forever" being sold on a DVD at Micro Center in 2017 when I was buying my laptop

One of the most nostalgic games for me, that's exactly how I imagined the franchise so the original ones were kinda disappointing to me once and still play this game to this day, that aside I've finished majority of Mario games anyways

What a strange blast from the past it was to see this video pop up on my feed. I used to play this game back in junior high. I remember the power ups, the weird human lab and all the extra content you could discover in the interactive hub. Sad to see it has been turned into malware. It gave me many a good time back in the day.

This was the game of my childhood.... i used to play on my dads old pc on 2006 and i have fond memories of it.... i remember loving this game and the human laboratory creeping me out.... i never beat the game but it didnt matter, i still liked it. also i remember getting spanked because i downloaded it a second time and the pc got a virus where our explorer and toolbars were super mario forever themed and there was "weird" notifications on the pc 😅.... great times

Back in 2009 when I was on a CD buying spree in Ukraine, I got my hands on quite a number of compilation discs. You know, the kind where you have tens of games bundled in one disc, wether it's legal or not. No one even cared to fix/patch the "cd required to launch game" checks in half the games on them. One of these discs had Mario Forever 4.0 on it (I uploaded the background music of the disc's installer, as well an image of the installer on my channel a while back) Which is a bit weird considering I paid for this...but wanna know what's even worse? The title of this video, something I learned just now after 13 years...ouch. The title of the disc basically translates to "kids play (revision 3) 36 in 1". The company behind these discs was Stargame but they have disappeared since then.

Could you explain what happened to the game? How did it become malware?

Great video!

No wonder why no one knew what I was talking about whenever I mentioned this game xD. It was the first one I played back in a windows xp, I don't even know how we got the game but what I do remember is that it was awesome, excluding one specific level that was reeeally hard. Great video btw 💜.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="74">1:14</a> lmao it’s so true Also I remember having this game on my laptop as a kid, no wonder the fucking thing had to be left on overnight to open google

Ngl, it's really sad to hear this game became malware. This was one of my most memorable introductions to the Mario series, it literally tricked me up till this point that it was an official Mario game made for the SNES. I don't feel too disheartened tho, because it was an amazing experience to say the least.

I actually installed version "7.03" from Softendo about a month ago after I remembered the game existed (the last time I played was a decade ago) and while I didn't get a virus, I wouldn't really encourage others to risk it. There were some extra things in that version not mentioned in this video, however, most of which I figure are since Mario Forever Remake lacks many of these. - Mario Minix: You have 2 lives and have to kill as many enemies as possible in a small space to get a highscore - Starman run: You just run fast with the star and kill enemies - Hardcore world 2: Absolute hell but it had some cool stuff, such as a level where spikes fall down everywhere and you have to get to a safe place - World 9: A fanmade world which is very buggy, and also extremely difficult. I haven't gotten past level 2 yet. - A few other fan-made worlds that were implemented into the actual game and could be accessed via a pipe next to the hardcore worlds (including world 9) - The Lost Map: A weird and fairly difficult world with alternative music - Extra Tank level: I forgot the exact name but it's like 8-4 but longer and harder (not 100% certain though since I haven't beaten it) - Koopa Troopa liberation: Koopas. EVERYWHERE. You have to platform over a huge pit using just flying Koopas. - World of Stupidity: It's exactly what it sounds like, and it's difficult as well. My favorite character is the stupid cloud, which is just a cloud that blows a raspberry and *kills you instantly regardless of power*. Oh, and bullet bills are replaced with trees because why not. - Koopa the destructor: Not the exact name, but in the part that you showed the bouncing ball power thing, getting into that pipe would lead you into a boss fight with bowser where he has an large amount of health and he himself has the high jump power - Music is different for Bowser in the version I have than in what you showed in the video This is all that immediately comes to mind.

So, if the PC version is unsafe, but the SNES version is. What would happen if you emulate the SNES version of it?

I remember playing this game with my cousin in India. When I found the plant powerup I was so hyped lol. I think I found the super jump once and never learned what it does because I lost it instantly. I also saw the human world thing, although I never thought of it as strange as a kid idk. Everything seems like a fever dream now.

me and all my classmates used to love this game. World 5 only had 3 levels but the music in both of them were SUCH BANGERS

I remember when i was younger i asked my dad to install super mario bros x on laptop, but he instead downloaded mario forever from the most random russian website, but surprisingly there was just some suspicious installer and we haven't found any virus

I remember having this game on my computer along with secret Maryo chronicles when I was like 4, and despite being malware it still was part of my childhood

Seeing this game again after like 10 years was definitely a surprise for me

Anywho, watched the whole vid. Some secrets (warp from w1 to w4 on lvl 1-2, w3 to w8 on 3-1 for example) can be very hidden. As for the exclusive stuff on PC ver The Lost Map 1&2. Definitedly a set of levels that each one has a new thing with amped difficulty. Each world has their own map and theme instead of the same one you hear of the mayority of snes ver. Mario worker, albeit yes. People still make lvls, usually they go for their own engines (if they can.) and make a lot of games. (without any adware and such.) I will always recommend the ver of Mario Forever Remake due to how many worlds there are, its the more...safer option. But hey, greato review! I liked it, def not sure why i haven't subbed yet..gonna change that.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="167">2:47</a> Where did the screaming sound effect come from?

Thank you for talking about the weird human clone levels

My favorite Mario Editor/Fangame is Super Mario Bros X 2, and I think that will be a fun one to check out!

i remember there was this mario flash website which i went there for this funny game called "mario cart" which was basically just mario kart but everyone rides in a shopping cart, and later after i exited the website, i started getting a bunch of notifications/adware and a lot of them had... questionable things

I have a safe disk for my computer that has mario forever , im in iran but the disks often safe , i bought , should i install this game?

I've heard of Mario Forever, but I don't know that this game have malware. But, the level and power-ups look interesting.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="616">10:16</a> Super Mario Lost Levels also had extra levels (World 9, World A, World B, World C, World D), and the fact that you only get one life on World 9.

"Mario Forever, I thought that was just a nickname for MK8 Deluxe" 😂😂

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="735">12:15</a> If Mario Multiverse ever gets released then, judging from the gameplay and what people have said, it will be better than Mario Maker 2

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="94">1:34</a> oh my god the Super Metroid intro theme fits interrogations so well, i never noticed lmfao

The newer installers don't contain malware. Also, I'm scared of what your Switch Sports video will have in it.

I remember playing a Mario forever game that looked like Mario bros wii, I now know why my computer stopped working 😭

Anyone know the music used at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="684">11:24</a>

Me: downloads Mario forever unkowingly Malware: thats a nice computer you got there... can i have it?

Have you played "Super Mario Bros X" games? SMBX is basically Mario Maker before Mario Maker and there is A LOT of games made with that program that are extremely good and fun, there's also very bad ones but those were made by me.

there's also a 3rd remake of Mario Forever, this time for another fan game, well more of fan creator Super Mario Bros. X if you ever want, i'd highly recommend checking it out, but i'd go with SMBX2, it's a modification of SMBX that adds in more content that wasn't in the original but checking out either the original final release, or the continued supportive updated versions (there's two different ones) work

Man, I played that game a ton. Sirens still gets stuck in my head

I remember installing v7.02 in 2019, and it was safe to install. The newer installers are also safe from these types of installers that install suspicious software. The versions 5.05-6.0 are actually risky to download, since they DO have these suspicious installers. The older versions by Buziol are also safe. V2.16 was also my first version and it was safe to play. I'm currently playing the Remake more than the original due to more stuff and it doesn't have any installers.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="246">4:06</a> why do i hear penguinz0 screaming "WOOOOO" in the background

I used to play this back in the day and honestly i forgot how much of a fever dream this game was

Even without the malware controversy, I'd still recommend the SNES romhack over the PC version. The SMW engine simply makes it much easier and smoother to control. Plus, save states and rewind features.😜

Try checking out Super Mario Bros. X2 It's one of the most expansive fan editors, rivaling the capabilities of Lunar Magic while being relatively user-friendly. (granted, not as much as Mario Maker 2)

When it comes to original Mario Forever, the 1.16.1, 2.16 and 3.0 versions are completely safe. 3.5 added Mario Forever Toolbar in a very invasive way, because you can't even opt it out during installing the game. Same with 4.0 and 4.1. Don't know about 4.15, but in 4.4 you can finally turn off installing this mentioned garbage (some window with offer will appear after installing the game. What's interesting it's actually similar window to that after installing Icy Tower 1.4 and 1.5).

Huh, that might have explained why my first desktop ran like ass after playing that the first time

Idk why but I am feeling very nostalgic rn. I literally grew up playing fan Mario games and I remembered playing this game called Mario’s Forever Flash which is similar like this one.

I have memories of a Mario game on my Grandparents laptop, it was a super hard Mario game, I thought it was a legitimate Mario Game, I think it was called Super Mario, or something like that, but I had it for a few years, and I didn't use the laptop often, and as far as I know, no malware or anything, they got a new laptop though, so unfortunately, I cannot play it again. So I can't tell you what the actual name is, but it used the New Super Mario World graphics/sprites

I think it would've been neat if you spent more time talking about this game's history and how it became malware. The video's title makes it seems like this will be more like a history video than a review.

Holy fuck, I had the 5-2 theme on my computer for years and I had no idea what the song's name was. Thank you for this.

What does the malware do to your computer?

Not sure if I've suggested to you before but if your looking for a fan game to review, give Super Mario Brothers X a spin

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="556">9:16</a> - That 5-2 theme is Sirens by Dave the Brave if you are wondering.

I had this as a kid and this explains so much

question, i got mario forever but uninstalled it. what now?