Although there are numerous Mario platform games out in the freeware community, it takes a lot of effort to pull off a seamless translation. Yet Mario Forever not only pulls this off with ease, but at the same time have added new changes to the game that really makes it that much more interesting and exciting for Mario fans. If you think, you can breeze through this game with the strategies you picked up from playing the Mario games on the consoles, you will be a bit surprised with what is to come.

There is actually a story in this game. Most of the times with Mario games least the early ones you had the simple Mario going to rescue the princess from Bowser. However, this time around it is not like that. It seems that the Toadstool Kingdom has been invaded by yes the King of the Koopas, that would be Bowser with his tanks. Yes you read that sentence right, Bowser somehow managed to acquire tanks and is using these tanks to take over. Any ways though, Mario is not going to sit by idly and watch his friends get their homes destroyed by Bowser, he is going to go forth and beat Bowser and restore peace to the kingdom.

Okay so it is almost similar to the original stories but its somewhat different give it that. This version of Mario is probably one of the best out there have to say. The game itself has been done with lots of attention to detail; it is a seamless translation from the console games up to the Snes to this PC version. The graphics, sound effects, and even the music from Super Mario World 1, Super Mario World 2, Yoshi's Story and Super Mario All Stars are included in the game, to complete the Mario experience. So right, we got the overall look of the game check, what about the actual game play you may ask.

Well game play is also done flawlessly, as you see each enemy from goombas, to koopas, to the piranha plants; the bad guy gang is all here and accounted for and ready to stop Mario in his tracks. The author also decided to add some things to the game, one of which is a new item that is like some sort of food, adding to Mario's abilities besides the ol fire flower. The great thing about it is this item bounces on the ground and can destroy blocks and kill enemies, you have to see it to believe it. The stages themselves while short at the beginning get progressively longer as you advance through the game and more difficult of course. Oh and did I mention the game comes with a save feature so if you die say on world 3, you won't go back to world 1, nope you'll start on world 3, awesome stuff.

Also the game comes with Mario Minix, a mini game you could call it. Where you try to defeat as many enemies as you can before you die and you can even submit your high scores to the website to see how you rank up with others.
 
The only concern I had with the game was the occasional time where the controls may not be too responsive. It happens every now and then but granted it is understandable and really is not that big of an issue, as it does not happen too often. As well the forced installation of the Mario Toolbar I thought wasn't a good thing, especially in the ages of spyware and ad-aware some users may not like the forced installation of a toolbar. I understand the developers need the support but there are other ways and if it was optional to install that would be better. The fact that one you have to install it and two to hide it you have to do 3 searches using the toolbar, I thought was a bit much.

Still this is perhaps the best Mario freeware title out there and definitely if you're a fan of the Mario games, you definitely need to check this title out, it's called Mario Forever, highly recommended.

Note: During installation the game will install the mario toolbar to your IE browser as a toolbar and it will appear evident when you load up IE. Unfortunately you cannot unselect the toolbar to not install during installation, and you cannot uninstall the toolbar when the game is installed. You may hide the toolbar after doing 3 searches using the toolbar, however if you do not like to have this sort of thing on your system, install at your own risk.