Softendo

Softendo
Date of foundation:	2008
Date of closure:	Still available
Owner(s):	Michał Gdaniec

Softendo is the current developer of Mario Forever, and the successor of Buziol Games. The group is comprised of one guy (Michał Gdaniec) and has picked the ownership of Mario Forever in 2009. It also made other games that are related to it such as New Super Mario Forever and Mario Forever Block Party.

History

The Beginning of Softendo (2007-2008)

Following Buziol Games' mysterious disappearance in 2007, a lot of the website's members were confused about it. The website's news corner, however, was still working in 2008, which could meant that Michał Gdaniec could state the mysterious disappearance in 2007. It has been stated that the website would be redone and was under construction, and it was also stated that Buziol Games would be renamed to Softendo.

Before he revealed and finished his website, Mario Forever Galaxy, Mario Forever Block Party and Zeldax Forever (Zelda Forever: The Tower of Evil) were released in 2008 by Softendo, along with Dragon Ball Arcade, Mario Games and Arcade Sniper. One year prior, he released Mario Online.

In 2008, Banesoft, a part of Softendo released some games like Super Sonic Mario and Super Mario Crystals. In an unknown time, it was shutdown. These games were mainly negatively received by many people due to messed up level design and various other oddities. Some even featured game-breaking bugs that made them unplayable.

The Bronze Age (2009-2010)

2009 was the year when Softendo has finally arrived with a finished website. The first version of Mario Forever released by Softendo was v4.15 on May 5, 2009, with not many changes, though Funny Tanks? were removed because of technical issues, and Mario Worker was completely removed (before making another return as a separated application called Mario Worker 4.4). When v4.4 was released on July 8th of that same year, Funny Tanks? was re-added, along with two new levels (Koopa Troopa Liberation and Starman Running). This was also the first version to include check points. Version 4.4 proved to be very popular, with it being arguably the most well known version of Mario Forever. During the same year, Softendo released Mario Forever: Advance Edition, which is a harder version of the original MF v4.4. In 2010, Softendo decided to move Mario Forever's engine from MMF1.5 to MMF2 Dev, releasing v5.0 of the game and bringing in drastic changes in musics and transitions. However, because of the engine moving, this also caused new bugs to be included, though v5.01, released on January 14, 2011 (nearly two months after v5.0's release on November 24, 2010), addressed some bugs.

The Dark Age (2011-2016)

2011 was the year that would have start Softendo's dark age. While Mario Forever was getting updates, most of these updates were just updated setups, though some (mainly v5.08dx and v5.9) somehow added more bugs instead of fixing them, which defeats the purpose of an "update", as an update should fix bugs, not add more of them. Version 5.05, released on July 21, 2011, was the first version of Mario Forever where Softendo bundled the game with a Conduit installer that could offer to install additional software, though this was also the source of toolbars. Some installers of Mario Forever have been also bundled with malware/viruses, resulting in many people blaming Softendo for inserting dangerous stuff into an installer of a regular fan game, though people have been speculating that it was someone else who managed to somehow insert malware/viruses into the aforementioned installers.

2011 was also the year when Softendo started doing strange things, such as making presentations of rather "mature" Mario pictures, while also occasionally posting clips of some Mario Forever levels with spriteswapped Mario sprites, though some were also made during 2010. The videos had rather awkward English such as "beautiful" being incorrectly written as "beautyful".

It was also the year where www.Buziol.pl (a part of Softendo) made other games like Super Mario Playgrounds, and Super Mario Castle. Super Mario Peach Party was also one of them, which focused on Princess Peach and had inappropriate images on it. In an unknown time (possibly in 2011, the same year when these games were released), www.Buziol.pl was shutdown.

When New Super Mario Forever was released in 2012, there have been reports that the game had malware/viruses, as they couldn't close the game by clicking the "X" button on the game's window, though this was proven because of rather bad programming. The game also had problems with saving, where completing the a world couldn't save their progress unless they completed one of the levels of the next one. While some installers of the game may contain malware/viruses, there are also download links with safe ones. Despite these reports, New Super Mario Forever was met with a positive reception.

In v6.01 of Mario Forever, closing the game would constantly take people to Softendo's website, which was heavily criticized by many players due to it being very annoying. Some people even thought that it was done so that people could download Softendo's other games.

In January 2015, in Softendo's channel, there were posted new videos which were images of some female Mario characters, with one even featuring a thumbnail that wasn't that appropriate, and one video even had a thumbnail that was completely inappropriate (albeit somewhat censored). However, most (except for one) were age-restricted, mostly because of the images' quality.

In 2016, Softendo released a bundle called Mario Forever 2016, which is Mario Forever and New Super Mario Forever, but bundled together and had very minor updates put to them, and more viruses.

A New Light (2017-present)

After a long absence, Softendo began uploading new videos in 2017, though instead of being inappropriate pictures, these were Mario Forever soundtracks. While much less popular than the ones that were uploaded by a different user, Safarifire in 2010, the videos that Softendo uploaded were actually regular soundtracks, although the music for World 6's map incorrectly played World 5's map theme, probably due to an oversight.

October 21, 2017 would be also the time when Softendo finally released version 7 of Mario Forever as v7.01, completely revamping the setup to the point the game was no longer bundled with other software, as well as fixing various World 9 bugs and glitches. Four days later, on October 25th, v7.02 was released which fixed more bugs and other stuff. Softendo's actions in 2017 were appreciated by many people in the community, with many being glad that Softendo decided to no longer upload videos with inappropriate pictures.

After the release of v7.02, Softendo began uploading some different types of content, most of which were music videos of his games, tutorials, and even videos where he played some of his older games, such as Stargrade 2, made back in 2004 when Softendo was still Buziol Games.

In 2019, Softendo released the beta version of Mario Forever World Editor, which was the level editor for New Super Mario Forever, as people thought he completely changed and thinks that Buziol Games has been a name of the past, a past that didn't exist. Until 2 years passed...

In 2021, as a special gift for Michał Gdaniec's old website (Buziol Games) hitting 20 years since its foundation, Softendo released all of his unfinished, abandoned games to the Softendo Archive, as a way for people to discover these unfinished games and play them. Stargrade 2 and Bod Blob 2 were one of the games that got unfinished, especially Bod Blob 2, since it was cancelled during its final stages of development and was planned to release around 2004/2006. Along with abandoned headers and images from Buziol Games era, he also released information about his lost Amiga 1200 he made when he was a kid, and Mario Forever 1996 was one of the games that were lost. He also linked to the Wayback Machine's saved Buziol Games web pages, so people can relive the nostalgia or discover the old website and what it had offered prior to 2007.

Currently, Softendo doesn't upload as much, but still occasionally posts from time to time. Given that Softendo might be busy in real life, this could be the reason. Overall though, Softendo managed to find a new light and recover from the dark age that lasted from 2011 to 2016.

Criticism

Arcade Sniper, Mario Forever Galaxy and Dragon Ball Arcade were praised for their game play and variety of mechanics. However, they (except for Arcade Sniper) suffered from copying the same game, but adding elements from a different universe. The same thing applied to Mario Forever Block Party, as it copies Zeldax Forever but adds Mario elements. Mario Online and Mario Games didn't get that much attention, but were praised for their mechanics. MF v4.4 was again praised for being kept the same as how Buziol left it, until v5.0 came in with its shiny effects and different music due to the upgrade of its game-developing platform from Multimedia Fusion 1.5 to Multimedia Fusion 2 Developer Edition. This update marked the downfall of Mario Forever, with arguably increase of the downfall after v5.05, which marked the "Mario Forever Virus" era with its Conduit installer.

New Super Mario Forever, on the other hand, gained popularity from Vinesauce's video, which resulted in people playing it, aside from it being positive in terms of levels. Yet some setups were filled with malware and viruses, and the game suffered from bad programming, particularly with the fact that people couldn't close the game and had to use a Task Manager to close it, along with the game not saving when one completes a world. This made New Super Mario Forever a failed sequel, despite its positive reception that most people gave to it.

Mario Forever v7.01 was an improvement from v5.0-v6.01's downfall, as it removes all of the Conduit installers it had before, along with providing two extra worlds and fixing various bugs with World 9 (despite still being rather buggy). However, the old main menu music from Buziol's first version was changed, which led to some people being upset.

List of games Softendo made

Softendo

• Mario Online (2007)
• Arcade Sniper (2008)
• Dragon Ball Arcade (2008)
• Mario Forever Block Party (2008)
• Mario Forever Galaxy (2008)
• Mario Games (2008)
• Zeldax Forever (also known as Zelda Forever: The Tower of Evil) (2008)

• Mario Forever (v4.15-now) (2009-present)

• Mario Worker v4.4 (2009)

• Mario Forever: Advance Edition (2009)
• New Super Mario Forever (2012-2015)
• Mario Forever Kids (2017)

www.Buziol.pl

• Super Mario and Friends (2011)
• Super Mario Bombastic (2011)
• Super Mario Castle (2011)
• Super Mario Castle 2 (2011)
• Super Mario Dark Dungeon (2011)
• Super Mario Starshine Finder (2011)
• Super Mario Coins (2011)
• Super Mario Curibo Shoe (2011)
• Super Mario Playgrounds (2011)
• Super Mario Playgrounds 2 (2011)
• Super Mario Peach Party (2011)
• Super Mario Peach Party 3 (2011)

Banesoft

• Mario Maniac Bros (2008)
• Megaman X Wackyland (2008)
• Sonic in Marioland (2008)
• Super Mario Castle Adventures (2008)
• Super Mario Castle Buster (2008)
• Super Mario Crystals (2008)
• Super Mario Flayer (2008)
• Super Mario Ice (2008)
• Super Mario Ice 2 (2008)
• Super Mario Sonic Armageddon (2008)
• Super Mario Star (2008)
• Super Mario with Shotgun (2008)
• Super Sonic Mario (2008)

Gallery

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  Softendo's logo in 2008, which was used in MFG, Zeldax Forever and Dragon Ball Arcade, along with MF Flash.

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  Softendo's logo in 2009, which featured Buziol's old games mascots like Bod, Vector and Bonden. and the Luma with teeth and eyes, which was its main mascot.

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  Another Softendo logo, which was only used in MF v4.15, v4.4 and Advance Edition in 2009.

External Links

• Vinesauce's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdPkpftGa1E&t=0s (Starts at 1:01:44)
• Softendo's site: https://www.softendo.com/