Softendo

Softendo
Date of foundation:	2007
Date of closure:	Still available
Owner(s):	Michał Gdaniec

Our free games are a good choice. - Softendo's slogan

Softendo is the current developer of Mario Forever, and the successor to Buziol Games. The group is composed of only one guy, Michał Gdaniec, and has picked the ownership of Mario Forever in 2009.

Softendo is usually known for making several 'Super Mario' games that don't feel or play like the real aforementioned games, and misspelling Nintendo characters like Mario as Maryo.

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's servers were shut down, and the website would be redone and was under construction, and it was also stated that Buziol Games would be renamed to Softendo.

In 2008, the old Mario Forever News website, which was used for Mario Forever's v3.5 update would then be changed to Softendo. With him releasing Arcade Sniper, Dragon Ball Arcade, and Mario Forever Galaxy, all of which were copies of the cancelled Obliterator (except for Mario Forever Galaxy which had a story but had Obliterator's mechanics) and were made in GameMaker rather than Multimedia Fusion, people didn't know if Softendo was Michał or another website stealing his games and reskinning them. Another game that would get the same treatment would be Zelda Forever: The Tower of Evil, which was a reskin and a rebranding of Bod Blob 2, a cancelled sequel of the same title. Mario Forever: Block Party was also released, being the same as Zelda Forever: The Tower of Evil, except that it had Super Mario elements put to it. Finally, he released Mario Games, which was Mario Forever's Mario Minix but with two extra maps and different graphics.

In the same year, 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 Mario Forever v4.4. In the same year, Softendo showed videos of an early version of New Super Mario Forever called New Mario Forever 2009 and a match-three game called Mario Forever: Temple of Stars that was cancelled in an unknown time. He also released Mario Online and Mario Games, which were a platform shooting game and a Mario Minix minigame..

In 2010, Softendo decided to move Mario Forever's engine from Multimedia Fusion 1.5 to Multimedia Fusion 2 Developer, 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 sprite swapped 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 2013, Softendo released v6.01 of Mario Forever, which added the infamous World of Stupidity world and Syzxchulun's edited World 9, along with fixing a lot of bugs. However, 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. Both World of Stupidity and World 9 were criticized for their difficulty and the bugs they had.

In the same year, Softendo would release three games of the Super Furio series, which are similar to Mario Forever Flash with the exception of different graphics and characters.

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? (2017-2023)

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. He also updated Bod Blob and made it bundled with an extra game called Bod Blob 1+ where it adds more levels, and also updated Super Mario Shooten to include English only, since that game was Polish only and didn't get an English version unlike Super Mario The Tag Play. He then released all of his old games to the Softendo website.

In the same year, he released information about his lost Amiga 1200 games he made when he was a kid, and Mario Forever 1996 was one of the games that were lost.

In 2019, Softendo released the beta version of Mario Forever World Editor, which was the level editor for New Super Mario Forever, and added a lot of games to his website. He also updated Mario Forever: Block Party's server and showcased a video about Mario Forever's upcoming update, v7.05.

In 2021, Softendo came back, and as a special gift for Michał Gdaniec's old website (Buziol Games) hitting 20 years since its foundation, he released all of his game's images including Mario Forever Info's to the site. He also linked 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.

In the same year, Softendo would upload videos to YouTube of him playing his games and other people's different games plus updating his website.

In 2023, Softendo would return again and showcase shorts of his PC build and his room where he works on games. Softendo also released a video of an upcoming ''gun'' level for Mario Forever, which has Mario using a gun to defeat enemies and a video about him playing Slime 3K.

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. Or did he?

The AI Age (2024-Present)

Despite Softendo recovering from his dark ages, and the rise of Artifical Intelligence content, Softendo came back again and released musical videos made with AI; two of which are soundtracks from MF. During 2024, Softendo sometimes releases AI music, with most of them being about Super Mario.

Criticism

Softendo, unlike Buziol Games faced a lot of criticism on the games he made, ranging from rebranding the same games while adding sprites to them to bugs.

Arcade Sniper, Mario Forever Galaxy and Dragon Ball Arcade were praised for their game play and variety of mechanics. However, they were criticized from copying the same game, but adding elements from a different universe. The same thing applied to Zelda Forever: The Tower of Evil, which copied Bod Blob 2, before Mario Forever: Block Party copied Zeldax Forever it but changed everything to sprites from Super Mario games. Mario Online and Mario Games didn't get that much attention, but were praised for their mechanics.

Mario Forever 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 increasing 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.

Banesoft:

Banesoft's games were criticized of how messed up its games were. Megaman X Wackyland was just a reskin of Urbagility 2 but with Capcom's Megaman, Mario Maniac Bros was just Mario Minix, while the other Super Mario games including Sonic in Marioland were criticized of messed up level design, and the game-breaking bugs that made most of them unplayable.

www.Buziol.pl:

www.Buziol.pl's games were not enjoyed that much, as they were repetitive and boring and didn't have enough mechanics. However, they were criticized for the awkward English they used, and mature Super Mario picutres of Princess Peach in Super Mario Peach Party 1 and 3, which caused severe backlash and led to its shutdown.

List of games Softendo made

Softendo:

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

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

• Mario Worker (v4.4) (2009)

• Mario Forever: Advance Edition (2009)
• Mario Online (2009)
• Mario Games (2009)
• New Super Mario Forever (2012-2015)
• Super Furio 1 (2013; First game Softendo made in Flash)
• Super Furio Adventures (2013)
• Super Furio and Monsters (2013)
• Mario Forever Kids (2017)
• Bod Blob 1+ (2017)
• Super Mario Shooten (Second English version, 2017)
• Mario Forever World Editor (2019)

Banesoft: (2008-2008)

• 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)

www.Buziol.pl: (2011-2011)

• 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 Play (2011)
• Super Mario Playgrounds (2011)
• Super Mario Playgrounds 2 (2011)
• Super Mario Peach Party (2011)
• Super Mario Peach Party 3 (2011)
• Super Mario Shooten (2011; First English version)

Cancelled games:

• Mario Forever: Temple of Stars (2009; cancelled)

Gallery

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

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  A Softendo logo in 2009, which featured Buziol's old games mascots like Bod, Urbagility 2's Vector and Bonden, and the Luma with teeth and eyes, which was its main mascot.

• 

  Another Softendo logo, which was only used in Mario Forever v4.15, v4.4 and Mario Forever 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/