Bite Size Reviews – Mr. Nibbles Forever

We don’t always have a lot of time to play games. Maybe you just don’t feel like getting into an eighty hour+ RPG. Sometimes you just want to start a game that’s simple; one that you can just jump in and not worry about saving, or customizing and upgrading your character. Maybe you are on a bus, train or plane. You just want to play. These are bite size games, and this is Bite Size Reviews. Today we look at Mr. Nibbles Forever on Steam.

Story

In Mr. Nibbles Forever, you ar Mr. Nibbles, a hamster with big dreams. He dreams of being the first hamster astronaut (hamsternaut?) in space. So you break out of you cage and run through spider-infested landscapes to get to your rocket ship that’ll take you to infinity and beyond. That’s pretty much all there is to the story. The game was released last year for Android and iOS devices and being an endless runner, there isn’t a whole lot to the game’s story. Which is ok, because this game really doesn’t need it.

Gameplay

The jist of the game is that it is an endless runner, so it moves itself. Your goal is to jump and dodge the various bunches of spiders to make it to the end. Space (along with “A” on a gamepad,”Up,” and left click on a mouse) controls your jump and “Left” and “Right” (along with “A” and “D,” or the left stick on a gamepad) controls your speed with “Left” slowing you down and “Right” speeding you up. You must time your jumps just right, however, otherwise you will fall into or be grabbed up by the spiders. There are also spiders which traverse up and down a strand of webbing which is where the speed controls come into play.

There are also a variety of challenge stages with various objectives to accomplish. For every challenge you complete you unlock a costume for Mr. Nibbles. Throughout each playthrough (regular and challenge) you can collect little pellets. For every 100 pellets you collect, you earn a spin of the prize wheel. The rewards include unlockable costumes and power ups, which come in the form of extra lives, magnets to automatically pull in the pellets and the double jump. The double jump seems like more of a necessity than a bonus because too often you come across jumps that you simply cannot make unless you have the power up.

Mechanics

The graphics are cutesy and simplistic, which makes sense since it is a family friendly game that anybody can play. Cute little hamster and cute little spiders kind of make you not realize the spiders are the same exact size as the hamster, so either that’s a tiny hamster or those are some tarantulas. The music is kind of cute and whimsical to to fit the family friendly nature of the game. It sort of reminds me of Plants Vs. Zombies. The game, for being as simple as it is, even has jump physics. The distance of your jumps correlates to how fast Mr. Nibbles is moving. The slower you are, the shorter your jump is and the same goes for the opposite. You have to balance and control your speed if you want to win.

So how does Mr. Nibbles Forever fare as a bite size, pick up and go game. Fairly well, actually. The game isn’t my standard cup of tea, but constantly dying makes me want to keep pushing past where I end and actually beat the first level.