As it turned out, I was still on World 4, and not World 5 as I though. Still, I was close to the end of World 4, and World 5 was indeed the final world, so I wasn’t that far from complete.

Now I’m even less far from complete, having completed it.

I may have mentioned it’s hard. Oh boy is it hard. I’m not sure it actually got harder on the final world (aside from throwing me a bit by changing the graphics, and by changing how some of the enemies appear – some now move when they didn’t before), but that’s probably just as well as it was hard enough already.

So many times I had the checkpoint (yes, I used checkpoints) or end of level in sight, but still died before passing them meaning I had to do it all again.

And then for the final level the worst fly in the ointment happens. You have to run from right to left, but the controls stay the same! So A is still Block, where Y would make more sense. Death after death. Not helped by having no idea what to do with the walls you come across (tip: turns out you have to slide-jump through them).

Which all sounds like a complaint, doesn’t it? It really isn’t. It’s a wonderful game which is just very hard. Unlike some games, though, it doesn’t suffer as a result. The short levels and instant restarts stop you getting totally frustrated, and the levels and controls are such that all mistakes, except perhaps the first time you hit something you didn’t see quickly enough, are entirely your fault. Hard but perfectly fair.

I should point out that I’ve not 100%ed it. I don’t have all the gold in all the levels, I don’t have all the bullseyes, and I don’t have all the chests, keys or anything like that. I won’t be trying to 100% it either – I feel it’s really beyond me. I almost 100%ed the first world and that was difficult enough, and although I know it would be a great achievement to perfect the entire game, I don’t think I’d enjoy doing it. Next!