Best Fiends Forever Review: Fiendishly Compelling

I have a borderline unhealthy love of idle clicker games. While the rational side of my brain appreciates that they’re ultimately pretty pointless, the addictive side of my brain is too busy getting overexcited at levelling up in one. Having …

By
Share this
  • Share this on Facebook
  • Share this on Twitter

I have a borderline unhealthy love of idle clicker games. While the rational side of my brain appreciates that they’re ultimately pretty pointless, the addictive side of my brain is too busy getting overexcited at levelling up in one. Having played quite a few, though, I can confidently say that Best Fiends Forever is one of the more classy examples of the genre. True cynics probably still won’t be endeared towards it, but clicker fans will find much of their free time taken over by this cute game.

Using the characters of Best Fiends, Best Fiends Forever is certainly cute and charming. Players fight their way through various levels and worlds, beating up the evil slugs that thwarted efforts in the original Best Fiends. Except this is a clicker game, so you don’t actually have to do much after a time, right? Kind of.

bigfiends1

See, Best Fiends Forever is different from other clicker games. It’s a bit more interactive. Early on, of course, you’re tapping away in order to cause slapping damage, but after a short time, you can leave the game to do things automatically. However, oftentimes, you’re presented with barrels or chests that can be tapped. The former causes damage to enemies, while the latter gives you more money. Keeping an eye on the attractive scenery around you is a useful thing to do, so it’s fortunate that Best Fiends Forever consistently looks quite delightfully cartoony.

Levelling up is a familiar process of waiting till you have enough gold to purchase an upgrade or two. Eventually, ‘old’ characters can be levelled up a little at very minimal cost too, encouraging you to keep all characters reasonably well levelled. Best Fiends Forever’s pacing is pitch perfect thanks to such inclusions.

bigfiends2

You also have special powers at your disposal. Timers are assigned to them but at various moments, you can attack with a thunderstorm or a fireball, boosting your damage briefly. Regular missions are provided to you, too, rewarding you with premium gems for completing certain objectives that are usually useful to progression anyway. There’s always something new to upgrade in some way, whether it be a character or special power.

And that’s precisely how Best Fiends Forever gets you. There’s always more to do. Even once you reach a plateau in your achievements, you can reset everything and start again, albeit with special portal gems that will buy you even better bonuses. It’s all so keenly arranged that you’ll be hooked.

Allow me one moment for extreme cynicism though. As is typical for the genre, Best Fiends Forever offers plenty of in-app purchases. That’s fine. It also offers plenty of ways to gain freebies too. What’s a rather new and surprising turn for the genre, however, is a VIP subscription. For $14.99 a month, you gain some impressive advantages in game. Let that sink in, though. $14.99. A month. I pay less than that for World of Warcraft. Of course, there’s no reason that you absolutely have to pay this, and Best Fiends Forever is reasonably good at not bombarding you with sales pitches, but it’s still something to be aware of. It’s surprising to see.

That moment of cynicism aside, and Best Fiends Forever is a lot of fun. It grabs a tired genre and spruces it up in a way that makes it feel fresh and nearly new. Don’t be surprised when you lose a ton of free time to it. It does a great job of making you feel like you’re achieving a lot quickly.

The good

  • Cute visuals
  • Well paced progression to lure you in
  • Almost annoyingly addictive

The bad

  • Very pricey subscription service available
  • Is quite repetitive after a time
85 out of 100
Jennifer is a UK-based freelance writer. Her work has featured at multiple outlets, including Gamasutra, 148apps, Paste, TechRadar, Wareable, and MyM magazine. In her spare time, she tries to teach her guinea pigs tricks, and enjoys losing hours to Netflix.