Fail Fail Succeed Review: A Clever Indie Platformer Built on Mistakes

A Puzzle Platformer Where Failure Teaches the Way Forward

Fail Fail Succeed is a puzzle platformer built around a simple but effective idea: sometimes the only way forward is to fail first.

Developed by Martin Zetterman and published by The Notlanders, the game uses repeated attempts, power-ups, and environmental puzzles to turn failure into a tool rather than a punishment. Across deadly rooms filled with spikes, lasers, portals, and strange dreamlike spaces, each mistake can become part of the solution.

Reviewed by Jake Boyette for Fix Gaming Channel, Fail Fail Succeed is a compact indie puzzle platformer that does not overstay its welcome, but still finds enough clever ideas to make each solved room feel rewarding.

Reviewed on PC.Score: 8/10

Fail Fail Succeed

Release: May 12, 2026

Genre: Logic-Driven Puzzle Platformer

Developer / Publisher: Martin Zetterman / The Notlanders

Platforms: PC via Steam

Something Old and Something New

Fail Fail Succeed is a new puzzle platformer that encourages you to die over and over again to solve complex obstacles in your path, with a variety of “orbs” or power-ups that allow you to change how you navigate the level. This felt like a blast from the past of old Flash games, with its simplistic art style and even the mechanic of failing or dying to use your power-ups reminded me of an old game called Try Die Repeat, where you used your corpse to create platforms.

However, Fail Fail Succeed is not some gruesome game where you die a lot to progress, but one that encourages failure so you can reflect and learn what to do next. It’s a premise that makes failure something to shoot for, as experimentation and trying different combinations of abilities and paths to take becomes a teacher to better learn how to play the game, and how to think about the challenges ahead.

Fail Fail Succeed turns failure into a puzzle-solving tool across compact, deadly rooms.

Throwing Myself Into Spikes

In this dreamscape that is the world of Fail Fail Succeed, you, the character, chase after your dog as they go through portals littered with obstacles like spikes, lasers, and the humble ledge that’s just too high to reach. If you want to get to your dog to pet them, you have to literally fail to succeed.

The first few levels of the first world it teaches you how to use “orbs,” in this case, a dirt orb that leaves a little dirt block when you die. With some spikes in front of you, you quickly realize what the main bread and butter of the game will be.

This system can get pretty complicated, especially since the game shows some clever creation in its puzzles, where it isn’t just about clearing obstacles, but also creating them, and navigating in a certain way to leave blocks in certain places. Redirecting a laser doesn’t just become about stopping it from shooting you, but about positioning it so you can jump into it purposefully to leave an ice block you can pull to get to your dog.

Fail Fail Succeed mixes dreamlike platforming with a simple goal: keep moving toward the dog.

The game asks players to rethink failure, placement, and timing as part of the solution.

Quick and Fun

With only four worlds, and a hub world with its own challenges to navigate to get to them, the game is just long enough to be satisfied with yourself, and doesn’t lose steam as it presents new orbs and challenges that provide an adequate challenge.

To the main theme of failing to succeed, I cannot overstate how well the puzzle design does to induce that feeling. There were many times when I would hit a wall and do the same thing over and over again, only to take a few seconds, evaluate what I’ve been doing, and try something different until I find the right combination to overcome the challenge. Puzzles aren’t designed to trick you, but force you to think just a bit differently about your environment to see how you can help yourself.

I did have some frustrations early on, the jumping in the game is a little wonky. The characters feel heavy and are trying to do precise jumps, which felt a little awkward, but the way the whole world is designed, those tight, albeit strange, movements make you familiar with the little quirks of the movement rather quickly.

Fail Fail Succeed is undoubtedly fun, the puzzles are clever, and more importantly, they make me feel clever whenever I figure them out. For any fan of puzzle platformers looking for a quick challenge, this is the game for you.

For me, this game scores an easy 8/10.

The Story Behind the Failure

“The game is 100% inspired from my own experiences, but not just during development. The mechanics, animations, the dog companion and so many more little details about the game are all built on metaphors for my experiences with mental health struggles.”

That personal layer gives Fail Fail Succeed extra weight beyond its clever puzzle design. Read our full interview with Martin Zetterman here: Fail Fail Succeed Interview: Martin Zetterman on Failure, Mental Health, and Eira.

Related Reading

• Fail Fail Succeed Interview: Martin Zetterman on Failure, Mental Health, and Eira
• More Developer Interviews on Fix Gaming Channel
• More Reviews on Fix Gaming Channel