This website has an option to give scores for visuals and gameplay separately, and I'm so thankful that it's optional because... how are you supposed to do that here? Forever Bound is a great example of visuals and designs complementing their own gameplay.

The design is clearly a good focus of this level, and particularly how those designs move around and interact with the player. Take the ship part almost halfway through the level, with the lazer shooter moving around and having you dodging its shots, or the iconic rainbow robot part with the monsters moving the bricks around. The prime example though, in my opinion, is the floating gray blocks in the first half (which, following the level's terminology, I'll call notes). They appear for that first half of the level in basically every part: in the start they serve as notes you have to touch in order to get a coin (which by the way, only now I understood how you're supposed to get it, because every time I played this I kept getting it by accident), the way they float around and relocate themselves in the following wave, or the satisfying moving pattern they form in the next UFO part. I think the biggest flaw with Forever Bound is that it doesn't keep playing around with those notes during the second half, and it would be way more cohesive if it used them for that portion of the level more. That doesn't mean it still doesn't play around with interesting movements and designs; it's just that they feel more like random ideas that still feel and play really nice.

I also love the color palette, and how the level becomes more colorful and rainbowy as it goes on, matching the more uplifting and intense parts of the song. I will say though, does fall off in quality a little bit towards the end. Even then many parts hold up extremely well today, particularly the extremely iconic rainbow part.

Overall this level just feels like an ode to everything that made 2.0 effects and designs so iconic, and while I wouldn't say it's flawless, I think it's one of the most emotional levels of its era.

Incredible work, Bob.