Super Meat Boy

 
Developer: Team Meat
Steam Release: Nov 2010
Hours Played: 9.7
Similar To: 10 Second Ninja / League of Evil / N++ / Offspring Fling / Run Rabbit Run
Rating: 4/5 Parsnips



 
GAMEPLAY
Super Meat Boy is the cult classic that, if nothing else, will convince anyone of the benefits of owning an Xbox controller for the PC. Personally, it was the game that made me an instant convert. It also happens to be a damn good game. SMB is a super-slick precision platformer that has you controlling a slab of meat or, more literally, a thick red blob on legs that go like the clappers. To finish a level your goal is to sprint or jump to his girlfriend who is the pink blob standing at your final destination. You can either do this in a leisurely fashion without worrying about the time factor or dive through it as quickly as possible to get that A* grade. The former is probably the more sensible way to get a grip on what's involved but to feel like you're kicking ass you'll no doubt move swiftly on to the latter. Oh, and you will die...a lot.   



BALANCE & PACE
Levels restart immediately so no long load times here and the game is truly addictive. It starts off easy enough where you dive and accelerate about the place doing wall jumps and pinpoint accurate leaping between such things as deadly saws and red-hot lava. The crunchy music also pulls you in and before you know it that gradual increase in difficulty, coupled with that new-found determination to crack the  next challenge, makes you want to smash everything it throws at you. That's what a good game should do and what SMB does flawlessly; it hooks you in, throws up worthwhile challenges and makes you feel good for achieving your goals. It really is all about the joy of seeing the little red fella landing on his beautiful girlfriend and seeing that A* grade splatter itself all over the screen.

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
Production values aren't through the roof but its simplicity and basic design is its main strength. Most environments consist of straight edges and minimal detail in the graphics department which is as it should be. It is, after all, a zippy and fast paced speed-run game that's purposefully minimal and not bogged down by unnecessary extras. Furthermore, as a consequence, retries are refreshingly instant and the presence of tedious load screens non-existent. The only minor shortcoming the game has is that for a cult-classic that's garnered so much praise, it does have a tad too many bugs that require full restarts. Additionally, the presence of hidden (and super-difficult) levels just knocks the balance and flow of the game out of sync a little.
 


PROGRESS SYSTEM
The game is divided into seven worlds. In the first five, you complete 20 levels which are represented by little boxes along a path. World 6 has six levels while the tough World 7 reverts to the usual 20. A large box at the end with a skull is the boss level. As you complete levels the box turns red but you get an A* imprinted on it if you do it in a good time. You move around this map with your avatar and when you land on the square it also shows your best time. You can redo a completed level at any time.  Furthermore each world has a Dark World equivalent which features the same levels only tougher, thus effectively doubling the levels available to you. It's all intuitive enough.

CONCLUSION

Super Meat Boy is a cult-classic precision platformer for a very good reason: it has the absorbing gameplay to draw you in and the sheer immersive power to make you not want to let go. I've clocked up over nine hours and have had to uninstall the game several times yet unlike games where this would be a chore, I have no problem doing the first world journey over and over again - it's that much fun. However, I don't think the game can be played for more than an hour at a time. The action can get quite frenetic, not to say frustrating when pixel-perfect accuracy is required. In all, it may have last-century graphics and it may just be a red blob blobbing about the place but if you are in any way interested in the precision-platformer this game should already be in your library. If not, get downloading baby!