Super Meat Boy [Review]

Super Meat Boy isn’t a run of the mill platformer that just everyone can really enjoy and grasp. I’m going to start this review by stating that before even touching on the sometimes absolutely absurd difficulty presented to you, because I want it to scare you off before deciding to have a heart attack while playing this. Consider that warning dropped.

Meat Boy is chillin’ with his meat bitch (I guess?) and then Dr. Fetus swoops down and steals her. If the names threw a curveball then just imagine  Mario -> Peach -> Bowser. Yeah, not hard. Anyway, so the main object of the game is to go level to level making a pixel of yourself touch your girlfriend. Not usually in a sexual way, but hey, for an added challenge, why not? But you need not put yourself through hell and back in order to get a challenge from this game. There’s no doubt about it that it is a very hard game. The best part of the painful difficulty is the rewarding feeling you get when you pull of these acrobatic stunts that you only dream of seeing on YouTube. It’s, in a sense, the same feeling you get when beating a Mega Man boss.

It’s apparent that Team Meat spent a lot of time thinking out these levels and obstacles that you are put through. Sometimes I just sit and watch a replay after completing a level and am just awe struck at the sheer precision and careful attention I needed to use in order to keep myself alive. It’s an exhilarating feeling and leaves you thinking, “How could someone design a level with this sort of depth to it?” Maybe I’m thinking too hard into it, but the level design really does impress me and that, along with the controls are the strongest point in the game to me. The graphics aren’t meant to stand out in anyway at all and they don’t present themselves as beautiful. They are what they are. This is based off of a flash game. N+ with a boy made of meat, really.

So far as the sound goes, it didn’t drive me crazy. The music is tolerable after being repeated a million times over and over again through death and the only sound effects you’ll ever hear are saw blades and SPLAT from all the deaths you can accumulate.

That’s Super Meat Boy. It’s a wall bouncing platformer that throws itself in your face and doesn’t give a fuck if you make it through or not. Will it frustrate you? Yes. Will it be worth it? Abso-fuckin’-lutely. Anyone who gets a kick out of beating a Mega Man game and Mario game will agree their money is well spent.