Unlockable character Commander Video (center) can hover in mid-air for short periods of time.įrom the sidelines, gameplay of SMB may seem like a difficult time, but words can’t even begin to describe how oversimplified such an outlook on the game is and how much this game exceeds players’ expectations from just what they are given on paper. By the end of it all, I developed skills great enough to beat entire chapters without dying, allowing me to accumulate half of what the game calls its ‘Iron Man’ achievements. Only when I recently rediscovered my interest in this game did I pull off in nine days what I couldn’t do as a kid in several months: I beat the game to 106 percent completion it was an absolute rollercoaster, to say the least. There was always something especially alluring to me as a kid about the idea of doing it all. The sheer number of challenges ahead of you may seem daunting, but when players can expect to be rewarded with an entirely new way to play the game, then what better incentive is there?Īll of this is a completionist’s dream come true. Sprinkled throughout just about everywhere in the game are risky-to-collect ‘bandages’ used to unlock playable characters with their own special abilities. Each level has a ‘Dark World’ expert mode counterpart, and sparsely hidden throughout each chapter are a few ‘warp zone’ portals to retro-themed levels. Once the training wheels are off, a path is paved towards an entirely new and vast world to explore. Players are always given positive feedback on a level’s completion with a replay of every attempt of that level at once this gives the player a nice visual of what gave them trouble and how they eventually grew to overcome it. This game is great at nurturing its players into seasoned veterans it subtly feeds its players crumbs of increasingly intricate challenges gradually throughout the campaign, and by the end of it all, players never have to wonder how to pull off any maneuver, but rather when to apply it. The penalty for death in the game is nothing more than the time previously spent getting to that last spot in the level, and with each level being merely seconds long, this design choice becomes an immense breath of fresh air. Thus, they gave players infinite lives, short levels, and split-second respawn times. In this game, the player’s going to be doing a lot of dying in that case, why not attempt to waste as little of the player’s time as possible? Having to wait to get back in the action is just about the most frustrating part of any game, and the developers understood this. The developers at Team Meat wanted to maximize entertainment and minimize frustration with its game model to do this, they implemented a simple, yet genius, formula: Gameplay is remarkably fast-paced, and it always prioritizes rewarding players over penalizing them. By design, gameplay is actually fun above all else and never at all frustrating. The aura this game commonly gives off is one of a ‘rage game’ in the vein of titles such as I Wanna Be the Guy, but playing SMB is an entirely separate experience. Meat Boy (bottom left) must perform a series of wall jumps while avoiding the buzzsaws in order to reach Bandage Girl (top center). Having a control scheme consisting of nothing other than a seemingly basic run and jump, each level is perfectly crafted to complement those controls, and nothing from level to level will ever come across as repetitive. The way Meat Boy controls is amazingly dynamic and fluent he is a lot faster and more aerodynamic than what other platformers would have you come to expect, and with how pronounced each of his jumps is, there is virtually no ceiling for just how pinpoint his accuracy could become. In order to save Bandage Girl, Meat Boy must masterfully run and jump his way through levels full of buzzsaws and myriad other lethal obstacles that will spell his doom upon a single touch. In Super Meat Boy, you play the role of a cube of meat named Meat Boy, who is on a journey to save his bandage-covered girlfriend from a baby in a robot suit named Dr. The Review From left to right: Meat Boy, Bandage Girl, and Dr. For a game of its time, it still holds up to this day, and for that reason and for many more, players should continue to fondly remember it for many more years to come. 20th, the critically acclaimed masterpiece of a precision platformer became due for its 10th anniversary. The game, as I knew it then and as I know it now, is responsible for making up a fundamental part of my childhood. If you were a player of the Xbox Live Arcade or Steam back in the earlier days, then you’re likely to have heard of Super Meat Boy (SMB).
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