RipTen Review: Super Meat Boy (XBLA)
When approaching this new platformer, Super Meat Boy, I had to take a tough critical standpoint – It’s hard to live up to the platformers of the past. Gamers today live off of the nostalgia of when these games were amazing and a few classics gone have made their mark on gaming history. In fact, we still speak highly of retro games such as Super Mario Brothers and Sonic the Hedgehog two decades later. And there is a reason for it; those games are damn good. Now think of any platformer that has come out anytime from 2000-2010. There have been a ton of great ones (most of them indie) but will any of them be talked about twenty years from today? This is where Super Meat Boy comes in. A downloadable platformer that breaks up the monotony of upcoming releases this holiday. This is our generation’s Super Mario.
Super Meat Boy is a game about a cube of meat who has to save love interest, Bandage Girl, from Dr. Fetus, an evil monocle wearing, baby in a jar. If this doesn’t catch your attention, you probably have no sense of humor/soul. The story acts as a reward for being able to plow through 20 levels and a boss. Every small cutscene is well animated and so ridiculous, the humor is perfect.
In order to achieve success, a platformer must have great controls. Super Meat Boy’s advertising touts its ”hella-tight” controls and I couldn’t say it any better. The game keeps the number of buttons to a minimum while giving you full control of speed, fluidity and precision. Press “A” to jump, “X” to run, and Analog/D-Pad for movement. The longer you hold “A”, the further Meat Boy will float, along with the ability to change direction mid-air. After the game’s first few introductory levels, the controls felt second nature. When I died, or failed a stage, I never felt it was the game’s fault; I always new what I did wrong and that the fault was mine. This is the most important feature a game can have.
Super Meat Boy prides itself on its difficulty. The gameplay is some of the hardest I’ve seen. I mention this because there are waaaaaay harder games, but mostly in a cheap, non feasible way. Super Meat Boy has mastered the art of difficulty and at times, will make you feel frustrated. But once you have figured out a better way at tackling the situation, all is well. Each level lasts around 15 seconds, so you won’t feel bad replaying the same level 20 times to master it. The game requires you to make perfect jumps and gives multiple paths in order to reach your goal (Bandage Girl). The beauty of the gameplay lies in figuring out the best and fastest path to take. The game has plenty of risk=reward by adding collectible bandages in the toughest spots of the stage. These bandages unlock characters from other indie games such as Alien Hominid, Braid and the Bit.Trip series. Each new character plays a little different than Meat Boy. Once you have completed a stage, you can see all of your previous attempts all at once. There’s nothing funnier than seeing 30 chunks of meat get splattered throughout the stage.
Music plays a big factor in Super Meat Boy as it sets a great tone. The easier levels have a smoother feeling background music, while worlds like Hell have blaring, more intense music. It’s such a small touch, but does a really good job to set the mood for destruction.
The game has plenty of content to keep you busy. After finishing a level within a par time, you unlock the “Dark World” version of it, making your previously mastered stage amped up in difficulty. These levels are not for the weak of mind. I still can’t beat half of the Dark World stages. Each world has hidden warp zones with more levels set with graphics in a Game Boy Advance style and gives you 3 lives to beat a set of stages. Don’t beat it and it’s back to the beginning. SMB has over 300 levels, with more free levels coming. Team Meat wants to keep supporting its game with free levels for “as long as they can.” If that isn’t enough for you, Team Meat is pricing the downloadable title at 800 MSP ($10)for early adopters. Sometime in November, the game will go back to its original price of 1200 ($15).
If you are wondering why this review is overly positive and I haven’t said anything negative about the game, then it is because I believe this is a perfect game. The game mimics retro style gameplay with a relevant style for this generation. It is a feel good game that leaves you with a sense of accomplishment. There are no cheap accidental deaths and no way of cheating to get the achievements. There is only skill and dedication. When you finish a level, you can finally wipe your sweat, blood and tears, and sit back and think of how badass the experience was. Super Meat Boy has been one of the best games, as far as I’m concerned, to capture the nostalgic feeling of retro games, without the rose tinted glasses. Super Meat Boy really is the Super Mario Brothers of this generation of consoles. Also, they share the same acronym. Coincidence? Maybe.
Here’s The Rundown:
+ Extremely fun game, sense of accomplishment upon completion
+ Brings the nostalgia without the poor game design
+ Tons of content, with more free stuff coming
- Challenging difficulty almost made me break my controller
Super Meat Boy was developed by Team Meat for Xbox Live Arcade, WiiWare and PC. The game was released on October 20th, 2010 with a retail price of 1200 MSP ($15). The copy used in this review was for XBLA (other versions aren’t available at this time) and given to us by Team Meat for review consideration. It was played to completion of the Light World (main story) and about 3/4 of the Dark Work (bonus levels). The game was played for 10 hours before reviewing.
