Super Meat Boy
Super Meat Boy Forever takes place a few years after the events of Super Meat Boy. Meat Boy and Bandage Girl have been living a happy life free of Dr. Fetus for several years and they now have a wonderful little baby named Nugget. Nugget is joy personified and she is everything to Meat Boy and Bandage Girl. One day while our heroes were on a picnic, Dr. Fetus snuck up on them, beat Meat Boy and Bandage Girl unconscious with a shovel and kidnapped Nugget! When our heroes came to and found that Nugget was missing, they knew who to go after. They cracked their knuckles and decided to never stop until they got Nugget back and taught Dr. Fetus a very important lesson. A lesson that can only be taught with punches and kicks.
The challenge of Super Meat Boy returns in Super Meat Boy Forever. Levels are brutal, death is inevitable, and players will get that sweet feeling of accomplishment after beating a level. Players will run, jump, punch and kick their way through familiar settings and totally new worlds.
What’s better than playing through Super Meat Boy Forever once? The answer is simple: Playing through Super Meat Boy Forever several times and having new levels to play each time. Levels are randomly generated and each time the game is completed the option to replay the game appears and generates a whole new experience by presenting different levels with their own unique secret locations. We’ve handcrafted literally thousands of levels for players to enjoy and conquer. You can replay Super Meat Boy Forever from start to finish several times before ever seeing a duplicate level. It is truly a remarkable feat of engineering and a monumental example of ignoring the limits of rational game design and production.
They don’t give Oscars to games, but they probably will after Super Meat Boy Forever becomes the best movie of 2020 and 2021! Our story takes Meat Boy and Bandage Girl through several worlds in search of their darling little Nugget with beautifully animated cutscenes and musical accompaniment that makes Citizen Kane look like a reaction video to an sled unboxing. Players will laugh, they will cry, and when all is said and done maybe they’ll emerge from the experience a little better than when they started. Ok so that last part probably won’t happen but marketing text is hard to write.
Game Discussion
Steam User 17
Purchased this game 11 years ago, never really got the hang of platforming mechanics after reaching the Hospital/Chapter 2, and especially after unlocking the first Glitch level. Never got further after 5 hours of play.
Fast forward to today, started going through my backlog. I have a much better appreciation for this game and learning as much of what this game has to offer. This is after I started speedrunning Pac-Man World 2, playing many more platformer-based games in general, and becoming the Boshy.
17 hours later, I've unlocked about 80% of the game, nearly finished with the Dark World set of levels. This includes recently unlocking The Kid (thanks, Boshy!), finishing "The End" light world, and receiving 70+ bandages. This game gets very challenging, but patience and perseverance, are two of the many things needed to succeed in this game. Each level clear remains just as satisfying as the ones before.
Steam User 13
At some point, the pain stops. You become numb and the only thing you feel is just the desire to pass 1 more level
Steam User 10
At the release of Super Meat Boy back when, this game quickly cemented itself as one of *the* platformers that any gamer worth their salt had to play. Despite seeing it everywhere back when it came out, I only picked it up a few years ago to finally give it a try. Only having a keyboard I floundered around in the more difficult levels but still managed to get to the 5th world, where I dropped the game for a while due to its difficulty & precision.
I finally made that final push today with my controller, and where these levels that were quite brutal on younger me, it really dawned on present me on what makes this game so fun. This is already a classic - secret unlockable characters from other franchises, a soundtrack that holds up really well years later, and an honestly great approach to platforming I really wish I saw in more games.
This approach being, any death you're thrown right back into the level instantly. But the game saves every attempt and once you beat the level, you can watch every failed attempt at the same time from the pov of your successful attempt, watching you fail the same jump 20 times just to see that one lucky run thread that needle where the rest have failed. So even if a level is super frustrating, not giving up just to see that one successful attempt makes such a brutal and challenging game so rewarding.
This game definitely didn't hold any punches back, simply completing the game has such a low completion rate let alone any achievements that demand a mastery of its content. This game is not for everyone - but anyone who wants a challenge should definitely try to see the main game to the end.
Steam User 10
Challenging game, great music, controls feel spot on, visually consistent and appealing. Despite its difficulty very satisfying experience.
Steam User 8
SUPER MEAT BOY: AN INDIE MASTERPIECE
(All this review is just my opinion, if you have a different opinion I'd love to read it)
Story: 5/10
Not much of a good story, just save your gf, but the game focus on the gameplay, so it's not a big deal.
Characters: 8/10
Although none of the characters say anything, they're very charming. It's amazing 'cause I've played other games that focus more on their characters and their development, but in the end I don't care about them, while in Super Meat Boy I liked most of the characters.
Game art: 7/10
For me, the game art is not that good. However, since it's an indie game and was released in 2010, it deserves a solid 7.
Gameplay: 10/10
Simple but excellent.
Level design: 10/10
The level design is great, one of the best I've ever seen in a platform game, although the levels are difficult, if you master the movement you can beat them in less than 1 minute (and it's so satisfying to do so). Also the difficult progression between worlds is smooth.
Soundtrack: 10/10
Super Meat Boy's songs are such a banger, each song gets better and better as you progress through the worlds, and they fit perfectly with the speedy feel of the levels. I never get tired of them.
Replayability (Not counting achievements): 8/10
Since the very beginning of the game, it offers 4 types of replayability:
Bandages: There are bandages in certain levels, you can go and collect them as you play, but it's quite likely that you won't even get half of them before you beat the main story because you don't have enough experience or you don't have a specific character. As you collect the bandages, you unlock characters (from other franchises, which is fockin' awesome), each with different abilities. There are 20 bandages per world, for a total of 100.
A+ grades: Each level has a timer to beat, if you beat it you'll get the A+ grade and unlock the Dark World version of the level, if you beat all the Dark Worlds you'll get the real ending.
Warpzones: In every world (except The End and The Cotton Ally) there are 4 warpzones, 3 in the light world and 1 in the dark world. A warpzone is a hidden portal in a level, and when you enter one you'll be teleported to an 8-bit zone, with only 3 levels, but also with only 3 lives per level, if you lose all your lives before passing the 3 levels you'll get kicked out of the portal and have to restart (you can enter it from the map though, since you've already unlocked it). In each warzone there are 2 bandages, except for the character warzone where you play as a special character, and when you beat this warzone you unlock it.
Glitch levels: These are like warpzones, but there's only one per world, and they only appear after beating the boss of the world. When you replay a level there's a little chance for bandage girl to glitch, when you touch her you'll get teleported to a single 8-bit level, with only 3 lives too. I think beating these levels doesn't contribute the 100% of a world, so you can try to find n' pass a glitch level or not.
Some problems:
I had a problem at the very beggining because meat boy moved 1 or 2 seconds after I pressed the buttons of my controller. I thought it has no solution, but playing with the settings I ended up fixing the problem, how? i don't know, but it is fixed (I keep playing with my keyboard cause I got used to it, though).
Final grade: 8,8/10
It's a great pioneer indie game, a master piece indeed. If you haven't played it yet, you really should!! The feeling of satisfaction for finishing the game was overwhelming. Now I will take up the challenge of getting all the achievements. I'm sure I'll die, get angry, and cry a lot trying, but if I succeed, it will be the happiest moment of my life, and if I fail, at least I can say I tried.
P.D.: I'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO C.H.A.D., MEAT BOY!!!
P.D.2: Brownie is a hero without a cape, he will be forever in my heart
Steam User 7
For years I saw people raving about this game without understanding why. Now I get it: it has a very sophisticated movement model combined with a surprisingly-gentle learning curve. I feel the same sense of satisfaction from mastering the controls that I feel when I fly a helicopter in DCS. You *need* to play this game with a gamepad like an XBox controller because it depends on the variable-pressure buttons to give you fine-grained control of your jumps.
Steam User 5
Super Meat Boy is the hardest and yet most chill game I’ve played.
Super Meat Boy is seen as ‘traditionally’ difficult, but it’s by far the least frustrating game I’ve played. There are no cheap deaths; the game is open about its obstacles and often gives you plenty of time to navigate them, just don’t panic. But that’s the key: you have to relax.
To me, frustration is about not being in control. When we are punished by things which we had no input or say on, we feel helpless and, in turn, our confidence falters. When our confidence drops, we make more mistakes. We blame ourselves, and our self-esteem drops. What turns into an external problem, becomes an internal one - and we feel bad about ourselves and our inadequacies.
Super Meat Boy’s gamepad controls are so responsive, Meat Boy so agile, and momentum so quick to adjust that you always feel in control. Even when you make a mistake and miss the perfect opportunity to jump, there’s always a split second where quick thinking and calm nerves can fix the situation. Short stages and instant, unlimited respawns means you never lose more than a few seconds of progress either, and so you’re never really punished for failure nor are your nerves fried from the pressure.
Once you’ve cracked the exact timings to a jump, or exact moment to slide down a wall, you’ve completed one of 5 to 10 ‘mini’ challenges in each level, and it’s just a matter of stringing them altogether. Easier said than done, but muscle memory picks up the slack where your brain might usually get tired. And if you do feel like it’s getting too easy, Super Meat Boy has a ‘B-side’ (known as the dark world) to every level which offers a challenging new twist on the original concept. This is most interesting in the first stage of the game, where a basic tutorial can suddenly doubles into a playground for advanced techniques.
Placed sneakily within regular levels are special stages which flip the formula, at least visually. These include levels themed around the monochromatic original Gameboy, the NES, or even the Windows blue screen of death. These bonus levels are a breath of fresh air, but can occasionally edge towards the frustrating. Most include limited lives, bringing an unexpected level of punishment for trial and error, and the visual style can make obstacles difficult to discern from the background.
Overall, Super Meat Boy is a fast-n-fantastic platformer brimming with charm and personality. The game’s quality rarely slips, and it’s abundance of content can keep you addicted indefinitely. I wholeheartedly recommend, as well as ‘Indie Game: The Movie’ which covers the highs and lows of its development.