Super Meat Boy

Smashgoom202

Smashgoom202

Dry Bowser
Retired Wiki Staff
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Apparently a sequel to a Newgrounds game called "Meat Boy", Super Meat Boy is one of those indie games that have received quite a bit of attention in recent years and I've only recently bought it via Xbox Live and started playing it.

For those of you unaware, Super Meat Boy is about a boy made of "meat" called... well, Meat Boy. He has a girlfriend called Bandage Girl who's apparently, like him, a girl made of "meat", and there's a bad guy called Dr. Fetus, who... Well, yeah. The game's a platformer, an quite a fast-paced one at that; it requires a lot of good timing, fast reflexes, and patience, but is actually quite manageable and not completely unfair, like certain other indie platformers...

First of all, I felt quite a bit squeamish playing this game at first, ESPECIALLY after I found out that
Meat Boy is actually a skinless boy... ew.
But I got over it once I started sinking my teeth into the game. Like I said, it's quite difficult, but again, it's got a good flow to it so it doesn't infuriate me like other games. Actually, I'm going to go ahead and use any recent Mario game and Rayman Origins as references here, Rayman Origins being one of my favorite plaformers ever, and probably one of my favorite games of all time now. In Mario, you have a lives system, and when you die, you hear that jingle, Mario falls offf the screen, then you get kicked back to the world map where you have to select the level again to have another chance, at at that point, you either start at the beginning or at a single checkpoint at some point in the level. When you lose all your lives, what happens? The game's over... which means you just got back to your last save point, making the whole "lives" thing kind of pointless... In Rayman Origins, there are different sections to each level, and when you die, you start back at the beginning of that level. There's also no wait time, you "pop" then immediately start back at the beginning of the area. There are also limitless lives, so you don't have to worry about any of that. Now, in the case of Super Meat Boy, it's very similar to Rayman Origins, with it's limitless lives and fast respawn time, but in this game, the levels are extremely short, so you don't really have to worry about going back a certain length.

And boy, let me tell you, as someone who gets EASILY frustrated at video games, I cannot tell you how much this method of death and restarting helped calm me down, in addition to it just being a very smooth game in which if I DO die, it was mostly my own fault. When I die, I didn't have time to get frustrated and throw a tantrum, I was immediately thrown back into the action, and I like that! This game doesn't waste my time. While other games would squander in their "you lost, you should try again, do better next time!" phase, this game just goes "you'redeadyou'rebackGO!", which is good, because that way I can get back to the part which was troubling me!

Sometimes... There are some levels that, while not long per se, had one point which was quite a bit in that I had a LOT of trouble with. The one that sticks out in my mind the most was this one in "The Hospital"... It was the first shadow one with a red background. Had a lot of trouble getting over those spikes, and I wasn't sure whether to jump or wall jump or run through or whatever... for a while, anyway.

The warp zones are interesting, in that they warp you to a bonus level in which everything is retro... Which I don't see the point, the game already looks pretty retro to begin with, what with Meat Boy being pretty blocky outside cutscenes and the world map. The only real difference outside of appearances with these levels is that now you're limited to three tries per each level in these warp zones, via... a lives system. Can't quite escape it, can ya? Although there WAS this warp zone which really threw me off guard; it had me play as this guy from another game called Bit.Trip Runner, and the levels were based on his game! I had heard about this game via WiiWare, but I never actually played it... I might check it out now, thanks to this one part! Best thing is, after you beat those three warp zone levels, you unlock him as a playable character and can select to play as him in during the main game!

Oh yeah, there's a character select in which you unlock character by collecting bandages scattered throughout certain levels. I don't have much, since I've been breezing through the game, though one level was totally short and the bandage was in plain sight, and I died something like 30-50 times trying to get it before I beat the stage. There's clearly a lot that I'm missing, but I'm definitely going to go back and find them!

So yeah, TOTALLY awesome game! I can see why it's so popular! Still kind of weirds me out how he splatters everywhere he lands...
 
I just beat the game (that is, got to the end, not completed it 100%), and I just had to post about this moment, because it felt so unique and unlike me... It was in World 6: The End, level 6-5: Omega. It has got to be one of the hardest levels I played so far, but that's not what made it unique. The boss fight of world 6 was perhaps just as hard, or even harder... And I know there are Dark World levels that kick my ass until I cry blood!

No, what's weird was that I died something like 200 times! I'm not even kidding, it might have even been 300! Or maybe just 150. Point is, I died so many times I couldn't even begin to count them all... and yet, through all that time, I never got frustrated or angry. Oh sure, I was annoyed that I would have to repeat the level again, and in my mind I'd say "bullshit" or "dammit", but I would say anything. I would just play the level again, all calm-like... It was a weird kind of zen moment, where I was going into a flow of going through the level, because I had played it so many times, I had almost mastered it...

The reason why I died though, times that weren't just random flukes and testing methods of progressing out, were two parts: the first part was when I had to slide down a wall, jump under one big buzzsaw and inbetween two smaller buzzsaws. It's weird, because half the time I'd go through it with ease, as part of my zen-like groove, yet other times I keep hitting the bottom of the big buzzsaw or one of the two smaller buzzsaws, more commonly the lower one. It didn't bug me that much, but I still though it was weird how sometimes I'd manage to pull it off yet other times I wouldn't...

The other part is... well, I won't say I died the most, but it stuck out so badly that it really aggravates me thinking about it! It's when you get the key, and you have to get past the three buzzsaws below you to get to the path you just opened. I actually had to look up a playthrough video, just to see if there was something I'm missing, or if there was an easier way out. Even WITH the videos help, it still felt like 9 times out of 10, it was pure luck that I got through that part.

That part also made me realize, while the game may be well designed in that it's not completely unfair and most of the time it's obvious how you get through, you just have to be patient, the controls are really what make this game difficult for me... Not that they're bad, not at all, they're just a bit oversensitive most of the time. I can't begin to recall how many times I died simply because I overshot something, or because I was trying to make sure I landed just right. I guess it takes some getting used to, but I've been playing this game for hours, so you'd THINK by now I'd be used to it...

Either way, that level, despite it's difficulty, really brought out a new kind of feeling, one I will likely never experience again... Especially since I got right back scream, growling, and grunting when I moved onto the boss!

...Actually, that one also had a surreal moment, because
, right when I had to press the button to make Dr. Fetus fall, he shot at me, JUST as the floor was opening up and the door to where the button was was closing up. He started to fall, and I ended up DYING! For a second, I thought I had to start the level over again, but the a cutscene showed up, and I was all like "whoa..."
Not to mention,
during the Escape, I was so angry at first, becaus eI couldn't get past the first part, thinking to myself, "could they have put these buzzsaws in a more impossible position?!" Again, I had to look up a playthrough, and nothing else in the level was as frstratingly difficult as that one part. Although I DID get angry when I died in that level, if only because it meant I had to go through that part AGAIN. This also marked the first time I got so angry I actually slapped my leg several times in frustration playing this game! I usually, I'd be too focused, or didn't have enough time for that, but this time, I just had to let it out, especially since I couldn't quit, as it was the very last stage!
...So yeah, this night was full of surprises!

...Yeah, I started playing this around 9:15 o 9:30 PM... Originally, I unlocked the "Iron Boy" achievement, beating a chapter (in this case, chapter 1) without dying, and tried out a few World 2 Dark World levels before deciding to just try and finish the game. By the time I was done, it was 1:45 AM. Yeah. This might partially explain why I was a bit cranky during that last bit. Still, even then, I HAD to tell people about my experience this night before I go to bed for some well-earned rest.

Really, it's weird that I say well-earned. I really do feel like I accomplished something, even though it seems relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. It's just so satisfying when I think of all that I went through, and how (most of the time) I managed to figure it out and do it myself! Super Meat Boy really brings it out of you!
 
I haven't tried it and don't plan too because I'd just fail too hard.

But it does look amazing and well designed, I know that much.
 
Smashgoom, Super Meat Boy has been out for three years. You speak about it like it's some sort of magical revelation that's only just been discovered.
 
Crocodile Dippy said:
Smashgoom, Super Meat Boy has been out for three years. You speak about it like it's some sort of magical revelation that's only just been discovered.
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It's new to me, and I'm just as free to talk about my experience as much as anyone who's played a game for the first time.

Why do you always have to be such an *bleep* about things, particularly with me? ...At least it feels that way, given how you told me to stop making long posts on MLP because it somehow "annoyed" people, even though they were just as free to ignore those posts.
 
I must say I'd really like to play this game. Though I'll be satisfied with the music for now.
 
I'm actually very surprised by the quality of the music from this game... It's all very catchy, intense, and epic... and keep in mind, I'm not one of those people who use "epic" as a synonym for "cool" or "awesome", I reserve that word for something I truly find to encompass the meaning of that word!

Danny Baranowsky is now one of my new favorite video game composers.
 
Smashgoom, have you ever played The Binding of Isaac? It's completely different, gameplay-wise, but it has sort of the same appeal that Super Meat Boy has, artistically. Perhaps you'd be interested in it.
 
Time Turner said:
Smashgoom, have you ever played The Binding of Isaac? It's completely different, gameplay-wise, but it has sort of the same appeal that Super Meat Boy has, artistically. Perhaps you'd be interested in it.
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Oh I've heard about it, but it's only available on PS3 and Steam... I GUESS there's nothing stopping my from simply downloading it to my computer, but I'm not much of a PC gamer, not to mention I'm not sure where to start, what to do, what kind of computer I need, how to start it, etc.

In other words, I'm too lazy to bother learning how to get into PC gaming.
 
Smashgoom202 said:
It's new to me, and I'm just as free to talk about my experience as much as anyone who's played a game for the first time.

Why do you always have to be such an *bleep* about things, particularly with me? ...At least it feels that way, given how you told me to stop making long posts on MLP because it somehow "annoyed" people, even though they were just as free to ignore those posts.
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No need to get butthurt just because I'm free to point out that your essays on this forum are excessively wordy and tend to be a bit exaggerated. After all, you're free to ignore my posts!
 
bump

Just got this. Besides being aah hard, it's really good so far. I'm on the Hospital - just bead C.H.A.D.
 
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