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Super Meat Boy

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Super Meat Boy is a extremely difficult platformer out for the x-box 360 at the moment but is coming to pc and wii as well next month or so.

Features

  • Take on over 300 levels in story mode, spanning five chapters!
  • Over 20 unlockable and playable characters from popular indie titles such as Braid, Alien Hominid, BIT.TRIP. and Gish.
  • Create your own challenges with a full Level Editor! (PC)


My Blurb


Super Meat Boy looks really good. There is that really old-school feel to it that many SNES fans will enjoy. Super Meat Boy is based off a flash game that you can find online. Of course, the lands are completely different and the graphics are much enhanced. Hopefully, the controls will be more slick as well.

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The game also appeal to more mature gamers, as there is constant blood and gore along with other things. The game is supposed to be pretty challenging as well. It follows the same basic platforming style as N+. The controls are relatively simple. You can move, run, and jump. There are no gimmicks, just platforming to its fullest.

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There are some other cute features thrown in there as well that appeal to hardcore gamers as well. First off, there are supposed to be around one-hundred levels. Yet, if you beat the levels in a certain amount of time, then you open up its dark counterpart, which is a more challenging version of the stage. Also, in certain stages, there are portals. Portals are only opened for 12 seconds, but if you reach one, you are warped to an old-school graphic level where you can earn characters from other popular indie games. Each characters has his or her own special ability as well.

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Overall, this game looks really good. It has some really neat features involved such as a level editor that is sure to increase replay value. But even without that, the game has a lot of content and looks pretty amazing.

Reviews

t's no coincidence that Super Meat Boy shares its initials with Super Mario Bros. This is a pure platformer that boils gameplay down to nothing but running and jumping. Meat Boy's goal is always the same: he must reach Bandage Girl, who is ever in another castle. Doing so is never an easy task thanks to the numerous dastardly traps in the way. One prick from a buzzsaw, spike, or monster's jaws will splatter Meat Boy's bloody pixels (which remain as a grisly reminder of your failure during your next attempt). Even though you only have two maneuvers at your disposal, the developers never run out of clever ways of obstructing your path.

In a game like this where you need to be able to make precision jumps and turns, the controls have to feel just right. The developers understand this and, just like Super Mario Bros., it feels good to control Super Meat Boy. He has a nice weight to him and a beginner player will get the hang of it almost immediately even on advanced stages.

Super Meat Boy is an extremely difficult game. Make the slightest mistake and you'll have to restart the stage over from the beginning – there are no checkpoints. You might die a hundred times before you are finally reunited with Bandage Girl and the game gleefully keeps track of every death in the Statistics menu. It's such a tense experience my hands hurt after a while and I couldn't get a good grip on the controller any longer because of the sweat. But you have unlimited tries and most stages take less than a minute to complete once you know what you're doing. When you are triumphant you are rewarded with a replay of all your attempts running at once -- dozens of Meat Boys flying across the stage and being eviscerated by traps.

Even though Super Meat Boy doesn't have a multiplayer mode, it's a great game to play with friends. Since you often have to make many, many tries before completing a stage it's perfect for passing the controller around and letting everyone have a shot.

Your first time through the game you'll be so laser focused on just completing each stage it's likely you'll miss the many secrets. There are warp zones that lead to secret areas where you might find new playable characters from recent indie games. Commander Video from the Bit.Trip series on WiiWare is here as well as that kid from Braid. These guests have their own behaviors that might help you in a tight spot. Commander Video can float for a moment, for instance. You can usually switch to a new character on the fly unless you're fighting a boss. There are also precariously placed bandages to collect that can be spent to unlock even more characters. Meat Boy isn't in this alone.

The developers' influences are obvious, as the hilarious cut scenes reference everything from Ninja Gaiden to Adventures of Lolo to Mega Man 2. A Donkey Kong-themed level is named "Weibe," after Donkey Kong champion Steve Wiebe. The rocking chiptune soundtrack is the best I've heard since Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game. Find a warp zone and the visuals will shift to a more pixilated, 8-bit style emulating the NES, Game Boy, or Atari 2600. Super Meat Boy pays tribute to classic platformers while simultaneously claiming its place on the throne with the best of them.

Those cut scenes I mentioned are very funny, but they don't have the polish of the rest of the game. It is these scenes where you can tell Super Meat Boy was made by just two dudes. But I do appreciate the game's bizarre sense of humor. I mean, it's got a hero made of raw meat who is in love with a band-aid that is kidnapped by a fetus that won't stop flipping people off. If that's not a recipe for a good time I don't know what is.

Super Meat Boy is one of the best modern platformers. It's infuriating, exasperating, and arduous, but it's also delightful, thrilling, and hilarious. The NES games of yore were simultaneously simpler and more challenging than today's games, a quality perfectly emulated here. Invite some friends over and pass the controller around -- you're gonna need all the help you can get.

Super Meat Boy may be one of the most frustrating games I've played in recent memory. No other game has had me cursing at the screen with such frequency, had me so close to throwing my controller at the wall so often -- and yet, I absolutely loved every minute of it. Maybe that sounds a little too much like Stockholm syndrome, but in reality it's thanks to the game's strange sense of humor and some solid design.

Sure, there are many times where the game seems needlessly cruel. And make no mistake, you'll die -- a lot. But for every time Meat Boy falls to his doom or is reduced to mush, it's with the understanding that it's only because you're doing something wrong. Because you have infinite lives, and the levels are never too big, death becomes a learning tool, and it's just a matter of trying over and over until you finally find the right path through the stage. The game also makes the smart move of letting you laugh at your past failures; your reward for reaching the goal is an instant replay of all your previous attempts at once -- which translates to a strangely cathartic parade of tiny meat-men all dying in ridiculous ways.

It's also worth mentioning that as challenging as Super Meat Boy may get, it offers a surprisingly reasonable learning curve, both in terms of the new challenges presented with each level and how to navigate through them. For example, the controls are simple enough (just "run" and "jump") but learning how long to hold the jump button, or when and where to hit the run button for that extra bit of momentum are lessons taught transparently as you try your hardest not to die. Add in the fact that most levels introduce some new type of obstacle or enemy, and the game will keep you on your toes right up until its final moments.

Even after you finish the main quest, Super Meat Boy still has plenty to offer, no matter what kind of fan you are. If you liked the game's challenge, each level has an even harder "dark world" variant to test your mettle. Likewise, if you enjoyed the game's throwback feel, you can seek out hidden warp zones for some retro-style levels, complete with limited lives. Or maybe you're just a fan of indie games -- in which case you may be pleased to know you can unlock other famous faces to play as, including (but not limited to) Alien Hominid and Tim from Braid, each with their own abilities and playstyles.

And yet, Super Meat Boy's greatest strength has to be how it never takes itself too seriously -- as maddening as some of the levels got, I could never stay angry at the game for too long. So, yes, it can be frustrating, but getting past those roadblocks also leads to the game's most memorable moments. If you give it a chance I'm sure you'll feel the same.

Media


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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5LiCHs6DWU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EfrvpJSenko

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQ_PtD3LwpE
 
haha looks nice.
I remember playing the Flash versions. Controls were really terribly slippery, and I got frustrated at a million annoying levels, but it was overall cute and fun to play.
 

moog

Sponsor

i personally talked to the main developer of this game on AIM a couple weeks ago and he was a huge faggot to me, true story

reguardless, this looks pretty sweet.
 

Jason

Awesome Bro

regi":p3fgm8cp said:
haha looks nice.
I remember playing the Flash versions. Controls were really terribly slippery, and I got frustrated at a million annoying levels, but it was overall cute and fun to play.

Pretty much this, I don't enjoy games that are so hard it fustrates you to the point where you feel like throwing something at your screen... the controls on the Flash game really did suck horribly, and some of the level layouts were retarded.

Maybe if they release a demo for this I'll give it a try, but seriously, I'm not planning on buying it.
 
the controls are supposed to be insanely tight, tighter than mario. The reviews said that if you die, its not the controls fault but your own. Yeah I think they have a demo out as well. x:
 
moog":3h2wl4n9 said:
i personally talked to the main developer of this game on AIM a couple weeks ago and he was a huge faggot to me, true story
haha was it tommy refenes
what did you talk about?

he does a lot of big ego schtick in his interviews ... that sort of thing seems to be rather esteemed in newgrounds though
 

Zeriab

Sponsor

I tried the demo on an x-box 360 and imo the controls didn't feels as tight as the controls on the N flash game.
The granular control an x-box controller gives you felt to hamper you more than it helps you.
It may just be because I am more used the pc so I may try it once it comes out on PC.

*hugs*
 

moog

Sponsor

Venetia":3gj24497 said:
moog":3gj24497 said:
i personally talked to the main developer of this game on AIM a couple weeks ago and he was a huge faggot to me, true story
haha was it tommy refenes
what did you talk about?

he does a lot of big ego schtick in his interviews ... that sort of thing seems to be rather esteemed in newgrounds though

i was asking him a general question about a job reference someone gave me and he was like "dont fucking bother me" and all i said was "hello sir" w/e that guy can eat a TON OF DICK
 

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