Gaming Super Meat Boy Review

Is it better than Braid?

 

Short Answer: Of course not.

Long Answer: Although Super Meat Boy has more content than Braid, it lacks both the depth and the polish that the time traveling platformer had.

The theme of Super Meat Boy is '**** You', which I don't particularly appreciate.

Though somewhat removed from the story, Braid's story was a deconstruction of the hero/princess trope. In Meat Boy, the developers are basically saying 'we can do whatever we want, damn all feelings for the character/situations, let's make the player a hunk of meat'. Frankly, I found the whole package disgusting, a meaningless string of challenge with no goal and only despair/frustration to guide the player.

As for the gameplay, it's just as bad. In great platformers like Super Mario Bros, Braid, and Cave Story, the physics of the platforming mechanics is taught very early on by the level design, so that the player knows exactly how the game works: How high the player can jump, how far, how slippery will the landing be, etc. In Cave Story especially, although the jumping is a bit floaty and the landings slick, the first area is designed to show the player the limits of what they can do. The first spikes at the bottom of the slope which, I believe everyone slips onto and dies the first time, teach the player "Hey, watch out for these slippery falls" and by the end of the game you are jumping like a pro. There really is no progression of learning in Super Meat Boy, just unrelated challenge after unrelated challenge. By the end of the first world, I still did not have a grasp on falling speeds / walljumping mechanics / landing physics. It's not challenge, it's bad game design.

The music doesn't even work, from the far too loud main menu to the soft tones in the world map / levels.

Add to that the repetitive nature of the actual platforming challenges, no, Braid is a far better game which, despite it's lack of content, manages a more complete and meaningful experience than Super Meat Boy.

I've only finished the first world, and I may go ahead and complete the game, but I don't look forward to it.

 

Fixed

 

WHERE IS JOE?!

 

I AM HERE, I AM TRAPPED IN THE COMPUTER

 

Still lost in MineCraft...?

 

I don't agree with any of this, nor do I agree with the review saying the game is too difficult.

I personally find the game awesome in every single ways. The music fits perfectly with the action and the visuals, although simple, are very effective and often funny (the Hell boss is hilarious).

The gameplay is bang on perfect. It's fast, precise and requires a lot of skills to use meat boy to his full capacity. It does require a good gamepad however (I use a ps3 gamepad with a bluetooth dongle and DS3Tools) but then this is not a flaw by any means.

Saying a plateformer is too difficult is just stupid. That would be like me saying an RPG is too boring. Some people like stories in games, I hate it and fall asleep within minutes. On the other hand, some people (like me) enjoy a good challenge and there are no games that give a better challenge than hardcore plateform games. I haven't seen a game deliver that much challenge in terms of pure "agility skills" in years. Although I enjoyed Braid, it doesn't even come close. The gameplay of Braid is very imprecise. The game itself is great but it's not in the same category as SMB because the player needs to think a lot instead of relying on his guts

I find it silly that some people don't like hardcore platformers and then cry about the game being too hard. If it's not your type of game then you shouldn't even give your opinion on SMB. I know I never rated Fallout 3/NewVegas, Oblivion or Mass Effect because these games aren't for me and it would not be credible of me to say they are bad. (although I did criticize NewVegas' graphics to be very ugly on review's' screenshots but that's not important anyway)


Super Meat Boy, in my opinion, is in the same category as the great hardcore plateformer games of all times; Mega Man 1 & 2 & 3, Contra, Bionic Commando etc etc


10/10

 

"Saying a plateformer is too difficult is just stupid. That would be like me saying an RPG is too boring."

You're entitled to your opinion about RPGs, but that doesn't make Super Meat Boy anything other than insanely difficult by any standard. I'm a huge platforming fan, but SMB goes out of its way to p*** you off with every level. I uninstalled it at the third boss battle when I just realized that I most definitely wasn't having any fun.

I'm long past the stage in my life where I played games that made me unreasonably angry. I played about 90% of Super Mario Galaxy 2, but I'm content to leave that last 10%. I just wouldn't have fun with it.

SMB's charming and, when all goes right, fun. But because the boss battles aren't any fun and make no concessions for "merely slightly masochistic" platform fans like me, I had to give it up. Shame.