Team Meat - 2010 - PC/X360
Super Meat Boy is the brainchild of artist Edmund McMillen and programmer Tommy Refenes, who call themselves Team Meat. It's actually the sequel to a 2008 browser based flash game which was just called Meat Boy. Check it out here for free if you're interested in trying it. Just know that the sequel is a massive improvement over the original. Tighter controls, better level design, better artwork, higher music quality, multiple playable characters and a lot more polish overall. Both Meat Boy and its sequel seem to have drawn a lot of inspiration from N, and/or N+ a.k.a. "The way of the Ninja" games, which are also free, flash-based games that I totally loved. The one thing these games all share is that they are infuriatingly difficult, but also excellently designed 2D platformers.
Each level of Super Meat Boy requires you to save Meat Boy's girlfriend, bandage girl, from the evil Dr. Fetus. This is accomplished simply by navigating from a starting point to an ending point on a 2D plane, but there are usually many deadly hazards in between. Once you get into the meat of the game -see what I did there?- you'll probably find this game to be extremely difficult. However, by using a well thought out difficulty curve and smart design decisions, I believe Super Meat Boy handles its difficulty extremely well. First of all, the levels are so short that you don't feel like you lose significant progress when you die. There's rarely a level that takes more than 60 seconds to beat. It can still be frustrating when you die repeatedly on the same level, but because you respawn instantly at the beginning of the level, it makes you want to go right back at it again. It's the good kind of frustrating. The earlier levels introduce you to the precision platforming, wall jumping and sprinting. Then the later levels add more obstacles that incrementally increase the difficulty. By the end of the game, you're doing things that looked completely impossible when you started. It's still very hard, but it's an extremely satisfying difficulty curve.
Super Meat Boy has some really cool bonus features, unlockables and secrets included as well. There's a built in replay system where you can save and share your times and replays to any of your friends who also have the game. Finishing each level in the game under a certain amount of time will unlock a mirrored "dark world" version of the level which usually includes more obstacles or enemies and is even more difficult. There's also the collectible bandages found in the various levels which are usually either hard to find or hard to difficult to get to. These bandages, presumably dropped by bandage girl, can be used to unlock other playable characters which have different speeds or jump heights which add more flavor to the game. There's even hidden warp zones that lead to even more obnoxiously difficult levels for those who are into ridiculously hard challenges.
Summary:
Super Meat Boy is probably one of the most difficult games I've ever completed and I'm quite proud to have finished it. It's also probably responsible for the most swearing I've ever done while playing a game. But don't let the difficulty scare you off, Super Meat Boy is a must play if you're a fan of platformers. It's a difficult game, but it's also a rewarding one. It also boasts an excellent soundtrack and some really cool Castle Crashers-like cartoony graphics. There's also lots of very subtle references to Mega Man, Castlevania and Super Mario Bros. in the animations and artwork. It's good stuff. I'm also quite curious to see what Mew-Genics, Team Meat's upcoming game, is going to be like. If it's half as good as Super Meat Boy, I'll probably still love it.
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