LogFAQs > #957655592

Super Meat Boy (PC)

I know this game was pretty universally acclaimed once upon a time - have opinions shifted since its release? I ask because I don't really see anyone talk about it anymore, to the extent that I didn't even know there was a recent sequel of sorts. And also because... I don't really think this is a very good game. For a precision platformer, it never really felt all that precise. Even after having finished it now, I still don't think I understand the physics very much at all. I was jumping straight into sawblades right up until the credits rolled because Meat Boy's jumps just never took the trajectory I expected them to.

Look, I can do punishing difficulty; over this last year in particular I've played through a notoriously tough game or two. But SMB's difficulty felt pretty artificial a lot of the time. Bosses who give little to no indication of where they're attacking so that it's literally impossible to beat them in a 1-hit-death game until you've already seen their patterns at least once. Occasional enemies whose movements seem almost random. That one damn level in Rapture where you have to wall jump back and forth across the room repeatedly while missiles fire at you as you wait for the key blocks to unlock. There were just too many occasions where I felt like I just got a little lucky in finishing a level rather than getting a sense of accomplishment from it. Then you've got controls that overall feel a bit slippery if not outright unresponsive at times, not to mention the extremely off-putting Newgrounds humor that had me skipping cutscenes for almost the entire playthrough...

I don't know. Maybe it's just a game that straight-up hasn't aged well in the wake of games like Celeste, because I can see how it would have been an impressive product when it first came out and there was nothing much like it on the market. But here in 2021 when this sort of game has now been done so much better, it doesn't compare.

Glad I played it, I guess, just to have it on my gamer resume. Glad I beat it, which going by Steam achievements is a rare enough feat, especially since it only took 3 and a half hours in the end. But I've gotta be honest... Bad video game.

Edit: Forgot to mention, after all the ridiculousness in the game, and particularly some frustration with the levels in the last world for being way too long for their own good, I somehow first-tried the final boss. Figured that was as good a place as any to wash my hands of it forever.

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Chilly McFreeze
https://imgur.com/UYamul2