by Natasa Shepherd

Created on: August 25, 2011

Back in the 90’s and early 00’s, puzzle platformers were once  some of the most popular video game genres. With games like Super Mario Bros, Spyro and Tomb Raider topping the charts, platformers were the top dogs long before the first person shooter became the mainstream. You could say the Super Meat Boy is somewhat of a throwback and somewhat completely different.

A 2D based speed run platformer, Super Meat Boy could be classified as not just a platformer, but a frustratingly hard platformer. Unlike the Mario Brothers games in which you ran across a long, drawn out map, Super Meat Boy is generally confined to a much small space. It is you goal to make it from the start to the finish in the fastest time possible. This entails jumping back and forth on walls, plunging off of great heights and dodging saw blades that look to tenderise Meat Boy.

It’s a simple but highly addictive premise. In fact you could say that it’s simpleness is the reason why you’ll want to go back for more. Aside from the cliche plot of rescuing the princess/damsel in distress, there is no real story to Super Meat Boy which keeps things nice and plain rather than dense and convoluted. You’ll find yourself doing levels time and time again in an effort to attain the fastest possible time. If you’re a perfectionist you could spend hours on the same level, trying to get that perfect score and there is no doubt that a few ulcers could be coming your way. Some of the crueler levels will crush your heart and eat your soul, leaving you with no hope to score any higher.

Like any good time based game, leaderboards are available for users to see, with sheer anger, their best effort get demolished by a thirteen year old in Ohio. In its soul, Super Meat Boy is a throwback classic to the likes of Dig Dug, Flicky and Tetris to name a few. The main objective is to get as many points as possible. The higher your score, the better you do. It’s the sense of achievement you get from knowing you completed a level in the fasted time humanly possible that has made Super Meat Boy such a hit. It’s not a deep game, it’s not even an interesting game. There’s nothing plot wise to keep you coming back, but the core gameplay is so well done, so well put together that success was simply a matter of time.

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