I adored the original Super Meat Boy. The ‘one more go’ factor combined with super snappy restarts and incredibly tight, challenging platforming was right up my street. I spent countless hours perfecting runs, trying to shave a few seconds off, and failing spectacularly most of the time – all the while having a lot of fun. In a play right out of the 90’s, we now have Super Meat Boy but in three dimensions(!!), but can it retain that brilliant core gameplay while adding in an extra dimension?
Well, yes, and no. I played the demo a few months back and was not sold at all. The immediate nature of Super Meat Boy felt diminished by the 3D of it all, and I did not enjoy the feel of the movement. While there is some of that still here, I would encourage players to give the full release a go. Once we get over the new perspective, there is actually a lot of the original’s charm and – importantly – ‘one more go’ factor that has kept me coming back over the last week.
The camera is fixed and follows Meat Boy as he jumps, dashes, runs and slides in and out of the levels. We have depth as well as verticality to consider now, with Team Meat making good use of the new perspective to offer up levels that bring the challenge – and then some. We’re reminded of Super Mario 3D Land in its approach: small, intricate levels that meld 2D precision with 3D space, though this is a far more taxing title, as you may expect.
The majority of levels can be cleared in under 20 seconds, but that’s without the multiple deaths and failures we’ll see along the way. Meat Boy may be agile, but when the walls are made of buzzsaws, spikes, traps or whatever else is out to kill him, he’s going to need to be.
Super Meat Boy 3D retains the original’s path of blood, showing us where we’ve been (and died) which can be a huge help on future attempts. And, crucially, dying and restarting is almost instantaneous, meaning we can loop around again and again, and again.
Each level offers a par time, a bandage to collect, and other secrets to discover. Achieving all of these will be an exercise in patience and skill for sure. With fifteen levels per world, there’s a lot to get through, and a boss battle waiting at the end of each that requires not just precise platforming but pattern memorisation as well. These offer a nice change of pace and are a true test of the skills we’ve learnt.
There is also a Dark World that unlocks upon completing a certain amount of par times, secret levels to find, and new characters to unlock that play differently, making some levels easier (or harder) to complete.
As I say, I’ve found it surprisingly more-ish with a good amount of challenge, especially aiming for the par A+ times. While I’ve not tackled all of the stages yet, I have found myself going back to try and 100% stages and find more secrets.
However, it’s not all roses. By the very nature of being in 3D, depth perception issues rear their head from time to time. Geometry will go transparent if we find ourselves behind it, but oftentimes I’ve found myself caught out by certain surfaces when trying to do tricky jump sections by leaping too far – or not far enough – and missing the mark. With no way to control the camera (which is actually a good thing as otherwise it’d likely get even messier to control) some sections can feel a bit hit or miss in terms of accuracy. Again, it’s an unfortunate reality of adding the extra dimension, but it can still frustrate at times.
The other omission is the lack of a leaderboard. Part of the reason I’ve not gotten further through the main levels is a little friendly rivalry with MPV Graham, and going back to try to beat his times has been immensely enjoyable. But not easily being able to see his (or anyone else’s) times is a little odd. Here’s hoping for a patch to add something in, even if it’s just friends’ times as opposed to a global leaderboard.
Conclusion
While the addition of the extra dimension brings a few niggles to the precision platforming that simply weren’t there in the original, overall Super Meat Boy 3D retains a lot of what made the original game great – with snappy restarts, generally tight controls, tricky challenges and a lot of reason to go back and beat personal records or find hidden secrets.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
