LogFAQs > #948374998

I played through the first two worlds of Super Meat Boy today. The first world is easy enough, including a few levels that essentially function as tutorials. There are two optional challenge types you can take on within this game's levels: the "A+ rank," which requires you to beat the level within a par time, and picking up the bandages, which are usually in out-of-the-way portions of the levels. I got the A+ ranks on every level in world one, which unlocks the dark world versions of those levels. In world 1's case, that means they're basically the same but with a lot more buzz saws. It was one of the levels around the halfway point of dark world 1 that made me give up on the idea of 100% completion in this game. It started out with buzz saws on each of two opposite walls that you had to jump very precisely between, which would kill me on most attempts within the first few seconds, so I was sick of it before I could complete it on its own, let alone pick up the bandage. For now, I'm just going to focus on getting to the ending and then I'll go back and complete anything else I feel like.

In comparison to other platformers, Meat Boy's controls are kind of "slippery." That's by design: he leaves a trail of blood everywhere he goes, and can sort of stick to walls giving him an omnipotent wall-jump that doesn't even require an opposing wall. He can launch really far horizontally without needing much momentum, but he's kind of hard to control precisely, so a lot of the levels where you have to land on small platforms are much harder than most others. The final section of 2-20 in particular gave me a lot of trouble because of this. You have to hop across two tiny platforms gaining just enough momentum to launch onto the side of another small square and then across three more, and it's easy to overshoot and fall off a cliff and then have to restart the whole level. I knew I would have to take a break when I finally finished that one.

So far, I'd say the game is about in line with my expectations. It's good, and the core mechanics work well for the most part, but it probably is a little too hard for my tastes. I like it when it's about figuring out the right approach to a level more so than pixel-perfect precision. The levels with really demanding timing and position annoy me a little bit. One thing that I like is that there are a lot of shortcuts and alternate approaches to the levels, for example in 2-20 you can save a lot of time by climbing around the outside of the level.

This is one of those games that shows a lot of love (or at least has a lot of homages) toward gaming as a whole. There are the "warp zone" levels for example, that are presented in the graphical style of older consoles, first an 8-bit demake of Meat Boy (Celeste kind of cribbed this idea I suppose) and then a version based on the original Game Boy. While cute, I do think it was a mistake to use a lives system in the warp zones. The game is normally built for speed with a definite understanding that you'll probably die a lot, but in the warp zones there are three consecutive levels and you have to restart the whole thing (losing any bandages) if you die thrice on the same level, which is a real pain in one of those games.

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I'm playing every game from GotD 2020! Games Completed: 12/129
Currently Playing: Super Meat Boy