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Super Meat Boy Nintendo Switch Review by SwitchWatch
Developer: Team Meat
Publisher: Team Meat
Release Date: Out now
Price as of Article: $14,99 £11,99 GBP
Super Meat Boy Nintendo Switch Review-Tough Meat
Super Meat Boy was released in 2010 on Steam and was designed by Edmund Mcmillen and Tommy Refenes as Team Meat. Edmund has gone on to design other games such as Binding of Isaac and The End is Nigh. They all have one thing in common. They are all quality games and are very challenging. Super Meat Boy has graced many platforms and now it’s the turn of the Nintendo Switch.
The objective here is a simple one. Your motivation to go through the pain you will encounter is because of a girl. The strongest kind of motivation for you, a red cubed shaped character known only as Meat Boy. You have to do what it takes to rescue your girlfriend Bandage Girl who has been kidnapped by Dr Fetus. It’s the cutscenes though which are hilarious and the game will reference some great games of the past like Ninja Gaiden and Castlevania. This is a celebration of some of the greatest past games.
The tracks very much suit the carnage of what can happen in this game. These tracks at times get your heart rate pumping and pulse racing and honestly, I think sometimes the music can lead to your death as you can end up being too pumped up!
The composer is obviously very talented and while I didn’t always enjoy all of the tracks in the game, I had an appreciation as to why the tracks fitted so well. They are not completely overbearing on the sound effects. I have to admit on the first world I turned to volume down and put on my own music as it was easier for me to concentrate. Sound effects consist of hearing Meat Boy jump, die a lot and I mean a lot, so you will get used to that sound. Traps especially shining steel spikes have that nice metal sound which you won’t forget in a hurry.
Visuals are simple here but simplicity is all this game needs. This is a 2D platformer, the backgrounds are nicely realised and you are left in no doubt where you will die if you make the wrong move. Meat Boy is just a red cube and leaves a trail of red stuff all over the place which is quite funny and is a nice touch. What I do like is how some of the levels make references to other games you may have played which I won’t spoil here as it’s fun seeing them for the first time. Although the visuals are simple they are also quite imaginative at times.
The game runs smooth as silk on the switch and the only complaint you may have is in handheld where Meat boy is a little small. Other than that I found no issues, the port is fantastic.
This game is hard and if you are not into hard games then you may not enjoy this. After a few easy levels it soon turns into a very challenging game and if you don’t have the patience of dying over and over again then its going to induce rage quit in many. Super Meat Boy is made up of many very short levels which often last no more than 30 seconds each. There are 300 levels to complete, as you get further in you will spend a lot more time trying to complete each level as they become more and more challenging.
On each one you will have to make your way past traps, crumbling ledges and all sorts of other things there to kill Meat Boy. The levels are also timed and you get a rating at the end which is great as it gives you the incentive to go back and perfect each one. It’s also a dream game for speed runners. You need to be focused and its likely that on the first run-throughs you will miss many of the secrets. The warp zones are great as the game flips to 8-bit graphics and it’s a real homage again to past platformers.
Each level is complete when you reach bandage girl. There are bandages on some of the levels which can be collected and these are always in hard to reach places which I must admit I didn’t have the patience to keep trying over and over again. Trying to get them all will be one of the hardest challenges you will encounter in gaming.
Meat Boy has a few moves and these consists of a jump, another jump where if you hold the trigger button will make you jump across the screen further and you can also slide down walls and jump off them. Everything else is about precise movement and avoiding death.
The game is designed superbly well and everything is placed perfectly it seems. It makes the game challenging but not impossible and this is what keeps you coming back for more. It seems perfect for the Switch, Have a five minute blast to get past that level that’s been driving you nuts for hours and then you can put it down to cool down and come back to try again. It’s a lot more addictive than I had ever envisaged.
The controls feel just right and not too floaty. Meat Boy has a nice weight to him and controls are tight but it felt more natural to me playing on a D-pad with the Pro-Controller instead of the analogue sticks which just didn’t feel quite right for me on this game. The problem for me in hand held mode is there is no D-pad and while you can use the buttons, that didn’t feel quite right either. So if you can use a Pro-controller to get that really precise feel.
There is no doubt that this game was great in 2010 and it still holds up today even though there is a lot more competition now in the Indie space. It will challenge you, frustrate you and you will still come back for more. There is even a co-op mode to play with a friend using the Joycons. This mode is called Race Mode and it’s all about racing your friend to finish the level first and really adds and extra competitive mode which is superb.
This game will still set you back $14,99 and it’s the same on steam. I think it’s still worth every penny, to get to the end expect to put in 12-20 hours and 50 hours or more for compleationists. Add to the fact the competitive race mode for another player and you have a game that has long lasting appeal. One which you come back too time and time again. A game that really does have that just one more go feeling.
Pros
Superb Retro Platforming
Sharp precise controls
Challenging
Cons
Possibly too challenging for some
Some of the musical tracks were too much
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