Super Meat Boy

Xbox 360, Wii, PC

Super Meat Boy is a 2D side-scroller that pays homage to classic platformers such as Super Mario Brothers, Mega Man and Castlevania. The story is very typical of such games (hero goes from castle to castle in search of the princess), but the characters are outlandish. Super Meat Boy is literally a chunk of meat. His girlfriend is a wad of bandages, and she is kidnapped by Dr Fetus, who is a baby fetus in a robot suit. The characters set the foundation for a rich and wonderful world of delightful oddity.

Anyone with any side-scroller experience will feel right at home with the easy and simple controls for Super Meat Boy. The game move and feels just how you would expect - weighty but not too slow and heavy. The controls themselves are extremely simple - run and jump.

The goal of the game is to find the kidnapped Bandage Girl. Along the way you collect bandages that can be used to unlock more characters. During the journey Super Meat Boy runs, dodges, jumps and climbs to avoid deadly saw blades and various traps and bosses.

Be prepared to bang your head on the table. It may be due to the fact that most gamers now spend the majority of their time playing advanced 3D games, but a lot of levels require Super Meat Boy to be shredded several times before completion. The frustration is compounded by the fact that there are no check points, so dying resets the entire level.

The graphic style of Super Meat Boy isn't impressive from a technical stand point, but it does deserve artistic merit. The game uses a basic blocky look with solid colors to emulate the 8-bit platformers that it owes its origins to. There is a bit more detail in the backgrounds, but they are usually repeated throughout the level. With any other game this would be a serious let down, but with Super Meat Boy it's part of the whole package. It keeps true to its roots - right down to the blocky 8-bit character models.

As with most side-scrollers, there is good reason to replay the game. Once you have gone through the entire game you will have enough skill to fully enjoy and explore the levels during your second play trough. This will afford you the chance to discovered warps zones and secret areas that will allow you to find more playable characters.

Overall, Super Meat Boy is an enjoyable game and a refreshing change from the typical blockbuster games. It's challenging a times, but that's also part of what makes it so intense. It pays homage to classic games, while adding enough of its own quirkiness and gameplay to make it a classic of it own.