VideoGame Super Meat Boy is fun and you should play it
Start by watching the gameplay trailer.
This game is sweet.
It's fast-paced Nintendo Hard platforming action along the lines of N. There's a level. It has a goal and a bunch of things that kill you. You have to get to the goal and avoid the things that kill you. And the Excuse Plot is so Excuse Plotty that it sounds like it came out of a Mad Libs ("'You are a(n) [noun], and you must rescue your girlfriend, who is a(n) [noun], from an evil [noun] wearing a(n) [article of clothing],' hmm, let's fill in 'Meat, Bandage, Fetus, Monocle,' yep that sounds good, let's run it!").
Anyway, it's sweet.
It's challenging. You die a lot. But there's a healthy difficulty curve. It ramps up gradually enough that, for the most part, I felt like I was right at the edge of my abilities: when I died, it didn't feel frustrating or unfair—it was more like "Damn, I messed up. Lemme try again." And the awesome thing is that once you finally beat the level, it replays all of your deaths simultaneously, so the more times you fail, the more epic the army of Meat Boys jumping to their grisly deaths will be when you eventually succeed. Nice touch.
Also, it's fun. I mean, just look at that trailer. Jumping around, dodging giant buzzsaws and homing rockets...it's a blast. The controls are solid and the physics are comfy. And if the default character doesn't float your boat, there's a bunch of unlockable guest stars like the guy from Bit Trip, the guy from VVVVVV, the robot from Machinarium, the kid from I Wanna Be The Guy, the headcrab from the Half Life series, and a bunch more; all of them handle differently.
Bonus Points for Replay Value. If you complete stages with a quick enough time, you unlock Dark World alternate levels. And there are little bandages for you to collect that are scattered around everywhere, and you unlock stuff for grabbing em. And there are secret warp zones hidden here and there for you to discover, with even more unlockable stuff inside. The distractions and extra challenges manage to add depth to the game without feeling tacked-on (as Hundred Percent Completion quests often do).
So yeah. I approve.
VideoGame Decent game ruined by glitches and lag
If you have a computer that is slow or uses integrated graphics, don't bother buying the game. The problem is that due to poor design of the physics engine, it becomes extremely difficult when the computer doesn't meet it's performance expectations. In one case, I discovered that getting a A+ is literally impossible due to the lag on my main computer. After weeks of unsuccessful attempts, I beat it on my first try when I switched to a different computer.
Apart from technical issues, the game has a few minor design issues. The physics are inconsistent and unintuitive. For example, switching directions causes you to slide, but simply letting go of the direction key makes you stop instantly. And holding run while walljumping actually lowers your jump height, for no clear reason.
Barring technical issues, it is a difficult but fun platformer game.
VideoGame super meat boy forever: what do you do when a game whose primary intention is to make money off of you actually plays well?
this is a review of super meat boy forever, not the first 2 games.
as meat boy's light smirk and eyes both genuine and empty pierce straight through your soul as though to convey a look of "help me, god, i've gone from a man to but a marketing machine," you come to realize everything about super meat boy forever implies it wants to eat money from the largest target audience possible. everything's been washed out and toned down; anything mildly gross or offensive is removed aside from doctor fetus and his signature middle finger, and any video game references that aren't to well-known classic video games are completely absent. there's also some very noticeable spots of creative bankruptcy here, like with the first two worlds having their concepts directly copy-pasted from super meat boy (despite tommy refenes, lead dev of this and super meat boy, bragging about how he didn't want to make a "sequel that's exactly the same"), and the ending is primarily an Unexplained Recovery for dr. f and then a lousy Sequel Hook that reveals near-to-nothing. for fuck's sake, tommy has even mentioned wanting to make a cartoon and an rpg based on the series. this is the first step of meat boy's transformation from a testimony to the indie platformer scene to a money-producing franchise.
and of course the autorunning mechanic is just as shallow and thoughtless— actually, no.
somehow the core gameplay is the one exception to the soullessness of this game. the central mechanic of "you can only ever run forward" is taken absolutely seriously and given a notable amount of thought and design, and it actually works. takes until either chapter 4 or the dark world levels to the difficulty to fully kick in, but averts the expected monotony pretty well and provides an actual challenge. if this game didn't have the marketability intentions it had from day 1, its plot and art didn't play it safe, and it featured actual indie game cameo characters (who aren't identical to every other character gameplay-wise - another odd decision made here with the playable characters), it could have kept its exact same gameplay and level design and succeeded, and the "but it started out as a mobile game and it's an autorunner so isn't it a sellout?" part would've resolved itself - hell, with all the resources poured into art this time around, it could've been an Even Better Sequel.
but that's not what we got. what we got is a money grab whose actual gameplay qualities are buried under its audacity to come off as cutesy and mainstream-friendly as possible, despite being based off a game where a fetus in a jar kidnaps a skinless man's girlfriend and they face off in hell. the gameplay, again, is surprisingly fine, and i'd recommend it based on that, but when everything else is borderline insulting, it's basically doomed to cult classichood (if even). i wouldn't blame anyone refusing to buy it for the condescending marketability aspect alone.
-gy