Downloadable crack for the seasoned gamer.
Dr. Fetus, however, would throw gas on you, laugh, and watch how you react to it. This game has that kind of humor, winking at your failures but also with the sort of elegant design and staying power it needs to justify the difficulty and cheeky humor. Meat Boy is the archetypal adorable scamp distilled down to fill an entire game, and everything revolves around the ridiculously funny concept of a slab of meat saving his girl made of bandages. Star crossed lovers for sure. Controls seem basic at first but hide a ton of depth - the physics really took a lot of getting used to for me. When you, a new player, start this game up, you won't get past the first world until you learn the ropes but fast.
And after you do, it's a revelation. Suddenly you'll instinctively be able to time that jump the first time, and make it through the level under 10 tries instead of somewhere around 30. When you realize you've finally mastered the mechanics, that's where the fun shoots up, and where you won't be able to stop. Because once you get good and are able to intuitively judge what you have to do every step of the way in a level, you'll just want to keep going because you'll know you're over the hump and only can get better. To get that extra bandage, to A+ that stubborn dark world level, you'll stay up hours past when you were supposed to, like I just did. Just to prove to yourself how much of a boss you are! I'm sure many other Meat Boy players are looking feverishly at their monitor screens as I am now. I laugh at the fact any gamer who chickened out of SMB's first world couldn't possibly be having as much fun as I am right now.
So ultimately it's just a game of your wits versus your skill, and how long you can keep them both. Take a breather when you have to, then come back swinging. If you appreciate a concept of effort versus sweet rewards, if your gut tingles at the hint of a stiff rewarding challenge, Super Meat Boy is your game. You'll grit your teeth, maybe curse Dr. Fetus, curse yourself, or curse God or anyone on earth throughout because the end is just out of reach. Then when you meet up with your sweetie pie at the end of every level you'll feel on top of the world. Then Dr. Fetus whisks her away for the next level, and you have no choice but to follow. You'll go through Hell, and even that won't be the end of it.
Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, the two juggernaut devs who make up Team Meat, impress me more than any other team - I can't imagine what they will come up with in the next couple of years, but I'm confident it'll be similarly respectful to us who like to play meaningful games, and just as refreshing as SMB.
And if you like this game, grab Binding of Isaac and keep it in your back pocket for when you might want another game with this kind of difficulty (though it's quite different). It'll easily hook you for another 100 hours, and as of this edit the Wrath of the Lamb expansion is out for it as well, and gives you even more content than the original game.
On a side note, Team Meat bought their own server and house Super Meat World free of charge, and there are tons of extra user made levels. Quality stuff here! Once you enter Super Meat World itching for more, you won't leave for a good while. There are several officially picked levels (including those released as Teh Internets for Xbox) and hundreds of others worth playing, and everyone should find at least a few extra chapters on Super Meat World to suit their difficulty preferences. I particularly liked Cramps and Minneapolis.