Super Meat Boy is often regarded as one of the best Indie games, and much fuss was made about the hardcore difficulty. The levels are short (often 10-45 seconds) but full of danger. In addition to the control stick, there's only two buttons; run and jump. Meat Boy can wall-jump and wall-slide, in addition to moving mid-air, which leads to some interesting acrobatics.
In recent times, I've played hard platform games such as Cloudberry Kingdom, Donkey Kong Country/Tropical Freeze and VVVVV, so I had a feeling there was good chance I wouldn't find Super Meat Boy that challenging or maybe even that interesting, and I was right...
The first world introduces the mechanics, so teaches you how to leap over large gaps by running, wall jumping, and even wall jumping against a single wall to climb it. The second world doesn't really increase in difficulty though. There may be a few tricky levels here and there, but then you get levels that are a complete breeze and the inconsistency just feels annoying; which is a general trend throughout the game. In the third world, there's a new mechanic of conveyor belts which creates some variety, but again, the difficulty is mixed. The fourth world, Hell is where things get tricky, but at this point you are at least half way through the core game. The fifth world, Rapture, is really fun with some well designed levels, but then there's a few that are total garbage. The sixth world is the final one and only has 5 levels, 3 of which I thought were among the best levels in the entire game and they live up to the game's hard difficulty. The other 2 on the other hand were easy and boring.
There's new hazards introduced throughout the game, but usually, the game is only difficult when it uses unfair tactics. For example, you jump on a ledge which looks totally safe. Oh no it's not, because now a saw has just popped through the floor and killed you. One of the worst offenders are those teeth-monsters in the Hell levels. They charge out of a portal (which is actually hard to see) and they either hit you direct for a kill, or hit the floor and shatter into several pieces which can kill you. The Oobs in Rapture are arguably as bad, they usually move in an arc, but then they randomly speed up and charge horizontally. They can also cheat by hiding off the screen, or camping near tricky jumps for guaranteed kills.
At the end of each world, there's a boss. This may be a obstacle course which basically isn't much different from the normal levels, just that there's extra time pressure. With other bosses, you have to learn their attacks. Sometimes, this means you replay the level an insane amount of times to learn the attack patterns, since there is no way you can actually react to their attacks. For this very reason, I found the Hell boss to be one of the worst bosses in any game.
When you die, Meat Boy instantly re-spawns at the beginning of the stage which helps ease the frustration of replaying the level. Once you complete the level, you are shown a replay of all your attempts simultaneously, which is a brilliant feature.
If you complete the stage under the par time, you are given an A+ rating which unlocks an alternative, harder version of that stage in the Dark World. You can also unlock alternative characters who star in other indie games. These characters have different physics and special skills. These are unlocked either by acquiring bandages which are dangerously positioned on the levels, or completing secret levels found via the warp zones.
Graphically, the game is basic but has a retro feel much like Swords & Sworcery. However, sometimes I found it difficult to distinguish between the background and foreground, leading to some very cheap deaths. As Meatboy runs, he leaves a trial of blood and when he dies, he leaves behind a splatter of blood which remains on screen for repeated attempts. Overall, the aesthetics were a bit too bleak for my liking and would have been better with a bit more clarity and colour. The secret levels take the retro feel even further and increase the amount of pixels which I found to be off-putting.
Sometimes, I thought the controls were spot on, but other times it seems a bit unpredictable. I'm sure I was pressing jump and nothing happened, or I expected to wall-slide and he didn't. Other times his jump seemed more floaty than usual, or he seemed to slip rather than coming to a complete stop. I'd be very surprised if there weren't random elements incorporated into Meatboy's movement because there was no consistency in the slippage.
Then there's the bugs. The first time I launch the game, it crashes, but is fine on the next attempt. Changing the resolution mid-game can make the graphics glitch or completely crash, whereas alt-tabbing out of the game will crash or give you a black screen. There's three bugs that hurt the game-play: Firstly, the moving platform bug. Meatboy can usually headbutt ceilings, but if he is on a moving platform, this usually (but not always) kills him. Secondly, Meatboy may fall through platforms which usually occur if he is moving fast. The final bug is the final boss, Dr Fetus. He is supposed to chase you through the level but instead remained static. Other gamers report that he moves far too fast, but either way, you cannot complete the level in this state. For some reason, entering the launch option -ultralowdetail fixes this which I noticed also changed the speed of some of the hazards.
Once you complete the game, you unlock an extra bonus world. To further extend the game-play, you can replay levels to beat your times, unlock more Dark World stages and find the warp zones. There's a lot of fun to be had taking on the harder stages and discovering the new content.
As much as I love challenging platform game, the wild inconsistencies throughout Super Meat Boy makes it a disappointing game. It's often too easy, too unfair and doesn't seem worth the trudge to get to the good bits. When it is good, it is really good, and navigating the levels in such a fast an acrobatic way is exhilarating.