you know how good the design is, so let me tell you about other stuff, first, the steam version is kinda buggy. It has vsync issues and stutters ever so often, usually in later levels, which can be very frustrating as it can also effect meat boy's physics. The game isn't unplayable on steam, but you will die more because of it. Inputs can and will be eaten every once in a while so that's fun. Also the characters and cutscenes haven't aged the best with newgrounds humor baked in but this doesn't impact the levels. Otherwise it was extremely doing both light and dark worlds.

I'm not a 2D twitch platforming savant -- though I have beaten this and have thoroughly enjoyed challenging games such as Slime-san -- but I didn't really enjoy this too much. I didn't hate it: from a purely technical perspective, this is impressive, especially as something of an early pioneer of this style of platforming.

But it's just not very fun to get through, beyond being able to say you pulled it off. Even that, to a degree, rings hollow. What sinks this one for me is that even though I got through it (note that I'm using "got through" and not "beat"), I never really felt like I was actually getting better at Super Meat Boy. Rather, I bashed against a level enough times for my thumbs to finally do the right thing. I can't take pride in my skill or growth here, only my perseverance. Taken another way, I spent a whole lot of time frustrating myself and it sort of felt wasted.

I think the issue is, ironically, that the controls are "too" precise, or overly sensitive. This is a trademark of twitch platformers, but Meat Boy moves so quickly and erratically based on movements that you're often barely aware of making that for many, it's difficult to ever truly get a handle on him. Going back to Slime-san, that game was quick and floaty but not to these extremes. Additionally, the slow-down mechanic had enough downsides to not be a crutch, but it did afford the player the opportunity to more closely observe how the character responded to input. By the end of Slime-san, I felt like I was much better at Slime-san than I was when I started. That didn't happen here.

Beyond that, the visuals are pretty drab (it's based off a flash game and you can tell) and the humor is immature (Dr. Fetus). Dug the music though.

Anyways, you should play Slime-san.

13,760 times I died on my quest to hit 106% completion. Finally I made it there. This is one of my all time favourite games but never bothered to fully complete it until now. It was insanely frustrating at times and with 8 levels left of the cotton alley dark world I nearly gave up, but I didn’t and now it’s done. An amazing feeling.

Man there’s some gnarly ass difficulty spikes in here. But the platforming is only part of the challenge as level hazards really seemed to the bane of my existence. Enemies like the flies who zoom towards you. The little fleshy dog things that chase after you. The balls of fire that roll around in hell proved to be my cryptonite. And don’t get me started on the balls of black mass that hit a surface and break into smaller mouths that fly off in different directions. I can really see why some people just bounce off this game.

There’s lots of content here. 40 levels across 6 worlds with a 7th world featuring a further 10 levels. 20 warp zones with 3 levels each. 100 collectables to collect and 6 super secret glitch levels to unlock and complete. I had a great time polishing all these off.

Super Meat Boy. It’s 106% complete and off my replay backlog. Feels good.