In 2010 independent game developers Team Meat burst onto Xbox Live Arcade with a desire to provide a game that would appeal to gamers with fond memories of yesteryear.  That game was Super Meat Boy!  But is Super Meat Boy a delicious fresh take on an old classic style, or is it a rotting pile that should be thrown in the garbage?  Press START to find out!

Super Meat Boy is a side scrolling platformer that at times will make you want to hurl your controller through the TV screen.  But this isn’t a bad thing!  You take control of Meat Boy, a loveable hunk of meat, as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend Bandage Girl from the evil Dr. Fetus.  Along this journey you will encounter over 300 levels of side scrolling action.  Sounds easy enough, but where Super Meat Boy starts to show its classic game roots is in the difficulty.  Super Meat Boy can get punishingly hard and challenging like games of old.  But this is where half of the fun is, trying to guide Meat Boy through devilish traps to the end of the level.   Then once a level is beaten, you can see a replay of ALL your attempts shown at once.  It’s a real joy to see, at times, hundreds of Meat Boys all meeting their doom, until one lone hunk of meat survives to the end.

There is also more to the game other than just running and jumping through levels.  If you should find a warp zone, you’ll be transported to bonus levels that look and feel like classic games or newer indie games.  Playable characters can also be unlocked.  These characters (from other indie games) have slightly different powers than Meat Boy.  For instance one character may allow you to hover for a brief moment, while another character will allow you to stick to surfaces.  Laugh in the face of games of old?  Think Ghost & Goblins and Mega Man were games for babies?  Super Meat Boy has you covered with it’s Dark World.  These are alternate levels at a higher difficulty, but only achieved by getting an “A+” in the Light World.

So looking for a fun, yet challenging addition to your game library?  I would highly recommend adding Super Meat Boy to your collection.  Super Meat Boy is available on Xbox Live Arcade, PC, Mac, and Linux.  Sorry Playstation & Nintendo owners., your platforms simply couldn’t contain all this meaty goodness.

-Rider Faiz