Super Meat Boy

[fat handed twat]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snaionoxjos

Is anyone playing this insanely tough 2D platformer available through XBox Live or Steam on the PC? I can highly recommend it. The level design is really well thought out and if you complete each short level within a certain time you'll get an A+ rating which will allow you to play the 'Dark World' version of that level which is even harder than the original. There are also bandages to collect throughout the world that if you collect enough will let you unlock new characters which have slightly different abilities that may help you get that difficult to reach bandage or that A+ rating that you couldn't get with meat boy.

It really is tremendously good fun and although you'll end up repeating some levels dozens of times it never feels unfairly difficult and if you fail it'll be because you aren't good enough, not because of bad design. It just goes to show you can still make great games that aren't reliant on top notch graphics in this day and age. You'll need a gamepad to play it though, you've got no chance with a keyboard. Be prepared to die lots.

[buntyman]

Yeah I've clocked about 50 hours on this so far, collected about 60 bandages and completed approximately half of the total levels. There's been some discussion of it in the 'Xbox Arcade' and 'what level are you' threads but it's good to have a separate thread on it. Madhair claims to have A-plussed every level, something that i'm certain is completely beyond me. I think it's absolutely brilliant though and I'm determined to keep cracking with it until I have at least seen all the levels available.
The level I have spent the most time on yet haven't get very far on is probably The Kid warp zone. It's just nasty.
I bought some Super Meat Boy toys from here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/EdmundM?ref=seller_info as I'm a sad bastard.

[madhair60]

Yes, and unfortunately for you lot I'm the best at it.  Don't even try.

Can't wait for the level editor.

Edit: I have A+'d it all, both worlds, and collected every bandage.  And done the glitch levels.  Basically all I've got left to do is the Iron Man achievements, which require all of a world to be beaten in one sitting without dying.  Can't see myself ever managing them - I've only done The Forest and The End.

Edit 2: The Kid's first and third levels are fine, but the second is diabolical.  Completely at odds with the design of the rest of the game.

[buntyman]

Ah you're playing the PC version, different kettle of fish. The general concensus is that that's a hell of a lot easier but that's still quite an impressive level of completion anyway. Can I ask what sort of control pad you used and how long it took you to do all that?
Does the PC version have the 'LOL NO INTERNETS' section?

[madhair60]

Wired 360 pad, and I'm not sure, since I didn't always play online - logged at 7 hours, maximum of 10 I'd say.

PC version doesn't have LOL NO INTERNETS yet, but I did beat those levels on a friend's 360.  Rough.

[buntyman]

That's a little bit too good. Are you very well practiced in this field anyway?

[pk1yen]

Ah shitting hell - I bought the points to get this while it was on sale, and then forgot to actually buy it. Now it's gone up from 800 points to 1200.

Fuckityfuck.

[madhair60]

That's a little bit too good. Are you very well practiced in this field anyway?

Yeah, 2D platformers are the only genre I'm really any good at.

[The Region Legion]

Wait... so the PC and 360 versions are DIFFERENT?

[waste of chops]

Wait... so the PC and 360 versions are DIFFERENT?

Yep. PC version gets a level editor in a month or two (although I think you can get into the user-unfriendly developer's version right now via a command line switch), 360 version gets exclusive levels via free DLC (from Team Meat as well as other indie developers, plus the best user-created levels from the PC version). Plus certain unlockable characters are exclusive to each version.

Also the PC version can be pretty flakey on certain hardware (I tried playing it on my brother's laptop and the framerate was so jerky, I actually fell through some platforms from one frame to the next)

[madhair60]

Edit: IGNORE BECAUSE YOU JUST SAID THIS

[falafel]

I didn't think I'd like this game. I hate hard games, frankly.

The most incredible thing about it is that the more I fail, the more I laugh. I can't hate it. It sort of short-circuits my brain.

[Hollow]

Wait till you get to the last level (meat boy), you wont laugh then. First game to make me list every swear word I know loudly in about 10 years.

[buntyman]

Are you talking about the final 2-part stage of 'The End' in the light world? That took me a good long time to get through until I worked out that I was making it a lot harder for myself than I should have been. The levels I tend to struggle most on are the ones with the fans as I can't seem to judge their power very precisely. The ones with the black monsters that split up into little chomping monsters are a pain too.

[Hollow]

Yeah thats the one, thats why I put meat-boy in brackets, some of bandage girl's levels are impossible in my (wrong) opinion. Yep 'The End' was hard enough for me. :-)
Should've put light world in brackets instead, It's the drugs. :-)

[buntyman]

Edit 2: The Kid's first and third levels are fine, but the second is diabolical.  Completely at odds with the design of the rest of the game.

Just completed this zone now after 3 hours of concerted effort! I found the first and third levels extremely difficult and frustrating whereas I thought the second was comparitively easy!

[pk1yen]

Fuck, I'm going to have to buy this tomorrow, even at 1200 points. I'm stuck on I Wanna Be The Guy after

Spoiler alert

doing the minecart to the Guy's castle and reaching the dragon boss

[close]

. It's not even that hard a bit, it's just inexplicably stopped me in my tracks.

Meat Boy looks like a good drinking game actually. Every time you die, you drink and pass the controller. If you pass a level, everyone else drinks. Sorted.

Is it better to play with the d-pad on xbox, presumably? Or does the analogue stick suffice?

[buntyman]

I use the analog stick which is fine for it although if the xbox controller d pad was anything like as good as the playstation or nintendo ones, i'd have probably used that instead. It's definitely worth the money and there are loads of extra levels being released for free soon. One slight annoyance that I've discovered after going back to try again at some of the levels I skipped the first time through is that levels i'm certain I completed are now saying haven't been done so their may be a bug or two that needs fixing.

[madhair60]

Fuck, I'm going to have to buy this tomorrow, even at 1200 points. I'm stuck on I Wanna Be The Guy after

Spoiler alert

doing the minecart to the Guy's castle and reaching the dragon boss

[close]

. It's not even that hard a bit, it's just inexplicably stopped me in my tracks.

I got up to The Guy and then just stopped.  Maybe one day I'll try and beat him.

Super Meat Boy is best played with the 360 analogue stick, I think - the game's not about mastering the controls, but about mastering Meat Boy's momentum.  After a while, you're playing it automatically.  The final world,

Spoiler alert

Cotton Alley

[close]

is an incredible, focused platforming experience, especially in the Dark World.  When I first saw some of those levels, I never thought I could beat them, let alone get their bandages - but I managed it, because you just keep progressing and unconsciously get better.  If you beat Dr Fetus, you are officially good at platform games.

Three things I don't like about Super Meat Boy:

Spoiler alert

1) The Hell boss.  Pure luck and memorisation.

2) The glitch levels and their bizarre insistence on giving you three lives.  In the warp zones, this restriction makes sense, since you get 3 goes at each level.  The glitch levels, however, just put you back on the map.  It's an inconvenience.

3) Speaking of the map, I wish there was a quicker way of getting around it.  If want to play, say, the last level of The Hospital, I have to press the analogue stick twenty times.  You can't just hold it down, or better yet click on the icon.  The map is clunky as fuck.

[close]

[buntyman]

Anyone still playing this? I may not be naturally gifted when it comes to platformers but in the case of Super Meat Boy, I'm nothing if not persistant. After 77 hours (a mere 70 more than Madhair) and 15432 deaths, I've finally completed the Dark World and collected the all important 20 gamerpoints!
I think this is probably one of my favourite games ever and definitely my favourite Xbox game and I'm very much looking forward to the release of the bonus content. I'm pondering whether or not to buy the PC version for the level editor update but I doubt my netbook has the processing power to run it properly.

[madhair60]

I've been doing the "Iron Man" runs.  Done Forest, Forest Dark World, Hospital, Salt Factory and The End so far.

Ah for the days when I was in the top 100. :(

[pk1yen]

I unlocked

Spoiler alert

The Kid

[close]

yesterday. Those levels were almost the death of me.

Well on my way to completing the Dark World now.

[buntyman]

Golden God achievement!
pk1yen - what is your gamertag so we can compare leaderboard times? I'm JiggerOuzo.

[pk1yen]

Gamertag is pk1yen - anyone feel free to add me. I keep meaning to add people from here and I keep forgetting.

Done the Dark World boss - now on to that elusive and mind-bogglingly-far-off 100%

Spoiler alert

The Kid

[close]

is a major help when it comes to bandages, though.

[madhair60]

For the PC/Steam owners, Super Meat World is out now if you've beaten the

Spoiler alert

Light World

[close]

. 

Spoiler alert

Go left from The Forest.

[close]