Super Meat Boy
Super Meat Boy is a 2010 platform game designed by Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes under the collective name of "Team Meat". It was self-published as the successor to Meat Boy, a 2008 Flash game designed by McMillen and Jonathan McEntee. In the game, the player controls Meat Boy, a red, cube-shaped character, as he attempts to rescue his girlfriend, Bandage Girl, from the game's antagonist Dr. Fetus. The gameplay is characterized by fine control and split-second timing, as the player runs and jumps through over 300 hazardous levels while avoiding obstacles. The game also supports the creation of player-created levels. Super Meat Boy was first released on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade in October 2010, and was later ported to Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, and the Nintendo Switch. A Wii version was in development but was ultimately cancelled.
Super Meat Boy
Team Meat
Team Meat
Kevin Hathaway
Tommy Refenes
Edmund McMillen
Tommunism Engine
- Xbox 360
- WW: October 20, 2010
- Microsoft Windows
- WW: November 30, 2010
- OS X
- WW: November 18, 2011
- Linux
- WW: December 13, 2011
- PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita
- WW: October 6, 2015
- Wii U
- WW: May 12, 2016
- Nintendo Switch
- WW: January 11, 2018
Development of the game began in early 2009. McMillen worked on level design and artwork, while Refenes coded it. The game's soundtrack was written by Danny Baranowsky, who had also worked on the original Meat Boy. Super Meat Boy won several awards and has been cited as one of the greatest video games of all time. Critics lauded the game's controls, art, soundtrack, and challenging gameplay. The game was also a commercial success, selling over a million copies by January 2012. A sequel, Super Meat Boy Forever, was released on December 23, 2020, without McMillen's involvement.[1]
Plot[edit]
Meat Boy lives with his girlfriend Bandage Girl. One day, Bandage Girl is kidnapped by Dr. Fetus, an intelligent fetus in a life support suit. Meat Boy then goes after Fetus, until Fetus burns down the forest and tries to kill Meat Boy in his "Lil Slugger", which is destroyed after Meat Boy tricks him into running into a bunch of saws. Fetus escapes to an abandoned hospital, where he unleashes C.H.A.D., a giant monster made of blood. Meat Boy shows the sun to the monster and redeems him, but then continues after Fetus, who goes to his salt factory. There, a clone of Meat Boy made of faeces called Brownie is created, leading to a race between the two, presumably killing Brownie. Fetus goes to Hell, where Meat Boy discovers that every time he dies, his corpse is sent there. Little Horn, a Meat Boy-esque monster made up of these corpses attacks Meat Boy. After Meat Boy defeats Little Horn, Fetus escapes and triggers a nuke, which opens a path to the top world. Meat Boy is lured there to fight three worms called Larries Lament.
In the final level, Dr. Fetus runs after Meat Boy, who destroys the bridge he is on, destroying Fetus's life support system. Fetus tries to kill Meat Boy and Bandage Girl by blowing up his facility, but Brownie appears and saves the two while sacrificing himself. As Bandage Girl hugs Meat Boy after escaping, Fetus suddenly lands on Bandage Girl and tries to pummel her as the game cuts to credits. If Dr. Fetus is beaten in the Dark World, It is shown in the true ending that Fetus's attacks were ineffective and Bandage Girl proceeds to stomp on him.
Legacy[edit]
Meat Boy has made cameo appearances in the video games Bit.Trip Runner, Bit.Trip Fate, and Bit.Trip Presents... Runner2: Future Legend of Rhythm Alien, as well as in Spelunky, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Ori and the Blind Forest, Retro City Rampage, ilomilo, and Indie Pogo.[83][84] A parody Flash game, Super Tofu Boy, was released by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on December 1, 2010, to protest the game and promote veganism.[85] In response, Team Meat added its own interpretation of Tofu Boy to the PC version of the actual Super Meat Boy on December 2, 2010.[86] The game's success spurred the development of the 1930s-style animated indie video game Cuphead, which is also noted for its difficulty.[87]
On August 29, 2014, Team Meat announced that a sequel, Super Meat Boy Forever, was in development for smartphones, tablets, and Steam.[88] The game would remain in development limbo until the project was restarted in 2017, without the assistance of McMillen.[89] In August 2017, the game was confirmed for release for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iOS and Android systems.[90][91] The Switch and Windows versions were released in December 2020, with other platforms following in 2021.[92]
McMillen made the spiritual successor The End Is Nigh, released in 2017.
