Press Start may receive a commission when you buy from links on our site at no extra cost to you.
The original Super Meat Boy, in a lot of ways, sought to emulate what was arguably the most prolific and influential mascot platformer of all-time in Super Mario Bros. Of course, despite borrowing its acronym and rough plot outline, Super Meat Boy was considerably more challenging, going for more of a ‘I Wanna Be The Guy’ flavour, with fleeting, crushing challenge rooms providing the backdrop for the hero’s pursuit of his lady fair.
What Super Meat Boy 3D doesn’t do is break any semblance of new ground with its leap into the third dimension. Unlike the paradigm shift that was Mario’s first ‘it’s a-me’ within an explorable Mushroom Kingdom, Super Meat Boy 3D is a much safer translation of what it already was, only on a different plane, which comes with a few pros and even more cons.
Being a gameplay-first kind of game, Super Meat Boy 3D’s story is incredibly simple. Unlike Mario’s Princess, whose captive state is a breadcrumb trail chase through a series of castles, Super Meat Boy’s princess, Bandage Girl, is dangled like bait and snatched away at the end of every stage by the game’s cruel villain, Dr. Fetus. It’s the sinewy, cubic hunk’s singular goal to rescue his lady, no matter the cost. It’s fun enough while not taking itself at all seriously, as its sly nods to its roots—including Meat Boy emerging from a familiar green pipe—are well and truly worn on the sleeve.
Super Meat Boy 3D remains true to the original’s formula and sees Meat Boy traverse a series of digestible levels, ranging from anywhere between 10 seconds to a minute, throughout a handful of overworlds, all the while racing the clock and stressing reflexes against an overwhelming barrage of hazards. So, on one hand, I’m disappointed the game lacks the daring to evolve on its formula, but the original Super Meat Boy is so airtight that I can’t be too upset about them resting on their laurels. And while toothy saw blades, spike pits, and corrosive acid will be the cause of many deaths, I found awkward camera angles to be the biggest threat to me.
Super Meat Boy’s flatter perspective meant that every death, while frustrating, was a result of poor execution. I wasn’t underhanded trickery; it was poor timing and, ultimately, a skill issue. I don’t feel Super Meat Boy 3D plays quite as fair, and I think the main culprit is confusing and inconsistent points of view. For a game so reliant on hair-trigger reactions and being nimble, losing yourself in space is always the beginning of the end. Despite attempts to make landing zones evident through a semi-convenient on-ground ring, I’d often over-and undershoot platforms, particularly when the game would shift to a fixed isometric angle.
Before the “git gud” crowd darkens my door, I don’t think I’m bad at platformers like this. Super Meat Boy, N+, Cuphead—I’ve bested them all. I think there’s an inherent awkwardness that comes with flinging a cube of meat through a minefield of tiny platforms while having an isometric view; it’s easy to lose your bearings. Had they settled on the “behind the back” view, which some stages have, I do think it would have made for a more readable game overall.
Although you’ll roll credits after the game’s five base worlds, Super Meat Boy 3D follows in its original’s footsteps in that it features a “dark” version of each stage. These are gated behind a stage’s A+ time, while the tucked-away plasters within each level are collected to unlock additional characters, which, more often than not, provide a bit of a chuckle. So while you’ll “finish” the game pretty quickly, there’s an enormous amount of meat on this bone; it’ll take a lot of intestinal fortitude and patience to get through the game’s toughest challenges, even the very first dark level does not fuck about.
I do like that the game’s stages, despite being gated off by the boss stage at the end, can be tackled in any order you prefer. Towards the pointy end, it kept me from bashing my head against a wall for too long on one stage. So often, I’d find being able to find frustration elsewhere before returning with fresh eyes and a renewed focus quite helpful. Players can navigate the world’s layers by entering visceral, discomforting sphincters that get wrenched open by tendrils; although the same areas can be accessed via quick button presses to avoid the gaped butthole gates.
In addition to the questionable portals, Super Meat Boy 3D does have a penchant for the graphic and gruesome. From the sloshing steps of Meat Boy to how he drips with blood every stride, even the way he explodes into chunks of viscera whenever he contacts whirring fan blades, there’s a level of hyperviolence that, because of the cute and unserious art direction, plays for laughs. I was surprised by how often I’d chuckle at the game’s cutscenes; something as simple as Dr. Fetus slowly ascending out of view while flipping the bird does tickle me just right.
By opting for the safety of its admittedly firm foundations as a platformer, I think Super Meat Boy 3D struggles to make a meaningful splash in its conversion to the third dimension. Inconsistent and bothersome camera angles create frustration beyond the expected kind, and it ultimately doesn’t live up to the implied promise of a Super Mario Bros.-to-Super Mario 64 type leap. For those prepared to push through the pain, fun can be found; although the meat hasn’t gone bad, per se, it’s a grade short of the prime cut it could have been.
