SquishSquishSquishSquishSquishSquish
Super Meat Boy is nothing short of a getting-hopped-up-on-drugs-and-having-your-teeth-kicked-in-by-a-horse experience. Sure it's painful, but that doesn't stop you from laughing, or really even enjoying it. This charming little 2D platformer is all about a good challenge, and just in general being hilarious. During the few hours it took me to complete Super Meat Boy, I would go from angry at the world to giddy with excitement in about 10 seconds, and back again. The levels are so fast paced and short (and the deaths so frequent) that you really just keep going at 100 miles an hour until you decide to take a break, and that works all in Super Meat Boy's favor.
What really makes this game good as a video game is the extremely tight control you have over your character Meat Boy, the crazy level designs and traps that never relent, and just the simple nature of: get from A to B without getting demolished. Unfortunately, there are probably hundreds of games that can say the same thing, or at least something similar. What ends up setting Super Meat Boy apart from the pack is that all of those things are piled on top of a hilarious and charming product in general. You play as a walking pile of meat with a ridiculous toothy grin who is trying to save his girlfriend Bandage Girl (???) from the evil Dr. Fetus. Yes, the enemy of this game is an unborn child with a penchant for doing evil things.
When you combine the characters and gameplay with the midi-style music, hidden levels, cast of unlockable characters from other random indie games, and that daunting challenge of attaining 100% completion, Super Meat Boy really transforms from a game that people will play for free straight off the internet to a really complete package worth a solid purchase. While it may not really be doing anything that hasn't been done before, and it's difficulty may be prohibitive to some people, Super Meat Boy is still a solid package and something people should consider if they want a brutal challenge cleverly inserted into a simple game.
