Meat Boy

Title: Meatboy

Creators: Jonathon McEntee and Edmund McMillen (Team Mic)

Platform: Internet Game

Genre: Action Platformer

Breakdown

Meatboy is a game where you are a boy made of meat whose female friend made of bandaids is kidnapped repeatedly by a brain enclosed in a jar wearing a top hat and monocle. The objective is to rescue her by reaching her at the end of a level. To do this you must use your incredible jumping and running skills to scale walls, leaving a red trail of meat juice on any surface you touch. Unfortunately, a few deadly obstacles such as buzz saws, fire, bullets, salt, collapsing platforms, and more lie in the path between you and the pink kidnappee. What is your relationship to this female and why is she constantly being kidnapped just as you reach her? The game doesn't explain, but we know she better be really grateful when we finally get to her because completing a level gets more and more complicated and time-intensive as the levels progress.

The controls of Meatboy are well-implemented and straightforward; arrowkeys to move left and right, space bar to jump. And you will be using that space bar a LOT because most of the game consists of timing jumps between walls to go up. The learning curve in the first chapter helps a player get used to the controls and use them like a pro. Well-designed for this purpose, a player who is used to the delicate precision needed for the later levels can breeze through most of the levels their first try when redoing the levels.

Completing levels lock later levels, though not all levels are needed to be completed to move on. If one is really giving you trouble you can simply quit to the menu and try the next one. Later chapters will require a lot more effort than chapter one. Patience is needed for these later levels because you will be dying left and right as you figure out how to beat each part of the design. Whether it's timing just right or knowing the best places to place a jump, there will be a lot of death and, depending on the person, a lot of cursing before the strategy is perfected.

What else is there to do in the game? Well every few levels you will find a bandaid in an inconvenient location. My question is, did those bandaids come from your female friend? Did she lose pieces of herself while being carried away? Forgetting the question of where the bandaid came from for a minute, if you collect the bandaid (and then don't die before rescuing the pink girl) in enough levels, new characters will be unlocked. The first secret is unlocking a paint bucket named C-Crasher you can play as instead of Meatboy. C-Crusher leaves blue trails instead of red. You'll have to figure out the rest of the secrets for yourself!

Another great thing about this game is the level packs. Four chapters are included in the main campaign of the game, but if those are beaten there are many player-created levels ready to be downloaded and played.

One tiny thing that annoyed me was that there is no options menu so the music can not be turned off unless you mute the computer. The music fits the mood isn't bad (though it is a bit repetitive) and changes for different levels.

In the end, what are we left with? A game which has obviously seen a lot of love and a lot of thought. Is the premise a little strange? Yes, but with meat trivia, jokes, side-swipes at vegetarians, and more greeting you every time you win the level, you'll wish there were more meat-themed games. Will you be frustrated? Yes, but the key piece of this is, through your tears when you die right before reaching your friend after navigating the level for the thousandth time you will without a thought of quitting try again and again until you finally reach her.

What other games is Meatboy like?

At its heart, Meatboy is an action platformer like Mario or Megaman without any enemies to kill. But don't think that because it is the same genre it is the same game. Meatboy is unique and creative.