If I had to pick a game to describe as ‘devilishly fun,’ Super Meat Boy would be it. There’s a delightful, yet cruel and fantastic, quality to its platforming, level design, and difficulty philosophy. While not as enraging as creations by the sadistic Bennett Foddy, it’s also far from what one would call an accessible platformer. Super Meat Boy has always occupied a ‘Goldilocks Zone’ – just challenging enough to frustrate you, yet featuring levels that, with a reasonable amount of practice and trial-and-error, can ultimately be conquered.
I bring this up because Super Meat Boy thrived for a long time thanks to its 2D game design. Developers could dedicate all their efforts to ensuring the game maintained that Goldilocks approach, as they only had to worry about two dimensions. This is no longer the case. Super Meat Boy 3D has arrived, significantly altering the formula, but does this change benefit the series?
To answer that question, all I can say is I’m not entirely convinced, but I’ll elaborate on that in a moment. For now, let me highlight what Super Meat Boy 3D does well, as there’s quite a bit. It nails the overall vibe, the art direction, the brutal difficulty, the basic yet clear motivational storytelling, and the gameplay’s simplicity. This is Super Meat Boy through and through; you won’t doubt for a minute what game you’re playing with this new installment. There are still distinct worlds, a Dark World, extra characters to unlock if you’re brave enough to collect all the items, and a strong emphasis on speedrunning and completing each level as quickly and flawlessly as possible. The Super Meat Boy formula has been preserved and efficiently expanded upon, yet something still feels off when I play Super Meat Boy 3D…
The transition from 2D to 3D is a significant undertaking, requiring a complete design overhaul in a way that perhaps lacks a final degree of polish and precision here. Super Meat Boy’s formula is too fast and brutal for a player to be concerned with their character’s exact positioning. Yet, in this game, that’s precisely what occupies most of your thoughts. It might seem trivial, but instead of focusing on navigating past buzzsaws and meat grinders, you’ll find yourself concentrating solely on keeping Meat Boy on a ‘safe’ platform, because the movements are so swift and quick that it’s incredibly easy to make elementary movement errors.
Furthermore, the game’s 3D nature doesn’t feature an over-the-shoulder camera, meaning you’re not getting a Prince of Persia-style 3D platformer. Instead, the camera is largely fixed, following you through the level. This implies that the 3D aspect primarily revolves around Meat Boy having a few extra movement options when traversing a level—options you don’t really need.
Essentially, what I’m trying to convey is that the 3D element of Super Meat Boy 3D doesn’t feel like a gameplay evolution, but rather a design gimmick that doesn’t enhance the experience. While it’s certainly different, there haven’t been many Super Meat Boy games, so there isn’t necessarily a desperate need for revised options, especially if they don’t deliver an experience that feels like the series’ next big leap forward. This game isn’t that. It’s neither a detraction nor a step backward; it’s simply a sideways move that takes Super Meat Boy down a path it doesn’t need to traverse. It’s akin to Sonic the Hedgehog in 2D versus 3D. There’s a world where the character can exist in both dimensions, but it’s undeniable that the fluid, lightning-fast platforming gameplay works better in a 2D format. That’s precisely how Super Meat Boy 3D makes me feel about this franchise. It’s not a disaster, or even a poor incorporation, but I don’t feel the Meat Boy formula truly adapts to 3D in terms of gameplay.
Perhaps there’s a way to refine this new marriage of traditional gameplay and an extra dimension, whether by implementing a closer camera to better track the rather tiny protagonist, or even by slightly slowing things down to improve fluidity. Regardless, as it stands, I’m not entirely sold on Super Meat Boy 3D in its current form, as it simply feels too imprecise for a series known for such brutal difficulty.
In summary, Super Meat Boy 3D is a game that doesn’t evolve the series but rather steers it down a different path it doesn’t need to explore. The theme, tone, and style all remain authentically Super Meat Boy, but the gameplay carries a slightly uncomfortable edge where it just doesn’t feel quite right for one reason or another. Super Meat Boy might be back, but it’s not the character in peak form.