Video Games Review: Super Meat Boy Forever

Super Meat Boy Forever

Team Meat

Genre: Platformer

Nintendo Switch

Super Meat Boy is one of the most beloved platformers of all time. Its brutal difficulty combined with fluid movement makes it a trying yet rewarding experience. With how successful the original game was, its sequel had nearly impossible expectations to meet. While Super Meat Boy Forever is a fun platformer, it’s not nearly as memorable as its predecessor.

The first thing that everyone that has played the original game will notice is the massive change in movement. Players are no longer able to move Meat Boy around the stage freely anymore. Instead, Super Meat Boy Forever is an auto-runner. While some players will surely have an issue with the auto-running, this is still an entertaining game. The auto-running is clean and even if players don’t have full control over Meat Boy’s movement, this is still a challenging game. Levels are now approached differently. Each obstacle is less of a puzzle now and more of a challenge of precision.

The end result is a tough-as-nails platformer that manages to be more accessible. The way that each stage needs to be approached is almost always obvious to the player. Everything comes down to the player’s skill. There is little room for error and there is still the same amount of satisfaction for completing stages throughout Super Meat Boy Forever‘s six-hour campaign.

Like in the original, the controls of Super Meat Boy Forever feel great. A player will never die in an unfair manner. Every button press is instantly responsive, making the game a blast to play. Despite not being able to run, Super Meat Boy Forever never feels dull. The two buttons that the game uses work, and make the game easy to understand, even if it’s difficult to master.

Super Meat Boy Forever has a similar story to the original, involving Dr. Fetus and a kidnapping. While the original game had a dark and bloody story, Super Meat Boy Forever is full of bright and colorful locations for players to jump around in. These colorful locations look fantastic. Super Meat Boy Forever is a beautiful platformer, with clean character models and stages that add tons of life to the franchise. It’s a game that is fun to play and looks great while doing it.

While Super Meat Boy Forever is a fun ride, it does fall short in a few areas. As mentioned before, the loss of movement removes some of the puzzle-solving that the original has. There aren’t really any creative ways to approach levels, and some players will miss that. The level designs also just aren’t as memorable as they are in the original game. The game looks better, but it doesn’t have the same touch as the first entry.

Super Meat Boy Forever certainly isn’t a bad game. In fact, it’s a whole lot of fun. It just struggles to live up to the expectations that the first game created. If players are able to get past that, they will find another delightful platformer here.