By Alec Meer on May 19th, 2010 at 1:07 am.
The below three minutes of mingled in-game action, animation and blippy-bloppy music show off Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes’ upcoming Super Meat Boy perfectly. It looks clever, funny, twisted and packed with juicy giblets of visual invention. It also looks like I’ll almost certainly be unable to play it past the first few levels.
This is because I am weak and demand instant gratification. Super Meat Boy, on the other hand, looks to be brutal and exacting. In a way that an awful lot of other people will thrill to, I don’t doubt. I hope I’ll find a way into it nonetheless though, as the visual tomfoolery of it is incredibly appealing- the silhouetted level, the sepia level, the BBC Micro level, the fountains of multiple Meat Boys… Definitely an air of World of Goo there, in a thoroughly charming way.
Those saw blades are going to do for me, I swear.
Edit – as Dominic White helpfully points out below, McMillen has been pondering the nature of and the necessity for SMB’s difficulty since the game’s initial I’m-proper-hardcore-me announcement. In that charmingly-illustrated design document, he offers why he thinks the game will work for both a hardcore and a more everyday platforming audience. Reassuring and interesting stuff. “Conclusion: don’t beat your children.” Maybe I will be able to play Super Meat Boy after all.
19/05/2010 at 01:22 Thants says:
Hey, a Mac version too. Good stuff.
19/05/2010 at 01:24 PleasingFungus says:
That music is quite something.
20/05/2010 at 20:48 elmuerte says:
Danny Baranowsky is awesome, check out his other stuff: http://dbsoundworks.com/
19/05/2010 at 01:27 Dominic White says:
Saw this ages back. Looks great, and the music sounds like Machinae Supremacy, only with the slider moved a little further towards the ‘Chiptune’ side of things, and a little further away from ‘Metal’.
This is no bad thing in the slightest.
As for the game looking too hard, Edmund McMillen has been giving it a lot of thought, difficulty-wise, and is trying to make the first playthrough as smooth as possible. Nice article here:
http://supermeatboy.com/13/Why_am_i_so____hard_/#b
In short, low-frustration, quick restarts, regular checkpoints. Not too nasty until you unlock the Dark World, which is a whole second version of the game with ultra-bastardly level design.
19/05/2010 at 10:52 Bhazor says:
Kind of disappointed that the multi meat boy sections are just fancy replays. “The player should always feel good about completing something hard, so what better a reward then a reminder of just how hard that level was? Early in development Tommy implemented the replay system, a replay mode that would start when a level was completed showing the player’s past 40+ attempts all playing at once”. I was hoping for some Loco Roco style shenanigans.
19/05/2010 at 01:27 Stromko says:
My mouth was agape at the first minute mark. What a lovely video.
I wonder if commentators will give this one a break about being ‘a hasty PC port of some console game’ just because it’s from a known indie developer and we’ve already played / enjoyed Meat Boy on PC.
19/05/2010 at 01:28 Peter Radiator Full Pig says:
Wow, that looks incredible. Both game play and graphics, and im not usually one to go for graphics.
Also, love those sort of replays with every life you had broadcast at the same time.
19/05/2010 at 01:41 Edmund says:
Thanks for the love guys :) FYI though that video was made to show some of the dark world levels from the 1st 3 chapters, they are very hard.
the main games levels ramp up slowly so you learn the ropes as you go, but as mentioned above the game has a parallel dark world you unlock as you go so the real masochists can have a field day with those.
-Edmund
19/05/2010 at 01:42 Urre says:
Haha, Lolo tribute :)
19/05/2010 at 01:44 Saul says:
@Alec: Agreed– it looks bloody impossible! But I will still try, because it looks great, as well.
19/05/2010 at 02:12 airtekh says:
Gameplay reminds me of ‘N’ – what with the wall-jumping and homing missles and such. Looks nice though.
19/05/2010 at 07:50 JB says:
@airtekh – Yeah, it immediately reminded me of N too. With a dash of VVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV(Stop me when I get to the right number of “V”s)VVVVVVVVVVV thrown in.
Looks great, I’d love to give it a try! Good work Edmund & Tommy.
19/05/2010 at 08:20 MD says:
There are only 6 ‘V’s! AaaaAaa(etc.) is the one that goes on and on.
19/05/2010 at 08:35 RagingLion says:
That’s what I was thinking as well.
19/05/2010 at 09:26 jeremypeel says:
Aye! I was going to suggest it looks like what I’d imagine a campaign version of N to be, so I’ll chime in with these good fellows here who think as I do.
And yes, the notes on the game’s difficulty are reassuring, but the trailer does suggest that it’s the Megamen’s market they’re aiming for and not folks like me who’d prefer life to be turn-based.
19/05/2010 at 02:37 K.Boogle says:
Looks amazing. The pace of the game will be very interesting to try. Nothing quite like that in platformers such as this.
19/05/2010 at 02:43 Antialias says:
Mario with a twist!
19/05/2010 at 04:16 Jugglenaut says:
I can’t wait for this.
19/05/2010 at 04:58 Antithesis says:
Did I see Canabalt-esque graphics around 1:50 there?
19/05/2010 at 15:54 sbs says:
i thought so too.
19/05/2010 at 05:49 TheSombreroKid says:
i’ve just been playing rocket knight and it’s brilliant, if it’s like rocket knight (which i doubt based on what i’ve seen) it’ll be briliant if it’s like v6x then it will be immensly aweful game design disguised as difficulty and championed by people who wasted there time on it and so feel the need to vehmently defend it.
19/05/2010 at 07:25 DJ Phantoon says:
Meatboy original flavor was fun. You should give it a go. I doubt the experience of the first or Spewer after it has made him a worse games designer.
That Edmund character, anywho.
19/05/2010 at 07:32 TCM says:
Looks deliciously insane, deliciously absurd, deliciously deviant, and deliciously difficult.
Delicious.
19/05/2010 at 08:58 OldRat says:
Heh, the old-like, demake-ish levels look really amusing. As does the whole game really. I’ll be getting this quite certainly.
19/05/2010 at 10:01 Chaz says:
Why is it that these box like cartoon characters seem to have exploded in popularity over the past year or so in indie games, is it because they’re easier to draw?
19/05/2010 at 10:07 pimorte says:
I guess I can assume the new sex scene isn’t on the Wii version?
19/05/2010 at 10:09 pkt-zer0 says:
I’m glad this game hasn’t gone console-exclusive, like some other PC-indies-turned-commercial.
19/05/2010 at 10:46 Bonkyubon says:
Looks a lot like N, in a way. N’s movement is great, this could be fun with interesting enough levels
19/05/2010 at 11:47 CLD says:
Does it have a release date ?
19/05/2010 at 12:00 mrrobsa says:
Tricky jumping puzzles ain’t my bag, but if Edmund says these clips are from the ‘hardcore’ levels then I’ll await opinions on the proper game’s difficulty before judging.
Loving the various art syles and that music is kick ass too!
19/05/2010 at 12:02 Dominic White says:
When did people start using the term ‘jumping puzzle’ anyway? When did jumping from point A to point B become puzzling? It’s usually even simpler than clicking on someone to make them be full of bullets and dead, and we don’t call those shooting puzzles.
19/05/2010 at 13:02 Patrick says:
Well, that raised my blood pressure. And the music is boss.
19/05/2010 at 13:15 Apricot says:
Will that music be in the game? If so I shall be purchasing, it makes it seem so awesomely frantic. Also I love how smooth the gameplay looks although I doubt it shall look anywhere as smooth or classy when I’m playing it.
Also can I get that music anywhere, what is it?
19/05/2010 at 14:27 Jonathon says:
Glad someone else caught that. Love it. Extremely well done montage.
19/05/2010 at 14:41 Jonathon says:
Errr, that was meant to be a reply to the Lolo comment.
19/05/2010 at 16:50 Toastmonster says:
Reminds me of Runman:Race Around The World.
19/05/2010 at 18:42 The Pink Ninja says:
How can any human control that?
19/05/2010 at 19:00 Kevbo says:
Haven’t been following this game but that video just sold me on it :)
19/05/2010 at 19:17 Quasar says:
I LOVED the original game, even though I got nowhere near finishing it.
I thought it was hard, but then the Salt Factory came along… Edmund, you are an EVIL bastard.
But an evil bastard I am going to give some money to, as soon as this thing is released. Your brand of torture is addictive, sir.
20/05/2010 at 17:11 Geoff says:
What a beautiful trailer! I could watch a full length movie of this, would be much more fun than the waste of time that was Robin Hood i paid to see. I like watching skilled players more than playing when they are as hard as this generally. Good music, pleasant viewing.
Loved the slo mo face biff at the start too.
22/05/2010 at 13:07 klimtkiller says:
this looks the best!
22/05/2010 at 13:10 klimtkiller says:
a couple of the levels are almost as hard as the expert levels in meat boy (map pack)
23/05/2010 at 17:28 Devenger says:
Heh, okay. I’m usually very skeptical of all these indie platformers, but the sense of fluid motion that the graphics suggest, the potential for a good music score, and a whole variety of levels… yep, looks tempting.
And, not enough games have lots of silly chain walljump sections. I want to go and play N again now.