Simply put, the best true platforming game to come out in YEARS. As you can immediately notice, the user scores are quite polarized, and I believe this is true to the nature of the game. If you find joy in surmounting difficult (But FAIR) platforming challenges, this game is the PERFECT game for you. Let me also state that the 10 I assigned this game was not some knee-jerk reaction to a merely clever indie game. This game is fantastic by ANY standard, it is perfectly executed. There is nothing in the game where I have ever said, man, I wish X existed. In a time where games like Fallout New Vegas and Civ 5 release with the swath of glitches and bugs in the game, it is refreshing to have a game ship out that is immensely bug free, it is absolutely precise. You may even grow to treat this precision as a foe, as there is a razor thin edge between success and death in each level, there is no "give", if you touch a deadly obstacle with any part of your hit-box, you can count on dying. However, this consistency gives rise to the games greatest achievement, the overall fairness of the game. I am astounded that I read other user reviews that actually complained about the controls, they are absolutely astounding. To be fair, I do use a Xbox360 controller, I could see that without one it may take longer to "pick up" but the controls are nevertheless, precise. The character becomes an extension of your will, you'll find sometimes that when an unexpected hazard appears, you react quickly and ably within fractions of a second, as if you were acting out of instinct. I am also disturbed to read some people claiming that this game's difficulty is just a mechanism to lengthen the game. I find it hard to believe we even played the same game. The levels are difficult to be sure, but they are absolutely fair, if you die, it is your fault, there are no invisible traps, your character will not move if you don't tell him to. And even if you die, the levels each can be completed in under a minute, so if you do die (and you will die, often) almost no progress is lost. You will not be spending 5 minutes just to get a chance to practice the spot you died at last time. The other reason I find this explanation difficult to believe is that there are over 300 levels. The game is already massive, it wouldn't need to be lengthened by unnecessary difficulty.

In short: A difficult platformer, but an absolute masterpiece if you are willing to take up the challenge.… Expand

This game is perfect. First of all, this is as much content as I've EVER seen in a game this price (free roguelikes aside as that would be completely unfair :D). HUNDREDS of stages, challenges, and unlockable goodies. Also, this game is hardcore. This is a real treat when the general game holds your hand with garbage like a quest compass and regenerating HP... in Super Meat Boy, if you screw up, you die. Usually instantly. And it only gets harder. The learning curve is also fantastically satisfying. You will consistently get better from play. When you are playing the first boss it WILL seem difficult. After playing the next few levels if you go back you'll wonder what was so hard. You will stand back and say, "oh my god, I'm DOING this." The mechanics are very smooth, jumping, wall jumping, dashing, these are fun and for the most part the game seems very fair. When you die you'll know YOU messed up and it wasn't just something stupid due to chance. Point being, if you like video games, get this game. Also, use a controller. This game is a seven with a keyboard, a ten with a controller. Do it.… Expand

Whoever said this game is fun is a masochist. It's fun if you like replaying the same bloody level 40 times because there's no way to beat it aside from trial and error and mind-numbing memorization of button sequences until you could play the level blind-folded. Oldschool my @$$. What is up with people's obsession with "oldschool" anyway? Oldschool sucked. Mario sucked ... sure, it was great at the time, because *there was nothing else.* While I'm at it, guess what else? Goldeneye sucks too. It's not "the greatest FPS of all time." Try playing it on an HDTV? It looks like garbage and it controls even worse. It was just the best of what was available. People's over-bloated infatuation with nostalgia is beyond puzzling. People always want to think "the good old days" were better. Really? In the "good old days" people used to die from diarrhea. The "good old days" blew. This blows. Stop pretending it's awesome just because it references gaming in the 80s...… Expand

Its everything the 360 version is and more. you can really tell that team meat was looking forward to bringing this to pc and steam. theres the extra characters and theres also a level editor to look forward to. seriously i cant recommend this enough to pc gamers. amazing old school gameplay (aka hardcore platformer). 300 levels , challenging game play , almost 20 characters to use at any time , awesome boss fights , and cutscenes. 10$ for the prepurchase was more then worth it and the 15$ for regular price is still worth your money… Expand

Unbelievable........SMB is one of the biggest surprises I've had in gaming...period. I bought it for $3.75 on the Steam sale (what the hell right?) and have had so much fun with this game. There are a few very unique innovations that make this game stick out. First, the difficulty is there, it takes time to figure out some levels, and when you do, there's a sense of adrenaline and excitement...like, "oh no, I'm almost to the end of the level (AMAZINGLY!). Once completed, the replay is spectacular, showing all the iterations of your attempts simultaneously. The SFX and Music put many blockbuster games to shame. I'd buy the sound track if I could...and all the little meat splotch sounds are just hilariously satisfying. I'[d recommended this game to anyone. For it's type of game (Indie, platform-spam-death thing) it deserves the highest marks.… Expand

There is an easy mistake to make when making a game to be 'challenging' unfortunatly team meat made this mistake. The games difficulty is definitly for the masochists, which is a good thing, because i love platformers, and im something of a masochist myself. however i know that this game will not appeal to the masses. However even i cant take the pain of laggy controls, jumpy graphics, and all together glitchyness.
To this day this problem occurs! its been a while since the game was released, so why am i still having these problems?

I know not everyone is having the problems im having, but the game should run perfectly on ALL hardware out thereat this stage, its nothing short of a flash game really...

the proof: cheap laptop with intel graphics accelerator on-board, celeron processor and 1GB ram runs perfectly...

laptop with ati radeon 3200 graphics, amd athlon x2 processor and 3gb ram, buggy as hell, and completely unplayable!..

my gaming rig with ati radeon HD 5770, amd athlon II x4 and 4gb ram, laggy and buggy, pretty much unplayable!

why is it that on a rig where i can play crysis on high settings with 40-60fps, i cant get 15fps on a 2d retro-esque game?

the answer: bad QM and lazy devs

there have been numerous updates to the game and still no fix for me!

On top of all that this game is nothing like the classics that we grew up with, anyone who says it is obviously didnt grow up with the classics, you see on the NES the controls responded when you input something with less than a 1 second delay… Expand

AMAZING Game. Do not miss this from your collection on PC. Have played through to the end of world 3 and tried a few of the warp zones and dark levels already. Hands down this is my GOTY for 2010. Yes that's right it beats Mass Effect 2, Fallout New Vegas, Alan Wake and even Amnesia the Dark Descent. Addictive, highly replayable, fun to play by yourself or with friends. The replay of all your tries when you finish a level is pure GOLD. Unlocking new characters is also really interesting and adds even more replayability to the game. Whoever designed this game are officially legends.… Expand

I was very kindly gifted SMB on Steam by a friend so I had no reason not to like this game, I paid nothing for it and I'm a big fan of platformers dating back to the original two Oddworld titles.

My first problems arose with the game when it very rudely tells you to use a gamepad rather than a keyboard. PC games are designed for PC and therefore should always play better with a keyboard+mouse with a gamepad being a player preference on some titles.
The game is literally IMPOSSIBLE with a keyboard so it loses points for forcing you to own a gamepad and even then it didn't recognise my PS3 controller and struggled to register my 360 controller.

The game takes place in several stages such as a Forest and a Hospital. Sadly you see little of these good tilesets as most of the game takes place in subterranean passageways.

However now we come to the games big problem, the difficulty. This is a game that tries to hard to be hard. The game certainly is not hard but merely frustrating. You shouldn't have to repeat a stage over and over to complete it using trial and error rather than observation and technique. A good platformer is hard due to it being complex and clever, SMB is hard due to frustrating controls and enemy placements.

I liked the soundtrack but sadly it does little to save the game, I really wanted to like SMB but due to the controls and the frustrating nature of the game it comes off as a rather bland and outdated platformer.

If a Platformer fan is considering getting SMB I would recommend instead the free N-Game or the two excellent Oddworld platformers which are available through Steam.… Expand

This game was fun at the beginning. As it gradually became more difficult, I challenged myself to do the best I could to become a platforming master. I loved the idea of being able to jump at precisely the right times and do godly runs through courses filled with obstacles waiting to splatter poor meat boy. But as the time I spent on the game increased, and my frustration mounted, I started to wonder whether it was worth it. Am I really enjoying myself by trying to create the perfect muscle memory to make it through a stage, only to be challenged by a more difficult stage that will require hundreds of deaths to pass through?

It might have to do with the type of controller. I use a keyboard, and the game does tell you in the introduction screen that you should switch to using a gamepad as it is much easier and was designed for the game.

But even if I did go out of my way to buy a gamepad specifically for this game (which should only detract from the score), I suspect that it wouldn't really quell my concerns in general. Platformers can be fun. But this platformer, as someone else put it, is for masochistic personalities.

There are some courses where you literally require pixel perfect jumps, and with the inability to save during each course, that means you have to keep up that level of perfection throughout the course in several areas, making things tremendously difficult. Why subject myself to this? Is it really worth the hours, days of stress accumulated in trying to play like a computer? It depends on the player. If you're good at these sorts of games, perhaps you'll relish the challenge. For the vast majority of us, I suspect the answer is no.

The story is fairly simple; while it will keep you interested just to see whether you can save your fair maiden, the sheer difficulty of the game will likely prevent one from every reaching the end, let alone the completion of the bonus levels.

In the end I awarded this game a 6 just because it does provide some short-term entertainment for a few "worlds" (series of courses with themes). But in retrospect, I don't think its all that worth it unless you're really good at these sorts of games. Because most people will just end up being discouraged and stressed out, and I'm pretty sure games were designed to be enjoyable.

Also I bought this during a special sale on steam, when it was available for 2 dollars. So I may be biased in giving this game a higher score than it deserves, but all in all I think 6 is a decent score for this title.… Expand

Team Meat has gone out of their way to make Super Meat Boy polished and amazing. Reliving the best parts of older platformer games, and utilizing 2D graphics in ways I didn't even think of, they were able to take a totally ridiculous idea and turn it into gold. Endless replayability, a various many challenging levels and boss fights, old retro throw backs, and more special characters that you can count on one hand, Super Meat Boy will have you coming back again and again.… Expand

The charm of this game is unreal. There is something endlessly entertaining about seeing an anthropomorphic slab of meat struggle through brutal and brilliantly designed levels. The only people I believe who will not find enjoyment in this game are those who cannot commit themselves to a challenge or just have poor jumping judgement. The gaming world has been in desperate need of a good hardcore platformer for quite a while. Thank you Team Meat for sorting that out.… Expand

This game is good. i read reviews before i bought it so i would know what to expect, and it delivered. very precise controls, and good level design. while the early levels are pretty easy, the game gets hard, and i mean HARD. But surprisingly not frustrating and hard. It seems like more of a challenge than it feels cheap, because level design is so good. Good game to play for minutes or hours at a time.… Expand

Yes, that's a true, honest platformer game, but come on... "game of the year", "biggest surprise", "awesomeness" and "charm", "a story so moving", "epic boss fights"??? Perhaps I've bought another Meat Boy, the one with a tasteless story and nothing-special-gameplay. As for the "tough as nails platformer difficulty" idea itself - didn't we have IWBTG since 2007 or something like that? I definitely don't understand what all the hype about Meat Boy game is about.… Expand

YES YES YES YES YES!

I bought this game for my friend and he hasn't been off it since, this is one of my favourite platformers ever. Even though it says you need an Xbox controller, you don't it is perfectly playable with the keyboard. The port is fantastic, gameplay is amazing and the villain.. Oh my, is one of my favourite ever. The extra retro levels are awesome aswell. If you have time pickup the level creator from steam tools and make some levels!… Expand

Difficult without being frustrating, pinpoint-accurate controls and all-round retro platforming awesomeness. Don't stress over it, just give it a chance and you'll be engrossed!

The game-play in Super Meat Boy deserves a solid 8. But I'm going to give it a 4 anyway. Why? Because the PC port feels horribly unpolished.

An XBox 360 controller is (understandably) the recommended method of controlling Meat Buy. But does a it work out the box? No. The buttons mapping is completely mangled with no way of reconfiguring in-game. So fixing up the input config file I eventually got the stage controls to work but the menus are still buggered.

Whatever, I can deal with that; except that there are parts of the menu that are unreachable with a mangle button setup. Oops. Fortunately having done a bit of game-dev specifically controller input I got the feeling that it was a Human Interface Device gone wrong. Fine, found it and removed it from the Device manager and everything worked.

I should be happy. No, I've spent my time fixing issues the developers should have dealt with. Added to the controller woes: SMB does not start on some machines (screen remains black) and the graphics are messed up on others (mostly black textures) making it unplayable.

A good concept? Yes. A good implementation? No.… Expand

This game pretty much epitomizes everything that is wrong with video game development today. There is only frustration to be found here. When people talk about video games making kids dumber they are talking about games like this.

I tried, but I couldn't get into SMB. I want exploration in a platformer, not a series of tiny, sadistic obstacle courses. Don't be fooled - SMB is nothing like Metroid or Super Mario. It's more like brutally difficult arcade game, with "levels" that are one-screen in size. I mean, it's charming and I can see why other people like it. But it really wasn't my thing, and I'm usually all about 2D platforming action. It just isn't fun dying 150 times trying to get past the same boring little level.… Expand

Pretty fun game, lots of levels, flawless controls, catchy music :p but i would only recommend this game for PC if you own a gamepad/xbox360/ps3 wired controller, i dont know if its just me, but the keyboard controls just sucked so i had to use my PS3 controller, which worked out great, i didnt even have to configure the controller it just did it automatically

Super Meat Boy is definitely not a game for hardcore FPS players. It is purely made for players who want to relive "the good old days" or for those who never truly lived them. The game goes extremely masochistic after few levels and at times I felt I was going to lose my mind just when I saw the next level. In a good way though. The music is very catching when you're escaping a boss from almost certain death. And those battles are probably the highlight of the game. The controls are great with both keyboard and Xbox 360 controller so you can easily swap between controller and keyboard. There are so few buttons to use so it stay simple. The story isn't complex either and the game don't need it. Meat Boy is lovable character and will be remembered in the future. The simplicity of the game is its key to success. This game is just classic.… Expand

As my friends and I agree on: "Super Meat Boy feels like a giant Tribute to everything awesome."
This is not just random praise. It is based on quite a few facts: + The game is overall FUN to play; not feeling like grinding in WoW or over exaggerated Action in CoD. + Although the difficulty gets insanely high, these are the things that make it fun to play: * The controls are absolutely tight, meaning the levels don't feel like a stab in the dark or brute-forcing as the player is absolutely in control instead of autoaim or wonky motion controls or quick-time-events. * The learning curve is very well done, constantly making 1 level harder than the previous. * The challenges are widely varied, there is none of the typical "spawning twice as much enemies in the room" * The extreme difficulty does not feel like a punishment, more constant test of skill and in every normal level there is a infinite instant respawn anyway. * To get to the end it is not neccesary to compete every level consecutively, and 3/20 levels do not have to be completed in order to challange each chapter boss. * The extra characters bring a freshness and can potentially help you on the level you are stuck on. + It is multiplatform, available on every current platform except PS3 and mac at the time of writing. + It brings new elements to the "old-fashioned" platforming genre. + The art style design and setting/story is very innovative and often sarcastically hilarious. + The music is very fitting and well made. + It has HEAPS of different levels and with 30+ hours of game time i have yet to beat them all. + The price is at $15 US very very good, and it was $3.75 US when i bought it. + If you buy it you are supporting the indie game market which is a very good thing in my opinion.

To conclude: It is a must-buy for anyone who can handle a fresh, challenging game.

Note: I'm basing my review on the PC version of Super Meat Boy. I have played mostly PC/PS3 games from varied genres.… Expand

WeLLLLL!!! To start off, no me gutsa! i like meat but this cind? no way? yes way, very meaty...tastes like eggs...ANYWHOoOoOo i didnt like it cause of the amazing cinimetogyhpy and the other 2010 360s a more favourible kids. to rap this juggular vein up lets say its a "deltoid" of a time and that you should not buy the game

So the game is enjoyable... however... It is not really designed for the PC. I found the controls hard to get used to. I have some old USB controller laying around and I might give that a try. Really this is the only thing I found that was holding the game back from it becoming one of my top time wasters.

This game is pure AWESOMENESS!!!! There is no other way to describe it! At first glace I was not sure what to expect, but since its a cheap Indie game I gave it a shot. I was thoroughly impressed, the controls are so smooth, the music is great, the retro arcade aspects to top it all off.

I've played platform games 'back in the day'... I thought I'd buy this for the hell of it because it was supposed to be hard. Within the 1st 30-40 minutes, beat 2 'worlds'. Which is, I don't know, I've seen people struggle on just 1 world stage for 40 minutes. I don't know, I don't find it that difficult as it is annoying. This is on the PC mind you. People say the control on PC is bad, I can't say much about it. Some parts of it are just incredibly annoying, mainly cause the controls are glitched up sometimes. Do you wish to jump off this wall? No you don't! So I slide off and die. This isn't just a once a life time occurrence, it happens quite often. I've jumped off that wall a lot of times, and sometimes it won't let you, sometimes it will, not sure why, but it is really annoying, and it has nothing to do with 'precise' control, its just annoying.

The controls, it won't let you change the controls, so you're stuck with space and shift, which are quite awkward for some reason. Well, I have a habit of playing with the buttons 'Shift' 'Z' 'X' and 'C'.

Graphics... well, they're retarded, but its an indie game and it fits the goal of the game so its fine.
Sound, I personally don't like computer generated sounds, and there are quite a bit of em, but some of them aren't, but it fits the general bill of what the game is.
Overall I just find the game decent, albeit annoying because of the random 'I won't listen to the player' moments. Difficulty, its supposed to get harder, but I don't see it getting harder as it is just make platforms smaller and more obstacles. It does get to become more of the same.… Expand

This game will kick your ass repeatedly and you'll probably die a few thousand times before completing the game, but for some reason no matter how much you die, you keep coming back for more punishment. I haven't played such a thrilling and satisfying platformer since Super Mario Bros. 3, and I'm beginning to think it may be my new all-time favorite game in the genre. Just be warned that this game is VERY difficult amongst platformers and it can be frustrating to people who are bad at video games. 90% of the negative reviews are "this game is too hard it kicked my ass."

The controls are perfect; to put it simply: they put you exactly where you want to be. I went back to Super Mario and for the first time in my life I have to say the controls feel dated by comparison -- and I'm a huge fan of classic Mario platformers. To add to the fantastic gameplay is the outstanding music, beautifully gritty environments, and a really solid "arcade feel" to the theme.

The only real downside to this game lies within it's virtually non-existent story, but then again if you're playing a platformer for the story, you're doing it wrong.… Collapse

Should you buy this game? Yes. Despite the classic, old-school look of the game, it's still very engaging and definitely an encore of videogaming's previous retro years. Yes, it's side-scroll, but don't think it's another Metal Slug or Sonic. It's tough. You'll be navigating you small meaty hero through complicated mazes, avoiding needles, buzz saws, flowing lava and even salt. But don't worry, the game has a smooth learning curve. Starting from the easiest to the most brain-heating levels, you'll find that the difficulty curve will increase gradually as you'll learn to time you jump or when to sprint. And if you think meat boy can never get through a particular maze, don't worry as there are other characters with special abilities to avoid traps (though it will be less challenging and hence, less satisfying). Still, if you find yourself deeply annoyed and frustrated by the hardness of the mazes, even after repeating the whole level for a hundred times, just stop playing and resume a few hours later, after you cool down. That way you can always figure out how to get through the puzzle. Having played in the PC, i see no trouble playing this. Just the basic arrow keys for movement, space for jump and shift for sprint. It's that simple! Though the downside of the game is when you want to reach the collectables: bandages. That's when your real platformer skills will be put to the test. Overall, a must have game for all casual gamer.… Expand

I didn't see anything good in this game. Is very difficult and you must have much patient to keep playing this old school arcade game. I prefer something more fresh from an indie game