Meat Boy is a platform game that dares to ask the question "What if the main character from Knytt or N was made of bits of sticky, gooey raw meat?" And even though you never wanted to listen to the sound of meat slapping against solid blocks over and over again, when you're playing Meat Boy, you probably won't mind. As an added incentive (you know, in addition to ambulatory chunks of raw flesh), one of the game's creators, Edmund McMillen, is co-author of Aether, Gish, Triachnid and Coil.
Meat Boy is made out of meat. Meat Boy's love interest is made out of band-aids. One day a fetus in a jar wearing a suit and monocle kidnaps her and runs away. Thus the game begins. Use the [arrow] keys to move, [space] to jump, and press against walls and leap to perform a wall jump. You'll become quite familiar with how fast and far Meat Boy jumps, as the entire game is based around hairpin maneuvers and squeezing your tiny self between saw blades and other dangers.
The goal of each level is to make it to the Bandaid Girl in one piece. The game provides cheerful advice after each stage, such as "Don't die. Dying is bad." Levels are accessed from a simple menu screen, allowing you to skip rough spots and come back to them later when you're ready for more punishment. You only have to complete three out of five stages to unlock the next series of levels, so there's plenty of wiggle room when you're ready to pull out your hair. Also, try and grab floating band-aids you'll see from time to time, as they're the key to unlocking a few fun extras later in the game.
Analysis: Meat Boy is a tough game. Tough as in old-school tough, forcing you to play and re-play areas until you get things just right. Fortunately it's not entirely unforgiving, as the level select menu allows you to move to a different stage when the going gets too tough, which is a good compromise between raw difficulty and accessibility.
A great feature in Meat Boy is the easy-to-use custom level creator. Accessible from the main menu, simply click and craft your stage to be as devious as you please. You're given a custom level text code that you can copy and paste into e-mails (or comment forms here at JIG!) so friends can import the stages you create. The Meat Boy team will assemble a map pack next month containing around 50 user-created stages, so if you think your level is tops, send the code to souldescen{at}aol.com and hope for the best!
If you can stand staring at the juicy goo left by a ball of meat squishing across each level, Meat Boy serves as a nice diversion. It's a smart-looking game with loads of personality and just enough challenge to make you want more.
It's difficult to stop sliding sometimes, but I guess a slick piece of meat is supposed to act that way. This killed and saved me several times. It's a very fun game though, this meat is a tad suicidal, and the resulting splat as he gets chopped is far more satisfying than it should be.
Just one complaint here: If they would change either the color of the guy, or the color of the background so that I could actually see what I was doing instead of jumping around blindly, I guess the game would be a lot easier. It is not at all friendly for us red-green "color challenged" people!
I've been waiting for it to finish loading for the past 15 minutes, but all it does is keep flashing the "loading" and "click anywhere" button (assuming it is a button).
Since others have played it before, it must be a problem on my side. Any ideas how to get past it?
I'm having the same problem, electronicfly. I figured it had something to do with my adblock or NoScript on Firefox even though I thought I allowed everything on the page.
Same problem here: game does not work..
It was doing that for me, but then it finished loading. I think the loading screen is just messed up.
Reminds me a bit too much of Jumper for it to be a coincidence.
The controls are too sloppy for this type of game.
Yeap Tranchera, it's just the loading page.
Took a really long time to load though. :(
Super-fun, but so annoying that the music can't be turned off.
Brilliant game! One of the best reviewed here in quite a long time. Great gameplay, excellent soundtrack.
I wish walljumping wasn't so particular, but then again it's picky like that in every game I've ever played that used it.
For those stuck on the loading screen, after it starts "seizuring" the text on the bottom, try right clicking and pressing play.
Beat the game and most of the things (only didn't bother with 3 lvls and 4 bandaids). A few annoying quirks which the game has a cruel tendency to expose by delibrately putting them where they would kill you (ex: if you're next to a wall and press jump, you'll instead slide up it rather than jumping freely, and there's a place where if you do slide up the wall, it'll kill you before you stop sliding; the topmost square you can reach by jumping only touches a pixel or two of that square). And HATE the game's attempt at momentum... Also there are a few points where you basically have to mash the jump button. Challenging but good game otherwise.
Note: the "ending" gets a little crude but it should still be fairly "sfw".
Best. Ending. Ever.
(Dr. Fetus rocks!!)
It would be nice if there were an option to change the jump button to anything but the space bar.
I unlocked the first 2 secrets.
Any help on getting more bandages and a list of all secrets?
Shostie, I actually noticed you can use the "a" button to jump as well as the space button. Though there's never any mention of it in the instructions.
@ ganondorfchampion
I was able to get enough bandaids to unlock all but the last secret character just by keeping at it. I realized that in some cases, my first thought at a bandaid snagging solution was making it harder than it needed to be... trying to time an elevator lift just right instead of finding a spot to jump from, or trying to get a jump pixel-perfect instead of just running off an edge somewhere else.
As for the unlocks:
1) Bandaid Girl (beat the game)
2) Castle Crasher
3) Dr. Fetus
4) Gish
5) ???
Anyone actually manage to get every bandaid and unlock #5?
@NazZ
I finally got them all earlier. To get the last secret:
The final secret is a short clip called "Hot Coffee". It involves Meat Boy and Bandaid Girl and if anybody doesn't know why it would be called Hot Coffee then you probably don't want to watch it. (It's doesn't show anything though).
Let's just say this one caught me by surprise.
For people curious about secrets, here are some visual treats:
Here is a YouTube video demonstrating the alternative characters. The makers of that video censored the very last cheat, so I took the liberty of making an uncensored version of the Hot Coffee cheat.
Enjoy.
I must be too used to N-game, the controls on this are way too touchy, maybe it's because I'm tired, but it's really hard to control the guy, his horizontal movement is really spazzy
Oh dear, I see "like Knytt" and think oh yes, oh goody and rush into the game!
But other the main character being small this game is not anything like knytt, not even closely to the knytt atmosphere...
Oh yes "kipnapped the girl", i mean this is so an old tiring classic cliche already. Just saying Xandir P. Wifflebottom of Drawn together :-) ""never-ending quest to save his girlfriend""".
I am vegetarian btw. Yes it may be fun to depict meat that way, but I don't really get it what the game is about.
... It's meat. It's already dead. One would believe a handful of spikes wouldn't do anything to and from.
Yes, I am vegan.
Fun game, though, albeit slightly annoying.
Can some one list the bandaid levels. I have all but one bandaid and can't find it.
I have these so far.
Chapter 1 LVLs 3,5,7,9,12,14
Chapter 2 LVLs 3,4,6,9,11,14
Chapter 3 LVLs 1,2,7,9,12,15
Expert Chapter LVLs 1,4,5,7,10
You're missing the band aid on expert level 6.
Haha...Thanks
That was too easy, the only hard part was seeing it.
The Hot Coffee cut scene is worth getting the bandaids
Thanks again
how do u get the LAST bandaid without dying, the one on Sky Pup thanks
This game's ridiculous concept of momentum infuriates me.
Hulk smash Meat Boy.
kendall lucy, you missed the band-aid in expert level 6. iT'S right next to you when you start. And enjoy your coffee!
I still cannot get the bandaid on the last level, Sky Pup. What is the trick I'm not seeing?
To get the last bandaid, don't JUMP off of the elevator, just move over to the band aid.
kendall....
i saw u list
Chapter 1 LVLs 3,5,7,9,12,14
Chapter 2 LVLs 3,4,6,9,11,14
Chapter 3 LVLs 1,2,7,9,12,15
Expert Chapter LVLs 1,4,5,7,10
the last one is expert level chapter 6. :] its right next to you when u start at the left lol.
There's another one we're missing, kendall.
There are 25 total.
I have
Chapter 1 LVLs 3,5,7,9,12,14
Chapter 2 LVLs 3,4,6,9,11,14
Chapter 3 LVLs 1,2,7,9,12,15
Expert Chapter LVLs 1,4,5,6,7,10
Anyone know where the last one is? Help please.
Never mind.
Band-Aid Fetish.
Dude! You just completed the Band-Aid Fetish achievement in Meat Boy and won the Band-Aid Fetish badge and 60 points!
I just had to leave and come back for it to load. 24 bandaids is the end.
How do you get bandaid in level 15, chapter 3?
how do you get the bandaid on sky pup i can get it but i cant get back on the elevator/treadmill thing before going off the bottom of the screen
After an hour of frustration, I finally got that Sky Pup band aid. The method I used was:
press jump as soon as you land back on the elevator to stop your slide downwards
Sky pup....just takes perfect timing on the right arrow key...I hit right as I pass a small ledge that juts out off the treadmill, Then as you comeback to the treadmill after getting the bandaid, you hit the treadmill so low that you have to wall jump like crazy to keep from going below screen level...the power of the treadmill wont do it alone.
Enjoy....took maybe 20 attempts
How long does it take to load? It was loading forver for me.
It finished loading and there's no Play button.
It finished loading and there's no Play button.
Wait, that's not right, I meant to say that it never finished loading at all and it just stays on the loading screen with nothing at all for a long time. Where's the Edit button when you need it?
Does anyone know how to get the bandaid on Chapter 1 lvl 7?
Update