When a 2D platformer leaps to 3D, the results can vary wildly. Mario stands as the poster boy for what the most successful 2D-to-3D transition looks like, as the plumber flourished in the third dimension. Conversely, Sonic the Hedgehog has often stumbled since making the same jump, and, in my opinion, never truly found his footing. Team Meat admirably tries its hand at reinventing Super Meat Boy in the same way, and the result hovers somewhere between the highs of Mario and the lows of Sonic. Super Meat Boy 3D is a respectable and often fun translation of the series’ tight platforming, but its style of play sometimes clashes with the demands of a 3D world to frustrating degrees.
Super Meat Boy 3D’s dozens of levels have a linear 2D framework, but with depth that lets you move towards and away from the screen. Some levels put the camera above Meat Boy in an isometric view, behind him as you explore straight ahead, or take a traditional sidescrolling perspective. I fell in love with the original Super Meat Boy when it launched in 2010, thanks to its skin-tight controls, expertly tuned yet demanding platforming, and forgiving respawn system that eases the sting of failure. I’m impressed with how well 3D adventure retains most of these traits – sprinting to hit long jumps to bounce off of walls, sliding down surfaces, all while navigating deviously placed hazards that require split-second reactions to avoid can be a blast.
Meat Boy largely controls well, and when a stage clicks, I feel confident in my ability to deftly leap over spinning buzzsaws, adjust in mid-air to avoid landing on a spiked floor, then quickly wall-run to cross a pitfall. The brief but impressively varied stages can be completed in seconds with the right mix of skill, timing, dexterity, and a pinch of luck; reaching the captive Bandage Girl at the end (only for her to be routinely re-abducted by the evil Dr. Fetus) creates an emotional high, accompanied by a sigh of relief, that few platformers provide.
Super Meat Boy’s signature instant respawns make it easy to try again (and again), and watching the post-level replay of Meat Boy clones, which represent failed runs, barreling through a level looks even cooler in a 3D game. Completing stages fast enough to earn an A+ rank unlocks a Dark World variant of the level, which basically means an even tougher but wholly different take on the stage. Some may say that acing a tough stage only to be rewarded with an even harder version of it is nigh masochistic, but that’s part of Meat Boy’s appeal and a bonus treat for invested players.
Decently entertaining boss battles are similarly succinct, varied, and challenging. I like dodging the homing missiles of a robot in a sidescrolling stage or hopping between a circular array of platforms to avoid the tentacles of a slime-like beast in the center. One boss, a rat that chases Meat Boy while launching attacks you must evade while running, drives me nuts due to how tricky it is to perceive your positioning in the world due to the perspective. This foe represents my biggest recurring problem with Super Meat Boy 3D: knowing where you’re jumping can sometimes be tricky as hell.
I can’t remember the last platformer I played where positioning and depth perception became such a recurring headache. Certain camera and platform angles, combined with the zoomed-out view, can sometimes make Meat Boy tough to read and leads to frustrating misses you don’t realize are such until it’s too late. I routinely asked myself, “Am I actually facing this correctly?” when taking certain jumps because I thought I kept thinking I was good… until I wasn’t.
A red ring below Meat Boy helps in determining his landings, but it does nothing to telegraph forward horizontal movement. Free camera control would mitigate these problems, but with a fixed camera, you must suddenly adjust to odd and hard-to-read angles in microseconds due to the breakneck and unforgiving pacing. In many 3D platformers, you have time, if only a few seconds, to adjust and line yourself up before jumping. Not in Super Meat Boy 3D. Sitting still for even a second often means death, and while that worked in a 2D template, it routinely clashed with the positioning variables introduced by 3D. I also wish the soundtrack were better. The playlist of bland, mute-worthy metal tracks does no justice to the zany world Meat Boy routinely showers in his blood.
Despite these hardships, both intentional and otherwise, I eagerly fired up the next stage, excited to test my skills and get angry all over again. When stages click, it’s a deliciously fun challenge. When the perspective makes it tough to even tell how to proceed, it can be frustrating. Still, Super Meat Boy 3D makes a strong argument that Team Meat’s formula can work in three dimensions, but it needs to iron out some kinks before it reaches the same heights as its 2010 classic.
