Super Meat Boy 3D

Super Meat Boy 3D successfully translates the series’ signature precision platforming into a new dimension, delivering slick controls, inventive level design, and strong replay value through its Light and Dark World structure. While it does not quite reach the brutal highs of the original, its accessible difficulty curve and satisfying movement make it an engaging evolution that still captures the core spirit of the franchise.

Super Meat Boy 3D is an excellent game - it does a lot of things right when it comes to its platforming experience, and while there are times when it can feel stifled and a little less comfortable due to the transition to 3D, the vast majority of the time we have a quality platformer here.

Super Meat Boy 3D is a near-perfect 3D adaptation of the original, making it a great platformer for anyone looking for a brutally difficult yet always fair and motivating challenge.

Super Meat Boy 3D is a fairly careful reimagining of a hardcore classic. The concept survived the transition to 3D reasonably well, retaining its punishing difficulty and diverse mechanics.

A hardcore 3D platformer where countless deaths and failures serve as the foundation for a single, perfect run. The transition to a 3D environment brings Z-axis depth and camera issues that occasionally cause unfair falls, leaving some room for improvement. However, the series' signature ultra-responsive controls and exquisite level design miraculously turn the pain of failure into a clear sense of accomplishment, delivering a brilliantly punishing challenge.

Super Meat Boy 3D nails the spirit and soul of the 2010 indie darling, with an identical structure and controls that do a good job of replicating the unique speed and mobility of Meat Boy and his friends in 3D. There is certainly no shortage of high moments when you’re able to enter that sort of flow state and just fly through a level without hesitation, slipping through hazards, bouncing between walls, and making daring leaps across huge gaps on your way to an A+ ranking on the level. But those moments are often bookended by frustrating perspective woes that can take all of the wind out of the sails of an otherwise good run.

Super Meatboy 3D is a game that truly deserves to be the follow-up to the legendary original. With its new 3D approach, it delivers plenty of fresh challenges while retaining the familiar, frustrating difficulty that will keep drawing you back.

Super Meat Boy 3D is equally addicting and infuriating, resulting in me swearing like a sailor but unable to tear myself away as I watched Super Meat Boy sliced, diced, and suffer repeated deaths as I worked tirelessly to finally overcome each level, but the sensory overload it brings with it can be too much at times.

Super Meat Boy 3D is exactly what you'd expect from Super Meat Boy, except in 3D. The controls are mostly identical, the challenge level uncompromising, the levels short and snappy, and every time you reach Bandage Girl, there's Doctor Fetus to kick you in the face. Each level feels distinct from the others, with plenty of creativity in the layout plus new hazards and toys in each new area to keep you on your toes. Do well enough poking around and the rewards start piling up, opening up new bonuses and goodies you can use to do better with on familiar levels or new ones. There's always a way to play a little better in Super Meat Boy 3D, and the game encourages this at every opportunity to drag you as a willing victim into the most vicious challenges it can devise.

Super Meat Boy 3D isn't exactly a massive leap for the franchise when compared to other side-scrollers that have made the jump to a new dimension, but that's okay. What's here is the high-level, fluid, and precise platforming you'd expect, and that fans of the series have come to adore. Yes, you will die thousands of times by the end, but that's also the point. There are small design hiccups here and there in terms of a few levels that don't feel fair, a couple less memorable bosses, and the added depth sometimes playing tricks on your brain. At the end of the day, however, Super Meat Boy 3D is a blast, and I'm looking forward to shaving off tenths of seconds from my record times on each and every level.

Even when Super Meat Boy 3D had me moments away from rage-quitting, occasionally thanks to a death that wasn’t my fault, I couldn’t help but smile as I bashed my head on whatever wall I was struggling to jump off. Meat Boy’s legacy is a very particular one that won’t appeal to everyone but, even with some wobbles, 3D proves itself to be a sequel that’s worthy of standing next to the original masterpiece.

Super Meat Boy 3D is a faithful translation of the indie classic into the third dimension while infusion it with great ideas from other platformers

Super Meat Boy 3D is a successful exercise in reinterpreting the series, transporting the protagonists of this historic 2D saga into a world of major aesthetic and conceptual changes. The former are easy to get used to; the latter require a bit more effort, even if it’s both pleasant and surprising to rediscover the responsiveness and speed of the original game. What truly changes, however, is the mindset with which you approach each level, which now benefits from an unprecedented sense of depth and scale, and requires the player—not only to rely on their usual exceptional reflexes and precision—but also to be able to read the path ahead. Perhaps it is precisely this lack of clarity that stands as the game’s biggest flaw, in what remains a very enjoyable experience (especially if you’re a bit of a masochist) and one that is packed with ideas that never run dry. In fact, quite surprisingly, they increase in the second and final stretch. Is this the new “skin” of the Meat Boy saga? I don’t think so, but it is certainly a successful diversion.