Super Meat Boy Forever

Super Meat Boy Forever is a sequel not afraid to shake things up, but in doing so it fails to capture much of what made the original so amazing.

Super Meat Boy Forever follows the legacy of its adored predecessor and it improves on several elements - namely, the stunning animation sequences, as well as the boss fights, which are the most enjoyable part of this game. At the same time, the decision to implement an auto-run mechanic when the level design feels completely disconnected from this way of playing is difficult to understand. Super Meat Boy Forever has plenty of qualities but it also has its peculiarities, fans of the original need to take that into account.

If you’re after a true sequel to the original Super Meat Boy, then Super Meat Boy Forever will leave you disappointed. While it generally delivers a good and challenging time, the fact its an auto-runner and the procedurally generated nature of the levels hold it back from getting anywhere close to the excellence of the original.

Super Meat Boy Forever is a fun little distraction. Though it fails to live up to the legacy of its predecessor, it’s entertaining for a few playthroughs. If you loved Super Meat Boy, you might just get a kick out of Forever… or you may not.

Super Meat Boy Forever is an interesting sequel. It attempts to build on the legacy of its predecessor, but the additions it brings to the table cannot elevate it beyond the simplicity of the original. The updated visuals are welcome, but Super Meat Boy Forever is a classic example of trying too hard to innovate, while losing sight of what made the series so beloved.

Super Meat Boy Forever makes changes to its predecessor which add to the difficulty but also serve to make things less memorable. There’s immense satisfaction in finishing levels, but bugs throw a dampener on the experience in places.

A pleasant return to an hardcore and challenging videogame from Team Meat, the authors of Super Meat Boy.

Failing to hit previously established highs encapsulates a lot of Super Meat Boy Forever. Although the game oddly hides its interesting seeding system, its levels are designed well and repeatedly introduce new tweaks that allow for an even difficulty curve that always tries to spice things up. Fluid controls even make that difficulty curve a welcome challenge. But the light detachment intrinsic to the auto-running genre is more of a shackle than the key to a better game. Going meatless for an entire decade inevitably raises the steaks stakes for the next Meat Boy game, and even though Forever doesn’t fully meet those expectations set upon it, it does narrowly avoid meaty-ocrity through its tight controls and level structure.

Super Meat Boy Forever makes some big changes to its predecessor's classic formula, ushering in an endless-running style of gameplay, simplified control scheme and procedurally-generated levels that are a blast to play through but ultimately rob the game of the fiendishly additive quality of the 2010 original. We miss perfecting Super Meat Boy's bespoke little death mazes here and although fans of brutally tough platformers will still find plenty to love, we can't help but feel this one's a little bit of a step back for Team Meat's squishy red mascot.

Forever, if nothing else, remains an above-average endless runner; a result that for the fans of the last chapter, understandably, may not be enough.

In the end, a game that can be walked through by hanging on a bit, without really doing its predecessor honor.

This is not a worthy successor. Extremely simplified controls as well as an unsteady difficulty hamper precision and rhythm in this partially randomly generated auto-runner.

Super Meat Boy Forever would be a great iOS or mobile game; but, unfortunately, that is not what Team Meat delivered. It feels cheap in its gameplay and bits of its presentation. Although, it was nice to see Edmund McMillen have fun with his animations.

Super Meat Boy Forever is far from achieving the same result as 2010's classic. With a ton of hardcore but mostly random levels, the game especially suffer from questionable one-button-does-it-all handling, and a lack of finished features. Too bad, because the Dark Worlds and manu secrets still offers to hardcore players a true challenge.

Your enjoyment of Super Meat Boy Forever will be determined entirely by your particular enjoyment of masochistic platformers. If you played Super Meat Boy 1.0 and thought “man, I wish this were way harder,” Forever may be just what you’re looking for.

Although a fun autorun platformer, Super Meat Boy Forever just can't live up to the 2010 classic. Despite being packed with ideas, its awful boss fights and lack of control make it hard to recommend.

The idea of a randomly generated auto-runner just seems at odds with the legacy of Meat Boy itself. [Issue #51 – March/April 2021, p. 30]

Super Meat Boy Forever is a game that suffers from inconsistent difficulty and some counter-intuitive mechanics. While the cutscenes and bosses are charming as always, this is one game that die-hards of the previous installment might want to skip. It’s still a fun time for those willing to overlook its flaws, however.