Before Silksong, Celeste and Cuphead, it was a humble wad of beef that wore the crown of ultra-tough, 2D indie platformers. Super Meat Boy was a white-knuckle, raw flesh odyssey of buzzsaws and bodily harm. Since its release over a decade ago, the little Meat that could has tested out different genres and dimensions, but this weekend developers Team Meat announced a return to the original, injury-laden obstacle courses with Super Meat Boy Again+.
“Remember that game with the meat guy? With the blood? And the jump around?” asks the trailer. “We should play that game. Again.”
Released in 2010 and iterating on a Flash game from 2008, Super Meat Boy followed the titular little chunk in his quest to rescue Bandage Girl from Dr. Fetus. You’d scurry, weave and wall jump across 300 vicious stages. It shares a bit of DNA with other early, gravity-defying platformer challenge N+ (and now naming conventions), but with far more nasty stuff.
A giant hit of the era, Super Meat Boy co-creator Edmund McMillen went on to make the even more popular Binding of Isaac in 2011 and the RPG Mewgenics earlier this year. Tommy Refenes continued Meat Boy’s adventures with this year’s Super Meat Boy 3D and auto-running sequel Super Meat Boy Forever. The latter, like all anticipated sequels with the word “Forever” in the title, took a while.
Super Meat Boy Again+ promises “the wonderful lens of nostalgia with stuff added to it.” A return to old stomping grounds with new graphics, art, cutscenes and music from composer Danny Baranowsky. Team Meat also says the remake will include new levels and secrets, offering returning fans and new players something to sink their teeth into. Perhaps the only thing more difficult than navigating Super Meat Boy’s endless gauntlets unscathed is coming to terms with the fact that the original game is now old enough to drive. There is currently no release date for the remake.
