Super Meat Boy 3D Preview - A Perfect Adaptation

Super Meat Boy will always be remembered not only as an amazing and novel platformer but an undeniably important game in the rise of the indie gaming scene. It has quite the legacy and seeing the recent reveal taking it to 3D, I was skeptical to say the least. 

Meat Boy is well-known for its fast, punishing gameplay that is all about trying over and over again. You might eventually finish a level under 15 seconds, but you died 30 times to get to that one perfect run. 

Thankfully, Super Meat Boy 3D maintains all of that. That same classic feeling of try, die, try again is back and in glorious 3D. I’m sure that I was not the only one who was afraid we might see some strange open world collectathon take on Meat Boy, but thankfully I can say that's not the case.

I played close to 10 or so levels from Super Meat Boy 3D, and they all felt like classic Super Meat Boy. They were lean, punishing, and exacting. Finally getting the rhythm of one section to the next was just as satisfying now as it was 15 years ago. 

Most importantly, controlling Meat Boy has been translated perfectly to 3D. Meat Boy is fast, splats to walls, and slides just as you’d expect. He’s also just as floaty and you have a lot of control while he’s in the air. 

Meat Boy’s movement can create some issues while playing, though.  

Moving around so quickly and in 3D space, the camera has to follow Meat Boy. The viewpoint is quite a wide view to see a lot of the level, but Meat Boy is small in the center of your screen. That means that it is sometimes very difficult to gauge where Meat Boy is in terms of depth. 

There were more than a few times I whiffed a jump completely as I didn’t realize that Meat Boy was that far out. I’m not sure how, but something to make that more clear would help immensely on some levels. 

One smaller problem comes up sometimes, too, though way less frequently. With the open nature of 3D, there are some shortcuts you can use to quickly make your way through the level. 

The few times I found and used one, the camera moved quicker than it had before and there were brief moments the foreground blocked what I could see. Again, though, those were pretty few and far between. 

A final thing I want to mention is the visual design. A big part of the original game is the huge blood sprays and blood covering saws, walls, and more as you die again and again. That is of course a part of Super Meat Boy 3D, and it all looks great. 

The art style is cartoony and bright in some respects, but it makes for a great contrast to the bloody nature of the carnage being wreaked on poor ol’ Meat Boy. Plus, I don’t know if I’m ever going to get old of seeing a saw cut Meat Boy in half, one part of his body thrown across the level and flopping about.  

Super Meat Boy 3D Preview | Final Thoughts 

Overall, I was incredibly impressed with Super Meat Boy 3D and think it’s a great example of how to translate the gameplay people fell in love with to the 3D space. All the signs are there that this will be a great platformer for everyone and the perfect game for Super Meat Boy fans. 

Super Meat Boy 3D was previewed at a press event.