Super Meat Boy - Reception

Reception

Super Meat Boy was critically acclaimed. The Xbox 360 version of the game has aggregate scores of 90/100 and 90.41% at websites Metacritic and GameRankings, respectively. The Windows version has similar scores, with a 91.25% at GameRankings and 87/100 at Metacritic. After being showcased at the Penny Arcade Expo 2010, Super Meat Boy was declared Game of the Show by Destructoid and nominated for the same award by Machinima.com. The game received nominations for the Grand Prize and Excellence in Audio awards at the 2010 Independent Games Festival. It won the award for Most Challenging Game in IGN's Best of 2010 awards, and received nominations for Best Soundtrack and Best Retro Design. It was voted GameSpot's Best Downloadable Console Game of 2010, and won the Best Downloadable Game award from GameTrailers. Sales were strong, with nearly 140,000 units of the Xbox 360 version sold by the end of 2010. The Steam and Xbox 360 versions had sold over 600,000 copies combined by April 2011; 400,000 of these sales were through Steam. On January 3, 2012, Team Meat announced on Twitter that the game had surpassed 1,000,000 sales.

Critics praised Super Meat Boy's platforming elements, and often commented on the game's difficulty. X-Play reviewer Alexandra Hall said the game had "riveting platforming action", and added that "Super Meat Boy's designers are masters of their craft." Henry Gilbert of GamesRadar felt the platforming was "perfect". He wrote that "while it's always tough and demanding, it never feels cheap, or like the game is cheating you." A reviewer from GameTrailers stated that "the difficulty rides the perfect line between driving you utterly bonkers when you fail and making you feel like a platform pro when you succeed." Joystiq's Richard Mitchell echoed other reviewers' comments: "Super Meat Boy is tough, as tough as the toughest nails in the toughest universe." Gilbert cited the level of difficulty, which he believed made the game inaccessible to some players, as his reason for not awarding the game a perfect score. Tom McShea of GameSpot praised the game's "precise control", "excellent level design", and "smooth difficulty curve". Reviewer Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer warned that Super Meat Boy is "a hard game. It should make you want to throw the pad across the room."

Critics gave high marks to the game's retro art direction and presentation. Official Xbox Magazine (UK)'s Mike Channel appreciated the variety found in each set of levels. He stated that "while the graphics may look crude, the presentation is exceptional. Each level has a distinct visual style." Daemon Hatfield, a reviewer for IGN, noted the uniqueness of the game's visual presentation. He commented that the warp zone levels pay tribute to classic 8-bit games, and lauded the game's soundtrack: "The rocking chiptune soundtrack is the best I've heard since Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game". Joe Leonard of 1UP.com noted that the game's humor and over-the-top gameplay help to calm frustrations regarding the difficulty: "Super Meat Boy's greatest strength has to be how it never takes itself too seriously—as maddening as some of the levels got, I could never stay angry at the game for too long," said Leonard. MTV Multiplayer reviewer Russ Frushtick praised the game's visual design. He appreciated the game's cutscenes, which he noted are "hand-drawn animated which more than a passing resemblance to a classic video game intro."

While the game received high praise overall, certain publications voiced complaints. Hatfield noted that the cutscenes had low production values, stating that "they don't have the polish of the rest of the game". The reviewer for PC Gamer mentioned "a few minor, yet-to-be-patched bugs". Eduardo Reboucas of Game Revolution said that "a lot of the levels in Super Meat Boy depend a little too much on twitch reflexes and trial-and-error memorization". He also stated that "there are some bits of toilet humor here and there that are duds", and that the game's high level of difficulty "will make most casual players shy away". Mitchell Dyer of GamePro agreed, saying that certain "absurdly difficult" levels broke the flow of the game, especially in the boss levels and the later chapters.

Meat Boy has made cameo appearances in the video games Bit.Trip Runner and Bit.Trip Fate, as well as in the XBLA game ilomilo. A parody Flash game, Super Tofu Boy, was released by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on December 1, 2010, to promote veganism. In response, Team Meat added its own interpretation of Tofu Boy to the PC version of the actual Super Meat Boy on December 2, 2010. Most recently, he has made an appearance in Dust: An Elysian Tail as a collectible "friend" within the game and in Retro City Rampage, both in his own "Virtual Meat Boy" mini-game and as a playable character.