Super Meat Boy Forever hit the East Coast at PAX East 2018. Keep reading our latest article to learn about the new changes and challenges this iconic platformer sequel brings to players:
The decision to demo Super Meat Boy Forever was one I did not take without purpose. Like many, I was a major Super Meat Boy junkie when the game first released, which I discovered from the Indie Game: The Movie documentary. The platformer was the right balance of difficulty, fun, and provided players with an overwhelming sense of achievement after finally beating a level. The relief I felt beating each level has still been unmatched with other games I have played. Each level had a distinct design and strategy, and it was fun watching differet players discover minor level differences to overcome obstacles and complete levels.
Super Meat Boy Forever is the latest installment in the highly technical platformer. However, this time, Meat Boy is back with a few tricks up his sleeve.
At PAX East 2018, we had the chance to interview Tommy Refenes, lead designer for the game, and had a chance to try out the demo. In the original Super Meat Boy, the level layouts were the same for each player. For example, some levels were notoriously more challenging compared to others, and all players were able to suffer the same anguish over certain levels and obstacles. You were also able to take your time when trying to beat a level- there were certain movement strategies players could master to help time jumps or plan routes.
This all changes in Super Meat Boy Forever. For one, the player only has two buttons: jump and punch. However, the combination of these buttons yield additional movement abilities. If you have not realized yet, this also means the player does not have an ability to start or stop movement, and therefore, the player is always running forward. This brings a new level of intensity (and frankly, anxiety) when playing the game, but it forces the player to commit to a run instead of planning a run.
By far, the most interesting feature of Super Meat Boy Forever is the layout design. No two players will have the same experience playing this game. Even the same player playing the same level will yield different results. Each level has segments that use procedural generation to be stitched together to create the level. These segments are grouped together into pools based on their difficulty. Each level has a certain difficulty rating, so if you play a ‘medium’ difficulty level, your level will pull segments from the ‘medium’ pool. This puts an interesting focus on player ability to complete a level. The days of watching YouTube strategies to defeat a level will be non-existent in Super Meat Boy Forever. Refenes assured us that a player who can complete a ‘hard’ difficulty level should be able to defeat the segments in the pool, but we are excited that Super Meat Boy Forever will offer a high replay value since each run will offer a unique experience for players.
Super Meat Boy Forever is currently slated with an April 2019 release date.
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