Super Meat Boy 3D from Headup, Team Meat, and Sluggerfly is a challenging precision platformer on Nintendo Switch 2. Learn more in our Super Meat Boy 3D review!
Super Meat Boy 3D from Headup, Team Meat, and Sluggerfly is a challenging precision platformer on Nintendo Switch 2. The titular character – that would be the meat cube you can see in the trailer and screens in this Super Meat Boy 3D review – is ready to do whatever it takes to save his girlfriend, the aptly named Bandage Girl. You know, because she’s made out of bandages. This is all happening because the evil Doctor Fetus has decided that doing this and placing a ton of traps in your way was a good idea.
As the name suggests, for this new game in the beloved and tough-as-nails series, we’re taking the jump into 3D territory. You’ll need to avoid spinning buzzsaws, deadly spikes, killer robots, large bear traps, and more in order to get one step closer to saving Bandage Girl. Levels will feature a fixed camera angle similar to what you might have seen in a game such as Super Mario 3D World on the Nintendo Wii U – or the Nintendo Switch version known as Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury.
The series got its start way back in 2008, thanks to the original Meat Boy Flash game from Edmund McMillen and Jonathan McEntee. This was followed by Super Meat Boy from McMillen and Tommy Refens, which was released in 2010. It would be a long 10 years until the sequel Super Meat Boy Forever would be released for the Nintendo Switch in 2020. Yes, that 2020. I had a chance to work on a Super Meat Boy Forever review for Nintendo’s console, and was already a fan of Super Meat Boy, so I was more than ready to once again save Bandage Girl. But, you know, in 3D.
After the intro cutscene, you’ll be taking control of Meat Boy by using the left analog stick or the D-Pad, as you sprint by pressing the ZR button. You can jump by pressing the A button. The longer you press and hold down the A button, the higher your jump will be. There’s also the option of performing wall jumps, a skill that will be needed during the trickier platforming segments. You can perform a ground slam by pressing the B button. There’s also the possibility of performing a dash once you’re up in the air, which can hopefully help you clear some of the longer gaps or avoid a hazard or two. Holding down the A button while coming into contact with a wall will also allow you to perform a wall run.
You’ll get to learn all of the basics while you get into the groove as you play through the first handful of levels in the game. Easy Start, Sawbot Struggle, The Great Gap, Cave Dash, and Canyon Crush will be very useful in showing you what it really is that you can do. The difficulty will climb at a steady pace, so you’ll have a chance to avoid most of the enemies and obstacles in this first batch before you find a way into Dark World levels.
If you want to 100% the game, then you’ll need to keep an eye out for the many bandages that you can collect along the way. These will usually be out of the way, so you’ll need to search high and low to grab them. You can use these bandages to unlock additional characters to play as. Different characters will have different abilities to consider, which will change how you approach each level.
Take, for instance, Meatball Boy. He’s a round ball of meat with some marinara sauce on top,
who will be bouncing nom-stop. You can also aim for the best grade possible in each level by completing it under the par time for an A+ grade. Oh, and you can try to complete a level without dying! It’s by getting an A+ grade that you’ll unlock the Dark World levels that will test your skills at every moment.
Super Meat Boy 3D is a challenging precision platformer on Nintendo Switch 2. The titular character – that would be the meat cube you can see in the trailer and screens in this Super Meat Boy 3D review – is ready to do whatever it takes to save his girlfriend, the aptly named Bandage Girl. You know, because she’s made out of bandages. This is all happening because the evil Doctor Fetus has decided that doing this and placing a ton of traps in your way was a good idea.
There’s no health bar for you, so all it will take to destroy you is a single hit. Should this happen, you’ll be sent back to the start of the current level so that you can hopefully learn from your mistakes and be ready to do it all over again. On top of the challenge from the regular levels and the different boss fights that you need to sort out, there are also special Dark World levels that will dial up the difficulty to 11. Super Meat Boy 3D launches tomorrow on Nintendo Switch 2 with a $24.99 price tag.
Disclaimer
This Super Meat Boy 3D review is based on a Nintendo Switch 2 copy provided by Headup.
