Surprised there isn't a thread on this. The critical reaction to SMB has been immense. 10s have been thrown round with the sort of wild abandon usually reserved for Halo titles and people rating my skills as a lover.
I tried the demo. My problem with games like this and N+, Trials HD et al is that I find no fun in being challenged any more.
As I've grown older my brain has literally rejected challenge in all forms. In my last job I managed to avoid doing any form of mental assessment or self improvement for 7 years, and yet still managed to get promoted 3 or 4 times. Which proves that it is possible to enjoy life without challenging yourself mentally or physically and it's also possible to fool managers by learning long words and wearing a nice tie.
But I digress. Super Meat Boy is all about trial and error. You die. A lot. Over and over again. The theory is of course that each time you die you "learn something". Each death is one step on the long path to spiritual enlightenment and true gaming enjoyment. For me it doesn't work like that. I'm the boy who liked to get a gold star for turning in his homework, regardless of quality. I liked to be told I was good simply because I hadn't been bad. I like showers of achievements, costumes, videos and avatar rewards in my games for very little effort at my end. I am very much everything that is wrong with 21st century humanity.
That said, SMB has razor sharp controls, is fairly funny in the way that funny videogames are fairly funny in a raise-the-corner-of-your-mouth-and-make-a-sort-of-snorting-noise sense and I can see the old skool retro gaming crowd embracing it with open arms.
For me, life is too short. I am too lazy. I can't be bothered. 3/10.
I tried the demo. My problem with games like this and N+, Trials HD et al is that I find no fun in being challenged any more.
As I've grown older my brain has literally rejected challenge in all forms. In my last job I managed to avoid doing any form of mental assessment or self improvement for 7 years, and yet still managed to get promoted 3 or 4 times. Which proves that it is possible to enjoy life without challenging yourself mentally or physically and it's also possible to fool managers by learning long words and wearing a nice tie.
But I digress. Super Meat Boy is all about trial and error. You die. A lot. Over and over again. The theory is of course that each time you die you "learn something". Each death is one step on the long path to spiritual enlightenment and true gaming enjoyment. For me it doesn't work like that. I'm the boy who liked to get a gold star for turning in his homework, regardless of quality. I liked to be told I was good simply because I hadn't been bad. I like showers of achievements, costumes, videos and avatar rewards in my games for very little effort at my end. I am very much everything that is wrong with 21st century humanity.
That said, SMB has razor sharp controls, is fairly funny in the way that funny videogames are fairly funny in a raise-the-corner-of-your-mouth-and-make-a-sort-of-snorting-noise sense and I can see the old skool retro gaming crowd embracing it with open arms.
For me, life is too short. I am too lazy. I can't be bothered. 3/10.
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