Super Meat Boy Forever

AUTORUNNING INTO DANGER
Gameplay is where things differ though, and it is a huge departure from the original. Whereas the game looks the same as ever, it plays like something completely new. Instead of focusing on movement speed and jumping trajectories, the game is an autorunner. In order to change direction, you typically need to walljump – although there are other methods. As well as jumping, you can also press the button again to fist enemies midair. Pressing down will do a mid air dive, or a slide if you are grounded…. and that’s basically it. It sounds simple, but they are utilised in a way that makes for some pretty tough platforming. I thought the autorunning would be something I wouldn’t care for, but it honestly makes the game more accessible; I really feel like I don’t have to worry so much about getting rusty after long periods of not playing. Time will tell though.

Each world too contains their own gimmicks: some are part of the level, like huge fans, antigravity liquid, and whatnot; others are powerups, which you need to fist or kick in order to be able to use. This focus on gimmicks makes the game feel more like a puzzle game where you need to work out how to traverse the level, rather than in the first which was pure skill based. They’re largely a lot of fun, but there can be occasional jank, either from things not working quite as intended or just the game requiring you to do pretty precise things with it.

DYING IN THE UNKNOWN
Another major gameplay departure lies in the level design. Rather than having tiny predesigned levels, the stages in Forever run a lot longer and are assembled from randomly generated chunks. The game has thousands of preconstructed chunks, which are assigned a difficulty and pieced together at random [with checkpoints in between]. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, with weird difficulty spikes and no real cohesion, but the game manages to avoid it for the most part (at least, in my seed); levels get progressively harder, and there are themes based on the varying gimmicks. One level in world three, for example, introduces the concept of kickable doors and all of the chunks within are based on that concept. It gives the illusion of designed progression, whilst actually being random. It’s not quite as cohesive as if they were designed from scratch, but they’ve done a good job. The main draw of the randomness, however, is that the game will allow for a lot more replayability. Many New Game Pluses later and you will still be playing new content!

The only element of the game which isn’t random are the boss fights, which are spread across the five main worlds. The original game was criticised heavily for its bosses; many felt like they didn’t keep in the spirit of the main game and broke up the packing. Whilst I didn’t mind them, I will admit that they aren’t exactly the highlight of the first game. In Super Meat Boy Forever, on the other hand, they are definitely a highlight. They fit in perfectly with the flow of the game and aren’t overly difficult either. They do lack hints as to how to deal with them, which can result in you doing the wrong thing over and over, but this only serves to make them more of a puzzle like the rest of the game. The fourth boss in particular requires the use of the slide, even though the design of the boss makes you think that would be a very bad idea. Still, when you figure out what to do with these behemoths, they are a lot of fun to beat!