Super Meat Boy is a 2010 platform video game created and published by the American independent studio Team Meat. Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes designed the game as a follow-up to Meat Boy, a 2008 Flash game made by McMillen and Jonathan McEntee. In the game, players control Meat Boy, a red, cube-shaped character, as he tries to save his girlfriend, Bandage Girl, from the game’s villain, Dr. Fetus. The gameplay requires precise control and quick timing as players run and jump through more than 300 dangerous levels while avoiding obstacles. The game also allows players to create their own levels. Super Meat Boy was first released on the Xbox 360 through Xbox Live Arcade in October 2010. It was later made available on Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, and the Nintendo Switch. A version for the Wii was being developed but was canceled.
Development of the game began in early 2009. McMillen worked on designing levels and creating artwork, while Refenes handled the coding. The game’s music was composed by Danny Baranowsky, who also worked on the original Meat Boy. Super Meat Boy won several awards and is considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Critics praised the game’s controls, artwork, music, and challenging gameplay. The game was a big success in sales, selling over a million copies by January 2012. A sequel, Super Meat Boy Forever, was released on December 23, 2020, without McMillen’s involvement. Another sequel, Super Meat Boy 3D, was released on March 31, 2026.
Gameplay
Super Meat Boy is a video game where players control a small, dark red character named Meat Boy. His goal is to rescue his girlfriend, Bandage Girl, who is also shaped like a cube and has many bandages on her body. She is being held by a bad scientist named Dr. Fetus. The game is divided into chapters, and together these chapters include more than 300 levels. In each level, players must reach the end, which is marked by Bandage Girl, while avoiding dangers like falling blocks, sharp saws, and other obstacles. Players can jump, run, and move along walls. The game requires careful control and quick timing, similar to classic platform games like Super Mario Bros. and Ghosts 'n Goblins.
Each chapter has levels that can be played in any order. However, players must complete a certain number of levels to unlock a boss stage, which allows them to progress to the next chapter. Players can try each level as many times as needed. If Meat Boy is hurt, he restarts the level immediately, but red meat juice from his injuries stays on the ground where he walked. After completing a level, players can watch a replay of all their attempts. If a level is finished quickly, players earn an "A+" grade, which unlocks a harder version of the level in a special area called the "dark world." Some levels, called warp zones, can be found by discovering hidden portals. These warp zones include bonus levels with styles from older games or other indie games like Castle Crashers or Braid.
Players can also use other characters besides Meat Boy, many of whom appeared in other games. Each character has unique abilities, such as Commander Video’s ability to float briefly in the air. These characters can be unlocked by collecting bandage items scattered in levels or by completing specific warp zones. Some bandages can only be collected with certain characters. Certain levels, like warp zones and boss stages, can only be played with specific characters. The available characters depend on the version of the game being played.
The Xbox Live Arcade version includes an unlockable mode called "Teh Internets," which adds new levels over time. The PC version has a section called "Super Meat World," where players can play and rate levels created by others using a level editor. This editor was released in May 2011. Players can also access an unsupported developer mode in the game to create their own levels using the same tools used by the game’s creators.
Plot
The game begins by showing that Meat Boy, a boy who lacks skin, and Bandage Girl, a girl covered in bandages, are in love. However, Dr. Fetus, a smart fetus in a jar who controls a mechanical body, is disliked by others and holds hatred toward everyone.
One day, Dr. Fetus kidnaps Bandage Girl because he is jealous. Meat Boy chases Dr. Fetus to rescue her. During the chase, Dr. Fetus starts a forest fire and attacks Meat Boy using a large mechanical machine called "Lil' Slugger." Meat Boy tricks Dr. Fetus into driving Lil' Slugger into dangerous areas, which destroys the machine. Dr. Fetus then escapes to an abandoned hospital, where he releases a giant monster made of blood called "C.H.A.D." Meat Boy causes the monster to disappear by exposing it to sunlight and later kills it offscreen by covering it with a pillow. He then continues his pursuit of Dr. Fetus, who moves to an abandoned salt factory.
At the factory, Dr. Fetus creates an evil copy of Meat Boy from his own waste, named "Brownie," and sends it to attack Meat Boy. Their fight is interrupted when salt floods the factory, likely killing Brownie. Dr. Fetus then travels to hell, where Meat Boy finds many copies of his own body from the game's difficulty. A large golem named "Little Horn" is made from these bodies, but it destroys itself by repeatedly hitting its head on the ground. This allows Dr. Fetus to escape and launch a nuclear missile, which causes a disaster and opens a path to a ruined city. In the city, Meat Boy fights three large worms called "The Larries" by tricking them into jumping into sawblades.
In the final level, Dr. Fetus chases Meat Boy with a rocket launcher. Meat Boy defeats Dr. Fetus by destroying the bridge he is standing on during their fight. Dr. Fetus attempts to kill Meat Boy and Bandage Girl by activating a self-destruct sequence, but fails when Brownie returns to save them, sacrificing himself. After Bandage Girl hugs Meat Boy, Dr. Fetus lands on her and tries to attack her as the game ends. If Dr. Fetus is defeated in the Dark World, an extended ending shows that his attacks were ineffective, and Bandage Girl stomps on him.
A bonus chapter titled "Cotton Alley" appears after completing the game. In this chapter, Meat Boy is kidnapped by Dr. Fetus, and Bandage Girl must rescue him.
Development and marketing
The original Meat Boy is an Adobe Flash game created by Edmund McMillen and programmed by Jonathan McEntee. The game was developed over three weeks and released on Newgrounds on October 5, 2008. By April 2009, it had received over 840,000 views on Newgrounds and 8 million total views. A map pack for the Flash version was released on December 8, 2008. McMillen began working on Super Meat Boy after Nintendo and Microsoft asked him to make a game for their download services, WiiWare and Xbox Live Arcade, because they were impressed by the success of his Flash games Aether and Meat Boy. At the time, he was working with Tommy Refenes on a Flash game called Grey Matter. Although McMillen first suggested a sequel to Gish or Aether, he and Refenes decided to form Team Meat and create an expanded version of Meat Boy instead. Team Meat also includes Danny Baranowsky, who composes the soundtrack, and Jordan Fehr, who designs sound effects. The developers say Super Meat Boy is "a big throwback to super hardcore NES classics like Ghosts 'n Goblins, Mega Man, and the Japanese version of Super Mario Bros. 2," with a story that mixes ideas from early 1990s video games. The game was made to feel like Super Mario Bros. and is a tribute to Shigeru Miyamoto, the creator of Super Mario Bros.
McMillen worked on level design and artwork, while Refenes coded the game. The game was mostly tested by McMillen, Refenes, and their families. McMillen and Refenes lived on opposite sides of the United States and met only a few times in person while working on the game. They tried many control designs to find one that felt smooth and logical. Instead of using a ready-made game engine, Refenes built one from scratch. The game was first planned to have about 100 levels and include multiplayer modes. However, the multiplayer option was removed, and the number of levels was increased. The team made the game look and feel like classic platform games but added modern ideas about difficulty. They wanted the game to be rewarding and challenging, not frustrating, so they included infinite lives, quick level restarts, clear goals, and short levels. They believed the replay feature turned failure into a form of reward.
Development of Super Meat Boy started in January 2009. The game was first announced for WiiWare and PC, with a planned release in the first quarter of 2010. The release was delayed to the fourth quarter because the developers wanted more time to create extra levels, such as the dark worlds. A picture shared on Team Meat’s Twitter page on February 22, 2010, showed the game would also be released for XBLA. The next day, they announced that XBLA would be the first platform due to "contractual obligations." In August 2010, Microsoft invited the developers to include the game in their 2010 Fall GameFeast XBLA promotion. Because the team was nearly out of money, they worked daily for the last two months of development, sleeping only five hours a night and often forgetting to eat. McMillen said this process was something he would never do again. Microsoft promoted the game only slightly, but it sold much better than other games in the event. The team called the effort to finish the game for the promotion "the biggest mistake" during development. Their struggles were shown in the documentary Indie Game: The Movie. The game was released on XBLA in October 2010 and on PCs via Steam and Direct2Drive a month later. The PC version was promoted more heavily than the XBLA version. A Mac OS X version was released in November 2011, and a Linux version was released in December 2011 as part of the Humble Indie Bundle #4.
Sony did not show interest in the game at first, so Team Meat signed a contract that prevented Super Meat Boy from being released on the PlayStation 3. Later, versions for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita were announced. The WiiWare version was canceled because the game’s file size was too large for Nintendo’s system. Team Meat tried to release the game as a retail Wii game but were told by publishers that it would not be profitable late in the Wii’s lifecycle. Eventually, versions were released for the Wii U and Switch. The PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, and Switch versions were made by BlitWorks. The Switch version includes a special "Race Mode" that lets two players compete on split-screen using separate Joy-Con controllers. This mode was added to the Windows version in October 2018.
A limited edition retail version of the PC game was released in April 2011. It included bonus items like behind-the-scenes videos, a music sample disc, and a Super Meat Boy comic. In 2012, Team Meat started planning an iOS and Android version of the game. This version would be different from the original, designed to work better with touch-screen controls. This project became Super Meat Boy Forever, announced in 2014 at the PAX convention.
Team Meat created merchandise related to Super Meat Boy, including a handheld iOS app called Super Meat Boy Handheld, released on April 3, 2010, and styled like a Tiger Electronics handheld. This app was made as a joke after Refenes’ game Zits & Giggles was removed from the iTunes Store. McMillen also made a Super Meat Boy microgame for WarioWare D.I.Y. Team Meat sells charms, plush toys, posters, T-shirts, stickers, stress balls, and a limited edition comic. In 2011, Voxelous released a set of four Super Meat Boy figures of Meat Boy, Bandage Girl, Brownie, and Tofu Boy, later adding figures of Commander Video, Jill, Ogmo, and Dr. Fetus.
The soundtrack for Super Meat Boy was composed by Danny Baranowsky, who also made music for Canabalt, Cortex Command, and Gravity Hook. He also composed the music for the original Meat Boy. McMillen asked Baranowsky to use the music he had already created for Meat Boy in the new soundtrack. Baranowsky made sure the music matched the game’s action without overpowering the sound effects. He had full control over the music and kept all rights to it. McMillen believed this freedom allowed Baranowsky to express his creative energy fully. McMillen said the soundtrack "raises your heart rate, fits perfectly with the gameplay, and stays with you for days."
On October 26, 2010, the game’s soundtrack was released as a downloadable album on Bandcamp titled Super Meat Boy! Soundtrack.
Reception
Super Meat Boy received praise from critics. After being shown at the Penny Arcade Expo 2010, the game was named Game of the Show by Destructoid and received a nomination for the same award by Machinima.com. It was nominated for the Grand Prize and Excellence in Audio awards at the 2010 Independent Games Festival. The game won the Most Challenging Game award at IGN's Best of 2010, and was nominated 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 copies of the Xbox 360 version sold by the end of 2010. By April 2011, the Steam and Xbox 360 versions had sold over 600,000 copies combined, with 400,000 of those sold through Steam. On January 3, 2012, Team Meat announced on Twitter that the game had sold more than 1,000,000 copies.
Critics praised the game's platforming elements and its difficulty. X-Play reviewer Alexandra Hall said the game had "exciting platforming action" and called the designers "masters of their craft." Henry Gilbert of GamesRadar said the platforming was "perfect" and wrote that the game "never feels unfair." A GameTrailers reviewer noted that the difficulty "balances frustration with a sense of achievement." Joystiq's Richard Mitchell said the game was "as tough as the toughest nails in the toughest universe." Gilbert mentioned the difficulty made the game hard for some players, which is why he did not give it a perfect score. Tom McShea of GameSpot praised the game's "precise control," "excellent level design," and "smooth difficulty curve." Tom Bramwell of Eurogamer warned that the game is "very hard" and "might make players want to throw the controller."
Critics also praised the game's retro art style and presentation. Mike Channel of Official Xbox Magazine (UK) said the levels had "distinct visual styles" and that the graphics, while simple, looked "exceptional." Daemon Hatfield of IGN noted the game's visual design paid tribute to classic 8-bit games and praised the "chiptune soundtrack," calling it the best since Scott Pilgrim vs. The World: The Game. Joe Leonard of 1UP.com said the game's humor and playful style helped reduce frustration from its difficulty. Russ Frushtick of MTV Multiplayer praised the game's hand-drawn cutscenes, which looked like "classic video game intros."
Some critics had concerns. Hatfield said the cutscenes had "low production quality" and did not match the rest of the game. A PC Gamer reviewer mentioned "a few minor bugs" that needed fixing. Eduardo Reboucas of Game Revolution said some levels relied too much on quick reflexes and memorization, and that some jokes were not funny. He also said the game's difficulty might discourage casual players. Mitchell Dyer of GamePro agreed, saying some very hard levels disrupted the game's flow, especially in boss fights and later chapters.
Legacy
Meat Boy has appeared in several video games, including Bit.Trip Runner, Spelunky, Dust: An Elysian Tail, Ori and the Blind Forest, Retro City Rampage, ilomilo, and Indie Pogo. A parody game called Super Tofu Boy was created by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) on December 1, 2010, to protest the original game and encourage people to choose vegan diets. In response, Team Meat added a version of Tofu Boy to the PC version of Super Meat Boy on December 2, 2010. The success of Super Meat Boy led to the creation of the 1930s-style animated game Cuphead, which is also known for being very challenging.
On August 29, 2014, Team Meat announced a sequel called Super Meat Boy Forever, which was being developed for smartphones, tablets, and Steam. The project did not progress for several years until it was restarted in 2017 without the help of McMillen. In August 2017, the game was confirmed to be released for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, iOS, and Android. The Switch and Windows versions came out in December 2020, with other platforms releasing the game in 2021.
A new game titled Super Meat Boy 3D was announced at the Xbox Games Showcase in 2025. It is being developed by Team Meat and Sluggerfly and was released on March 31, 2026.