| Super Meat Boy 3D | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Overview
What is Super Meat Boy 3D?
Super Meat Boy 3D is an action-platforming game where players navigate through saws, crushers, and near-impossible platforming puzzles across a variety of stages to save Bandage Girl from the hands of the dreaded Doctor Fetus. Following the original Super Meat Boy’s indie legacy from 2010 under Team Meat, Super Meat Boy 3D features the same punishing precision platforming challenges through a whole new dimension.
Super Meat Boy 3D features:
⚫︎ 150+ precision platforming levels
⚫︎ Unlockable Dark World versions for all playable levels
⚫︎ Collectible bandage currency for new characters
⚫︎ 20 unlockable characters
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Super Meat Boy 3D’s gameplay and story.
| Digital Storefronts | |||||
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 Steam |
 PS |
 Xbox |
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 Switch 2 |
 Epic Games |
$24.99 | |||
Super Meat Boy 3D Review: Smashing Controllers and Expectations
Meat’s Back on the Menu for Us Meat Boy Fans
I’ve always been a fan of Edmund McMillen’s games, though, at least for the early days of my following, this fandom was limited to the Isaac IP. I was aware that he had other games he’s made in collaboration with other devs, but they just didn’t tickle my fancy at first because I was a staunch non-believer in platformer game supremacy.
The keyword being "was" in that anecdote, because I did eventually change my tune when I tried the original Super Meat Boy, which itself followed Meat Boy. I credit this game with enabling my current love for the genre, and being the one to review Super Meat Boy 3D filled me with as much excitement as the original did.
I expected a 3D rehash, though, unfaithful as that sounds. Too often has that been the case in recent times that it’s difficult to expect otherwise. Yet another indie legend falls, so on and so forth. Fortunately, McMillen and the folks at Team Meat have more integrity than that, delivering a derivative, but great 3D platforming game that takes the best from the original to a new dimension. Your controllers aren’t safe, and neither are your expectations.
Dr.Fetus is Back at it Again
So, diving into the game’s setting and premise first, Super Meat Boy 3D sees the protagonist, Meat Boy, chasing after Dr. Fetus and Bandage Girl, the latter of whom has been kidnapped and held against her will. It’s up to you to run, jump, and parkour through Fetus’s various platforming stages to get to her and save the day. Standard stuff, and if you’ve played Super Meat Boy, it’s pretty much just that game’s story, but now in sweet 3D.
If you’re taken aback by the odd choice of characters for this game, with the main trio being a sentient blob of meat, an intelligent fetus in a jar with a top hat, and a feminine cube of bandages, you’re not alone. This assortment’s been weirding out the uninitiated since the late 2000’s. I’d chalk it up to McMillen’s usual brand of gross-out humor, mixed in with some Flash-era quirkiness.
This really isn’t the issue for this game’s story, since weird characters make sense in context and do well for the IP’s unique charm. No, the issue is that the game’s premise is already simple as it is; it isn’t even original.
This doesn’t dock too many points for the game, but it doesn’t help assuage the expectations of another lazy remake. I’m not too happy about this particular choice from the game’s writers, but hey, at least the story was never the focus of Super Meat Boy to begin with. No, that would be hair-tearing frustration brought on by a borderline ragebait of a game.
Celebrating Your Inevitable Failure with Great Game Design
Super Meat Boy 3D is a precision platformer. To some extent, so are most Mario games, but this one isn’t shy about its difficulty and has its gore turned up to 11. Although its controls are as simple as pressing something to jump, dash, and wall ride, the levels themselves are anything but. Every possible landing, turn around a corner, or dash is bordered by grinding wheels, whirring saws, and acid pits, all in an effort to turn your little meat cube guy into a littler meat cube guy.
That’s what the Meat Boy IP’s been about since the very beginning—hair-tearing, peripheral-breaking difficulty punctuated by playground humor. To that end, representing its legacy with similar mechanics and just as punishing, Super Meat Boy 3D is a good product with an additional layer of complexity on top of it.
Whereas Super Meat Boy was a 2D precision platformer, as its title would suggest, Super Meat Boy 3D brings the ragebait to the third dimension. This isn’t a minor change at all, since a new dimension brings with it more than double the potential for platforming design. No longer confined to just X and Y axes for trap and platform placement, the devs took full advantage of the medium and created over 150 levels of pure, meat-grinding fun.
Without being hyperbolic, this is among the most entertaining bouts of frustration I’ve suffered/enjoyed since the rage platformers of the early 2010’s. Since the game doesn’t have any random elements or progression to speak of apart from new levels and characters, it’s all skill and repetition at work here, and if that’s your cup of tea, then this game’s your Bovril.
What truly begs praise here is how aware the game is about its own difficulty and has game infrastructure in place for you to make the most of the purposefully frustrating experience. Stages replay all your runs at once when you finally complete it, just so that sense of accomplishment hits home. You see every learning moment as the stage progresses, until that final, fateful one finally takes home the win.
The game counts how many times you died as well, while also painting the course with your guts from all your previous attempts to act as a real-time chronicle of your mishaps and brain farts. Simply put, this game celebrates failure as much as it rewards success, making for itself a positive feedback loop of discovery, learning, tribulation, and success.
That’s all to say that it gets addictive as much as it gets frustrating, although the latter does win more often than not. It’s no secret that you’ll have your patience and poker face tested by this game as a feature, but did you know that Super Meat Boy 3D can make you suffer more if you ask nicely?
Something for the Newbies, Something for the Masochists
As good as it is, Super Meat Boy 3D would just be a rehash if all it did was do everything Super Meat Boy did, but in 3D. The new dimension of platforming is great and all, but at a time when remakes slap on a new coat of paint and ask for $30 after, it’s fair to ask for a little more. Enter the Dark World, a new and nightmarish mirror of completed levels that puts any and all Meat Boy levels before and within this game to shame.
These levels are unlocked by finishing the normal levels within a certain time limit, usually to an absurd degree, like 10 seconds or less. It’s a test just getting to these levels at all, but that difficulty is nothing compared to the challenge they actually contain. To say that every inch of the stage is dotted with hazards such that it’s not clear which direction you’re supposed to go isn’t an exaggeration. Paired with the blacklight theming and revamped music, it’s a completely separate experience that only the best can get to.
At the exact opposite end of the spectrum is a deliberate design choice that assists greenhorns more than anybody else. Unlike most platforming games, where progress is linear and completely reliant on players completing levels in order, Super Meat Boy 3D levels can be played in any order within each major section, with a boss fight capping off the act.
To clarify, players can tackle levels within each act as they wish, but they need not finish them all to unlock the boss fight, which unlocks the next act once completed. Just a bit over half the levels completed is enough to have a shot at the boss, and I’m thankful for that.
Much as I love the genre, I’m no god of platforming, evidenced by my double–digit attempt counts for even just the first act’s levels. Being able to take a breather and do another level while stuck on a particularly tough one is everything I need to keep going, and I imagine it’s the same for many others as well. This dedication to accessibility, while not sacrificing challenge, spells mastery of the craft for me, and who else but Team Meat to achieve such a feat?
Sadly, while they did try to make it more accessible, the sad reality is that this game remains daunting for the unskilled.
Easier, But Not Easy, With Pointless Boss Fights to Boot
It’s not all ups for Super Meat Boy 3D, as much as I’d love to grant it that. The game is easier, but remains difficult, and the all too familiar problem of platforming boss fights continues to fester in its gut.
Tackling the first downside, Super Meat Boy 3D made steps to make things easier for newbies through its non-linear progression and provision of unlockable characters that have new, helpful abilities to assist traversal. Unfortunately, non-linear progress only softens the blow, and it’s very possible that some players can’t finish ANY level and can’t progress, much less see the Dark World.
The new characters can only be unlocked by collecting enough bandages from levels, which are usually off the beaten path of the platforming course, requiring great skill to reach in the first place. You see the problem here? New characters make things easier, but you need to be good already to even unlock them. This poses an accessibility problem for this game, although it does help make things easier in other, albeit insufficient ways.
Auto-run helps players who can’t hold the run button well, while color-blind filters assist differently-abled players in making distinctions between platforms and backgrounds. A red circle below an airborne character also helps players estimate their landing, removing the main issue of the 3D platforming environment. Gameplay remains the biggest hurdle, though, and at some point, players will be forced to "git gud" to progress, no ifs or buts about it.
And what about the boss fights? I’ve never been a fan of platformer bosses because they’re either just extended puzzles or battles of attrition that play out automatically; you just need to survive. This game’s bosses are decidedly the latter, with boss fights just being particularly dynamic levels you need to reach the end of.
Done well, platforming boss fights can be transformative experiences. Cuphead has an entire game’s worth of those, and something Hollow Knight has other things to go with platforming to spice things up. Sadly, nothing differentiates Super Meat Boy 3D’s boss fights from its Dark World levels. In some cases, the latter trumps the former in difficulty.
Not Just a 3D Rehash, But Not Wholly Unique Either
And here we land at the end of Super Meat Boy 3D’s review. It’s a good game with great mechanics and an unabashed difficulty that celebrates failure as much as it encourages success. Although a great many precautions are in place to keep frustration to a minimum, the core of the game’s mechanics presents an accessibility problem for unskilled players, and there’s no saving anybody from the boring menace of a pointless platforming boss encounter.
That said, it’s a great game that’s presented well through its cartoony 3D graphics, with catchy music you wouldn’t mind hearing repeatedly across tens of level restarts. The story is recycled, sure, but that was never what Meat Boy was about. As long as controllers are being shattered, you can count on your expectations to soon follow.
Is Super Meat Boy 3D Worth It?
Not Everyone Can Appreciate Its Value, But Worth It Otherwise
Though Super Meat Boy 3D comes in at a respectable $24.99, how much value the game pays back can vary from player to player. For someone looking to punish themselves and their thumbs, this game is a steal for how many levels it has. For anyone who just wants to play a platformer with some challenge, it can vary from okay to middling. For someone looking for something more laid back, maybe just pass on this one, because you’re getting anything but that.
Of course, you can always play until you "git gud" but not everyone has the impetus or capacity to do that, so it’s all a matter of context whether this game ends up being a steal or a lukewarm purchase.
FAQ
How Do I Unlock Tofu Boy in Super Meat Boy 3D?
To unlock Tofu Boy in the 2026 game Super Meat Boy 3D, players must complete the Visceraville Dark World level.
How Do I Find Secret Levels in Super Meat Boy 3D?
Secret levels are special, hard-to-find purple portals scattered across each of the worlds in Super Meat Boy 3D. Players can find secret levels in the following levels:
⚫︎ World 1 (Level 12)
⚫︎ World 2 (Level 14)
⚫︎ World 3 (Level 8)
⚫︎ World 4 (Level 7)
⚫︎ World 5 (Level 4)
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