To know Super Meat Boy is to know pain. Any player of the original, beloved title will regale you with the stories of their hundreds (thousands?) of deaths that it took them to complete the game. And yet, that’s what Meat Boy is based upon. These games are going to kick your butt, but you’re going to enjoy the arduous journey if you can hack it.

Enter Super Meat Boy 3D, the next title in the series that is primed to slice our little hero in half, time and time again, but from many different directions this go-round. Our meat-wad pal is going to need more bandages than ever this time, but rest assured that it’ll all be worth the pain and struggle in the end.

Ultimately, Super Meat Boy 3D isn’t really reinventing any wheels. If you’re like me, however, you won’t really care. At the end of the day, this is another high-level, precision-based platformer that this diehard fan of the genre wound up having a great time with by the conclusion. Rev up those sawblades, and let’s get into it.

What 3D Really Means for Meat Boy

For anyone hoping that the transition to the third dimension might also mean some drastic switch-ups to the series and make it feel more like other modern 3D platformer classics like Mario Odyssey or Astro bot, Super Meat Boy 3D really isn’t that game. But that’s also entirely okay. We’re still just chasing after Dr. Fetus to rescue Bandage Girl simply because we need an excuse to complete hundreds of grueling precision platforming gauntlets.

If that’s what you’re expecting from Super Meat Boy 3D, the game is going to deliver in spades. Previously a side-scrolling franchise, we’re now controlling Meat Boy in a 3D space, and it feels amazing to do so. The game has two control options, one that locks Meat Boy into eight directions of exact motion, and another that allows you to manipulate him freely. While I suppose it’s less precise overall, I opted for the free motion for my entire time with the game, as I felt more in control overall.

Aside from this one big change in perspective, Super Meat Boy 3D kind of feels like the greatest hits of the series as you jump up walls, make crazy gaps, and precisely maneuver around thousands of sawblades on your way to attempt to collect Bandage Girl at the end of the stage, only for Dr. Fetus to violently thwart you at the last second and flip you the bird in the process.

Presentation-wise, it all looks great in motion. Super Meat Boy 3D has a lovely sheen to it that we’ve never seen from Team Meat before, and they did a great job. Character models are squishy and charming, levels are alive with squirrels and robots wandering around the stages, and of course, the metal music serving as the backbone of the soundtrack is as fun as ever.

There’s also now a nice, Mario-style overworld to walk around between stages, and while it lacks any real secrets to discover along the way, it’s a nice touch for the game and serves to add a more premium, polished feel to Meat Boy overall as it makes the jump to the 3D space.

The wheel is not reinvented here. It’s Super Meat Boy, but now it looks better and moves in more directions than it used to. And… Well, that’s kind of the pitch. I’d argue, however, that this ends up serving the game very well. It’s not trying to do too much. It’s just fun, and of course, demanding.

Speed-Based, Precise, Demanding Platforming

A platformer is only as good as its movement, and Super Meat Boy 3D is built upon a model of locomotion that feels really, really good pretty much consistently. It’s now a little floatier in the 3D space, but you get the feel for it nearly immediately, and it feels perfect for what this game is going for.

You have a jump, a sprint, a dash, a (pretty much optional) ground pound to be able to drop from the air on a dime, and the ability to climb up and slide down walls. It’s a no-frills control scheme that ensures you’re really only going to be responsible for platforming and platforming alone, which ends up feeling very refreshing in a genre that will sometimes get in its own way with too much to manage in terms of movement.

Levels are all short and can typically be completed in a minute or less, much like you know from the Meat Boys of old. That means your time is going to be spent perfecting and learning these levels, shooting for faster times as you go, and dying countless times along the way. Each level is a new platforming dance to master, and that rewarding feeling of finally making it to the end in one piece is very much alive and well.

It feels great to optimize your stage routing, with dozens of moments where you’ll think, “Wait, can I just full-send it over this gap and create my own shortcut?” This makes replaying levels over and over a blast as you start to perfect and memorize every precise controller input required to survive.

While each stage obviously gets harder and harder as you progress, it also remains very fair feeling. At least, for the most part. There were a couple of levels here and there that felt like the timing was just a bit too precise to actually be fun, resulting in a few dozen too many retries to actually come out on top. Thankfully, these instances are rare.

I’ll also say that while the game typically functions wonderfully in 3D, there are certain jumps here and there where the depth of the stage is genuinely deceptive, and you’ll miss a jump and die because you just can’t really tell where you are on the stage. Again, this doesn’t happen frequently, but it’s an occurrence nonetheless. Overall, however, the movement in Super Meat Boy 3D is slick, and it feels awesome to control. It’s also going to be a speedrunner’s paradise.

Chase Sequence and Survival-Based Bosses

The other big thing this time around is that Super Meat Boy 3D has boss fights, of which there are five of in the main campaign. These fights cap off each main world, and are also bookended by some nifty cutscenes to make them feel like even more of an event. Each boss fight is a spectacle in itself, and many of the baddies are pretty intimidating in scope, design, and required execution to claim a victory and move on.

Since Super Meat Boy 3D doesn’t have any combat, that means these “fights” are actually more of “encounters.” In practice, they’re a mix of chase sequences and endurance tests in which you’re tasked with outrunning or simply surviving long enough in order to trigger the next cutscene where each boss finally meets their demise in a grand, satisfying fashion.

For the most part, these are very fun experiences within Super Meat Boy 3D. The first boss will have you dodging giant chainsaw arms, missiles, explosives, and falling platforms before you reach the end of the stage, and it runs out of real estate to continue chasing you. Other fights are static in location, and require you to dodge around the arena long enough until a boss injures itself and dies by its own hand (or tentacle).

Kind of fitting the theme of the rest of this review so far, these experiences are cool, but not necessarily revolutionary ideas or designs. That’s okay once again, however, as Super Meat Boy 3D really does seem to be going for fun and challenge over complete genre reinvention.

I will say there are (of course) a couple of bosses I didn’t like as much as the others, and in one case, this led to a bit of unfortunate frustration. There’s one chase sequence boss where I truly felt like I was going too fast/precise through at times, which led to obstacles and attacks not lining up how they should’ve. It’s not great to feel punished for being too good at a section, and I do believe this was happening in one instance.

All that aside, the boss encounters in Super Meat Boy 3D are cool, and while none are actually as challenging overall as the levels in the game themselves, they’re good additions that break up the game nicely between worlds.

Tons of Content and Ways to Switch Things Up

Speaking of Super Meat Boy 3D’s worlds, while there are five in total, each also has a Light World and Dark World variation, essentially doubling the amount of content in the game from what you can see initially on the surface. Finish a Light World level with an A+ time, and you’ll unlock the Dark World version to tackle next.

The Dark World levels are entirely optional, but they’re also where the real challenge of Super Meat Boy 3D actually lives. These stages range from tough as nails to absolutely downright ridiculous in difficulty, which honestly is probably what the true vets of the series will be looking for.

Each world has 15 stages, but since they all also have this Dark World variant across the five worlds, that means Super Meat Boy 3D ends up at a whopping total of 150 levels, plus the five bosses, as well as one additional secret level per world that you’ll unlock by finding a hidden exit within specific stages.

These secret levels are simply awesome, and I don’t want to spoil them for you. To put it plainly, each of the five is themed after another classic video game. Some, you could probably predict. Others are genuinely shocking deep-cut references to N64-era titles that I truly didn’t even realize anyone thought about anymore, let alone design an entire modern video game level around them. It’s pretty cool stuff.

Each level also has a bandage to collect in a hidden or hard to reach location. That makes the collection aspect of Super Meat Boy 3D feels great, as you’ll always be weighing the pros and cons of attempting to collect a bandage and complete a stage, or skip it and come back if you’re just hoping to make it out in one piece, bandage be damned (for now).

Bandages unlock new characters, many of which fundamentally change how the game functions. Meatball Boy, for example, constantly bounces up and down like a dribbling basketball. Completing stages as him, while totally optional, adds an entire new element to the gameplay. All of these characters, combined with the Dark World levels and bandages to collect, means that Super Meat Boy 3D has a ton to keep you busy with for a long time.

Super Meat Boy 3D isn’t exactly a massive leap for the franchise when compared to other side-scrollers that have made the jump to a new dimension, but that’s okay. What’s here is the high-level, fluid, and precise platforming you’d expect, and that fans of the series have come to adore. Yes, you will die thousands of times by the end, but that’s also the point. There are small design hiccups here and there in terms of a few levels that don’t feel fair, a couple less memorable bosses, and the added depth sometimes playing tricks on your brain. At the end of the day, however, Super Meat Boy 3D is a blast, and I’m looking forward to shaving off tenths of seconds from my record times on each and every level.