Super Meat Boy

Development history

The game's developers envisioned Super Meat Boy as a "flagship" indie game, which is why there are a large number of guest characters from other indie titles. They originally wanted to also include Quote from Cave Story and Lemeza Kosugi from La•Mulana, but the developers of those games declined the request.

Though it was originally announced as a WiiWare exclusive title, the WiiWare release was eventually canceled in December 2010. The developers were unable to get the file within Nintendo's size limit of 40MB without cutting most of the music. They also stated that a disc release was unlikely, as the publishers they contacted said there is no money in third-party retail for the Wii.

Inspiration

Each of the introductions to the different game worlds is based on a famous video game. The scenery is re-envisioned and of course replaced with the characters from Super Meat Boy:* World 1: Street Fighter II * World 2: Castlevania * World 3: Adventures of Lolo * World 4: Ninja Gaiden * World 5: Mega Man 2 * World 6: Pokémon Blue * World 7: Ghosts 'N Goblins * World 0 (XBLA exclusive): Bubble Bobble

The Super Mario games also offered a lot of inspiration for various more general design choices. The replay system was inspired by the Quantum Mario video.

Iron Man Runs

The PC version has additional achievements called Iron Man Runs. Every chapter has this achievement and it is obtained by completing 20 levels in a chapter in succession, without being killed once. It was left out of the Xbox 360 version because Microsoft limits the amount of achievements to 12 for XBLA games.

Level editor

An official level editor for the Windows version of the game was released on 5th May 2011. It is added automatically through a Steam update.

Parodies

In December 2010, animal rights organization PETA released a free flash parody of Super Meat Boy called Super Tofu Boy. SMB developers Team Meat took it as a complement, and in turn added Tofu Boy as a hidden playable character to the PC version of Super Meat Boy the very next day. Tofu Boy boasts incredibly low mobility, and it is impossible to finish most stages using him. They also posted a response to PETA on their Twitter account: "How many Peta members does it take to change a lightbulb?.... None, Peta can't change anything." In December 2010 Dutch developer Vlambeer also responded to PETA's parody, with a game: Super Puppy Boy.

Sales

As of 2012, the game sold over one million copies. About 750.000 of those copies were sold on PC.

Unlockable characters

Many of the playable characters that are unlocked by completing warp zones and collecting bandages come from famous indie games. Each character has a different ability.* Alien Hominid (Alien Hominid games - Xbox 360 version and Windows Ultra Edition only) * Commander Video (Bit. Trip series) * Flywrench (Flywrench) * Gish (Gish - Xbox 360 version only) * Goo Ball (World of Goo - PC version only, replaced with Headcrab in the Steam release, but there is a code to unlock it in that version as well) * Headcrab (Half-Life series - PC version only and exclusive to the Steam release) * Jill (Mighty Jill Off) * Josef (Machinarium - PC version only) * Mr. Minecraft (Minecraft - PC version only) * Naija (Aquaria - PC version only) * Ogmo (Jumper!) * Pink Knight (Castle Crashers - Xbox 360 version only) * RunMan (RunMan series - PC version only) * Spelunky (Spelunky - Xbox 360 version only) * The Kid (I Wanna Be The Guy: The Movie: The Game) * The Ninja (N series - Xbox 360 version only) * Tim (Braid - Xbox 360 version only) * Tofu Boy (Super Tofu Boy - PC version only) * Viridian (VVVVVV - PC version only)

Awards

• Steam Awards
  • 2016 — The 'Love/Hate Relationship' Award — Nominated