If at first you don't succeed... die, die, again

Team Meat has announced that its sweat-inducing platformer Super Meat Boy Forever will fina?lly be bringing its gooey, multi-death acti??on to PS4 and Xbox One on April 16, following on from its release on PC and Nintendo Switch back in January.

Super Meat Boy Forever sees our bloody, cubic friend, (accompanied by Bandage Girl and a battalion of unlockable guest stars), partake? in a non-stop gauntlet of procedurally generated levels, auto-running their way through buzzsaws, salt fountains, deadly drops, spike pits and other hazards as they attempt to rescue their mischievous child, Nugget, from the clutches of the returning Dr. Fetus.

While the style and aesthetic of Team Meat's seminal 2010 release is instantly recognizable, SMB Forever takes risks with its gameplay which do not entirely pay off. The sequel's dramatic cutscenes, wicked sense of humor, sharp visuals, and creative boss battles are a treat, but the lack of character control, auto-run mechanics, and world seed system might not be to everyone's taste. Regardless, SMB Forever?? is a decent, challenging platformer, and worth a few of your lazy af?ternoons.

Super Meat Boy Forever launches April 16 on PS4 and Xbox One. Check out our review right here.

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Welcome to the World of Tomorrow

It is now - officially - a brand new year. I was starting to think that we'd never get here. I sincerely hope 2021 brings you much joy, success, and happiness. Do err on the side of caution, however. The date is merely a number, after all, and we are not suddenly auto-immune from the myriad problems that troubled the planet over the course of 2020. There is definitely hope a?head, and that's beautiful, but stay safe and be wary of falling into the?? "New Year = No Problems" mentality that some have chosen.

This week has seen me smashing through a selection of games new and old, in-between bouts of grumbling onto the scales and feeling blue about what the festive week has done to my waistline. I've been barrelling through the run 'n' jump chaos of Super Meat Boy Forever, (of which you can expect a review very soon indeed), while also chipping away at a 100% completion rate in Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. The latter has seduced me with secret protagonist Bloodless, however, who now has me gallivanting around Hellhold Cas??tle all over again. Curse her and her adorable guillotine parasol.

Anywhoo, I gotta get back to work. It's a new year and there is much to do. But thank you, as always, for taking the time to stop by. Be sure to dive into the comments and share with us the video games that are ringing in the new year for you. Whether you're picking through your backlog, playing some newly acquired releases, or just chilling with familiar favorites, fill us in on the action. We always, always enjoy hearing all about it.

Have a safe and pleasant weekend, from all of? us at Destructoid.

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Prepare to die

It's a little sadist of Team Meat to make the masochists wait an extra month. But, I guess ??the masoc?hists will appreciate that punishment.

During last week's Game Awards, we found out that Super Meat Boy Forever is launching on the Epic Games Store on December 23. It spurred us to email PR and ask about timing of the console versions. We got a big ol' "We're not talking about [that] right now." With this morning's announcement that Super Meat Boy Forever will be? a Switch exclusive at launch, the vague non-answer made a lot more sen?se.

Other platforms won't have to wait too long to jump in the grinder. PlayStation and Xbox versions of Super Meat Boy Forever are expected about one mont?h later. That presumably means eit?her late January or early February.

I, for one, am fine waiting another month. My reflexes go into hibernation at the end of the year. I just want to wrap up December with the least stressful games you can imagine. Then, once the new year hits, I'm back to peak performance. In fact, I might just wait until summer. Super Meat Boy Forever feels like it has big June vibes (or may?be my Vibe-O-Meter isn't calibrated co??rrectly).

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What a nice surprise

So many announcements come quite quickly during the Game Awards, and it can be easy to miss one or two of them. This one almost got by us, but I'm happy to say the wait for Super Meat Boy Forever is almost over. As revealed ??in the blink-and-you-miss-it trailer, the game hits Epic ?Games Store on December 23, 2020.

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Plus, plans for a movie and a third game

Super Meat Boy Forever feels like ??it's taking, well, forever. Originally set for April, Team Meat had to delay and set a ??new imprecise launch date of "After but not too far after April 2019." Now five months later, the clock keeps ticking and there's no end in sight. What's the deal?

"I'm terrible at estimating time," Team Meat head Tommy Refenes tells me at PAX West. "It's literally 'Oh yeah -- it takes a long time to make, test, and decorate thousands and thousands of levels.' That's what it ??is. You would think we got to a point where we had like a thousand levels and we couldn't do anything more with it. But we actually have to cut it down so that we can get the game out. Then, we'll expand on that. It's not that I'm unhappy with anything, it's that I'm terrible at? estimating time."

As for an official update as to how close Super Meat Boy Forever is to being finished, Refenes offers "It's getting there." He elaborates "We have the ?entire soundtrack done, we have almost 55 minutes of fully-animated cutscenes all done. We're testing levels, making Dark World levels, and making adjustments. I think we're going to launch with 5,500 levels. I really underestimated with April. But I don't ever want to guess again until [all the content is finished] because then it's all me. It's jus?t getting it through certification and fixing bugs and stuff like that. Then at that point, I'll go 'Okay, it'll be like two months' or whatever."

If that sounds like a massive undertaking, that's because it is. "It was really kind of dumb to [add that much content]," Refenes relents. "But the end result is a Meat Boy game tha?t has more levels in the first three levels than the original had in the entire game. It's ambitious. I think that's the term for it."

In some ways, this development allows Refenes to spread his wings more than usual. He's branching out and trying some new things. "I got to actually split my talents a little bit because I wrote the script for all the cutscenes," he says.  [They're] like ??movie scripts, and I've been working with the an??imators to actually direct them. That has been fun. In doing that, I actually planned the next game in the series because there is a third game I want to do."

These animated scenes may be a godsend for anyone who wants to see the Meat Boy lore without subjecting themselves to the grueling punishment of actually making it through Forever. Refenes plans to essentially adapt the game into a movie. "When the game's out, we have all these cutscenes. They're like boss intro, you fight the boss, boss outro. We're going to animate the boss fights and then put it together in like an 80-minute Blu-Ray or someth?ing," Refenes teased. "Because why not? I'm excited about doing that because I've always wanted to make a movie, and then I kinda did."

As for the future, Refenes intends for Super Meat Boy to be a trilogy. "I mentioned the third game I want to do. I think we're gonna start on that pretty quick [after Forever is finished]," he says. "But it'll be a much more relaxed 'Let's just start a game.' It won't have been nine years since I launched the other one." Fans can expect the pace to pick up and the wait to be a lot shorter. "Every three years sounds pretty good?? for a giant Team Meat game," Refenes concludes.

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'I don't know who wouldn't take that deal'

When Super Meat Boy Forever eventually launches, the PC version will only be available on the Epic Games Store. That's a growing trend in the PC market, as Epic has made a concentrated effort to ink big-time names to exclusivity agreements. Super Meat Boy Forever was one of the first, with its year-lo?n?g exclusivity announced shortly after the store itself was unveiled.

Super Meat Boy co-creator Tommy Refenes says Epic's offer was so attractive that he had no problem ditching Steam. In an interview with Destructoid ?at PAX West, Refenes reminisced on that initial pitch meeting.

"They told me they want Super Meat Boy Forever on the Epic Games Store but it would be a year exclusive. At first, I was kind of like 'Oh...okay," Refenes explained. "Then they said they would guarantee our sales. Even then, I'm kind of like 'I don't eve??n know what to ask for. So, run the numbers and tell me what you would offer.' They did, and I was like 'Yes!' It was a total no-brainer. After I got the numbers, the level of fear of not launching on Steam for PC was immediately allev?iated."

That's Epic's appeal. It's mitigating a lot of risk out of video game creation by guaranteein??g that developers will break even at a bare minimum. It's a more sustainable model for developers. Refenes says "That's huge. That's huge for anyone in any?? industry to be like 'When you get done with your work, you're definitely going to make this much.' I don't know who ??wouldn't take that deal."

Refenes adds that Epic's level of support "is beyond anything [we've gotten before]." The promotion that Super Meat Boy Forever has received is something that generally doesn't happen without a major publisher's backing. "We announced at The Game Awards??, and these are things that I'm not going to get anywhere else. To actually have Meat Boy on the screen at The G?ame Awards is nuts."

That being said, Refenes expected the pushback on the consumer side. "Gaming is a super important thing? to a lot of people. It's a part of their lives," he explains. "When something comes up and challenges ??that, it's completely reasonable for the reaction to kind of assume the worst is going to happen. I can see the passion of having something that's near and dear to you change, and being averse to that change."

He continues "I was completely expecting that, and I was completely expectin??g people to bring up ??Tencent stuff. What's unfortunate is that the concerns some p?eople have are reasonable. You have people who are like 'It's not that great of a store' or whatev??er. But then you have the wild bullshit of Chinese spyware conspiracy theory crap. It's like 'Okay, you people shut up' because the people who have actual concerns are being drowned out, and I think it's a shame. They all get lumped together."

At the end of the day, Refenes seems perfectly happy with his Epic deal and the safety net it affords -- even if he ends up losing some sales from people who refuse to buy on the Epic Games Store. It might not even make much of a difference. "I feel like people are going to buy games on PC because that's what we've?? done. Steam i??s a way to buy games, but it's not the only place that sells them and it's not the only place that's successful."

We'll have more fro??m our interview with Team Meat's Tommy Refenes ?next week.

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This steak needs a little more time on the grill

Super Meat Boy Forever was supposed to finally release in April after a development that seemed to take, ahem, forever. That's not going to hap?pen.

Team Meat has announced that Super Meat Boy Forever is m??issing its launch window. The new official release date is "After but not too far after April 2019." Team Meat explains that it's working at a quick-but-healthy ?pace, and pushing to release by the end of the month would veer into unhealthy habits for the developers. That seems perfectly reasonable.

Along the way, Team Meat took a spicy swipe at Electronic Arts by saying it "isn't some studio owned by an Evil Asshat corporation that has say over what we do and how we do it." We don't need a cryptics expert to break down the initials spelling out "EA." This comes in the wake of Kotaku's report earlier this week that exposed the stressful working conditions BioWare employees endured to pump out Anthem on schedule.

So, sure -- take as much time as you need to finish Super Meat Boy Forever. A bit of disappointment from players is a sacrifice that's a drop in the ocean compared to the potentially harmful effects of needlessly crunching. We'll live. Well, until Super Meat Boy Forever actually laun?ches; then we'll die over and over.

Here's Team Meat's full statement:

We're almost done, but not quite there yet. pic.twitter.com/vm7q10Xd0n

— Team Meat (@SuperMeatBoy) April 4, 2019

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Another Epic exclusive

One of the big takeaways from The Game Awards last week is that every child of a celebrity is playing Fortnite. Also, this new Epic Store is in it to win it. Several games have pushed back Steam releases to give the Epic Store PC launch exclusivity and, as we learned during the Kinda Funny Games Showcase, Super Meat Boy Forever is among those titles. The runner, w?hich we've loved every time we've tried it out, will l?aunch this April on consoles and in the Epic Store.

Obviously, some people on Twitter were not happy with the news, but I contend nobody is ever happy on Twitter. According to PC Gamer, Team Meat confirmed on the game's Discord Channel that Super Meat Boy Forever will remain PC exclusive to the Epic Store for a year. The planned mobile version of the game will also not be supported at launch as according to the Team Meat Twitter feed, it is "not a priority at this time."

Super Meat Boy Forever release date window set, ??will be Epic Store exclusive for a y??ear [PC Gamer}

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Reunited and it feels so good

One of my favorite parts of covering expos is watching developers refine their games over the years, especially when it's smaller projects that blossom into something much more substantial. That's definitely the case with Super Meat Boy Forever. The game has grown from a neat little spin-off to what now feels like a full-blown sequel. It's still an auto-runner, but don't let that scare you off -- Forever captures the spirit of Meat Boy? through and through. Team Meat is looking to subvert?? expectations.

We've spoken at length about Super Meat Boy Forever, so I'll try not to retread familiar ground. At PA??X West, I played several early levels in an updated build and faced a boss. It feels fantastic. The auto-run format might seem like a simplification, but the platforming is no less intricate or demanding.

You're still strategically bouncing between walls and dodging swirling sawblades, but now Meat Boy can punch. The move acts as an air-dash of sorts, and you'll need to make a lot of snap judgments on precisely when to use it to clear obstacles. It will also come up in boss fights, which are less about surviving  and more about, well, fighting. I took on Dr. F?etus in a ta?nk-like contraption with spiky arms.

While I couldn't quite finish out the fight (it's still being tuned for difficulty), and it's better seen than explained, the gist is that you have to hop between the arms and punch weak points on the tank while not getting cut up or falling t??o your death. It was a proper boss in an auto-runner of all places.

I was also impressed with the elaborate new animated cutscenes. They're sup??er cute.

It's easy to imagine Team Meat sticking to its original plans for Super Meat Boy Forever and people liking it just fine as a breather between more ambitious projects. I would've been perfectly fine with that too. Instead, we're getting a thoughtful and worthy follow-up that isn't just more of the same. It's okay to be skeptical of some of the changes, but d??on't write off ?this game until you've played it for yourself.

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Let me clarify...

If you're looking for a detailed preview of Super Meat Boy Forever, Peter has you covered. This post and video are more of a supplement to his post. I happened to stumble upon him playing the game at PAX, and before you knew it, we were chatti??ng with Team Meat boss Tommy Refenes, level designer Kyle Pulver, an??d Dtoid's own Rich Meister in a profoundly distracting way. Peter somehow still managed to get his assignment done on time, with glowing praise for the game no less. What a pro. 

We also got some additional details on the game from Tommy. He told us exactly how this new game manages to cram more levels into its first chapter that its predecessor had in its entirety. We also heard about the Cartoon Network animators he hired for the game, how this toughened up Meat Boy manages to run through broken glass with only a drained life meter to show for it, and the open invitation to Suda51 to consider a Super Meat Boy Forever t-shirt for Travis Strikes Again. 

Off camera, Tommy went even further, showing us a few cutscenes, some plans to implement the classic Super Meat Boy replay system in Forever, and The Betus, a new ??enemy that symbolizes Tommy's longtime struggle with diabetes. It eats Meat Boy whole, but it can't digest him because he's 100 percent sugar-free lean cuts of meat. Instead of finishing him off, The Betus just move??s forward in a daze until the player punches their way out of his maw. This makes this new foe both an obstacle and a means of transportation.

That's just one of the ways that Super Meat Boy Forever takes a new spin with the Meat Boy mythos. It's ?a real treat!?? 

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Running Man

Super Meat Boy meant a lot of things to a lot of people. While talking with Tommy Refenes of Team Meat at PAX East in Boston, a random fan came up and explained how Super Meat Boy basically changed his life. It was a great mom?ent that showed how the power of a really good game can mean the world to just about?? anyone.

Not so many people are aware that the duo that created the original best-selling title are no longer working together. While that split has already been publicly documented, knowing the newest installment in Meat Boy’s journey is only being made by half of the talent behind th?e original could have spelled disaster. Things weren't looking?? up when the game was revealed to be an auto-runner style game.

Talking it over with our own Jonathan Holmes, I expressed my trepi?dation. I wasn’t sure what I felt, because I’m just not big on games that, essentially, play themselves. Holmes then said to me, “Tommy is the kind of guy that prioritizes control and would agonize over it being right, so I’m sure the game plays well.” I don’t know why I doubted him, because Super Meat Boy Forever is as tight as the original.

As a matter of fact, it is the original. While going through a few levels of the PAX build, I was surprised at how damned similar Meat Boy felt here compared to his previous adventure. Turns out this is the same physics engine from Super Meat Boy, just s?tripped of fat like directional controls. That doesn’t mean the game becomes simplified, but the approach to gameplay is ?more focused.

From the trailer above, it might look like this is yet another runner, but applying that label to it is a gross simplification of what Team Meat has actually made. Super Meat Boy Forever is more a two-button platformer that's actually built around the idea of two-buttons. Since Meat Boy can only jump, thrust punch or dive, the level design exploits these mechanics to their fullest. If you thought Super Meat Boy was great in the way it taught mechanics through gameplay, Forever has it beat.

Before I even stepped up to play the game, I watched the demo reel of footage and basically understood everything I needed to know. Meat Boy wi??ll never stop running, so you need to have lightning fast reaction speeds to succeed (which I happen to have). The controls will never be why you fail because they are as tight as ever and are so uncomplicated you can’t mistakenly forget to run (or forget to do anything). You just need to look ahead and react accordingly, which is incredibly varied for a game where your character has a compulsion to move forward all the time.

I made the comparison to Refenes about how Super Mario Run was similar in style but didn’t stick the execution. “Run didn’t feel like Nintendo making a mobile Mario game," he eloquently explained to me "but a mobile game with Mario.” He is absolutely correct because Super Mario Run doesn’t really capture the essence of what the Super Mario series was always about. Super Meat Boy Forever feels remarkably similar to Super Meat Boy and even has the same style of level design.

Curiously, the levels are procedurally generated and still feel tailor-made. As Refenes explains in the video that will go up eventually, there are segments crafted by his team that are then filtered in based on difficulty level (yes, Forever has multiple levels of difficulty?). Each segment is randomly selected in an effort to create unique runs each time.

Since I’m apparently a hot shot, I just walked up, said, “Fuck it” and started on Cruel Mode. Refenes was blown away by how I was sight reading segments and doing incredibly well -- we joked that a new difficulty would have to be made for me -- but as I said above, this was due to my reaction speed. Since I’ve been a big fan of first-person shooters my entire life, my reaction time is pretty damn fast and the mechanics of Forever are simpl??ified to the point where your raw?? skill is what determines your success.

That doesn’t mean Forever isn't for you if you suck at twitch games though, because you don’t need to best levels in a single, continuous run to reach the finish line. I’m not exactly sure how the checkpoint system works, but it appears the game creates one after each major challenge. Refenes did explain that individual levels are long, but each segment is about the length of a level from the first Super Meat Boy. Theoretically, each world has more content than the entirety of Super based on difficulty and random generation.

With the varying levels of difficulty (which starts with ??Hard and progresses to Cruel), it means everyone is bound to find a mode that suits them. If you really are an ace and want to tackle things ??in a single run, the game will also accommodate that playstyle with a nightmarish mode requiring players to beat an entire world without dying. I can’t imagine doing that (even with my skill, I still died a lot), but the choice is yours.

That choice is what helps alleviate a lot of the apprehensions I had before playing Forever. I’ve never been a fan of auto-runner games, but I’m definitely on board with this new version of Meat Boy. It still has all the beautiful artwork from the first game and the physics are literally the same, but the game feels tighter and it provides a stark challenge for those that want it. That sounds exactly like what a sequel to Super Meat Boy should be if you ask me.

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The man behind the meat

I had the chance to speak with Tommy Refenes, one of the co-founders of Team Meat, and he gave me a much clearer understanding of just how much Super Meat Boy Forever has changed over the years. 

As an adamant fan of the original title, on th?e Xbox 360, I’ve been following development on its follow-up for years now. I remember hearing the very first rumblings of a possible sequel, and I remember just how confused I wa??s when I eventually found out that it was being developed for mobile. My naïve, much-less-bald, younger self couldn’t help but wonder, “How the hell is that even going to work?”

It turns ou?t that Mr. Refenes was just as dumbfounded by the concept as I was at first. 

Around the time Super Meat Boy launched, late 2010, the iPhone craze was in full swing... Every major game development company was trying to figure out how to bring their IPs to the phone, and the re??sult was some pretty terrible ports of games that didn’t fit the platform at all, but it didn’t really matter because people wanted to pla?y games on their new devices. 

Super Meat Boy was fresh in people’s minds, and our newly realized fans were no exception to the calls for Super Meat Boy on their phones. We had emails CONSTANTLY asking us when it was coming to iPhone and Android. For me, I always viewed this as odd. I knew these players were fans because they want “more Meat Boy,” but I didn’t understand the desire to play “Super Meat Boy” on their phone. My thinking was that it was a twitch platformer, with precision controls, that would in no way work without buttons. I always hated the idea of “cash in” iPhone games that weren’t designed for the platform but were made anyway... In fact, I gave a GDC talk about it in 2010. In that hatred though, I was actually just being kinda dim, and I wasn’t correctly i??nterpreting what the fans were asking for.

I headed to GDC 2011 with tons of “When’s it coming to iPhone” messages in my brain, and while I was in my hotel room one evening it hit me... This realization that “People don’t want Super Meat Boy as it exists now on their phones... They want a Meat Boy game on their phones... They want a game that FEELS like Meat Boy and makes them feel like they feel when they play Super Meat Boy,” and immediately I thought “this is a challenge! I can do this!” With this new realization (that took me WAY too long to get to), and being bored in a hotel room (I don’t go to parties), I pulled out my laptop that had all of the Super Meat Boy code on it and set out to make a “1 button Meat Boy game.”

After a night of messing around with controls and making a few prototype level concepts, I felt I had something with the potential to feel like Meat Boy but playable with one button or two buttons, which wo?uld translate to a phone screen or any other thi?ng with at least two buttons.

Fast forward three years, and they were readying a build of the game to show off at PAX Prime (now PAX West). They even put together a small, surreal slice of video called, “A Voyeur for September.” This turned out to be a teaser of sorts for the new game. The title was an anagram for “Super Meat Boy Forever,” and Mr. Refenes stated, “I was legit surprised that people figured that out ?almost immediately!” 

By then, he should have known just how rabid and obsessed the fan base was??, but I’m sure tha?t was a real wake-up call. 

They initially intended the new game to be a “palette cleanser in between big projects,&rd?quo; containing around three chapters and nine ??levels. However, life had other plans in store, and the two founders of Team Meat, Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes, parted ways. 

Development on Super Meat Boy Forever stagnated, mostly due to eve?ryday life getting in the way, and Mr. Refenes ended up showing a near-identical build of the game for the next two years at PAX, with minor technical improvements. While they were met with plenty of? delays, it would hardly mark the end for the studio.

Near the very end of 2016, Super Meat Boy and Team Meat moved to me to continue. Work began again on Super Meat Boy Forever in early January 2017. After almost 3 years, I was aching to realize this game. All I had at that time was the prototype from 2014 but no longer was this going to be the palette cleanser game in between big projects…. This was now going to be the big project.

So... I scrapped everything and re-approached the development with “This is Super Meat Boy 2” in mind. I kept the base controls and feel I’d designed, I got rid of all the assets, I got rid of my level generation code, I got rid of the few prototype levels we had, and I started over. Not quite a blank C++ project, but pretty close. I did keep the music because Ridiculon is awesome and timeless.

This time ?around, Refen?es is handling the story, and he’s using it as a means to deal with some of his own insecurities. He managed to turn this into a reflection of his potential future with his wife, Shannon, and their hopes to one day have a child.

I wanted Meat Boy and Bandage Girl to grow as a couple, and I didn’t want to do the exact? same story as last time. Shannon and I have always planned on having kids, but to be completely hon??est, the idea was terrifying to me. I knew that was an irrational fear. I’m a dude with money that lives in a nice place and has good health care... Having a kid shouldn’t make me scared, but it did (and still does a little bit).

I think deep down I created “Nugget,” the daughter of Meat Boy and Bandage Girl, as a way to “get over myself” when it came to? my children fears. In writing Nugget’s character, I’ve made her personality what I would want my child’s to be like. She’s happy, she’s funny, she thinks everything’s a game, and there is an air of joy around her that Dr. Fetus doesn't understand, and it drives him nuts.

??While Nugget is a tremendous source of happiness for Meat Boy and Bandage Girl, she is going to be the exact opposite for Dr. Fetus, and that is really fun to write. She’s a great impetus for Meat Boy and Bandage Girl to kick some serious ass.

According to Mr. Refenes, 2017 marked a major “reset” for Super Meat Boy Forever. Team Meat has been expanded to six other individuals, and he’s even found that he enjoys writing the story thi?s time around, on top of his many other duties.

When asked about Edmund McMillen’s past involvement in Super Meat Boy Forever, despite the fact that he’s no longer a member of Team Meat, Mr. Refenes replied, “I al??ways give credit where credit is due, and having worked in shitty industry jobs with questionable crediting practices, I'm a strong believer in acknowledging the work people have done.”

That’s a refreshing stance in an industry plagued w?ith cynicism. The new game is still scheduled for a 2018 release date, and I can’t wait to finally ??get my hands on it.

The post The evolution of Super Meat Boy Forever appeared first on Destructoid.

Only Meat Boy is forever

The story behind Super Meat Boy was a real underdog tale. Creators Edmund McMillen and Tommy R?efenes had immense pressure to make the game a success and weren't given much help from the likes of Micro?soft on promoting the game. Due to extremely positive word of mouth, the game ended up being a success and set the indie game craze into motion.

You'd think such an experience would bond friends together for life, but apparently that isn't the case. For some reason, McMillen and Refenes parted ways sometime after the cancellation of Mewgenics. This past weekend, Eurogamer interviewed Refenes on the upcoming Super Meat Boy Forever and finally got some answers as to why the duo se??parated.

As Tommy puts it:

It's one of those things. It was a giant part of my life but people grow, people change, your views on things change. And unfortunately sometimes people just grow in different directions. It's a? natural thing. It's something you could sit and be angry about but it doesn't get you anywhere...

The way I feel is similar in that I'm happy as hell to be working on Super Meat Boy Forever and as far as work happiness goes, I'm right back where I was during the non-stressful parts of Super Meat Boy development back in 2009-2010. I'm ??not happy about the loss of a partner, I'm happy that everything feels fresh new an?d important again. I love seeing people react to things I've created and I haven't felt that in a long time.

??I don't regret anything - even the things I think I would change, I don't regret, because I'm way happier. I can't speak for anyone else, but I know I am.

Honestly, it's just people grow in different directions. I think stuff's going pretty well for both of us - and ultimately that's good fo?r everybody. More games are good.

While that is sad to hear, it is a very reasonable explanation. I doubt there was any kind of drama or anger behind the scenes. Edmund started to gain traction on his own through The Binding of Isaac and probably dedicated more time to that game than any Team Meat productions. It makes sense and it's pointles?s to hold a grudge when someone is just trying to make a living. All we can do is accept this and move on.

Super Meat Boy Forever and the return of Team Meat [Eurogamer]

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They had a baby!

Super Meat Boy Forever lives!

Originally announced years ago as an auto-run platformer for PC and tablets, it has re?surfaced and is now planned for Steam, Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Ni??ntendo Switch, iOS, and Android in 2018.

"To describe [the game] as an auto-runner would be a disservice," says Team Meat. "It's like saying that Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a game about a swordsman. Meat Boy / Bandage Girl do always run, but there is so much more to the game than running. They can attack enemies, they can dash through the air, there are tons of levels, there are bosses, there are secrets, and there is a surprising amount of difficulty that doesn’t feel unfair. It's everything you would expect a Super Meat Boy sequel to be."

Nugget is all that's good in this ??world. I'm already emotionally invested.

Another note: "Levels are dynamically constructed based on difficulty. Each time you beat a level, it reconstructs into a harder version of itself (up to a point...we aren't gods)." Super Meat Boy Forever has a "system that allows us to give a criteria of difficulty and pacing that makes the levels randomly, but still wit??hin th??e confines of what we want the levels to be presented as," according to Team Meat.

I'm looking forward to attempting to overcom??e the ridiculous challenges that await.

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Team Meat has hinted at it multiple times

Super Meat Boy Forever was unveiled in 2014, but we're getting closer to a release. A release that may involve the Switch actually, as developer Team Meat has hinted multiple times that they're all in on the system, and that when they announce platforms "soon," that Switch fans "won't be disappointed." Edmund McMillen's latest project, The End is Nigh, is also Switch-bound, and Forever just got a new logo and will be at PAX to boot -- so they've been busy.

As you might have guessed (if you weren't aware already), the Forever in the name indicates that it's an endless runner, but Team Meat's crew has vowed multiple times that it's not as shallow as a lot of other mobile titles. There's lots of examples of that already (Jetpack Joyride for?? one), but I'm still in wait and see mode for this one.

End is Nigh though? I'll be there instantly.

Team Meat [Twitter]

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Team Meat's new auto-runner is just brutal

Team Meat's new project Super Meat Boy Forever made its first appearanc?e today at PAX Prime in Seattle -- and it makes the original g?ame look like a cakewalk by comparison.

The newly revealed title is an auto-run platformer in the vein of Bit.Trip Runner following?? our eponymous hero journey? through obstacle courses laden with deadly traps. Players will need to navigate treacherous gaps and elaborate configurations of saw blades in hopes of reuniting with Meat Boy's beloved Bandage Girl.

The experience is akin to driving a car with?? faulty breaks. It puts players behind the wheel and requires they avoid any and all hazards placed in their path. One's agency extends only to jumping and ducking, the latter of which allows our protagonist to fall more quickly than usual and slide beneath low-hanging obstacles.

The new constraints make for a far more difficult game, part of which can also be attributed to the title's randomly-gen?erated levels.

Stages are essentially playlists?? made up of pre-designed challenges Team Meat refers to as "chunks" placed on shuffle. Well, sort of. The configuration in which these hurdles appear isn't e?ntirely without order. Chunks are ordered into three difficulty tiers, ensuring for a progressively more challenging experience.

Though the title is designed for smartphones and tablet devices, it's also coming to PC, and programmer Tommy Refenes stresses Super Meat Boy Forever is far from another disposable mobile game.

Players can expect a similar amount of content as what's found in Super Meat Boy, complete with a myriad of new environments and chal??lenging bosses to surmount. Rest assured, it isn't just styled after ?the existing Xbox 360 and PC game.

I'm convinced Forever will be a far tougher nut to crack than was its predecessor. After an extensive amount of time with a particularly challenging buil??d of the game Team Meat put together just to test the press, I only managed to complete a handful of levels and eventually succumbed to a dark world stage that Refenes admitted even he? has yet to conquer.

Despite the extreme difficulty, I couldn't help but smile throughout the demo. Super Meat Boy Forever looks and feels amazing. It's the kind of game you can pic?k up for two minutes only to discover hours have gone by. 'Just one?? more try' never seems to be enough.

Super Meat Boy Forever is targeted for a 2015 re??lease, and Refenes says it will be "affordable."

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Coming to PC and mobile, not just an endless runner

[Update: Edmund McMillen wrote a blog post to explain that Super Meat Boy Forever uses auto run, but is not an endless runner. So it's more like Bit.Trip Runner than anything. Though there is an endless mode with daily high scores. It also, "will feature a full story, 6 chapters, and double the bosses the origina?l game featured."

McMillen also promises it won't nickel and dime you and that it's not a simple one button affair. Super Meat Boy Forever is two months into development. Development of the cat lady sim Mew-Genics is on hold until it's finished, sadly.]

We were all clever enough to guess Team Meat's tease "A Voyeur for September" was probably Super Meat Boy Forever, which the team is showing off at PAX.

Less of us were clever enough to consider that "Forever" might imply an endless runner, which is?? what t??he game is. It'll be coming to PC and tablets when it's finished. 

Joystiq has the show floor Vine.

New Super Meat Boy is an endl??ess runner for PC, tablets [Joystiq]

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