Gaming’s relationship with difficulty has changed considerably over the years. As the medium became more mainstream in the 90s and early🐓 2000s, developers started to stray away from the level of challenge that defined the arcade era and subsequent home consoles. It wouldn’t be long until easy games became commonplace with more challenging titles no longer in fashion.
The medium has since embraced difficulty yet again, and while most of this shift is attributed to games like , played a key role in redefining challenge for a modern audience. Death is a frequent occurrence in , but players respawn right away – helping audiences better understand the level design while making it easy to dive back into a hard level. is one of the most rewarding platformers ever, each Chapter pushing the difficulty🍨 curve and offering a new challenge.
7 Chapter 6: The End
While a 🐎fine enough finale for ’s main campaign, The End fails to capture the same qualities as its predecessor chapters. Where every chapter up to this point has had 20 levels (not including Dark variants or Warps), The End only has six stages to go through and they’re all on ꦿthe long side.
The End offers up an important challenge before the end of the game, but without the charm that’s defined Super Meat Boy. This doesn’t make for a bad ending by any means (The End’s stages are still well designed), but chapter 6 isn’t nearly as replayable as chapters 1 through 5, or even 7. If nothing else, Dr. Fetus is a great fi♈nal boss who really tests the player’s platforming abilities.
6 Chapter 1: The Forest
Super Meat Boy’s first chapter, The ꦿForest is a beginner friendly area where players are free to experiment with the controls and acclimate themselves to Meat Boy’s unique physics. The Forest is comparatively simple to the rest of the game, but it’s by no means eജasy. The Dark Forest in particular demands tighter platforming from players and eschews its Light counterpart’s tutorial-esque undertones.
The Forest doesn’t quite convey how hard Super Meat Boy will ultimately get, but that’s not a bad thing. The difficulty curve moves at a gradual pace and🐟 The Forest allows timid players a chance to build up some platforming confidence. Lil Slugger is also one of SMB’s most memorable boss fights, closing The Forest out on a high.
5 Chapter 2: The Hospital
The Hospital is a noticeable step up from The Forest when it com🌱es to challenge. The Light Hospital introduces denser vertical platforming through gusts of wind that play off of Meat Boy’s momentum, while always bringing in keys (meaning stages are more than just basic dashes to the finish line like in most platformers)𒆙.
The Hospital’s moody atmosphere is only made more oppressive 💖in the Dark Hospital, which features several stages cast completely in shadow. Where The Forest wants to be a (relatively) relaxing introduction to SMB, The Hospital helps players better understand the kinds of challenges that lie in wait. The boss, C.H.A.D. is also a solid test for how well players actually pay attention to level design.
4 Chapter 7: The Cotton Alley
Although labeled as the seventh chapter, The Cotton Alley is technically Super Meat Boy’s post-game. The intention behind The Cotton Alley is to offer a bite sized (albeit extremely difficult) version of the main game for Meat Boy’s love interest: Bandage Girl. Stages have a cutesy aesthওetic to them and players now complete a level by rescuing Meat Boy as Bandage Girl.
Befitting the final chapter, The Cotton Alley is eas🍨ily the hardest stretch of gameplay in Super Meat Boy. There’s no boss (which in itself is disappointing), 🍸but all 40 stages build off everything in the game, picking and choos⛎ing gimmicks to punish players at every turn. The Cotton Alley is almost too hard for its own good, but it’s hard to deny how tight the level design is.
3 Chapter 3: The Salt Factory
🔴The Salt Factory is the first chapter in Super Meat Boy to really force players to hone their reflexes. Salt piles appear as hazards everywhere, homing missiles relentlessly follow Meat Boy, and an abundance of saws mean you need to constantly be moving – leaving players no room to stop and think.
Super Meat Boy is all about acting in the moment, which the Salt Factory leans into. The Dark Salt Factory only dou⛎bles down on this notion, serving a much harder challenge than the previous two chapters. While not especially challenging, Brownie stands out as one of the best bosses in the game thanks to the race’s energetic frenzy.
2 Chapter 4: Hell
Hell in Super Meat Boy is all about tight platforming th൩rough tight spaces. In-air maneuverability plays a key role here, adding an even more dynamic element to gameplay. Portals also appear which warp you throughout stages. Since you don’t know where you'll be going on a first run, this encourages even quicker reflexes on a design level.
Both versions of Hell go by far, but they’re incredibly fun and offer a sizable challenge without feeling too overwhelming. Little Horn is also a unique boss fight that forces players to memorize his pattern, ultimately coming off as one of Super Meat Boy’s best e🗹ndurance gauntlets (until you figu🧸re out how to cheese him).
1 Chapter 5: Rapture
Rapture has an apocalyptic atmosphere that’s quite unlike anything else in Super Meat Boy. For a game rooted in satire, Rapture feels genuinely dour. It’s also the last traditional chapter in the game and easily the best in terms of overall level design. Rapture builds on everything that’s c𓃲ome before it, featuring dens👍e stages that throw challenge after challenge at the player.
Rapture is hard, but never unfair. Stages are longer, but not so long where they feel exhausting🌃 or take away from Super Meat Boy’s inherent pacing. Enemies are introduced that chase Meat Boy, adding an element of horror to already tense platforming. Larries Lament is a sore spot as far as bosses go, but Light and Dark Rapture blend together to make the best chapte𒁏r in the game.