I would like to start off my review for Super Meat Boy 3D by apologizing to each of the developers’ mothers. Ladies, I know you have nothing to do with this game’s development, but boy, did I curse you whilst playing it. My bad. Blame your children’s creation. What was once the king of 2D “I want to ragequit but let me give it one more try” has finally been transitioned into the third dimension. Welcome to 1996, Meat Boy! I guess you made up for the delay by being as brutally difficult, borderline frustrating, yet oddly motivating as ever.

What if I told you this easygoing level is one of the first few the game has to offer?

When you’re transitioning a game from 2D to 3D, some questions come to mind. How are you going to translate what worked in two dimensions onto an additional one? Will you make the game linear, semi-open, or a collectathon? I think that Super Meat Boy 3D‘s developers did the right thing by keeping the game’s main objective as a simple “go from point A to point B whilst dying a lot” structure. It feels more like Super Mario 3D World than Super Mario 64, if you know what I mean: camera positioning is fixed, there’s just one path taking you to your goal (with the exception of one hidden collectible in each level), and each world gauntlet ends in a boss battle. Sure, it’s still a platforming gauntlet, as you can’t actually attack anyone, but fine, let’s call it a boss battle.

The original Super Meat Boy was very straightforward in its level design. Sure, brutal as hell, infuriating and whatnot, but in 2D, there was one clear path to follow to reach the end goal. The advantage of 3D is that there are, occasionally, multiple ways to reach the end of the stage. Be it intentionally or not, there might be an additional platform to exploit, a way to connect a jump with a dash to skip an annoying gauntlet, and so on. This is, easily, what I liked the most about Super Meat Boy 3D: the level design is masterfully crafted. Then again, that is somewhat to be expected from a game in the series. You can say what you want about a Meat Boy game: the level design is never the issue.

I’ll give Team Meat this: they were kind enough to occasionally put a small area where you can breathe and plan ahead in the middle of a level.

That’s not to say that this game’s transition to 3D was 100% smooth: I did notice a few issues that made some of its sections, and the deaths caused by them, feel unfair. For once, I felt like a few of my deaths were due to game problems, not my overall incompetence. There were occasional framerate drops during some more visually-busy sections (the game might look PS4-ish at best, but it’s really busy with assets), and there were cases where my overall visibility was hampered by the biggest culprit of every single 3D platformer: the camera. Since you have no way to control it (it’s one fixed view, and it moves automatically), there were instances of my minuscule character just disappearing behind a wall, or another object obstructing my view. It wasn’t too much of an issue on docked mode, but on a smaller screen, in portable mode, that sucked.

But all in all, I think that the gameplay loop worked as intended, and the presentation blended well with what else Super Meat Boy 3D had to offer. Occasional framerate hiccups aside, the performance was smooth, and the button responsiveness was outstanding. The metal-infused soundtrack kept my adrenaline levels at dangerously high peaks, which were a perfect fit for when I was downright furious, wanting to crack my Switch 2 in pieces, when trying to beat a level on my 11th attempt.

When your level is designed in 3D, you can look for exploits or additional ways to reach the end goal.

I screamed, I shouted, I cursed the developers’ mothers dozens of times. Super Meat Boy 3D did what it needed to do with honors. But I never wanted to quit in frustration. The game knew how to motivate me, to make me want to attempt one more try, even if some levels felt impossible, and the boss battles were the absolute bane of my existence. All in all, a mostly smooth transition from 2D side-scrolling, to a 3D, semi freeforming format. Just make sure to not throw your joycons across the room out of frustrating; those things are expensive.

Couldn’t care less. Still beat it.

Super Meat Boy 3D is available now on PS5, Xbox Series S/X, PC and Switch 2.

Reviewed on Switch 2.

A copy of Super Meat Boy 3D was provided by the publisher.