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"  Also available on: WiiWare, PC (available in 2011)Developer: Team MeatPublisher: Microsoft Game StudiosGenre: Platformer There might not be a motorcycle in sight, but Super Meat Boy shares all kinds of parallels with last year&amp;#039;s Live Arcade best seller Trials HD. Simple, two-dimensional stages are filled with all kinds of deadly obstacles standing between you and Bandage Girl, the damsel in distress, with ever-increasing odds across a variety of nightmarish locations. It starts pretty low-key, with a strenuous leap here and a buzzsaw to avoid there, before screens become jam-packed with missiles, pits carry heaps of used needles, and hellish, clinging doppelg\u00E4ngers chase you relentlessly. It becomes very twisted, and very difficult, in no time at all. And like Trials HD, there&amp;#039;s no mistaking any of the rules or boundaries. For a tiny sack of flesh, Meat Boy is stupendously quick and carries a jump that spans screens, but always manages to control with faultless precision, and his capabilities are instantly gaugeable. The death traps that populate the world are just as easy to comprehend, especially since the general rule is that one touch will equals death. Unlike RedLynx&amp;#039;s testing platformer, however, dying doesn&amp;#039;t start plant you seconds away from the point of demise, but instead restarts the stage entirely, and yet it things are no less frustrating. In some ways it&amp;#039;s actually less so. Although stages rarely take over 20 seconds to complete, you&amp;#039;ll spend a fair deal longer trying to conquer each one through vigourous restarts. Level designs rarely appear especially clever or noteworthy, instead settling for being difficult and demanding of your skills. But it&amp;#039;s not until you hit a brick wall several dozen times that you discover how effective they are in aiding repetitive play; a set of convoluted platforms at the start may hide a hidden shortcut, that gap in the wall can actually be slid through at the right angle, or a pair of saws cross paths at just the right time to shave off a few seconds. Dying repeatedly is masochistic, yes, but when replaying actually feels beneficial and that the game never lets up its almost hypnotic flow as you fling from platform to the platform, then frustration is kept to an absolute minimum. And it continues to do this across every stage in a natural and subtle way, always to be topped off by that magical eureka moment of finally succeeding before the process starts all over again. The exception are gauntlets built around dodging projectiles, or some of the more random boss encounters, where surviving rocket attacks every three seconds can come down to sheer luck than any amount of practice or skill. The game&amp;#039;s fast-paced nature also serves speed run gameplay especially well, with all levels coming with a global leaderboard and a grade to always go up against, and you&amp;#039;ll often find yourself replaying that last monumentally difficult stage just to see if you can do that much better. While the regular series of stages could be finished within four or five hours, there are Dark World variants of each that ratchet up the crazy considerably, as well as collectible bandages perched in ridiculous places and warp zones hidden away in corners. The latter are particularly noteworthy, swapping the already retro feel of the game for sprite artwork from 8-bit era, and adds a traditional life count for their duration. The game is filled with smaller touches that continue to impress, whether it&amp;#039;s blood that stains the stage with each failed attempt, or replays that cruelly layer all previous runs over each other to flood the screen with near-misses and spectacular deaths. Top it off with an irresistibly catchy soundtrack, homages to classic games, an amusing cast of side-characters as well as playable cameos from indie gaming royalty, it&amp;#039;s a game that just continues to surprise and entertain. It&amp;#039;s only point of contention is its difficulty, and although Super Meat Boy features some of the most horrendous challenges you&amp;#039;re likely to come across in a meat-based product, its charm and subtle willingness to see you succeed ensures you&amp;#039;ll lap up every blood-soaked moment it has to offer.  &amp;amp;gt; What do you think of the game? Share your views "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/gaming/review/a283212/super-meat-boy-xbox-live-arcade/>