Super Meat Boy has always stood as one of the most famed of indie icons. The mere mention of the name brings to mind boundless frustration and the sort of macabre cartoony gore which manages to be as hilarious as it is disturbing. It seemed to be a lightning in a bottle experience, but one half of the creative team behind it (Hello again, Mr. McMillen) has returned to refine the mechanics with this latest release: The End is Nigh.
To be fully honest, the tone(s) of this game is the precise reason I'm not getting it. It's not that I find it too depressing or anything like that (after all, I really like Neir because the game ends up being really depressing in the end), it's just that it has no real balance between the design, the gameplay, the story and the dialogue that just looking at the game makes me feel incredibly bored, and I've never felt that way about any platformer before.
ReplyDeleteTo try and explain what I mean, the game just doesn't elicit anything besides boredom because I can't get attached to anything. The gameplay looks fun, but I'd rather not play it because that just leads to a story and dialogue that I really don't care for. It's an odd blend where the 'reward' for doing everything right is enough to make me want to quit, and even when it's just challenge carts they're more annoying than fun, aren't appealing to look at, go on for way too long with too little variation and don't lead to anything special in the end either.
I've played plenty of hard games (like beating DMC3 on Dante Must Die without using any items, as well as beating the Binding of Isaac with The Lost several times before he got buffed) and I do like finding challenging games (such as The Surge, which is also a hard game I really liked) so it's just a real shame I've got no motivation to play this one at all.
I think the major problem with this sort of game is that it needs to strike a chord with the player in an odd way. It's in the same way that some people tend to be very divided over certain brands of horror in one way or another. Many can find slasher horror films to be inventive and engaging because of their core tropes but to others, even fans of many other sub-genres, the very idea of it can just be unengaging. If it's bleak or utterly without hope without that additional element of interest which engages with you, I can see how it could be boring personally.
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