Sometimes, keeping it simple is all one can ask for.

Other times…not so much

One of the problems with having to write about the video games you play, and to have to play video games to write about, is that if during a day, you get hung up on something totally irrelevant, or end up committing yourself to something in a game that isn’t inherently noteworthy in terms of retelling for a larger audience, well, you’re kind of fucked, honestly. I’m reminded of the novelization of the first Halo game, where the author truly mimicked the gameplay at some point, when Master Chief was going through The Library fighting the flood, and the writing was as repetitive as the game was at that point…”and then the Master Chief ran down a long, dark hallway, and fired his shotgun at Flood running at him, and then he reloaded, and turned the corner, and ran down a long, dark hallway, and fired his shotgun at Flood running at him, and then he reloaded, and turned the corner….”

At least, that’s how I remember it. The rest of the book read fine, so it might have been an intentional but low key send up to the dreadful reality that anyone who’s played the first game is familiar with, where repetition is concerned. Considering its been more than 20 years since I’ve read it, it’s hard to know at this point how much of the joking hyperbole is the reality or not; memories are cursed in that way. I bring this up now, as I ended up putting more time into Super Meat Boy 3D (SMB3D) than I meant to, but I was going for A+’s on all of the levels, so a deathly trial and error was in the cards, no matter how proficiently I was to tackle such an obstacle. However, I feel as if my thoughts on SMB3D were largely concluded, so let’s see if I have anything else of substance to say about the experience.

Keeping in mind, that in spite of my quarrels with SMB3D overall, my ultimate takeaway from the game is not abject disappointment, nor a bittersweet resentment involving the idea the game is a dismal failure; I still find a lot of worth in engaging with flawed games, or enjoying an experience that turns out as less than, as the idea of perfection is mostly a delusional punchline to me anyways. From an industry wide standpoint, both from a consumer and a developer perspective, there shouldn’t be such ridiculous pressure to release a flawless game every single time, nor should it be expected. The expectations have to be put in check, and just like the players have to have some appropriate sense of disarming themselves of some of the more rampantly toxic self-entitlement that often comes with the hobby, so too, should devs be able to release a game that isn’t 100%, and not have it mean the end of the world with a studio closure. These ridiculously absurdist reasons are why the AAA model desperately needs to reformat itself, or we are in for a bleak future where the industry just collapses in on itself with the impossible weight of unrealistic expectation.

With all of that said, my feelings on how to fix SMB3D, may be as simple as abandoning the extra dimensional experiment, and just leave the third dimension behind for the next release, as I think most of the games problems boil down to how much of the intensity and tightly designed gameplay gets totally whiffed when transitioning into a 3D environment. It is not as if the fate of all games is to evolve to 3D gameplay, and if nothing else, even titans of the space, like Sonic, Megaman, and Castlevania just to name a few, some series just work exceptionally well in 2D, and just lose their luster when attempting to evolve into a 3D realm. All of those series have fun 3D games, bur the ratio of good to bad has got to be like 5:1; not a promising gamble when it comes to having a series try to redefine itself.

Another thought sprung to mind, and though it does deal with the reality of a 3D game, there is actually precedence involving a 2D game that uses the same methodology of design, and could be something to consider with difficult games moving forward. To that point, I think one of the reasons Elden Ring ended up being such a massive success, even out doing the notoriety of the Souls series by a large margin, when it came to sales at least, was how Elden Ring handled difficulty. It was all still there and present, but the game was very much non-linear, so if you ever got stuck on a cheap bastard of a boss, you could just piss off somewhere for awhile, and not be bothered by it until much later. Silksong had a similar setup, where there was usually so much to explore and discover, being totally stonewalled never felt like an issue, as you wouldn’t need to bang your head needlessly over and over again on the same part, instead opting for a little breathing room and a change of priorities by just doing something else and returning at a point in the future.

Obviously, since those two games are RPG’s, it’s a lot easier to fit in and accommodate for such styles of game play, where as Super Meat Boy 3D is so old school, it really just has the traditional level to level structure basis, and nothing else. As I mentioned before, the game almost felt as if it was allergic to new ideas, as very little in the way of fresh concepts saw the light of day where SMB3D was concerned, and perhaps it was this resistance to incorporate new elements that ended up hurting the game in the long run, with the ironic caveat that one of the only new elements it did tryout, the 3D, totally backfired against it.

But hey, maybe that’s the only thing the devs wanted out of the project, and it’s the very same thing that died in the wool veterans only ever really want: a no nonsense offering of pure, old school gameplay, through and through. If you look at game quality through that lens, than SMB3D is an exercise of delightfully familiar simplicity, and for some, that’s enough.

-Pashford