Recent reviews by Arkive

This game is just delightful. It feels like a mix between drift-based arcade racers and Trackmania. From the former, you get your physics model: slow vehicles that can drift, and drifting for long enough gives you boost. There's a really neat twist, though; the boost you get from drifting increases your top speed without limit, so chaining drifts together lets you build up a crazy amount of speed. It can quickly become uncontrollable, and with how tight these courses tend to be it's easy to crash once you've built up that momentum. That makes for satisfying driving, where part of the challenge is seeing just how fast you can push the car before deciding to bleed some speed to maintain control.

The Trackmania influence is felt in how the races are structured. In this game, everything is a time trial. All you race are ghosts, so there's no collisions. That's good, since these tight lanes can barely fit your car let alone allow for passing. Each course has a host of medal ghosts to beat, and after you beat them you can chase the ghosts of other players for a better leaderboard position. Instant restarts helps reinforce that chase, since there's no penalty for restarting. You've got as much time as you like to get the best run you can.

Since everything is time trial based here, there's a lot riding on the quality of the race courses. I'm happy to say that each one is distinct and fun. Some offer interesting twists between laps, such as the Mt. Rushmore course with a boulder crashing down on the first lap. Others are straightforward, but those can be even more difficult with technical sections that really test your ability to manage your speed. The Chicago course comes to mind, with its long drifts that are perfect for building up tons of momentum paired with low ceiling jumps that will punish you for going too fast.

Overall, this is a short game that's a blast to play the whole time. It's got a great theme, fantastic style, fun physics, and satisfying driving. I'd call that a $10 10/10 experience.

This game does justice to its inspiration, Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. If you've played that game, this game will scratch the same kind of itch. If you haven't, you're in for a kind of experience most games don't offer.

Primarily, this will be a game that asks you to wrestle with unfamiliar but simple controls, and eventually learn all the nuances they have. Move your mouse to move your hands, then left and/or right click to grab hold of the rocks. It's as intuitive as it is unfamiliar. Yet, for as strange as the controls may feel, the challenges you're asked to overcome are very deliberately crafted to teach as well as test.

Early segments feature obstacles that can be overcome just by reaching hand over hand, with only one spot requiring a notably big jump. Go higher, and you find jumps become larger and more frequent. Stable rock gives way to handholds that move, or have physics. Some spots even ask you to reconsider how certain mechanics work.

As with its inspiration, it's good to be aware that progress is hard fought and easily lost. One slip up, letting go of the wrong hand, jumping a bit too short, or any other mistake can easily send you plummeting down. It is intentionally frustrating, and part of the experience is learning to deal with the frustration of lost progress.

However, the game is not unfair. While falling down may be punishing compared to most other games, A Difficult Game About Climbing is not trying to laugh at you. It could be easy to forget amidst the bigger falls that the game does a great job of setting up "checkpoints" in the form of smaller pools of water as various intervals. Chances are you won't fall beyond the last pool you made it too, and even less likely that you'll fall past two or more. You will no doubt have to climb sections you've passed before, but don't assume that you'll always be in danger of falling back to the start (or that climbing back will be as hard as it was the first time).

In fact, one thing I like is that the hardest things to learn are almost always right where a pool starts. When you need to start learning how to jump further, for example, the furthest jump you'll need to do for a long time is the first thing you do when climbing out of the pool you just got to. As such, fiddling around while learning a new skill is rarely punished hard; you can only really fail hard after you've proven you've learned the skill and climbed past it.

The main criticism I have of this game is that a couple challenges can be impossible if you don't quite figure out the minute details of the systems. In particular, I got stuck at the tilting iron bars and the big underhang jumps. I admit that I had to look things up, just to see if I even had the right idea; I'm not sure that I would have made it past those two spots on my own. I have no doubt that figuring these things out on your own is more satisfying, but I wouldn't worry about checking a guide if you do feel pretty stuck. This game is hard, and sometimes it's not clear whether your execution just wasn't quite right or if there really is a technique to progressing that you've missed.

I'd like to point out how A Difficult Game About Climbing differs from Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy. Aside from the obvious lack of a hiking partner delivering a monologue throughout your journey, I found that this game really emphasizes the terrain and its obstacles in a way that Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy doesn't. Where Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy only has one physics object you have to deal with, A Difficult Game About Climbing relishes in its various types of climbable objects. Rotating gears, swinging ropes, even just the distinction between slippery and grippy surfaces makes considering the handholds a far more prevalent challenge than Foddy's masterpiece. It's not something that I'd consider better nor worse. Rather, it gives this game a distinct flavor that helps keep it from being just a clone of its inspiration.

And lastly, a word of advice if you plan to make the climb yourself. To quote the store page for Getting Over It with Bennett Foddy: "To quote Jazzuo himself: "The hiking action is very similar to way you would do it in real life, remember that and you will do well"."

There's two stages to playing Getting Over It, I think. This first stage is the one most publicly visible. You start the game up for the first time, maybe you've seen some gameplay but you haven't tried it yourself. You start playing and the controls are just as weird and unwieldy as others have said. Every step is a struggle, and you're constantly aware of how easy it is to fall.

I assume you're already familiar with these sentiments. Climbing the mountain for the first time is an arduous task, and the large majority of people will never finish it. However, I'd encourage you to stick with it. Making it to the end for your first time is a uniquely satisfying experience.

If you finish climbing the mountain once, you may find an unexpected urge. You've made it to the top of a grueling, rage inducing trek, and for some reason you feel like you want to do it again. It took hours of pain and torment to make it to the top, and you can't help but wonder how fast can I climb it now? This is where the second stage of Getting Over It begins.

You wouldn't be alone in feeling that way. Less than 10% of players make it to the top, yet more than 50% of those who do will do so a second time. What you'll realize is that you've gotten really good at Getting Over It. Those awkward controls have instead become natural. You'll fly by sections that used to induce agony. You might learn a skip or two. You'll make it to the top again, and you'll be surprised by how fast you were. And then, you'll want to go again.

Getting Over It is an exercise in the satisfaction of mastering something. If you pay attention to Bennett's monologue, you'll notice a theme of rejecting ease. One thing he asserts is that many modern games are built to ensure that anyone can complete them. It's not inherently bad to want this, but there is some truth to these kinds of experiences potentially failing to push their players into mastering the game's systems. How many games have you played that felt hesitant to really challenge you? How many games lose their luster too soon from being too easy?

This game, in contrast, requires that you master it in order to complete it. Requiring mastery in this way also requires that you end up with the satisfaction that mastery provides, though not without risk. As I mentioned before, the large majority of people will not complete this game, for any number of perfectly valid reasons. If you take the time to master this game, however, you may find that you want to celebrate that mastery. Mastery is best celebrated through performance, hence why you may find yourself wishing to play again no matter how angry the game may have made you before.

This, to me, is why I can wholeheartedly recommend Getting Over It. Even after you've mastered the game and completed that memorable first run, you know you can improve. One run turns to two, and still you'll feel like you can do better. Maybe you'll find yourself pushing yourself to improve. Two runs turn into five, then ten, then more as you push the limits of how fast you can ascend the mountain. What once might have taken many hours can now be done in less than ten minutes. You'll finish the game before Bennett can finish his monologue.

You might also find the experience to mutate from frustration to peace. I find this game to be weirdly relaxing. It doesn't feel right to call this game easy, but if you keep playing you'll find yourself consistently able to tackle all but the most devious of obstacles. It might be a game you fire up every now and again just because you want to do another run. I often find myself deciding against firing up some games because I think that I'll need more time than I have to properly enjoy them, but I can always fire this one up without worrying about how long it'll take.

This game is something special. I don't blame anybody for failing to see it the way I do; it's advertised as being made to hurt people, after all. But, if you keep at it, you might just see past the rage game facade and instead find a game that celebrates mastery in a way that few games do so well. You just need to start by Getting Over It.

One Finger Death Punch 2 is as straightforward as it seems. Click the left mouse button (or your left button equivalent) to attack anything on the left side of you. Likewise, click right to attack the right side. If anything is in your range when you attack, you successfully land a hit, block, grab, or whatever else. If not, you miss and are put into a vulnerable state.

This simplicity allows OFDP2 to be both an intense, action-packed frenzy and a wonderful spectacle without becoming too overwhelming. The simple gameplay has been streamlined to be as fluid and fun as possible, which keeps the core gameplay loop fresh even when you're essentially just timing two button presses. The distinct hit-or-miss mechanics ensures that you do have to pay attention to what's coming up on either side of you, and the variety of things that can happen give this simple game a surprising amount of depth. It's not a ton of depth, mind you, but it's more than you might expect.

The variety and depth mainly comes down to how you can prioritize your immediate situation. Enemies come in a variety of types. Gray enemies are the most common, and can be finished off in a single hit. Coloured enemies require multiple hits, and their bars denote how you'll need to attack them. Enemies with headbands will put you into a mini-fight, which will also force away nearby opponents until this particular fight is finished. Enemies with crowns will do the same, but will also switch to and from acting like standard coloured enemies to keep you on your toes. Some enemies stay at the sides of the screen and throw projectiles; depending on the projectile's colour, you will either block the object, deflect it back where it came from, dodge it so that it flies past you, or grab it and choose where to throw it. If it wasn't a block, the projectile will one-hit kill the next enemy it hits, regardless of colour or whatever. On top of all of this are things like weapon pickups, special abilities, and special modes which offer that surprising amount of variety I mentioned.

Really, though, it's better to just watch a video to get an idea of what it's like. It's as fast as it looks and just as easy to pick up and play. Perhaps the one gripe I have is that the animations can feel a bit off; the heavy use of image manipulation as opposed to traditional animations can look a bit funky, but it's easy to get used to. At the end of the day, the action is fun, clear, and just varied enough to be worth the already low asking price. It feels like a proper improvement to the first one, and I'd certainly recommend picking it up if it sounds interesting to you.

By this point, you don't need me to tell you about Crypt of the NecroDancer. You probably already know its a Rogue-like where you have to make decisions on the beat. It's hard, but once you get the hang of it it's quite addicting. One of the most beneficial things about this game is how replayable it is. Not only will it take a long time to simply beat each zone with the default Cadence, but after that there's still a whole slew of other things to try and do. There's the All-Zones run, where you must conquer all 4/5 zones in a single life. There's multiple characters, each with unique twists on the formula (be it a special weapon to use or just making the game extra punishing). There's special modes, which shake things up even further. Even after all of that, there's tons of music, graphic, and even a few gameplay mods to try out if the classic feel gets too tiring.

If you're up to the challenge of breaking through the difficulty and don't mind throwing yourself to your death again and again to learn the enemy patterns and what items you like, then you'd be hard pressed to find a game quite like it. Though, if you'd rather a similar experience with a bigger focus on consistent progression and less on the rogue-like aspects, you might try out Cadence of Hyrule before diving into this one.

TL;DR: I can't really say anything that hasn't already been said about Opus Magnum. If you're looking for a puzzle game which emphasises freeform solutions as opposed to finding the singular correct answer, it's a fantastic time. You can get absorbed in solving each problem and moving on to the next just as easily as you can spend hours refining and reinvinting your solutions to make them work faster, cheaper, or in smaller spaces.



At its core, Opus Magnum is a puzzle game in a different sense from the norm. To rephrase something I'm fairly certain someone else said, Opus Magnum isn't about finding the solution but a solution. That is, Opus Magnum isn't trying to trick you at every turn; it gives you all the tools you need and plenty more, then asks you to use them to craft your own answer to the problem. If you've played a Zachtronics game before, I've heard that this is the norm for them. This is the first title from them that I've played, and I can easily say that it's a formula that works wonders.

Because of this, there's a sense of accomplishment to each and every puzzle you solve that goes beyond what most puzzle games usually deliver. In a game like Portal, getting to the end of the room is certainly enjoyable. Some rooms might prove challenging, and if you dare try some of the more difficult community challenges you could be stumped for hours only to emerge victorious with a brilliant breakthrough. However, there's still something lacking each time; it's not your solution, it's the developers' solution. It certainly took smart thinking to get past the challenge, but it was still the one way that was expected. With Opus Magnum, this is a feeling that very rarely occurs. Once you get out of the introductory puzzles and start working at the more complex mechanisms, you'll quickly feel like you've built a machine that no other player has. And, quite honestly, this is likely to be the case.

The mechanics of Opus Magnum take a bit to get used to, but the included tutorial eases you in. To give a brief overview, each puzzle deals with the same basic mechanics. You have atoms, which are just elements which can be transmuted to other elements with runes as well as bonded together to make molecules. Along with this are machine parts, including arms (which grab and move molecules) as well as tracks (that arms can move along) and some other fun gizmos. Each arm is controlled with a set of instructions you give it that it will repeat indefinitely. You use all of this to take reagents (input molecules) to create products (output molecules). Everything but the instructions are placed freely on an infinitely large hex board, meaning that there's never any spacial constraint forced upon you except for the bonus chapter, though by that point you'll be well prepared to work in the devious constraints.

In fact, the actual constraints for solving a puzzle are quite minimal. You just need to make six of every product, which essentially proves that the machine can keep running indefinitely. Another developer might fall to the trap of forcing you to build a machine under some constraint, such as speed; Zachtronics just puts up a histogram of everyone's resulting values and lets you fret about speed if you want to. Your machine will be graded against everyone else in Speed (how long it takes to make six products from a cold start), Size (how many hex tiles are used/moved over during the process), and Cost (how expensive your machine is, where each component used has a cost). The brilliance here is that these are great goals to set, but you'll never be able to hit them all at once. A fast machine will likely use large amounts of space to be efficient and won't worry about using expensive components, after all. What's nice is that it's easy to see what most people did better than you at, which could easily lead into retrying the puzzle with a focus on a different category or just trying to retune your current solution to make it even better than before. Even if you're not trying to perfect something, you'll more than likely be ahead of the curve in one of the three categories just by nature of them being so different.

I've played a fair number of puzzle games before, but none have been quite like Opus Magnum. To me, it's a game that really sets the bar for what puzzle games can be. This doesn't make the traditional "find the one solution" style of puzzle game bad or obsolete, but I'd certainly love to see more puzzle games follow in Zachtronic's footsteps and make games more about forging your own unique solution to problems. This game gets a hearty recommendation from me!

TL,DR: I'm extremely satisfied with Distance. From when I purchased it in Early Access to now, it's remained a unique racer that emphasizes mastering the course over fighting for position. If it seems like a game that's right up your alley, then it's certainly worth the asking price.



Distance is not a traditional racing game. Your opponents, if present, are simply ghosts of past players. You are not trying to get first (unless you're speedrunning or something), you are simply trying to get to the end in one piece. It's not as simple as hitting the left and right turns correctly, though. Once you get going, your vehicle acquires abilities: boosting, jumping, air rotation, and flying are the big ones. Combined with this is your car's peculiar ability to stick to surfaces whilst moving; provided you don't stop, you're free to drive along the ceiling for however long you please.

As a result of all that, the courses are far more outlandish than most racing games would dare to try. At first, you'll be getting the hang of jumping and maybe dodging the occasional wall, saw, or laser. By the end, you'll be jumping while rotating to land on the wall before immediately realigning yourself so that the moving lasers don't cut you in half whilst making sure to prepare to jump from the wall to the ceiling, all within the span of approximately ten seconds.

Needless to say, you'll find yourself flying off the track, becoming hopelessly dismantled, or otherwise being rendered unable to continue. As is expected of a game like this, checkpoints mean that every level is segmented into distinct challenges that flow together; screw up on one, and you'll simply be sent to the last checkpoint you passed. It keeps the game engaging, as you won't be restarting the level every time you make a mistake. This is especially notable as you get further into the campaign and, if you're like me, hit spots that take more than a couple attempts to pass.

Speaking of the campaign, the levels in this game are fantastic. I can really only speak for the two main campaigns, but each stage ramps up the difficulty in manageable increments (though having played during early access, I suppose I might be a little biased on difficulty). The campaign is short enough to be completed in under an hour if you already know what you're doing, but I can't imagine it taking much more than that. Luckily, there's still plenty more content waiting.

The Arcade section contains three types of stages: Spring, Challenge, and Stunt. Sprint is straightforward: complete the stage as fast as you can. Challenge is similar, but there are no checkpoints from start to end; you'll need to survive a clean run here, but the courses are notably shorter than their standard counterparts. Admittedly, I haven't really played Stunt, but my understanding is that this is a score attack game where you try to land as many sweet tricks as you can in the allotted time. All three of these modes come with target times/scores to beat, from Bronze up to Gold and even a hidden Diamond rank if you're crazy fast. There are loads of courses here, mainly centered in Sprint, so it'll keep you busy for a while.

If even that isn't enough, then you'll be happy to hear that there's Workshop stages aplenty. The editor tools are very powerful, so you'll find fellow players have built stages equal in quality to the dev team's own. In fact, you may notice that a few official stages aren't by the Refract team at all! The Workshop's already overflowing with maps to try out, so it's inconceivable that anyone would be able to finish everything. Lastly comes the Trackmogrify section: this lets you type in a string of characters which the game will translate into a level. It's been a while since I've touched it; most of the levels got a bit samey and didn't offer the same enjoyable challenge that properly designed levels did. Perhaps it's changed since last I tried, but I'll probably stick to normal stages for the time being.

There's quite a few nice little details as well, such as the ability to change the main menu background or customize your car's colour pallette. Controls can be freely rebound (with up to two inputs per action, at least for controllers), which let me emphasize car control over camera control when setting up my controller settings. There's even some cheats to mess around with; though I haven't tried them yet, many seem to be quite interesting.

I don't want to call Distance a perfect product; it's not, but it occupies my kind of niche so well that I'm well aware I'm blind to its cons. I've really only highlighted the good stuff Distance offers; I'd recommend looking at more reviews for a more sober look at what it does well and what it doesn't. I've said my peace, thanks for reading my wall of text!

This review was written in version 0.3.8.1 of the game. Future iterations may change the experience from what I have played. It is also good to disclose that I am a $30 backer of the Indiegogo, which may make my opinions biased.

Tower Unite is an odd sort of game. Many people compare it to games like Second Life or PSHome. I can't say how similar this is to either of those; I've never played them. What I did play was GMod Tower, an old mod that this game is the spiritual successor to (complete with the same dev team). If you're here from GMT, then you already have a very good idea of what to expect and if you'll enjoy it.

That said, comparisons won't tell you much about a game if you haven't played the similar games. So what can you expect if you decide to purchase this game? As an overarching title, it's mainly a selection of decently fleshed out minigames. They've got enough depth to keep you entertained, but no one part has the polish that focused development would give. Each major minigame (known as "Gameworlds") take place on separate servers, while many smaller minigames are available in the Lobby (more on that later). As of writing, many areas of the game are still under development and clearly show the need for more work. Time will tell if the devs have bitten off more than they can chew, but at the moment what is present is quite enjoyable.

By playing the aforementioned games, you earn a universal currency known as Units. These can be spent on just about anything, but purchases generally fall into one of two categories: Cosmetic or Condo. Cosmetic items are pretty self explanatory: these are the hats, accessories, and other visual flare that makes your character stand out from everyone else. Condo items are used for the second major portion of the game: your condo.

Your condo is a little place you can spend time relaxing in. Using the items you've purchased, you can decorate your condo to suit your needs. Maybe you want a relaxing atmosphere for friends to hang out in. Maybe you're looking to build a theatre to watch YouTube videos in. Maybe you've got an idea for a little minigame you want to make, or a spectaular build to impress people with. You can color pretty much any wall, adjust just about any light, and even set the weather to your liking. If you're looking to be alone, you can keep your condo restricted to just allow you. Otherwise, you can let your Steam friends in or even open the place up to the public. Another nice feature is the ability to save these layouts, so you can rearrange everything to a completely different build with only a few keypresses.

This is a game that does a lot, but it's also a very social game. The minigames and condo can be accessed via the menu, but they can also be accessed via a "Lobby." These lobby servers act as a sort of social hub that connects all these features as well as provides its own unique set of distractions all under the guise of a tropical island resort. The minigames have queue hubs you can beckon people to join, each shopkeeper runs a uniquely decorated shop and comes with their own personalities, and the lack of loading screens keeps everything feeling interconnected (though freezing may occur when areas load in).

Perhaps the biggest issue with this game is that it is quite taxing on your computer. Mid to high end gaming rigs can certainly handle it at a solid 60 FPS, but lower end rigs and certainly anyone on integrated graphics will feel the framerate drop. The lobby is the worst with this, what with its interconnected and networked variety of games all running at once. Luckly, there are plenty of graphics options to help you squeeze out every frame. If you're really desperate, you can turn the resolution down; this will make everything look extra pixely, but it really helps if you need more frames. My laptop's graphics card recently died on me, so I've been playing with integrated. At the minimum possible graphics (excluding window size), I can still get 30 FPS in games and 15 FPS in the lobby.

If the store page hasn't already screamed this in your face, you'll be happy to know that this game contains no microtransactions. All non-backer items must be earned by the players, so you can rest assured that no one forked real money over to get that fancy crown. $15 is also the final price of this game, so if you'd prefer you can wait and see where the development of the game goes before making your investment.

At the end of the day, I recommend this game. It's a fun collection of various activities; you're almost always in the mood to do something that Tower Unite has to offer. From its gameworlds to its condo and everything in between, it's quite the enjoyable experience. Just make sure you're willing to deal with unfinished content and have a decent rig to run it on.

Back when I first tried it out, TrackMania wasn't a game I was expecting to get addicted to. My friend's cousin was playing a free demo of it and my friend thought I might enjoy it. I did, a bit too much.

So what is TrackMania? As you can probably tell, it's a racing game. However, it is much different from most other racing games. Let's start with what it doesn't do: it doesn't use real-life cars, it doesn't simulate accurate physics, it doesn't aim to bring real courses to life, and it doesn't even let you collide with other cars.

So it's an arcade racer, then? Yes, but not in the traditional sense. There's no items to speak of, most courses aren't lapped, multiplayer is generally asynchronous, and courses are 100% static.

That might not sound like a lot of fun, but that's the baseline for what fuels this racer to be all fun. In most cases, you won't be driving on bland tracks. No ovals here; you get twisting loops, skybound jumps, and even ridiculous wallrides. No collisions means that you just need to worry about taking the track as fast as possible. Remember those jumps I mentioned? You don't get a lot of room for error sometimes, so a slight tap could throw you hurdling off into no-man's land.

This also sets the stage for pure skill. In all courses, you are already given the car to drive. You just need to deliver it to the end as fast as you can. No items and no collisions means no meddling with others, so all you have to blame for a poor time is yourself. When thing's come down to split seconds, you'll be glad you just need to worry about hitting the drift at the right time and not if you'll ram into some poor sap trying to pass.

Speaking of cars, TrackMania United is split into 7 different environments (one of which is featured in the free demo I mentioned earlier). From the slow and slippery Coast car to the ludicrously fast Island car, that's 7 unique vehicles to master. They never feel like tweaked copies, either. The Desert car tilts when turning, the Snow car is great at keeping speed but terrible at accelerating, and the Stadium car has so many tricks you'll be hard pressed to find them yourself.

As if that wasn't enough, Nadeo decided "Hey, let's just let the players make whatever they want." With the already amazing gameplay you also get a bunch of editors to suit your needs; make your own courses to blast through, paint your cars in your own patterns, and shoot videos of your best runs (or fails). And if you have the know-how, you can even make your own car models (which don't affect driving) and reskin your courses to use completely different textures.

Honestly, the map editor is what keeps me coming back the the TrackMania titles. While the default maps (of which there are hundreds of) are certainly fun to play, the game really shines when you take a look at some of the creations players have made. Heck, there's even a map sharing database[www.tm-exchange.com] with its own monthly map making contest[united.tm-exchange.com]!

I know it shows its age, but I can promise you that this is some of the most fun you'll ever have in a racing game.

You can try out the demo here, which is basically the full game but just featuring one of the seven environments:

http://test-steamproxy.haloskins.io/steamstore/app/11020/

There are two things this game is: near impossible and amazingly fun/frustrating (choose one or both). Made by a two man team, this game sends players across a selection of environments, each with plenty of hand-melting button-mashing as you attempt to guide our hero Meat Boy safely to Bandage Girl.

The main campaign isn't too long, I beat each level within it within six hours. This is not nearly halfway through all possible playtime. Each level has an "A+" time to beat. If you manage to beat this time, you unlock the "Dark World" variant of it. If you can't guess from everything else about this game, the Dark World levels are significantly harder than the Light World versions.

On top of that, many levels have a hidden Bandage to collect. There is no way of knowing which levels have these without actually finding them. They are always tucked away in the most infuriating places. Catching them isn't enough; you must get to the end safely to collect them.

Besides these, there are also bonus "Warp Zone" levels and "Glitch" levels. Warp Zone levels change the appearance to a more retro look, and sometimes force upon you the use of lives. Others feature a series of levels you must complete with a character from another game (e.g. Commander Video) to unlock for use elsewhere. Each different character has its own unique gimmick, but true hardcore players and speedrunners cannot forego Meat Boy, since he is the fastest character.

As if that wasn't already enough, there are plenty of achievements, a nice little storyline with cutscenes both horrifying and hilarious at the same time, a very nice art style, and a level editor. Yes, you too can be the bane of someone's existence or the existence of which someone shall bane by making and playing user made levels, straight from the Interwebz.

It also has a certain nostalgia factor to those who played the original Meat Boy (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/463241) and/or Meat Boy Map Pack (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/472826) by the same duo. I had played both well before Super Meat Boy and it was nice to see the revamped environments, music, and visuals as well as the much smoother control scheme and interesting new mechanics. If you do not yet know whether to buy Super Meat Boy or not, I'd recommend checking those two flash games out first. Expect all that is good from those games and more in Super Meat Boy.

Oh yes, and one final note: one of the most satisfying things in this game is finally beating a level after hundreds of deaths, sitting back, and watching the replay where all of your runs go at once.