Super Meat Boy
Overview
Super Meat Boy might've been a better game if the gimmick didn't run out before the game finished. The below review was written in March 2020.
Review
I pulled out Super Meat Boy recently for the first time since I stopped playing it largely in 2017 due to the levels being too hard, basically speed and precision as you jump through increasingly hard levels with spikes and whirling blades. You get treated to a scene at the end showing all your attempts as they rush out, but it became an issue of diminishing returns as I got to the last world, which only has 5 levels (not 15 levels of which you need to complete 10), but they all were "perfect precision jumping or start the level over". It's fast-paced but does not allow for alternate strategies. In Hotline Miami if you botched a mission and were sniped by the guy over at the window or attacked by a roaming dog, you could do something different, like duck into a side-room, pick off the mobsters, and clean up when the whole gang runs to the scene of the crime...but here it's all timing, and I think I officially gave up sometime early last year when I spent like 20 minutes on a single level.
Player Notes
Yes, this review is phoned in, and I might not have written the best "review" of Super Meat Boy back in 2020 (bought and played most of it in 2016), but the reality was it was only fun up to a point. Sometimes getting a perfect run is quite satisfying, but at some point, not even the great music could save it, and the levels I was working on (I think it was the last world) weren't even the hardest in the game.