There is one feature of Super Meat Boy that separates it from its 2D Platforming Peers: the zero second respawn time after death. This singular feature turned what was a creative romp through the timeline of video games into a lightning storm of tense moments, trial and error, and murderous intent turned pure ecstasy. I draw a comparison to the Mario Bros. games of old; in the olden times, the long, long ago, death was to be feared. 1-UP's were the currency of the world. Sure you could jump above level 1-2 and just run to the end, but you miss out on about 3 extra lives from coins and shrooms. When the zero was next to the Mario face, you knew this was it. Die now and you must fight from the beginning.
This mindset of death actually punishing the players is making quite a resurgence. Games like Demon Souls may allow you any number of deaths, but they strip you of everything you hold dear in the process; even Minecraft puts a hefty price on taking too many arrows to the face. This return to the punishing styles of our 8-bit history is dramatically changing the gaming landscape.
Don't get me wrong, I love it. I love the sense of satisfaction from besting a game that forgives nothing. The beauty, however, of Super Meat Boy is that the satisfaction is different; it isn't better or worse than say, Mega Man's life counter, but it is distinct from it.
The things video games teach us are incredible. In this particular instance, death is a tool.(am I right?) In some games, death is a punishment for poor or inattentive play. In Super Meat Boy, death is only the beginning. Die once and you instantly learn what not to do next time. The learning curve is an exponential curve in Super Meat Boy. You can legitimately not die in the first chapter(difficult, but you can). However, by the time you reach "The End", you may very well die 10-25 times per level. Some levels demand much more than that.
This trial and error view of death may make the game seem easy early on, but that is only the tease before the trap. Super Meat Boy may give you infinite lives and no punishment for death, but it is still one of the hardest games I've played in the last several years.
A seemingly simple addition to a fairly simple game that makes all the difference.
