I started playing two different indie platformers today. Both of them are spectacular but I found the differences extremely unnerving. Warning: Spoilers, nothing major, but you have been warned.
Super Meat Boy:
The game is tongue-in-cheek parody of the hyper-violence and masochism in video games. The games protagonist, meat boy, goes on a super mario quest to save his female friend, bandage girl from the grasp of doctor fetus... an evil baby. It takes the plot of super mario, and desecrates it with meaty bloody juice splodges designed to represent meat boy whenever he hits anything sharp. Hacksaws and hyperdermic needles have their wicked way with our unfortunate protagonist, but he brushes it off and respawns within seconds. (Sometimes before you realise he'd even died.) The gameplay is spectacularly fun, with just the right combination of impossible challenges, and satisfying reward. The best reward comes at the end of each level when all attempts at completing it are shown simultaneously in a live-action replay. You watch with satisfaction as a lone SMB completes the level in one fell swoop, or else, watch 40 or 50 meat boys simultaneously take on the level. Each is picked off at all the different obstacles you had to grind past, with one lone lucky guy reaching bandage girl. Pure fun.
Limbo:
In comparison Limbo, is one of the most stark, goosebump inducing, intense gaming experiences. Black and white, total quiet, and barely anything moves.
The reds and browns of SPM still echoed in my eyes as I sat down to play this game. It was like I'd eaten too much chocolate (insert your drug of choice here), and now was time for the come-down. Limbo has no introduction, a boy wakes up in a black and white forest and he must go forwards, (going back gives you the "wrong way achievement.") Totally alone, he trudges through the forest, jumping haphazardly over obstacles, and then gets brutally killed in a bear trap. It's a sickening feeling. You mourn a just met character. Then he respawns... but painfully slowly. Unlike in SMB there is no promise of the cathartic watch all the painful deaths, in fact there was no beginning to the level at all, no comforting tutorial. The help section of the game is like an ikea manual, a to jump, b for action, left stick to move. The developers seem to know that once a seasoned player is looking for "help", it's because they want some kind of explanation. They offer none.
Drowning is the worst. No insta-respawn here, you watch as the bubbles slow and his eyes close. At least the bear trap was quick. The kid becomes instantly more vulnerable, instantly younger. You've watched him trudge through the forest barely able to jump, and now he's never even been taught to swim. It's unbearable.
Both games are beautifully crafted and ingeniously well-thought out. They were both worth every penny I paid for them, but playing them one after another was like going on a bouncy castle and then cutting myself for ever believing I deserved to have fun.
