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'Super Meat Boy Forever' comes to PlayStation and Xbox on April 16th
The platforming sequel is also on the way to Steam later this year.
Long-delayed 'Super Meat Boy Forever' arrives on PC December 23rd
'Super Meat Boy Forever' is finally ready, and will come to PCs through the Epic Games Store on December 23rd.
'Super Meat Boy Forever' will miss April release date
Super Meat Boy Forever is facing yet another delay, but don't panic -- it's not as bad as it has been. Team Meat has pushed the release of its squishy platformer to "after but not too far after April 2019." The developers are close and believe they could have met April if they'd pushed themselves to the limit, but they wanted to finish the game at a "healthy and sustainable pace." They're not going to go through the hell of crunch time just to make an arbitrary release schedule.
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth spins to November [Update: trailer]
The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, the twin-stick shooter's total remake for consoles, will launch November 4. Nicalis flashed gameplay clips and the release date for the remake in a new disturbing trailer, which has since been pulled from public view on YouTube. The developer teased that an announcement for the game was imminent on Twitter. The Binding of Isaac first launched on PC in September 2011, and Rebirth was originally discussed by creator Edmund McMillen in November 2012. The console port was previously expected to arrive in early 2014, but will hit PS4, Vita and Steam now in November. Rebirth was also originally planned for PS3 and 3DS, though the latter was disallowed by Nintendo due to the game's religious content. As of July, McMillen did not rule out an eventual appearance by Isaac on the 3DS eShop. [Image: Nicalis]
Super Meat Boy Forever trims fat, cooks up 'huge' challenge
Super Meat Boy Forever is as much a game as it is a meat grinder. It's "impossible," but only in the sense that it's similar to The Impossible Game, Grip Games' 2011 auto-running platformer that placed an emphasis on blazing hard difficulty. Super Meat Boy Forever dumps a similar formula into Team Meat's universe, and it's optimized for touch-based controls. "The goal is, this is going to be a Meat Boy that you play everywhere," Team Meat's Tommy Refenes told Joystiq at PAX Prime. We took a moment to play both the tablet and PC versions of the game at the event, which both relied on two physical (or touch-based) buttons. While Meat Boy never stopped sprinting through the boldly-outlined demo level, he happily jumped, slid and fell to the Earth at a rapid pace on command. Leaping across broad gaps and jumping from wall to wall, our Meat Boy dodged spinning saw blades just like he did in the original, making the experience feel immediately at home with pared-down controls, particularly on a mobile device.
Mew-Genics on hold, will return when it's 'more coherent'
Mew-Genics is officially on hold, Team Meat's Tommy Refenes confirmed to Joystiq at PAX Prime in Seattle. The game was first revealed in October 2012, though the Super Meat Boy developer did not fully explain how the genetically-altered cat lady simulator would operate for another four months. The decision to drag the game's esoteric explanation out is one that Refenes seemed to regret, saying the developer "shouldn't have been talking about it as much in the beginning as we did, because the game expanded beyond what it originally was." As a result, the game grew beyond Team Meat's own original vision: "Even some of the posts that we made in the beginning, that stuff doesn't exist in the game anymore," he added. For example, the developer discussed a "trinkets" system in December 2012, which is now gone from Mew-Genics, as it's "expanded into the stores" in the game.
Super Meat Boy dev teases 'A Voyeur for September'
What to make of this, hmm? Super Meat Boy and Mew-Genics studio Team Meat is teasing a new "live-action stealth game" called A Voyeur for September, which in and of itself is a bit weird. Let's face it, live-action stealth... whatever that is... would be a seismic departure from what we're used to from the team of Edmund McMillen and Tommy Refenes. Is there another explanation? Smarty-pants online sleuths reckon so, having discovered A Voyeur for September just so happens to be an anagram of Super Meat Boy Forever. That does sound more plausible, although we've discovered the title's also an anagram of Tea Proves Beefy Rumor. Does that mean the answer's in the tea? Somebody, put the kettle on! Check out Team Meat's mysterious teaser trailer below the break.
'Awful,' 'intimidating,' 'complicated': Indie devs on the guilt of success
It's said that money can't buy happiness. In fact, for some indie game developers, an influx of money can mean just the opposite. In a New Yorker feature, developers like Rami Ismail of Vlambeer (Ridiculous Fishing, Luftrausers), Edmund McMillen of Team Meat (Super Meat Boy) and Davey Wreden of Galactic Cafe (The Stanley Parable) explain how the success of their games have, in some ways, made their lives harder, not easier. Ismail, for example, cited his feelings of guilt over making more money in a single night than his mother makes all year. "Ever since I was a kid I've watched my mom wake up at six in the morning, work all day, come home, make my brother and me dinner," Ismail said. Regarding his overnight success, he told the New Yorker, "It feels awful. I couldn't get rid of the image of my mother in her car, driving to work." McMillen likewise experienced an impact on his familial relationships. He said that after the release of Super Meat Boy and Indie Game: The Movie - a documentary in which he is prominently featured - he had experienced distant relatives and old acquaintances asking him for money. "This success has artificially elevated me; it's caused jealousy, even hatred," McMillen said. "The money has made relationships complicated." Wreden wrote on his studio's site in February that he was experiencing depression, and told the New Yorker that, with the success of The Stanley Parable behind him, he must now look ahead to creating its successor. "It's intimidating to think that we have enough time and resources to do whatever we want," Wreden said. For more on the developing, expanding indie scene, be sure to check out our in-depth feature report. [Image: Vlambeer]
Mew-Genics side characters make cat calls on specific days
Team Meat's upcoming "cat lady sim," Mew-Genics, has quite the colorful cast of characters - despite being rendered in a 2D style completely devoid of color. According to a recent blog post by developer Edmund McMillen, said cast is also larger than previously thought: side characters can be met with on certain days to influence gameplay. "Each day of the week (real time days) most of these new side characters will appear, and ask something of you," McMillen wrote on the Team Meat blog. "Or maybe offer you something? Or maybe they will just help you break into the cat genetics lab?" McMillen also teased that Mew-Genics had "taken one final sharp turn in development" and that co-developer Tommy Refenes plans to release a video update which will reveal more soon. [Image: Team Meat]
Mew-Genics explains heredity through the miracle of kitten birth
Mew-Genics is an upcoming Team Meat production focused on cats: Cat breeding, cat sex, the horrors of cat genetic manipulation and, as the below .gif demonstrates, the adorably icky parts of cat birth. Though the cloud of afterbirth is a nice touch, the important thing to notice here is the kitten unceremoniously plopped onto the ground. He bears his mother's spots, but since his father is nearly pure white, the lil' fella's spots are less prevalent than they were in the prior generation. As Team Meat explains, this (and every other trait the kitten inherits) may change as the cat ages. Of course, Mew-Genics also allows players to influence the way their cats change over time. With a few subtle environmental tweaks, a kitten destined to grow into the feline equivalent of Mother Teresa might instead pledge allegiance to the thug life. Mew-Genics is currently slated for release at some point during 2014.
Mew-Genics will let you influence, mutate cats using furniture
Lots of people feel that cats have some of the strongest personalities in the animal kingdom; but what if instead of just animal personalities, a cat could be a hipster, a VHS lover or Super Meat Boy fan? What if you could control and selectively breed cat personalities so that you could, as Mew-Genics creator Edmund McMillen puts it in the latest update on the Team Meat blog, "storm the cat fights with your epic army of thugged out pussy?" McMillen explains that in Mew-Genics, cats will have varying personalities when they're born, "from lazy to sexy, from passive to psychotic." Personalities are influenced by items and furniture, which McMillen detailed the function of earlier this month. If a piece of home decor is rare, it's also possible the cat will identify with it so strongly that the cat will mutate and an element or design of the item will become part of the cat. In one screen, a cat that identifies with a Super Meat Boy doll has the same black eye and missing tooth as the hamburger hero. In another, a cat that identifies with gangster rap has a tattoo of a knife on his cheek and a bandana on his head. Again: there is a cat thug with a bandana and knife tattoo on his face. I ... I don't know how to end this post.
Mew-Genics wants you to hoard attribute-boosting furniture
Team Meat recently unveiled another aspect of Mew-Genics' gameplay: furniture collecting. Super Meat Boy creator Edmund McMillen discussed the game's furniture system in a blog post on the game's site, drawing comparisons to Nintendo's Animal Crossing series. In Mew-Genics, players acquire furniture through Baby Jack's store then place it in a room in their house. Each piece of furniture, which belongs to one of five "types," influences a variety of stats in the game, from disease rates to each cat's life span. The five types of furniture are large, medium, small, wall furniture and those belonging to item sets. Team Meat says Mew-Genics will include 750 pieces of furniture in total, not including rare alternates for each one. The cat genetics and breeding game will launch in 2014 for Steam, iOS and Android.
Push two cats together to create a new one in Mew-Genics
Team Meat's Edmund McMillen recently attempted to explain how the Super Meat Boy developer's next game, Mew-Genics, operates. Naturally, McMillen opted to describe the game in webcomic form, noting that it is about "cat genetics and the forced evolution of the most adaptive species on this whole planet." The comic illustrates players' ability in the breeding game to mash two cats together in order to create a new kitten, care for them as well as enter them into battles and pageant-style contests. Team Meat previously referred to Mew-Genics as a "cat lady sim" that blends elements of "The Sims and Pokemon with a sprinkling of Animal Crossing and a dash of Tamagotchi." McMillen likened Mew-Genics to an unreleased Nintendo game called Cabbage that was in development by Earthbound creator Shigesato Itoi and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto for the canceled Nintendo 64DD system. Cabbage was a multiplayer breeding game that was expected to allow players to take their creature on the go with their Game Boy systems. Mew-Genics is in development for Steam, iOS and Android, and will launch in 2014.
Super Meat Boy now $3 thanks to Steam's Midweek Madness sale
If you haven't yet experienced the soul-crushing difficulty of Super Meat Boy, now's your chance: From now until 7PM on November 7, the indie platformer is available on Steam at an 80 percent discount. Including 300-plus stages, boss fights and sadistic jumping puzzles, Super Meat Boy is not for the faint of heart. It does however, offer immense bragging rights for anyone able to finish the game. Then, once you've trumped every level, you can start building your own diabolical masterpieces in the game's level editor, or pour another dozen hours into Super Meat Boy seeking its hidden warp areas and well-hidden secret characters. The one major caveat here is that while you can play Super Meat Boy on a keyboard, the game's split-second timing almost demands players utilize a gamepad. Fortunately, the game's rudimentary control scheme lends itself well to almost any controller, including Sony's new DualShock 4.
Mew-Genics trailer has folk singing, exploding cats, 2014 release date
The first trailer for Mew-Genics, the upcoming "cat lady sim" from Team Meat (of Super Meat Boy fame) has arrived, and it's... uh... well, there's singing, giant cats exploding, microscopic cats being injected into another cat, a cat pooping out another cat, and we're not 100 percent sure, but some cats might also be up to some NSFW activities at one point in the video. The teaser ends with a cat exploding into a mushroom cloud, which rains down more cats while a "Coming 2014" fades into view. About that 2014 release date: In an email to Joystiq, Edmund McMillen of Team Meat wrote that the game is "definitely one of those 'it's done when it's done' projects," so exactly when in 2014 we'll get our hands on these adorable kittens is up in the air. McMillen described Mew-Genics as a cat breeding sim, cat fighting sim, cat hoarding sim, cat pageant sim, and cat racing sim, all rolled into one. While you wait for your chance to breed, fight, hoard, show off and race your cats, why not sing the Mew-genics theme song to your cat and/or friends? Trust us, they'll thank you.
Super Meat Boy 80% off on Steam today
The brutally difficult Super Meat Boy is a measly $3 on Steam today, with its synthesizer-charged soundtrack also discounted to $1.20. For 300 levels, a level editor and 16 unlockable characters, Super Meat Boy carries a ridiculous amount of content for the asking price. While its unforgiving difficulty curve can inspire some creative language, we thought it was one of the best games of 2010. If you're feeling free with your wallet, Super Meat Boy is included in the Good Friends Bundle with games like Portal 2 and Psychonauts for $25.
Special Edition of Indie Game: The Movie spooled up for July 24
A new version of Indie Game: The Movie, the 2012 documentary chronicling the lives of indie video game developers chasing their dreams, will be released on July 24. This special edition will include 300+ minutes of footage, including over 100 minutes of never-before-seen film that will include epilogues for some of the developers featured in the film. The Team Meat fellers, prominently featured in the film, also provide some new commentary tracks, as do directors James Swirsky and Lisanne Pajot. The special Indie Game: The Movie will be available through Steam and the official site for $15, or for $5 if you already own the first version. If you pre-order now, a DVD boxed set is available for $59 (regularly $69), while the Blu-ray version is down to $69 from $89. Boxed sets won't ship until August, at which point they'll revert to their full prices. Both DVD and Blu-ray special editions will be signed by the directors, include exclusive artwork from Edmund McMillen, and offer a code for the digital special edition. Indie Game: The Movie is currently available for streaming on Netflix Instant, as a rental or purchase on YouTube and, until July 22, a $2.99 purchase on Steam, thanks to the Steam Summer Sale.
Mew-Genics, official comic debuting at Pax Prime
Team Meat's new, characteristically adorable/disturbing cat-lady sim Mew-Genics will be on display and playable for all of the hot, teeming masses attending Pax Prime in Seattle this August. This will be the game's first exhibition at any tradeshow or convention, in addition to the debut of its companion comic book. The 28-page black-and-white comic is "packed to the brim with funformation," according to Team Meat's announcement, and it (along with the game itself and "other fun stuff") can all be found at Team Meat's official booth.
The Binding of Isaac reaches two million in sales
Team Meat co-founder Edmund McMillen recently revealed that The Binding of Isaac has reached 2 million in sales. McMillen noted his surprise at the game's steady success, having first launched in September 2011, on an episode of the Northernlion gaming channel on YouTube."In the first year we sold a million copies, and now we're already up to two million," McMillen said. He also discussed the Nicalis "demake" of the game, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, and the definite inclusion of the Mystery Man unlockable character. The Mystery Man will use randomly-generated items and stats, offering a new challenge to players each time he's selected. McMillen also elaborated on the constraints that Flash presented in developing the game, and how Rebirth would benefit from fewer performance issues.
Mew-Genics revealed as a 'cat lady sim'
Team Meat has finally unveiled Mew-Genics' true nature, after 17 weeks of teasers and tidbits. Dubbed a "cat lady sim," Mew-Genics will blend elements of "The Sims and Pokemon with a sprinkling of Animal Crossing and a dash of Tamagotchi," as creator Edmund McMillen puts it on Team Meat's official blog.Sounds like just about the most wholesome thing ever, right? Well, not exactly -- McMillen describes a typical Mew-Genics session, during which a cat is unfrozen from a "Cryo-cube" and paired with another cat for breeding. The unfrozen cat attacks the second, and because the attack took place while the second cat was eating, the second cat then associates food with pain from that point on. As a result, the second cat starves to death in the attic.Later, a stray is brought in and successfully mated with the unfrozen cat, which results in a pregnancy. Unfortunately though, the stray suffers from narcolepsy, a trait that is then inherited by the two kittens born from the union. This condition causes one of the kittens to fall asleep during a kitty beauty pageant, losing the competition.After the stray cat runs away, it is discovered that it infected the unfrozen cat with "feline aids." As the treatments are too expensive, the cat is re-frozen into a Cryo-cube and put back into storage. Completing missions for a doctor, however, could help find a cure. The game then ends with the player being arrested by animal control.There's a lot of interesting gameplay elements contained within that tremendously upsetting story, like the fact that cats can inherit traits from their parents and that those traits can lead to failure or (presumably) success during missions. It also made us want to cry. Mew-Genics will launch on Steam, iOS and Android sometime before the end of the year.
