Super Metboy!

Genre: Arcade

Players: 1-4 Co-Op (Local), 2-4 Competitive (Local / Online)

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Review:

Super Metboy! (not to be confused with Super Meat Boy) is a family-friendly Arcade-style game released in 2021 on PC and Nintendo Switch. In this game, players control one of various bouncing ball-like characters using a single button to bounce, shoot, and melee attack enemies all at the same time.

The presentation in this game is adorable, using colorful 2D visuals with an aesthetic that hearkens back to classic 8-bit games, but not using pixel art visuals. Rather, this game’s menus all evoke the cartridges, instruction manuals, and arcades of that era. This is joined by a catchy chiptune soundtrack. Overall, I feel like this game does a good job evoking a nostalgic atmosphere in a way that’s still fairly original.

The gameplay in Super Metboy has players repeatedly tapping any button to make their character float upward (think Flappy Bird) while also using the analog stick to steer their character around their screen. However, pressing a button doesn’t just help you to float – it is also simultaneously both a melee attack and a ranged attack. This clever conceit means that players must anticipate how their attacks affect their movement, and vice versa.

While the game’s Arcade-style play is fun and lighthearted, this game takes on some added depth with a few light Roguelike mechanics, where points you earn during gameplay can be used to permanently upgrade your characters between runs, with a “Gacha machine” providing randomized upgrades you can slot into your character. In addition, there’s some decent variety in the unlockable characters, who not only have differences in speed, attack power, and their floating ability, but also have different nuances in how their attacks work.

The multiplayer here has promise, but ends up being a bit of a mixed bag. I feel like the competitive multiplayer mode is too chaotic to be really enjoyable, and there aren’t really any other players joining in games online anyway. However, the local co-op mode is really delightful, and a great way to share a light Arcadey experience with one to three friends in local play.

Probably my biggest complaint regarding Super Metboy! is that I feel this game could have been so much better if it more fully embraced its Roguelike elements, giving players a much wider array of upgrades to choose from rather than simple stat boosts. And while this element may remind players of Roguelites, the rest of the game is largely static, meaning that you won’t be encountering anything drastically different from one run to the next. Also, I feel like players will find themselves frustrated with melee attacks in this game – it’s often the most direct and visceral way to take out enemies, but it makes the player far too likely to be a sitting duck at the end of the attack, especially if they use it on an enemy that isn’t defeated by the attack.

Despite these flaws and missed opportunities, Super Metboy is a delightful Arcade-style game that has enough interesting mechanics to set itself apart. I do wish that the game made better use of the Roguelite-style elements that are present in the game here, and the lack of follow-through on that leaves this game feeling a bit shallow. I also wish the melee attacks here didn’t feel so unreliable and risky. But even with these issues, this is a fun and lighthearted game that’s worth trying out.

tl;dr – Super Metboy is a family-friendly Arcade-style game where players control ball-life characters who use the same button to float, melee attack, and use ranged attacks. This makes for some fun, lighthearted gameplay, and some excellent local co-op, and though I wish the game’s minor Roguelite elements were more pronounced, and I wish the melee attacks were less risky to use, overall this I found this to be a delightful game, if a tad shallow.

Grade: B

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