It seems like there’s a new slightly-humorous-for-its-incongruity collab between game devs every other week at this point, and the latest in this sacred lineage is a team-up between Super Meat Boy 3D and Mouse: P.I. For Hire.
The latter game’s titular mouse detective has been squished into a cube-like shape and sent to navigate a hellish labyrinth full of sawblades for the rest of his miserable existence. Oh, and the screen goes all black-and-white when you play as him, just like the FPS he comes from.
This might all seem downstream of cynical money devourers like Fortnite, but at least these games share something in both being indie(ish) cartoony pastiches with a gore-slick twist. Besides, Meat Boy is an OG when it comes to invasions of strangers’ videogames.
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You could play as him in the Bit.Trip games, and in turn CommanderVideo cameoed in Super Meat Boy. If you’re too Gen A to understand a single word I just said about the halcyon days of 2010s indie gaming, that’s okay. I’ll just go lay down and die.
But if you want to jump up and die, spectacularly and repeatedly, that’s what Super Meat Boy 3D is for. PC Gamer Australian Editor Shaun Prescott wasn’t exactly head over heels for it in his impressions—he said it had “no vibe,” lacking the skeezy-yet-tasteful tastelessness of Edmund McMillen’s touch—but still felt pretty good as far its running and jumping and exploding were concerned. Seems like that’s enough for some, as the game currently sits at a Very Positive rating on Steam.
Meanwhile, contributor Phil Iwaniuk said Mouse: P.I. For Hire was a “bona fide classic” in his 86% review for Mouse, adding that there’s more to it than “just an eye-grabbing art style.” Normally these crossovers go both ways to some extent, but I’m not sure how Super Meat Boy would fit into a noir detective story. Cause of death: giant sawblade? Seems pretty open-and-shut.
