Arcade GotY: Limbo vs. Super Meat Boy

With the release of Super Meat Boy, another great indie title has been released on to Xbox Live Arcade. It is sure to become a classic and remembered by gamers for years to come. As we are now steadily approaching the end of the year, it is time for us to start thinking about those prestigious Game of the Year awards. In the arcade category, Super Meat Boy is a clear competitor with the only other outstanding title being Limbo. Between the two games you receive entirely different experiences, both of them absolutely flawless. How to decide who is the winner then? And does it really matter?

Let us weigh up the two games.

Limbo was released as part of the Summer of Arcade and boy did we love it! The game took style and gaming art to a whole new level. Its curiously silent and odd world, complex puzzles and vague storyline all led to a huge interest from the gaming community. It is one of those rare gems that seem to appear from nowhere and leaves you stunned at its conclusion. Emblazoned within the memories of all that have played it, Limbo is not just a game; it is a tale of humanity, despair and those unsettling haunts from childhood. With each step you ventured further into a beautiful nightmare that kept you glued despite lacking a coherent story, soundtrack or end goal. A hugely impressive feat for such a small and simple game from an obviously highly talented indie developer. We marvel at its impact and worship its grip on our lives. Truly a piece of art, Limbo justifies the video game as a means to connect with our lives in never-before-imagined ways.

Super Meat Boy was the main course of Microsoft’s October Games Feast. The other games in the feast were of a mixed quality. Super Meat Boy is the one that undoubtedly stands out, reeling in one of the highest average review scores this year, alongside Limbo. And quite rightly too! The game’s controls are amongst the best I have ever experienced. They are sharp, tight and completely fluid. What more could you ask from a platformer? Alongside its humorous premise having you play as a cube of raw meat, Super Meat Boy is perhaps the best platformer ever made. It does not just excel in its control system; this quality is carried across all other aspects of the game. Super Meat Boy is also a highly addictive game that sucks you in and keeps you there with a huge amount of difficult levels. You are not satisfied until you have mastered your quota for the day. Just when you thought you could spot an end to the levels, you are given warp zones, extra characters and further map packs to play. It just keeps getting bigger and better! Furthermore, any extra content is completely free! A rare word used in today’s modern gaming world.

I could go on all day about these two games, but this does not get us any nearer to a solution to our problem. As it stands currently, we at Hooked Gamers have rated Limbo a perfect 10, and Super Meat Boy a 9.8. Is that it then? Decided?

For me, ratings are simply guidelines and do not ultimately decide that a game is better than another. Great, so that goes out of the window. Perhaps we can settle this dispute by arguing that these are both games that, whilst offering near-perfect gaming experiences, are entirely different. What I get from Limbo, I do not get from Super Meat Boy, and vice-versa. But both experiences are of a similar quality.

At the end of the day, an award is not going to answer whether one game is better than the other, but there is always that sense of pride for the developers. When it comes down to it, this cannot be decided by measuring these games against each other. Ultimately, both of these games have an equal share in my heart and I would not take that away from either of them. I am interested in knowing what everyone else thinks though and would appreciate your views in this extremely tight contest. Barely resembling David and the Goliath, this is a Mexican standoff between two arcade treasures that have bestowed their presence upon us in the year 2010. Arcade game of the year? You decide?