hi, this thread is going to collect some basic info about how to get started playing the game.
Free unblocked games at school for kids, Play games that are not blocked by school, Addicting games online cool fun from unblocked games.com. It seems like only yesterday Meat Boy and Bandage Girl were escaping from an exploding laboratory in the sky. Now it’s the current year, and they’ve welcomed their daughter Nugget into the world. Their days enjoying life as a family came to an abrupt end when Dr. Fetus beat the snot out of them with a rusty shovel, and kidnapped Nugget! Now it’s up to Meat Boy and Bandage Girl to rescue.
IMPORTANT RE: LATEST STEAM VERSION
a new version of the game was just released on steam, to coincide with the race mode DLC and the 8th anniversary of the game's release. the below info was written for the previous version of the game, and it seems a lot of glitches & mechanics were patched out. please bear with us while we more exhaustively document the changes. in the meantime, if you want to play the old version, you can do so by opting into the 'ogversion' branch on steam (rightclick game in your steam library -> properties -> betas -> select 'ogversion' from the dropdown)
Which version?
Windows > Mac/Linux >> modern consoles >>> 360/xbone > vita/pstv
The Windows version is the de-facto standard. For the any% category, the differences between versions are primarily loading times, some minor speed tech, and, for the vita version, some perceived lagginess when playing. For other categories, character roster & major glitches also come into play.
In any case, please don't worry too much about this -- we'd much rather see you run the game on a 'worse' version than not run the game at all. :> Also note that, for whichever version you pick, you need to be able to record video & audio footage of it to get runs on the leaderboard.
Which input device?
Whatever you prefer, for the most part. Keyboard is slightly superior to controller at the highest levels of play for the 106% category or individual level runs.
Tutorial Links
safestrats video tutorial for any% by Applesauce. Will help you complete the run.
detailed video tutorial for any% by Monkiboy. For players with a higher level of skill than the previous video.
brownie skip video by thebmxbandit11. Covers how to do brownie skip & sprintjumping. He also has a few more videos on his channel for some of the other more famous skips, like mono or omega.
strategy reference and glossary by Misteur, Ikod, and Crucrux. Really useful if you want to browse your strategy options for a specific stage, and if you want a more indepth explanation of some meatboy speedrunning vocabulary. I can't recommend this highly enough. Currently only complete through the any% stages.
Your biggest focus, when starting out, should just be not dying, right? Don't worry about harder skips until you're comfortable with movement in general. Also, I know some people like to do this, but I really, really don't recommend trying to learn from the record..
What else should I know before starting runs?
It's required to play the game at a stable 60 frames per second (fps) for all but one category. If you're playing on windows, you should highly consider installing and using rivatuner. See this thread for how & a more detailed why http://www.speedrun.com/smb/thread/tw32f
the '-lowdetail' and '-ultralowdetail' command line options can, if you play on a pc version, reduce the load on your system & save you some loading time, at the cost of graphics quality. If you use steam to launch the game, rightclick game in your steam library -> properties -> set launch options -> type in one of the two options (skip the quotes). If not using steam, google it.
Your save file is located at (game directory)/userdata/savegame.dat , at least for windows. Fullgame runs are required to use a new, fresh save each attempt. There are utilities available in the resources section that can delete the save & launch game for you in a couple clicks; if you'd rather do it manually, I recommend creating a shortcut to the userdata folder on your desktop.
Other Frequently Asked Questions
Any% route reference: https://www.speedrun.com/smb/guide/zdtgv
How to autojump: hold jump, press pause. Let go of jump, unpause (without using your jump button)
How to sprint jump: see the brownie skip tutorial video linked just above (from thebmxbandit11).
Super Meat Boy Version Differences And Culture
How to dual jump: the game tracks controller jump and keyboard jump buttons separately. By alternating between both, you can cancel controller jump into keyboard jump and input a jump without having to let go of & repress a button (does not work vice-versa). Saves slight time in many places. Now, this is extremely hard to get used to & not really recommended for new players.
The game features button remapping via buttonmap.cfg in the game directory, but the functionality that file offers is extremely limited. For more useful remapping, look into alternate software. If you want to, say, remap pause to a shoulder button on a controller, look into joy2key. I'm also told autohotkey works well for keyboard. Note that, while remapping is fine, you may not automate actions. Macros and scripts are banned.
Slightly faster level transitions: when you touch bandage girl, press A (as in, the key for the letter A, on your keyboard) to advance to the next level without having to watch the replay first. The S key does the same, but for exiting to level select. Remapping these keys to your controller with joy2key or whatever program is allowed.
Yes, having a high-hz or high-fps gaming monitor can make the game run... off, with bosses moving at super speed and things like that. You can either drop your monitor's hz down to 60 in windows (& make sure vsync is on), or see above for how to install & use a program called Rivatuner to limit the game's fps to 60.
If you've encountered a situation where your game lagged & then you clipped into a wall, don't bother trying to reproduce it intentionally. There is an extremely easy way to make it happen anywhere, such that you can clip into pretty much any wall you want. This is known as the alt glitch, & it's extremely broken & banned in most categories. If it keeps happening unintentionally, try lowering your cpu load, by doing things like closing out of unnecessary programs running in the background or running in low or ultralowdetail (see above).
Super Meat Boy Version Differences Chart
enjoy the game!