The experience of failure is a beautiful one. Granted, failure is generally only beautiful when viewed from the other side of the currently insurmountable obstacle—but without failure, where is the glory in success? When Team Meat was designing their love letter to classic platformers (Payne & Cambell) and their experience turned from joy to horror (Wolfenstein), they pushed on. And Super Meat Boy is the beautiful reward that Team Meat—and we—received from their brutal
experience. The following odes to failure and Super Meat Boy share the beauty and difficulty in pushing through aspects of life—in games and out— that cause suffering and frustration. What both Wolfenstein and Payne & Campbell tell us repeatedly, despite their very different approaches to the subject, is this: The only real failure is when you put down the controller and never return. Team Meat made the world a better place by not succumbing to their suffering and frustration—and Super Meat Boy players every day testify against failure by picking up the controller again and again. “We can do this,” they say, “even as the world transforms from pastoral woodlands to hellish nightscapes— give me just one more try...”
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