Super Meat Boy is one of the most notoriously difficult platformers ever created, and it's been an icon of the masocore subgenre ever since it launched in 2010. Even with that stature, no player in the past 15 years has managed the ultimate challenge of fully completing the game without dying. That is, not until this past month, when speedrunner shredberg finally overcame the monumental trial and earned a shoutout from the game's original co-creator.
Going deathless through individual parts of Super Meat Boy isn't unheard of – after all, the game has numerous achievements for completing individual worlds without dying. But running through the entire game, including all the bonus levels you need for total, 106% completion, is an entirely different story.
In a Reddit post, shredberg estimates that it took "probably like 700-800 hours of grinding" to get the final, two-hour deathless run in mid-December. "I know I had to get at least like 100k deaths to be able to beat it with 0," shredberg adds.
Edmund McMillen, who co-created Super Meat Boy before moving on to certified roguelike classic The Binding of Isaac, was one of many who took note of shredberg's accomplishment. "Congrats!" McMillen said on Twitter, with a follow-up "You are awesome" pointed shredberg's way, complete with a little smiley face for emphasis.
Super Meat Boy's difficulty is notorious, but given the game's stature among enthusiasts of uber-hard platformers, it's dang surprising that it's taken this long for a full deathless run to finally happen. Tough games normally inspire masochistic gamers to immediately take on the most ridiculous challenges imaginable – but I guess Super Meat Boy really is too tough to be taken lightly.
