Super Meat Boy players on Xbox 360 who thought they had wrung every last drop of blood out of Team Meat’s brutal platformer have more punishment headed their way. The next update for the Xbox Live Arcade version is said to be a hefty one, reportedly packing around 40 levels, and it is expected to arrive soon. Team Meat has not put a firm date on it yet, and as with every previous update it will need to clear Microsoft’s certification process first, so treat the timing as flexible.
The new stages will land in Teh Internets, the special hub that Team Meat built into the XBLA release as a delivery system for free content. Rather than charging for downloadable packs, the studio has been feeding new chapters into that world at no cost, and the plan from the start was to keep the game growing for months after launch.
A Slow Start For Teh Internets
That plan got off to a slow start. Team Meat spent much of the winter waiting on a tiny patch, under a megabyte in size, that fixed an autosave bug and other faults. As Joystiq reported in early February, that file spent more than three months working through certification before it went live. With the fix finally out, Edmund McMillen said the team would start spacing out level drops and that several outside developers were already lined up to contribute.
The first fruits arrived a few weeks later. In late February, Team Meat added two new chapters to Teh Internets for free, Expert Remix and Cramps. Expert Remix takes 20 stages from the main game and makes them even nastier, while Cramps was built by community member NovaSilisko. The same update made Teh Internets easier to reach, unlocking it once you hold 15 bandages or have cleared 40 levels.
More Guest Chapters Still In The Pipeline
More guest work is still in the pipeline. Team Meat has previously said that Gaijin Games, the studio behind the Bit.Trip series, is building a pack starring Commander Video, and that Michael O’Reilly, the creator of the notoriously cruel I Wanna Be The Guy, is preparing levels of his own. Neither has been confirmed as part of this next update, but both would fit the bill for players who have already conquered the dark world.
The PC side of the game has its own roadmap. McMillen has said the level editor and level portal will come to the Steam version as soon as possible, which should eventually open the floodgates for fan creations on computers. Xbox 360 owners, meanwhile, rely on Team Meat to curate and submit every new chapter.
Super Meat Boy launched on Xbox Live Arcade last October to strong reviews and has become one of the service’s standout releases. If you have been waiting for an excuse to go back, a fresh batch of levels is about as good a reason as any. We will post the date as soon as Team Meat has one.