Super Meat Boy will have a spin-off title: The evil meat machine of Dr. Fetus. The game combines match-4 puzzle gameplay with the very difficult gameplay that Super Meat Boy is known for. The game is actually also a reference to another game, The mean bean machine from Dr. RobotnikSega’s rebrand of Puyo Puyo inspired by Sonic the Hedgehog.
The game is scheduled for release in 2023 on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
The trailer teases the premiseand that of the game Among us-like animation style, and shows Dr. Fetus, the antagonist of Super Meat Boy, flipping gigantic switches in a lab. It then cuts to gameplay, which looks like Puyo Puyo, except stylized in the cartoonish look of Super Meat Boy. It is also full of dangers. You try to line up red, yellow, purple and green chunks of flesh while dodging threats like circular saws, ghost enemies and chainsaws.
According to a description of the game on the publisher’s website, it takes place immediately after the events of Super Meat Boy forever. The game also features backgrounds and animations created by the original Super Meat Boy and Super Meat Boy Forever artists over the course of 100 levels.
In Puyo Puyo games, players line up falling blocks to match four or more of the same color to score points and clear space on the board. The evil meat machine of Dr. Fetus isn’t just Headup Development’s take on a Puyo Puyo style game though – it also references another spin-off, The mean bean machine from Dr. Robotnik. The 1993 Sega Genesis game, in turn, was Sega’s take on a Puyo Puyo game inspired by Sonic The Hedgehog.