So the day has finally came when the next installment from Team Meat gets released, The Basement Collection takes nine of Team Meats older flash games and compiles them into a nice bundle along with countless extras making this the best $4 you could spend.

The Basement Collection contains such a vast amount of content it takes up almost 1Gb of room and coming from what was essentially just nine flash games this is a substantial jump up, the games included are:

• Aether
• Time Fcuk
• Spewer
• Meat Boy
• Grey Matter
• Coil
• Trachnid
• Two secret unlockable games

For a full list of content available in this collection please check out my earlier post here as it contains a run down of the content included and believe me it has a lot of content.

For anyone who come to Team Meat later on in their development from the alluring sights of Super Meat Boy or The Binding Of Isaac this collection is a must, as it shows a lot of the creativity leading up to these ground breaking titles. These games in their own right are great titles to play offering a lot of creativity and unique gameplay that create compelling very fun games.

The Basement Collection in terms of game content alone feels like a no brainer, however if you have any other Team Meat game in your Steam library you get an additional 30% off the price tag, That ‘s right this game is essentially being given way so what are you waiting for? The Basement collection is available via Steam here with the minimal price tag of $4, and if you still need more persuading be sure to come back to The Indie Game Magazine soon for the full review of The Basement Collection, it is one you don’t want to miss.

Source: The Indie Game Magazine – ‘The Basement Collection’ Finally Unlocks

I was delighted to find a playable demo on the floor of E3 that I could get my sweaty mitts all over, and downright giddy to have Tommy Refenes (half of Team Meat) right there to guide me through.

The concept is simple, you assume Meat Boy, or any of the other host of unlockable characters including Alien Hominid, Gish and Tim from Braid, as you attempt to traverse levels of all shapes, sizes and difficulty to reach your goal: Bandage Girl waiting helplessly at the conclusion of each level. Once reached however, your love is quickly abducted by the villainous ass Dr. Fetus, who would just as soon spit in your cereal than let you be happy for a moment. That’s really the core concept, use your meaty hero to hug walls, jump off them, avoid danger and learn from your pratfalls to get it right the next time around. The game can get hard but never frustrating, there’s always a way to get through a troublesome part of a level, you just have to figure it out and execute when it’s time.

The controls are great, if you have a knack for the platfomer genre you’ll breeze through the first few levels without much trouble at all, but don’t worry trouble’s coming. I found that Meat Boy handles rather well with pinpoint landings, a boon considering the large amount of them. As you’d expect, timing is a huge component to not dying, experience is the name of the game and you’ll have to die to live on many of the levels.

SMB is deep, there’s stuff in this game we don’t even fucking know about. Sorry, I’m paranoid over the fact that I feel that I saw a lot of the game, and still know so little about it. Tommy tells me that there will be something amazing waiting for those who actually reach 100% completion, which will be no small feat. The features list appears to be endless so I’ll try to relate some that caught my attention:

Anytime you see something on screen other than gameplay you can skip right through (though I wouldn’t if you like being entertained.)

Dark World levels. I suck at them, as I apparently should. Each level in the game has a much more difficult Dark World version of it that can be accessed after completion of the standard version. Game Boy levels as well, I didn’t get a chance to play one but as I understand it they’ll equate to mini-challenges presented now and again to break up the standard level play.

At the completion of each level, the game snaps to an optional replay of your success, and if you happened to die a lot–like me–all of your failures as well. This makes for a hilarious scene of several (if not dozens) of Meat Boy’s launching in failed attempts as one eventually cuts ahead of the pack to reach Bandage Girl. It’s not huge, and nothing that would make the game by itself, but it’s the little things such as this that are generously poured all over the game that makes it an absolute ‘ya-gotta-play-dis’ not just for platformer fans, but for the gaming populous in general.

Super Meat Boy is currently targeted for later this year, with an Xbox 360 launch first, followed shortly Refenes assured by a PC, Mac (unconfirmed but mentioned) and WiiWare release.

For those who absolutely can’t wait to get there hands on Super Meat Boy there’s actually something out there that should hold you over pretty well. I am, of course, talking about the prequel flash game: Meat Boy. Yep, that’s right, a little over a year ago the same developers making Super Meat Boy created and released Meat Boy on NewGrounds flash game portal and it can be played by anybody who wanders over there.

So what are you waiting for? Go get your Meat Boy on and start honing those skills for when the real deal drops a little later this year.

[Play via NewGrounds]