Who expected the titular character of Super Meat Boy to be so, er, beefy?
Super Meat Boy is a widely-acclaimed and brutally-difficult platformer starring a little chunk of raw meat (the aptly named Meat Boy) who looks like this (on the left). When the indie hit sees a boxed “Special Edition” release, however, the version of Meat Boy adorning the box art will look slightly different.
That is to say, he’ll look like the guy in the image you see here to the right. This “realistic” interpretation of Meat Boy, Bandage Girl and the nefarious Dr. Fetus is the work of Magic: The Gathering artist Dave Rapoza, and something about it unsettles the bejeezus out of me.
I can’t put my finger on just what it is (other than the entirety of the image), but man, this thing looks weird. Who knew that a little chunk of meat was in actuality a slice of beefcake?
In all seriousness, I love this art. It’s hilariously over-the-top, and its supposedly-realistic interpretation of Meat Boy brings to mind other classic box art, where artists had to conceptualize how 8-bit sprites might look in an actual real-world environment. It’s the same process that gave us that infamous box art for the first Mega Man, and I love it.
