The Meating

While The Meating clings to its NES roots, those roots ultimately feel more like dead weight than a solid foundation. It succeeds in capturing the look and feel of those classic NES titles, but at the same time it struggles to innovate or offer a compelling reason for players to invest their time. In the crowded landscape of retro-inspired indies, The Meating fails to distinguish itself. The end result is something that feels more antiquated than nostalgic, and like most meat that has been left out too long it is probably best to steer clear and look for something a bit fresher.

The Meating featuers a quirky story, though the platforming is less than perfect. I apprecite the NES-isms, but perhaps the Switch version could benefit from a few enhancements to separate it from the NES take on things.

I’m really easy with platformers—I just really love them! Even when I’m very bad at them, the way that I was at The Meating. I had a great time chewing through this game, and finding out how challenging it truly was when I, at first, didn’t think it would be such a prime cut was very rewarding. I’m not what people would call an OG gamer from the NES era, so I have no nostalgia for the console. That wasn’t what attracted me to The Meating; it was the good humour and fun-looking gameplay, and I’m happy to report that it meats my expectations.

Playing The Meating on a modern console strips it away from its only novelty. This is strictly for fans of Crazy Castle who wished the protagonist could jump and do other things. Everyone else will be bored to tears.

The bosses were clever, but the other stages didn’t really engage all that much, and I feel if you want a Mega Cat puzzler on Switch, Roniu’s Tale is still the must-have game to nab. That one just has a lot more brain-pushing puzzles from the get go, while The Meating takes a bit too long to get going, and doesn’t exactly excite once it does.

While I tend to be a fan of games with vintage retro styling, The Meating feels like one you could steer clear of