Hell is the fourth world in Super Meat Boy. As the name suggests, it is a sinister, subterranean area near the core of the planet, filled with boiling magma, twisted creatures, and bizarre feats of nature. It is here that Meat Boy discovers a grisly new element of his apparent immortality: when a Meat Boy dies, his corpse falls into Hell as his spirit reincarnates in an identical body. The boss of the world, Little Horn, is actually an enormous conglomerate of these corpses, seemingly given life by (or at least under the control of) Dr. Fetus.
Hell is noticeably more difficult and complex than the previous worlds; its levels tend to be fairly cramped, with magma and buzzsaws everywhere. Other hazards include spikes (although less frequently than in other worlds), crushing pistons, and strange openings that constantly spit out balls of magma that can roll and bounce around the level. New enemies include laser-firing eyeballs which swivel towards Meat Boy, and "Black Maws" which appear out of portals and explode into eight miniature versions when they touch walls. Hell also introduces red portals which transport Meat Boy and enemies alike between them, sometimes in the least logical fashion possible.
The introduction cutscene to this chapter is a reference to the NES game Ninja Gaiden.
Hell is preceded by The Salt Factory and succeeded by The Rapture.
Music used in this chapter:
Light World: Hot Damned (PC/Xbox) / Secret Satana (PS4/Wii U)
Dark World: Devil n Bass (PC/Xbox) / Hell Toupé (PS4/Wii U)
Boss: Meat Golem (PC/Xbox) / Fasten Your Meatbelts (PS4/Wii U)
Levels (Light World)
- Boilermaker
- Brindle (Bandage)
- Heck Hole
- Hex
- Pyro
- Leviathan (Bandage)
- Rickets
- Weibe (Brimstone Warp Zone, 2 Bandages)
- Deceiver (Bandage)
- Ball N Chain
- Oracle
- Big Brother
- Lazy (Bandage)
- Adversary (The Key Master Warp Zone, 2 Bandages)
- Abaddon
- Bow (Bandage)
- Lost Highway (Bandage)
- Boris (The Fly Guy! Warp Zone)
- The Hive
- Babylon (Bandage)
Levels (Dark World)
- Gretel
- Golgotha
- Char (Bandage)
- Altered (Bandage)
- Wicked One
- The Gnashing
- Thistle (MMMMMM Warp Zone, 2 Bandages)
- Billy Boy (Bandage)
- Glut
- Gallow (Bandage)
- Surrender
- Beholder
- Oblivion
- Old Scratch (Bandage)
- Bone Yard
- Starless
- Invocation
- Sag Chamber (Bandage)
- Long Goodbye (Bandage)
- Imperial
Other Levels
- Brimstone Warp Zone (2 Bandages)
- The Key Master Warp Zone (2 Bandages)
- The Fly Guy! Character Warp Zone (Flywrench)
- MMMMMM Warp Zone (2 Bandages)
- -4 Glitch Level
- Little Horn Boss Level
Trivia
- This is the only chapter that does not have the word "The" in its name.
- Like the Forest and the Salt Factory, Hell was one of the original levels of the "Meat Boy" flash game. However, its light world soundtrack, unlike the soundtrack of the Forest or the Salt Factory, is not a remix of the music in the original level. (Instead the original level's music got remixed into the Rapture light world soundtrack, "It Ends".)
- On Long Goodbye the XBLA version has two bandages: one on the top left and one on the bottom left, both in the 'sand' blocks.
- Stage 8, Weibe, is a reference to Steve Wiebe, a two-time champion of Donkey Kong. Its Dark World version, Stage 8X, "Billy Boy" is also a reference to Billy Mitchell who held the world record before Steve Wiebe took it.
- This is further referenced because in the stage, the rolling lava balls resemble the rolling barrels in Donkey Kong.
- Large Black Maws will not kill you if they pass you in mid-air. Only the miniature versions and the explosion when it hits the wall will.