Now. Maybe you know a bit about the story of the Super Meat Boy soundtrack, and why it’s incredible that it’s back here in 2025.

If you don’t: the original Super Meat Boy release (2010) featured a banging soundtrack by Danny Baranowsky, also known as dB Soundworks at the time. Danny was already composer on the original Meat Boy (a Flash game). The soundtrack for Super Meat Boy played a huge part in making the game feel more fun and challenging, and a few tracks went as far as being released as Rock Band DLCs (yes, it’s that good).

Danny Baranowsky went on to compose the Binding of Isaac original soundtrack as well, by the same main developer who worked on Super Meat Boy: Edmund McMillen.

Now, Edmund has a… reputation. Putting it mildly, he’s wildly known for being hard to work with. And most of his associates parted ways with him at some point. His main teammate on Super Meat Boy, Tommy Refenes, has explained how hard it was to work with him, and how better he was leading Team Meat without McMillen’s involvement (more on that later).

For the 2015 HD re-release of Super Meat Boy (and later for Binding of Isaac), the original soundtrack was replaced with a completely new one, by new composers (Ridiculon, Seattle and Laura Shigihara). It’s not half bad, and I don’t think the new team has done a bad job (I really like all three of them, and Ridiculon’s work on Binding of Isaac has its own merits). But it’s certainly a downgrade. For PC players, the music was automatically replaced in the process of updating the game!

Danny B., who retained the rights on its own tracks, explained on various outlets that he didn’t have a "working relationship" with Team Meat anymore. The soundtrack replacement wasn’t due to creative differences: Baranowsky felt like Team Meat’s financial offer for his tunes was not appropriate.

Incidentally, two years later, with Tommy Refenes now leading the studio, the PC version of Super Meat Boy was updated once again to include a soundtrack switch. It was finally possible to choose between the 2010 and 2015 soundtracks. Somehow, with McMillen out of the picture at Team Meat, a new arrangement was found. Still, a lot of versions of the game (mostly on consoles) are stuck with the 2015 soundtrack forever…

It’s good to see Danny Baranowsky being able to put 3 of his greatest Super Meat Boy tracks, all completely reworked, in Rift of the Necrodancer. Featuring the titular character… in the flesh, quite literally. With such a track record, this soundtrack could have been forgotten, but it’s still as fondly remembered 15 years later – and it still packs some punch!

As a final trivia, you might want to know that Rift of the Necrodancer’s credits include thanks to Team Meat and to Tommy Refenes, whose approval was certainly needed at least to include the likeness of Meat Boy into the game. Oddly, Edmund McMillen’s name is nowhere to be found… 😔