This week's bonus edition of The TouchArcade Show features Edmund and Tommy from Team Meat, the studio behind Super Meat Boy, The Binding of Isaac, and an interesting upcoming cat simulation game called Mew-Genics. At the top, Team Meat clears the air about its past comments on the state of App Store games in the early years. Later, we talk about that re-imagining of Super Meat Boy on mobile as well as chat a bit about the ideas fueling the creation of Mew-Genics. It's a great talk overall and filled with some pretty funny bits.

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We'll be back with you later in the week with another episode of The TouchArcade Show.

Since its announcement on April 1st of last year, a built-from-the-ground-up for iOS version of Super Meat Boy has been right near the top of my most-anticipated list. Then this past October, developer Team Meat announced a new project called Mew-Genics, which started as a Ludum Dare 24 game jam project but turned out to be so much fun that the two-man studio decided to go all the way with it and turn it into their next official release.

Unfortunately for iOS Super Meat Boy fans, development on that title would remain active but slowed down in favor of pushing Mew-Genics out the door, which originally sounded like it wouldn't be that long of a process. Well, as noted by Joystiq, it looks like Mew-Genics has taken on a life of its own, and Team Meat has officially stopped all development on Super Meat Boy for iOS until Mew-Genics is finished. The Mew-Genics development has ballooned not just because new features and ideas are cropping up, but also because the team has decided to re-do the entire game from scratch outside of Flash.

Mew-Genics was officially confirmed for an iOS release in December, and although most details are pretty vague its strange mixture of gene-mixing and cats has us intrigued to be sure. But it really hurts seeing it come at the expense of Super Meat Boy on iOS, especially as we approach the one-year mark of its official announcement.

Team Meat had been releasing weekly updates about Mew-Genics on its blog every "Caturday" for the past few months, but have stated there are only two more of those to come and then they'll be flipping the radio silence switch in order to hunker down and get the game finished. I'm all for that, because as much as I'd like to see what the heck Mew-Genics is all about I'm doubly excited to see what the developer's touchscreen take on Super Meat Boy turns out to be.

[Joystiq, Image via ShakaGod at deviantART]

We've got a little good news, bummer news thing for you this morning. In a recent blog post on the official Team Meat site, the studio announced a brand new game called Mew-genics and confirmed that it'll be its next release. Here comes the bummer: this means that the newer Super Meat Boy for iPhone, iPad, and PC has kinda been put on hold, as the two-man studio works on Mew-genics.

Team Meat appears to be still working out what platforms Mew-genics will see a release on, but here's a few other details for you in the meantime: it'll definitely have cats, it's the "strangest project" the studio has ever worked on, and it'll be "randomly generated," according to the studio.

That's a promo image. There's another on the game's official web site, a place we imagine will see the addition of more content as Team Meat fleshes out the game.

In case you're worried about SMB on iOS, Team Meat has this to say: "and SMB fans need not worry, the new Super Meat Boy is still in dev, just on hold till we squeeze this little kitten out of our loins." Will do!

When Team Meat announced that they were actually making a Super Meat Boy game for iOS on April 1st, it was hard to know whether they were serious or just pulling a prank, given their past history with the App Store. However, at the end of April we got an update on what Super Meat Boy: The Game, a built from the ground up touch-based version of their super popular console platformer, would be all about, and it sounded like they were taking things pretty seriously.

This past Friday, Team Meat posted some new information on their blog about Super Meat Boy: The Game, as well as some insight into their disdain for the App Store. In a nutshell, they’re not fans of the trend of timer-based games that force you to wait out your perceived progress unless you’ll pony up real money in-game to speed up the process. Think Farmville, Smurf’s Village, and the like.

Because of that the team is making sure that Super Meat Boy: The Game will be something that actually respects the player’s time and ensures there’s a real sense of fulfillment for conquering its challenges. Those who have enjoyed the original Super Meat Boy know just what they’re talking about. I’m excited to see how they translate their brand of twitch-based gameplay to the touch screen.

Here’s a new screen of Super Meat Boy: The Game showing one of the level select screens.

Team Meat notes that just because this screen shows only 8 levels, Super Meat Boy: The Game isn’t going to be your typical bite-sized mobile game, and the amount of content in the iOS game will be comparable to the original Super Meat Boy, but in a different way. They tease they'll be explaining just what they mean by that in the near future, and we'll keep an eye out for any further Super Meat Boy: The Game news as work continues on the title.

On April Fool's Day, Team Meat teased that its upcoming Super Meat Boy game for iPhone and iPad game will use new art, new sound, and new mechanics. In other words, it's not going to be a port of Super Meat Boy. Speaking with The Verge today, Team Meat revealed that it wants Meat Boy iOS to be twitch-based platformer like its big brother, but plans to tone down the memorization part of that original experience for the mobile crowd.

"[The original] Meat Boy was a twitch-based game about memorizing things," said Edmund McMillen of Team Meat said. "[iOS] Meat Boy is the opposite. That's the foundation of its design. But it's also on a touch device, so there's that as well. We want to make a twitch-based platformer that's not about memorization."

With a fuller picture of what this game is now in our minds, we're imagining that this version of will have the spirit of the original Meat Boy, minus some of the pain. It sounds almost... enjoyable. We're scared. Should we be scared?

[via The Verge]

It's really tricky covering anything that happens on April Fool's Day, so take this news with the caveat that tomorrow it's entirely possible that Team Meat could just reveal that they were trolling. Anyway, what makes me think this might actually be real is that it fits in with recent news. First that Team Meat would "probably" be making an iPhone game then via a tweet-storm later mentioned that a Super Meat Boy prototype was in the works.

According to Team Meat, they've just started working on the game, and they're sure a lot will change in the development. However, they've clarified that this isn't a port, and instead is a total feature-length touch-controlled total remake specifically designed for touch-based devices. It doesn't sound like they'll use any virtual controls, and Super Meat Boy: The Game will be "a brand new game with new art, new sound, everything."

I can't wait to see what they come up with.