Review: Splosion Man (XBLA)
It’s funny, because I truly believed that Splosion Man was an April Fool’s joke. The first shots I saw of this fiery creature was just too off the wall for me to honestly think it was a real game. Given the timing of the announcement (they announced it on April 1st), I sure many others felt the same way I did. Once I realized it was indeed a real game, & I found out Twisted Pixel was the team behind it, I became in instant fan. Twisted Pixel’s work on The Maw brought the team to my radar (my whole family loves it), so as soon as I realized they had a new title coming, I had no doubt it was going to be great. The question was whether or not they would match or exceed their fun & entertaining freshman project.
I must admit though, I gave this Summer of Arcade title an unfair disadvantage (or advantage, depending on how you look at it). I was seriously psyched about it long before it released, so I imagine the expectations were much higher coming from me than it was coming from the average player. The main character, Splosion Man, is an absolute riot. He’s a lab experiment who escapes his confines & is on a 50 level quest to leave the lab. Standing in his way are various scientists, robots, spikes, acid, water, & some devious puzzles. As his name implies, his arsenal consists of just one weapon: explosions! But, there are also various barrels scattered throughout the levels to assist our goofy friend. The regular ones give him a boost, the green goo filled ones launch him in an uncontrollable super shot through parts of the level & the grenade barrels are exactly that, grenades Splosion Man can kick at the scientists.
The first thing you’ll notice is that the fine folks at Twisted Pixel are certifiably insane. Splosion Man just a nutty goof ball (the experiments must have drove him nuts), making ape noises & pretending to be an airplane as he bounces (spoldes) up walls & on platforms. If he runs across a scientist or three standing in his way, he can splode on them & they turn into bits of meat (steaks, roasts, etc…). Also scattered throughout each of the 47 regular levels (there are 3 bosses) are large cakes. Apparently Splosion Man has a fiendish love of cakes. Everything from the gameplay, which feels similar to the Xbox LIVE Indie Game Carneyvale, to the music (everyone loves the doughnut song, right?), to the one liners from the bosses (missiles are awesome; why won’t you stand still), to the spectacular ending (it’s the most original one I have ever seen), this game is a testament to the controlled insanity that resides in the offices of Twisted Pixel.
The beauty of this game is that beneath all the wacky visuals & sounds is a challenging (& frustrating) puzzle platformer. The level design ranges from pretty easy to controller-throwing brutal. I wish I could say that my deaths were cheap & unfair, but honestly, they aren’t. The difficulty is directly proportional to your timing. I only had one or two instances where I died & I can say it was the games fault (I came across a couple of glitches). Just to make sure you folks with naturally perfect timing have a challenge, they change the perspective on you throughout the game too. Sometimes you’re up close, other times you’re far away & yet other times you’re viewing it at odd angles. You’ll also find some areas you just need to be fast (when you “find an old friend”, you have to be perfect & super fast to get out). But, If it’s too hard for you, the developers gave you the “Way of the Coward”, which is basically a level skip, that pops up after you die excessively in a level.
Of course, most games need some kind of multiplayer to be competitive or to enhance the replayability (something I wished The Maw had). Splosion Man supports up to 4 player co-op, both locally & online. Instead of just providing co-op support for the single player game, Twisted Pixel created 50 more levels, designed for co-op from the ground up (including 47 more cakes to get. NOM!). Teamwork is a MUST. If you’re someone who prefers to PvP MP instead of working as part of a whole, you will not want to play this. It’s impossible for a single player to go through the co-op levels. I have yet to play on LIVE though as the one time I did, the lag was bad. Real bad. Lag in this game is a guarantee for failure. The gameplay is so well tuned that timing is critical throughout the entire game. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to see people using this game for some amature team building exercises.
Even with it’s (few) faults, Splosion Man is a must-own title. When Xbox LIVE Arcade first launched, it wasn’t quite what I had envisioned. We were inundated with retro titles & casual games. Even after we got past the 1st generation of Arcade games, none of the generations that followed (with one or two exceptions) quite hit the mark I was looking for. Until now. Splosion Man is not only exactly what I envisioned an Arcade title to be, but sets the bar for future titles to strive for. The heady mix of insanity & platforming will intoxicate everyone who plays it. I, for one, couldn’t put it down. Neither could anyone else in my household. As the gibberish sounds began to flow out of my TV (bork bark beep boop), everyone in the house rushed to watch me play. It’s just as entertaining to watch as it is to play. Pick up Splosion Man here for 800MP. You won’t regret it.
Rating: 
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