Review: 'Splosion Man

Mike Bantick
Saturday, 08 August 2009 06:31

Entertainment

How much game can there be when the main character keeps on exploding? 

Deep in the bowels of a secret Government laboratory, a medical experiment has gone horribly wrong, and is now on a destructive rampage throughout the facility.

'Splosion Man
	Developer	Twisted Pixel
	Publisher	Microsoft
	Rating	PG
Xbox 360 (XBLA)

Nope! It is not the plot to the latest Mathew Riley novel, nor is it the opening sequence to a new iteration of HalfLife (Sorry Matrix).  Instead it is the simple premise to ‘Splosion Man.

Gaming does not get simpler (on the surface) than the single button, single thumb stick action of ‘Splosion Man on Xbox Live Arcade.

The aforementioned medical experiment, formally human and now a thing of fire and magma, both powerful yet deranged.  The titular character is controlled with the left thumb stick to move and by any of the controller buttons which cause the little fellow to, well, explode.

Exploding, bounces the buoyant one into the air, ‘Splosion can explode in this way up to three times before needing to recharge after a short pause, or by other heat methods.  In this way, ‘Splosion will need to negotiate his way out of the 50 levels of underground labyrinth, festooned with traps, defences and now panicked scientists.

Twisted Pixel has injected a huge level of character into this release.  Reminding me a lot of another XBLA title, Cloning Clyde, ‘Splosion is one of those game icons that immediately takes on a life of his own.  Even when standing still he will warble incoherently and his charm is increased as he airplane-runs through the corridors, or screams with delight as he soars through the air.

The rest of the presentation is spot on, the scientists are stereotypical white coated and be-spectacled and hilariously run from ‘Splosion the moment he appears, sometimes plummeting to their doom or getting caught in a detonation that has them disintegrate into so much cartoon meat.  Sounds awful, but is genuinely funny.

‘Splosion must wall jump, or time explosions in conjunction radioactive (or similar) barrels, trigger doors, crash through glass, terrorise scientists, avoid (usually behind a fat scientist shield) or deactivate automatic guns and a heap of other obstacles placed in his way.

Our (completely nuts!) hero is also fond of cake, it can be found around the laboratory in interesting locations, grabbing all the cakes unlocks the “not a Portal reference” achievement – brilliant!

Whist it does indeed remind me, mostly in characterisation and humour, of Cloning Clyde, ‘Splosion Man does not come close to Clydes cerebral challenges.  Instead the difficulty of each ‘Splosion Man level fluctuates wildly between levels, and indeed even between checkpoints within levels.

Whilst the camera is intelligent, pulling out when need be and zooming in for the more cinematic moments, often the next rhythmic leap could be out of shot, thus becoming a leap of faith, that could be correct, or simply end in a watery dive – ‘Splosion is not a fan of H2O.

With the difficulty level changes and leap-o-faith game-play, many times a game of ‘Splosion will be either exhilarating and rhythmic progression or maddening replays and retrying the same path in an attempt to get back your timing mojo. 

Luckily for these moments, after a number of deaths, the game will offer you the ‘way of the coward’.  This option propels ‘Splosion to the next level, with only a new pink tutu to remind the player that he skipped the previous level.

Boss fights are epic, and not too frequent, this is good as there is ample variety and challenge in the base levels of ‘Splosion man – without even mentioning the 50 multiplayer levels.



For 2 to 4 players local or over Xbox LIVE, it is all about cooperation, and importantly, timing to get through the multiplayer challenges.  Something that is hard to achieve with people you may not know.  Thank the gods of ignition then that Twisted Pixel included the option of triggering (with the left trigger no less) an on-screen countdown timer to help you and your buddies coordinate jumps.

‘Splosion Man is sure to be a XBLA hit, it is good simple controller fun wrapped up in a humorous package that keeps exhilaration high and frustration relatively low.

8.5 loose meat sandwiches’ out of 10