Splosion Man
Twisted Pixels, creators of The Maw, have released their summer blockbuster ‘Splosion Man for Xbox Live Arcade. Instead of adding more complexity to this traditional style platformer, they decided on a “less is more” approach. The main character of the game, ‘Splosion Man, is stuck inside a top-secret scientific facility and needs to bust his way out. The only thing standing in his way are roughly 50 different action-packed levels of obstacles.
‘Splosion Man can basically do one thing, ‘splode, which is his way of solving just about every problem he encounters. Pretty much all of the buttons are mapped to this one technique. You can ‘splode continuously three times, then ‘Splosion Man turns charred black to inform you of his need to charge back up, which he does automatically. Sounds a bit simple, and it is, but it is definitely not easy. You ‘splode into enemies, you ‘splode up walls, you ‘splode down shafts, all the while learning the most essential skill of the game, timing. Just as in other hit platformers, such as Sonic the Hedgehog and Donkey Kong, timing is everything. The first few levels are a breeze, but don’t be fooled; the rest of the levels and bosses offer a great challenge for veteran gamers, while making it possible for novices to build their skill level as they go.
There are 3 worlds to choose from, each one containing about 17 levels. ‘Splosion Man offers both single and multiplayer modes, each containing around 50 unique levels. Not bad for 800 points ($10.00). Single player mode contains about 6 hours of continuous game play, available in Normal difficulty as well as an unlockable Hardcore degree. Multiplayer, while available up to 4 player co-op, can be fun but is often not because of lag times of the other players. The main feature of multiplayer is that you can ‘splode off of other characters, but if the other character is lagging (which is usually the case) then it messes everything up. There seems to be some synchronization problems with the multiplayer mode, which will hopefully be straightened out over the next couple of months.
Overall ‘Splosion Man is a great buy for the money, and a really fun game to play. The simplicity of the controls makes the game attractive to casual game players, and the graphics are nicely polished in all areas of the game. Twisted Pixels really got a lot of things right with this title, which makes us eagerly anticipate their next XBLA release.
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