REVIEW: Splosion Man

First reviews are awesome. This one is particularly awesome because this game is good, so it isn't a crummy review. First however, I want to explain how I will be reviewing games a bit.

I will make this promise: I WILL NOT RATE A GAME WITH A LETTER, NUMBER, OR STAR COUNT. I will not give any game a score. I find scores to be an objective thing stuck in a subjective thing. Reviews are subjective: they are open to opinion. No one can be completely unbiased with reviews, especially game reviews. Scores are objective however, and in my opinion unfairly judge a game. The format of the review will be like this: I will start with a brief overview of the game, telling the basic facts like developer and price and stuff. I will then talk about several aspects of the game which seem to be the most important to gamers. These are story, gameplay, graphics and design, multiplayer, and replayability. At the end of the review I will say the pros and cons of the game, and that will be it.

Alright then? Let's get started.

Splosion Man is an Xbox Live Arcade title developed by independent developer Twisted Pixel (whose other credits include The Maw). It is priced at a nice 800 Microsoft Points, and comes with bunches of goodies like 2 gamer pictures, a premium themes, and, with the new Live Update on the 11th, avatar clothing. Splosion Man can be considered a 2.5D platformer, although it can be put in the puzzle genre.

STORY: Splosion Man's story is simple, but it works for the game. The story takes place in a laboratory with several scientists going crazy after and experiment is let loose. This experiment is the 2 hours old Splosion Man, a creature capable of exploding himself at will. That is basically it for the story. You are a uncontrollable creature creating havoc in a laboratory. Twisted Pixel has done a great job with the humor side of things however. Put simply, this game is hilarious. There are so many things in this game that you cannot help but laugh about something. Whether it be running like an airplace with his arms up in the air yelling uncontrollable babble, or his hilarious phrases at the end of the level like "Get to the choppa!", Splosion Man is a very funny main character. Scientist will turn into various meats such as lambchops and ribeyes when you splode them, and the boss battles keep up with the humor also. Put simply, Splosion Man is just the kind of humor needed in a platformer of this nature. And this humor does not get dull or boring ever, even with the gigantic 50 level singleplayer and multiplayer game.

GAMEPLAY: This is the crowning jewel of Splosion Man. the entire game uses 2 buttons: the d-pad for movement and any of the face buttons or triggers to explode. The game works like a normal platformer, yet you use 'sploding to get everything done. This mechanic is used to jump up and off of walls, jump into canisters to fly or travel faster and higher, destroy enemies, and basically do everything normal platformers do with one button. This simple system makes the game super easy to pick up, which becomes even better when one reaches some of the more complicated levels in the game. The player does not have to worry about the controls while playing these levels, which puts them more into the game. The levels of the game themselves differ very nicely. The first couple of levels are "learning levels", but after that there is no real pattern to difficulty in levels. This is because some levels may require speed while others may require thinking skills. The levels are varied in difficulty and skill which makes for a very fulfilling game in the end. The three boss battles contained in the game are also very exiting, and exibit full use of the skills needed to get to the bosses. Overall, gameplay in Splosion Man is near perfect.

DESIGN AND GRAPHICS: Independent developers such as Twisted Pixel seem to have very talented skills in the design area, and Splosion Man is no different. The 2.5D design of the game fits it perfectly, as the cartoony environment is needed for a humorous game like this, yet putting it in 2D would compromise the look and feel of the game. The game has a dynamic camera, so the game will shift the camera occassionally to give a better view of the area. If you are up against a big puzzle, the camera will pan out, and if you are walking down a narrow hallway, it will pan in. This is appropriate most times, but the camera has some trouble going back to its original position if you fall from a puzzle and try to return to it. The graphics of the game are great and appropriate. There are no glitches or burps in the graphics, and everythings looks great throughout. The colors and saturations vary nicely, although if you are looking for varied environments you won't find it in this game. Splosion Man takes place in a gigantic labyrinth-like laboratory, and the design fits it as such. The only design complaint is the loading screen in between levels. It can get annoying with the very simple drum roll repeating in the background with the seizure-inducing spinner on the screen. Only a very minor flaw, however.

MULTIPLAYER: Although I have not had much experience with this aspect of the game, I have toyed with it a bit. The multiplayer seems to be very enjoyable, taking all of the fun aspects of the single player campaign and bringing it over to multiplayer. This should be taken literally. The controls remain the same in the game except now a countdown timer activator is added to the left trigger. This goes along with a new mechanic in multiplayer which is the ability to explode off of the other player. By enacting a countdown, players can sync themselves to splode at the correct time. Although this seems helpful, it can only be assumed that this sync ability will be better in local multiplayer rather than online. Splosion Man supports 4 player local or online play, with an entire 50 level campaign of its own (completely seperate from single player) and unlockables of its own.

REPLAYABILITY: Any good platformer is known to be highly replayable, and Splosion Man doesn't miss this mark. The games robust 50 level campaign makes for a good 4-6 hour playthrough. After finishing this, the game unlocks a hardcore mode for level play without checkpoints. Every level also contains collectibles in the form of cakes, and believe me when I say that they are NOT easy to find. All of these aspects apply to the multiplayer game. The game also support leaderboards for timed runs of each level. This game is made for speed runs. Everything stated here also has achievements attached to it, so don't feel these things are done in vain if you are an achievement junkie. The other achievements are, as expected, very funny. One achievement awards you for configuring the controller from the options screen, even though the only option for each button in "SPLODE".

PROS: Great design, extremely simple gameplay, awesome and varying levels, tons of unlockables and goodies.
CONS: Camera can become dissoriented sometimes, loading screen is annoying.

I love this game. It is definitely one of my favorite arcade games, just because it does everything it aims to do correctly. The playthrough was fun and super hilarious. The hilarity even goes into the credits, but I won't spoil it. Simply, this game is almost perfection in the platforming genre. It is very ambitious with a 2 button control scheme, but the scheme works perfectly with the game. Hopefully Twisted Pixel can continue the momentum it gains from this title into other great titles, because this game shows how an indie developer can be successful in modern gaming.