Kicking off the Summer of Arcade with an almighty BANG!

Demo/Buy: Xbox Live Marketplace

Developer: Twisted Pixel

There once was a time when the summer heralded an annual drought of decent games. I still remember being forced to put my gamepad down and brave the dangerous outdoors- risking life and limb in a battle against insects, hayfever, sunburn, social contact and gainful exercise. Ugh. Luckily, Microsoft have realised that the summer months are a perfect time to release downloadable games; after all, we’ve all got a bunch of spare change with nothing much to spend it on.

So, without further ado: welcome to the 2^nd annual Summer of Arcade!

Starting the festivities is ‘Splosion Man, the latest offering from Twisted Pixel. This ornery team of industry veterans is responsible for spawning The Maw: a joyously anarchic eat-em-up that combined left-field humour, flawless character design, eye-popping graphics and occasionally cerebral puzzles. However, an otherwise perfect package was marred by the fact that it was simply too short and too easy to warrant its price tag. Twisted Pixel has clearly taken this criticism to heart- since ‘Splosion Man is definitely not lacking in content…and certainly isn’t easy…

The premise is simple. You control the ‘Splosion Man: a endearing but utterly psychopathic experiment who’s attempting to escape the laboratory in which he was created. In his way is a fiendish selection of platforms, traps, puzzles, mad scientists and killer robots that would make Mario wet his overalls…and at first glance you might think he’s a little outgunned. Splosion Man can’t jump. He can’t fly or fire projectiles. His one ability, as you’d imagine, is to explode. Sure, he’s a one trick pony… but luckily, he’s damn good at it.

‘Sploding, naturally, is a deadly defensive weapon; but its primary function is to propel our volatile protagonist away from a floor or wall, acting essentially like a double jump and wall jump rolled into one. After three ’splosions he has to recharge on a platform or during a wall slide (a la N+), adding an element of strategy into each manoeuvre. Igniting explosive barrels or coming into contact with fire jets recharge him on the fly as well as propelling him in the direction of your choice. Air control occasionally feels a bit sticky, but the simple control scheme allows new players to string together fluid combos of wall techniques after a little practice and sets it apart from standard platformers.

The vast majority of the hundred levels require careful planning, split second timing, fast reflexes and on-the-fly puzzle solving to complete, often requiring death-defying leaps onto moving platforms over spike pits, acid or an ascending water level. In fact, ‘Splosion Man is extremely difficult and will occasionally place seemingly unreasonable demands upon the player. Moving platforms…with instant kill lasers…over rotating spikes…while the water level’s ascending… still too easy? Fine, we’ll stick some laser-toting robots in there as well. This soon becomes the norm in the later levels, but luckily a perfect difficulty curve, well-placed checkpoints, infinite lives and the ability to skip a level if you die too often (though most gamers would find this far too embarrassing to consider) stop the experience from becoming frustrating.

In fact, ‘Splosion Man isn’t hard…it’s hardcore. It harks back to the days when games were designed to test your skill and reflexes rather than lead players by the hand through a spectacular story. Like these platformers of yore, the feeling of finally completing a challenging checkpoint is absolutely glorious. My only gripe is that the camera perspective occasionally provides a three-quarter view that makes judging distances very tricky, but this only occurs a handful of times during the campaign.

So…the hundred levels (comprising fifty single player stages and a custom-made cooperative campaign) provide a meaty amount of content, and the difficulty ensures that the experience won’t be over quickly. The graphics are smooth, impressive and often eye-poppingly beautiful. However, we can’t sum up just yet. You see, ‘Splosion Man has something that you’ll seldom find in most other downloadable games. It’s got soul.

Twisted Pixel’s trademark humour permeates every aspect of ‘Splosion Man, and the attention to detail demonstrates that real love and care has gone into its development. For example, gibbing a scientist results in a shower of meat…beautiful, delicious barbequed steaks, sausages and ribs. Picking up a fat scientist to use as a shield causes a hilarious ballad about donuts to play in the background. The control setup can be altered… even though the only selectable command is ‘Splode! These cute little details and the anarchic achievement criteria ensure that you’ll always have a smile on your face…when you aren’t gritting your teeth from the sheer concentration that the later levels require.

The ‘Splosion Man himself is instantly likeable; he’s adorable, naïve, genuinely funny and absolutely batshit fucking crazy. One moment he’ll be running along with outstretched arms, happily pretending to be an aeroplane (even his whooshing noises made me laugh out loud!)- then gibbing a group of hapless scientists whilst proudly exclaiming that he’s created an “open face loose meat sandwich!” The sound and animations gel perfectly with the gameplay, making him as memorable as any Rareware mascot (and twice as bizarre).

At 800 MS points, ‘Splosion man offers exceptional value for money: meaty single player and cooperative campaigns, great graphics and a challenging, rewarding experience. To sweeten the deal even further, Twisted Pixel also threw in some ludicrous unlockables: two gamer pictures, a free premium theme and avatar accessories.

Twisted Pixel have created a retro masterpiece and have cemented their position as the spiritual ‘humour-based platformer’ successor to RareWare. You’d be crazy not to at least try the demo. A great start to the Summer of Arcade!

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