'Splosion Man follows the journey of, well, 'Splosion Man, an escaped scientific experiment with the power to explode. 'Splosion Man must use his exploding abilities to launch himself through the air and navigate and escape from the maze of his scientific laboratory prison.
The game's mechanics are simple enough. Players guide 'Splosion Man through levels using only his explosive jumping. Levels include many objects that can be used in conjunction with explosive jumps such as explosive barrels that launch 'Splosion Man even higher than his normal abilities would allow. 'Splosion Man can jump from wall to wall to reach high ledges as well.
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| Oh the joy of being able to explode on will. |
The single player game features 50 levels full of puzzles, platform jumping, and even a few boss fights. The platforming gets pretty difficult around the middle of the game and stays that way until the end. Frustrating segments where a fraction of a second determines whether you die or are able to continue on to the next section are present in many levels, making the game quite angering at some points. Luckily, checkpoints are spread pretty liberally throughout each level. Still, I found myself wanting to quit many times when I was stuck on a level that seemed impossible until I tried it over and over and over.
The levels' design is extremely clever. Puzzles, even when frustrating, are interesting and well thought out. The game can still be very repetitive though. The game's environments don't differ much at all throughout the 50 levels, making the monotony even more painful.
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| Oh look, another silver and blue level! |
Just like other Twisted Pixel games, 'Splosion Man has a good bit of humor in the game. Levels are inhabited by scientists who run from 'Splosion Man as he comes near, only to burst into cuts of meat when exploded. 'Splosion Man himself runs around levels like a crazy person, making airplane wings with his arms and making flying noises, chattering ridiculous things, making monkey noises and running like a gorilla, all of which are amusing. The funniest part of the game is definitely the final sequence, so there's definitely a reason to push through the frustration.
The single player game lasts only around 6 hours, though there is also a Time Trial mode in which you can race against the clock and post you best times for your friends to see and compete against. 'Splosion Man also has a cooperative mode with its own levels to delve into if you don't get enough in the single player experience.
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| Misery loves company. |
All in all, 'Splosion Man isn't a bad game, I just didn't like it much. The cheap difficulty, impossibility to complete some levels on the first try due to not knowing what's coming up next, and needing to make completely accurate, split second jumps, made the game much more annoying than fun for me, and I really just wanted to finish it so that I could move on. That said, if you're a fan of platformers, you should at least try the game, as it is extremely popular among other gamers, and likely for a good reason.
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