Review: Ms. Splosion Man
In 2009, developer Twisted Pixel released the platformer Splosion Man as part of Microsoft’s “Summer of Arcade” promotion on Xbox Live. This time around their sequel, Ms. Splosion Man, debuts one week before the Summer of Arcade. While it is deceptively – and for some, frustratingly – difficult, it certainly evokes the charm of platforming games of yesteryear. It’s not a can’t-miss title by any means, but it certainly provides a solid amount of enjoyment at a generously low price point.
Everything in Ms. Splosion Man revolves around its core mechanic of “sploding.” You splode to jump, splode to kill enemies, splode to activate exploding barrels, and so on. The limiting factor is that you can only splode three times before you must recharge – generally either by touching the ground or sploding off of something that refreshes your splode count. Because there’s only this single core mechanic, the controls end up really only requiring the use of the analog stick and the A button. But even though the controls are simple, the game certainly is not.
Ms. Splosion Man is quite difficult, and will gleefully feast on a casual gamer’s tears. While nowhere near the Battletoads level of difficulty, it still requires quick reflexes and precise timing, especially in the latter levels. At times, you almost wonder if the developers at Twisted Pixel are laughing at you for dying over and over again. If you get frustrated by your 50th death at a particular checkpoint, the game does offer you the option to cheat your way to the next checkpoint. As I didn’t stoop to cheating, I’m not sure if it has any ramifications on how the game flags your progress.
Even though the second half of the game is extremely challenging, the game does a reasonable job with its difficulty curve. In the earlier levels you’re mostly concentrating on wall jumps and activating the occasional barrel to propel yourself forward. There isn’t too much danger, and it’s not that challenging. By the middle of the game, you are forced to become a master of chaining together several splosions in rapid succession. And in the latter parts of the game, you have to juggle between a foreground and background layer, while at the same time doing everything from before with almost no margin for error.
Some of the latter levels leave you almost no margin for error.
One area the game could use some improvement is in its clarity on future dangers. In some instances, the camera has your character positioned all the way on the side of the screen, with no easy way to see what’s coming up. When this happens, you can’t rely on quick reflexes to save you; it’s not uncommon to find out too late that you needed to jump or move in a particular direction. So in these cases, it ends up feeling like you’re incurring a required death, and have to resort to trial and error to advance.
Given that Ms. Splosion Man is a clear homage to SNES era platforming games, it’s surprising that Twisted Pixel didn’t utilize more clear signposting, as was common in those SNES games. However, in other areas it’s fairly impressive how well mechanics from those older games have transferred over. Some sequences are reminiscent of firing from barrel to barrel in Donkey Kong Country. In other instances, you’re zip lining at a speed that would make Sonic jealous. And there’s even parts where you’re running under and hiding from the roof smashing you in, as you might in Super Mario World. The most surprising homage, which comes out of left field, occurs late in the game. I won’t spoil it here, but suffice it to say you’ll know what I’m talking about when you see it.
The game overall features a quirky sort of humor, and it’s all over the presentation. There’s a bizarre “Beard Engine” promo when you first boot up, and in the pause menu some elevator-style music about doughnuts plays. The loading screen dispenses odd facts about meat and shoes, two of Ms. Splosion Man’s obsessions. Finally, the game also has one of the weirdest endings I’ve seen in a long time. Then there’s the main character herself, who spouts off random pop culture references from TLC, Jerry Maguire, Lady Gaga, and others. Unfortunately, this latter aspect becomes like fingernails on a chalkboard. The fiftieth time you hear her say “you complete me,” you wish that for a moment, she’d be Ms. Silent Man.
The quirkiness carries over to the boss fights.
The cartoony art style also plays into this quirkiness. It reminds me of the art of a mid-90s Saturday morning cartoon. In a zoomed out perspective, the main character kind of looks like the Pink Panther since she’s really lanky and well, pink. Proportions of characters are also exaggerated, and when enemies die they turn to skeletons or spout out pieces of meat. Whenever you splode, there’s a pink cloud of smoke that puffs out. And when you die, you explode into hearts.
It’s worth noting that Ms. Splosion Man has an exceptional amount of content for a $10 downloadable title. The single player campaign has close to 50 levels, and should take an average gamer at least 10 hours to complete. And then there is an entirely different set of levels for the co-op campaign. The co-op mode allows up to four players to play: either on the same console or over Xbox Live. The main twist added in co-op is that you can splode off of each other to propel yourself to a higher platform. To avoid the frustration of one person being unable to make it to a particular checkpoint, when one player hits the checkpoint, all the other players get teleported to the new checkpoint.
The co-op mode features completely different levels.
There also is some replay value in that most levels have shoes hidden somewhere in them, and others have secret exits. You can also race against a ghost of yourself to try to improve on your completion times. Furthermore, you accrue points upon level completion that can be used for the standard sort of unlockables: artwork, videos, avatar awards, and such. There even is a “hardcore” mode where the levels have no checkpoints and most hazards kill you in one hit. But given how difficult it is to complete the game with checkpoints, I doubt most players will even attempt Ms. Splosion Man on hardcore.
Overall, Ms. Splosion Man is a fairly enjoyable experience. While it definitely doesn’t approach the transcendent stature of the older games it imitates, it still is a polished and fun game. If you’re the type of gamer who throws controllers in rage when they die, then maybe you should stay away. But for everyone else, if you have any inkling towards platformers, I think Ms. Splosion Man is a worthy title to pick up.
VERDICT: HAPPY CANARY
Ms. Splosion Man is available now on Xbox Live Arcade. Reviews appear every Friday on Game Canary. The Game Canary review system is detailed here.
This was a special Wednesday review in lieu of a feature. This Friday, keep an eye out for a review of Bastion.
Categories: Reviews
Tags: Happy Canaries, Ms. Splosion Man, Xbox 360