Game Details

Title: Splosion Man
Cost: 800 MS Points
Developer: Twisted Pixel
Publisher: Xbox Live Arcade
Website: Twisted Pixel Site
Game Type: Side Scrolling Platform Game
Multi-player: Local and Online up to 4 Player Co-op
Length: Long (>20 hours)

My Impressions

I was impressed by Twisted Pixel’s first game The Maw which was a graphically gorgeous game, if a little too easy and short, and so had reasonable high levels of there latest offering Splosion Man. I am glad to say that I was not disappointed with the same graphics engine being used as in The Maw, but now in a easy to play but difficult to master side-scrolling shooter.

When I first started playing and got through the first few levels with ease, I though the game was going to suffer from the same problem as the Maw, in that it was too easy. As I progressed in the game this feeling dissappeared as the levels and enemies grew more challenging and some were down right frustrating especially when parts of levels had to be completed within a set time limit or they became incompletable.

In terms of the multiplayer, this is a completely different campaign that has levels designed for multiple players locally or over Xbox Live. This also has a few issues over difficulty especially when you need all players to complete a checkpoint stage and players do not respawn until everyone has died. Fortunately you only need to get 1 player to a checkpoint stage for it to register and then everyone respawns at that point, in addition players can also commit suicide without penalty if they need to make players respawn, though it would have been nice if players respawned automatically when they died give the co-operative nature of the game.

These flaws aside though Splosion Man is a highly enjoyable platform game, and it is well worth downloading the trial if you even have an “inkling” you might be interested in it.

My Recommendation

Buy

Twisted Pixels 2nd game is even better than there first, with Splosion Man offering a superb side-scrolling platformer that most of the time gets the balance between offering ease of play and offering a sufficient challenge just right. Though the game is slightly marred by inconsistency in the challenge and length of some sections.

Screenshots