Splosion Man is brought to us by Twisted Pixel, the development studio that delighted us with the charming Xbox Live Arcade title, The Maw. The game follows in The Maw’s footsteps, being both delightful and challenging as well as humourous with a splash of zaniness thrown in for good measure.

Splosion Man is the result of an experiment gone wrong in the depths of Big Science Labs, a flaming hot mistake that they will do anything in their power to keep within the confines of the Lab, while he will do anything to escape. The game brings a completely new dimension to platforming, with Splosion Man being able to explode himself off objects to reach higher levels and progress in the game. Although he can only explode three times in a row before he kind of fizzles out, he can recharge by sliding down walls or being on the ground. Players will also use ‘sploding to attack enemies and the helpless scientists who tremble at his approach. There’s no need for a tutorial on how to play the game either, it’s as easy as using the left analogue stick to control Splosion Man’s direction while the four action buttons on the controller all cause him to explode.

You will soon notice that this fiery character has the same crazy-eyed manic expression in his eyes as the Maw, yet likewise still somehow manages to be endearing at the same time. Leave him to his own devices for a few minutes and he will start doing anything from jumping jacks, juggling balls of fire, waiting for you to whip him into action while jogging on the spot to moves reminiscent of Saturday Night Fever. Don’t move quick enough and he will start chanting ‘Bored,’ ‘Bored,’ ‘Bored’ at you. The fast paced music of the game adds to the overall sense of craziness and urgency to escape, while his chants of ‘No Way Jose’ (when a scientist tries to seal off an area from him) or ‘Splode Again’ (after he has become fiery again after being exposed to ice) also add a little something extra to the mix.

You will start by using this new ‘splosive technique to simply blast Splosion Man up walls, but before long you will be ‘sploding to ignite barrels which may blow him to higher ground or even to the left or right to help you move forward in the level. Sometimes he may need to jump off crushing walls, if you don’t move quick enough he will reach an untimely end, or detonate a series of barrels that will send him whizzing ahead of impending doom complete with razor sharp ends, miss one barrel and again he will reach an untimely end.

The gameplay is so varied that it never becomes boring. You will find switches being added to mix things up a bit, ice blowers that put Splosion Man’s fire out and before long different varieties of lazer guns too. Some lazers can only be beaten by picking up a fat scientist and frog marching him through the beam, effectively using him as your meat shield to absorb the wrath of the laser gun. When you pick him up a very catchy ditty titled ‘Donuts, Go Nuts!’ will start up and will still echo in your mind long after you have finished the game. As the fat scientist absorbs the beam, pieces of him will go flying in every direction, but as with all the scientists that you explode in this game, there will be pieces of sausages and steaks – no blood and guts in this game!

Splosion Man will die if he lands in the water or acid that often lies beneath certain areas of each level. Some levels may see you struggling to stay ahead of rising water levels, or strategically maneuvering yourself down a wall, moving left and right to avoid inadvertently throwing yourself into a the laser beam. You will also have to outwit scientists who cheekily deploy barriers and hide behind glass that can’t be exploded, before he figures out a way to explode a grenade in their direction that shatters their safe hideout that is. You will also face different enemies along the way, robots that inevitably become a pile of spinning bolts, flying ships intent on zapping you, and of course a couple of memorable bosses too.

While you may never know what dangers lurk ahead and you are likely to die at least a couple of times before you have figured the puzzle out, even if you have lightning fast reflexes, it never becomes boring to repeat an area of a level thanks to the conveniently placed checkpoints and because of your desire to beat the challenge. And while each level is relatively short and has a goal time in which to complete the level, you will definitely not achieve this on the first or even the second run through of a level and you will find yourself wanting to repeat it anyway to try complete the level as quickly as possible and see how you fair on the leaderboards. If you happen to find a particular level too challenging, you can elect to choose ‘Way of the Coward,’ something which the developers created that enables you to skip to the next level if you have died a lot.

Causing destruction earns you points on each level, so before long you will inevitably find yourself exploding every scientist that happens to cross your path and even pursuing those that don’t. Basically blowing up anything and everything earns you points, and when you can, why the hell shouldn’t you! Blasting a room full of furniture to smithereens becomes part of the fun, as does freeing the poor bunnies and frogs who have become helpless science experiments along the way. You will no doubt also like to keep an eye out for the oft-times elusive cake which earns you an extra 1000 points and is well worth the discovery on each level.

In addition to the 50 single player levels, Splosion Man features 50 multiplayer levels where you can ‘splode together with up to three friends, either locally or online. Most of the puzzles require you to explode off each other in mid-air but overall the action remains fun and challenging.

Splosion Man is a well-polished, insanely creative game that contains more explosions than a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. It is one of those intensely enjoyable games that you will find yourself gesturing madly to try to describe to your friends and wanting to play it again and again. Priced at 800 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Arcade, Splosion Man is a worthy investment for any gamer’s collection.

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