Before you read my review, let me just say that I am new to the escapist and this is my first review. I hope to be doing this often, and if I am not doing something correctly or my reviews are sub-standard, please let me know. Constructive criticism is always welcome! (And yes, I have read all the Guidelines) Anyway, the review is as follows...
The Beaves reviews Splosion Man!
(May contain Spoilers)
800 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Arcade
Developed by: Twisted Pixel Studios
Puzzle Platformer
Short Review:
Simple Gameplay, Nice and Colorful Graphics, Humor on the same track as Portal, Challenging yet never frustrating.
Long Review:
I never buy arcade games because I always like having a hard-copy of every game I buy, but since I had a small leftover of points and way to much free space on my hard drive, I thought I would download Splosion Man. So after a small 5 minute wait I start it up and splode in.
On the first level you are greeted by the man himself, Splosion Man. He is made entirely out of lava in what appears to be some super large underground science facility. His only weapon is to, you guessed it, Splode. This is just him exploding that propels him upwards and kills machinery, barrels, and scientists. Since this is a platformer, the gameplay can get away with being simple (maybe to simple) and have it work just fine. The gameplay does offer more than just exploding, but every extension of it goes back to blowing up. For instance blow up next to a barrel and you get launched in the air. Blow up next to a vat of goo and fly halfway across the level. Blow up a control panel to deactivate a turret. Blow up when a missile is near you to deflect it in another direction. The list goes on, but all of it comes from just pressing the A button, or the X button, or Y, or B.
That's another thing, the controls. Just like the gameplay, very simple. Left analog stick controls movement, right analog stick controls the camera a little bit (since it's a platformer you're at the mercy of the camera knowing best). D-Pad does nothing, bumpers do nothing, left trigger does nothing, right trigger kills yourself in suicide if you hold it down long enough. But this isn't a criticism since as long as you can splode and move you'll be fine.
The graphics are nice, very colorful and sharp textures, fluid animations, and the frame holds up. I want to use the word "charming" but that seems to apply to half of all the arcade games out right now. Nonetheless, it does have a cartoonish feel to it which only helps. The scientists all look cartoonish (as do you) and all the effects have that bold, solid color look to them. The graphics are nice but not awe-inspiringly fantastic. Sound quality is good, but can get repetitive. The surround sound is useless since nothing is happening behind you (and by you I mean the one holding the controller).
In the short review I mentioned that this game puts emphasis on humor like portal. The only reason I say the humor is like portal is that throughout all levels there are collectable "cakes" you can collect. If you happen to get al 47 in single player you get an achievement aptly titled "Not a Portal reference". But the game does no copy portal nor copy it's humor. Other than the cakes and the fact both are in some scientific research center, even though in Splosion Man it looks much more DOOM-ish, In portal the humor is subtle and dead pan, while in splosion man it is right in you face. Not to spoil it to much, but Splosion man himself is constantly uttering this schizophrenic-like mumbling that never seems to get old. Another gameplay mechanic is that about 1/3 the way through you meet a fat scientist whole laughs and eats donuts. He can't hurt you, and you are supposed to grab onto him, pick him up and use him as a turret shield since he absorbs damage like a sponge. What makes it funny is that every time you pick him up the standard orchestral background music stopped with an audible record scratch and starts playing this hippie song going something like "everybody loves donuts, everybody and me, everybody loves donuts..." which is quite hilarious.
The game itself is relatively easy and yet maintains its challenge. Checkpoints are plentiful but are still spaced far enough apart to make death unwanted. Yet, doing a section over is not that bad because you'll still have have so much fun doing it over it won't bother you. Half the challenge in itself is trial and error. Being a platformer there is always the left or right, up or down decision since the camera isn't that far zoomed out. One way leads to a exit, the other an acid pit. Simply do it over and take the other way and you're fine! Another thing worth pointing out is that if you continuously keep dying on a level you get the "cowards way out" option. This means you can skip to the next level without penalty but you have to wear a pink tutu. Another funny dose of humor.
Online is fun, too in case you were interested. Split screen with up to four other players or go online with up to four players. This can be fun but also has wiggle room for failure. There's no lag generally but sometimes one player with a bad connection joins which bring the group down. Mildly annoying, maybe, but least the game boots him/her after a while. Each splosion man is a different color but this doesn't help much as it still suffers from Castle Crashers and n-Game view problems were you can't tell who you are controlling. Also, during split screen, if you happen to spread further apart the camera zooms out, which can be bad becuase if you get to far apart the camera zooms out to the point were you can barely distinguish you character from the background. Yet I can honestly say if you get the right group of guys, sploding together (sorry if that sounded sexual) can be the best online experience on the xbox.
If I had to dig and search for a criticism it would repetitive boss battles. Honestly the boss battles in this game are the classic example of "Press X to not Die" (Quoting ZP on this one)
So is worth the 10 dollars? Well if you like platforming with a simple twist, than yes. 50 levels with a hardcore mode after completion along with multiplayer makes it worth the ten dollars compared to other 10 priced items on the marketplace. Even if you want to try something new and different you can't go wrong with it either. Splosion Man is a nice, aptly priced arcade game that isn't worthy of Super-Star fandom but still is nice grab that will keep you occupied for many hours.
The Beaves reviews Splosion Man!
(May contain Spoilers)
800 Microsoft Points on Xbox Live Arcade
Developed by: Twisted Pixel Studios
Puzzle Platformer
Short Review:
Simple Gameplay, Nice and Colorful Graphics, Humor on the same track as Portal, Challenging yet never frustrating.
Long Review:
I never buy arcade games because I always like having a hard-copy of every game I buy, but since I had a small leftover of points and way to much free space on my hard drive, I thought I would download Splosion Man. So after a small 5 minute wait I start it up and splode in.
On the first level you are greeted by the man himself, Splosion Man. He is made entirely out of lava in what appears to be some super large underground science facility. His only weapon is to, you guessed it, Splode. This is just him exploding that propels him upwards and kills machinery, barrels, and scientists. Since this is a platformer, the gameplay can get away with being simple (maybe to simple) and have it work just fine. The gameplay does offer more than just exploding, but every extension of it goes back to blowing up. For instance blow up next to a barrel and you get launched in the air. Blow up next to a vat of goo and fly halfway across the level. Blow up a control panel to deactivate a turret. Blow up when a missile is near you to deflect it in another direction. The list goes on, but all of it comes from just pressing the A button, or the X button, or Y, or B.
That's another thing, the controls. Just like the gameplay, very simple. Left analog stick controls movement, right analog stick controls the camera a little bit (since it's a platformer you're at the mercy of the camera knowing best). D-Pad does nothing, bumpers do nothing, left trigger does nothing, right trigger kills yourself in suicide if you hold it down long enough. But this isn't a criticism since as long as you can splode and move you'll be fine.
The graphics are nice, very colorful and sharp textures, fluid animations, and the frame holds up. I want to use the word "charming" but that seems to apply to half of all the arcade games out right now. Nonetheless, it does have a cartoonish feel to it which only helps. The scientists all look cartoonish (as do you) and all the effects have that bold, solid color look to them. The graphics are nice but not awe-inspiringly fantastic. Sound quality is good, but can get repetitive. The surround sound is useless since nothing is happening behind you (and by you I mean the one holding the controller).
In the short review I mentioned that this game puts emphasis on humor like portal. The only reason I say the humor is like portal is that throughout all levels there are collectable "cakes" you can collect. If you happen to get al 47 in single player you get an achievement aptly titled "Not a Portal reference". But the game does no copy portal nor copy it's humor. Other than the cakes and the fact both are in some scientific research center, even though in Splosion Man it looks much more DOOM-ish, In portal the humor is subtle and dead pan, while in splosion man it is right in you face. Not to spoil it to much, but Splosion man himself is constantly uttering this schizophrenic-like mumbling that never seems to get old. Another gameplay mechanic is that about 1/3 the way through you meet a fat scientist whole laughs and eats donuts. He can't hurt you, and you are supposed to grab onto him, pick him up and use him as a turret shield since he absorbs damage like a sponge. What makes it funny is that every time you pick him up the standard orchestral background music stopped with an audible record scratch and starts playing this hippie song going something like "everybody loves donuts, everybody and me, everybody loves donuts..." which is quite hilarious.
The game itself is relatively easy and yet maintains its challenge. Checkpoints are plentiful but are still spaced far enough apart to make death unwanted. Yet, doing a section over is not that bad because you'll still have have so much fun doing it over it won't bother you. Half the challenge in itself is trial and error. Being a platformer there is always the left or right, up or down decision since the camera isn't that far zoomed out. One way leads to a exit, the other an acid pit. Simply do it over and take the other way and you're fine! Another thing worth pointing out is that if you continuously keep dying on a level you get the "cowards way out" option. This means you can skip to the next level without penalty but you have to wear a pink tutu. Another funny dose of humor.
Online is fun, too in case you were interested. Split screen with up to four other players or go online with up to four players. This can be fun but also has wiggle room for failure. There's no lag generally but sometimes one player with a bad connection joins which bring the group down. Mildly annoying, maybe, but least the game boots him/her after a while. Each splosion man is a different color but this doesn't help much as it still suffers from Castle Crashers and n-Game view problems were you can't tell who you are controlling. Also, during split screen, if you happen to spread further apart the camera zooms out, which can be bad becuase if you get to far apart the camera zooms out to the point were you can barely distinguish you character from the background. Yet I can honestly say if you get the right group of guys, sploding together (sorry if that sounded sexual) can be the best online experience on the xbox.
If I had to dig and search for a criticism it would repetitive boss battles. Honestly the boss battles in this game are the classic example of "Press X to not Die" (Quoting ZP on this one)
So is worth the 10 dollars? Well if you like platforming with a simple twist, than yes. 50 levels with a hardcore mode after completion along with multiplayer makes it worth the ten dollars compared to other 10 priced items on the marketplace. Even if you want to try something new and different you can't go wrong with it either. Splosion Man is a nice, aptly priced arcade game that isn't worthy of Super-Star fandom but still is nice grab that will keep you occupied for many hours.
