What happens when science goes awry? Well, we get Ms. ‘Splosion Man; and she is perfectly happy to create chaos wherever she goes with pep in her step. The character is a bundle of every stereotype a girl could be. As a girl player though, it’s too over the top to even be close to offensive. In fact, it’s hilarious. She has a seemingly unending catalog of every song lyric and movie quote of every “girl power” band and movie in existence. She will at some points go from singing “all the single ladies” by Beyonce and then at another second be having a loud cell phone conversation.
That is not to say that the entire game is void of this same charm. The beginning tutorial is hilarious. You will be instructed how to properly ‘splode by two different ‘splosion women. The pink (player) character and the yellow character (Debbie) will go through each instruction area. The narrator despises Debbie (because she is a stupid *%^&#) and as she always demonstrating the improper way to do things, every thing said about her is dripping in sarcasm. In the corner of the screen is a bubble in which an actual hand (with the appropriate colored nail polish) is pressing the buttons needed to play. I only put so much emphasis on this portion of the game because it is completely over the top hilarious and just gives you an idea of what you are going to be experiencing in the game.
This is a relatively traditional platformer where the object of the level is to reach the end. You need to ‘splode yourself around in order to get through the level. The trick is that you only have three good jumps (‘splodes) before you need to recharge. You can recharge by just being on the ground, sliding, or resting on a wall. Wall jumps are necessary in most of the game, and they can take more than one try to get it right. As the game progresses, there are a lot more obstacles to get through.
The most dangerous of these obstacles are the laser fields that will block obvious paths to make your ascent a little harder. These fields are instant ‘sploding death for a ‘ploding person so if you come across these you will need to find a way around them. In levels in which you must hop across flying space cars, you will also need to avoid other space vehicles crashing into you (clumsy space drivers!). Exploding barrels, with several different ‘splosion strengths act as a propellant to get you through the levels. It’s not always easy to hit the barrel the first time so it is often necessary to start over. Luckily, there are half way markers to assure that you don’t completely start over.
Mixed in with all of that are space launchers that work in the same way as barrels do in Donkey Kong. You will either get automatically launched or you will be able to choose the direction in which you launch. If a level is too challenging at any point, the game will let you skip a level if you die too many times. There is a big sacrifice (curse) that comes with this level skip that triumphs over the curse for the same thing in ‘Splosion Man. Instead of getting a tutu, you will get a big ass. Also, you get to hear a song about your new found… umm… assets that will surely have you rolling about the floor in laughter.
Level designs are space aged and everything flows pretty nicely. There are a lot of things to blow up such as level decoration and people. Poor defenseless people will turn into skeletons or just simple blow up into meat fireworks. It is dementedly fun to ‘splode people. The past faced nature of the game is highlighted with sequences of jumping from space car to space car and boss battles. Boss battles are not super hard to take away from the up beat nature of the game, but they are challenging enough to not seem dull.
Besides the single player mode, there are a couple of other modes that will add to the fun. Aside from the multiplayer that will give you a different ending, there is also a mode that is called 2g1c. I know what you are thinking, and it’s really not as gross as that. No, two girls one controller is more crazy than anything else. You must adequately control two ‘sploding women through the levels with one controller. It can be pretty challenging at some times but actually passing levels in this mode may give you a fair bragging right.
Besides this interesting mode, there is also another mode that allows you to race through the level against a ghost. Much like the “ghost” feature in New Super Mario Bros. for Wii, this mode allows you to beat the level faster than a ghost of you in a previous play through. Beating this will give you bragging rights against yourself which may or may not be useful.
Ms. ‘Splosion Man is a must pick up for fans of platformers and certainly fans of the first game. I never had the pleasure of playing the original ‘Splosion Man, but this new title will assure that I will give it a try. The humor will keep you playing for hours on end; there will be many lols. Here’s hoping that they keep up with the seemingly similar to Pac-Man theme with a ‘Splosion Man Jr.
[Image via Video Games Blogger]
