Microsoft is kicking off the summer of 2009 with a great series of games to play with the first one being ‘Splosion Man from Twisted Pixel the devious and talented developers of one of the best downloadable games ever The Maw. Giving a new twist on a very old game genre you control ‘Splosion Man as he escapes the lap and blows up everything and everyone around him in a series of great platform inspired levels. With 50 levels of co-op gaming and 50 more levels of single player gaming this is one of the best reasons to stay indoors this summer and you get it for only 800 MS points (10 bucks). You cannot go wrong with ‘Splosion Man.


Gameplay

Games like ‘Splosion Man is rare now days because there is really only one button to press and the thumbstick to move during the entire game. You run in one direction and when you need to kill, jump or just blow something up you press a button and ‘Splode yourself all over everything killing, maiming, breaking and causing fun destruction. You only can ‘Splode yourself three times but by using the different exploding barrels you can launch yourself further or recharge yourself to chain a large number of ‘Splosions to reach new heights and great distances. Nice and simple gameplay that works perfectly in this case and every gamer will love it.


Graphics

It is nice to see a developer take a concept like ‘Splosion Man and give us some great but very fun graphics throughout the entire game. From the fantastic character design to the warped level creation we have a great graphical platform game to play. My only complaint is the camera which can cause needless deaths some of the time as it changes angles in a sweeping motion. While you may only die once you will hate the camera every so often for killing you.


Audio

Keep it simple is a great motto for game developers to live by in most cases. Nothing is more aggravating by trying to do something over the top for a video game that does not need to be anything more than it is. With ‘Splosion Man the developers have hit the bulls eye and nailed the audio. The music, sound effects and the tweaky voices the characters of ‘Splosion Man use make this a joy to listen to.


Value

Even if you are just a single player gamer this game has a high value because there are 50 levels to play single player wise. But if you also play with friends then this is a great game for you as well because there are 50 more levels to play Co-op wise which make this great game even better.

Bottom Line

When I saw this during E3 2009 I was excited by the premise of this unique 2D platform game. It is one of those rare games that are perfect for the casual gamer who cannot spend much time gaming or is not very good at gaming in general or the hard core gamer who likes to play with friends and see this fast unique title in action. It is a must buy for all gamers and is a great way to start off Microsoft’s 2009 Summer of Arcade. If the rest of the titles are this good it will be a great summer to be indoors.