As the title accurately suggests, players play the role of an exploding man that is an experimental product inside a science lab. Exploding is the only move ‘Splosion Man has in is disposal. Exploding is used for regular jumps, wall jumping and exploding barrels to make larger and faster jumps. Three explosions can be done before ‘Splosion Man burns out and requiring some time on land to regenerate. It is this simple mechanic that makes the game very intuitive and easy to play.

Although there is no real story here, the game has a great comical charm. Exploding near scientists will cause them to turn into pieces of meat. ‘Splosion Man has a unique personality with his love for cakes and comical movements, such as running with his arms flailing to scare his prey, are fun to watch.

With the intuitive gameplay and the light hearted charming atmosphere of the game, I would have liked to recommend this to my friends that play games very casually. For better and for worse, there is a difficulty spike mid way through the game. The margin for error becomes miniscule and emphasis is also made upon how one chooses to land rather than just getting across. Later levels also have time limits that add to the pressure. Expect to die a lot. Due to the increased difficulty, stringing together the right jumps and explosions to surpass obstacles lead to a greater level of satisfaction.

The single player component has approximately fifty levels distributed in three sets. Each set ends with a boss fight. It took me slightly over six hours just to complete the single player missions. Although the design level is fresh and fun for the most part, there were two parts I did not like. In certain areas of platforming, the game throws small helicopters that shoot out laser beams. These fail to mesh with the overall feel of the game and were nothing more than annoying. Also in the levels near then there are several falling down sequences that are made harder than they should be due to a weird camera angle. But these flaws are minor and easy to overlook an otherwise outstanding game.

When done with the single player, the game also throws at you about fifty levels of multiplayer co-op play. These require people to work together to get to points that would not be reachable in solo play. But be warned that the difficulty spike also applies to the multiplayer levels so be prepared to get mad at your friends when they miss out on the areas with tiny margins of error.

Final Word: With a charming environment, a memorable character and unique and intuitive gameplay elements this game is able to compete with the best of 2D platformers. We would love to see ‘Splosion Man turn into a franchise. Priced only at 800 MS Points (or about $10) this is a game of great value.

Developed by: Twisted Pixel 

Platform: Xbox 360: Xbox Live Arcade

Genre:  Platforming