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Splosion Man XBLA Review

27/02/2010 Family Teen Gamer Review
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Splosion Man XBLA

Splosion Man

Format:
XBLA

Genre:
Strategy

Buy/Support:
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Other GamePeople columnists have reviewed this from their perspective - huh?:
Tech Gamer (360)

My Xbox told me this game was good, but then it does have a strange sense of humour. Unlike other XBLA games like Battlefield 1943, 'Splosion Man is amateurish and not up to snuff in my little black book.

Firstly, I played this game for over half an hour with my cousin, and barely stopped laughing, but I had honestly no idea what was happening. By the looks of things, the chaps who thought of it had no idea what was happening either. At all, in life.

I'll do my best at guessing what's going on. You're some Morph-look-alike little man thing, who can explode himself at will, blowing up all around him and blasting himself around. For some mysterious reason you have to make it through a maze, whilst collecting points by causing damage to everything. How he blows himself up I can only speculate, it appears to be in a laboratory, so maybe he is a scientific experiment, or maybe he is performing some hideous bodily function whilst being nuclear.

I should warn all of those who are 'serious gamers' to hide from this game. It's not well made, it's not expensively made, and there's absolutely no way you could get overly competitive in it. If, however, you are like me of a quirky nature and very much enjoy films such as Hot Shots and The Big Lebowski, chances are you'll appreciate the beauty in the absurdity of 'Splosion Man on 360. And find it hilarious.

Whilst it is stupidly fun and ridiculous, the novelty of a little exploding man will probably wear off.

Splosion Man is a 2D platform adventure type thing, which meant to me it had an endearing quality, reminding me of games such as Sonic the Hedgehog on the Megadrive of my younger years. You have to look past the look and quality on offer and appreciate that these games are still being made.

Playing some more, and warming to 'Splosion Man, I discovered the multiplayer, and it is really fun! It has different maps, and you have to do things to help each other around, exploding each other in different directions, one of you hitting switches to give the other a bomb, that sort of thing.

Whilst it is stupidly fun and ridiculous, the novelty of a little exploding man will probably wear off. And then you are left with a game that is just tedious, slightly dull and rather strange.

Oh. My guy died. I don't think I should have pressed that button.

It was also very difficult and long! Of course, this wasn't helped by the fact we were both having fun making things go boom, and not really concentrating on how to get through the level. The levels though, are full of ways to kill you and just plain get you stuck, after you've accidentally exploded something you apparently need to get you somewhere else.

At one point, my friend cleverly found a button which made him appear to hold his breath and vibrate, 'Look! Look at what my guy's doing!' Boom. 'Oh. My guy died. I don't think I should have pressed that button.'

The game was fun while it made me laugh and is probably worth the 800 points. But I don't think I'll be rushing to complete it or anything.

Written by Rowan Brown

You can support Rowan by buying Splosion Man



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Rowan Brown writes the Teen Gamer column.

"I write about my favourite games from a younger person's perspective. It's often surprising how different this ends up to other more grown up reviews."


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