Top 10 Games of 2009 - 6. Splosion Man
by transience
Speaking of simple games with simple controls... Splosion Man is what would happen if the people that made Itchy and Scratchy made a video game. It is an ultra simplified 2d platformer where the only thing you can do is explode. Exploding makes you jump. Exploding lets you kill enemies. Exploding off walls lets you walljump. Exploding into barrels sends you flying. You can explode into helpless...
Speaking of simple games with simple controls...
Splosion Man is what would happen if the people that made Itchy and Scratchy made a video game. It is an ultra simplified 2d platformer where the only thing you can do is explode. Exploding makes you jump. Exploding lets you kill enemies. Exploding off walls lets you walljump. Exploding into barrels sends you flying. You can explode into helpless scientists and turn them into meat.
You can explode into helpless scientists and turn them into meat.
Splosion Man has a ton of personality. The character itself - a lab experiment gone wrong - has dozens of running animations and is generally just a psychotic bomb waiting to explode. He does flips, he rambles, he moves his arms back and forth like an airplane, he rants, he does it all.
But maybe I should back up and talk about the gameplay. Splosion Man is one of those nasty, difficult platformers where you die repeatedly and learn through trial and error. This sounds like a bad idea to a lot of people, but Splosion Man is actually forgiving while killing you over and over. You respawn instantly, there's checkpoints everywhere, and the game is pretty good about giving you a good idea of what you're supposed to do. Every death that you have will be your fault, not the game's. Every jump that you make will be rewarding. You will often kill a scientist that's pissing you off in a particularly gruesome way, and that feels great. Watching a guy that's hitting you with laser beams get slowly squished by a spike platform is so awesome. And if nothing else, the game's personality will keep you going.
If there is a downside to Splosion Man, it is the physics and the way the character handles. You can explode three times in mid-air, but then you have to touch the ground in order to recharge and jump again. The problem is that you don't recharge instantly; it takes a half a second before you're ready to go again. In a game with tight jumps and timed death chasing after you, you'll often move too fast and die walking off ledges. Wall jumping is weird - you don't have to actually touch the wall, you just have to be in the vicinity and it'll send you flying the other way. This isn't so bad, but I'm used to the ultra-tight control of N+. Splosion Man is good, but it can't compare to N+. If Mario's jump mechanic is a 10, Splosion Man's is a 6.
But Splosion Man has the level design and style to put up with these nagging problems. The game is so simple that it's addicting and it's very easy to get into a You vs. the Game mentality. If there is a word to describe this game, it is likable - you just have to love how they take such a simple idea and push it to its limits. Killing enemies and wall jumping feels so right.