Pink. Bow. Splode.
Ms. Splosion Man is a product of carelessness. The egg heads in the laboratory that birthed Splosion Man have finally succeeded in securing the spontaneously combustible character. They throw a party to celebrate, but one such scientist accidentally knocks over a bottle of champagne on a cable, triggering a reaction at the same time a bow glides down in the middle of the rig. Ms. Splosion Man is born, and with a single kiss, every scientist in the room is vaporized by her radioactive affection. Escaping from the laboratory, she's now on a quest to rescue Splosion Man and marry him.
Ms. Splosion Man assumes that you've already played Twisted Pixel's previous 2009 game, as the opening level will throw an old friend right in your face. Newcomers may be wondering what the heck is going on, but shortly after, the game will then play an entertaining instructional video. The first handful of levels will help gamers get acquainted to the gameplay, but the difficulty curve will quickly spike. Some of the gameplay mechanics in the first half of the first world have been taken from the later stages of the first game.
In most platformers, you jump. In Ms. Splosion Man, you splode. She can splode up to three times and each splosion puts out less force than the next. She can recharge while on the ground, sliding down a wall or sploding off of a barrel or other explosive object. She can get more distance from her explosions by sploding off walls, enemies and of course barrels, and that's where the majority of gameplay lies. There are barrel dispensers strewn about the levels that will need to be sploded off of to cover great distances, but it's easier said than done. Some dispensers have to be triggered in midair leaving only fractions of a second to splode before the barrel falls away leaving you out to dry.
Along with the returning switches, new platforming elements have been introduced. There are now trampolines that spring Ms. Splosion Man high into the air, and will usually involve her chasing barrels to splode off of. There are vibrant pink panels that supply her with a constant recharge allowing her to keep herself airborne for as long as need be. There are zip lines and rocket cars and barrels that glide gently down to the ground and catapults, all introducing a wealth of new platforming puzzles. The donut eating scientist from the first game has been replaced with a new overweight female scientist named Mandy that Ms. Splosion Man will posses. The scientist still serves the same purpose of blocking off lasers, but now the gamer can use her for an extra boost when she's no longer needed. There are also gun toting scientists you can use against each other, and wheelchair bound scientists you can splode and send barreling down the level to clear a path.
Ms. Splosion Man excels when the gameplay moves at the speed of light. Being jettisoned across the screen sploding off barrels and walls and avoiding hazards is a thrill, but the flow of the game is interrupted several times. There will be moments where you'll need to slow down and study a series of switches and experiment with timing to see what works. It's akin to riding a bike in top gear down a sidewalk and having to come to a complete stop for a traffic light, then waiting to get a cross signal. The difficulty of the game has also increased, but that's thanks in part to dying more often because of trial and error. There will be times where you simply won't be given any time at all to react and you'll die. You then learn from this death so you can prepare for next time, and slowly but surely you'll start to become frustrated with the game.
It's still fantastic fun and still fantastically funny. Just as with the first game, it's loaded with pop culture references. The cutscenes will pay homage to Total Recall and other sci-fi action films, and Ms. Splosion Man will spew off tons of pop music quotes, but to a fault. Whereas Splosion Man uttered a lot of whimsical gibberish and references actually relevant to the ongoing action, Ms. Splosion Man overdoes it with her references. Most serve no purpose at all, making the gamer wonder why she's quoting Lady Gaga and Willow Smith. The game still retains its great sense of humor and charm, but because Ms. Splosion Man herself is such a chatterbox, she comes off a little shallow and annoying.
Ms. Splosion Man's graphics look a good deal better than its predecessor, not really due to any technical improvements, but due to the fact that the artistic direction is far greater. For the first time, the game takes itself out of the sterile laboratory environments of the previous title and places the gamer in sky cities and beach resorts. There's a lot more visual stimulation thanks to fresh new foregrounds and busy backgrounds. Also, there's special barrels that will actually launch back and forth from the foreground and background, taking a cue from Donkey Kong Country. Enemy death animations can be somewhat gruesome from a decapitation to being reduced to a skeleton, yet they can still be hilarious as they burst into piles of meat, or strike a pose before they collapse. The presentation of the game also has been revamped, and Ms. Splosion Man now walks around a world map to access her levels.
Since Ms. Splosion Man is prettier than its previous title, it would only make sense for the audio to be improved as well. The standout facet of this department is the soundtrack. Not only are the songs terrific in of themselves, there's also a lot more of them. Each world has their own themes, so you'll very rarely get bored of the music. There's also a new song written specially for Mandy, but it can't hold a candle the classic Nuts for Donuts song of the first game. The sound effects sound pretty much the same as they did in the first game, but some like the kicking of barrels seem a little more crisp. As for voice acting, the scientists still invoke chuckles with their incoherent mumblings, and the voice of Ms. Splosion Man is a perfect combination of cute and ditzy. As mentioned earlier in this review, however, there's a great chance you'll become annoyed with her thanks to her incessant rattlings of female pop singer quotes.
So what's most attractive about this title? The price. At only 800 points, you are getting a single player game longer than most. You're also getting a multiplayer game with its own levels and ending. You're getting a federal reserve's worth of unlockable content ranging from concept art to movies to even a Two Girls One Controller mode that lets you play multiplayer controlling both characters with one controller. 800 points also gets you an improved sequel in almost every way, and a much harder game for the masochistic gamers out there. If Twisted Pixel Games continues to prove their mettle with Xbox Live Arcade games, then every product they make should be considered an automatic purchase. Ms. Splosion Man already is.