Ms. Splosion Man Review

She sorta likes doughnuts, but loves shoes. Completely indifferent about cake.

Forget it. She hates you. You ain't got a shot in the world with Ms. Splosion Man. She hates your guts with every bit of her unstable and explosive body. She's like that weirdly attractive girl in high school whose previous boyfriends suddenly dropped out of school for mysterious reasons. She will take your pride and by the end she will laugh at you and sing Cyndi Lauper songs. If you thought the 2009 hit Splosion Man game was difficult, be ready for a spanking. Ms. Splosion Man is here to show you who's boss. [Shouldn't it be Splosion Woman? Oh, never mind. ~Ed. Nick]

Down at those test labs and experiment chambers, all the scientists are partying. They finally got rid of the pest Splosion Man. Unfortunately, a little bit of relapse and drunkenness ended up creating a female version of their worst nightmare, and she's only too happy to crush their hopes and expose them for what they truly are: slabs of meat.

Ms. Splosion Man expands the crazy but extremely simple gameplay of Splosion Man by adding a whole bunch of different things to 'splode' off of. Your character's only ability is 'sploding', but the platforming this time is even tighter, depending even more on coordination and memorization.

That said, this is a really long game. There are more than 45 levels in the single-player campaign, separated by three world maps built similar to Super Mario Bros. 3, not to mention a completely unique cooperative mode. Even if you don't have a friend, local or not, to bring along, cooperative mode can be played as well by using a single controller in the aptly named "two girls one controller" mode, which has you controlling two Ms. Splosion Mans, if you so desire.

Every stage has its own unique challenge too. In one of them, you have to splode on and off flying cars in order to reach the other side of the level, all the while having to hang on to electric monorail-like tracks that propel Ms. Splosion Man forward. There's a lot of stage variety along with some cool bosses along the way, with hidden collectibles too. Don't be surprised if you also find secret exits every other stage that leads you to a very special callback to other Twisted Pixel characters.

Trial by death is the staple of this sort of difficult platformer and Ms. Splosion Man ups that by a trillion. Some of the levels really feel like a Rune Goldberg device where a single mistake means restarting from the beginning. Getting through each level requires coordination and resourcefulness with what's given you, which is what makes this game more enjoyable and challenging.

There's also the matter of the graphics. They're really well done and are leaps and bounds better than what Splosion Man's. Sometimes, though, things do get too busy on screen. Pulled-back camera angles also don't help a whole bunch when there are scientists dying all over the place, platforms moving up and down, lasers aiming at you and a tiny pink Ms. Splosion Man moving about. It's really easy to lose track of what you're doing if you are not paying attention and similar to Comic Jumper, Twisted Pixel's last game, the graphics have that annoying tendency of obscuring your character.

On the other hand, just like past Twister Pixel games, Ms. Splosion Man just oozes with charm and humor. Yet again, we are treated to a hilarious game out of their brilliant bearded selves. Ms. Splosion Man herself is hilariously animated, and like Splosion Man, she just can't sit still. She's always dropping cult references to girl songs and acting like a dropout from the Clueless set. Did I mention there's a new silly song as well? Or that the doughnut song is easily accessible this time by just pausing the game?

That, along with a host of different unlockables that are bought with score currency, is sure to keep you playing the game if you have the will to endure its difficulty. These bonuses range from production pictures to silly FMV videos that have nothing to do with Ms. Splosion Man but show that Twisted Pixel loves a green screen and have no shame in humiliating themselves for our pleasure.

While the sometimes automatic nature of Ms. Splosion Man is enough to make me turn it off for a few minutes every session or two of playing, the rest of the game just screams "I'm too hard and you better quit"… and I'm the sort of player who digs a challenge. If you enjoy the Super Meat Boy and Trials HD type of "I hate you"-difficulty games, there's much to like in Ms. Splosion Man. Just don't hope to come out with her phone number and a date. She's a single lady, and she hates you.