After pumping out the hilariously addictive Splosion Man in 2009, Twisted Pixel has done it again with a much improved sequel in Ms. Splosion Man for Xbox Live Arcade.

After the mad scientists finally capture Splosion Man, their celebration quickly turns into a nightmare after inadvertently causing the creation of Ms. Splosion Man in the process.   The game features the same one-button platforming of the original, where players will ‘splode up to three times to get up in the air, as opposed to your standard jumps to make their way through mind bending levels scattered about various worlds.

Those who played the original will find themselves right at home while novices might be in for quite a rude awakening.  Though the playing style is the same, Ms. Splosion Man is clearly much more difficult from the start.  Puzzles are more elaborate, while running through the lengthy levels requires plenty of patience.  This is a game that encourages, nay, necessitates quite a few playthroughs.  Not just for the sake of improving one’s score for the online leaderboards, but because it’s nearly impossible to run through a level in one try.  Some of the action goes so fast that landing on a platform just won’t happen until memorizing when and where it will appear.

In between levels, players will be taken to an overhead map, not unlike Super Mario Bros. 3 to get to other levels; some of which have more than one exit and branching paths.  Ultimately players will come face to face with a boss at the end of each world which I found to be quite enjoyable.

As for Ms. Splosion Man herself; well, she’s quite hilarious.  During the game, she’ll bust out more than a handful of one-liners, gibberish and quite a few lyrics from 90’s pop songs.  The game’s music is also pretty catchy, highlighted by the funny ‘Donuts’ song that comes on during the pause menu.  If you haven’t paid attention to it, I’d suggest pausing the game.

The game also features co-op mode for up to 4 players and not only includes different levels but a different ending as well.  Players will be able to ‘splode off each other for bigger jumps to reach high platforms.  After each level, players will also be given coins that can be redeemed at the game’s “Mall” which unlocks stuff like videos, artwork, Avatar gear and more.

With games nowadays focusing on realistic graphics, shooting big guns and mature-rated content, it’s great to see other developers take alternate routes to show gamers the core features of what makes games so fun in the first place.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5