XBox One has been out for about two weeks now and I know I haven’t posted any reviews yet, but I am sorry I’ve been busy… playing XBox One. It’s not that I didn’t want to share my experiences with you all but between XBox One, work and shooting for Whiskey and Waffles, it has definitely eaten into my review time.

But as is the policy here on The Flickcast, if anyone sends us a copy of something we review it and I am holding up to that end of the bargain as the team over at Twisted Pixel have sent me a download code for Lococycle.

The Long

The guys from Twisted Pixel Games have done a great job of creating compelling characters even with limited time to get the story across because of the average length of a XBox Live Arcade game being shorter than your standard fair in their past titles. The most interesting aspect of Lococycle is that they are able to do this with a character who doesn’t even speak English as one of the main protagonists.

A sentient motorcycle named I.R.I.S. accidentally hooks her Spanish speaking mechanic and makes a run across borders to the Freedom Rally while being chased by “her” creator Big Arms. While I did love ‘Splosion Man and Ms. ‘Splosion Man, the repeated quips did quickly grow repetitive. In Lococycle though, there were only a few very rare occurrences that it felt like a line was repeated. The entire time, I.R.I.S.’s personality just kept building.

Twisted Pixel’s Splosion Man and Ms. ‘Splosion Man have made a big bang the past few years at PAX East, and this year was no exception, because the first day of the convention they announced that Ms. Splosion Man will be making the jump to iPhone, iPad and Steam later this year. I stopped by their booth on the show floor later that day to see for myself how the game translates over to touch screen controls.

For touch-screens, Ms. ‘Splosion Man has been reduced to a directional stick that moves you left and right. To jump and ‘splode, you just tap the screen. It took me several minutes to get used to this new control scheme.

It’s not as exact as using a joystick or directional pad, and the slippery nature of the iPad screen sometimes caused me to slide the directional a bit further than I would have liked. But after a few minutes it became more natural, and I’m sure once the full game is available for iPad, players will easily make the switch from controller to touch controls.

Retooled for iPad, Ms. ‘Splosion Man looked great. I’m definitely looking forward to this title, and it’s making it even harder to resist picking up an iPad.

We can look forward to Ms. ‘Splosion Man on our iOS devices and PC later this summer.

Two summers ago, the world was first introduced to ‘Splosion Man, an ADHD platforming antihero with a penchant for cake just trying to escape a spanning scientific lab where he was being held. And as much as we loved him, (**Spoiler**) he didn’t end up fully escaping at the end of ‘Splosion Man. The opening of Ms. Splosion Man shows the origin of this new breed of estrogen fueled insanity. Ms. Splosion Man takes the core concepts of the original title and, much in the way that Ms. Pac Man became a more challenging version of Pac Man, ups the ante for 2D platformers yet again.

Gameplay:

Ms. Splosion Man is one of the most complicated simple games of the last generation. In the same way that ‘Splosion Man and Super Meat Boy had incredibly simple mechanics, jump and blow stuff up and jump and don’t die (respectively), Ms. Splosion Man leaves players with a controller with a bunch of buttons that all do the same thing: ‘splode. What Ms. Splosion Man did do however was come up with new ways to ‘splode and objects to ‘splode into, out of and on to.

The treadmills have returned as well as the atomic green barrels that launch Ms. Splosion Man across levels. But new items have found their way in to the mad labs. Jetson like flying cars populate the world, giving moving (and crashing) platforms for Ms. Splosion Man to traverse.

There are also rotating cannons, much like those exploding barrels of Donkey Kong Country, requiring both timing and aiming of players to shoot their little pink lady across levels. Barrels sometimes descend slowly with propellers being added to them and floating, rotating atomic green platforms that sort of resemble an original metroid can be found throughout the game as well.

As a result of these and other new mechanics, levels feel fresh and new and have tons more challenge and replayability. The game also now includes a Ghost Mode where they can compete against their friends and leaderboard high scorers as well.

In December, the Flickcast was happy to reveal that Twisted Pixel Games had announced a new member of the ‘Splosion family with Ms. ‘Splosion Man. Without seeing actual gameplay footage though, one major concern did come up. Would Ms ‘Splosion Man just be more of the same with a pink coat of paint? From what we can tell from the GDC demo (see below) this isn’t the case. While the core mechanics of ‘Splosion Man haven’t changed (i.e. blowing up), it looks like a whole new level of complexity has gone into the levels.

New traps, tactics and tools look like they await in the levels of Ms. Splosion Man. It does look like certain characters and bosses will be making their return as well alongside movie quotes and Twisted Pixel’s eccentric sense of humor.

Check out the full gallery and gameplay trailers after the jump.

Not to toot our own horn but the second internally we heard about a new project being announced from Twisted Pixel that we were told we wouldn’t want to “miss”, we knew Ms. ‘Splosion Man was on her way and we couldn’t be happier.

Twisted Pixel has shown they have what it takes to produce top rate games on the XBLA platform including the original ‘Splosion Man,  the Maw and Comic Jumper.  Now, it seems fitting that they finally jump into the world of sequels with their highest rated and arguably most successful title.

Taking a page from the classic Pac-Man formula, Ms. ‘Splosion Man adds a bow and some pink to the original star to create an entirely new experience. Actually, the experience isn’t that different but it becomes more polished and hopefully adds more ours of fun to the original formula.

Make sure to check out the full press release below, written in Twisted Pixel’s unique and only slightly disturbed sense of humor detailing the “inadvertent creation” of Ms. ‘Splosion Man and look at the first teaser trailer as well.

Stick to the Flickcast for more on Ms. Splosion Man as details become available.

At San Diego Comic-Con, we got to sit down with Twisted Pixel CEO Michael Wilford to talk about their recent XBox Live Summer of Arcade release ‘Splosion Man . And just this past week, our friends at Twisted Pixel were nice enough to provide us with some download codes to give away  to The Flickcast fanbase.

So when we found out that Twisted Pixel announced their newest title, Comic Jumper, at the Penny Arcade Expo this weekend we got pretty pumped…until we found out the premise of the game which made us EVEN more excited. In the tradition of the humor of The Maw and ‘Splosion Man, Twisted Pixel brings a new hero Smiley Man (and the angry, smart-mouthed talking star on his chest) to the comic book world.

A comic book style platformer with Twisted Pixel’s twisted humor. Sign us up. But don’t take our word for it, take a peek at this just released trailer after the jump!

It’s no secret we here at The Flickcast are big fans of this summer’s Xbox Live hit, ‘Splosion Man. In addition to getting a score of an 8.5 in the review, we got some time back at San Diego Comic-Con to speak with the CEO of Twisted Pixel, Michael Wilford and even got a play through of one of the first levels.

Now it’s your turn to ‘splode. Our good friends at Twisted Pixel have sent us some download codes for XBox Live Arcade which you can redeem for the full game of ‘Splosion Man.

We’re going to be doing this givaway a bit differently than our last one. This time, through the power of Twitter, all you have to do is Retweet this story when it goes live, and a random Tweep will walk away with a download code good for this summer’s hottest XBLA game!

Keep your eyes on our Twitter account to win!

While much of the geek community, The Flickcast team included, was off in San Diego for Comic Con, Microsoft started this year’s Summer of Arcade with the release of TwistedPixel’s follow-up to The Maw, entitled ‘Splosion Man. You can read our interview with TwistedPixel CEO Michael Wilford here.

‘Splosion Man – XBox Live Arcade – 800 Microsoft Points ($10)

Score: 8.5

‘Splosion Man is anything but your typical platform game. The main character, aptly named ‘Sposion Man, is completely bat-crap insane. He runs around his world completely enflamed trying to escape the research laboratory he is held in. All four buttons on the controller do the same thing, ‘splode. ‘Sploding acts as both an offensive, defensive and acrobatic maneuver. As ‘Splosion Man advances through the levels he must leap to higher areas. In most games, this would be achieved by jumping, but not ‘Splosion Man.

No, he blows himself up to launch himself in to the air, not once, not twice but three times to create the most violent looking triple jump in a long time. The best ‘splosions, however, come from when ‘Splosion Man blows himself up near various flammable barrels which send him rocketing across the level. In addition, he can constantly ‘splode as he passes by various scientists, turning them in to piles of meat. As the game progresses, the ‘splosions take a defensive turn as they can be used to deflect and redirect enemy missiles and projectiles.

At San Diego Comic Con, there were tons of chances to sit down and talk with the creators of tons of new titles coming out for PC, XBox 360 and PlayStation. I was given the opportunity to talk with Michael Wilford, CEO of TwistedPixel, the creators of The Maw and ‘Splosion Man which are both available for XBox Live Arcade. A review of ‘Splosion Man will be coming later this week as well as exclusive video of Michael Wilford playing through the first level of the game with us and giving developer commentary as he progresses through the level.

John Carle: John Carle from the Flickcast standing here with Mike Wilford who is the CEO and Producer on ‘Splosion Man which is one of the XBox Live Summer of Arcade featured titles. If you could just tell us a little bit about the game and the ideas behind it, like where it came from.

Michael Wilford: Yea, you bet. The main premise of the game is we tried to make the most crazy, nonsensical, hilarious, off the wall game you’ve probably ever seen. It’s really simple to play. It’s about a character named ‘Splosion Man. He’s made out of ‘splosion and he just runs around and all you do is ‘splode. Every face button does the same thing. It’s kind of like a jump but it blows up everything around you. You can do a triple jump in the air and bounce off walls. It’s really simple to play but we end up throwing a lot of stuff at you and it gets really challenging later.

JC: What was the inspiration behind the character?