One of the many games that had been sitting in my library for years.

The game is very cartoony and the protagonist, Ms. Splosion Man, is the kind of splosive lunatic you’d see in cinema cartoons from the 30s and 40s. If you ever saw one of those very old Woody Woodpecker cartoons, imagine him but causing splosions at will and you’re pretty close to our pink girl.

She’s a lovable screwball and chatty as fuck. Nearly every jump has her quipping something, often a piece of pop music. Not only that, she’s almost always dancing, whether while idling, walking or jumping - there is a large variety of poses and animations for that. If you leave her close to a wall, she’ll start talking on her hand like a phone. The only thing that keeps her from stealing the show is the camera, which sits really far away most of the time because there’s a lot of space for you to observe to plot your advance.

Level design starts fine, though once you get on world 2 things spike hard and fast. The game has some puzzles, semi hidden collectables and plenty of precision platforming where you have to have quick reflexes, as one failure sends you straight back to the last checkpoint. Stages 2-9 and 2-12 nearly made me pull my hair out.

Up to 4 players can play locally and MP levels are different from SP. Haven’t had the chance to try that out yet.

If you’ve got the game in your library, give it a try and don’t be ashamed of putting it down without finishing it. If you don’t have it, I would only recommend it if you enjoy platformers with a focus on skill, because it can get really frustrating at times. It usually goes on sale for like 2 dollars, so it’s very cheap.