About the loneliest booth at E3 this year? Ms. 'Splosion Man. The first game was a great, little downloadable title with plenty of single-player levels, a unique co-op experience, and oozing with character. Ms. 'Splosion Man looks to be just as awesome a game as the first, so what gives, gamers?
It may have been the pink. Ms. 'Splosion Man seriously doesn't skimp on presenting its color preference. The intro levels are pink, the character is pink, and the general color palette shows off an affinity for bright hues. But it is merely aesthetics, the gameplay of the original remains intact with the continuation of creative levels and imposing screen-filling boss fights.
Ms. 'Splosion Man even comes with a tongue-in-cheek "2 Girls, 1 Controller" mode that will test the limits of your gaming street cred. It is stupidly, stupidly hard. In the mode -- including original levels -- you control two different 'Splosion Man (Wo-Man?) characters with their own corresponding sticks and bumpers.
Getting a handle on splitting my brain to make sense of which stick controlled which character was a definite challenge, but getting to the end of each level provided a great sense of accomplishment. I seriously don't recommend this mode for the faint of heart, but it creates a great new challenge for seasoned players and taps into a part of your gaming brain few games have done before.
Ultimately, Ms. 'Splosion Man is a worthy sequel to the original with a generous lathering of pink coloring over the game's front-end and some new features and modes thrown in for good measure. And, no worries. You won't have to embarrass yourself by going out to the store and asking the cute attendant for a copy, it will come to your TV screen via download on Xbox Live some time this summer.
