Explodemon - The Big Boom Demo

I downloaded the demo for Explodemon. Before I begin I know that there's some controversy with this game. There was this other game called Explosion Man, or is it just 'Splosion Man? Google will give you both results. The two games are fairly similar and rely on the same concepts. I've never played 'Splosion Man. I never liked the look of it. But Explodemon had my interest and so I checked it out.

On some random far away planet, aliens are conquering the people. Normally some Guardians would appear to save the day, but for some reason they are not answering the summons. Only one Guardian remains but the guy in charge refuses to release him from cryogenic storage. Now there is no initial explanation for why this last Guardian won't be released, I found that a little odd.

Thankfully the aliens do it for you. Their attack nails the cryogenic building where the last Guardian is being kept. Big surprise, the last Guardian is Explodemon. Explodemon does just that, explodes and he'll do it at any given opportunity or he'll just do it randomly. Explains why the guys in charge didn't want him released. The amount of collateral damage could be catastrophic.

Explodemon looks like a recycled Mega Man X character. For me, that works in his favor. I love the Mega Man series, especially the X games. I keep hoping we'll see Mega Man X9 as a downloadable title. Explodemon also talks in very broken engrish. Personally I give him a Russian accent. The writing for the game is excellent. It's got a bit of self-depricating, tongue-in-cheek snark going for it.

Game is spot on. The explosion mechanic works nicely and you actually have a variety of attacks at your disposal. There's the dash, normal explosion, close explosion, a multi-explosion. All of them are very worth checking out and learning how to properly use. Level design is great and learning that Explodemon can slide down walls actually opened up more of the level for exploration. There are hidden collectibles in complicated to get to areas.

It's great to see a platformer like this. Platformers are almost a dying breed now days, but they're one of my favorite genres. Hopefully this means that they'll make a come back.

Anyways I recommend checking out Explodemon and then buying it. I really hope to see more of this guy in the future. Not to keen on a second 'Splosion Man though. I still don't dig the look of that game.

For more info on what happened with Explodemon and 'Splosion Man check out the blog of Jonathan Biddle, one of the designers for Explodemon.