Explosionade is a platformer/shooter hybrid with an innovative control scheme from Mommy's Best Games. An independent developer, MBG also made the award winning Shoot 1Up and Weapon of Choice. Explosionade puts you behind the wheel of a gold-fueled, Mega-Nade tossing mech and lets you blast your way through 41 levels. Local drop-in, drop-out co-op is also supported for two players. Is this little game worth your hard earned cash?
It most definitely is. You can find Explosionade in the XBLA under the Indie Games tab. Like all indie games, you can get the trial for free. Or you can splurge right away and spend the 80 MS points. That's right, you get 41 levels of explosive action for just a dollar.
You play the role of First Lieutenant Terry Atticus, the lone soldier left to guard the Goliath Division base while the rest of the army goes off to fight the Horronym forces. While you are cleaning up after a plumbing accident you stumble upon a new mech prototype named GRenaDOS and decide to take it for a spin. Explosions ensue. Oh, did I mention that you look like a character from Tim and Eric Awesome Show?
Because you do.
Don't let that dissuade you. There is a lot here for 80 points. You have fully customizable controls. You can either pilot your mech as a twin stick shooter or a Contra-style shooter. Both methods work simultaneously, so you don't have to toggle between the two. You have a hover jump that can be used in tandem with a bubble shield that allows you to bounce all over the screen. It takes some getting used to, but soon you will be bouncing around everywhere. There are three difficulty levels. On top of those, you can tailor the speed of the game to your liking. The speeds range from 25% to 200%.
The game play is tight and well controlled. Enemies are colorful and the art style is sharp. Each level is a single screen 'challenge room' with a set number of enemies, barriers and power-ups. These power-ups take the form of gold bars, which have a three-fold purpose. They heal you, add to your score, and once you collect ten in a row you get extra grenades for a timed Mega-Nade Cascade.
There is also a zoom feature that is controlled by the right bumper. When implemented, you have a great view of the enemies and mech. This is only available on the single player game. I found that even though the game looked good, the 'normal' zoomed out view gave a better lay of the land.
So you can go with this...
...or you can go with that.
As for the co-op, it's pretty standard drop-in drop-out local play. Just push the 'A' button and you're in as the second player. If one player dies then he can push the X button and jump back in, at the cost of half of his buddy's life. Choose and pay. When playing with two players I did not notice any scaling, so the enemy count stayed the same. One gripe I have is that there is very little difference in color schemes for the mechs, so it can be hard to tell which one you are when the action gets hot.
Look at all that hot, explosivey, action.
If you do die in this game you can restart the last room you were in. The catch is that your score will be reset to zero. So you can plow your way through each room, but you won't get a high score if you keep dying. Online leader boards are available, so you can compare your scores to your Xbox Live friends, even if you can't play with them.
The story plays out similar to the dialog boxes in Bionic Commando Re-armed. The writing is silly, if not groan inducing. Solid sound design and some thrashing music are just icing on the cake of this very solid indie title. There are also 15 awards you can play for, entirely for bragging rights. You can blast through Explosionade in less than and hour, but scoreboard junkies will find some replay value here. When you consider it takes 5 bucks to watch half a crappy movie, this game is a steal.