Cute is not in my interest whatsoever. With the exception of the once off cute em up like a TwinBee shooter or Star Parodier, I gravitate toward the more darker and violent side of the gaming spectrum. Of course, I have an appreciation for quality no matter what the presentation is, so I often find myself pushing my tastes into unknown territories when I have time on my hands, or no games to play. So while most of my time would rather be well spent with a game in the lieu of Painkiller or Prototype—mindless, nihilistic violence ftw—I have no qualms with picking up something like Chu Chu Rocket or whatever if the gameplay and story is engaging to me.

So yesterday I found myself home from Best Buy having just used an old gift card to purchase a lot of Microsoft points for the purpose of buying 'Splosion Man. I enjoyed the demo immensely and wanted to get the full experience of idle animations and solid platforming. The art style and presentation were refreshing and 'sploding is just a fun twist on the multiple jump feature. I actually only played about four levels of 'Splosion Man before my revelation hit me. This is a great game not because it's just fun to play from a gameplay perspective, but because the developers, Twisted Pixel, had crafted a brilliant interactive Saturday morning cartoon. Through the self evident graphical style and animations, the game also has a aura of silliness about it from achievement designs and its cute take on violence, to a zany lead character straight out of an old Freakazoid or Animaniacs cartoon.

I wanted more of this.

The name Twisted Pixel rang some bells and a quick Destructoid search led me back to one game I admittedly passed on after a short demo stint: The Maw. Twisted Pixel's first release and a critically acclaimed one to boot. I stopped playing 'Splosion Man and used some more points to grab the full game and the DLC to accompany it. I thought I would give it a try and if it didn't capture me like 'Splosion Man, I'd just go back to that and finish The Maw at a later point in time. It did capture me though; in a way that brought me to finish it in one sitting. This second time around, I was fascinated by Maw's personality and his disposition to consume and kill all the fauna he walks in front of. Actually, the killing fauna part was a bit annoying, but as a whole, I tolerated the slow gameplay for just the sheer joy of watching Maw consume and grow. Somehow, Twisted Pixel basically managed to make a game about walking a big alien Bernese Mountain Dog a delightful experience.



Both equally stupid, yet both equally lovable.

So now I'm hooked on Twisted Pixel. Doesn't it feel good to find a developer that has crafted something with tender love and care that suits your interests? A lot of times I find myself playing games and learning to appreciate their mechanics and presentation because that's just what the developers put out there and I learn to love them as I play. Rather, in this case, The Maw and 'Splosion Man feel like games I happened to stumble upon that were just what I needed to keep me glued to the TV and be unproductive. In a good way of course. While I'm not reviewing them in this piece I do have to mention both have some flaws—especially The Maw—but these are some damn fine games for their asking price. The Maw in particular proves that you don't need a lengthy amount of time to become fond of your game characters and sometimes it's best to let the friendship end where the journey ends. (AKA, I hope they don't make a sequel.)

I didn't expect to be walking a dopey alien across an unfamiliar planet and 'sploding my body to cause mass chaos and confusion among the scientific community this weekend, but thanks to Twisted Pixel, it looks like I am. The boys and girls at Twisted should commend themselves for winning over a new fan and although I am not a praying person, I hope their studio stays afloat to make more titles for me to enjoy in the future.