Splasher: A fresh take on the side-scroller
It would be tempting to pigeonhole Splasher as a retro throwback. The honest, bizarre, and wonderful truth is the side-scroller can’t be seen as inherently retro anymore. The last decade, basically since the release of Braid, there has been a renaissance of side-scrolling platformers mostly coming from independent developers, among which Splasher is a worthy addition.
Splasher is the latest game from Romain Claude, a name you probably don’t know. If you follow games you are likely at least familiar with his work. He worked on two recent additions to the Rayman series, Rayman Origins as well as its followup Rayman Legends. Two games I have not played, but have heard good things about. This is Romain Claude’s first foray into independent game production. Splasher was built by a team of 5, a fairly typical size dev team for an independently-produced game.
The game combines the intensity and speed of Super Meat Boy or ‘Splosion Man while mixing it with a world-changing fluid dynamic most reminiscent to Portal 2, although it does also vaguely remind me of the Flash game Spewer minus the vomiting.
In Splasher, the defining game mechanic is the water gun backpack. If this reminds you of Super Mario Sunshine, that’s because it’s a pretty similar idea. At least to start. Unlike Super Mario Sunshine water is just one thing you are eventually able to shoot. The evil “Inkorp,” for which you were a janitor (I think), specializes in making what it calls “inks.” Or at least I think they’re called inks. The game’s description on Steam goes back and forth between “inks” and “paints,” but I’ll just stick with the one that’s in the company name. The page also calls the water gun both a “splatter cannon” and a “paint cannon” in the same paragraph. I’ll stick with “splatter cannon.”
As previously mentioned the inks are quite reminiscent of the paints in Portal 2. The way they are introduced in game reminds me a great deal of the first Portal’s introduction of portals. Inks are first introduced non-interactively so you can get a feel for how they work before the game tasks you with controlling them to progress. There are two inks in the game which is more than enough to fill up many dynamic levels. The red ink allows you to climb walls and ceilings, an action that I feel obliged to mention the player character does sprinting on all fours. It’s pretty adorable. There is also an orange ink which bounces you into the air and across the room.
While playing the game the player has two simultaneous goals. First, to simply complete each level in order. Levels are accessed through a hub which is presented as the lobby for Inkorp. Secondarily, you save fellow janitorial workers scattered throughout each level. Rescuing these janitors unlocks new areas of the hub in which special levels are kept, but this in no way affects your ability to play the main levels as you unlock them by finishing the previous stage. This definitely has an old meets new feel. Maintaining the linear progression of levels seen in retro platformers mixed with the item collecting to unlock new areas is the hub, which has been a staple of many 3D platforming games.
Although each stage ostensibly has its own gimmick they do mostly blend together. Some stages make extensive use of lasers while others make extensive use of water effects. While these focuses certainly organize the proceedings one of the few stages that I can say really sticks out in my mind was the windy stage. A frequent and annoying gust of wind that forces you to think about things a little differently and make you keep your thumb poised, ready to shoot out red inks at a moment’s notice just to stay still and have a moment to take stock of your scenery. Wind is a mechanic that platformers have used before, but the juxtaposition of the wind and red ink makes Splasher the first time I’ve seen it used well.
Even though it does owe a lot to the games that came before there are not many games that don’t. In fact there are probably few works of art in any medium that couldn’t be seen as at least somewhat derivative. The important thing is that Splasher borrows from the best and puts the pieces together in a new and interesting way that more than stands on its own.
