Austin-based developer Twisted Pixel has demonstrated an uncanny knack for creating wholly original and distinctive play experiences, and one of its best recent creations -- last year's Xbox Live Arcade download, Ms. Splosion Man -- is coming to iPad and iPhone this summer via a reworked and expanded port that adds more than touch controls.
Twisted Pixel announced the upcoming release on the first day of the PAX East gaming convention in Boston this weekend, and while it had a playable build of the game available at its booth, it wasn't representative of what to expect from the final release. Jay Stuckwisch, 2D artist and community manager at the studio, explained that the PAX East build was a rough demo essentially ported over from the Xbox Live Arcade version of the game, and that the final release will include unspecified "new gameplay functions" that will be revealed prior to its expected summer release.
Still, I was able to get a sense for how the game will control on iOS devices. In the side-scrolling game, you play as the titular heroine, a science experiment gone wrong who has the ability to explode herself up to three times between recharges to blast upwards and outwards through challenging stages. In the iPad version at PAX East, you used a sliding directional pad to move left and right, plus you could swipe upwards to climb a ledge once dangling from the edge, while tapping elsewhere would make you 'splode. The frame rate ran a little slow on the build, but Stuckwisch noted that the level was quickly ported just to give fans an idea of what to expect, and that the game would be fully optimized for the platform.
Luckily, Twisted Pixel has some very good company for its first iOS release -- it's being assisted on the project by Iron Galaxy Studios, the Chicago-based company that brought Scribblenauts Remix to the App Store last fall. And with luck, it won't be the last we see of Twisted Pixel on the App Store; last year's The Gunstringer for Kinect could work splendidly on a touch screen device. But Ms. Splosion Man is the studio's iOS focus for now, and we can expect what will likely be a universal release to launch this summer.
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