Splasher (PlayStation 4) Review

There are few things that can be compared to the feeling of playing a new, creative 2D platformer that has found a way to add to the genre with an unexplored mechanic and brings out the best of it. This is a feeling that Splasher delivers strongly on from start to finish.

Splasher takes on the concept of paint guns that was strongly popularized in the gaming world by a certain other franchise, and brings it to the platforming genre in interesting ways by making the paint give the surface different amusing properties that, depending on the situation, can either be advantageous or disadvantageous. It gives the player freedom to forge the levels to work to their advantage by simply adding, or removing, puddles of ink at convenient places. It is a powerful, yet difficult to master, tool.

Thankfully, Splasher gives out these tools slowly throughout the game in a way which makes the player able to explore each one to its fullest, and just about when the game starts to feel old it hands out a new toy to learn and experiment with. It is a great way to both ease the player into a complicated system, but also to keep the game fresh all the way through.

To go with these amazing tools are some very cleverly designed levels that are perfectly made to make the tools feel like a natural part of the game, and when used to them, extremely fluid to play through and play around in. The levels are relatively short, but filled with content to explore to get collectible items, but also some neat shortcuts for time attacks.

Splasher offers great offerings for everyone, from the completionists who leave no stone left unturned, to speedrunners who want to push the time of completion, and even caters to the casual player with fun stages featuring just the right level of challenge that scratches that 2D platformer itch without entering the realm of frustration.

While it is a very fun game, it is on the short end, though. It only has 22 stages, which, by today's standard, is quite low. While many of the levels have plenty of interesting things to find out by exploration, for a casual player who only cares about getting to the end, most levels can be beaten within 5-10 minutes, while people who like to collect everything will rarely see a level lasting more than 20 minutes. It is very short-lived, even for being a 2D platformer, but when the biggest problem with a game is that it leaves the player wanting more, that in itself is a good testament to the greatness of the product.