From now until September 11, Twisted Pixel and Penny Arcade are teaming up to offer the second TMS challenge, which you can find in the game’s opening menus.

In the level, Twisted Pixel has hidden 9 of Penny Arcade’s “fruit-juicing” robots. Find them all to help you get the highest score.

Whoever places 1st, 2nd and 3rd on the leaderboards wins a Prize Pack filled with goodies from both the Ms. Splosion Man and Penny Arcade teams as a reward.

Twisted Pixel’s press release is way too hilarious to let it stagnate in my inbox, so here, read up on the “Pink Terror.”

The value of all life on Earth was originally placed at almost triple the amount of Microsoft points, but a surprise ruling from Twisted Pixel today cited a declining economy and a general disappointment in humanity as the root for assuring its destruction at the incredible price of 800 Microsoft Points.  Minutes after Big Science Labs announced the capture of rogue experiment Splosion Man, all communications cut out.  Unconfirmed reports of a “Pink Terror” led many to speculate on the existence of a “Ms. Splosion Man” – a second catastrophic experiment set to splode her revenge out from the laboratories of Big Science and into the world.

Humanity’s last brush with the apocalypse occurred almost one year ago, during the Great Meatening, a day remembered less for the terrible loss of many a scientist than for the vast flooding of delicious meat that rained down from the sky.  Here now again, all of humanity rests on the razor’s edge – Big Science encourages all citizens to resist the sizzle of fresh tenderloin and mass destruction on July 13th, no matter the phenomenal value.

Turns out they’ll need 10,000 testers, each of which will get access to two multiplayer levels per week in addition to a trial of the game.

“To make the best multiplayer game possible, we are enlisting the help of our friends and fans to beat the ever-living crap out of our game and tell us what is wrong with it,” said the game’s Director, Josh Bear.

In order to participate, you’ve first got to be chosen, but you won’t be chosen unless you own an Xbox 360 with a hard drive, have an Xbox LIVE Gold account and have broadband Internet access. You’ll also have to prove you’ve got the time to play the game with other people, even if you don’t know them, and also provide a ton of feedback. Remember, this is technically work that you’re doing in exchange for playing the game early, so make your participation worth it to the developers!

To start the application process, click here and submit your answers to the survey. (And if you do get in, send bug reports and comments to beta@twistedpixelgames.com.)

Good luck!

(If you’re not so lucky, you can live vicariously through me and read about my experience with the game here.)

The Xbox Live Arcade title, which will be out later this year, blends a variety of gameplay styles to create a fun story for comic lovers. Captain Smiley will travel through four comics, each with its own distinctive style, with his chest emblem, Star, smack talking the entire time. Want to know more? Try watching this 10-minute video, and see if that doesn’t make you want even more.

Splosion Man

Splosion Man was supposed to be the first game to support Avatar Rewards, free items for your avatar that you unlock in-game. Instead they ended up being second, but that’s not due from lack of effort from Twisted Pixel Games.

Twisted Pixel Games are very supportive of their fans and really wanted to create and make available Avatar Rewards for Splosion Man and future games. In a quote from Mike Wilford from Twisted Pixel Games, he explained that the delay was not entirely something they controlled.

“The avatar awards have not been released yet, and unfortunately I can not tell you when that will be because I have not received a release date from Microsoft as of yet. However, they have said that it will be soon. There weren’t any difficulties to speak of, really… we made up some avatar clothing, used the API calls that Microsoft provided, and it just worked. I think we’ll definitely support avatar awards in the future. We try to pack each of our games with as much free content as possible, like gamerpics, premium themes, avatar awards, and whatever else we can get away with.”

Hopefully the delay will not discourage Twisted Pixel Games or other companies from using Avatar Awards in the future. For the record, Microsoft’s Lips Number One Hits is the first title to have in-game Avatar Awards.

Splosion Man ran into a few bumps with getting their avatar rewards up & running properly, but as of now there is a title update in place. New Splosion Man gear for your avatar is available. If you’ve already reached an achievement that was tied in with an item, it will become available after you download the update. There are also some minor issues fixed in the update.

There are two new tops: a hoodie and sundress for the ladies, and two tshirts for the men.

Twisted Pixel has also teamed up with Omaha Steaks to give away some free meat. Simply download the special Splosion Man gamerpic and play in online game sessions before Nov 22nd to be entered (up to 5 entries per person).