Max & the Magic Marker revolves around Max as he tries to defeat a bad guy that he created. The game is clearly designed for a younger audience to enjoy, but should be just as enjoyable for adults.
The design of the game is pretty inspired; the player’s avatar is a drawing of the main character (Max) that adventures through a series of different world drawings trying to capture the big evil that he originally drew. Along the way he can pause the adventure and draw simple objects into the world to interact with, like weights to crush enemies or boxes to climb on. Ink for the magic pen can be found throughout each stage that allows Max to continue drawing bigger objects.
While the game itself doesn’t really do anything that original, interactive drawing has been done several times before. Platforming has been done to death, but neither have ever really been combined in such a unique and enjoyable way. Even though both facets of the game, drawing and platforming, aren’t always accurate they manage to be melded together in such a
way that the occasional mishap is easily forgiven.
Probably the worst part of the game is the soundtrack as it only has a couple of songs and most of the sounds seem to just repeat over and over again. Thankfully enough the music and the sound are all very good to start out with, and almost cross the line of downright enjoyable, but something is just taken away after hearing the same tune for the 30th time.
The one thing done completely right is ramp up the player to the harder puzzles in the game. Almost none of the levels became anything close to challenging until about halfway through the second world, and none of them where overly complex or confusing. The game also has a ton of hidden items to collect, most of which I have to admit that I didn’t even notice my first time through.
The PC version of the game has been released for 20 dollars, which seems a little high considering that the Wii version of the game was just released for half of that. The PC version of the game also had a crash-to-desktop error at several points, but that is something that is normally ironed out rather quickly with most PC games. While the price may seem high it is only because another version of the same game has been released at a lower price, but the game itself is definitely quality enough for any gamers to enjoy.
Despite a handful of issues with sound, and an odd control setup, Max finds himself in a really enjoyable game. The biggest problems aren’t even really anything that is worth noting, as the game is paced is almost perfectly balanced. Max & the Magic Marker is well worth a purchase for anyone who has a younger PC gamer in the house. I bet the WiiWare version is just as good too.
Not As Good As: Crayon Physics
Also Try: Drawn to Life: SpongeBob SqaurePants Edition
Wait For It: The Wii Port
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