disappearance act:
a task I'm quick to regret-
but I've a marker!
Additional Comments:
Yet another blessing from Games with Gold. And a blessing indeed as I quickly became enthralled with this quirky little platformer. Well, I use "quickly" in the loosest of terms as the game has sat idly by on my system for a couple of months as I continued to knock about in Forza Motorsports 5 or any other XBox One game that happened to grab my attention. From initial download, Max certainly seemed intriguing - I loved the artwork and the overall atmosphere of the levels from what I gleaned, but the whole drawing aspect appeared clunky and perhaps more of an uninvited guest sapping the overall energy from the game's platforming roots. And so Max sat, quietly in gaming limbo - just another game owned and maybe, just maybe, one day will be resplendent in the glory of play.
Unlike a large number of games in my collection, I had every intention to play Max from the very start. Despite my worries over potentially clumsy design, I was wowed by the straightforward emphasis on pure platforming. Days turned into weeks as I kept murmuring my wishes to start the game up once and for all, but then found my attention turned elsewhere - be it towards other games already in progress or other games that happened to catch my fancy all that much more. Look no further than the last few games pinned here on Beat All Games to find out what they were. Sorry, Max, but Guacamelee had me from the word go. Or should that be "¡Ve!"? Honestly, my Spanish is horrible, or rather, non-existent, so yea.
Finally, after lengthy bouts of procrastinating - and becoming frustrated with some of the Looker runs in Super Time Force - I decided to enter the strange fantasy that is Max: The Curse of Brotherhood. Instantly, addiction took over. I can't believe I put this game off for so long. Sure, the marker mechanics are somewhat clumsy upon initial play, but it's easy to get use to after a while - and incredibly necessary in the latter game, especially in Death by Lava. Surprisingly, after a number of early game deaths as I came to terms with how the environment properly functioned, my deaths dwindled in the end game; Death by Lava sending Max to an early grave only once. Color me shocked!
Thing is, Max isn't exactly a difficult game. I think most of the difficulty, if any, stems from the various environmental puzzles. But oddly, some of the more difficult, or what should have been more difficult puzzles, were easy to glean while some of the simpler puzzles flat out stumped me for a bit. I remember wracking by brain over one of the lantern bug puzzles only to feel stupid after realizing how simple the solution was - which interestingly enough, I didn't find the true solution until my 'no death' run. On my initial trials, I managed a half-assed solution that only lessened the present danger; thus having to book it as fast as my little legs could carry me. This, more than anything, made me play the part of the idiot when I found the true key to the puzzle.
Even the end boss proved enormously simple once I understood the mechanics, albeit I faced many deaths as I tried to understand what those mechanics were. To wit, I needlessly cycled through Mustacho's pound routine for minutes on end. My initial intuition was that Mustacho would cycle through his various states through his own volition. At least it seemed a sound theory based on past video game experiences. Again, foolishness got the better of me after realizing the earth pillars served a higher purpose - a higher purpose than what I was using them for: a means to evade Mustacho's Master Hand style slap. Of course, knowing the base mechanics of Max, it should have been clear that much like Max's trek through fantastic landscapes, here too, the marker plays an invaluable role. Oh, that's right! I should pay attention to the various marker hot spots to help deduce Mustacho's final puzzle. Why would I ever believe the final struggle would rely purely on physical battle tactics? I figured flicking countless fireballs at Mustacho's giant head would be more than enough to take down the elder demon inhabiting my dear little brother's skin. I can only guess that I learned nothing throughout my travels. That either doesn't bode well for the game or for me. I choose the latter because as I progressed through my no death runs, it became more and more obvious that Max's travels and the good witch's teaching were leading Max to a definitive strategy on destroying Mustacho and his plans to...to.... What were his plans again? To dominate this fantastical elsewhere with an iron fist? Eh, it's a bit of a wasteland, though I admit it has its own beauty and charm - the sheer definition of picturesque.
Picturesque beauty is certainly the highlight of the game. Its shallow to recommend a game based on graphics, as that should never be the main selling point, but for Max, I feel it's appropriate. The graphical beauty seems to be the building blocks of wonder here and the development team made a astonishing array of levels that not only look good, but play well. Attention is paid to both environmental atmosphere as well as play progression that is equally interesting, fun, and anxiety inducing. Oddly enough, tricky vine jumping and other platforming lunacy from unspeakable heights exacerbated the strong will to survive better than any other 2D platformer, which again can be attributed to the beauty and detail of the various environments. Rarely is this the case in any game, but somehow altitude felt to be a real and eminent threat. Often, height is just another means of quick death - passé really - but here the world evoked nervous fingers and sweaty palms. Father Oak was especially responsible for this feeling. Perhaps it can all be linked to my uncertainty I always felt when jumping onto a swinging vine, afraid that I was going to flick the stick incorrectly and leap to my doom despite knowing that such a feat was impossible thanks to vine mechanics. Even while finishing up the last of my no death runs and having played the game over the course of several days, my suspicions of the vines were never abated. Continual fear that if I held down, Max would slide down off the vine into blissful oblivion clenched my very soul. Ok, perhaps that's a little dramatic, but the essence of the situation sat uneasy with me as I nervously flicked the stick downward in quick little jabs, inching ever closer to the vegetative end.
Overall, I loved the game. My original worries over clumsy controls were quickly alleviated and it would be hard for me to argue any aspect of the game. Maybe length. That may be the one area of the game that disappointed me. The last few levels seem to have peaked at appropriate difficulty but then the game vanished before it had a chance to thoroughly explore some of the more sinister applications of Max's marker. When all was said and done, I was hoping for more. The game's length, or lack thereof, becomes especially apparent once you have full understanding of all the mechanics involved in the game and dash through the levels to either acquire any missed collectibles or obain no death status. But then, as I sit and think about average game length for any platformer, it's not that peculiar that Max feels so short. Most, if not all, platformers tend to run on the shorter side of the time spectrum. Speedruns can certainly attest to that. Then again, unlike the early Sonic or Mario games, I didn't finish Max in a single sitting, and while I see it being completely possible, I don't see it likely, at least for me - someone who tends to lengthen games via arbitrary exploration and needless noodling to ensure every nook and cranny has been exhausted. No wonder RPG's take me roughly twice the forecast amount of time to complete. Note to self: need to invest in more productive play style. Ugh.
Nano-Thought:
Why I am sensing an allusion to Onett in that opening scene? Or is it just me? Either way, kudos! I like it.
Rating: 4 plots achieved through puppetry out of 5
