Now Playing: Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (Xbox One)
Welcome to blaaaaaaaaah
Eagerly awaiting my “free” games for Xbox One I was still a little bummed with the initial offering of Max: The Curse of Brotherhood. Giant Bomb’s Quick Look of the game didn’t impress but I’ve always appreciated what the series has done to add to the archaic platformer gameplay. That said, my first night with the game didn’t immediately destroy my trepidations. There’s not so much a learning curve to Max as a ‘learning wet noodle’. The game doles out its gameplay mechanics excruciatingly slowly but just as it got past bedtime things were finally getting interesting.
The setup here is that Max wishes his annoying little brother away and realizes what he’s done just as a gargantuan claw swipes his sibling. Max leaps through the portal after him but he’s already been swept away to MacGuffin Tower. Hot on the trail, Max runs into an old witch who is oddly happy to transfer her soul into his magic marker allowing him to manipulate the environment in unique, if specific ways.
At the start it’s simply pulling towers of dirt out of the ground to make platforms or move objects around. It’s neat enough but the mechanic is a little cumbersome and there are a few too many simple tutorial bits that ram home how it works. You’re also in a desert which doesn’t do anything to add to the appeal beyond some hi-res textures and nice animations. You’re also… kinda lame. Max’s quips are as flaccid as that wet noodle and while that’s fine for a younger audience there’s no high level Pixar style writing to smirk at so far.
Oh! This is much nicer
Finally, though, things started picking up as I unlocked the second magic marker ability: BRANCHES! What I thought was going to be a simple draw-a-platform mechanic turned out to be a pretty big deal. With the ability to raise towers out of the ground and draw plank and box-like vines the game has started to feel a lot like Trine; less platformer and more physics puzzlery. There are some pretty clever puzzles, especially if you’re after the collectibles which have been more fun to suss out so far than simply moving forward.
That’s about where I stopped for Day One. The visuals have gotten much nicer as I’ve started climbing this huge tree and coupled with the atmospheric musical cues I’m getting a nice Rayman 2 vibe. I hope to return with even more surprisingly pleasant stories about the game but I’m still a little worried I’m just going to give up before long.
