Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood is the sequel to Max & The Magic Marker, a platform adventure originally released back in 2010 on the Nintendo Wii on the WiiWare service. The game wasn’t too popular but showed some promise and was ported to nearly every other format apart from the Xbox 360. An odd fact when you consider the sequel has only been released on the Xbox One, with an Xbox 360 release also planned for the near future.
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a fantastic looking 2.5D puzzle platformer with a wonderfully colourful and varied level design suited to each new area you come across. The 3D backgrounds really give a level of depth to the game, be it a vast, sprawling desert or struggling to see through thick, lush greenery in the jungle stages, it all helps build atmosphere and texture in what would otherwise be your typical platforming worlds albeit with a little Pixar-like charm.
Gameplay is pretty typical for the genre. Max moves in a 2D world and can jump, climb, grab ledges and swing on vines or ropes and while these are a little too floaty for my liking they do work well and actually benefit the game in some of the more action packed sections, which I’ll get to later. It felt quite reminiscent of Limbo and I can see where that game may have inspired Max, not graphically but in controls and it’s sometimes trial and error style, but certainly not on such a scale as Limbo.
An old sorcerer grants Max with a magical marker in the early part of the game. It’s with this marker that allows you to manipulate the environment. At first you’ll have just the one power, moving earth. With this you can raise platforms to reach new levels or cross dangerous gaps and solve puzzles. As you progress you’ll learn new ways to use the marker, drawing vines to help swing across chasms, shoot fireballs to defeat enemies or create waterspouts to help Max, or other objects, reach new areas. Each level culminates in Max learning a new power with a short practice puzzle serving as a tutorial to get you to grips with your new skill before the next world makes you use them in new ways. It’s a great way of changing the dynamic of the game and keeps it interesting.
I’ve heard many people complain about the controls not working on the Xbox One as well as they should. I have to admit that I had no issues. You use the triggers to activate the power, stopping your control of Max, and use the left analogue stick to build the chosen power to the desired height, length, trajectory etc. Sure, it takes a little getting used to them but once I’d played through the first level they felt natural to me and I never once had a problem with accuracy. If anyone was at fault for me dying it was usually my own when I hadn’t thought the puzzle through well enough or during an action sequence where I’d panicked and made a vine swing the wrong way. Would it work better on a tablet where I could draw the power with a stylus or finger? Maybe, but I had no issues and Kinect certainly wouldn’t work well enough, certainly not for me where I can’t even use it to pick up fruit and feel animals in Zoo Tycoon, never mind draw a vine at the right length to swing and catch me from deadly spikes below.
It’s in the gameplay where Max can really shine. Often there are action sequences where you are usually chased by some disgusting beast and Max has to slide, run and jump his way to escape. These sequences are great. They’re well planned out, exciting and often makes you have to think quickly as Max is falling towards a fiery pit with only his marker to save him. However as much as I enjoyed these moments they also provided the most frustrating parts of the game. The powers themselves are colour coded and a glowing circle indicates where and what power can be used. This is great when in the slower platforming sections, but when in the faster paced moments they can be difficult to see, especially when a red power is camouflaged in a lava or fire section. All to many times I died in some of the later levels because of this and even through the checkpoints are very forgiving it’s still infuriating to die because you just can’t see what should be blindingly obvious.
That leads me to another part of the game that led me to dying far too often than I’d have liked. The camera. While the days of a terrible camera in a platformer are pretty much long forgotten (damn you 32-Bit era), they do still crop up from time to time. In Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood it may just be down to my impatience as a gamer, but a sudden hole or enemy caught me out because the camera simply hadn’t caught up to me yet. This was on my first playthrough as well so I would have thought these moments would have been noted in any testing, but unfortunately not. It’s a small gripe and one that didn’t happen a great deal, but the fact that it happened at all still annoyed me and stopped the flow of the game.
The game certainly lacks a lot in narrative, instead choosing to do everything in a very minimalist way from explaining the story, solving puzzles and demonstrating powers. It shows you what to do and hopes you simply learn and experiment with what you can do. I like that. Too often nowadays we have our hand held through a game and it’s refreshing to see a change in that. Okay, the puzzles aren’t the most difficult you’ll ever solve, but they are fun and on more than a couple of times you’ll get to use your brain a little.
The music is well suited to the game though it isn’t memorable. After playing through twice I couldn’t hum a single song, platformers typically suit having great soundtracks and it’s a shame they aren’t memorable. The voice acting is decent, they do the job and suit their respective characters well. I’m glad the vocals are rather limited though as the voice of Felix can be very whiny but again it suits his ‘annoying little brother’ character. You’ll be listening more to Max during the 7 or so hours of gameplay, casually grunting and self commentating on his adventure with a few one liners adding to the comical atmosphere.
I have to admit, upon receiving a review code from the kind folks at Press Play I assumed I’d be playing through a mediocre platformer, rushed out for an early Xbox One release date, but I’m happy to announce I was pleasantly surprised. Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood became my go-to game until I had found every hidden eye, amulet piece and destroyed the final game boss. The game reminded me of old school games, where trial and error was key to progression and a well-designed world sucked the player into the game. Max won’t set the world alight, it’s not the next big platform, but it has a certain charm to it that felt like it had been made by people who have a passion for the genre. If you like your platformers you really should treat yourself to Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood, it’s not perfect but the unique ideas and fantastic visuals make up for its downfalls.
Max: The Curse Of Brotherhood is out now for Xbox One for $14.99/£11.99. A later release date on Xbox 360 is yet to be announced.