Developer: Press Play
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Rrp: £10.99
Released: 21st May 2014
Available on Steam
Max is a young boy who apparently has never seen the movie Labyrinth, for if he had he wouldn’t have wished for his brother to disappear. But he did wish it and suddenly portal appears and a big monster hand comes through grabbing. Max’s brother and pulling him through. Max bounds through the portal to save his brother.
Guess who you play as.
One of the first things that struck me about this game was the quality of the animation, and no I don’t mean in cut scenes (although those are good too). The in game character animations look so smooth that wouldn’t look out of place in a Dreamworks production. The characters are stylized in a manner that for some reason sets me in mind of Jimmy Neutron.
Not long after a brief tutorial on the basics of platforming the main mechanic you’ll be using is revealed. That mechanic being Max’s magic marker pen becomes… Well, magic. With the marker you can manipulate parts of the environment, at first it’s just controlling the earth but more are unlocked as you progress.
The game supports a controller, which you would expect since it’s also on the Xbox One and 360. I did try using mouse and keyboard but found using the controller to be more comfortable.
The game is slightly deceptive in its aesthetic, you’d be forgiven for thinking that the game was just a generic platformer. And, had it not been clever with the use of the mechanic, it would be just that. In the later stages you will need to use several of the powers you acquire in a specific order and timing in order to progress, this includes some unexpected physics puzzles.
There isn’t really any replay value to this game, unless your what I call a achievement miner in which case all games have replay value. There are some collectibles to acquire, those being parts of a amulet and you can try to kill all the ‘evil eyes’ in the game. If you don’t try for those the game is about six hours long, for me that’s not really worth the Rrp. Definitely pick it up though if you find it for under £6.
