Max had a marker pen, yes he did, and it was bloody magic.
Anyone who listens to the podcast regularly will know I’ve been crying out for a level basher; a break of sorts from all these open world games. MATMM comprises of exactly that with 18 levels of pure joy. You take control of both Max and his pen (ed: marker spanjj, it’s a marker), negotiating platform elements with Max and solving puzzles with his pen. In order to pass certain parts of the level, you draw your the tools you need. When you realise the potential of the marker the game becomes brilliant.
Max’s marker allows you to draw anything from a set of stairs to a ski lift. You can be really creative in how you solve a certain puzzle. There is no set way of doing a task. In that sense you can compare the game to Scribblenauts. A fundamental flaw of that game is once you discover certain items you can use them to solve most puzzles. Obviously if you’re physically drawing your tools this potential drawback is eliminated. You’ll use the same method more than once but the game will always encourage you to try different techniques.
MATMM presents you with three worlds each consisting of 6 levels. You’ve got Sweet Home (suburban type level), Shiver Me Timbers (pirate ship based) and Robot Factory (mechanical type level). They successfully provide a variety of different scenery and corresponding puzzles. The object of each level is to see it through with alternative objectives including collecting the full amount of light bulb orbs and secret orbs dotted around.
Bashing through levels is certainly satisfying with acknowledgment in the form of unlocking the next one. However I do find flaw with the fact that there is no acknowledgment of finding every light bulb or secret in a level. It would be nice if these figures saved, i.e. yes you’ve done this level but have you got 45/45 lightbulbs? You’re current high score is 42, see if you can find all of them. Currently there isn’t much incentive to find all of them but giving the player the ability to 100% the game might induce this.
Games of this type require really tuned physics engines and MATMM certainly achieves this. You’ll struggle trying to get the game to glitch out, I know I did. All in all the game play is really fun but it is worth noting that the version I played is a review copy on my Mac. The true test will be whether the controls are as negotiable pointing a Wii controller rather than using a mouse. If so this could be a real gem with a very decent amount of game play for a downloadable game. My verdict, bang it, bang Max hard. 4 out of 5 Maxs from me.
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