Max and the Magic Marker Hands On

I recently had a chance to sit down with Max and the Magic Marker and get some hands on time with the game. I played through a version of the game that featured five levels that highlighting some of the action early on in the game.

The first thing that I saw when I booted up the game was the overall colorfulness of the presentation and the theme song that would be stuck in my head, even now a few days after playing it. The world is presented through the imagination of the main character Max, and his drawings. Because of that you get a feel very quickly that you might be in for a very interesting journey through the imagination of a child. Each level begins with a very quick drawing of the level in magic marker before being presented with the very beautiful rendering of Max’s world.

The basic premise of the game is that Max’s drawings come to life and one drawing in particular, that of a purple egg plant type monster with a vacuum cleaner is causing havoc. It’s up to Max to use his orange magic marker to traverse the different levels of the game and stop his nemesis. The magic marker can be used to create platforms to reach high places, or draw bridges to get across large gaps. You also have to use this magic marker to create objects that will remove the enemy gobos from the world. If you feel like you are getting rushed you can pause the action draw the object you want and then resume play. This gives you the chance to think things out a little bit without being in danger of dieing.

The platforming in the game is very solid and I found it very easy to get from one place to another. The jumps all feel very natural. There wasn’t much Mega Man level difficulty, at least not in the playthrough I had. If there are gaps that are too high to reach simply draw a set of stairs, or make a see saw that can be used to fling Max high in the air. There was no limit to the creativity I could have other than the amount of ink in the marker. Each level started me out with little to no ink, but there were orange orbs scattered throughout the level that could be used to refill Max’s ink supply. Each drawing would use a small amount of ink, but could be erased and used to refill the marker once that obstacle was passed. The more ink that was used the heaver the object would be. There were some puzzles that took this into account and if it was solved I was awarded a black orb. The black orbs, I’m told are scattered in various places throughout the levels and if you find them all they will unlock a secret. Some of them are out in the open, but some will be achieved by solving different puzzles in the game. Along with the black secret orbs, and the orange ink orbs there are gold orbs that can be collected that I can only imagine are used to unlock even more things, though I don’t know for sure yet what they do.

The fun came not so much in the platforming itself, but finding different ways to solve the various puzzles in the game. The ink drawings can all be interacted with, both by Max and the gobos. There were times I found I would create an obstacle to keep a gobo from getting to me and they would shove the drawing back at me. I spent a lot of time with the game just trying to find different ways to dispatch the baddies. Some of the different things I tried were drawing a box around them and then pushing the box into a lake or creating a platform above them and when they pushed one of the supports out of the way the platform would fall of them and squash them. I imagine there is no limit to the different ways that can be created to eliminate them, other than your imagination.

Another thing the developer says they’ve witnessed is that bystanders can’t help but get involved as well. They’ve seen numerous times where someone watching would offer a suggestion on how to defeat an enemy or reach a platform. They also have seen that the game could be good for what has been referred to as “father-daughter” mode where one player controls Max and the other player handles the drawing.

Max and the Magic Marker is another in what is shaping up to be a long line of player created interactive games, but it could be the most memorable one that comes out this year. The bright visuals, insanely catchy music done by Analogik and simply engaging creative aspects of the game are coming together for a very unique experience that everyone will be able to enjoy later this year. Take notice, people, Press Play, is looking to make a splash with their first WiiWare title.