User Review : Max and the Magic Marker

A game that challenges you to put your modern warfare's gun aside and pick up a magic orange marker

Do you remember yourself when you were a child, when you used to get a piece of paper and any marker you could find and draw a lot of strange shapes like houses,little monsters,creatures and anything else your little mind could imagine?Now imagine what would happen if they suddenly came to life!

That's exactly what happened to the young boy named Max,when one day he found a letter that hided inside a plain orange marker.As Max realises,this particular marker wasn't just an ordinary one,when the monster he draws,come to life with-not very pure-intentions.Now Max has no choice but to draw himself into an imaginary two-dimensional world in order to win his own creation.The path along this hallucinogenic world,though is be far from easy for Max to face.Fortunately you're here to help him!

So simply and then magically, the wii remote turns into a dazzling orange marker and challenges you to draw anything that can help Max find his way through the mysterious regions, insidious traps, enemies that lurk around.

As pointed out by the designers,''the only limits to the game are your imagination and marker's ink availability.''This of course does not mean that if you paint an bird would suddenly revive and fly,so don't worry if you are not born to be Picasso one day.You are able to draw bridges, rocks and heavy objects to help Max raise on a seesaw to the air, ladders and stairs, levers, umbrellas as well as a bunch of other weird objects or constructions.

So,at the first level,you areg iven a lot of hints,tips and useful directions about how you draw or kill enemies until you can catch the meaning of the game and feel like home.You guide Max using your one hand (nunchuck) while with the other you use the orange marker (wii remote).You can jump a short distance,reach a ledge or take back the ink you've already used.If you proceed to the next frame level, the ink returns automatically inside the marker through a playful spinning vortex.Plus you are able to unite two draws-lines,or find an alternative way to pass a level instead using the obvious solution, because the more imagination you use, the more hidden prizes and extras will make their appearance.?verall there are three different worlds and 15 different, challenging stages.Ta first two levels as well as the last ones,sure are tough cookies,first you got to learn how to move and draw,then you just break your head trying to find the a solution to the riddles. The checkpoints are quite a lot, but in each of them the monster will insidiously steal the ink, forcing you to collect new ink bubbles which sometimes gives you hell,if you suddenly find out you've run out of ink.

The handling is quite challenging,and sometimes Max does not obey to the orders and jumps over or wipes out the designed objects on his way which easily leads the game over.But once you've understand the limits, there will be absolutely no such ''controller's confusion''.The game can lasts from about 1 hour, for those who play fast,to 4 hours for those who sit down willing to collect all the hidden objects and reveal it's secrets.

Frozen in time, he painted over the limits of the imagination!

The most interesting part of the game is the freezing of time, where at any moment, you can simply stop the time,while the graphics and the landscapes automatically turn into a child's handmade drawings.This is very useful especially when at the most challenging and difficult stages.For example you can freeze time while Max is performing a leap over a water channel, draw a board, bring back the time ... and see what happens!

Without a doubt half a piece of the game's magic are the incredible landscapes and these cartoonistic grafics.Every landscape features and represents a part of Max's neighbourhood, and most objects you can see, colorful houses with red roofs and fencse, evergreen trees, pirate ships, menacing black clouds and playful monsters,are objucts you can frequently find in every child's drawing.It's almost impossible not to smile or not to have fun just crossing these truly wonderful lands.I think the designers aimed to combine the childishness of the game with the complexity of the puzzles in a recipe, the recipe of success!

There is a good variety of ringtones the game offers,tones that cross the stave up n' down depending on the severity of the stages.In more cheerful and bright levels,the music is vibrant and happy like a childish march,but it's strong and aggressive at critical points like a black cloud on a sunshiny day.In crazier and more complexive levels, when the melody darkens,reminds me the type of soundtrack which would comfortably take Oscar in a movie titled: the haunted house.Maybr somr people are going to complain abou the repetitive soundtracks especially when you've stucked into some point of the game,which-if you want my opinion- doesn't spoil the game at the least .

Similar to the World Of Goo, the game was designed by a small group of people, managed to find a sponsor after facing a lot of struggles, proving once again that good will and efforts are more effective than the giant media and money. The game before it's official release had managed to win two awards (Best Game Design ": European Innovative Game Awards &" Best Overall ": Unity Awards), because it offers-beyond it's puzzles-moments of fun and relaxation,far away from the planet where our daily problems and worries take place. It teaches a useful lesson to the powerful companies who are trying to win this monopoly game and also challenges all these fps's ''harcore'' gamers to put their sniper away for a while and pick up this magic orange marker.!