Max: The Curse of Brotherhood

Ever wished your sibling, family member of friend away? Whether worded a curse silently as someone has messed with your stuff? In this game Max is made to really appreciate the phrase "be careful what you wish for" as he is forced to go on an epic adventure to safe his little brother after having wished him away.

Do you recall Max and the Magic Marker? A freeform drawing platforming adventure of sorts that saw release on a variety of different platforms including DS, PSN, Wii, mobiles and PC. Now that Microsoft have picked up developer Press Play the sequel is heading to Xbox Live Arcade. Or perhaps it's better to say sequel of sorts as the game is very different both in terms of the art style, parts of the mechanics as well as atmosphere and tone.

"Ever since we made the first Max we've been aware all the time of a lot of things we wanted... what direction we wanted to bring this game in", said studio director Mikkel Thorsted. "It's a lot more mature game, it's a 2.5D platformer. We are building in a greater story into the game, very much trying to get the feeling of the 80's adventure movies - sort of like The Goonies, Indiana Jones, The Labyrinth - small hero in a hostile world trying to overcome something that seems impossible."

There are a couple of things that remain - the main character Max and his overgrown Tintin hairdo as well as the magic marker itself. This time, however, the marker isn't free form and it will interact with specific points in the environment. This may at first appear as a downgrade, but it actually makes for more intricately designed puzzles. The physics also come into play and this is where some of the secrets and special tricks come into play. There was one location in the first lush jungle world where bombs where being dropped, if you timed the pillar of dirt you could draw perfectly you would use the bomb to open up a new path, you could still progress and just get by the obstacle, but even if Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is mainly a linear sidescrolling platformer there are secrets off the beaten path if you get creative with your marker. Among the secrets are "evil eyes" for Max to rip out across the levels.

"The evil villain's control room, sort of, he has a room with a lot of screens in it - they're all organic screens", said Thorsted. "And each screen represents an eye in the level. So it's like his eyes so he can see what's going on and if you find them you rip them out of the ground."

The demo we sampled at PAX East was from the beginnings of the adventure and saw us make use of limited powers (growing earth pillars and wines with the marker), but still managed to display a surprising variation as far as the puzzle design went.

"All in all there are five powers throughout, and you will learn them through the different environments...", said Thorsted. "Using different kinds of ink or powers, we can do interesting mechanics. For instance the wine works like rope, but it can also attach to things so you can attach the wine to a tree and you can suddenly do stuff that you couldn't do before."

In a way Max: The Curse of Brotherhood reminded me of another Danish XBLA title - Limbo. There is almost a sense of moving from room to room, puzzle to puzzle here as you figure out solutions to each obstacle ahead.

While the marker mechanics aren't perfect suited for an analogue stick, and the platforming is a bit hampered by it's reliance on physics (sort of like how Little Big Planet feels compared to say a Mario title) - there's something about this game that appeals to us. The idea of not being able to jump on enemies to defeat and having to come up with in-direct ways of defeating or simply avoid them is something that forces us to think differently. The gentle pace can sometimes fool you as there are plenty of puzzles that require timing and quick reflexes - there's a certain old school flavour to it.