“Max: The Curse of Brotherhood” - A Charming and Unique Platformer

      Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a game developed by Press Play and features the character Max as he travels this strange world trying to save his younger brother Felix, whom he sent to this world with a strange spell book he found. 

      Max is in essence a platformer with some puzzle elements in which you navigate the world dangers using the environment and spells you acquire throughout the game. What I like about this game is that you cannot attack the enemies, you have to use the environment to solve the enemy problem in a variety of unique ways. The levels get progressively more challenging and you have to use your powers in combination in order to make it all the way to the end. 

      There is so much to like about this game, from the art style to the fun and challenging gameplay. Also this game is just about the right amount of time, in the realm of 5-8 hours which for an arcade game seems perfect. Also the game is so well made and polished, I did not really find any flaws with the game. There is also some replay value in the fact that you can go back and get all the eye stalks and all the pieces of the amulet. These additional challenges are available for those who did not feel challenged enough from the levels themselves. 

      The narrative is certainly a more kid-friendly tone but what I’m impressed with is how genuine it all felt. The dialogue really illustrated well the brother relationship between the two characters. The other two characters besides the brothers help to create the child-fantasy story vibe with a good witch and an evil warlock rounding out the cast.

      The game also features slow motion events that made certain moments feel epic and I thought that was a really neat trick to use in a platformer. Finally the game culminates in a neat boss battle in which you do not directly fight the boss, but continue to use your powers to eventually disable and defeat him. 

      Overall this game was a delight to play and having it available for free both last month and this month on Games with Gold for Xbox One makes this game a must play. Everyone should certainly pick this game up and play it for some fun and challenging platforming action.