Introduction
When
I was younger I used to follow a story in the comic pages about a
young boy named Calvin, who went parading on many adventures with
his stuff tiger, Hobbes. Calvin
and Hobbes was a fantastically drawn, artistically splendid comic
that won the hearts of many. In order to stay true to his vision of
what comics should be, the creator was able to successfully prevent
his syndicate from commercializing his work. That means my cabbage
patch kids that live in my living room can’t play with a stuffed
Hobbes; I can’t go ride a transmogrifier time machine at an
amusement park, and unfortunately there was never a video game starring
Spaceman Spiff, Calvin’s alter ego. Thankfully, Max
and the Magic Marker is everything I envision a Calvin and
Hobbes game might be; minus Hobbes.

In this game, you control
Max, an artist with a collection of drawings. A purple ink blob monster
runs into Max’s art and Max must stop him from wreaking havoc on the
wonderful artwork; so Max chases the monster into the drawings.

Drawing The Line!
The gameplay is a little bit Commander
Keen and a little bit Line
Rider. Max runs forwards through fifteen side scrolling
worlds, and overcomes obstacles along the way. Obstacles take the
form of pits, lasers, robots, water, moving platforms and the occasional
ink enemy. To conquer these obstacles, Max must use his magic marker
to draw elements on the landscape. The elements you draw are not static.
They move and roll and bounce depending on their shape and where you
draw them.

Need
to get over a pit? Draw a bridge! Need to climb a cliff? Draw a ramp
or stairs. Need to move a boulder? Draw a lever! Then drop something
heavy on top of it to activate it. Do you need to jump high to get
to the next platform? Max can create a seesaw, stand on one end, and
drop a heavy ball of marker ink on top of it to send Max up into the
air. These are just some of the ways that Max can use his marker to
manipulate the game world.

You don’t have to
draw while the game is in motion, though. At any point you can stop
the action in order to draw elements on the screen. The game will
go from “play” mode into “scribble” mode.
In the scribble mode, everything on screen turns from beautifully
rendered game elements into something that looks like child art. It
fits the game beautifully I found myself enjoying the scribble versions
of different elements. Scribble mode is handy when you fall of a cliff
and need a bridge quick.

I have 100 golden
coins, what is my reward?
On each level Max can collect marker ink, light bulbs and black orbs.
The marker ink lets you draw items, so collect as much as you can.
At every checkpoint the evil purple blob will show up to vacuum your
marker dry; sometimes you have to use the ink judiciously so you have
enough to accomplish your task. You’ll get the hang of this
quickly, though.

There are lots of light
bulbs, upwards of 50 on each level, and it is not usually a challenge
to collect them all. Other than the thrill of finding them all, I’m
not sure what purpose they serve. The black orbs often provide a different
challenge, and are the closest that Max comes to an adventure game.
They are better hidden, and often require you to solve a puzzle to
collect the orb. Some of the puzzles are timing puzzles, but some
require some thought, such as throwing a ball through a hoop or standing
in a certain spot and looking the right way. If you see anything specific
to the level you’re on, most likely it relates to a black orb puzzle.

As
Max collects black orbs and light bulbs, he will unlock special game
modes. These game modes include a playground, which is an empty level
that servers no discernable purpose; Full Marker, which lets you start
with a full marker instead of having to collect ink pellets; Super
Max, which lets you jump high; and Double Espresso, which lets you
run real fast. It is fun to play the game with Double Espresso and
Super Max activated; however, anything you achieve with those on do
not count towards each level’s achievements, so once the thrill of
one or two levels runs out, you’ll never turn the cheats on
again. I would have preferred to see the game keep record of “cheat”
achievements in addition to non-cheat achievements; which makes them
slightly less pointless.

Three Worlds means
Fifteen Levels
The game consists of three worlds, or sets of drawings. The first
is Sweet Home, a simple neighborhood with houses and playgrounds.
The second is Shiver Me Timbers, with pirate ships, water hazards,
and canons. The final world is the Robot Factory, with lasers, robots,
and bizarre spinning wheels.

Each level gets progressively
harder and overall, the game provides an increasingly consistent challenge.
World 1 is a great introduction to the game mechanics. World 2 is
the perfect mix of challenge and fun. World 3, unfortunately, is it
a bit too hard if you want to get all the extras. On many of the World
3 levels I gave up trying to unlock all the secrets and I’d
even swear that retrieving one of the black orbs is impossible.

What is the Final
Verdict?
The version I originally played (1.2) was loaded with bugs. Often
it wouldn’t load, and I couldn’t get past level 2-3 without
crashing. Version 1.3 crashed significantly less, but was far from
perfect. At least it let me get right up to the end, even if it locked
when I finished the final level, leaving me without the reward of
a final cut scene. Version 1.4 is pretty stable, but unfortunately
hosed all my saved games so I had to start from scratch. It did allow
me to see the end cut scene after defeating the purple baddy on level
15.

Sometimes
the levels, especially in the third world, were frustrating. I spent
> 76 minutes on level 3-1 my first time through; much of that trying
to get one of the black orbs. I eventually gave up. You had to get
that orb by traversing two laser beams and jumping on a moving platform.
If you were hit by the beams, you were sent back to the last save
point. This puzzle was at the end of a tedious climb where you had
to create a bunch of magic marker ladders, making the puzzle all that
more frustrating. I’m not sure it is possible to retrieve that
orb. To make matters worse; there seemed to be two different syncs
between the two lasers you had to traverse. I eventually gave up without
collecting that orb.

Despite my problems with
‘earlier’ versions, Max and the Magic Marker
has a lot more polish than I’d expect from a casual game, but
not nearly as much as I’d expect from a commercially sold unit.
Had they not updated it; I’d have given it an F, or 0 stars,
two thumbs down, or one finger straight up. But, since you won’t
have to deal with the earlier bugs that I encountered, go ahead and
pick this game up. I look forward to seeing more levels made with
this engine, and perhaps something that expands the gameplay somehow.

System Requirements:

PC