Maximo vs. the Army of Zin...hacking some fun

Anyone else tried it?

Played about halfway through this charming platformer/beat-em-up hybrid so far and I am quite impressed. The Ratchet and Clank/Viewtiful Joe fanbase on this forum should definately give this one some of your free-time as it involves a smattering of well realized genre-scopic conventions such as smart level blueprints, varied enemies, quaint humor, hidden secrets, and a constant flow of upgrades.

It’s an extremely balanced action game thus far that is rarely frustrating nor punishing, yet still manages to provide a good challenge and a whopping amount of fun. If you feel like watching the particles fly and hacking some animated bots to bits in some very colorful worlds, go get this game.

I loved the first one. It’s one of my fav platformers ever. I actually picked up the second one the other day, but haven’t put it in yet.

It’s great. Much, much better than the first one, which was also one of my favorite 3D platformers.

I’ve reached what seems to be the final boss fight already, with mastery in every single level in Hard mode.

The game went by exceedingly fast this past week, which is in turn a compliment towards how wonderful the design is, I haven’t been able to put this sucker down!

Challenging without frustration, skillful approach to combat, strong level layouts that rekindle some themes not seen since the era of 8 and 16-bit machines. Gorgeous boss fights that test your dexterity and combat awareness.

Just a wonderful, wonderful PS2 title. I hope more of you give it a look.

Definitely on my list. Loved the first game. How did they implement saving this time? I know it pissed people off how they did it in the first game. (Not me though…)

–Dave

How did they implement saving this time?

I’ll tell you how they implemented saving. The wrong fucking way, that’s how.

I just finished playing for an hour or so, having been warned about the death coins you use when you die. So I finally lost my last death coin – in a jumping section, no less – and figured I’d have to restart at the beginning of the level with maybe a single coin.

Nope. I’m put back at my last save. Which was an hour or so ago when I first started playing. The fucking game doesn’t autosave when you change levels on the big map. You have to manually save or apparently the game won’t record your progress.

If I weren’t reviewing this, it would be permanently put back into its little box alongside other infuriating crap like Jak II and Top Spin. I fail to see the appeal of this game next to titles like Mask* of Kri and R&C2.

 -Tom
  • I know it’s Mark of Kri, but I like the title Mask of Kri better.

I rented it and really, REALLY liked it. Then again, I saved after each level, although the game on Normal wasn’t especially difficult, other than the last few bosses.

That is shameful tom… its not like that big memory card icon is hidden or difficult to spot plastered right on the level select screen.

I feel your pain when it comes to losing progress, nobody wants to go through that; but aren’t you being a bit unfair? It’s not like the game is really asking that much of you to save, and it is rather kind allowing such frequent opportunities especially given the prequel’s save concept.

The autosave likely was thrown out because of the limited continue system. It’s very easy to walk into a level with a dozen continues and walk out with only 1 left dependent on circumstances. (Not to mention the armor/lifebar situation which also sticks post-level) Not forcing an autosave means you aren’t forced to be stuck with a single life and a sliver of health on your savegame.

If Maximo is going to allow some boneheaded dingus like myself to lose an entire session of playing time, it should at least give us a ‘do you want to save before exiting?’ dialogue, like every other goddamn game on the face of the planet.

I’m not saying Maximo doesn’t do that, but once I realized I was going to have to replay the first quarter of the game, I was too busy sputtering indignant curse words to notice.

 -Tom

Um, it doesn’t take that long to beat the first quarter of the game (the first two worlds, I’m assuming). Hell, I went through 'em just to show my brother and a friend the boss encounters and the keen World 2 level artwork. It’s a really fun game and I didn’t mind revisiting those areas.

Sure, it’s an hour you wouldn’t hafta spend playing the game otherwise, but if a second playthrough perturbs you so much, I suspect you really didn’t like the game that much in the first place.

Um, it doesn’t take that long to beat the first quarter of the game (the first two worlds, I’m assuming).

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘worlds’, but the first quarter of the game was, for me, the first six levels. My % complete readout said 24%, but that might take into account how thoroughly I’ve completed each level. Either way, this does seem like a pretty short game.

if a second playthrough perturbs you so much, I suspect you really didn’t like the game that much in the first place.

It’s not the second playthrough that bothers me, it’s that I stupidly wasted my time by not saving. I’ll take 40% of the blame (I didn’t even notice the memory card icon BDGE mentioned!), but I’m assigning the other 60% to the game. :)

I’ve gone back and caught myself up. I’m at the second rising stones puzzle and I’m super annoyed with it.

I still don’t see Maximo’s appeal (although, to be fair, I haven’t gotten many of the weapon and combat powerups yet). Sure, it’s “fun”, whatever you want that to mean. Nice animation, decent artwork. But I don’t really see anything being done here that hasn’t been done better elsewhere. I’d rather get back to my second go-around in R&C2, or maybe finally finish up Mask of Kri.

 -Tom

Okay, so assuming you do not forget to save frequently… is the difficulty less punishing than in the first Maximo? That was what put me off the game, which was otherwise a very nice 3D Ghosts’n’Goblins sequel.

Yeah, it’s much easier. I loved the first one, and the difficulty made it even better.

By the first two worlds, I mean to the point after you fight the second major boss (the cyclopean robo-spider thing).