Max: The Curse of Brotherhood

Genre: Puzzle-Platformer

Players: 1

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Review:

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a family-friendly Puzzle-Platformer originally released on the Xbox One in 2013, ported to Xbox 360 and PC in 2014, to PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in 2017, and then to iOS in 2018. This game puts players in the shoes of the titular Max, a kid who wishes his brother away only to find himself scrambling to rescue said brother when his wish is granted.

Max: The Curse of the Brotherhood has a presentation that reminds me a lot of the films of Henry Selick (James and the Giant Peach, Coraline, and Kubo: The Two Strings), with a stylized art style that gives a good deal of personality to its 3D characters and its slightly comic tone gives a hint of irreverence to its otherworldly fantasy-infused story and fittingly adventurous orchestral soundtrack.

Unfortunately, the presentation seems to be one of extreme highs and lows – the characters have a lot of personality here, but Max himself is a grumbling, annoying pain of a protagonist. It also bears mention that after an initially impressive introduction, the rest of the game’s opening area is dull and monotonous in appearance, although thankfully this does eventually improve.

The gameplay here is similarly mixed in that it has hints of brilliance dulled by a feeling that the game could have done much more with its ideas. The game starts with simple Platforming that seems reminiscent of games like Limbo and Inside, but soon players are introduced to Max’s magic marker, which allows him to manipulate the environment in various ways, such as creating and destroying platforms. This is a mechanic that holds a lot of promise, but unfortunately the game limits your use of this mechanic far too much, to the point where it seems like you’re only allowed to use it in places where it’s absolutely necessary to solve a puzzle. As you might imagine, this kinda’ gives away how to solve some of these puzzles, and makes the player feel far less creative when doing so.

Another issue this game has is that the control scheme is unnecessarily awkward, making you hold down a trigger button and press the A or X button to use the marker’s powers. Not only does this stop everything while you move a cursor around the screen, but it takes some getting used to as the A button is also the button used for jumping. There had to have been a better way to implement this feature, perhaps by using the right control stick. At the very least, the Nintendo Switch version of the game does offer players the ability to use the touchscreen which does help some, but the touchscreen’s detection isn’t great, meaning you’ll occasionally have to tap a spot multiple times.

While I do have my complaints about Max: The Curse of Brotherhood, I still feel that this is a solid Puzzle-Platformer with some interesting mechanics and an overall good presentation. Those mechanics may be awkward and unnecessarily limited, and the presentation may center on an unlikeable main character, but overall this game is well worth playing for fans of the genre.

tl;dr – Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a family-friendly Puzzle-Platformer that has you playing a young kid on a quest to rescue his brother after unwittingly wishing him away. The presentation here is good, despite an unlikeable protagonist, and the gameplay here is solid, if a bit limited. There definitely are areas here where the game feels lacking, but overall this is a worthwhile entry in the genre.

Grade: B

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