Games for Lunch: Maximo vs. Army of Zin

In a nutshell: Minimum Maximo difficulty.
1/5/2009 6:10 PM | 0 Comments | Page 3 of 3

0:47 Know what I still love, though? A good, forgiving double jump, like this one. The double jump is absolutely key to the fun of this game so far.

0:49 The level design so far is impressive. It's a relatively complex (if cartoony) mansion here, but I'm never stuck wondering where to go. There are lots of hidden nooks and crannies too, if you're observant.

0:50 Ick ... one false move and I'm dead in a fiery pit. Unforgiving! Plus, no more shiny armor. *pout*

0:51 There are some koins hovering over a fire. I hover a bit when I'm the Reaper, so I figure I can use him to get them. Nope ... as soon as I hover above the fire, I turn back to Maximo and die another horrible death. At least I get more koins with each life.

0:54 I pull off a 16-hit combo in a battle with four skeletons at once! Still ranks as just "brave." Not sure why I should care.

0:55 New enemy alert ... mechanical spiders that reach up to my waist! They're even easier than the skeletons...

0:56 A skeleton just dropped a suit of armor. Hey, I'm not looking a gift, um, spider in the mouth.

0:57 Level completed! I somehow missed one enemy, 12 treasures, one innocent and three "secrets." An 86 percent overall ... getting better!

0:58 I still can't help but feel the game isn't bringing the difficulty of the original. Most enemies go down to simple mashing of the square button. Maybe it's my faulty memory, but I remember not having such an easy time with the enemies in the first game. Then again, maybe the beginning was easy and I'm remembering when it got hard later on. Or maybe I'm just better at games these days. Maybe I should start again on "Hard" difficulty.

Would I play this game for more than an hour? Yes.

Why? Responsive controls, great level design, good character design and animation, and the promise of harder levels to come (?). 3-D action platforming as it should be.

This column is based on a used retail copy of the game purchased from GameStop.

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