Games for Lunch: Maximo vs. Army of Zin

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

Developer: Capcom Production Studio 8
Publisher: Capcom
Release Date: Jan. 20, 2004
System: PS2
ESRB Rating: T
Official Web site

0:00 I absolutely loved the original Maximo: Ghosts to Glory ... until I ran out of continue coins and got stuck halfway through the LAST LEVEL! ARGH! Hopefully this one keeps the fun and challenge while losing the progress-stopping brick walls.

0:01 The title screen appears almost immediately with a bouncing, hand-drawn black army in red light advancing towards me from the background. It's cute and menacing at the same time. Creepy violin music.

0:03 The selectable difficulties are "Normal" and "Hard." Given how hard the last game was, I figure Normal will be hard enough.

0:04 A skeleton bird flies out of a red moon and over an absolutely massive CGI cut scene battle between men and skeletons. "Unholy demons," cries an armored warrior. "While I live Castle Hawkmore will never fall!" The battle done, the few remaining men gather up the dead skeleton bones. "Seal the vault behind me!" cries Mr. Armor Man. "But Lord Morrigan, you'll be trapped." No matter! He demands that his heirs guard the vault with their very lives. "It must remain sealed ... forever."

0:06 500 years later, Maximo gets attacked by a group of forest bandits. Then a distressed woman runs in and asks for help with some village-attacking monsters. Then a mechanical knight joins the party. Maximo looks past him "You're late, Grim," he says with a smile. "I always come ... in the end," says the Grim Reaper, who appears behind the skeleton and slashes him to bits. COOL! Anyway, Grim can't find Sofia's soul in the underworld. "Then she's alive?" Possibly ... Grim is mad about souls getting compressed into jewelry, for some reason, while Maximo wants to help the woman's village. The voice acting's a bit cheesy, but the animation is top-notch.

0:07 And just like that I'm in control, running through a rainy graveyard with a handy line of gold coins guiding my way. I love the intuitive double jump. I do not like the reversed camera controls (moving the stick right moves the camera left ... ARGH). Worse, there's no option to un-flip them. Grrr...

0:09 "Help! Run! Run for your lives," scream the panicky villagers in a short cut scene. They run by me as more mechanized skeletons come a-running. I slash them without much problem, throwing in some awesome jumping strikes to boot (it's all coming back to me). I get an eight-hit combo, which ranks as "Brave." Oh yeah!

0:11 Will someone please explain to me how slashing wooden stumps and bunnies provides showers of gold coins? Seriously, what's up with that?

0:12 A villager gives me money for saving her life. I accidentally hit her with my sword, resulting in a small jump and a surprised noise. Usually I'd expect, um, blood.

0:13 Why do so many games with swords let you cut grass? And why is it so much fun?

0:14 The subtitles spell "koins" with a "K." Why? Because it's just krazier that way, I guess.

0:15 I find some armor that makes me look much more big and buff and shiny. I also get a helmet with a ridiculous Greek-style brush on top. The armor gives me an extra section of health bar, not that I really need it ... the enemies are barely touching me. Hmmm...