Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (Xbox One)
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood begins as many stories about siblings do, with one getting fed up with the other. Annoyed with his younger brother Felix, Max lets his frustration get the best of him, reading out a spell he found online to make Felix disappear. When the spell turns out to be real, Max of course immediately regrets his decision, leaping into the portal that sucked in Felix to try and bring him back home.
Wishing away your sibling is an oddly common story structure about learning to appreciate someone despite the annoyances that strain your relationship, but here it seems like it might be a knowing nod to the film The Labyrinth since right after the spell, Max sets off into a magical fantasy world to reclaim his sibling. The villain of Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is no David Bowie though. Instead, an old wizard named Lord Mustacho is angling to transfer his mind into the much younger Felix so he can finish conquering this other world. An old unnamed lady is trying to be the force for good in the world, but her age has weakened her as well, so she decides to help Max in his quest to bring back Felix and stop Mustacho by giving Max some new magical abilities. It just so happens that she enchants Max’s magic marker to be his main tool, the same item he used in his previous adventure in Max & The Magic Marker.
The magic marker is at the core of most of what goes in Max: The Curse of Brotherhood. Using it on special spots in the environment, Max will be able to change the world around him, making new platforms to jump across, manipulating the area to trap enemies, and stringing together multiple creations to cross huge gaps or destroy obstacles. The magic marker’s abilities are expanded as the game goes on, but they mostly have some tie to traditional elements, Max able to make pillars out of stone, launch fireballs, create streams of water, and draw vines or plants in the environment he can then interact with. Each of these require an access point to execute though, meaning they’re puzzles with predefined solutions, the game even limiting how much magic the marker has for each access point. You can only make a stone pillar so tall before you’ll need to destroy it and try again if it was made wrong, and there is a bit of an awkwardness to the creation. While some of the puzzles only want you to make a simple straight line for your creation, others ask you to get a bit more intricate, never asking for anything too winding but you still need to bend what you’re making properly for it to behave right. With the Xbox One control stick, it can be a little finicky to get some of the exact orientations required, especially for things like the water which is quite often used as a way of launching Max across gaps. Failing those water puzzles often means death and an area reset, so losing because of a slightly imperfect angle can be a touch irritating.
The four almost-elemental powers do have the makings of good puzzle solving powers, and there are certainly some inspired moments where the game will want you to combine multiple powers in a more involved puzzle, but there are certainly ones where it’s not too hard to figure out what the game wants of you and just the act of executing it is necessary. The powers certainly aren’t perfect, especially when the game wants you to draw the branch-like plants in twisted shapes to climb only for the game to struggle to determine if you should be able to climb up it or not, but outside moments where death is punishment for failure, it’s not hard to quickly give drawing whatever object you’re working to create another go. Despite being interesting tools, their simple functions also contribute to their limitations. Save for how some combine to perform new functions, you can’t do too much different with things like a stone column or fireball, and holding some powers back from the player as long as the game does means not as much time is spent with the interesting ability combinations as there could have been.
The puzzle design really isn’t all that bad despite its hitches, but the thing that probably makes them feel so plain is that Max: The Curse of Brotherhood likes to indulge in some fast-moving action. The game’s plot and behavior of Max certainly feel like something made to appeal to kids, so it’s possible that they were worried more involved puzzles that take a while to solve will scare off younger audiences, although there are hidden amulet pieces and Mustacho’s eye spies in levels to serve as optional content for players looking for slightly more involved magic marker puzzles. The core puzzles though tend to be quick and sometimes even focused on doing your drawing in a hurry, the game freezing time for a bit during draw-or-die scenarios so you have the time to create. The occasional struggle with shaping your object is perhaps most annoying here, but the fact death doesn’t put you far back during these action scenes means it’s not so bad it ruins the experience.
The action scenes do look impressive though, the game in general mixing its cartoon characters with some incredibly detailed worlds that make up for being often deliberately dry or dark with deeper details that make them feel different. Even the monsters are given some intricately modeled appearances, there being an hairy mix of Frankenstein’s monster and a crab who crops up a few times and really looks impressive. The rock pillars you make have a satisfying crunch to them and the levels do a good job of leading from one to another logically as well, so the presentation certainly works in the game’s favor. For the big action scenes, Max might be outrunning some huge monster or trying to get out of a crumbling area, the game happily making the visuals chaotic even though the action is often simple jumping and running. It’s no surprise it’s going for the feel of the moment here rather than involved play, and even though death during these moments isn’t punished too hard, it’s still probably better it goes for the light interactivity rather than potentially hitting snags with the sometimes imprecise object creation.
THE VERDICT: From a pure design perspective, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood seems to have a bit going for it. The environments are detailed, the magic marker’s powers seem to have potential for interesting puzzles, and the action moments add some spectacle to the experience, but everything comes out feeling a bit plain. Leaning towards action leads to some things becoming too straightforward to really engage with, many puzzles are less about figuring things out than they are getting small details right, and the more intriguing and challenging moments are obscured by the greater presence of finicky puzzle solutions that rely on drawing a line correctly with a controller joystick. Things do come together to make a game that’s easy to play through without much frustration, but the pieces of the game aren’t quite as gripping as they might first sound on paper.
And so, I give Max: The Curse of Brotherhood for Xbox One…
An OKAY rating. When it’s leaning into the action, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is simple, and when it’s leaning into the puzzles, its still feels pretty simple, even though the demands are more involved there. Progressing from one area to another is seemingly the central focus and that means much of it can be too focused on how to do that rather than giving you something to stop and think on for a bit. The game isn’t too easy, giving you some moments where you get to be clever with the magic marker, but the powers you have just don’t have the room to grow much, the game relying more on drawing the powers right rather than finding interesting uses for them, especially since the anchor points always mean your options for interaction are pretty limited. The focus on keeping you moving does mean it doesn’t dwell on its flaws too long, so it can be a nice-looking puzzle platformer to spend a day or two playing, but there is a sort of hollow feeling to it all since its mechanical evolution over the course of the game is too slow to be fully enjoyed.
Max: The Curse of Brotherhood does a good job of showing the merits of puzzle and level design by missing out on its potential by not excelling in those departments. They aren’t bad and do involve the powers meaningfully, but there’s more to a puzzle than its completion and more to action than execution. Max: The Curse of Brotherhood isn’t a pushover, but it doesn’t have the depth to its activities that would help it make a strong impression.