Video Game Review: Max and the Magic Marker (PSN/Wii)

Though just recently released to PSN, Max and the Magic Marker is by no means a new game. Previously featuring on platforms such as iOS, PC, Mac, and Wiiware, PlayStation gamers will finally get their hands on the title.  Is it worth your ten dollars?



Max and the Magic Marker is a simplistic game that revolves around a little boy and the abomination he creates. One day during a vigorous coloring session our young protagonist is mysteriously given a marker that is obviously, per the title, magic. Max draws a monster that looks a little like an eggplant that leaps to life and rampages through his colored worlds. Sensing he must stop this foul beast, Max draws himself into his picture and he is transported into his hand drawn fantasy land.

Max makes his way through the land with the help of the very marker that caused all the trouble in the first place. As you platform through the different levels, 60 or so in total, you'll gather score bubbles, black orbs and most importantly, ink. Ink fuels the magic marker and enables Max to draw bridges, platforms and so forth to proceed through the game. The more ink you have the more you can draw and usually after you finish your drawing, and it's function is complete, you can suck the ink back up into your marker.

Improvised Box Umbrella. For when you just can't afford for your spikey hair to get wet.

As you finish the levels you can rush as fast as you like to the end or  you can mount a search for  black orbs and score bubbles scattered through the stage. The black orbs themselves can be decently hidden and occasionally require you to do things like blocking a soccer goal, something not entirely connected to the marker. At the end of each level you'll receive a number of stars each representing how well you did on the level. Getting through the level under the specified time will net you a star, finding all the score bubbles will net you another and finding all the black orbs will net you a final. This can add a level of re-playability as some will want to collect all stars and doing so will add a little time to the game.

The game itself is vibrant and colorful, as one would expect from a child's drawing. Whilst you make your way through the three environments, a pirate ship infused island area, Max's neighborhood and a lab wonderland; you can pause at any time with the square button. Doing so freezes the game and instantly reverts the detailed 1080p display into a  crayon drawn child's picture. I think it adds a wonderful touch of personality to the game and lends to the overall sense that you're playing in Max's hand drawn fantasy land. Pausing itself serves the purpose of letting you draw what you need without worrying about enemies or platforming at the same time. After you're done, hit the square button again and the action renews.

Pause at least once even if you don't need to. Adds a world of personality.

At first you'll begin by drawing a little more detailed things, or at least that is how I started. When you reach a see-saw and know a weighted object needs to be drawn to launch you into the air, in the beginning I drew a whale. It worked wonderfully and plastered a smile on my face. Over time though you'll find yourself drawing standard lines as you just don't have enough ink to create exactly what you want. In addition, it's physics based, so while you'll be drawing plenty of hills with your lines that connect to platforms you'll never find yourself creating a vertical ladder as Max can't jump through the lines he creates.

Populating Max's fantasy land, besides himself and his eggplant monster, are various little purple spiky foes. In order to defeat enemies you'll draw an object over there head and let it drop on them in theory. Often I was frustrated with this and after a while began skipping enemies all together as it was never consistent. Sometimes I would draw a huge anvil far above their heads that would just bounce off. Other times I drew something just above them that squished them. It never seemed to have a hard fast rule that governed it and led to inconsistencies so I usually just avoided them.

Max and the Magic Marker was originally made for the Wii controller and it's easy to tell here. I appreciate that the developer added the ability to play with a standard controller, as I don't have a Move, however you can tell that it was meant for motion control. Playing with the controller you'll use the R1 button to draw and the right analog stick to guide your marker. It's not intuitive and can feel a little awkward even to experienced gamers. To children, part of the game's intended audience, the mechanics are a little harder to grasp and pull off. My son played the game so I could gauge a younger audiences response and not only did he have trouble with the slight complexity but also reaching the buttons. Obviously mileage will vary there as your child may have huge hands, but I found this was my experience.

Knowing the game was to be experienced with the Move controllers I asked a friend to bring his set over and tried a few levels with that scheme. Just as I expected, it works much better. The Move controller adds a little novelty to the experience as you're actually drawing with the Move controller. You can even play with just the Move but then moving to left and right are controlled by the square and circle buttons. I don't recommend this as the experience is much smoother with the analog extension that attaches to the main motion controller. My son also markedly improved controlling the experience and thought the game was much more fun as he felt more involved with the actual artistic part of the game. This may be something you never hear me say and that I certainly never expected to say of a game, but if you have access to the Move: use it. In this rare case it actually beats out dual analogs sticks as the control method of choice.

This is a marker made bridge. Move along. Nothing to see here.

Max and the Magic Marker doesn't really throw any surprises your way and for experienced gamers it's extremely easy, while for younger gamers that will be drawn to the game; it may be just a little too hard depending on your controller options. The game is expectantly short, weighing in slightly under 4 hours for the full experience. If you just rush through the levels your looking at an even smaller amount of investment of hours.

Overall the game is sort of a mixed bag for me. It's concepts, while not entirely original, are unique enough that they remain novel and fun throughout the game and makes it more then just a standard platformer. The artwork is charming and does a good job of adding personality to the game. On the other hand the game is extremely easy and can be considered short even for a PSN game. If you have a Move controller the experience is much easier to recommend and I had fun playing through with my son, even when he was just the back seat driver.

Score: 7 out of 10

A copy of this game was provided to The Paranoid Gamer by the publisher for review purposes.