Real Men Wear Boxers. Heart Pattern Boxers to Be Precise
If you happened to be slain by some mad wizarding dude, who is perhaps summoning all of hells demons to conquer the world, then Death may or may not just cut you a deal. Just be ready to run around in your underpants.
Maximo: Ghost To Glory is a action platformer which harkens back to the good all days of gaming. Back when the bad guys where tough, the platforms where narrow and certain death was always certain. At face value this game isn’t all that great, there aren’t a ton of moves to learn, there’s a lack of enemy variety, and the games story and cutscenes are terrible. The game however remains a hell of a lot of fun to play, and its because of how hard it is.
This game is challenging. Maximo can’t take many hits before his armor is gone, and is reduced to fighting in his heart pattern boxers. There is no saving in the middle of levels, and it will costs you a 100 koins (koins?) to save when you can. Koins which you will want to spend on armor and shields. Koins which are not easy to come by, and are placed in severely hazardous places. This game expects you to sit up and pay attention, and it rewards you in turn. The longer you stay alive the more power ups you have, the deadlier you are. The felling of joy you get from plowing through regularly tough enemies with your fire sword and lightning shield, is only matched by the felling of dread that comes when you die, and all your power ups are gone.
Ghosts to Glory does have some problems, and a lot of them (like the good) are rooted to its old school roots. Your character suffers from an overall lack of growth, the four moves you have at the beginning of the game, are the four moves you will have at the end. This causes the game to feel repetitive at times. The lack of story and poor presentation can also be jarring, particularly by today’s standards. This game isn’t big and its not sexy. The primary focus is clearly on the gameplay, while all the bells and whistles take a very far backseat. One surprising gameplay flaw however is how bad the boss battles are. From Frankenstein to evil Voodoo man, all the bosses are really, really easy and clearly belong in some other cookie cuter, walk in the park platformer.
Even with the lack dazzle, this game remains a godsend to anyone who misses old school game design. Yes its tough and at times frustrating, but nothing in gaming beats the felling you get from completing a particularly ball bustingly nasty level. That feeling of euphoria and satisfaction is enough to make a full grown man jump up from his coach and dance... in his heart pattern underpants...
