I didn't hear much about The Maw before it's release, only that it was
a puzzle-platformer for XBLA. As a big fan of a genre that's seen
better days I was curious and checked out the demo. Immediately I was
surprised at how colorful the world is and how detailed the main
character, Frank, appears. The texture work on Frank is impressive and
he manages to show a lot of emotion in the short cut-scenes without
ever saying anything (aside from calling the Maw on occasion). The Maw
itself is a pretty simply purple blob with an eye and a mouth full of
teeth, but the design manages to fit into the cartoon visuals without
looking that out of place.
The game itself is simple and the puzzles are never too challenging. I
had more trouble controlling the Maw while using some of his absorbed
abilities later in the game than I did with any of the puzzles. This
isn't necessarily a bad thing as most of my best loved
puzzle-platformers I've played in the past never posed a real head
scratching challenge either.
My only real criticism of the game is the length; the game took only a
few hours to beat and I only had to revisit one level to find some
hidden items. Since it's release Twisted Pixel has released a deleted
level for the price of 100 MS points which adds another half hour to
the total length, which is good. The down side to that however is the fact that The Maw
itself is already 800 MS points and while I don't think it's a horrible price I couldn't help but feel slightly disappointed with the amount of content that got me.
Overall The Maw is a fun, quirky platformer with some basic puzzle elements that work great together. A bit longer, a bit more challenging and I would have probably given it a 4/5. As it stands it's a strong product and more importantly an entertaining experience so if you've got the 800 MS points to spare give it a whirl.
