Max: The Curse of Brotherhood review: runs out of ink before all is said and done

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is an Xbox One game--coming to Xbox 360 at some point in 2014--that came out of nowhere, surprising everyone thanks to little promotion until the actual day it came out--December 20th, 2013. This lack of promotion may make you believe the game is not worthy of your time; however, despite having some issues, The Curse of Brotherhood is a surprisingly solid game that, if nothing else, gives you something new to play on your Xbox One--something there's not a lot of at the moment.

The Curse of Brotherhood is kind a sequel to Max & the Magic Marker, but more so a reimagining of the original game, fledging it out and refining the experience into a game that feels more complete and not just a collection of puzzles. A big reason for this is because The Curse of Brotherhood comes with a story of brotherly love and hate that puts Max on a journey to save his brother, Felix, who, thanks to some not-so-nice wishful thinking by Max, has become a prisoner of the evil Mustacho--who gives a bad name to mustached men everywhere. The story is nothing special and does little more than give a reason for everything to happen, but it does, at least, give the game some sense of progression from the moment it starts to the moment it ends.

Another big change from Max & the Magic Marker to The Curse of Brotherhood is the way the marker mechanics work; both games are side-scrolling platformers that rely on creating objects with Max's marker in order to solve puzzles; however, while it was possible to create objects wherever you wanted to in Max & the Magic Marker, creating objects in The Curse of Brotherhood can only be done in designated spots. This limitation on creation allows for more control over how the puzzles work, but it always feels like a limitation (because it is) and took away a lot of the difficulty because I always knew what I had to do and didn't have many options as to how I went about doing it. All that said, the game is still difficult, but not for reasons anyone wants; the drawing of objects--vines, branches, water streams, etc--requires a precision not possible with a controller and I found myself, especially during the occasional chase sequences, dying over and over again because the controls were not precise enough to get the job done, not because I didn't know what to do.

Even though the controls aren't always as precise as they need to be and the puzzles don't allow for much personal creativity, The Curse of Brotherhood is a solid puzzle-platformer that is at least different and has a certain charm about it. It is clear that the game was originally an Xbox 360 game because nothing about it screams, "next-gen," but it does look good--though the enemy design is rather subpar--and I have a feeling The Curse of Brotherhood may go down as the Xbox One's Kameo. It may not be the best game out there, but it's only $15 and if you're looking for something new and different to play on your Xbox One, you could do a lot worse than Max: The Curse of Brotherhood.

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (Xbox One)