Mag Max

Copyright : Imagine | Reviewed by : Ritchardo

In the last days before the great collapse, the remnants of humanity realised that their demise was inevitable. Mechanoid hordes from a distant and undiscovered galaxy had laid waste to civilisation in a series of brutal attacks, leaving only death and destruction in their wake. The invaders were unaware of the project that could prove to be their downfall, for deep in the planet?s bowels a circuit has closed and Mag Max lives! Seeking out his various components, scattered across the continents he gains strength and firepower to complete his final programme: Death to the Invaders

Licensed by coin-op firm Nichibitsu and over two years in development, Mag Max is based on a successful Japanese coin-op of the same name which never made quite the same impact in the West as it did in its homeland.

Graphics

The first thing that will strike when you begin your first game of Mag Max is just smooth everything is. The scrolling moves at a perfectly slow pace for what is a fast and furious game, and does so in a manner that is extremely smooth and sleek.

Your ship also glides up and down the screen in a very smooth manner and it?s an absolute credit to the programming team that they were able to capture these vitally important elements from the arcade.

The backgrounds on the topside of the planet are a little dull - bizarre orange and green stripes presumably to represent different uses of the land - but there are plenty of different enemies that appear on the screen and these are as well detailed as you would hope or expect from any shoot-em-up. The interior screens as you delve into the caverns are a little bit more interesting too.

Sound

An excellent stereo title tune blares from the speakers upon loading. Very Japanese and at the same time oddly futuristic in pattern, it?s a great piece of music and is well worth a listen although you have to make sure you?re paying attention as soon as the game loads however as it only plays once. Sound effects are a little disappointing though with only the obligatory zapping sounds making an appearance. Shame.

Gameplay

In essence a simple shoot-em-up but one that is both immediately difficult to get to grips with but infuriatingly addictive at the same time. You will dozens upon dozens of times before you are anywhere close to getting to grips with what is actually a very good game.

Flying over the hostile landscape and picking up body parts in a kind of ?pimp my robot? fashion, the real beauty of the game lies in the tough as old boots patterns that your enemies fly in. Like all good shoot-em-ups they don?t deviate too much from the plan (which means you can learn how to beat them) but even when you know exactly what they are going to do, it?s still no walk in the park to take them out. This is due to the high level of accuracy you will need to take them out, collision detection plays a big part in this game and not only does this benefit you in that if they miss you, you don?t die - it cuts both ways!

Shoot-em-ups are a funny thing and sometimes if this kind of game is too hard then it?s off putting and you wont want to continue, with Mag Max though, the difficulty is what gives it its edge and what appears to be a generous six lives given at the beginning of the game are nowhere near enough.

Sure the task is repetitive and the gameplay is far from the most original but the smooth scrolling along with the fast and furious shooting means that Mag Max is great fun in the short term. There?s a good chance that you wont have tried this so I would suggest you give it a go, you may be pleasantly surprised.