[Review] Max: The Curse of Brotherhood - Nintendo Switch

Developer: Press Play and Flashbulb Games
Publisher: Stage Clear Studios
Category: Platformer, Adventure, Puzzles
Release Date: 12.21.17

If you’re not an only child, I’m sure that at some point you have wished your brother or sister away; whether they be annoying you or you guys just don’t get along, this is something we have all done. Hell, I’ve wished my brother away when he shoved a watermelon seed up my nose. I’m not ashamed to say I wanted to get rid of him at that point, that seed really hurt…and he convinced me that watermelons were going to grow out of my nose! Anyways, this is where Max The Curse of the Brotherhood brings us.

Max: The Curse of the Brotherhood

The setting is placed with Max returning home from school, only to find his little brother Felix playing with (and destroying) his toys. What an irritation! His first impulse is to open his laptop and search on Giggle (lol) “How to make your brother disappear!”. He comes across a sketchy website called Handy Sorcery and recites an incantation to get rid of his brother.

Brother, brother, o’ brother of mine
I wish you could be erased from all time
I wish your traces
could be gone from all places
That evil itself could take you away
and leave me alone on this very day

Before you know it, a portal appears in his room and a monstrous arm reaches through and nabs Felix. After a moment of hesitation, Max decides to leap through the portal as well and chase after his brother to save him. This is where our adventure begins.

When I first received this game, I thought that it was a totally new game; after some research I realized that it is the sequel to Max and the Magic Marker that was originally released for Wiiware and Nintendo DS and shortly after came out for iOS. The first part of this game definitely stayed out of the spotlight, but this sequel has been a much anticipated game for the Nintendo Switch.

Max still has his magic marker and when he jumps through the portal, he finds himself in a strange world with puzzles and platforms. Some of your usual elements of platformers are here; jungle and lava themes, vines that can devour you, and platforms you must figure out how to reach. There are, however, some pretty neat chase sequences in which you have to run away from gigantic monsters and use your magic marker to provide ways of helping you get out of the way.

Your magic marker will be vital to your success in this game. It begins with the simple ability to make and destroy your made platforms, helping you reach terrain that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to reach. Throughout the game, though, your marker will be upgraded twice.

The second upgrade will allow you to grow branches to climb, but if you cut them down you can also utilize them to cross gaps and knock over booby traps. The third upgrade allows you to make vines to swing from. I won’t tell you all of what the branches and vines can do because half the fun is figuring out how it all works! Using your marker, though, you can either use your Joy Con joystick and A to create and Y to destroy, or you can use your finger on the screen to draw and slash. This is unique in that you can play however best you enjoy it.

The puzzles can start to seem a bit repetitive and boring, but it does seem that this was anticipated. Just when you start to get a little bored a new way to play and solve puzzles comes along and reinvigorates your desire to save Felix.

The game has benefits in playing in both handheld and docked mode. In handheld, you get to utilize the touch screen while in docked mode you get to really appreciate the stellar graphics in the game. I was really impressed with the amount of detail that went not only in to the graphics but in to the animation and sound effects, too. It is obvious that this game was developed with precision and care for the ultimate gamer experience.

Overall, I would recommend this game to gamers of any age. Both kid and adult gamers will really enjoy the experience of Max The Curse of the Brotherhood. The puzzles are challenging and will often make you stop and have to think about how to solve them.