Game | | Maximo Vs The Army Of Zin | Format | | PS2 | Publisher: | | Capcom | Release date: | | Out now |
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What do you get if you cross Mario with Ghosts and ghouls? You get Maximo Vs The Army of Zin. This game is the sequel to the original Maximo. It begins with Grim AKA the Grim Reaper asking you to collect souls which by rights belong to him but are being used to power robots in the army of Zin - what is it with Capcom and games involving death and the collection of souls?. The only way to get these souls back is to smash them to pieces using various upgradeable weapons. The fighting system is straightforward to operate based it seems on the "Devil May Cry" combat system, with Maximo being rated on the variety of his attacks. Players have a slash, overhead slash, jump and shield throw. Maximo can pull off a rapid stab by just tapping the square button in rapid succession or he can mix it up with an overhead slash to pop an enemy in the air, followed by a horizontal slash when it lands. New moves, armour upgrades and a hammer weapon can be purchased from peddlers and an old guard in each level. Money can be obtained by cutting grass and roots, by killing opponents or by finding treasure chests filled with bags of gold and diamonds. As well as hacking those crazy robots to pieces, there is also the side task of rescuing helpless villagers. You will see them fleeing for their lives with an enemy chasing or surrounding them.  | | Darkfader rates this slashingly good game. |
Max only has a short amount of time before a villager will be killed. If he/she is saved in time Max will be handed extra items like coins or keys. The villagers add a more heroic feel to the game (they're being saved by a knight in shining armour!), plus, for all of us who like to complete everything in a game you'll have to save them all to get a 100 per cent rating for the level. The enemies from the army of Zin crash down from the sky and explode as they land. There are a lot of great fire effects, smoke effects and clever animations. The army hosts a unique mass of characters. Aside from the metal monsters, we have metal dogs, spiders and ogre type monsters who fire their fists like propelled rockets. The boss designs are big and impressive. They include a giant bird that fires machine gun rounds and a Cyclops eye housed in a spider-like body. The characters all have that light hearted and cartoony design akin to the characters in a Mario or Sonic game. There are a few hiccups though. The camera can get stuck in weird positions that don't give you a good view (especially frustrating when you have to jump blindly across a ravine) and sometimes the action can slow down at points when there is too much on screen at once. Overall I found Maximo vs the Army of Zin to be a hugely entertaining and challenging game (but not so challenging that you feel yourself giving up after a couple of hours game time). I liked the character and level designs and I found the combat and item/abilities upgrade system to be spot on. A success! 8/10 Darkfader
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