iTuesday Review: Max and the Magic Marker for iPhone and iPad
Max and the Magic Marker has quickly become one of my favorite iOS games. The premise of the game is that Max has drawn a monster that came to life and started causing all sorts of problems in Max’s drawing. You play as max whose only weapon is his magic marker. You control max via the use of on-screen controls. Throughout the level you can collect ink for the marker. There is a marker meter on the left side of the screen that lets you know how much ink you have. What makes the game really cool is during each round you’ll need to draw different things on the screen, such as bridges, surfboards and stairs, to complete the round.
Surfs up
Whatever you draw on the screen instantly becomes part of the level. Anything you draw also obeys the laws of gravity, so you wont be able to create a platform that just floats there. You also have the ability to pause the game and draw while paused. You can delete something you have drawn by tapping it, or delete everything by tapping your marker meter.
After you beat a round you are able to move on to the next round, however the round isn’t actually complete until you finish three objectives. The First is a time objective – complete the round within a given amount of time you get a star. The second is for collecting a given amount of balls in the level. Collect all the balls – get a star! The third is for collecting an (usually small) amount of hidden black balls. These black balls are sometimes hidden within the level and sometimes earned (for scoring a basket with a basketball for example). Get all the hidden black balls – get a star. Get all three stars you’ve completed the round. The trick is you have to get all three stars in one run; you can’t try three times with a different objective each time.
The rounds are relatively short – which works well for a mobile device such as an iPhone or even iPad. It’s the type of game you could play a couple rounds to kill some time or sit down and play multiple levels until your eyes get sore.
The game takes place over three different zones; sweet home, shiver me timbers and robot factory. Between the three zones you get over 90 levels of gameplay each with three different objectives. Most rounds takes several attemps to complete so it’s actually a lot of gameplay. Truth be told I haven’t actually beat the game yet. As a matter of fact as I type this all I can think is how much I would rather be playing it than writing about it.
Max and the Magic Marker is available for $.99 for the iPhone and $2.99 for the iPad version (both prices have recently been lowered). The game is addictive on both iPhone and iPad, but I definitely had more fun with it on the iPad. There is something very magical about playing it on the large touch screen. If all you have is an iPhone or an iPod touch, I still recommend purchasing it. However, if you have an iPad it is definitely worth paying a couple extra bucks to get the iPad version. You won’t regret it.
Final Rating: 8.8/10
CBR Break Down:
Console Played On: iPhone 4 and iPad (first generation)
Approximate Time to Completion: still working on it…. at least 5 hours though
Price Bought at: N/A – Review copies furnished by EA Games
Current Price: $2.99