Game:

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood (2013)

Duration: 1:24

217 views

4

When Max wishes for his annoying little brother, Felix, to be whisked away by unknown evil forces, he gets more than he bargained for. Armed only with a marker and a hope of undoing what he has just done, he sets out on a perilous journey across deserts, eerie lantern-lit bogs, ancient temples and lush green forests to get his younger sibling back. Along the way Max gains and develops the power to manipulate the environment and overcome seemingly impossible obstacles.

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood mixes traditional Scandinavian storytelling with an inventive and colorful 2.5D platformer, combining classic jump and run gameplay with smart and innovative puzzles. By using the forces of nature, Max can create impressive pillars of earth, powerful streams of water and other elements with his magic marker Max. He must use them to travel through the elaborate cave systems, forests and gloomy castles of Anotherland to save his brother.

"Max is very much a labor of love for us," explains the game's Director Mikkel Thorsted. "We're highly influenced by the stories and movies from late seventies and early eighties like The Brothers Lionheart by Astrid Lindgren and The Goonies and Indiana Jones by Steven Spielberg and George Lucas," he notes. "At the same time it's about family. About wishing your brother or sister would just go away, only to miss them terribly when they do and ultimately be willing to go through fire and water in order to get them back."

The game is built on foundations of Max & the Magic Marker but is more of a reboot than a traditional sequel. Max is still the star but this game is not aimed only at children. The target audience is broader and the core mechanic -- the marker - has been refined greatly. "Very early on in the development process we realized, we had to rethink the marker mechanics in order to be able to create more focused and interesting puzzles," says Lead Game Designer Mikkel Martin Pedersen. "The old marker was more marker than magic. This time it is the other way around."

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood will be showcased for the first time on this year's PAX East 2013 show in Boston. Here players and press alike will get a taste of the great adventure and a chance to sample what will undoubtedly be one of this year's most exciting Xbox LIVE Arcade games. The game is scheduled for release this spring on XBLA.