Table of Contents
Page 1 - Intro / Ghosts 'n Goblins
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory / Maximo - Playstation 2 (2002)
Maximo is a heroic king of on heroic adventures. When he returns to his throne, he finds that his right-hand man Achilles has usurped his kingdom and kidnapped his love, Sophia. Maximo attempts to fight his former friend, but ends up getting slaughtered. On his descent to the land of the dead, he's met by the Grim Reaper (playfully referred to as Grim.) Grim is none to happy with Achilles, since he's been funneling the souls of the dead for his own purpose, keeping them from underworld. Maximo is resurrected to help Grim, take revenge on Achilles, and find the kidnapped queen.
Maximo feels a lot like other PS2 platformers like Jak and Daxter, and Ratchet and Clank, although with a greater focus on melee combat. The framerate is smooth 60 FPS almost all the time, and the graphics are pretty damn impressive considering that this is a nearly PS2 title. The levels show a detailed level of quirky spookiness, and the characters - designed by artist Susumu Matsushita, famous for his artwork on the cover of Japanese video game magazine Famitsu - are loaded with cartoonish expression. The music involves of different arrangements of the old Ghosts'n Goblins theme, which would be clever if the motifs didn't repeat over and over throughout the entire game. There are several different types of worlds - a standard graveyard level (which features earthquakes that causes the land to break up, similar to Super Ghouls'n Ghosts), a jungle world, a snow world, a fiery hell world, and a castle stage. Each world has a hub stage, where you can run around, kill more bad guys, or enter any of the main stages. At the end of each stage is a maiden, that can either grant you a power-up or give you a kiss, which will unlock a gallery if you get smooched by all of the girls.
Although the game controls pretty well, there are a number of extremely obnoxious issues that really bring Maximo down. There's no real camera controls, which can hinder some of the platforming segments. Additionally, the enemies are insanely aggressive - they move and attack much quicker than your hero, and can easily beat you to a pulp if you're not careful. Furthermore, many of the bad guys have shields and block your attacks. Whenever your sword hits something, you're left momentarily vulnerable, which is usually when enemies will strike back. You have a small number of attacks - a standard sword attack, a strong overhead strike, a Zelda-like spinning slice, and a jumping downward stab - yet trying to use these effectively against even the simplest foe is more difficult than it should be. You can block with your shield, and even throw it as a projectile weapon, but it'll break if you use it too much. There are a number of additional moves and power-ups you can buy, but strangely, you can only equip a few at a time. You can take more hits than in the old Ghosts'n Goblins games, at least - you take a few hits before your armor is destroyed, and usually a few more when you're just running around in boxers. But it's surprisingly how quickly you'll go down, especially considering how long the levels can be. There are a number of checkpoints, but if you run out of lives, you either need to continue or reload your saved game.
Which brings up another one of Maximo's biggest flaws - the save and continue system. In order to save your game (or transport between levels), you need to pay 100 coins. In other words, if you want to save after every level, you're left with a paltry amount of leftover cash, which means it's annoyingly difficult to purchase power-ups. Furthermore, your continues are limited. At the beginning, you get a few death coins, which act as continues. You can earn more by destroying tombstones throughout each stage. But after each continue, the amount of death coins required increases. If you keeping continuing, you'll get to the point where it's simply too expensive. This ridiculously limited system encourages you to conserve your every life, because they're incredibly valuable. If you die too many times in a stage (and you will), it's usually to your advantage to reload your previous save and try get a perfect run. It's great for people who want to perfect their stage runs - it's incredibly annoying for everyone else.
The core mechanics of Maximo are very well done, but the annoying enemies and frustrating save/continue system really bring it down. If you have the patience for it - and the designers were clearly trying to emulate the frustration of the older games - it can be fun, but the sequel is better in pretty much every possible manner.
MP3s Download here
The Graveyard Part 1
Maximo
Maximo
Maximo
Maximo
Maximo
Maximo
Maximo
Maximo vs. The Army of Zin / Makai Eiyuuki Maximo: Mashin Monster no Yabou - Playstation 2 (2003)
On the surface, not much has changed in the sequel, but there are tons and tons of improvements from the original game. The combat now is much smoother, with less aggravating enemies to deal with. There are now more sword moves, where you can juggle your bad guys, in addition to a combo counter tallying up your hits. You still need to buy different power-ups, but once you obtain them, they're always equipped. You can also find a hammer and use it as a weapon, being a bit slower than your sword but much more powerful. There are now a number of boxers you can purchase and equip to give you extra status bonuses. The shield meter is gone, so you can block all you want, but there's still a super meter which determines how often you can throw it. In each stage, if you can rescue civilians, they'll give you bonus items or tell you where treasure is hidden. You can also temporarily transform into Grim, which basically gives you invulnerability until the power wears off.
The hub style stages of the original Maximo have been ditched in favor of a more straightforward overhead map in between levels. The "pay to save" system is gone entirely. It can still be somewhat unforgiving - technically you can't continue at all, but need to reload your saved game. In turn, your saved game keeps track of both your lives and your health, so you still may need to spend your money on extra lives and health restoration. The game's about as long as the original, taking you through burning villages, forests, castles, and other interesting terrain.
Maximo vs. The Army of Zin takes all of the potential of the first game and balances out it so it's much more fun, while still maintaining its challenge. Unfortunately, it seems that the success of the first game may have had more to do with the timing than the actual quality of the game. Army of Zin came out amidst other more popular action games like Ninja Gaiden and Capcom's own Devil May Cry, and as a result, the game flopped, and the planned Maximo 3 was canned. Studio 8 then went out to make Final Fight Streetwise, which also flopped, resulting in the team being shut down.
Maximo vs. The Army of Zin
Maximo vs. The Army of Zin
Maximo vs. The Army of Zin
Maximo vs. The Army of Zin
Page 2 - Ghouls 'n Ghosts / Super Ghouls 'n Ghosts
Page 3 - Makaimura for Wonderswan / Ultimate Ghosts 'n Goblins
Page 4 - Gargoyle's Quest / Gargoyle's Quest II / Demon's Crest
Page 5 - Maximo / Maximo vs The Army of Zin
Page 6 - Nazo Makaimura / Cameos
American Cover
Japanese Cover
Maximo
After the Gargoyle's Quest side series, Capcom let the Ghosts'n Goblins franchise lay pretty much dormant until 2001, with the release of Maximo: Ghosts to Glory. Maximo was originally meant to be a Nintendo 64 game, but due to the death of the system, it was moved to the Playstation 2, and was one of the first semi-decent action-platformers for the system. Despite some elements from Capcom's Japanese team (mostly the character designs), most of the game was created by Studio 8, Capcom's American development team, who previously created the bomb Final Fight Revenge. Rather than simply taking Ghosts'n Goblins and turning it 3D, Maximo is essentially a whole new franchise that draws a lot from the ambience, style, and mechanics of Capcom's classic series. It's also, as one can imagine, brutally difficult.
American Cover
Japanese Cover
Maximo vs. The Army of Zin
The original Maximo sold well enough for a sequel, released two years later under the title Maximo vs The Army of Zin (or "Record of the Demon World Hero Maximo - Ambition of the Machine Monsters".) The titular Army of Zin is a group of mechanical monsters that run on human souls, thought to have been sealed away 500 years in the past. Maximo is still looking for Sophia, and Grim still wants those souls, so it's back to adventure.
