Ghosts! Goblins! And... Glory?! Maybe, maybe not, as our first game to review for October is that of the retro variety with Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, a 3D revival of Capcom's Ghosts 'n Goblins series. Does Maximo earn glory through its arrival in 3D, or does it not stand a ghost of a chance? Let's discover that answer together, braving the realms of the undead in the process, with this SPC retro review.
Maximo Challenge, Maximo Fun?
Nowadays, we've been given an embarrassment of riches when it comes to Souls-like games--those type of titles that are deemed difficult, fun, and ultimately rewarding for overcoming them. Before there was Dark Souls and such, there was Ghosts 'n Goblins, one of the originators of challenging gameplay within a macabre world.
Following the PlayStation 2's 2000 launch, in 2002, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory from Capcom Digital Studios boldly took the Ghosts 'n Goblins series and attempted to successfully do what many franchises before it had failed to do: properly make the leap into 3D. For every Mario and Zelda that stuck the landing, there's a Sonic the Hedgehog and Castlevania that stumbled. Did Capcom Digital Studios manage to make Ghosts 'n Goblins work in 3D while retaining its old-school sensibilities for franchise fans in the process?
An old-school style game gets an old-school style story, one that is simple and to the point with some "modern for the time" twists in the form of well done voice acting and intermittently sprinkled cutscenes. When King Maximo returns to his kingdom from a crusade, he finds himself usurped by his once-trusted advisor, Achilles. Left to dead to rights, the Grim Reaper arrives and agrees to assist Maximo in reclaiming his kingdom, rescuing his abducted queen, and getting revenge of Achilles, who has summoned the dead to terrorize the land in his thirst for power. Thus, starting off in the Boneyard, a living dead-infested graveyard, players take control of Maximo as he marches, slashes, slices, and otherwise moves through levels to reach his old castle, now taken over by a new host.
Right away, I found my immersed in the world of Maximo: Ghosts to Glory. It's a lovely combo of deformed characters and enemies and foreboding and frightful environments. From the first level, Grave Danger, I immediately appreciated the feint flashes of lightning, the slightly slanted behind-the-back camera, as it followed Maximo's every step, and the appropriate and spectacularly spooky graveyard atmosphere. While some later areas of the game proved to be a bit too dark to my liking, requiring me to turn up my brightness, all in all, Maximo nails taking the 2D styling of Ghosts 'n Goblins and transitioning it into full 3D. The music, too, brings with it plenty of catchy tracks, though all of the memorable music within the game are just riffs off of the GnG main theme.
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| No gate will stop Maximo from on his quest to rescue his queen or kingdom! ...Unless, of course, he lacks the proper key. |
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory takes place in five realms: the already accounted for Boneyard, the muddy and murky swamps of the Great Dank, the undead pirates and plunderers featured within the frozen waters of the Graveyard of Ships, the underworld-inspired Realm of Spirit, and finally to the steps and innards of Castle Maximo itself.
Each realm begins Maximo in an introductory level, essentially having players take the path towards the main hub of each given realm. Upon clearing this introductory stage, the hub is open to explore. This connects the other levels, as well as serves as a place to save your game. More on that latter aspect in a little bit. Once all of the levels in a given hub have been beaten, the path to the boss presents itself. Of course, as levels are completed, the hub becomes more and more dangerous, bringing Maximo (and players) more enemies to contend with.
Maximo, like Ghosts 'n Goblins before it is true to its predecessor's level of challenge. This is a darn difficult game, where wildly waving around your sword in hopes of defeating enemies easily is essentially a lost cause and will get you nowhere fast in later levels. Maximo is all about placing yourself in an opportune spot to take on foes. Sure, not getting surrounded and flogged to death is important to keep in mind, but that's only part of the equation here.
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| While foolishly charging at Maximo, it looks like this skeleton just got a-head of itself. |
Yes, where Maximo is situated in combat matters immensely, as he can end up striking walls or funnily enough (though maybe not in the heat of battle) find himself swinging his sword into a wooden door or wall, prompting him to have to use his strength to pull the blade out, all the while being left defenseless in the process. This is where attacking with vertical slashes comes in handy, especially in tight corridors or when surrounded by objects which Maximo's blade won't take too much of a liking to hitting.
To expand on this, some enemies will basically laugh off simple swings from Maximo's sword, as many possess shields where his blade will bounce off, allowing the enemy to attack while Maximo recoils back. Fortunately, there are numerous types of offense to employ with Maximo's blade--whether that be normal swings, crouched swipes, overhead strikes from above, downward stabs, 360 degree spins, and so forth. Essentially, it's up to player to quickly analyze the situation in battle, use the correct type or types of swings for the right combat context, and make sure he doesn't wind up in his boxers or worse, meet his untimely end.
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| The Great Dank is home to swamp that our hero must trudge through-- all the while avoiding chomping alligators lurking within! |
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory uses a health system similar to Ghosts 'n Goblins. The latter had it where every time hero Arthur took damage, he'd lose his armor and wind up in his skivvies. If he took damage again in his bare essentials, he'd perish and the player would lose a life. Fortunately, there's some added wiggle room for Maximo in Ghosts to Glory, offering different health bars for each form that our hero takes.
At the very beginning of the game, Maximo has basic armor equipped, giving him two health bars. If he stumbles upon another armor power-up, not only will he gain an additional health bar but also find himself wearing more protection in the form of a helmet. The armor upgrades cap out at three, and each time Maximo grabs more armor than he can muster, he can temporarily turn invincible, annihilating enemies with ease. Of course, losing a health bar means losing armor and Maximo's maximum amount of health available. He, too, can find himself stuck in his skivvies, dead within one more hit.
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| You've heard of dreams where you're caught at school in just your underwear, but for Maximo it's during an even less opportune time! |
Maximo is a very unforgiving game, compared to a lot of its contemporaries at the time. Dying in the game obviously means a lost life from his cache of stocked lives, but players also suffer the burn of losing a number of abilities and power-ups upon death that were collected. These include abilities like Maximo powering his sword with flames or ice, equipping a shield, being able to toss that shield at faraway foes like an undead-fighting Captain America, among other helpful goodies that are gone when you die even once. Therefore, you must hope to stumble upon these power-ups again.
Further, if Maximo runs out of all of his lives, he must make a deal with the Grim Reaper, paying the ghastly figure a special collectible known as a Death Coin to continue. Each time Maximo's stock of lives is depleted, the Death Coin cost goes up. Run out of these magical, live-saving coins, and it's game over for good. I unfortunately found this out the hard way pretty late into the game. Oof. Also, writer's note here: "Oof" was admittedly not necessarily the word I used when that happened, but for professionalism and family friendliness' sake, we'll pretend it was!
I mentioned a bit earlier about the save system, but only in passing and not in any detail. Well, the unforgiving nature of Maximo: Ghosts to Glory persists within saving. Around each of the game's five hubs are fountains where regular gold coins, the currency collected throughout the game, are used to do everything from traveling between completed realms to saving your game.
It costs a whopping 100 coins to save, and coins in general have other uses too: whether that be buying armor, potions, keys, or extra lives from specific pedestals in the levels themselves. Thus, you can find yourself penny pinching--or rather, coin-pinching (?) to save up enough coins to simply, well, save! Now, you do get the option to save for free after beating bosses, as a gift bestowed upon Maximo from that realm's rescued princess. Still, it seems akin to giving a player dying of thirst in the desert a drop of water rather than a full glass. Better than nothing, but I'd rather not be charged for a full glass if I'm practically begging for it--or in this case, the ability to save when I'd like.
Needless to say, this particular aspect of Ghosts to Glory might be a sticking point for many players, especially since nowadays we're so accustomed to auto-saving, options to save after every level, and just convenience in general. However, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory certainly makes no effort to shred its calls back to an older-school age of gaming, which I'm certain there are plenty of other players who will enjoy. Everyone else might be find it too brutal of a save system, especially having to repeat progress from lost lives and potential game overs when you can't cough off enough Death Coins to satisfy the Grim Reaper.
There are approximately 30 levels within Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, though the game counts the five hubs and multiple bosses as separately levels, so it's not as daunting of a game as it might seem from the total alone. Rest assured, the game's difficulty makes it daunting enough as a game. Either way, levels are generally linear affairs, complete with occasionally sections and areas to go off the beaten path. Really, I found it usually a bad thing to do this, as that meant I'd encounter more enemies or traps to contend with. If poor Maximo loses half his health just to go through a path leading to a health-restoring potion, it's pretty much a bust of a detour!
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| Maximo brings the heat to these boneheads, courtesy of his blazing blade! |
That said, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory does accumulate a percentage for each level and on top of the game itself with two stats called Level Mastery and Game Mastery. Level Mastery factors in defeated foes, collected treasure, and discovered secrets. Unfortunately, if Maximo happens to defeat a foe by it falling off the level, say, into a pit, that does not count towards the percentage. Thus, I can imagine the super patient perfectionists who might want to master each level and the game itself to 100% will find themselves frustrated a good deal in trying to do so. This was something I did not have the desire not the patience to achieve, much less even bother to attempt--for understandable reasons!
Really, simply reaching the end of Maximo: Ghosts to Glory is a level of mastery all to itself. Between the arduous battles with enemies that can overwhelm at times with ease and the platforming that offers a higher degree of difficulty as well, the game is no cakewalk. In fact, it's actively hindered by an aspect of the game that I've yet to touch on, and goodness, is it a doozy. I'm referring to the camera.
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory does not use the DualShock controller's right analog stick for camera movement. Instead, camera control is limited to a press of the front shoulder button, and even then, the camera is slow to rotate around to where Maximo is facing. When you're overwhelmed by enemies in combat or attempting to gauge a jump to a platform over a bottomless pit, a gnarly camera makes a nasty game challenge-wise, all the nastier! Sometimes deaths just aren't fair in Maximo, and it's generally because the camera just does not cooperate. In this aspect, Maximo: Ghosts to Glory is old-school in a negative way that brings about difficulty in a form that is just un-fun at times.
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| This pirate ship spins along this whirlpool, requiring Maximo to properly time leaping on to it. |
Fortunately, those un-fun times are practically few and far in-between the moments where the challenge is what I perceived as fair. If I swung Maximo's sword into a chunk of wood because I was too impatient, sure, I'd be annoyed at the time it takes for him to yank out his sword as he gets battered by baddies, but I'd know it'd be my fault in the end. A lot of the time, deaths were indeed my own doing, from poor playing, dumb risks, or other foul-ups. But when Maximo's camera does cost a life, and when the penalty for death is so punishing, the frustration factor can be heightened severely. Thus, while Maximo: Ghosts to Glory offers old-school charm, challenge, and fun, it can also offer old-school aggravation as well.
While some gaming franchises absolutely stuck the landing into moving from 2D to 3D (Mario, Zelda, and heck, let's say Ninja Gaiden for a closer point of comparison), Maximo: Ghosts to Glory doesn't quite do that with the Ghosts 'n Goblins series. Don't misinterpret me: it's still a success, transitioning its tone, gameplay, presentation, and old-school difficulty to 3D to great effect, but the disappointing camera makes the level of challenge not always an enjoyable one. The save system is less a point of contention, but its execution will still understandably put off a significant portion of potential players. It's not a masterful jump from 2D to 3D, but Maximo: Ghosts to Glory is a conversion that was worth waking up the dead for.
[SPC Says: B-]
