Max: The Curse of Brotherhood

With gorgeous visuals, inventive puzzles, and a fresh creative take on the platformer genre, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a welcome addition to the Xbox arsenal.

Perfectly priced, and long enough to leave you satisfied but with room for dessert, this is a fantastic family-friendly puzzler that deserves a place on every Xbox One.

A highly satisfying platform game, with great graphics and an excellent level design. Max's magic marker control scheme sometimes gets in the way making some sections a little bit frustrating, but it's overall a brilliant game, surely worth your time if you love platform-puzzle games.

Joyous puzzle-platformer with zero filler. [March 2014, p.82]

The adventure doesn't have great replay value, but the first time through it's long enough, and the price of admission is absolutely worth it.

With its charming art style, accessible gameplay, and just-on-the-right-side-of-frustrating puzzles, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is the perfect game for younger players hoping to try out the Xbox One.

In the end, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a fine game for puzzle platforming fans.

A thoroughly entertaining adventure filled with clever and fun puzzles. There’s not a lot of similarities to its predecessor, but since pretty much every change is an improvement, we won’t complain.

Even those brought up with more hardcore 2D platformers of the 8-bit and 16-bit era will find their skills tested. [Issue#144, p.106]

It is a clever game, with a simple idea at it’s core, that consistently brings enough clever ideas to the table as it goes to remain captivating throughout.

PressPlay delivers a smart platform with intriguing puzzles and a stunning look. It is too short, maybe, but really solid.

Max: Curse Of Brotherhood is challenging, fun and ultimately enjoyable as it blends precision physics-based puzzles with beautiful visuals.

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a nice, entertaining and clever platform puzzler. The developers at Press Play have done a great job creating a fun experience with a bunch of cool mechanics and solid game and level designs. If you're looking for something both classic and different to play with on your Xbox One, this is the perfect game for you.

The “a-ha” moments when you successfully combine your various marker powers to navigate a pitch-black cave, escape the clutches of a pursuing beast, or access a seemingly out-of-reach ledge made us feel like Mensa members.

Max: The Curse of Brotherhood oozes personality in both its design and gameplay. Sure, the idea of drawing your way out of puzzles is no longer a completely original one, but Max has puzzles that are so cleverly designed and fun to play through, that you forget this fact and focus on the fun you have solving each conundrum.

For a forgiving and approachable puzzle-platformer, Max lands on his feet and brings us a fantastic gaming experience. Even at a price of $15 it is easy to recommend. Great for all ages, the plot is light and the puzzles are fun from an otherwise innocuous re-imagining of a touchscreen game.

I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised with Max: The Curse of Brotherhood. It’s a game full of wonder and magical moments, that while light on actual narrative, still delivers a world that is hard to forget.

Somewhere between a homage to some classic platform games from the 80s-90s and an original take on the formula intertwined with puzzle elements, Max: The Curse of Brotherhood is a short but entertaining experience.

A vastly improved new installment of the 2010 game Max and the Magic Marker. Good platform and puzzle solving action with a neat atmosphere.

Max: TCoB comes as a surprise, and manages to become a solid experience, an outstanding game in the overpopulated genre of platforming and puzzles.

It’s not as fascinating as the touch (or gesture) based predecessor, but it is an interesting mixture of platforming and physics based puzzles nonetheless.

In a raw battle between pros and cons, the pros for Max: The Curse of Brotherhood win the day, but the cons deliver ample opportunity for frustration. At the end of the day, this is a good addition to your digital collection.

This is not a smooth platformer like Mario, but it is one where you really have to puzzle your way through. The cut scenes are a bit annoying, the story as well, but the gameplay is really loveable. It is fun to create different natural things with your magic marker and even though not everybody is a fan of the controls, we found them an creative and challenging in a positive way.

If you have an Xbox One and are looking for a novel title to tie you over, I definitely recommend giving Max a shot.