Maximo: Ghosts to Glory
27 Dec 2001
All releases
27 Dec 2001 - PlayStation 2
11 Feb 2002 - PlayStation 2
01 Mar 2002 - PlayStation 2
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The game is based in the Ghosts'n Goblins universe and features original character designs by Japanese illustrator Susumu Matsushita. The character is controlled by the player and can move freely within areas by running, jumping, crouching, and performing other various motions. Gameplay revolves around defeating large numbers of enemies, which can be accomplished by attacking with a sword and shield and combos and special moves. Maximo fights wearing armor, if he is hit, he will lose corresponding pieces of armor and eventually be reduced to wearing his boxer shorts, with another hit resulting in him losing a life. If Maximo loses all his lives, he can continue by giving Death Coins to the Grim Reaper. However, every time he loses all his lives, the required cost for a continue increases.
Maximo, a brave king, returns to his castle from the far off war to find his kingdom is falling with the sorceresses being imprisoned throughout. Worst of yet was that his once trusted advisor Achille has forced Queen Sophia to marry him. He attempts to rescue her from his clutches who has awoken the power of the underworld. However Achille proves too powerful and strikes down Maximo with one blast of his dark magic, killing him. Now floating in the underworld, Maximo is approached by Grim who reveals that Achille is drilling into the underworld to harvest souls, fueling his undead army. Feeling that he would be out of the job if there are no more dead, Grim makes a deal with Maximo to bring him back to life in exchange for stopping Achille's evil plans; sending him back to the earth in the process where his journey begins.
S_Dev
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Maximo is one of the most punishing games I have played - and let's not confuse hard with punishing - compared to it's big brother franchise, the gameplay of Maximo is challenging and very fair. There is no bullshit in it's design, it is a well designed 3D action platformer at it's best.
The punishing aspect comes from the fact that if you want to actually beat this game, you cannot make many mistakes; this is because the game actually has limited continues, in the sense where if you lose all your lives you have to start from the beginning of the game (or your last save)... The problem is that if you want to save your game, you need to pay 100 coins each save, which is not quick and easy to get. However if you take your time to learn the game, you will be able to get through with no issue.
If you just want the challenge without the worry that you'll need to replay the game again if you die enough times, I recommend using an unlimited continues cheat which actually makes the game still challenging but less punishing.
It's a shame Maximo didn't quite take off like Ghosts and Goblins did as I actually prefer it to it's big brother. It is a true underrated gem on the PS2.