With indie games comes a certain amount of charm. I can’t put my finger on it exactly, but, needless to say, I think everybody can agree that every indie developer out there who successfully creates his/her own game has put a bit of themselves into their game. Perhaps this is where that certain charm comes from. While not every indie game is beautiful, good looking, or a graphical beast I’d argue that there’s really no such thing as an ugly indie game.

That said, of course, Max and the Magic Marker goes above and beyond what people typically expect from an indie game, showcasing an art form that’s more similar to 2D Boy’s World of Goo than, say, Cave Story or Knytt.

Max and the Magic Marker was, finally, released to US Wii’s yesterday and, with it, comes one of the more interesting titles on the service. The game was developed by the fine gentlemen over at Press Play, a small developer based in Denmark, and follows around a young boy who comes across a marker that brings to life whatever is drawn. After creating a purple monster that begins wreaking havoc, Max creates a drawing of himself to stop the beast.

Yada, yada, yada… blah, blah, blah… let’s just get on with the review.

Gameplay

Right off the bat, it’s instantly recognizable that Max and the Magic Marker is not your traditional game. Max and the Magic Marker is unique. While the game is primarily a platformer, the game employs a unique drawing like apparatus that allows you to create bridges, stairs, levers, weights, and damn near anything else you can think of. Needless to say it’s a pretty remarkable feature and one that absolutely makes Max and the Magic Marker what it is.

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and lollipops when it comes to the marker aspect of the game. While the gameplay is good, fresh, and unsurprisingly fun, there are a few hang ups that can be rather frustrating.

First, have you ever drawn anything in Paint on a PC? Pretty difficult, right? Magnify that by ten and you’ll understand what drawing on the Wii is like. It is not precise, it is not accurate, and it most certainly is not like actual drawing. The Wii’s motion sensing feels more crude in Max and the Magic Marker than in any other game I’ve ever played on the Wii — through no real fault of Press Play.

Additionally, your drawing can inexplicably become “stuck” if you venture anywhere near the edges of the screen, Max, or any hard bound object while drawing. This is a little hard to explain in writing, but basically imagine drawing near a platform and, when your line becomes to close to said platform, the line will cease to continue, despite the marker continuing on.

But it’s not all bad news. Despite my complaints, the game’s puzzles are actually very intuitive and unique making even using the marker, frustrating as it may be sometimes, is fun for the majority of the game. Creating levers, seesaws, stairs, and bridges has never been so much fun.

While the game only boasts a mere three worlds — something I was able to beat within 4-5 hours – the puzzles can get extremely challenging, in a good way. For those who are worried that this game may be too easy, or childish, you can rest assured that, beyond the first world, the puzzles can actually get quite hard.

Finally, while the primary game is, unfortunately, fairly short the game does host a series of secrets. While I was unable to unlock every secret, I can tell you that the two secrets I did unlock instantly add more game time. The first one I unlocked was a blank sheet of paper with an unlimited amount of ink for my marker. In here you can draw and do anything you want with your marker without fear of running out. The second secret unlocked that same “unlimited” marker ability for the main story mode — a sort of “cheat” mode. Both provided quite a bit more gameplay.

Style

Max and the Magic Marker is, at present, my favorite WiiWare game in terms of style. Yes the service has World of Goo and a few other delicious looking titles, but Max and the Magic Marker holds such child-like charm that even the adorable Goo-blobs in World of Goo have a hard time stacking up next to it.

Likewise, each world’s music is incredibly catchy. Even now, as I write this, I have the game’s Pirate world tune stuck in my head.

Bottom line, everything about Max and the Magic Marker oozes with charm.

Story

Ehh… the story is kind of weak. It basically starts out as Max receiving an unknown letter containing a special marker that allows whatever he draws to come to life. From there he accidentally creates his nemesis (a purple monster) and proceeds to “go after” him with his own drawn self. In all honesty, it feels like a standard children’s television cartoon story. Nothing special…

Max and the Magic Marker is a great addition to Nintendo’s WiiWare platform. While some parts of the drawing can be absolutely infuriating, the overall mechanics of the game are very refreshing from the standard platformer. Despite being primarily developed for the Wii, however, I get the feeling that the PC version may be the better bet, if for nothing else than the simple fact that the mouse is more accurate that the WiiMote.

[Buy via WiiWare/PressPlay. 1000 Nintendo Points, or $20.00]