Max and the Magic Marker (Hands-On) (Wii) Preview

It might be becoming clear to you by now through reading these previews that WiiWare and DSiWare developers know what they're doing. Press Play, the guys behind these Magic Marker antics, are no exception. The nunchuk controls your movement in this platformer, the remote your pen. As you move across the land you'll notice sections you can't get past - a giant chasm, for example. That's no problem, though - just draw a big orange line across it, making sure that it balances on both sides of the pit, and you've made yourself a handy bridge.

All puzzles play out in a similar way from what I saw and played: find obstacle, draw something to combat it, progress. The pen is excellently implemented, though, and is by no means something that will allow you to instantly win. Your drawings have to be precise to fit the criteria, such as early on when you can hit a test-your-strength machine with a weight; if you don't concentrate your drawing into a ball or drop it from a great enough height, then it won't work. You also have a limited supply of ink, with extra balls of the pen filler collectable around the levels, or you can erase previous drawings to gain the dye back.

There's a definite level of experimentation to the game; rather than hurdling an enemy, you could draw a line atop it and then run straight over it like a ramp. The cartoon style looks fantastic, and if you press A and B together the action will freeze, the visuals change to how Max's drawing 'actually looks' - all wax crayons and scribble. In this mode you can still draw lines, so if things start to feel too hectic you can just pause the action and work out your solution from there.

There were a few moments where the jumping felt a tiny bit off, but overall Max and the Magic Marker is shaping up very well. The concept is solid and will hopefully lead to some excellent puzzle platforming later; the version we played only had a few levels, of which I played two.