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January 30th, 2009, 13:05 Posted By: fg-54
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Published by: Twisted Pixel
Developed by: Twisted Pixel
Players: 1
Price: 800 
ESRB:
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Overview: A great looking game that came out of nowhere to amaze us all with its dazzling graphics and fluent animations, will this be the game to raise the bar for all XBLA games to come? or is this just a pretty picture, keep reading to find out!
Gameplay: In The Maw you get to play as an alien who partners up with "The Maw" which would be like Kirby 2.0 since he not only gets the powers of the aliens he eats, but he also gets bigger as he eats more aliens. The goal of the game is to eat a certain amount of aliens so you can proceed to the next level; Sometimes you may have to puzzle solve, jump platforms, or attack both biotic and a biotic objects to get to the aliens that so willingly await their death.
It is clear that the game was built for kids, aside from its visual style there also seems to be no way to die, in a certain level, your character doesn't even react to bluets at all. Something that doesn't make seance is that in some puzzles, the game literally gives you the answer, but in others it will leave you to think for a good while with no clues on what you are suppose to do next, this could frustrate younger gamers who are not well experienced with puzzle solving and leave them to stop playing. One thing I have to point out is that this game is a glitch waiting to happen, you can't jump as you slide down so i got stuck between a hill and some trees once, the clipping is horrible and there are plenty of invisible walls, objects rarely fall on top of each other but when they do its not a pretty sight. Another issue that should be pointed out is that sometimes the maw will be programed to do something as soon as its close enough to its target, lets say for example that the maw now has the ability to breathe fire and he can burn trees and bushes, trying to get him from one place to another could take more then it should, as your beloved maw stops at every bush to scorch it, this takes away time and replaces it with frustration.
Overall aside from the second to last level the game keeps you doing different things at good enough paces to where you never really get too bored doing one specific action over and over again.
Another thing I have to complain about is that towards the last levels, the maw get so big it takes up way too much space on your screen, it seriously gets ridiculous and zooming out only makes things worse.
The Maw is the best when it comes to trowing food up in the air and catching it in his mouth.
Graphics: What can I say other then great? there are minor shadowing issues here and there but they can easily be ignored, animations are as fluent and expressive as they come and there is something about the whole look and feel of it that reminds me of the good ole N64 days. This game is defiantly one of those games that people won't mind to watch as much; Environments are often entertaining enough to catch you eyes and every now and then there will be an alien so well built that you might even find yourself starring at it.
Sound: As friendly and goofy as the game looks, sound effects are easy on the ears and will match up well with any a kid's show, but don't expect nothing too good, background songs are made of constant and repetitive loops that you won't even notice unless you listen for it.
Replay Value: Its a 2 hour game at its best and with no extra features or bonus content aside from the achievements which you can easily.......achieve if you just take some extra time to burn or break useless things so u can get that extra gamer score boost you are pretty much looking at a one time play through type of game.
Conclusion: Games this short normally have something great to it that makes it worth your cash like "Portal" but this game is nothing more then average with a price too high in my opinion, if you have money to freely spend then i say this could be a fun 2 hours for you, but if you are looking for a better value, then you might wanna look somewhere else.
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