| Game | Maximo Vs The Army of Zin |
| Release | January 20th, 2004 |
| Genre | 3D Platformer |
| Publisher | Capcom |
| Devloper | Capcom |
| Time Played | 11:44:38 |
| Buy It On | Ebay | Amazon |
Number 0006 on the PS2POCALYPSE, Maximo vs the Army of Zin, was an extraordinarily well-done breath of fresh air in comparison to its predecessor Maximo: Ghosts to Glory. You know why? It felt nothing like Ghosts and Goblins. It felt like an actual game not trying to show off how fancy its graphics are. This game forewent with its showy presentation and delivered a, dare I say, GOOD FUCKING GAME.
Maximo vs The Army of Zin: A Retro Adventure of Sword and Sorcery – The Negative Press -This is the link to what the AI thinks about this game, now we can jump into what I think about this game.
There aren’t any codes in this game, just things you unlock by mastering stages.
This game plays like an actual game. It starts of fairly easy and progressively gets challenging as fuck. The last stage is a monster of a stage and the final boss is a true challenge. I did get mad during the final stage and say that I hated the game, then I had to remind myself that I was on the final boss and this is a damn Capcom game after all. There are no wonky camera issues in this, no unfair platforming misaligned jumping against the camera, no unfair enemy encounters, your shield doesn’t have an unnecessary health meter. This is just a god damn good 3D Platformer that is fair and balanced. You actually get to control the camera as well. I do not understand why people lose their shit about how good Maximo: Ghosts to Glory is when this is the game with all the bells and whistles. You also get to go Grim Reaping as your ol’ buddy death as he is playable kind of, we’ll get into that.
Maximo vs The Army of Zin Story
The game starts with Maximo dying and death bringing him back to life. They are still friends after the events of the previous shitfuck of a game and they are still trying to find Maximo’s queen as she is still missing in action after the events of the last game unfolded. Remember, the queen they were looking for was actually a dragon demon thing or whatever the fuck it was.
This time Maximo is hunting down a new evil. The army of Zin. Maximo needs help from his old friends and is trying to rally the troops to go to war. Maximo is actually kind of cool in this and funny as compared to the last game where he was just the playable protagonist that seems doofy and useless. There is a funny scene where Maximo mistakenly starts beating the shit out of the wrong guy. That part is pretty funny. When Maximo finally reaches the main bad guy at the end he finds out it is just the spirit of the stupid wizard guy from the last game. They still do not find Maximo’s queen and they set this game up for a sequel. When playing the last game I didn’t want to play a sequel, and we got one and it was awesome… this game makes me want to play a sequel and we never got it.
Maximo vs The Army of Zin Story 8/10
Maximo vs The Army of Zin Gameplay
Unlike the last game, this game does not have a stupid hub world set up. This game plays on a stage-to-stage basis that is depicted with a large map. We go from one end of the map to the other end beating each stage with a boss fight to end the section. It flows so much better this way than a stupid hub world. My issue with the hub world in the previous game was that they packed it with fucking enemies. There was no room to breathe ever.
What else did they do correctly in this game? The boss fights are fucking boss fights, not stupid gimmick shit. You actually fight the bad guys! There are some quite inventive bosses and enemies in this game as well. A lot of this world reminds me of the Dragon Ball episodes where Goku is fighting the red ribbon army.
Hmm, what else is good? Oh yeah. WE GET MULTIPLE FUCKIN’ WEAPONS WE GET TO UPGRADE AND SHIT. Any time you get a giant fucking war hammer in a game, I am sold! The weapons are smooth and fun to play with as well, they also operate as advancement into the story as they are needed to do certain actions.
What else is cool? OH YEAH! You don’t gotta pay to save. You get to save after every single stage in this game! Dude this is seriously a totally different game, its so much better as I have mentioned before because it was an advancement of Maximo, NOT A SPIRTUAL SUCCESSOR TO THE BIGGEST JANK ASS SERIES OF ALL TIME, GHOSTS AND GOBLINS or Ghouls or whatever the fuck you call it.
Capcom put a lot of effort into making this a playable game, they toned down the insane graphics and modernized the gameplay… to an extent. There are some stages that are still super difficult, but they come near the end, where they belong, NOT KILLING YOUR FINGERS FROM THE START. There is still some insane platforming sections but they are fun and not a nail biting pixel bending bullshitathon.
The other thing is there are parts where the shield is needed so you actually get to use it the entire time. You also get a shopkeeper guy that you can buy new shit from, not those stupid outrageously priced orbs in the previous game.
This is a good game that I actually recommend playing! After playing hours of Ghosts to Glory, my only complaint is that this game is way too short. But, you get a death meter, no… not a meter that counts how many times. You get to turn into death and start ripping fools up as the Grim Reaper, it is very, very satisfying.
Maximo vs The Army of Zin Gameplay 9/10
Maximo vs The Army of Zin Difficulty
This game is a fairly balanced, excellently scaled piece of art. Now there are some parts that make you scratch your head and go the fuck am I supposed to do now, but its easy to figure out with some trial and error. You also get new continues and lives fairly easy in this in contrast to the previous game. Checkpoints are very fair in this as well and you don’t have to stab them to activate them.
I will say what makes this game not get a perfect score in the difficulty section is, bruh, the scaling at the end is pretty rough. The final boss and final stages get super tough outta nowhere. But hey, its Capcom, its to be expected. But still some of the end game platforming produces some THEY WANT ME TO DO WHAT? moments.
Maximo vs The Army of Zin Difficulty 9/10
Maximo vs The Army of Zin Graphics
So, the previous game in this entry had some of the most top notch graphics I have ever seen for the early 2000’s rivaling the likes of Ace Combat 4 and Metal Gear Solid 2. This game does not have that same appeal. There are some noticeable texture muddying that was done to make the game run smoother, I ain’t complaining but I am saying it’s noticeable when playing the games back to back.
Maximo vs The Army of Zin Graphics 7/10
Maximo vs The Army of Zin Controls
When playing Ghosts to Glory and doing some of the platforming (now thinking about this I don’t know the hell I gave that game an 8 here) where you feel like you are surely going to land correctly on a platform and you just miss it out right or fall short. This game, there is actually a built-in grabbing mechanism that grabs on to shit you would never think he would ever grab onto. This game is smoooooooth in the controls. and there are times where you look at a platform and go there is no fucking way I am going to make that and you nail it doing exactly how you think it should control. This game got some sweet controls. You also can fully control that damn camera.
Maximo vs The Army of Zin Controls 10/10
Maximo vs The Army of Zin Sound
I gotta say the sound here is kinda weak. There is no really memorable OST moments and the voice acting is just kinda there. Death is still super funny though. But overall it feels like the sound is just there. But it does give some ambiance.
Maximo vs The Army of Zin Sound 7/10
The AI gave this game a 80%, I give it
Maximo: Ghosts to Glory Overall Rating
%
Rating
About the Author: Re_LodeR was born in the 90s and lives in Michigan. Hobbies including complaining about video games and life, Listening to a lot of niche music and enjoying classic flims like Die Hard. This guy is a huge Simpsons fan and likes to watch wrestling.
He can be found on Twitch, contacted on Discord, and you can email him at ReLodeR@thenegativepress.com