A group of islands in a small sea are protected by a trio of shark demons.  But when they pass on, the evil octopus demon Octavio decides to take over the seas.  So now it’s up to a young shark demon named Maki to stop him in this 2D platforming adventure game.  Maki’s Adventure is available on all current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.

Maki can run and jump in 2D fashion, as well as slide, roll dodge, and jump on walls.  Later you’ll even be able to double jump.  Once you get your sickle, you can attack with it as well.  When Maki enters the water, he’ll automatically transform into a shark and swim super fast and bite enemies.  As you play, you’ll find shark teeth that’ll let you transform into other kinds of sharks.  Like a hammerhead for breaking rocks.

The levels are set up like little Metroidvania mazes, and sometimes you can backtrack to them to find other items and secrets.  The levels are connected via a 3D overworld you can swim around in shark form.  In this way it kind of reminds me of Demon Crest on the SNES.  The overworld also has towns and ships you can visit where you can buy potions, talk with characters to gather clues, and play mini-games.  There are three difficulty modes you can choose from, so players of all skill levels can enjoy it.  Sometimes the goals and objectives were a little unclear, and I wish you could save wherever you wanted instead of just automatically.  But my only big problem with this game is that it’s way, way, too short.  I beat it in an afternoon.  But it was fun while it lasted.

Kid Factor:

Maki’s Adventure is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Mild Language.  I really didn’t notice any bad language, so it must be used sparingly in the text.  You can attack cartoony enemies with a sickle, and they just explode into pixels when defeated.  Honestly I’d be OK with gamers younger than teens playing this, but reading skill is needed for the text.

Tags: Game Reviews