The Maw Review - Xbox 360

6

Gameplay: 9
Graphics: 6
Audio: 8
Innovation: 7

Good quality arcade titles come along about as often as good quality full retail games, so when new arcade games that have won all sorts of indie awards are released, our expectations are pretty high. The Maw is a game about a blue alien named Frank and a purple blob-like creature named Maw. It’s up to Frank to put a leash around Maw’s collar, so to speak, and use his exponential growth to take over the galaxy.  With innovative gameplay ideas and already two lots of DLC on the marketplace, this 800MS Point arcade title may be the game you’ve been looking for.

Gameplay

As you take control of Frank at the beginning of the game, you soon learn that Maw has a taste for just about anything that moves. He eats anything small enough to fit in his mouth, and it’s up to you to feed him. With the push of the X button, an electric leash links you to Maw and you can guide him around each level. If you’re unsure where he is, pushing X will call to him and eventually Maw will show up. Every level has an exit point which can only be passed through when Maw is big enough. This means you may have to backtrack to find more things for Maw to munch on as he continues his quest for extreme obesity.

Fortunately for Maw, there are less than ten levels in the game, and each level only takes around 10-20 minutes to beat. If there was any more content in this game, you would find that Maw would become far too big to handle. At the beginning of the game, you learn to find enemies to feed Maw, and special types of enemies can cause Maw to mutate and learn a new ability. Whether it be breathing fire, charging through anything destructible, or just floating around, Frank soon learns that he needs Maw to gain various abilities at different times to pass each level.

Maw is practically invincible, but that being said, you can’t simply run in to enemies. When you get hit by an enemy or a projectile you get knocked back, but you can simply run back in and try whatever you were trying again with little to no consequence. For this reason, the game is easy and fun for all ages and doesn’t really cause any grief as you play through the levels, even as it gets harder and more complicated. As long as you have a logical mind, all the puzzles are fairly easy to solve. If you get stuck however, a question mark usually appears in an area that you are meant to pay attention to. Adding any more information to what the question marks are for would spoil the puzzles, but we will say that it’s a nice touch to a game that may otherwise be quite confusing and frustrating.

Each level unlocks a new ability for Maw, and the latter levels will have you utilising more than one of Maw’s ...