Yes, it’s the first Arcade title for a few weeks that actually has moving parts. Grab your controllers, point to the Marketplace, and get yourself a cracking little game. This is The Maw.
The Maw is a very cute platformer title in which you play a distinctly feminine character called Frank. Captured by some nasty alien types, you’re thrown into a cage with little hope of escape until… the ship crashes, leaving you on the surface of a planet with only a purple blob for company.
The blob is, of course, the Maw of the title. A blob that will eat practially any moving creature it comes across from tiny Yums to the huge beetles of the last (platform) level. As Frank, you guide the Maw around the level, eating everything in sight so that you can grow large enough to make it through to the next level. Along the way you’ll acquire different Maw abilities such as fire breathing, the ability to float like a giant balloon and even the power to electrocute anything that crosses your path.
The Maw is ridiculously simple to play. It’s easy to pick up, and while you don’t have to eat everything on each level, you’ll want to because it’s rather addictive. You have seven levels of platforming action, and then the game finishes with a final top down shooter level where you, basically, hijack an alien ship and drop bombs on laser tethers. You may read that and think, hmm, 7 levels isn’t a lot. It isn’t, I’ll tell you that for nothing. It took me around 3 hours to play the game from start to finish – and that was allowing for me to eat everything on each level, including the secret Snuffles – so if you’re looking for something with a lot of longevity or replay value this probably isn’t the title for you. If you’ve looking for something that’s great while it lasts, then this is the one.
Graphically, the Maw is extremely colourful and very cute. Each level is well realised, but still simple enough to navigate around – there is no minimap or compass in this game showing you where to go. The levels do seem quite large, which can be a little annoying when you have to backtrack through a level (usually if you want to collect the secrets) as the Maw can be quite slow. It’s strange that you only notice this while backtracking as I never once thought that the game was slow while playing properly.
It is a really good game. It’s enjoyable throughout the whole experience. Sure, the last level seems a bit guff compared to the previous seven, but it kind of fits in with the story through the game and shows how much Frank cares about his (her!) one-eyed purple blob pal. There are also murmerings of DLC for the game – more chance to eat things will be greatly appreciated, although by the end of the game the Maw is planet-sized so just what he plans on gobbling up I dread to think. Oh, you get an uber-cute dashboard theme for completing the game as well as a couple of gamerpictures along the way – when you throw that in, 800 MS points doesn’t seem all that bad.
In the words of Oliver Twist…
“Please sir, I want some Maw.”
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