Max and the Magic Marker Draws Curiousity

You: I can't believe you haven't posted about this!

Me: I know, right?

Really now, people.  WiiWare has an abundance of great games.  There are already some fantastic games worth your money on the platform.  Some of them are innovative and unique like World of Goo, while others take same-old gameplay and splash it with a refreshing look and feel, making a whole new and equally enthralling gameplay experience (Mega Man 9, Tetris Party).

I can't figure out which basket to put Max and the Magic Marker in.  On the one hand, I've never seen a game that mimics something like Harold and the Purple Crayon so well on a console, where players can draw their environments (to an extent).  But where it scores well in innovation, it also plays off LostWinds-styled platforming, where players mix pointer controls with maneuvering a "little dude" around.

This official trailer shows off some of the game's polish.

With a simple goal of reaching the end of each level, players will use the Wii Remote's pointer in a "pause-the-game" manner to draw on the screen, effecting the environment and solving puzzles to let Max pass through.

Copenhagen-based studio Press Play started making the drawing mechanic for the game in early 2008 in Flash.  From such simple beginnings, the game has sprung forward with a great graphical appeal, and a story to boot.  In an interview with NintendoLife, the objective of the game "is to defeat the monster Max created himself using the magic marker. In order to do so, the player must overcome enemies and obstacles through a number of worlds and levels."

The drawing mechanic isn't based on pattern recognition.  As seen in the trailer and gameplay videos, anything can be drawn on the screen, and Max will be able to interact with it.

This gameplay demo is only a taste of the types of puzzles we can expect.

Max and the Magic Marker is pretty, and actually shines in the stylized way it handles its "pause and draw" function.  Just like "stepping out of your imagination" (as the developer puts it) to see your drawing, the entire screen turns into a child-like drawing at the click of a button in this freeze-frame moment.

There is something charming about Max and the Magic Marker.  It's the exact type of charm that other successful WiiWare games have.  No word on a release date (Press Play is hoping for this fall), but we certainly await more footage.