Maken X

It’s pretty much expected that the Dreamcast will pump out some very good graphics. Maken X fills the bill nicely, with detailed environments, spiffy lighting-effects, and well-designed anime-like characters. It’s a shame that the actual game plays out so poorly, as the visuals are very nice and may be over looked because of the weak gaming experience.

The gameplay is where Maken X just falls apart. It is tortuously slow, as the enemies run relatively predictable patterns, the combat is slow, and the sword hacking is tedious. Players can possess the bodies of certain fallen enemies, and characters that they meet throughout the game. While refreshing things briefly by introducing new weapons into combat, the new character gets boring quickly. Helping to round out the weak gameplay is an equally weak story. It is such a generic, good versus evil, "do the right thing" styled plot. Polishing off this terrible story is that the devil is the main villain.

But helping to drag the game right into the depths of terrible gaming is the atrocious voice acting. The voice work here is a good example of why so many gamers clamor for subtitles. So they have to read a bit, no big deal, but it sure beats dealing with bad voice acting. Even worse is that the samples of the

dialogue have way too much reverb, and it sounds like everyone is talking in the bathroom. The sound effects and music are also uneventful, making the use of ones stereo a must, just to get some good tunes into the room.

Maken X is such a slow, tedious experience that it will put many to sleep. The funny thing is that if it was a third person, over-the-shoulder perspective, things were sped up a little, and the game was setup as a more straightforward action title, it would probably have been pretty good, but as it stands it’s a disappointing experience.

Reviewed by Mr. Nash

(September 1, 2000)