Adventures of Mighty Max

The Game

The Adventures of Mighty Max, a platformer based on the animated series, based on the boy's version of Polly Pocket. The toy I have huge nostalgia for, I had so many different Mighty Max play sets when I was young, but the animated series passed me by somehow. 40 episodes and originally airing in 1993, it should have been right up my street, I would've been 7 or 8 years old, so I'm wondering if it took longer to come to the UK? Or if I just somehow completely missed it. Loved the toys though, so I was hoping that nostalgia might have given the game an extra point or two, revising some of the play sets I used to own maybe, seeing some of the enemies I used to play with…

It was developed by WJS Design, who are another odd company that seem tied to a few games, but they don't seem to be credited on those games anywhere. I think they had some kind of working relationship with Psygnosis as they're who always seem to be involved. In terms of games they've solely developed besides this, a game called Orc on the Amiga and Atari ST, Anarchy, also for Amiga and Atari ST, and then a couple of games in the late 80s under the name Smithson Computing. So the lack of content might give you some clues as to which direction this review is going.

Published by the licensed video game experts over at Ocean, who we last saw putting together some great representations of The Addams Family, but they were developing those as well so don't get too excited.

Gameplay

Full disclosure, I once again did not complete this game, I had been doing so well up until this point, but back to back absolute stinkers has done me in. Not just back to back stinkers, but back to back platformers that make you explore a large level looking for certain objects with absolutely no clue at all what you're doing under a time limit. Again, as with Dr. Franken I'm sure the manual would have helped, but it's just such a boring gameplay loop.

You start the game at Max's house, and you choose between two levels, I chose volcano, and then you're dropped into a level vaguely resembling a volcano. You can fire unlimited ping pong ball looking things, you can jump (insanely high, it takes so much getting used to), you can lift objects over your head, and you can hold a button to allow you to move the camera around to see where you might fall to, or jump to. You can also crouch, which for some reason is a toggle, press down and you crouch and crawl until you press down again, really weird design choice and crawling didn't come into play once in the time I spent with the game.

I eventually discovered there's an arrow that points you in the direction of something, which is more than Franken gave you so I'll give it that, and while you're exploring the enemies go down in one hit, get stunned, and you can lift them above your head and throw them to eliminate them, and when they die they do die permanently, so you can technically clear a level out and then explore, so again I will give it that in the positives column. Eventually the arrow leads you to, something, I never worked out what it was, but the game wants you to lift it and take it to the exit. While carrying this thing you can't jump, so you have to throw it across gaps, tie it to balloons so it can reach higher areas, turn magnets on and off so it gets pulled up higher, and eventually plot a course to the exit. Nothing here sounds particularly offensive does it?

Each level has multiple of these things, and working out the direction you need to take, while also looking for switches (the same colour as the background so for ages I didn't even know they were switches) all while a timer is going down, and enemies are coming at you, does get frustrating quickly. But I persevered, I wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt because mechanically, while it did feel weird, it was competent and it did work. So after trial and error for an hour or so I eventually worked out my path for each of the three objects (all identical, no variety at all) and I managed to get my head around the flow of the level and how it all worked, got the objects to their exit, and left. The level I didn't choose to enter was called "space" so I was ready to move on to that and see if we maybe had a different gameplay type or something, but before that I was dropped straight back into a volcano level. Visually identical, same enemies, same objects to look for. The layout had changed but the level was ultimately identical. I really wanted to see space, and because I'd worked out the basics of the game I quickly finished that level, and was dropped in another one, and another, all identical.

I forced my way through the volcano levels, it was absolutely mind numbing, even with Youtube on in the background, it was just bad. Eventually I get given a password and it's finally over, the pain ends and I move on to space. New level, new enemy sprites, new background, everything else identical. Find the objects, get them to the exit, the enemies look different but they're just sprite swaps of the same enemies, and the game expects me to do the space level 5 or so times before moving on to another palette swap? I don't have the patience for that shit so that was the end of that.

Graphics

Bland, boring, Max looks fine but he's tiny, maybe an homage to his tiny Polly Pocket days. The enemies are boring looking, the levels have repeated backgrounds over and over. I really wish there was more I could say, but it's just not good in the graphics department at all.

Sound and Music

Again, not good. I listened to the theme against the intro to the cartoon and even that didn't seem to match up. The level tracks are okay, I guess, it's just a lot of looped music on levels that take far too long so you really notice. I've been used to the music being the saving grace for these games based on animated series, shame.

The People

The sound is simply credited to Krysalis, which upon further inspection was a company that dealt with sound for various 16 bit games and mainly uses Matt Furniss to produce the music, which is mental because Matt has an insane history, Predator 2, Alien 3, Terminator, Robocop, Lion King, so the guy knew how to translate themes to game soundtracks. He did the music for some of the console releases for Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat II, so that leads me to believe he was away the week this game was done and he let the intern do it instead.

Wayne Smithson was dealing with level design and overall game design, so he has a lot to answer for, but somehow he ended up a Technical Producer on GTA 2, Chief Development Officer for The Outer Worlds 2 in 2025, and worked on the Switch port of Red Dead Redemption, Crackdown 3, Sonic & Sega All Stars Racing, he went on to pretty good things!

Background graphics were done by Chris Warren, and this was the last game he worked on, and enemy animation was dealt with by Dan Cartwright who must have had a massive glow up because he worked on Worms 2, Worms Armageddon, Worms World Party, all of which have great character animations, and also worked in some capacity on the audio of L.A. Noire.

A much more interesting group of people than this game deserves honestly.

Box art

Another game with a different cover between the US release and the PAL release, The US one looks pretty cool, the main villain holding the heroes in his claw, the logo bold and big, and a promise of a free comic book inside. All things that would have grabbed my attention as a kid for sure. The EU one is fine, it looks like a promo image for the show, if it's something you watched then it would attract some attention on a shelf.

As for the back we've gone for 4 screenshots again, but laid out slightly differently to the usual, and I guess they've picked alright ones, at least they're all from different levels and not just the first 4 volcano levels you come across. Also, I forgot to mention the fact the game is 2 player, that maybe could have upped the fun level slightly so I'll take that into consideration. I'll treat the image subtitles as bullet points and let's see what we've got:

• Double the action with 2 player split screen play - Didn't test it, but it's there, and you would technically be doubling the action.
• Be the Max and unleash your tennis ball cannon on restless natives and goofy aliens - Ooooh it's a tennis ball cannon! Okay that makes sense.
• Team up with Felix and Bea and warp to cool places like the jungle and outer space - There are some team up moves, you collect something and someone joins you for a few seconds killing enemies, it's fine. There are no cool places in this game however.
• Time travel with, or race against a buddy in incredible 2 player split screen play - You literally have that in a bubble directly above this, why would you need to put the 2 player thing twice? Is it because you know the game desperately needs 2 player or there is absolutely no fun to be had?
• It's 50 levels of MAXimum adventure all based on your favourite Saturday morning cartoon - It's based on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?? Sweet! Also, 50 levels. Fuck, and I mean this sincerely, that!

Overall this box gets my rating of - Almost accurate. Don't assume my favourite Saturday morning cartoon, and don't tell me the levels are cool when they're really not.

The Press

Games World: The Magazine:

As a children's toy, Mighty Max will probably appeal to a younger market, but the challenge in this is very grown-up indeed. Extremely fast with smooth animation, the enjoyment is only hindered by Max's gun shooting in just two directions. Once you get used to all his abilities the game becomes a top platform puzzler. There's even a split screen two-player mode. Surprisingly good.

79/100

GamesMaster:

Mighty Max is dull, there's no getting away from it. You never get curious about the next level and if that doesn't happen what's the point in playing?

69/100

Electronic Gaming Monthly:

An incredibly slow and plodding game, Mighty Max has control that needs some serious help and levels aren't very appealing. The concept is kind of cool, but the execution just isn't there.

24/50

Computer & Video Games:

Whilst you can't argue with the brilliance of the actual Mighty Max toys, this game is horrible. Slow, repetitive, frustrating and almost uncontrollable. Too hard for small little players and way too bad for older ones. Don't get this for your kid sibling as they'll hate you forever.

37/100

I feel a lot more vindicated with these scores than I did after Dr. Franken.