Maximo: Ghosts to Glory

"Old Skool is back!"

When was the last time you were fighting multiple enemies, heavily injured, one hit away from death, holding your breath until your blue in the face? Swinging, blocking, jumping, running, all the while getting more and more keyed up. You swing, block the counter attacks and finally kill one of those pesky skeletons with 2 others flanking you. The feeling of real dread and desperation are upon you. You kill another, masterfully dodging attacks as you stand up. With one left you are finally starting to breath again and with a final strike you split the skeleton in half, jumping up and screaming obscenities of victory to the screen. Everyone in the room looks at you funny. When is the last time you had this happen to you on a one player game?
I can tell you that I haven't had this scenario happen to me since the good old days of Megaman, Zelda or Ninja Gaiden. I haven't held my breath playing a video game since I was a kid. I love it and am thankful to have that feeling again.
Anyhow, on to the gameplay. you get your two attacks, your jump and block moves and they are spot on. Throughout the game you find power ups that give you new abilities. Soon you will be kicking ghoul and ghost butt from here to Timbuktu. One thing I liked was that you could have a ton of abilities but could only ''keep'' a few. That's right, if you die you lose all but the abilities you choose to keep (through a nifty menu). You are in complete control of your destiny. None of that ''it was the controllers fault'' crap you get with spotty gameplay.
A lot of people are upset about the save feature and I understand where they are coming from, but I feel this adds to that desperation that this game permeates. Where is it? I have to find it!! Lives are never really a problem though. You can easily go back to previous levels to stock up on money and lives.
For all you old skool ghouls and ghosts playas, you will find many smiles run across your face as nostalgic enemies and locations spring up. Remember jumping in a certain spot so a treasure chest would show up and you prayed it contained that much needed armor? Or those towers that shot balls of flame at you?
I recommend this game to anyone that enjoyed Ghouls and Ghosts or Super ghost and goblins. I also think that anyone who has the gumption to tackle some challenges will find this a highly enjoyable game. I dare you to try to keep all 4 kisses (play it and you'll know what I mean).

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/25/02, Updated 02/25/02