In 2002, Capcom was gearing up to release what some publications hailed as the next great platform title. Maximo: Ghosts to Glory was not a bad game by any means, but it wasn't revolutionary either, as many people were hoping. In the end it turned out to be an impressively challenging hack-and-slash platform adventure with a great bit of humour mixed in. Surprisingly, Maximo returned quietly in early 2004 with the follow up Maximo Vs. Army of Zin.

Though it still won't blow you away or change the way things are done in the genre, Army of Zin is an incredibly enjoyable and polished hack-and-slash platform game that offers a refreshing change from the recent mascot-based Jak, Ratchet and Sly titles. If you can manage to get past the sometimes incredibly aggravating difficulty (you only have a handful of lives before you must restart a level without your checkpoints) and the many pitfalls and challenges, you'll find yourself really enjoying the humorous, unique and involving world of Maximo.

The premise of Maximo 2 is not very profound but does however get the job done. After defeating Achille in the previous title, Maximo embarks on a quest with his friend Grim to find his missing girlfriend in mysterious lands. However, before long he's ambushed by a clockwork monster that's powered by the souls of the dead. With the help of Grim, Maximo vows to uncover the secrets of the new creatures and travels across great looking new lands and encounters brand new characters, both good and bad. As you progress you'll uncover secrets about not only the living dead army, but Maximo as well.

If you're familiar with the original title than you'll notice that on the surface Maximo looks and feels a lot like it's predecessor, but keep playing and you're sure to find out that Capcom has upgraded the game quite a lot. For one, you have to rescue a specific amount of villagers per level (who will give you rewards in return) while trying to save your own skin at the same time. Some of these innocents let you purchase upgrades to your weapons as well as buy little bits and pieces here and there. The combat is what really keeps the game together however; whilst it may not seem like much at first, keep playing and the beauty of the combo-based combat system really starts to shine. Hacking enemies to bits at lightning quick speeds with a variety of different slashes, spins and moves is rarely this much fun and the fact that you can use your shield as a weapon in many ways just adds to this. Combining all these moves in different ways is half the fun, as you can come up with some gigantic and devastating combo attacks that are so satisfying to pull off.

Another addition is the ability to turn into Maximo's buddy Grim for a short while. Obviously more powerful than Maximo, Grim's swipes and attacks obliterate just about anything in his path; but choose your moments wisely, as his use is very limited until you upgrade specific items. However, like the original title, Army of Zin is not very long when you don't take the difficulty level into account; don't worry though, the gameplay is simply too good to pass up, no matter how short, or how hard the game may be. Those of you who always insist on unlocking everything a game has to offer will be around for awhile too, as each level has a bonus unlockable item if you beat it with a score of 100%, which is not easy at all.

Maximo comes with a Normal and Hard difficulty as well, so if you think the game is rough on Normal you're going to be absolutely gob-smacked by the Hard setting. You basically have three life bars and once one is drained it falls off the display and is gone until you unlock a chest containing more armour. When you lose a bar, you lose armour as well and thus Maximo's appearence changes. Yes, like the original, when you're down to one bar you will be in nothing but your underpants! Your health settings are retained from level to level too, so you'll remain with the same amount of life and bars until you are killed, at which point you return to your last checkpoint with only two health bars. Talk about a challenge!

There are health replenishing canisters lying around or available for purchase but they will only refill however many bars you may have. The game throws plenty of brutal enemies and traps your way and sometimes it may even trick you by allowing you to purchase a health can and then placing one right around a corner ahead of you. You always have to be aware of what is happening in the game and be cautious around certain areas to stay alive... this game has a nasty habit of surprising you with a great variety of challenges!

Graphically Army of Zin isn't drastically improved over the previous instalment and nor is it the best PS2 has to offer; that's not to say the graphics are bad however, as there are plenty of great looking areas to see and interactive environment hazards. The characters move smoothly, especially Maximo, and are designed nicely with a good sense of comic humour and animations, which in my opinion wholly makes up for the graphics. The cut-scenes are high in quality and look fantastic with high-production values but aren't too frequent, so you aren't taken out of the action too much. The sound often has an epic feel to it, due largely to the satisfying soundtrack. The voice acting is mediocre but it isn't too often you'll really even have to listen to it, as you'll be spending most of your time slashing up enemies with great battle effects.

Another solid area of the game is the controls, though sometimes the roll button feels a little out of place on the R2 trigger. Everything else is well positioned though and pulling off those huge combos couldn't be any more simple or enjoyable!

If you're a gamer cautious about this game because of the difficulty... don't be! Despite sometimes being incredibly frustrating, Maximo vs. Army of Zin is just too much fun to resist for long. Even if you throw the controller down and turn off your PS2 in a fit of rage, I assure you that you'll be back to it in no time. The custom combo system, the huge amount of purchasable new attacks and brand new weapons is hard for anybody to pass up. Mix in plenty of unique touches (such as how Maximo grabs ledges with his sword!) and Maximo is an incredibly satisfying adventure that is sure to please fans of not just platform gaming, but action games in general. Platform gamers turned off by the cutsie characters of recent games will really enjoy Maximo and most likely prefer it over the competition, despite not having innovative features like free-roaming levels and vehicles. If you haven't discovered the simple, almost retro goodness of this series, then it's about time to find both titles right away and you're in luck as they should both be bargains by now!

Reviewed by Christopher Martin for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).