Review: Max Mustard
With Astro Bot’s announcement that the new game was not on PSVR2, the team at Toast Interactive announced that Max Mustard was coming to PSVR2. With enjoying the game on Quest 3 I was interested to see what work they would do with the extra power on offer with Sony’s hardware, and hoping it wasn’t just going to be a direct Quest port.
Release Date: October 2nd 2024
Developer: Toast Interactive
Publisher: Toast Interactive
Price: US $29.99 / CA $39.99 / €26,99 / £21.99
Reviewed On: PlayStation VR2
* Access Provided For Review *
Save The Mudpups
The planet Krunch is dying and inventor Max Mustard witnesses small creatures being captured by a businessman name Stubbins and his mechanical workforce. He is then selling these as an elitist vanity product to the wealthy. But, can you and Max Mustard work together to save as many of these creatures as you can?
It’s About Team Work
You will be teaming up with Max, in a mix of first-person and third-person platforming. The first-person element sees you given a number of gadgets to help Max get through some of the platforming elements and helping to take down the games bosses. Which include items like a plunger gun for combat and the a wind gun to help move some of the platforms.
Your supporting role is mixed with the star of the game Max, who will be completing all of the platforming, which will see you completing forty levels over different Acts. With the level design and some of the more complex platforming in some levels really coming to the forefront gameplay wise. Be it the element of working together or some level designs like the platforms changing to the beat of the music. These make up for some very cool and unique platforming across all the Acts offered within the game.
As well as working your way through the levels, you will find a number of collectibles. These come in the form on three Mudpups locked in cages to free, with a certain amount being need to unlock the boss battles. Then you will find hour-glasses that will give you a set time to collect the letters spelling Mustard, which will reward you with coins. Then finally there will be coins to collect in each level, which come in standard and special coins (which basically give you more coins). These collectibles are not really hard to locate or get to, I would have loved them to be more hidden to make it more difficult – but, this would go against the more child-friendly approach the game offers.
The coins are important to collect, as these will be used by visiting the shop and buying upgrades for Max. These can upgrade the walking speed, the jump and add extra attacks. Giving the platformer a little feeling of progression in Max’s character and that can also come in useful at times.
At the end of each Act you will have a boss fight. All these bosses are well designed, and will also bring in a mix of platforming between each element before you step into help – making it a good mix and makes you feel like Max does need your help on her adventure to save the Mudpups. All the bosses are also massive in scale to Max but, I would have loved for your view point to lower a bit, so they were a bit more intimidating in scale from your view as well.
Bright, Bold And What You Want
I was massively impressed with how the game looked on the Quest 3, so when getting into the game and seeing the visual updates they had done on the PSVR2, which mixed with the PSVR2 OLED displays making the bright and bold colors pop even more. Everything from Max, the level elements, the enemies and the bosses all getting that next level of details with improved textures – it blew my mind on how much they improved the visuals.
They have then taken the same approach with the audio, each level is provided with music (which is a great soundtrack) and environmental audio that would suit each location and situation. Finished off with the noises of Max’s jet-boots, the Mudpups, collecting coins and the noises of the enemies, making sure the audio falls in perfectly with the visual approach. However, they have not included any spoken audio, after completing some of the levels you will be provided with notes to read, these are not read out – but spoken audio is not something all platformers include, so this does not spoil the experience or feel out of place.
Comfort
The Verdict
Max Mustard’s move to the PlayStation VR2 has been very successful, with the team not just opting for a simple port, and making sure they make use of the extra power and features of Sony’s hardware. Meaning it now looks even better visually and the OLED panels really allowing the bright and bold colorful word of Max Mustard pop even more. Mixing this with the solid VR platformer Toast Interactive have created, which also introduced some new and unique mechanics along the way. With you and Max needing to work together along the adventure, as you save the poor Mudpups through forty levels. From a design point be it Max, the Mudpups, the enemies, the bosses and planet Krunch its like the team made sure they ticked every box in a ‘what makes a platforming game great’ list.