Max Payne

The PC hit famous as the first game with "Bullet Time" barrels onto the Game Boy Advance in all its guns-a-blazing, over-the-top glory.

Features * Based on the original worldwide smash Max Payne for the PC * 12 levels in three chapters * Fully voiced in-game narrative * More than 10 weapons, including dual handguns, sawed-off shotguns, grenades and Molotov cocktails

In the pulp-fiction prelude, Max is a New York cop living an idyllic life on a tree-shaded street -- until he comes home one day and finds his wife and infant brutally murdered. When he finds out the killers were whacked out on a new designer drug called Valkyr, he joins the narc squad and goes undercover, vowing to bring the big cheeses to justice. But when a meeting in a subway station goes bloodily awry, the cops join just about every Manhattan gang in pursuing Max. As if that weren't enough drama, all the action takes place in the midst of a huge snowstorm, with news bulletins warning citizens to stay home.

Max Payne weighs in at a hefty 128 megabits, with most of that taken up by Max's growling narration in the lengthy slide-show cut-scenes. Bad stuff is always about to happen and Max knows it, but as he says before one typically lurid level, he's not smart enough to turn back. If he were, we wouldn't have much of a game, would we?

All the guns seem to have pretty much the same range, although the sawed-off shotgun dispatches enemies with fewer shots than most other weapons. The levels are very linear. Although there are a few puzzle elements -- find a key here, take it there -- most of the action involves entering a room and doing unto the bad guys before they can undo you.

But of course the real action lies in the game's cool Bullet Time mode, which looks like something out of a John Woo movie. With a squeeze of the button, both you and your enemies slow way down -- but you can still fire at your real-time rate. The music halts, Max dives, aims and fires at the same time, and the bad guy's cries of pain slow down to a spectral roar.

Bullet Time is a great effect, but it makes things too easy, especially with the very forgiving enemy AI. In fact, if you find yourself facing in the wrong direction, you can quickly duck out of a room, then return with your weapon pointed straight at the not-so-bright bad guys. Sure, you have a Bullet Time meter, but it's easy to keep full. And aiming is a snap -- as long as you point in roughly the right direction, you'll hit home. Multiple difficulty levels would have made the game much more challenging.

The action is presented in a three-quarter view. Because moving Max at an angle with the GBA's Control Pad can be tough, you might be happier with a Game Boy Advance Player snapped under your Nintendo GameCube and a GCN Controller. In fact, iffy controls might be the biggest threat to Max's life and limb. Judging jumps across gaps and the correct angle to take on platforms lying between buildings is tougher than taking out a whole platoon of goons.

The graphics are chunky but serviceable for a fast-paced action game like this. The great gobs of blood probably earned it that M rating. In keeping with the game's comic-book feel, whenever Max stops to turn on a radio or read a newspaper, the text is in comic-book font, and a mobster's car literally goes "KABOOM!!" The music is a very welcome change of pace from the over-amped stuff that's all the craze with games these days, as vaguely menacing bongos back an austere, Ry Cooder-like guitar. Sound quality is excellent and merits buying a GBA SP Headphone Adapter, if you don't already have one.

Bottom Line

Max Payne Advance is a fun, frantic game for mature audiences, if a bit too short. Like GoldenEye 007's sniper rifle, the Bullet Time gimmick never gets old.

Source:

www.nintendo.com

Endlich erscheint der ultimative Action-Shooter auf dem GameBoy Advance. Max Payne Advance zeigt einen stilvollen, urbanen Actionthriller in der New Yorker Unterwelt. Max Payne Advance ist eine düstere, mitreißende Geschichte um Korruption und Mord. Max Payne Advance kombiniert kinoreifes Gameplay mit der neuesten Videospieltechnologie für Handhelds und ist damit die intensivste Spielerfahrung, die bisher für den GameBoy Advance erschienen ist.

In der getreuen Umsetzung der weltweit erfolgreichen Geschichte erleben Sie das rasante und packende Gameplay nun an jedem Ort. Die Advance-Version bietet dabei auch die klassischen Graphic Novels, welche die packende Geschichte um Täuschung und Verzweiflung vorantreiben, sowie die berühmte Technologie "Bullet Time", in der Sie Ihre zahlreichen Gegner in Zeitlupe besiegen können.

Über 10 Levels, eine Auswahl aus mehr als 10 Waffen von der einfachen Pistole bis zum Granatwerfer und volle Sprachausgabe mit über 30 Minuten gesprochenen Dialogen machen Max Payne Advance zum herausragenden Handheld-Abenteuer.

Entwickler

Mobius Entertainment

Alterseinstufung

Freigegeben ab 16 Jahren gemäß § 14 JuSchG.

Empfohlener Preis

39.95 €

Erhältlich von

Rockstar Games für Game Boy Advance.

Pressestimmen: "Zeitlupe auf Knopfdruckbegeistert auch am GameBoy Advance. (...) Wertung: Sehr gut"

-- PC Action

Source:

www.take2.de

Désormais, Max Payne n’a plus rien à perdre dans cette ville inhospitalière et sans merci. Un flic fugitif accusé à tort de meurtre et traqué par la police et la Mafia. Max est un homme au pied du mur, qui mène un combat perdu d'avance. Préparez-vous à une nouvelle génération de jeu d’action pure et dure. Préparez-vous à souffrir...

Spécialement adapté dans cette nouvelle version, Max Payne combine une jouabilité en cinématique aux dernières technologies de jeu portable, pour vous offrir ce qui se fera de mieux en expérience de jeu GameBoy Advance cette année.

Developpeur

Remedy Entertainment

Classification

16+ www.pegi.info

Disponible

de Rockstar Games sur Game Boy® Advance

Distribution mondiale.

Disponible en magasins depuis le 19 mars 2004

Source:

www.taketwo.fr

Rockstar Games Announces Max Payne for the Game Boy® Advance

NEW YORK - December 5, 2003 - Rockstar Games, the world-renowned publishing division of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO), is proud to announce that Max Payne is set to make its debut on the Game Boy® Advance and will be in stores on December 16th, 2003 in North America.

Max Payne is the stylish, urban, revenge-driven story of a fugitive cop with nothing to lose. Based in New York City's grimy underground, Max Payne is a fully realized rendition of the best-selling PC and console hit which sold over 4 million units, combining narrative-driven, cinematic gameplay with the latest in handheld videogame technology to deliver what promises to be the most intense Game Boy Advance experience this year.

Max Payne's signature action-packed gameplay is now even more accessible on the Game Boy Advance. Max can choose from over 8 weapons as he fights his way through more than 10 levels filled with some of New York City's most sinister inhabitants. By utilizing Bullet Time, players can gain an edge over their enemies with Max Payne's slow motion gunplay technique. Max Payne's classic graphic novel scenes return to tell this twisted story of deception and despair.

Source:

Press Release

Max Payne is a man with nothing to lose in the violent, cold, urban night. A fugitive undercover cop framed for murder. And now hunted by cops and the mob. Max is a man with his back against the wall. Fighting a battle he cannot hope to win. Prepare for a new breed of deep action game. Prepare for pain...

Choose over 10 weapons, from dual handguns to grenade launchers.

Fully voiced in-game narrative, over 30 minutes of spoken dialogue!

Bullet time lets the player use slow motion gameplay to bring down enemies.

Source:

Back of Box (UK)