Maximo First-Impressions

Capcom is dusting out its ghosts, ghouls, and goblins of old and setting them up around six towers, which contain six captive princesses and act as a gate to the demon world. A powerful archdemon has harnessed the power of these imprisoned damsels to open this gate, and he invades the human world while granting himself incredible power. Lucky for the people of the land, there is a knight brave enough to stand up to this great evil. That knight's name? Maximo.

Some of you might recognize that the premise shares more than a passing similarity to Capcom's Ghosts 'N Goblins series of games back in the Nintendo and Super Nintendo era. Back then, a knight named Arthur side-scrolled valiantly through agonizingly difficult levels with perilous jumps and hordes of nasty critters while picking up different weapons and trying desperately to keep his suit of armor on.

So what will Maximo, the spiritual successor to Arthur's ghoul-busting legacy, have to offer? Capcom still knows the value of 2D and the art of side scrolling (see Strider 2 for the PS), but Maximo will be a 3D action game with 3D characters. Capcom bigwig Yoshiki Okamoto mentioned that the game might be comparable to Mario 64, so you can probably expect a mixture of platform and action elements. Famitsu artist Susumu Matsushita is the character designer for the project and has bestowed the traditional knightly weapons of sword and shield upon our hero. Aside from smiting evil with his trusty blade, Maximo's shield can be tossed for long-range as well as parry attacks. An actual gameplay similarity to Ghosts 'N Goblins is Maximo's ability to undergo transformations in response to enemy attacks. In Ghosts 'N Goblins, sorcerers hiding in treasure chests can zap Arthur into a helpless baby that is easy pickings for Lucifer's bloodthirsty underlings. A single hit could crumble our knight's armor, which would leave him to battle the undead in his underwear. On the SNES, Arthur is powered up when he slips into the magical green and gold armor, and it appears, judging from the character art and renderings, that Maximo might also gain power by donning a new suit of armor.

Capcom announced Maximo quite a while back but has not yet given any time frame for a release date. Media has been scarce, and no actual gameplay shots have been released as of this article's writing. However, we'll bring you shots and info as they become available.