Reviews

1987 Imagine Software (UK)
by Gary Knight and Mark Jones

Very nice shoot 'em up, where you play the role of a sort of transformer robot, starting with a spaceship and progressing into a robot. It's very addictive and very playable, everything moves perfectly well and firing is lots of fun. The game could benefit with a bit more color, each level in completely monochromatic, and some levels are really hard on the eyes.
Although not perfect in looks, it's still a very good conversion from Imagine software. It's one of those games that retains that quality of making you want to see just one more screen.
Try it before any judgement and you will be surprised on how addictive it is.

In the common opinion of best arcade conversions on the Spectrum this one is very overlooked, probably because it doesn't meet to people's taste, but I found this to be very enjoyable and somewhat addicting. Fair enough this isn't going to top the bill but for me it's certainly one of the most enjoyable arcade conversions on the Spectrum.

Total devil may care attitude towards looking even vaguely good can't mask the fact that there is a finely honed high score horizontal shooter in there.

A good fun game that fights hard to overcome the vomity mcsplurry of the bullets, backdrops and sprites.

Strangely addictive.

One of the best shooters out there !!

Based from the Nichibutsu coin-op, Mag Max is a competent if rather uninspiring conversion. You start the game as a simple craft hovering on the ground and must assemble Mag Max, the ultimate fighting machine, by recovering his head and legs, and an extra piece which destroys obstacles while on the upper level, and launches homing missiles on the lower one - you can alternate between the two by going through passages. On the 2nd and 4th level you meet a huge boss - a sort of three-headed hovering mechanical dragon - which can take a lot of punishment (and I really say a lot!) before being destroyed. Then, if you are on the 4th level, the game restarts from the first one.

Mag Max is a shooter without any particularly memorable feature. Graphics are pretty bland, sound is nothing to write home about (except for a snazzy tune in the title screen) and gameplay is your standard horizontally scrolling shoot-em-up fare.

And that's all about it really. A well-executed task, but nothing exceptional.

Enjoyable shoot-em-up, a good conversion from its original arcade.

With an horizontal scroll and an original 3D perspective, you control a robot along different levels above and below ground, shooting enemies and collecting parts and guns that power up the robot, increasing its strength and firepower levels. Includes the usual final boss and the end of each stage.

Mag Max has the graphics and gameplay that a good shooter must have, also a cool music, make it a very playable game. However, it was not one of Imagine's most remembered titles.