Mag Max



Mag Max is an arcade game developed by Nichibutsu in 1985. It is a horizontally scrolling shooter with a few twists. The game is played in two different perspectives. You start the game in an isometric view with impressive parallax scrolling, and all of the enemies occupy the ground. At certain points in the game you can transfer back and forth from the second perspective which is a more traditional cross section of space (as in Defender or Gradius).

In whichever perspective you choose, there are pieces of a robotic body that you can collect, which attach to your ship; an upper body, legs, and arms with a cannon. If you collect them all, you will form a giant robotic fighting machine. You'll need the extra fire power when you go up against the enemy's utlimate weapon, the three headed Babylon Dragon ship. There are four different stages that loop, and the dragon ship shows up at the end of the second and fourth stages.

The game was released for the Famicom in 1986 as Nichibutsu's first conversion to the platform. That version was later released in the United States by FCI. It was also converted for play on the Commodore 64 by Imagine Studios. It was later converted for play on mobile phones in Japan.

Controls

 * Joystick: Press the joystick in any one of eight directions to maneuver the ship across the ground, or through the subterranean sections. You can travel throughout the extent of the screen, which scrolls automatically to the right.
 * Fire: Press the fire button to fire any available weapon. When you are equipped with the cannon above ground, it fires a wave pulse automatically, but every other weapon must be activated with the fire button.
 * 1-2 Players: Press to start a one or two player game.