Back in February of 2002 Capcom released Maximo: Ghosts to Glory, the latest sequel in the Ghosts 'n Goblins franchise. The game was a bit of a throwback to the old style of action games. Linear progression, high difficulty, and limited lives -- only in 3-D. Well Maximo's back in his first sequel called Maximo vs. Army of Zin.

The graphics in Maximo vs. Army of Zin look great. While they aren't 'realistic', they have a highly stylized and cartoonish feel that works perfectly within the atmosphere of the game. The textures look awesome, and the environments are fantastic. You could even say the environments look a little 'too' good. You'll go through the first few hours of the game unsure of which parts of the environments are interactive and which ones aren't. Like the last game, however, the settings never get boring and even stages in the same area of the game can have great variety. I did find one part of the game that had some slow down, but it was really just amusing more than anything else. Out of the whole game, this one little corner of a certain stage had a spot that slowed down every time.

Like Ghosts to Glory, the music in Army of Zin is just a lot of fun and really adds some perfect flavor to most of the stages. It doesn't start off quite as well as Ghosts to Glory, probably because Army of Zin didn't have the remix of the original Ghosts 'n Goblins theme like its predecessor did, but it starts off okay. The music in the second area of the game, the Haunted Forest, is a little hum-drum but by the time you get about halfway through the game, it really picks up again.

Like the music, the sound effects are best described as, well, just a lot of fun. Every sword clank, crumbling enemy and special move sounds great. The voice acting for the main characters is pretty good, though some of the repetitive lines given by the people you rescue can get kind of irritating. All in all, the sound is entertaining while often being very functional as well, and you can't ask for more than that.

After defeating the evil Achille in Ghosts to Glory and reclaiming his kingdom, Maximo and his friend, the grim reaper aptly named Grim, started on a quest to search for Maximo's lost love, Sophia. Maximo vs. Army of Zin picks up where Ghosts to Glory left off. Things quickly take an interesting turn as an ancient army of soul powered clockwork soldiers named the Army of Zin shows up, an army that was supposed to have been locked away in a vault a long time ago.

The basic idea in Maximo vs. Army of Zin is pretty simple action game stuff, kill the enemies without dying yourself while you make your way to the end of the stage. Unlike Ghosts to Glory, which featured a kind of hub area for each 'world', Army of Zin is a straight linear progression. Aside from acquiring gold coins and diamonds for buying new skills and whatnot, there's no 'collection' or 'scavenger hunt' requirement in Army of Zin. The focus is really in fighting off lots of bad guys.

Thankfully they made smashing through hordes and hordes of clockwork menaces lots of fun. Using just two buttons, slow and strong attacks, and the analog button, Maximo can perform any number of interesting combos. The game manual won't tell you what most of them are and you are obliged to figure them out for yourself. This isn't really very hard and with a little ingenuity, you can have most of them figured out by the third or fourth stage. The great thing is, you'll use all of them throughout the game as the situation demands. Just to be safe, they will let you know some of the more important ones during the game by way of some of the hint scrolls that you can buy, cheaply, off certain peddlers you save.

Speaking of saving people, that's one of the new gameplay aspects in Army of Zin. Throughout the levels, you will come across people being chased and/or accosted by various enemies. It starts off easy enough with you just killing one or two enemies chasing a man or woman who has quite a lead on them. However, by the end of the game, you might be protecting two or three people as they get assaulted from all sides by waves of enemies. It's never a really frustrating endeavor, and you don't need to save people to finish the level. You can get some very nice rewards for doing so however, and rescuing merchants is certainly important as you can buy upgrades in the way of sword and hammer techniques, new shields, and new types of boxers.

Yes, like any Ghosts 'n Goblins game when you've taken enough damage to lose your armor, you'll waltz around in nothing but your heart boxers, and like Ghosts to Glory you can find various other styles of boxers to wear. However, unlike Ghosts to Glory, the boxers in Army of Zin serve actual gameplay purposes rather than just looking different. They can do things that range from allowing you to have more health, making your super meter (used for certain special attacks and shield throwing) fill up faster, to letting you feel rumbles whenever you are near a hidden chest.

One thing remains constant throughout the Ghosts 'n Goblins series, the high level of difficulty. Well, until now. Maximo vs. Army of Zin is far easier than its predecessors. It's still not a total cakewalk though. You'll find nerve-racking jumps and high-intensity melees all over the place. It's just not as hard as Ghosts to Glory. Not by a long shot. I attribute this to two factors, the low difficulty in acquiring extra lives and easier jumps.

One of the things that made Ghosts to Glory really feel like a 3-D version of old fashioned action games was the limited lives. Every time you died was a big deal, because that was one less life you would have later. Maybe I'm crazy, but it just feels like it's so much easier to get lives in Army of Zin that you're never really worried.

The second big thing is jumps. In the last few areas of Ghosts to Glory you had some truly insane old-style platforming to do. Much harder than anything you would have to do in the old 2D days, because you had an extra dimension to worry about. I guess they felt it was too difficult because most of the really tricky jumping sequences in Army of Zin don't take place over 'fall to your death' areas. If you miss a jump, you'll just land in an area below and have to try again. There are a few really hard ones near the end but nothing to the extent of what you find in Ghosts to Glory.

Of course, the fact that you now have all sorts of different ways to permanently upgrade your attack power, as well has a fourth level of armor, could have something to do with Army of Zin being easier. The easier difficulty is good news to some, bad news to others. Of course, there's also a hard mode if you really need that extra challenge, though it doesn't make the jumping aspect any harder.

Something which adds another bit of flavor to combat in Maximo vs. Army of Zin are 'titles'. As your combo score goes up during a melee, you will begin to do more damage as you gain titles, from weak to fearsome. Also the title you hold when you kill an enemy determines the nature of any treasure they leave behind. You have to keep it up though, because a few seconds without a hit and the combo counter will reset.

Another major difference from its predecessor is the way you save your game. In Ghosts to Glory you had to spend a good bit of your treasure to save the game. In Army of Zin you can save your game whenever you want at the level select screen, free of charge, yet another aspect that makes it a little easier.

It's a good thing that Maximo vs. Army of Zin includes so many new gameplay elements, such as rescuing people and many permanent upgrades, to keep it fresh and interesting, because without the high difficulty it risked being a watered down version of Maximo: Ghosts to Glory. It doesn't quite inspire the same Ghosts 'n Goblins feel as Ghosts to Glory did, but it still feels like a Maximo game, as odd as that may sound.