When Max Payne came out on PC many moons again, I easily fell in love with its very intriguing storyline through the crafty written dialogue and when Max Payne was announced for the Game Boy Advance I was in a state of shock. How could they pull off Max Payne on the GBA? Would there be bullet time? Would Max’s voice be throughout the game telling the storyline?

Max Payne is my first Mature rated game to play on the Game Boy Advance, which is slim to none, and I hope that another Mature rated game will join my collection soon with Max Payne 2 already out in the PC world. Rockstar obviously wasn’t afraid to push the contest well within this game as Max Payne feature hookers, drug addicts, mafia members, mob bosses, cult leaders, buckets of blood, sexual themes, and a slew of guns to wipe out New York City’s slew of scum.

Max Payne is essentially an action game with the storyline of an adventure game. The main design of this game involves a little trick that The Matrix made popular; Bullet Time. Players will be using Bullet Time throughout the entire game to slow down time to easily make the enemies susceptible to your own going firing of your Sawed Off Shotgun. Bullet Time is easily accessible by taking the R button and failure to know when to use this significant feature will undoubtedly result in your death. Bullet Time is controlled by a tiny meter on the bottom left of the screen, and while your aim is true and enemies are killed, it will refill. However, you can run out of Bullet Time and traversing through this game without it will result in a much quicker death.

Max Payne not only features Bullet Time, but the engine that Mobius Entertainment is nearly flawless and it was perfectly created to manipulate 3D objects, which is what makes Bullet Time even possible. Using their 3D engine, the Bullet Time effect is easily believable since every character in the game are true 3D objects. Not only can this engine feature Bullet Time and 3D characters it also allows for interactive with objects throughout the game. You can shoot water kegs, make hotel beds vibrate, leave bullet holes on the wall, blow up boxes, and even leave bloods stains on the wall from the enemies you just blasted. What makes this game even more amazing is doing these things all while in Bullet Time. Each interaction is slowed down during the effect making this game even more believable.

Never before on the Game Boy Advance have I heard so much dialogue throughout the game. Every single audio clip, including the 20 minutes or more of Max’s dialogue, is all here on this portable rendition. While the background music can get a little old after hearing the same song over and over again, it is just truly amazing, in the sound department, how they could include so much in this game.

Max Payne is essentially three chapters long, but split twelve different missions. Each chapter will give the player four lives and if you do die during a mission you won’t be set back too far from where you died at, however, if you do manage to lose all your lives (probably due to using up too much Bullet Time), you will have to restart from the very beginning of the chapter. In order to maintain your survival through the buildings of New York you can find painkillers tucked away in crates or in medicine cabinets that will replenish some of your health by pressing the Select Button. Another essential to survival is from obtaining the many of weapons found throughout the game. While my favorite is the Sawed Off Shotgun, you can find grenades, dual handguns, automatics, and even a baseball bat to club someone with. Unlike the painkillers, ammo is very easy to find in the numerous crates and from the bodies of dead enemies.

However, like the PC game, the game is on the short side and can easily be finished in just about four to five hours. Another downside to this game is the camera view. The game is set in isometric perspective and while the view is certainly good for the game, you will constantly get shot from enemies off screen which can result in a very unfair death. Yet you can use this to your advantage and shoot enemies off the screen as well.

Yet even with the short length of the game and the unfair off-screen shooting ability from the enemies, I can honestly say that Rockstar and Mobius Entertainment have truly created a technological marvel. Mobius Entertainment has raised the bar on what the GBA can do. Never before have I seen such a well put together game that includes well over 20 minutes of crystal clear dialogue, bullet time, mature themes, and easily addictive gameplay.

Kudos to Mobius Entertainment and Rockstar.