Maki’s Adventure – A Quirky Platformer With Bite - Xbox Review

XPN Network
4 days ago
3 min read

A quirky, compact, shark‑powered platformer with heart, bite, and a few barnacles.

Maki’s Adventure is one of those indie curiosities that immediately signals its handmade charm: a small, earnest, slightly chaotic action‑platformer where a red‑eyed impish creature escapes a prison, saves his brother, and then somehow ends up juggling quests, mini‑games, shark transformations, and boss fights across a patchwork world of islands, jungles, volcanoes, and sleepy fishing towns.

On Xbox, it arrives as a genre‑blender, it's part platformer, part action‑adventure, part slice‑of‑life oddity and while it doesn’t always stick the landing, it’s hard not to admire the ambition behind it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKPqnGtz360

You start in a cell. No fanfare, no grand lore dump, just Maki, a scythe, and a tower full of locked doors and skeletal nuisances. The opening hours move fast, almost breathlessly so, whisking you from prison corridors to fishing villages to volcanic caverns in a whirlwind tour of biomes. The pacing is brisk, sometimes too brisk, but it gives the game a propulsive energy that suits its compact runtime.

The world itself is a collage of 2D pixel art and low‑poly 3D hub traversal. Characters are quirky, dialogue is twee, and the whole thing feels like a handmade birthday card: a little rough around the edges, but full of sincerity. You meet oddballs, run errands, play darts, catch apples, fill a fishing encyclopedia, and occasionally wonder whether half the NPCs are okay. It’s charming, not polished, but charming.

The standout feature is Maki’s ability to transform into a shark whenever he hits water. It’s instant, it’s funny, and it’s surprisingly expressive. Underwater, the game shifts into a smoother, more fluid rhythm, with three shark forms offering different abilities:

Great White — combat‑focused, used for attacking underwater foes
Hammerhead — smashes rocks and opens new passages
Speed Form — zips through tight spaces and currents

These forms feed into light puzzle‑solving and traversal challenges. They’re not deeply complex, but they give the world texture and help break up the platforming flow.

On land, Maki fights with a scythe, a basic moveset with a dodge roll, a standard attack, and later a charge move and double jump. Combat is serviceable but rarely exciting. Regular enemies tend to be pushovers, and the lack of depth means encounters often feel like speed bumps rather than set‑pieces.

Boss fights, though, are where the game wakes up. They mix platforming and combat in clever ways, sometimes forcing you to swap shark forms mid‑fight or navigate environmental hazards. They’re not perfect and some have long invulnerability phases or oversized health bars, but they’re easily the game’s most memorable moments.

One of the game’s unexpected strengths is its willingness to slow down. After the prison escape, you’re suddenly thrown into a slice‑of‑life interlude full of fishing, darts, billiards, and oddball errands. These diversions aren’t deep, but they’re warm, funny, and give the world personality. They also help pace the adventure, offering calm between the bursts of platforming and boss fights.

Between islands, you navigate a 3D ocean hub — a bold idea that doesn’t quite land. It’s visually barren, mechanically empty, and often feels like padding between the more interesting 2D areas. The islands themselves are thoughtfully designed, blending quests, exploration, and mini‑games, but the sea connecting them is a missed opportunity.

The art direction is a mix of detailed character sprites, simple backgrounds, and occasional 3D flourishes. It’s inconsistent, but there’s heart in the details. Some areas pop with colour; others feel sparse. The soundtrack is serviceable, though not particularly memorable, and some sound effects can grate. Still, the overall vibe is warm and handmade, it's the kind of aesthetic that grows on you.

Maki’s Adventure is short at around 2 to 3 hours for the main story, a bit more if you chase collectibles or complete the fishing journal. The fast pace means you’re rarely stuck, rarely bored, and rarely challenged. It’s breezy, sometimes too breezy, but it never outstays its welcome.

Pros

Charming, heartfelt world with quirky characters
Fun shark transformation mechanic with multiple forms
Creative boss fights that mix platforming and combat
Variety of mini‑games and slice‑of‑life moments
Fast pacing and compact structure

Cons

Regular combat is shallow and repetitive
Hub world is visually and mechanically barren
Some presentation elements feel rough or inconsistent
Very short runtime
Occasional pacing issues and simplistic puzzles

Maki’s Adventure is a scrappy, sincere, and surprisingly ambitious indie platformer that blends genres with enthusiasm, if not always finesse. It’s rough around the edges, but its shark mechanic, quirky world, and heartfelt charm make it memorable in ways more polished games aren’t. If you’re in the mood for a short, creative, personality‑driven adventure, something handmade, earnest, and a little weird then Maki’s Adventure is absolutely worth dipping into on Xbox.

XPN Rating: 4 out of 5 (GOLD)