Max & Sparky

Isometric MS-DOS game on CD-ROM, with an installable launcher for Windows 3.1/95.

Max & Sparky is an advertising game created to promote the laundry detergent known as OMO in Finland, Austria, the Netherlands and Denmark, a.k.a. Skip (Portugal, France, Greece, Spain & Germany), a.k.a. Persil (England & Ireland), a.k.a. Via (Sweden).

The game is clearly made primarily for children, which can be seen both in the graphics and the simplicity of the gameplay. The world of the game is declared to be hostile and "dirty", but in fact it is relatively clean, but there are completely non-scary, harmless and non-chasing creatures that must be shot with a water pistol taken at the beginning of the game.

The only difficulty is that they are often extremely difficult to hit, but this is quite solvable: they crawl in a straight line, so after some effort you can "come out" to the same line. By the way, when hit, the creature is not killed - it falls into a soap bubble and flies somewhere up. It is clear that there are bonuses in the form of first aid kits and other things. You can only get hurt by an accidental collision with a creature. But getting into the water in the game is fatal (the action takes place on the islands).

However, all of the above is only the beginning of the game, then it should become more interesting. The graphics are hand-drawn and very pleasing to the eye. The verdict is that the game is really clearly childish, but it is kind, bloodless and entertaining.