Max Payne is a series of well-made third person shooters for Playstation and Xbox consoles, as well as PCs. At least, that's what I thought it was supposed to be. I can't even imagine the thought process behind the decision to take a 3D third person shooter and put it on the GBA. Now, I don't understand it, but it doesn't make this GBA port any less real. I guess I'll just have to face the music.

The graphics of this game are a bit strange. The backgrounds and most objects look alright, but the human shapes look like they were taken from the console/PC versions, but shrunk down and compressed to work with the GBA hardware. Needless to say, it looks atrocious. The animation is fluid enough, but the shapes only barely resemble human figures. The sprites made for this version of the game look fantastic, which only makes me question it even more. If you can make sprites that look great, then why would you just take the lazy way out and resize the characters from the console versions?

The music is decent, but cut down from the original versions. It's noticeably compressed, which definitely affects the listening quality. The sound effects, however, don't seem to suffer from this compression quite as badly, and they sound great. The thing that surprises me most is that they managed to get the voice acting into this version of the game, intact! Now, it's compressed even more than the music, but it's still fairly legible, considering that this is a GBA cartridge we're talking about here.

It plays similarly to the console versions, aside from a few key differences. For one, a third-person shooter on the GBA is obviously impossible, so Max is shooting people from an isometric perspective this time. Now, that sounds like a terrible disadvantage, considering that this game is all about shooting people and the isometric perspective would severely impair your aim, but this version of the game includes an incredibly powerful auto-aim mechanic. All you have to do is fire in the general direction of the enemy, and your bullets will hit their target 100% of the time unless there's an obstacle blocking your shot.

Don't worry, this game isn't too easy, even with the auto-aim. Enemies do a massive amount of damage to you very quickly, and your health is very limited, just like in the console versions. Every hit causes damage that doesn't just heal up over time, and the only way to heal yourself past 25% health is to use painkillers, which are in short supply. Adding to the game's difficulty is the camera, which works most of the time, but suffers from issues when trying to see enemies. Because of that, you'll end up getting shot by enemies you never knew existed because they didn't appear on-screen yet!

One Max against dozens of armed men sounds like an unfair battle, but you have tools that make it a fair fight. The main feature that sets Max Payne apart from other shooters is the bullet-time shooting, which allows you to slow down time to avoid being fired at before you know what you're doing and to fire at enemies before they can react. In this version of the game, however, the bullet-time is powerful enough to practically carry you through most of its gunfights! If you perform a running bullet-dive, it uses up almost none of the bullet-time meter and allows you to hit enemies easily before they can pull off a shot.

The game's storyline is intriguing, to say the least. It follows a cop by the name of Max Payne, who ends up being framed by organized criminals for the death of his partner and pursued by both organized criminals and by the police who he used to work for. Max attempts to get his revenge on the criminals who framed him, and then the real story starts. It's quite well-written, with a comic-book style of storytelling, and the voice acting helps you to get immersed in the story with relative ease.

The game's difficulty is relatively fair. Although you'll sometimes be killed by enemies you didn't see, it's your own mistakes that will really get you killed. Max can soak up far more punishment than any normal human being ever could, and the enemies typically don't take very much gunfire to kill. However, they have the advantage of stealth and superior numbers, so you'll have to always be on your toes and do everything you can to turn the tables in your favor.

The game has a large selection of weapons to choose from. Oddly enough, though, a lot of them are practically useless. Single pistols are too slow and weak to take down more than one person at a time, and yet the game will insist on giving you ammunition for them! And, for some unfathomable reason, Max has multiple melee weapons to choose from. Even attempting to use a melee weapon in any situation is practically suicide, which makes me question why they were even included in the game. To top it all off, some weapons are ridiculous and unrealistic in their amount of power and range. The Sawed-Off Shotgun, which you acquire early in the game, has seemingly infinite range and can pick off enemies with one hit from across an entire room, which I find absolutely hilarious.

It's an absolutely baffling game to put on a portable console like the GBA, but it manages to work in its own odd little niche. Sometimes, it's fun to shoot anything that moves before it shoots you, and this game perfectly satisfies that need. Its intriguing storyline and surprisingly good voice acting just add to the experience. If you want a shooting experience that you'll find from very few games on the GBA, you might want to give this one a try.

Even though I will probably never play that game I have to say that your review was excellent. It high structured well, you use ample details AND you make abundant comparisons with the 3D versions to show the Game Boy Advanced limitations. Yours should definitely be the featured review for the game.