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Martin and the magic staff is an extremely simple game that may not seem like much more than but for what is worth I think is a decent attempt for a good first step into a videogame development and nothing more.


You are Martin and you must prove yourself to your master in order to receive wisdom and power. To do this you have to jump your way out through several platforming challenges, that’s it, we don’t get an ending or anything more for this premise, the game is basically a demo that ends in “to be continued”.


The platforming genre is almost as old as videogames themselves and is not surprising to see many titles with mostly the same mechanics, this is where Martin and the magic staff can be classified. You can jump with one key and glide with other, it won’t get deeper than that, not even with the level design.
The obstacles are the classic deadly spikes on floors and roofs, some projectiles later on and bounce pads to greatly increase your jump. I wouldn’t like to spoil it but I already did, Martin and the magic staff is very short, half an hour was enough for me to get to the end without any hurry. Controls are fine I guess, but very stiff and without proper controller support or even the chance of rebind keys it gets closer to a flash game in a free website.


The only saving grace of Martin and the magic staff is the presentation, just like the rest of the game is mediocre at best but the pixel art of the characters and environments is consistent and well done. Trap hitboxes could be better but overall, the art style is decent with ok animations and a catchy tune that loops for the whole experience.


Martin and the magic staff is very underwhelming, you can argue that for almost 2 dollars is unfair to expect more and for a first project is fine, but it’s promoted as a puzzle platformer. Is not just that it has no puzzles but it is barely a tease or a proof of concept. If it was a demo I could give it the benefit of the doubt but as it is now I can’t recommend it.

Rating: 5/10

Martin and the Magic Staff isn’t a terribly hard experience. You will be jumping over spikes and on platforms.

There are only four buttons in this game: move left, move right, jump (Z) and hover (X).
However, this is all you need: responsive controls and engaging level design.

The game is really short (30 levels), but It’s crafted with love for those yearning for a simple platformer.

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Обзоры Онлайн.

There is around 30 minutes of content.
It's a platformer. The graphics are nice. The levels are not that difficult.
I mean... it's worth the try for the price !

I'm eager to see what the devs will do next !

games pretty good only 30 levels but made well pretty fun but short

Martin and the Magic Staff is a basic platformer with a retro look and feel. The player is tasked with taking a staff to a special location and putting it into a pool. To get there, Martin will have to navigate through a series of levels with the ability to jump and a sort of floating ability that slows falling.

The game has an options menu; however, it isn't clear why. The language setting is the only option. There is no option to adjust or turn off the music, no graphics options and no way to remap the controls. There is a sort of tutorial via visual images as Martin traverses the first level.

The level designs are simplistic, with the typical spikes to avoid, springs for super jumps, and a simple start and exit point. The graphics are retro pixelated and the music is a sort of a 16-bit era acard-ish sound loop. If Martin dies in the level, he respawns immediately at the start. Some of the levels require some very precise timing of key press combinations so dying is very frequent.

Most of the levels have one or two difficult spots, but trial and error will get Martin past them without too much difficulty. The game isn't long to play through, about 30 or so levels. The levels look a bit too much like each other, more tile variation a would go a long way. Overall, this is a basic platformer that plays pretty solidly. It could use key remapping capability, but there are only a couple of controls. One minor thing that was funny is that the game currently is in the Steam store as "Martin and the Magic Staff", but the purchase button says that it is called "Tiny Dude", and in the game itself the title is "Martin and the Magic Stuff". Not sure what all the different names are about, but Tiny Dude or Martin and staff or stuff or whatever, it's recommended as a basic platformer.