Even though hackin and slashin is the primary goal of the game, an actual semi-interesting storyline, has been created by Atlus and Sega. You are Maken X, an artificially created "soul sword" entity that can brain-jack or take over, the minds and bodies of other characters. The ability to manipulate a person's "psi," or soul, was discovered in a research lab and promptly hidden in the soul sword. Terrorists have kidnapped the chief scientist, and his daughter Kay has awakened Maken X to assist her in rescuing her father. The story plays out in realtime cinemas, which are sandwiched between levels and events. The voice acting in the story scenes are fairly weak and uninspired, though I have heard much, much worse over the years.

After the above events transpire, you begin your quest as Kay and her standard sword weapon, which Maken molded itself into after possessing her psi. You then work your way through the levels, taking out terrorists, collecting power-ups and encountering bosses. Along the way, you will have the opportunity to brain-jack other, more powerful characters you meet up with, or seek out. Brain-jacking is entirely optional, however, and if you encounter a character that you may not like to manipulate, you are not forced to. Depending on the amount of power ups you collect, and the overall rating and attacks your current character possesses, it may be useless to "trade up" to a new character.

Graphically, Maken X is pretty slick. The framerate always run at a silky smooth 60fps, and there are plenty of fancy transparencies and special effects thrown about. The textures range from very detailed to somewhat low resolution. The lighting isn't too shabby either. The environments are a bit light on the polygons (think Quake 1), though the enemies and bosses are all nicely modeled and animated. The soundtrack is more or less your standard mix of techno tunes, and the sound effects, while not standing out, do the job.

Gameplay wise, Maken X is solid though simplistic. Run, jump, strafe, lock-on, block, slash slash slash. Each brain-jacked character you encounter plays slightly different than the others. Some jump better, some are quicker and a few have much improved regular or special attacks. As you vanquish enemies, soul spheres are released and when enough of the spheres are collected, your current character will be leveled up. The lock-on system is similar to what was found in Zelda 64. When in close proximity to an enemy, hit "Y", or hold "R" to lock-on, then rotate, jump, and slash to your heart's content. Of course when there are 3 or 4 enemies rushing you simultaneously, it is usually better off to remain free from the lock. Overall, compared to a mouse driven PC FPS, Maken X's control feels on the tight side, at least at first. Since the game relies on mostly close ranged combat, it would probably be better off tight and slow, than loose and overly sensitive.

If those hack and slash titles of old weren't your cup of tea, then the pattern based gameplay and simplistic mechanics of Maken X may not be your cup of tea. I consider myself a huge fan of the genre, and found Maken X enjoyable and rather playable. If you find yourself in the same situation, I suggest you giving the game a try.