Before you decide to download this game please do check out the in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Please only post comments about today's game giveaway; other comments either inappropriate, or comments with only one or a few words; for example vg, good, thank you, TY, bad, rubbish, this game is ****** etc , or if the comment has nothing to do with today's game or is complaining (send your complaints to the giveaway team via the contact form that I've linked to below), they may be deleted at the moderator or administrators discretion; however, a little light banter among community members/friends and with the moderator to keep this a friendly place to visit is acceptable and welcomed. All comments not specifically about today's game giveaway will be judged by the moderator and if deemed inappropriate, will be deleted and usually with no explanation. Please see the moderation policy HERE for details about posting comments.

Marcus Level

In Brief

A casual adveture running game with platformer elements.

Installation:

Marcus Level downloads to a 210 MB zip file that unzips to three files, (a setup.gcd security wrapper, the set up file and a read me). Those with multiple hard drives are able to save games on any drive they wish. The newly installed game is 1.15 GB in size. The game installs to the following path by default, but can be changed by the user if you prefer:

C:\Program Files (x86)\MyPlayCity.com\Marcus Level

Four shortcuts are installed to the desktop. three of which can be safely deleted (Play Online Games, MyPlayCity Games and shortcuts to a free online game which vary each week). Also, if you don't like icons installed to the quick launch task bar, make sure you uncheck the box when the additional tasks window appears (after the Select Start Menu Folder window)

Introduction:

Overcome lots of obstacles and save the beautiful princess in the game Marcus Level! Play the amazing game and help the boy get back from the virtual reality with his beloved! Marcus Level is an adventure game of an ordinary boy named Marcus who loved video games. A lot of people may probably recognize themselves in him, but what will you do if you accidentally get inside the computer game? Play all of them through, cope with all the difficulties as you did in the reality and become invincible virtual hero! Get rid of the wizard's intrigues, complete all the goals and save the princess from the dragon!

Reference accessed HERE. 17th November 2017

The Game:

Review 1:

A young boy who gets trapped inside a video game? Well, it all sounds a little familiar.. doesn’t it? That aside, Marcus Level [$0.99], despite its strange name, is a curious platform game that takes elements from the endless runner genre to combine a unique twist on what is essentially a quirky finite runner game.

The colorful, cartoon-esque visuals hit you instantly as soon as you load the game. Despite its obvious attempts to be ‘unique,’ Marcus Level, unfortunately, falls just short of the mark as its bothersome mechanics and slight repetition weigh it down unnecessarily.

The control system is fairly straightforward, you tap the left icon for a spinning slash attack, and the right icon to jump. Sadly, that’s about as straightforward as it gets, as this becomes riddled with issues the further you progress. Marcus’ unique twist is that you can change direction if you hit a wall or surface. Despite this interesting quirk, I managed to get completely and utterly stuck on one of the levels when Marcus decided to do a complete u-turn and ended up underwater (de-froggified) and unable to turn around. This led to me having to completely restart the entire level, thus causing more frustration than anything else.

Don’t get me wrong, the game is enjoyable for the most part. Its primary grievances mainly revolve around having to deal with the unpredictable controls, which can pretty much mess everything up if you’re engaged in a time challenge. If you’re not a fan of repetition, you probably will want to steer clear of Marcus Level as you’ll find you need to complete the levels more than once to achieve all the goals and beat all the challenges. Once you’ve run through the level for the first time, you can attempt to surpass “Ephi’s” score, in which you’ll find yourself having to complete the level in under a minute. Here’s where the minor frustration sets in because you’ll find the controls somewhat of a major hindrance. Occasionally if you see a secret you need to collect, the game will frustratingly send you constantly in the wrong direction despite how much you attempt to pursue it, which can be the cause of much frustration.

Luckily, there’s lots to do in Marcus, so if you’ve not already thrown in the towel, you can sink your teeth in some other achievements, including discovering all the secrets, collecting all the chocobongo’s and even amassing all the badges from the other levels. You’ll find yourself backtracking a lot in order to advance to the other stages and worlds due to the game’s insistence that you complete all the badge challenges in order to reach the “boss” level. Another slight letdown is the obvious lack of GameCenter functionality, which means if you enjoy competing against your friends, you’ll be a little disappointed, but there are extra trophy achievements which could keep you busy for a great many hours.

At the beginning of each stage, you can trade the in-game currency to spend towards bonuses that will aid you in your level as you advance. Sadly if you die (and you only get one life at a time) you lose all the bonuses you’ve just purchased, so its better to be sparing sometimes rather than go all out on a whim.

Overall, Marcus Level is a great casual game if you’re looking for something to kick back to, but it’s definitely only a game for those who have oodles of patience and a lot of spare time on their hands.

Reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by Lucy Ingram on 27th June 2014. Reposted by Whiterabbit-uk th October 2017.

Review 2:

Marcus Level is a playful endless runner with platformer elements. There are 20 levels spanning four worlds in Marcus Level and players must complete certain tasks to earn badges to unlock the boss and bonus levels in each world. Players progress through the levels by jumping on or attacking enemies and jumping over obstacles. The in game currency called ChocoBongos can be used to purchase powerups, upgrades, and to unlock some levels. Marcus Level require iOS 4.3 or later and is compatible with iPhone 4 and up, iPad 2 and up, iPad mini, iPad Air, and iPod touch 4th generation and up.

Players can earn up to five badges in each level (one for completing the level, one for getting all of the ChocoBongos, one for getting all of the secrets, one for beating a time trial, and one for completing the level without using a checkpoint). Badges can be obtained by completing the level while meeting certain conditions like a time trial where you try to beat a time set by a character named Ephi or getting all of the ChocoBongos in that level. These challenges seem fairly easy but the difficulty level varies dramatically from level to level depending on which badge you are trying to get. Sometimes, getting the badge for beating the time trial is really easy because the quickest path to take is obvious and other times the path is much harder to realize.

A lot of the time getting all of the badges requires replaying the level over again as taking the quickest path usually means you won't be able to get all the secrets in the level at the same time because they are on a different path. Having to replay a level lets players explore different paths and this is rewarding for the player because they might be able to complete a badge requirement on their own without having to use a powerup.

Powerups can be purchased with ChocoBongos at the start of a level and these help players find secrets, get a head start on Ephi's time, have more life points or collect the ChocoBongos easier. Players can use the secrets power-up to direct them towards the hidden secrets. The time power-up is helpful for beating Ephi's time in a couple of levels in particular where it is harder to quickly navigate the level. The life power-up gives players an extra chance to get through a level if they are having trouble with enemies or obstacles without having to restart from the beginning.

Finally, the magnet power-up is used for drawing the ChocoBongos closer to you. The magnet was not as effective as similar power-ups in other games as the range for the magnet is not very large. A lot the time, players collect nearly the same amount without the power up as they do with it. One solution for this problem is that you can upgrade the power-ups so they are more effective. However, it is weird that players would have to choose between using their ChocoBongos for upgrades or having the power-up for that level. It would be nice if the magnet power-up was a little bit better to make choosing the magnet power up a better choice from the start.

Another problem in Marcus Level is that the area you are supposed to touch is a little too small especially for the jump and action button. This leads to players pressing thinking they have pressed the button to perform the action and expecting the character to react but he doesn't. Sometimes this is frustrating to deal with and takes a little away from the enjoyably fun nature of Marcus Level.

Marcus Level features a cartoony art style meant to represent a video game world. The main character in the game, Marcus, fits in well with the rest of the art style and plays up the fun nature of the game. Each world features differently themed enemies which keeps Marcus level feeling fresh and the character design with the enemies encourages players to keep going to see what the next world's enemies will look like.

Reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by Jessica Buchanan on 26th Aug 2014. Reposted by Whiterabbit-uk 17th November 2017.

Review 3:

Endless running and platforming go together like peanut butter and chocolate. There is a reason that there are entire series of videos online featuring people trying to speed run games. This phenomenon gave birth to an amazing sub-genre of gaming that Marcus Level hopes to exploit to its fullest. Hopefully Marcus has his running shoes on, because things are about to get really speedy.

Bolting from left to right is kind of Marcus’ thing. He has somehow managed to become entrapped in his favorite video game. To escape before his parents come home, players must help Marcus save the princess and vanquish the evil Vipkrad. How does he do that? By running through stages as quick as possible, collecting all of the jewels (otherwise known as chocobongos), or completing a series of four other goals.

Badges, which are acquired from completing each of a stage’s five goals, are used to unlock either the boss stage or other entirely new worlds. The resulting game is a repetitive process of trial and error in order to collect enough badges to progress the campaign forward. As simple as this sounds in concept, objectives such as finding the correct path in order to clear a stage in under a minute will at times seem borderline impossible. However, once the proper line is found the sense of accomplishment is genuinely euphoric.

Beyond complaints about the rather strenuous badge count hindering the game’s progress, simple concepts like a retry button are notably absent from a post-level breakdown. Given the game’s make-up, it would seem like common sense that players would want the ability to run through stages multiple times in a row.

While playing, it was hard to put a finger on what Marcus Level’s structure was reminiscent of. After hearing the peppy tune that accompanied the first bonus stage, the homage suddenly becomes clear: this is essentially a less friendly version of the “Rayman Run” series. All it would take is an adjustment to make stages unlock with a few less badges and suddenly the game would become just as appealing, too.

There are a couple of key elements working against Marcus Level that make it far more difficult to recommend than its brethren. Fortunately, the fact that it is free somewhat earns it a pass to be slightly less forgiving to players. Hopefully, there are slight updates to curb the rather steep unlock cap a bit, but it's still more than competent enough to compete with other premium-priced games that are similar.

Edited reference accessed HERE. Originally posted by Blake Grundman on June 26th, 2014. Reposted by Whiterabbit-uk 17th November 2017.

storage-midas-fb95e15ff01114a51263aa7ea477acdb-200630147-1.jpg" alt="hss-storage-midas-fb95e15ff01114a51263aa7ea477acdb-200630147-1"/>

Other Reviews and Videos of Marcus Level:

You can see Steam community reviews of Marcus Level HERE. There are several in-game videos of game play HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE.

Conclusion:

Unless you are fast with your keyboard'controller, this is a hard game to beat, as are most runner games. Personally I rarely get past the first few levels when playing runner games, as I constantly crash into obstacles and are returned to the beginning time and time again, which becomes a little tedious. That said, if you are up for a challenge, you’ll probably like this game. To earn badges and to unlock bonus levels and bosses you need to complete certain tasks, which can be hard to accomplish unless you are fast on the keyboard. Positives include several language options which are accessed via the options icon, a nice cartoon graphic suitable for all the family and decent game play. As I didn’t progress very far in this game I won't be giving it a score.

Suggestions:

After you've had an opportunity to play today's giveaway please take a few moments to give some positive or negative feedback; for example, what you liked or disliked about the game, or how it could be improved. If you don't like the genre at all, please explain why and if any, what improvements would change your mind? If you don't have time to post a comment today, please do so at your convenience, thank you. If you wish to post a review or comment about the game at a later date, you can access the comments section by going to the game giveaways home page, then scroll to the bottom of the page where it says Archives and select the date the giveaway was live (giveaway days are in bold type). This will open up the appropriate page for you to post your comment or review. Alternatively, you can google the name of the game and include Gamegiveawayoftheday in the search. This should give you a list of links to whenever this game was given away.

There are thousands of subscribers to the game giveaway of the day every weekend which makes this an ideal forum for giving developers new or fresh ideas as to what their consumers (i.e you) would like to see in a game. For example, you could suggest extra content such as better or more original mini-games, or a level editor that you would like to see that would make it more appealing to you. Maybe you think the graphics are a little dated and are in need of re-skinning, or maybe you've just had enough of the genre and want to see something different or something with more originality? Giving such feedback instead of saying nothing or just saying this game is rubbish or good may bring more developers to the site, which could mean more and better games. Would 'you' give away thousands of copies of a game (or extra content for a game) away to a community that complains all the time instead of giving useful feedback? It only needs a few moments of your time.

This site could be transformed if only the community would be more forthcoming in their opinions of the games they are getting for free instead of complaining about the way this site has changed, for example, they don't like MPC games, they hate HOG's, have had enough of Match Three and Time Management games or they want to see the latest version of Call of Duty or some other big name AAA game given away or that they don't like Steam games. If something isn't for you then please move on to the next giveaway, or check out the forums HERE, HERE and HERE, where a few members of the community post details of various free games and free game sites as well as links to various indie bundle sites etc; you never know, you may find something that really interests you.

If you miss today's game giveaway you can always get the game via MyPlayCity 24/7 HERE; or If you prefer to purchase the game you can get it HERE via Steam for £3.99/$4.99.

Problems getting Marcus Level to work:

If you're having problems installing or activating or getting Marcus Level to work please visit the FAQ's Thread HERE and read through the communities comments because sometimes fixes have already been posted, for example, a common issue seen since the Themida wrapper was introduced three years ago is that some community members installation of the game are blocked by their security because Themida code has been known to hide malware, (usually an error message is flagged for example 'The executable is corrupted' even though in reality it is not); so as a precaution some anti malware programs will block and even delete the suspect installation files even though the files (i.e the setup, read me and setup.gcd files are actually totally free from malware. This issue can be solved either by rebooting your computer in safe mode with networking or a quicker method is to temporarily turn off your security software to allow the installation. You could also try whitelisting the setup.gcd file. In the almost 11 years this game giveaway site has been operating there has 'never' been a game given away that was infected with malware.

If for any reason you want to contact the giveaway team, for example, you have a game to offer the community, or are unable to download the latest game or other issues that the FAQ's thread or these comments don't cover or solve you can do so HERE

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank MyPlayCity for giving away Marcus Level and also to the game giveaway team, as always, for securing other ways to get free games.

Useful Information not related to today's game giveaway:

If Marcus Level doesn't interest you, but you still hanker for something new to play, you'll find details of some game deals whether they be sale items, indie bundles or games being given away for free HERE (I've not updated the thread in a while, but most of the links still take you to the latest deals).

The rest of the information that used to be posted in the game review can be found in the forums HERE. Finally, check out Delenns threads for details of other free games and offers HERE and eslewhere in the game discussion forums HERE, (usually on the first page of the game discussion forums).

The latest Origin giveaway is Plants vs. Zombies Game of the Year Edition. which you can find HERE. If you love Tower Defense, or arcade games in general, this is a fabulous game. It's not like your typical TD game. It's easy to pick up, but hard to stop playing. A fantastic and well balanced arcade game, with brilliant game play and in my opinion one of the best of its kind. You can see a couple of game play videos HERE and HERE.