The gender bending buddy cop comedic awesomeness continues in the fourth monthly alpha release for Max’s Big Bust and just like the second update this one contains a major puzzle to solve to continue on. You can read our previous coverage, which doesn’t contain anything on the third build as it was purely story driven and nothing new, but what all you really need to know to enjoy the rest of this article is that a cop comes across a mysterious marble and magically transforms into a girl.
This latest alpha build for Max’s Big Bust covers two rather lengthy segments of the ongoing story. The first half features yet another investigative puzzle but instead of interrogating potential suspects and narrowing them down with a checklist, you’ve got a mystery at the Coffee Shrine. At the end of the third update Ryley calls Max and asks her to come over as soon as she can. Arriving to the scene she’s told that the place’s vials of transformation serum were taken from the locked cabinet and that she wants Max to find the culprit.
I won’t spoil the solution for those who want to experience this section of the game themselves but I will state that the guilty party is an employee, but with four people to choose from it won’t be that simple. Okay, it was pretty easy for me but I’m also a veteran adventure game player that can spot a clue hidden in a mess of pixels. Anyway, like the other major puzzle this is an interrogation sequence where you talk to everyone to discover clues, find any witnesses, and piece together everything to apprehend the culprit.
Max’s Big Bust is more than just a visual novel. Sure, there’s your standard click through screen upon screen of text and you make the occasional choice, but this is one that tries to push the boundaries and implement some lite adventure tropes into the experience. For instance, in the above puzzle you need to move the employees around to be able to do much of anything. Here’s where your phone comes in handy once again and you get Ryley to do the employee shuffle.
Once you figure out who stole the vials it’s on to the next big scene in the new build. Back during the Kickstarter one of the stretch goals was to include an expanded scene where you get to play as Amber and Holly on board a train. While it didn’t make it via the campaign itself it was decided to be put in anyway and what we got was a linear but exciting sequence of events that don’t have you play as the titular character. I enjoyed the action, the humor, and most importantly more screen time with my favorite insane otaku lesbian.
In addition to the two major pieces of story we are also treated to another great cutscene animation with yet another transformation. While I saw something coming I was actually expecting something quite different. I won’t spoil it but it makes me want to see the next section of Max’s Big Bust even more now. Each month we’re treated to more silly shenanigans and more nods to the previous work by Lach sprinkled throughout. The deeper we go into the tale the more I find myself wanting to continue the story and it continues to be funny without treating everything as a joke.
