Maple Thief Review

Maple Thief is a single player version of the mega popular Maple Story MMO on pc. Maple Thief takes everything that players loved about Maple Story minus all those other annoying players who were always running around. You play as a character who wants to become the best thief in the world. So naturally you would have to do hours and hours of fetch quests, that’s just how you do it right?

Now at first this might sound like a terrible idea. Who wants a MMO minus all the massively multiplayer? It turns out that the game hold up pretty well without thousands of other players. When you take out all the other players Maple Thief is just a quirky Japanese action RPG side scrolling platformer, and a pretty good one at that.

If you have no idea what Maple Story is, much less Maple Thief is, let me break it down for you. Imagine an old school Mario style platformer, and then add in swords, magic, quests, and class based leveling.  All in an anime/cartoon art style. Well there you have it, Maple Thief in a nutshell.

Now here is some advice. If you are a casual gamer just looking for something fun to play, stay away. Do yourself a favor and just stop reading. This is not the game for you. Maple Thief is just as hard as Maple Story is on the PC. Even if you are a competent gamer I would advise you to take a step back and analyze what kind of a gamer you are. Do you enjoy walking into an area and having to jump around attempting to dodge creatures that are much higher leveled than you? How about doing countless fetch quests? Maple Thief is a sound game, it just only appeals to a very select type of gamer, the kind that is already playing Maple Story on the PC.

On top of being incredibly hardcore and difficult Maple Thief does have one other glaring flaw, the controls. Like most “real” games on iPhone developers must substitute a control for a virtual pad. I have yet to see this work flawlessly. Maple Thief’s is worse than most though. The buttons are just too small to be of any use. Also jumping right when you need it is nearly impossible. I have spent literally ten minutes in town trying to reach a weapons merchant who was several platforms above me. I finally got so frustrated that I quit the game. I came back later and it took me another 7 minutes to get to him. On PC being a side scrolling action rpg platformer works great because you have a mouse and keyboard to accurately control your character. On iPhone I found it more frustrating than anything, the jump mechanic just didn’t work well.

Now I know I have spent a great of time harping on some pretty big flaws in the design of Maple Thief, but the thing is, it is still really fun. I have logged around ten hours right now and I still have hours and hours to go. If you are a fan of Japanese side scrollers then Maple Thief is a solid choice for you.