MadWorld

I bought MadWorld in the summer of 2010 for the obscenely low price of $7 or so (new). Unfortunately, it was one of many, many purchases I made that year for no better reason than "it's cheap and I've heard good things." I bought 52 new games in that calendar year. Not only is that one a week - that's the exact number of games currently remaining on my backlog. What the hell was I thinking? I'm still paying for that game-acquiring splurge, and unfortunately MadWorld doesn't rank among the more memorable games I blew my wad on. To be fair, it wasn't a bad game. It also didn't take up a whole lot of my time. (Six hours?) The game is a comically dark hack-and-slash-em-up that has you fighting in a city-wide death match. It's presented in a unique style: black and white only, save for the blood - and oh, yes, there is plenty of blood. Genuinely funny commentary keeps the mood light enough, and the Wii control scheme employed here was actually original and interesting; this game wouldn't be the same on any other platform, since you swing the remote and nunchuck around to simulate ripping enemies in half and throwing flaming barrels or signposts at them. My biggest fear after one level of play was that the gameplay would grow old and stale, especially with the minimalist color palette at hand. Fortunately, there was enough variance in the environments to prevent this from being the case. MadWorld was a fun game, but it was also a silly and, probably, ultimately forgettable game. There's nothing wrong with those types of games, especially when they only cost you seven bucks, but on the long road to backlog completion a game like this one can feel more like a trivial nuisance than an enjoyable experience. Oh well. That's on me, I guess, for showing such poor restraint a year and a half ago. By the way, for the record, it's now been over two years since I've beaten a Wii game I truly loved: New Super Mario Bros. Wii, seven full games ago. Let's hope the remaining backlog - Super Mario Galaxy 2 and a couple of Metroid games - can blow me away.