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MadWorld: Actually a Pretty Even-Keeled World

Unlike Bayonetta, Sega were all too happy to let me try out MadWorld yesterday. After a quick tutorial in the controls, I was thrown, for lack of a better phrase, into the deep end of Varrigan City. I walked away from the game thinking three distinct things:

One: Ultra-detailed black and white games are as cool in practice as they are in theory, but I can see why there aren’t too many of them.

Two: Platinum Games took Suda 51’s No More Heroes combat model and improved its accuracy and versatility in significant ways.

Three: MadWorld’s kind of… boring.

Double Dragon in the Flesh. The NAKED Flesh.

I don’t get to write about one of my greatest and longest lasting gaming loves here on 61 Frames Per Second. It’s understandable, after all. They simply don’t make beat ‘em ups very often anymore. In the realm of three-dimensional interactive entertainments, you rarely find a game that is purely about punching people and/or monsters in the groin and dropkicking them in the face. Yes, there’s God Hand, but more often than not, you have to get your thrills from weapons-based affairs like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden. Even more rare is the 2D brawler. Castle Crashers was a succulent feast for my starving soul last year. Most of the time, when I need to get a fix of beating the ever-loving hell out of semi-defenseless sprites, I need to go back to the well of yesteryear. I need to fire up the Saturn for a little Dungeons and Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara. When I’m feeling especially punchy, I’ll even indulge in a smattering of Maximum Carnage on Super Nintendo. And, of course, there’s always a time for Double Dragon. Sometimes, the only thing that will make you feel whole is making a guy wearing a spandex onesie knee a seven foot tall bald man in the chest.

Lucky for me that the modding community keeps reimagining classic experiences like these. It keeps things fresh. Gaming, like marriage, occasionally needs a little spice after twenty years. This, however, is not necessarily what I had in mind.

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.