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Editor's note: With my decreased playing time, I find myself in much the same situation as Alex. My free time is more valuable now, so I want more out of my gaming than just mindlessly passing the time. What do the rest of you think? -Jay
I was mostly drawn to MadWorld because Platinum Games developed it. Platinum consists of some of the members of the gutted and closed Clover Studios, and I was hoping that they could translate some of the charm of their previous project, Okami, into this release.
While I played it, I was lost in the world of Okami. I fell in love with the characters, style, storyline, and music. In one of the final scenes of the game, my eyes even welled up a little from the events unraveling in the cutscene before me. So, I was really crossing my fingers when I hoped that enough of the crew that made me feel that way had landed on the team behind MadWorld, given that it also had a unique visual style.
I don't think I ever expected MadWorld to deliver any of the same experiences that Okami did. The hyper-violence was obviously a dramatic step away from the pastel world of Amaterasu and crew. Still, I wanted to feel something. I didn't care what, as long as it was an emotion invoked from something in the game -- be it the story, world, style, or gameplay.
Ultimately, my problem with MadWorld is that it didn't really make me feel anything. It should have gone any number of other ways. I should have had the time of my life and smiled wide as I hurled "bad" guys into ever more ridiculous devices of death. I should have been really inspired by the satire of the world we might eventually be living in --one that is ripe with over-the-top reality shows that show no value for human life. I should have been disgusted by the wanton violence and death and the complete disregard for the meaning and effects that these actions have. I should have felt something like this, right?
I really don't know if I should have, but I wanted to. I don't get to play games as often as I'd like to nowadays. I work 365 days of the year and still live paycheck to paycheck. When I'm not at work, I have a two-year-old at home doing something she shouldn't be doing every second I turn away. So, when I get the chance to sit down and play a game, I really want it to count.
When I consider my favorite games of all time, I count ones that made me really feel something, either for the game as a whole, or for the characters within the game. Obviously, I can't expect every single game to help push the industry forward or connect with me on an emotional level. However, with my limited amount of game time, that is what I'm really hoping to find with every game I decide to pick up.
MadWorld clearly didn't do that for me. I didn't hate the game, but I didn't particularly feel any sense of closeness to it. My copies of games like Shadow of the Colossus, ICO, Beyond Good & Evil, Okami, and Psychonauts will sit on my shelf with pride. I will treasure them, replay them, and reminisce about them, but I will never sell them to get the next cool thing. MadWorld, however, could easily disappear, and I would probably forget all about it. I mean no offense to the developers, really. It just wasn't what I'm looking to fill my gaming time with.
