I haven' t had a ton of time to play video games lately, but I've been spending what I do have on two games in particular. One is Mad World, which is simply one of the best games in the action / shooting / fighting/ catharsis genres. It's a simple arcadey bloodfest that is unapologetically over the top. You don't just kill guys. You throw an old tire over their head, pick them up, head butt them, dump them into a flaming barrel, pick up the barrel, knock it against a spiked wall, and then rattle them around on the wall five or six times. Let me tell you, there's something special about using your cute little Wii remote to chainsaw someone while they're on the ground. Oh yeah! It's on the Wii. What could make this game better? How about announcers doing a play-by-play while you hold someone under a rotary saw? Oh, wait. Those are in there too!! Sounds kind of gruesome, doesn't it? Well, it is in a stupid, comic book sort of way. Maybe something's wrong with me, but I found myself laughing more than cringing. It's those announcers that really pull it together with lines like, "Why would the city set up so many saw blades in the middle of the street?" or "How come nobody else found that crate full of weapons before? Oh well."
The next obsession is proving to be Guitar Hero: Metallica. This game is simply freaking awesome. Granted, I may be biased because I'm a Guitar Hero fan AND a Metallica fan. Even so, this game just feels metal from start to finish. It's so metal that I somehow DON'T feel dorky striking a tough guy stance while banging out Sanitarium and Master of Puppets on a toy guitar. Now why, oh why, can't this unlock some cool concert t-shirts for my Avatar??
