Two Platinum Games beat em ups. One being their first game, the other a game I had imported because I couldn't wait for it to come in 2013. Compare and contrast, however superficial their similarities may be.

GAMES!!!!

I had not played Madworld since it first came out in 2009. I remember it being a fun rental, heck, I ended up liking it more than others. I really liked the black and white art style, the story was surprisingly good and the dichotomy between Proops and DiMaggio's color commentary during gameplay versus the serious story cutscenes in between was a nice touch. And the soundtrack was great too, not being a fan of hip hop of just about any kind (a few exceptions here and there) and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the tracks. This game had lots of style to it

I had only rented back when it came out, and I'm doing the same with it now. I probably could buy it for cheap at some point (hell, probably will). The style is great, but the gameplay does not quite match it.

That's not to say the gameplay systems are bad or don't have merit. It's a very good base for it. A beat em up that encourages you to use items in your environment or the environment itself to maim your enemies before finishing them off for huge points. I still found fun to be had in doing it, but in too many cases, it's easy to rely on the tire constraint followed by signpost through the head move. I at least made efforts to not rely too much on that combo, but that is most of what you are doing in stage one as that is the tutorial part of the game.

Personally, the high point of the game is either Stage 2 or 3, maybe both. From my memories of playing the game back in 2009, and playing it again now, I found those areas to be the most fun. Things like a gong where the reverb from throwing a dude against it gibs him, shaking up bottles, shoving them in enemies mouth, and send them flying, catapulting enemies to the (fake) moon. There is some good opportunities for unique kills, and they can be found throughout all the stages. But again, the rote tire and sign post combo is always present so even when you use those other environmental hazards to kill your enemies, you'll be starting most of them off with that combo.

The Blood Bath Challenges do emphasize the different ways to kill enemies a lot more than messing around in the main level. And in some cases, the stuff you do in those challenges can be applied to the main level. First stage doesn't really have a lot of that, there's no turbanator or giant dart board littered around the levels, but there are trains in the subway that you could probably get them to run over enemies (never really tried). First obvious example of applying the Blood Bath Challenges to the main level is the Money Shot, where you shake up drinks, stick them in enemies mouths, and sending them flying long distances. Those bottles can be found in the level and they're yours to use however you want.

There is indeed some variety to be had when killing enemies in Madworld, for sure. However, the thing that often hurts it, makes it feel like less, is the presence of tires and sign posts, or some look a like that has the same animation applied to it. They aren't meant to kill your enemies right away, but it would be nice to have something more unique to start your combo with every time. Regardless, I still had fun with Madworld. It's definitely got flaws, and I understand those flaws and why people don't like it. Guess the style was enough to carry me through to the end. Which is definitely good, as Stages 4 and 5, the game does start to get a bit tiring.

This game I was extremely excited to get when a very generous friend of mine on the internet offered to buy the game for me from Play-Asia. She paid over a hundred bucks to get me this game with the fastest shipping. For the price the game was going for, it seemed to be way to much, but because someone willingly offered to buy it, and I didn't have to save up the money, I now have the game. I can not thank her enough for doing it.

Anyway, the game. You could say it's like a Madworld successor, but whatever similarities those games have, they are rather superficial. Even the stories have no connection between them, it's like an alternate universe or something. It is still a beat em up. You have a finite number of moves you can pull off within the limits of the attack animations. It is however, deeper than what Madworld had for attacking with your fists, and the tires and sign posts are there as things on the side, not at the fore front of the fighting. Kinda like traditional beat em ups.

In fact, the game trades the whole environmental kills system for a traditional beat em up. At first it felt like them abandoning that old system was a cheap way out instead of fixing the lack of variety in it. But as I played more, the idea of this being a Madworld successor was less and less relevant. Some remnants of that past game remain, but the focus in this game separates it from that game greatly. You've got every button on the controller giving you various options in brawling with enemies, much more than Madworld. Light attacks, heavy attacks, grabs, guards and evades, killer weapons that you can bust out mid combo. When it comes to 3D beat em up depth, it doesn't beat God Hand. But this game may as well be a good runner up.

While the game has been promoted primarily for it's multiplayer focus, the game has single player mode with, once again, a surprisingly good story. There are two different sides you can choose from in the campaign, Black Side and White Side, but depending on which one you start with, you'll end up playing through both sides before returning to the one you started with as Red Side. Best comparison I can think of is like those 3D Sonic games Sonic Adventure and up, where beating all the available storylines unlocks a short, final story line that provides the true ending. Also, playing through the single player will unlock all the multiplayer characters, so there's another good reason to go through it if you want every character.

Speaking of which, I haven't done much with the multiplayer. No online yet or anything, just practicing in the simulator. It is fun to try out all the different characters and see what combos you can come up with, because they will be different for just about every character. So far of the characters I tried in the simulator, Durga is one of my favorites, if only because of his giant revolver in his right leg. I do want to try out Ai Rin, she looks like another character I would enjoy playing. Also, my copy of the game was one of the first print runs, so that meant that I got the Bayonetta code as well. Haven't played as her, but from videos that I've seen, her animations are straight out of her game. The style of combat in Bayonetta and Max Anarchy are different, but they did a good job of mapping her own combos to the game's combat system.

Max Anarchy is a ton of fun. May not be worth it for some to spend upwards of a hundred bucks for the game including shipping, but again, in my case I had someone who offered to do it for me. Still, this title continues Platinum Games' streak of quality games since Bayonetta. The fighting is fun, story is good, characters are diverse and interesting, oh, and the soundtrack is fucking awesome, tops anything from Madworld's soundtrack. Can't even begin to figure out what is my #1 track in this game. It's all so very good.

And the Rest

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2

After watching the Tony Hawk TNT last week, I felt like I should hook up my Dreamcast again and start playing my copy of Tony Hawk 2. Guess what, that is still an amazing game. Also realized that I did not complete the gap list and that is the only thing left until I have truly unlocked everything in that game. Yeah, I could use a cheat code or something to unlock Trixie, but where's the fun in that?

Things Other Than Games

Not a whole lot of stuff I can think off. Well, maybe some. This last Monday was student orientation at the college I will be attending this year. From 8 AM to 4 PM that day. It was mentally exhausting. And speaking of exhausting, work continues to be, physically anyway. Still, the pay's good.

Watched some anime this week as well. I borrowed the series Magical Shopping Arcade Abenobashi from a friend of mine and watched through that. Also saw Ghost in the Shell for the first time, and that was an amazing film. After finishing those two, I've gotten on a kick to watch more Ghost in the Shell and go back through Gainax's catalog of shows, like FLCL, Panty & Stocking, and Gurren Lagann (the latter of which I've already started watching since last night). All of that eventually leading to me rewatching Evangelion, which the friend who imported Max Anarchy for me said she was planning to come up and visit me in December, and she's never seen Evangelion. So I'll save it for that, plus it seems interesting to watch someone's reactions to it for the first time.

Yeah, that's about it.

In Conclusion

Thanks again for reading. Lately I haven't been finding as much time to write the drafts for these things. So many games I want to play and anime I want to watch that I don't want to do anything besides that. Guess that's both a good and bad thing.

Anyway, for games to expect from me in the future, I bought Dyad and Malicious on PSN, for 20% thanks to being a Playstation Plus subscriber. Now that I've got a new account and a subscription, I guess now is a good time as any to start buying into that ecosystem.

Peace.