Mid-week Gaming: Fighter Jets, Green Tanks, and Exploding Cars

Krish Raghav — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 04:07:00 GMT

Just another day in the flash gaming world, eh?

Playing Mad Monday is like watching an animated episode of World’s Wildest Police Videos, minus the grating announcer and the endless blurry, punch-drunk, slow motion replays.

It’s fast (controls polished till they shine), colourful (especially the fantastically exaggerated explosions), and obviously politically incorrect.

Now, Mad Monday obviously doesn’t take itself too seriously, and doesnt attempt to reach the level of satire that, say, Blood Car 2000 Deluxe does, i.e using its sheer level of violence and bloodbath as a statement. (‘Play more bloody games!’, the intro screen urges you)

The game cheerfully includes flamethrowers, assault weapons, grating heavy metal music, and throws in endless opportunities for wanton urban destruction.

The link between violence and video games is tenuous at best, but games like Mad Monday leave me a little uncomfortable. Sure, they’re incredible fun, and meant as momentary distractions to work - but some of the design elements are just too…well, blatant, to ignore.

Surely, you didn’t necessarily require ambulances and school buses as part of the traffic cavalcade you’re required to unceremoniously destroy? Generic cars would have sufficed. Given the sheer kinetic pace of the game, I doubt too many would notice.

And squishing pedestrians? It’s almost become a cliché for any driving game set outside a racetrack, but here, it adds absolutely nothing to the gameplay, except the opportunity for a small bonus during the level crossings and road junctions.

Even the faux-TV news channel logo in the lower right corner – why must the scenario be clouded under and painted over a ‘spectacular, breaking news!’ façade?

Reading the last few paragraphs, I find my arguments a little weak – surely my objection should be with the nature of the game itself (shooting cars) rather than nitpicking details (No ambulances, but normal cars are okay)?

The (very) short answer is yes, It should be - and, to an extent, it is. But that’s a whole new can of worms…best left for another post.

So, yeah. Enough of that. Play Mad Monday, get a few kicks…and move on Open Doors. It’s a much more…meditative experience. I promise.

Links:

Mad Monday

Open Doors

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Mid-week Gaming: Fighter Jets, Green Tanks, and Exploding Cars