Feelings: What I Want from Games

I was mostly drawn to MadWorld because it was a Platinum Games' game, and I was hoping that some of the guys that had worked on Okami were on the team -- given that Platinum was formed from the gutted and closed Clover Studios, which made Okami -- and could translate some of that game's charm.

I was lost in the world of Okami. I fell in love with the characters, style, storyline, music, etc., etc., etc. 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 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 anything that Okami gave me out of MadWorld. I mean, 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.

And that's ultimately my problem. I didn't really feel anything. It should have gone any number of other ways. I should have had the time of my life, smiling 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 wonton violence and death -- and complete disregard for showing what that really means and the effects it has. 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 game's as often as I'd like to nowadays. I work 365 days of the year and still live paycheck by paycheck, and when I'm not at work there's a two year old 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.

Some of my favorite games of all time were ones that made me really feel something, either for games as a whole, or for the characters within the game. Obviously it is a lot to expect every single game to help push the industry forward or connect with me on an emotional level, but with my limited amount of game time that is what I'm really trying 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 they will never be sold for 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 for with my gaming time.