all games are not created equal

Both of these games have you playing as the main contestant on an ultra-violent TV show.  The goal is to kill everyone in the level in the most violent and most theatrical way possible.  With MadWorld, you do this by chaining together violent actions, like impaling an enemy with a signpost, then throwing them into a burning barrel.  As you do this, you earn points to increase your score.  In Manhunt, it's not about chaining, but more about sneaking around and pulling off the most violent action possible by being patient.  The basic concept of these two games are very similar, but the way you have to play the game is totally different.

Each game takes a different approach to the same concept, but Manhunt is the one that ends up with the better overall game.  The atmosphere in Manhunt can be pretty tense, whereas MadWorld doesn't really have that.  On paper, I would much prefer a game like MadWorld to a game like Manhunt, but with these two games, that isn't the case.  There's just something about MadWorld that makes me kinda unable to really enjoy it.

Run around and kill everything in the games different stages and get a high score.  Both games are exactly that, but simplicity isn't a bad thing, which is why Smash TV wins on this one for me.

MadWorld has a combo system where you chain attacks together, but it doesn't feel like a natural way to fight the enemies most of the time.  Smash TV doesn't have combos, but it does have several different weapons and powerups.

If you wanna beat Smash TV, it's not gonna take very long.  Also, there is no story.  That doesn't matter though, because that half hour I may spend playing Smash TV is more enjoyable than the half hour I would spend playing MadWorld.

The thing that these games have in common is the existence of a combo system.  You chain together actions to get higher and higher multipliers and points.

NBA Street was sweet because you could throw combos into your normal game and they felt like they fit.  It was fun to try and max out the number of things you could link together. 

MadWorld has almost none of that fun with chaining.  It's very systematic and very rarely totally spontaneous.  You see a sign post, a barrel and a wall of spikes and you know that you're gonna spend 20 seconds impaling the guy with the sign, slamming the barrel over his head and then slamming him into the wall of spikes just to get some combo points.  Yippie.

On top of that, NBA Street is just more fun to play =P

Both of these games can't hold my attention beyond 20-30 minutes.  But during those minutes, MadWorld was boring and repetitive.  HAWX, while also repetitive, was kinda fun to play.  I could see myself finishing HAWX and not being angry at myself for beating it.  I think if I beat MadWorld, I would have wished I had spent that time playing another game, such as HAWX.

Quite a beaming review of these games.  HAWX isn't a bad game at all.  It's a flight sim though, and I've never really loved flight sims.

Only because I've recently played both of these games.

I actually played through all of Wanted in one sitting.  All 4 hours of it.  I don't know if it was because I enjoyed the game or if I felt like I could beat the game in one sitting.  MadWorld, however, didn't keep me playing.  My sessions were maybe 30 minutes long. 

The thing is though, I think MadWorld did more things right than Wanted and ended up with a better game.  I have a couple issues with the way they pulled off the black and white effect in MadWorld, but it still looks decent.  MadWorld also has a combo system that I think if I gave it a chance, could grow on me.  Overall, you can tell that a decent amount of thought went into MadWorld.

As for Wanted, it does do the bullet curving thing right.  It is fun to use and can product some cool kills.  Mostly everything else in the game though isn't quite perfect.  Controls are sluggish, some sections of the game are terribly annoying, sniping is lame, graphics look kinda dated and you pretty much fight all the enemies in the exact same way (hide behind cover, curve a bullet to get them out of cover, then shoot them).

I give this to MadWorld, even though I may have had more fun playing Wanted.  I just know that MadWorld is the better game.