A tale of two Wiis

I just got two Wii games in the mail today and they couldn't be more different. The zany, Japanesy family fun Excitebots: Trick Racing and MadWorld, the game that shouldn't be played within half a mile of anyone under 18.

I didn't immediately go for Excitebots. The graphics are underwhelming and the controls are a bit chaotic. Meaning that you're flailing your hands all over the place. You hold the Wii remote like a steering wheel, but there's very little steering involved. The bots I used on the opening tracks required very little left and right movement. It was more about knowing when to jump, boost, and wave around like an idiot. Maybe that changes later, I don't know. But once you get a feel for this, it's a little entertaining. Still, I won't be keeping this one for long.

MadWorld is f'ing nuts. And it is on purpose. It's sort of a take on Running Man where your grizzled character is supposed to kill dudes in the most inventive way possible to get points and please a TV audience. I'm really loving the running commentary from Greg Proops, a Who's Line is it Anyway? alum. You also may recognize his voice as one of the announcers from the pod race scene in Episode I. The art style is all black and white with splashes of red for blood. And there's a lot of blood. You'd think that depth perception would suffer but I haven't had any problems with that just yet. Everything I've seen so far has been over the top, vulgar, violent, and ridiculous. I love it.