MAD

"Making Apropos Decisions."

Yes, this is another Atari game that made me understand the meaning of life. The theme found here is knowing what's going to happen next and preparing oneself for the difficulties that lie ahead. MAD has you controlling a static cannon at the bottom of the screen surrounded by three buildings on each side that you need to protect. The danger is kamikaze pilots in different kinds of planes that appear scrolling from right to left above you.

Each plane will continue its course, first appearing from the right side and leaving through the left, except of course the trouble making pilots that "hit" your towers and leave them destroyed. You will recognise these kamikaze pilots beforehand though through the change of their colour, as they will become white before their altitude drops and they "land" on either a tower or on your cannon, thus somehow destroying one of the towers that you need to protect.

You move the cannon's aim right or left, making an angle so as to make sure the kamikazes are destroyed before they destroy a building of yours. You can destroy planes that don't glow if you want, but the ones posing a threat are the priority. Sometimes they will miss your towers, sometimes they will change colour but do nothing, and sometimes they blow themselves up immediately after changing colours, so you will need to have fast reflexes in order to survive. But as with many similar games, eventually the game becomes extremely hard and the planes become so fast and plenty there's no way to destroy them all, and you are left to watch as everything you're supposed to protect is no more.

But what is the meaning of all this? Why should you protect these buildings? More importantly, why are there pilots willing to give up their lives in order to have them destroyed? Why do they change colour (to warn you) before they go down, and why the hell does a plane crashing down on the cannon destroy a standing building distanced away from it? Is it an early vision prophecising the 9/11 attacks? Then what's the cannon supposed to be? Bush's foreign policies? Is it just an Atari game developed by some fat ass nerd for the money, or is it a secret hidden message that contains the meaning of life?

The cannon fires at a pretty slow rate. The cannon's shot moves slow, moving your aiming is slow, and the planes going down are (relatively) slow. This provides for more thinking and strategic planning rather than mindlessly shooting in every direction (not that you can do that anyway). The thing that creates the diversity is the fact that white planes don't indicate when they will go down. Will it happen now? Maybe after the plane behind it, or maybe not at all, who knows? You don't and that's why you'll need to put all possibilities and make sure the current wave ends with the lowest casualties. Not to mention that calculating whether a plane at its speed and angle will fall down on one of your towers or miss makes this one for the clever gamer, not the dude who shot down the plane because he felt like it.

Just like he who goes on in life by living in the moment. Without preparing for what lies ahead but instead relying on luck or intuition.

To put things in a simple way, imagine the towers being your dreams and ambitions. The planes are the obstacles in your way, the cannon your willpower and determination, and aiming is using your judgement to overcome these obstacles through the help of that determination. At first you won't find many obstacles and most of them are better left behind as they don't pose a direct threat to you. Plus getting rid of them will only waste your time and leave you regretting it in the end.

The obstacles that do possess a direct threat however are clear to you and are apparent as something in need of destroying. Use your judgement to get rid of it in the best way possible so as to maintain your dreams intact. The most dangerous kind of obstacle is that which affects your brain directly, so a plane hitting your cannon will drive you away and distract you from what you strive to achieve. It will make you hesitate and weaken your judgement, which makes it certainly most dangerous to you. Given that the cannon is the largest object and easiest to sway, these obstacles are what you'll need to take care of most importantly. Which gives the game even more strategy and depth.

But can a plane miss a tower and not be of danger? Again, you'll need correct judgement and precision to know whether or not an obstacle is of threat, so it's pretty much dependant on how much thought is invested into the matter. Of course the longer it takes you to achieve your goals, the harder they become to accomplish. Picture a dream that you've had for the longest of times, one that doesn't happen in the far future, but rather not too late from when you are. Now as much as you delay it and waste its achievement, as much more obstacles will appear in front of you. As much more difficult it becomes to maintain, so make sure you don't waste your opportunities and seize them all before you say that another one will come. In the end it'll all stack up and destroy your hopes and desires with ease, prompting you to feel sad and desperate.

Don't waste any valuable time, bucco, because time is what life is made of, and if you value life then you should value time (Bruce Lee quote). Just like the pace of this review, or the changing plane types in the game, different times require different approaches so use your brain to make the correct decisions.

Now you might be thinking, "Goddamn you're a lunatic out of his ****ing mind. What insane asylum did you escape from you crazy ass loon?" or "Hey you're filling this review with unnecessary info you kb whore. How did it get accepted in the first place?" but let me tell you that if you actually did play MAD, and then put all of the things I have said in perspective then maybe you'll start making the connection. Words are weak, but playing an Atari game while making symbols inside it resembling life will get you to understand. It will probably make you appreciate the game more, or even persuade you to try it out for yourself. It is only a good game on the outside (hence the 7/10 score), but you may find something more if you try hard enough, so give it a shot if you will. Try to go past the decent but blocky graphics and good for an VCS game sounds and delve to what is behind MAD. If you're one who would regret it then you weren't worth experiencing it from the start.

Man, I knew I should've studied Philosophy instead of engineering. :/ Oh and I'm totally going to fail that calculus final I took the other week. :'(

Anyway play MAD, it's good and worth it!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/24/06