Bad Carnage

Like a poor man’s Advance Wars, Mad Carnage is a forgettable tactics simulation with a Mad Max vibe. Controlling cars on a grid, the gimmick lies within unique character movement as cars cannot turn on a dime or rotate for a tight turn, can eventually be upgraded, and need to take advantage of environmental cover.  This means each battle essentially plays more like a puzzle game as you need to just wait for the enemy to come to you and hope you are facing the right direction.

Apparently the end of the world happened and the few people that are left are fighting over the scrapes of the old world, again, Mad Max-style. While there isn’t anything necessarily wrong with this plot point, it is just presented horribly.  The first thing the player sees is a screen filled with a novel’s amount of text.  And boy, let me tell you, there is nothing cooling than reading a book while playing a video game.  Stranger yet, there are some nicely detailed comic book cutscenes which makes these massive text boxes seem even more out of place.

Even if you could look through the awkward presentation, the complete lack of tutorial or overall instruction is a stutter step. The first level sort of acts as a tutorial but is more confusing than informative.  It wouldn’t be such a big deal if the car’s movement mechanic wasn’t so unique for a tactics game.  Because of this, the high difficulty factor is more unfair than anything, resulting in frustrating restarts and cheap tactics. There is, however, a local 2 player mode if so inclined.

I acknowledge the fact that Drageus Games and QubicGames are trying something different, and only asking $4.99 for this Switch digital download, but it still isn’t recommended unless you are a diehard tactics fan who wants to experience a different twist on the genre.

Play This Instead: any Mercenary Saga game by Circle Entertainment
Not As Good As: Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle
Also Try: Karnaaj Rally (GBA)

By: Zachary Gasiorowski, Editor in Chief myGamer.com
Twitter: @ZackGaz