Mad-TV [European]

Review

by Kyle Knight

Mad-TV is a funny and engaging game -- for about three days. After that, the repetitiveness of gameplay becomes apparent. This, coupled with shockingly poor music and only adequate graphics, doesn't provide much of a reason to continue playing.

Mad-TV's graphics are basically functional with a few funny animations scattered throughout. Most of the scenes, however, are just still backgrounds with little or no animation. Instead, to cover up this aspect, the game uses bright and cheery coloring schemes and backgrounds that, because of their busy nature, have a cluttered appearance. It's fairly safe to say that you'll never be impressed by anything you see in Mad-TV.

In some places the graphics actually work to the detriment of gameplay. In the advertising agency, the studio libraries and especially the movie agency, images of videotapes or files you can acquire are put side by side. Searching for the items you want can be annoying when you try and slowly slide your mouse cursor across the row of tapes. Some separation between the tapes or even a menu system would have helped.

The music in Mad-TV adds virtually nothing to the game. It's the kind of dull mindless music you might add to a game during the last day of development as an afterthought. The music sounds like someone idly tapped on an electronic keyboard to get a five-note sequence that could be repeated ad nauseam. You're better off turning the volume all the way down and listening to some of your own music.

Initially, Mad-TV's scope of gameplay will awe you since you're in control of virtually every aspect of station management. You buy and schedule shows, contract for advertisers and even set the news headlines being run. All this happens in real time, so if you screw up you could end up with no show or advertisement for a slot.

You'll have a lot of fun with the game for a few days but enjoyment is soon dulled by repetition and you may even find the game tedious. Every day that occurs during gameplay, you simply plug gaps in the schedule and then buy some shows for tomorrow's lineup while selling some old material you've already played a few times.

You then contract advertising and place ads in the appropriate time slots. After that, you just twiddle your thumbs while waiting for the day to end so you can repeat the whole process again the next day. Gameplay never gets any deeper and never gets any better.

Mad-TV might be a short diversion but isn't worth the cost of paying full price. If you get a chance, rent it, then return it once its limited charm has worn off in a day or two.