Mad Carnage review

Reviewed on: Nintendo Switch

Judging by the title and artwork, Mad Carnage gives the impression of being an action game in the style of the famous Twisted Metal series. Surprisingly, it is turn-based strategy with cars! The concept is unimaginable but, somehow, developer Drageus Games managed to make it work.

Story: 6

The plot is completely inspired by Mad Max. In a world destroyed by a great war, gangs fight each other over fuel and other resources. You control the gang led by John Carnage, whom the text refers to as a hero (as if it were easy to define who is good and who is bad in a context of war for survival). The story is presented through good comic-book-style illustrations and enormous “walls” of text that seem out of place on the Switch screen instead of in a book. There is nothing very original in the plot, but it is enough to give the actions in the game a reason to exist.

Mechanics: 7

The action takes place on different boards, always with the same goal: destroy all the rival gang’s vehicles. As in traditional strategy titles, you move each vehicle one at a time within an area delimited by grids. The difference is that the number of squares and the direction you can advance in are determined not only by the vehicle type but also by the speed at which your car moved in the previous turn. Speed here equals the number of squares advanced. If you advanced three squares in the previous turn, you can’t advance just one in the next turn, nor can you make sharp turns. You need to reduce speed for one turn, that is, move by the smallest possible number of squares so that it is then possible to maneuver or go forward just one square on the board on the next move. There are many hazards on the map, such as chasms and rocks. Controlling speed is essential to avoid accidental deaths of your gang members.

Each vehicle type attacks in a different way: the Fighter is an agile vehicle that can shoot forward; the Heavy is slower and shoots to the sides and the Berserk needs to collide with opponents to destroy them. In some stages, the vehicles are equipped with missiles, which are always fired in a straight line ahead. In each stage, gears are acquired that can be allocated to different attributes of each vehicle type. Even though the gameplay is always very similar across all the stages, with the difficulty level getting higher as you advance, Mad Carnage becomes satisfying once we learn how it works and certainly delivers more than expected for a product in this price range.

Besides story mode, there is multiplayer that allows custom matches between two players or against the AI, which prolongs the game’s length a little.

Audio and visuals: 5

Mad Carnage is a low-budget production ($5 on the eShop) and the look makes this quite apparent. The graphics are really simple and all the boards are extremely similar to one another. The music is adequate, but repetitive. In a short time, you will probably prefer to turn it off and play with just the sound effects. Luckily for us, the menu allows that.

Final thoughts

Mad Carnage may be somewhat shallow for turn-based strategy lovers and perhaps too boring for those who don’t know the genre well. For five dollars, it can serve as a pastime that will last about two or three hours.