Now this is a mindfuck.

Really enjoyed the return of Hank's propensity for impaling people with thrown bludgeoning weapons (all three bats he used ended up stabbing someone), and Tricky's temporary return to Monofoot.

Presumably the Antipathy Hank we follow is from one of his two deaths, introducing some time shenanigans to the Other Place. It does raise the question of how much of these little forays into the afterlife Hank remembers, considering his Antipathy self encountered many Soldats while his Consternation form was still surprised by their single eye. The ending also makes me wonder if Doc got the wrong Hank, and the soul of MC6 Hank was the one put into Mag Hank. If so what will become of MC7 Hank. Will be resurrected back into his own body at the start of MC7 in place of MC6 Hank, forming an endless loop? If so no wonder he exclaims "knock it off" at the beginning.

There are also some lingering questions remaining from the first part. What separates Deimos and the handful of other damned souls in his subsidies, who bleed black ichor and bear their previous wounds, from Hank, Tricky, and the AAHW units seen here, who retain their normal blood colors and seem to get new bodies when their older ones get too damaged (Its those cigarettes isn't it)? I also remain curious about the new tinted glasses and how they relate to the solid red ones seen from Consternation to Expurgation, particularly since this explicitly takes place within the era when the latter was standard, and despite being in the afterlife they aren't the basic black they were in Deimos' little corner of hell. Is the new tint meant to retcon the pure red shades, like with the more detailed AAHW uniforms, or is it a quirk of this specific chunk of purgatory and the Auditor decided to slightly tone down the agent upgrades to a similar level in the wake of MC11?

The return of the "do what comes natural" note alongside its implied meaning highlighted something about Hank's character only emphasized by the ending fight. Hank murdered 30 people over a boombox and has only escalated from there. The last time he had a concrete goal was MC3 and he seems to have been mostly just going with the flow since at least MC6. Sanford had a nervous breakdown after getting sucked into hell and punted the length of several football fields by a skeleton clown. Here the same is just another day for Hank in slightly stranger surroundings, because while Sanford has a life beyond conflict all Hank seems to know is killing, to the point where when he meets his past/future self his first and only response is to try to kill them too. It makes me wonder if when Sanford and Deimos beat a hasty retreat directly into the path of the Flying Party, it was because they were scared of Tricky, or of their own ally. Magnification almost seems to have helped Hank grow as a character, despite the supposed loss in intelligence: he starts to develop an almost nurturing side towards Sanford and tries to keep him out of harms way.

Tricky's motives are also pretty noteworthy in this one. Disturbing body warping aside, he seems to be attempting form a temporary alliance with the earlier Hank to get the more current one out of retainment, but just as Hank only knows killing, the only way Tricky can express himself anymore is through Monster Clown Shenanigans, and the friction between these two approaches causes him to go through multiple bodies trying get Hank to do what he wants.

While the animation itself is a bit jank, it works well with the overall tone of the movie. Out of all the various details my favorite is undoubtedly the most miserable being in existence: the one agent surrounded by cigarette butts flicked at him by his boss, unable to do anything but endure the constant petty abuse.

If I had a nickel for every time the protagonist of a madness inspired animation surfed on a door they just blew up with a grenade launcher I would have to nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.

(I admire the cursed nature of the barefooted madness, though its cursedness is limited by being a recolored shoe sprite.)

SPOILERS

The atmosphere at the beginning of this game is superb, one of the creepiest experiences I've ever had in a game, instantly hooking me with eerie forest watched over by a malevolent spirit. The wolf jumpscare is also pretty effective. However, once you get across the lake the game begins to lose its effectiveness, with the evil eyes peeking out of the forest and keypad to get into the cave taking away from the more subtle feeling the game had had before. It also moves far more quickly than I feel served the atmosphere properly. You get across the river, go in the cave, get up to the top, and after a bear fight summon the Elk King. When I first started this game I thought the atmosphere would steadily ramp up over a prolonged period of time as you hike through the woods to the top of the mountain, your character gradually spiraling into madness as the forest claims them. Having the Elk King summoned by a random magical orb also seems to conflict with the atmosphere: it gives too much control to your character and shatters the illusion that they may come across it at any point while venturing into the unknown, that once they crossed the lake there was no escaping its domain alive. It would have been better to have the Elk King show up unexpectedly, not necessarily as a jumpscare, but in a similar manner to your first glimpse of once you exit the cave. The Elk King's appearance was also a letdown: a deer with red eyes and a painted face. A more etherial, shadowy presence, possibly only seen from a distance, may have fit better with the buildup. An alternative to make the Elk King something totally unearthly/bizarre, a nightmare creature with only the vaguest likeness of an Elk. Such an appearance might better fit with the otherworldly presence it was established as at the beginning of the game.

What does this have to do with Jedi?

Thing thing came out in 2005. Madness Interactive was created in 2003. Both are similar only in that they are 2D Mouse Aim sidescrollers, of which there are literally dozens of on the internet. This manufactured fight is completely pointless.

Brilliant

A true classic that should never die.

Sweet

Nice remix of one of chesyre's best.

lolk

every song gets the techno and or remix treatment

Single Black Coffee...

Aww... I liked the old honeycomb hive.

Its... well... good?

Just promise to never draw a realistic Madness Hands again. That thing is scaring me.