Here's the deal. Opus Croakus, AKA Danny for you podcast listeners, bought a copy of MadWorld because of these words: "From the people who brought you God Hand." However, he doesn't own a Wii and he comes over to my place pretty much weekly, so he has left MadWorld in my keeping so he can play it as a spectator game. I can play it all week in between his reguar Saturday visits, but there is one thing keeping me from playing Platinum Studios' love song to violence.

I gave up swearing for Lent.

This might seem like a minor thing to you, but Lent is the major part of my Catholicism that I still cling to - call me crazy, but I like setting aside forty days a year to reflection and mild asceticism. I definitely like it more than counting down to Christmas. MadWorld would make me violate my Lenten promise to stop swearing because... well... have you SEEN the game? We started playing last Saturday with an audience of about 8-10 people and we just couldn't look away. F-bombs were dropped liberally as people cringed at the latest instrument of death provided, giggling "Holy @!#%&"s were frequent as the slapstick violence piled on, and even simple "what did Bender just say?" requests nearly got me to break my promise. Every moment spent playing that game is a constant temptation and invitation to swear (Thanks, Ken Pontac - you'd be proud to know that you nearly got me to shed my last vestiges of Christianity).

Sure, I could play the game silently, but I just wouldn't be able to enjoy it properly because I'd have to fight so many of my natural responses to the game that I'd spend almost as much time keeping my trap shut as I'd spend throwing miscellaneous goons into hilarious deathtraps.

In other news, thanks SO much to Sega and Platinum Games for this game. Just like God Hand was, it appeals to every last bit of my gamer sensibilities - the foulmouthed writing, the sweet beat-'em-up gameplay, and the great spectator appeal are exactly what I was looking for in a game. Too bad I can't play it until April 12th.