The endless runner Maddening Relapse from NAL Games is a great title for anyone that loves simple yet addictive gaming. The visuals are comprised of a small handful of silhouettes, one for your character (known as "Mad Mann"), one for a wall of impending doom, and another which infinitely twists and turns to make up the platforms you run across. This streamlined approach puts the primary focus right on the gameplay, and it really manages to suck you in.
At most points in the game, you can only see a tiny bit ahead of you. As new terrain is uncovered, you must quickly react to the likes of spikes and gaps. Occasional direction and level changes are thrown at you as well. With a large counter showing your speed and how long you've managed to survive, it inspires a real impulse to hang in there as long as possible. Needless to say, Maddening Relapse is a game that keeps you on your toes.
Despite the challenge, it never feels "impossible," and the game finds solid ways to keep you invested. There are achievements of course, but the game's overall atmosphere is what really helped hold my interest. The death screens contain witty little poems, and the game's soundtrack maintains a light mood with some nice head-nodding electronica from Approaching Nirvana.
It doesn't hurt that the simple visuals actually manage to be quite beautiful at times. The abstract shapes generated by the platforms can be interpreted in a multitude of ways. This is likely just me, but I got a little smile here or there when the platforms suddenly took on recognizable shapes akin to the Green Lantern logo or those crazy spider-web windows used everywhere in the Star Wars movies.
Maddening Relapse can bring some more serious subjects to mind as well. Maybe it's pretentious, but it's not too far of a stretch to see the wall and the unexpected platform changes as the inevitable and yet unforeseen challenges we face in our day to day lives. With each successful leap, there's another obstacle right ahead of you. Whether this is positive or negative is up to you, but as I see the Mad Mann silhouette run his little heart out against all odds, it helps me feel inspired to do the same in my own life. Ain't nothin' gonna break my stride, ya hear?!
Man, shit just got real.
While there's plenty of fun to be had with the gameplay and chasing down high scores, the game might run its course for you rather quickly. Extra features like switching between the various color themes only go so far. However, as a free download, the overall experience provided by Maddening Relapse makes it well worth checking out. If you have a Windows platform, give it a shot!
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