A Day of True Joy!

Another Year, another tally on my life to mark the day I was brought into this world. While my IRL festivities were full of great food and laughs, many cool peeps decided to illustrate some kickass art for me - many of which I shall feature here!

An Unholy Duel Illustrated by 'stalinsfavoriteskeleton' ! I am especially fond of the revamped design for Sokar's blade and the comically massive knife for Abaddon.

An Intense Close-Up by 'DaniTheProfaner' ! The enlarged fangs and massive eyes really helps to accentuate Abaddon's expressiveness.

A sweet illustration by 'Akasette' !

And to finish it off, an absolutely incredible illustration by 'Vertigohm' ! The composition here is just incredible, and the additions made to Abaddon's design are delicious eye-candy.

And that nails most of the big ones, sorry if I missed a few ! A huge thanks to everybody showcased here, and to each and every soul that wished me a happy birthday - your goodness fills my soul with joy ! I'll have one more update before the end of the year in regards to God's true holiday, I'll see you guys then !

May The Rage Burn It To A Cinder

Hello my dudes, I wanted to drop an update in here since 2023 is on the Horizon and there's been plenty of happenings. First of all, progress on the film is trucking along just fine - Medical Sector is basically done and animation work for the next sequence is well underway. My Team's artists have been doing phenomenal work recently, ShootThaCheese, Nekromanzer and SM28 all lending a hand with some tougher tasks which have paid off massively. Alongside the rest of the team, we all continue to build the path towards salvation.

Here's some weapons to feast 'yer eyes on, with dozens more to be utilized for violence.

Other than that, I give a sincere with of good luck and health to anybody who needs it, these last couple of years have been pretty brutal to a number of people for a number of reasons. I hope that the world finally gets back to a state which could be amicably called "Normal", but we'll have to see how that goes. I'll be dropping another update here in regards to the last stream of this year, where I'll be showing off a lot of weapons 'n assets for anybody who wants to see them. Also, My birthday is on the 22nd, so I will likely be doing a fanart feature like I have the last couple years again just to show my thanks.

In the meantime, stay alive !

Click the pic above to join !

🎃 Shatter the souls of those who deny the powers of darkness. 🎃

🎃 We'll be going live to showcase more progress on Maxification 2 - And introducing a new member of the team alongside answering questions, community ramblings, the whole pumpkin pie. 🎃

Hello, my beautiful subjects. Another year, Another Madness Day Review! I have to say, overall I’m pretty confident that this MD’s selection was a pleasant surprise - lots of solo projects and unexpected gems have taken the stage, but with them is an equal amount of mediocrity and filth! Now, I shall sort through them accordingly, and have my final thoughts below:

Project Creber: Extrication Part 2 (9.5/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I have no idea how he does it, but Potke manages to improve more in a year than most manage to accomplish in their careers. Even with his first Madness Day release 2 years ago, as rough as it was, I could smell the potential radiating off of all the little background details and creative kills - and now we are delivered one of, if not THE best solo this year. It's one hell of a ride, starting off with some solid action against the Agency and creative use of his OC’s multiplication ability - before turning into a massive battle with a 4-Armed Gun-Headed mag agent that dishes out its own collection of fun kills. Following that, we get a great tactical setpiece with the sniper “Enigma” against an AAHW ambush - all of which is very well choreographed. My sole nitpick would have to be that Potke’s only weakpoint is the quality of his art assets - some items and background elements are not congruent with the overwhelming quality of the animation, but with the help of Scorpack they’ll be able to work wonders together. A phenomenal showing overall, and a great bar to set for the quality of episodic madness cartoons.

INTRUSION (8/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I’ve known Raff for a couple years now, and he’s always had an eye for melee combat and the deft hands to formulate a unique visual style into Madness. Finally, he gets a solo movie out the door and it's the short-but-sweet concentrated mix of action and flare that helps shape an animator’s footprint in this fandom. Satisfying Melee action pitted against unique android & mechanized opponents, including some machine gun/chainsaw headed walker droids that I am especially fond of. This has certainly set the standard for what I’ve come to expect from a first-time solo.

OPERATION: DISTRICT 14 (10/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Holy Hell, I did not see this one coming. The same mind that brought us the damn fine Madness 5 Remake for last year’s Madness Day has delivered the first in a new trilogy of movies exploring more of the setting and factions within - and by god did it deliver. Start to finish, the effort that went into this submission is palatable, backgrounds are loaded with detail and scenes are given a very impressive cinematic flare with unique perspective angles and shot compositions. This is all wrapped up in layers of satisfying tactical action with well-detailed enemies and weapons - following a protagonist who looks like he could be Raiden’s dad from Revengeance. Honestly, I can see some of the DNA for what’s inside of Maxification 2 in this flick - with all the faction combat and OCs sprinkled into a phenomenal delivery. Hats-off to Jeremotas and his team for pulling this off, you have caught my eye.

MADNESS PARADOX (6/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

‘XIESTORIO’ brings forth a relatively solid piece of madness action, in the style of the older cartoons from the early 2000’s. The modern particle FX mixed with the aged look of the visuals certainly gives me some ‘Madness Redeemer 2: Revenger’ vibes, which I don’t mind since it was pulled off well here too. The animation is good throughout, and there’s an appropriate number of kills - although I can’t really say that anything stood out as being particularly interesting or unexpected - but at the same time I didn’t notice any major graphical or choreographical issues. If you like grunts getting shot room-to-room with a good bar of quality, this is just for you.

GHOSTIFICATION (8/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

New talent originating from the Stick-Figure community has arrived - and with 'em comes a very uniquely animated melee-obsessed entry with incredibly satisfying choreography. I wasn't completely sold on the rather flamboyant character movements at first, but this style allows for very enjoyable sets of kills with a great sense of impact and buttery-smooth sense of flow. While being made up almost entirely of stock assets is going to hurt its score, what is done within these confines is nothing short of impressive. With some art assistance, I think Gary could really knock it out of the park next year - but as is this is quite enjoyable.

MADNESS 4:20 (8/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I was very surprised to see how a movie that I at first thought would be one of those tryhard ironic ‘420 meme’ style shitposts ended up being a damn fine piece of colorful madness action. The concept of going on a brain-frying drug trip is used as a vessel for incredibly brutal and flamboyant kills against foes that defy expectation. I was especially fond of the crazy-faced bastards that’d arrive in all shapes and sizes, especially the short ones. And to top it off, it all ends with a PSA against shooting heroin directly into your forehead - what else could you ever wish for?

NO SMOKING (2/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

30 Seconds? I thought we were submitting movies to Madness Day, not clips! I actually really like the low-poly yet heavily stylized look to everything here, but it's so damn short that I can’t really justify the visuals alone giving a rating higher than the other movies on display. On its own I would be less critical, but as a submission to madness day I can’t really say it works out. If this gets extrapolated into a solo of proper length, you'll have my attention yet again!

KRINKLES.MP4 (7.5/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The man, the myth, the legend himself Krinkles is the star of the show this time around, and he’s ready to get the living shit beat out of him by the world he crafted. Thece is one hell of a skilled animator, but unfortunately hasn’t been able to release a big solo project to help make his mark on the fandom, until now. With years of experience on his belt, he delivers an overall satisfying collection of kills, with Mr. K having to contend with a legion of his own uniformed goons and armor-clad machinegunners. The solid action helps compensate for the sketchier visuals that permeate the animation, in the form of environmental fx and the battle-damage on Krinkles looking a tad bit off - but it is simply a minor gripe I have. I also have to add that I think the personalized credits sequence was a really nice touch, and isn’t something I can recall seeing often in any madness submission.

INCIDENT_115.FLA (3/10 + 1 for Absurdity)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

While the opening scene first caught my attention due to the presence of the Megaplex in the background, I was immediately thrown for a loop upon witnessing DudingDarn’s outdated, abominable female grunt sprites being used in a movie unironically. It goes without saying that they have gained an infamous reputation for good reason, and their presence here serves as the appetizer for the mish-mash of community assets and peculiar directorial decisions. We’ve got a dash of DudingDarn, a splash of ATP505, and a sprinkling of assets from the now defunct Jailbreak 2 collab. Even with all of that, I was still onboard until we got some moth-pokemon thing making such a melodramatic entrance that I realized that the film was genuinely trying to convince me that what I was seeing was badass, but the result was a laugh borne from the absurdity of what I was watching. There’s enough meat on the bone here to where I certainly can’t say this was something rushed out for madness day, but this is certainly born from the fruit of a sick man’s mind.

MADNESS COMBAT CLAYNATION 3 (5/10 +1 for practical effects)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

An entry which makes up for its stiff animation with a whole bundle of soul. I’m a sucker for the usage of practical effects, and seeing all the fun ways mundane items were used in this submission just put a smile on my face. Prison bars and wall details made of paper drawn-on with magic marker, making a scientist uniform and soldier outfits by wrapping them in paper and folding them to create collars + using cardboard as armor plates, and Nevada’s desert sand being made up of the shredded plastic we all used in arts-&-crafts back in elementary school. All of these adorable little elements made it impossible for me to look at this with a harsh eye, it was all just so much fun to look at - so I’d say it's at least worth your time, but keep in mind its obvious shortcomings in the animation department.

MADNESS LIBERATION 1 / 2 (2/10) - 2 points for being a coward and deleting it !!!! >:[

----------------------------------------------------------------------

By the time I finished this one, I needed to check my drink to make sure I wasn’t spiked with some mind-breaking cocktail off of the street - If only I was so lucky. What starts off as a visually unique yet awkwardly animated opening takes an unexpected turn at the halfway point with the introduction of Animporph transformations more befitting of Deviant-Art than Madness Combat. Dog-Girls, Naruto Anime eyes, it kind of lost me near the end there. While I think the idea of OC’s having the ability to transform into monsters is pretty cool, the visual execution here falls too short for me to call it a passing grade. The sheer absurdity earns it a couple points, though. Or well, it would have if the bastard didn't go and delete his submission! You at the very least gifted many with laughs, and now you have taken even that away!

MADNESS AGGRANDIZEMENT (5/10 + 1 for good designs and insane potential)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Starts off well enough with a spooky otherplace atmosphere, but just when the ball gets rolling the movie stops in its tracks with no fanfare or credits. I very sincerely liked the design aesthetic for the red soldier guys, but we didn’t get to see enough of them in action to make a lasting impact. While the ‘Otherplace’ concept has been done to death, I feel like there’s some ideas here which could be developed further into something far more fulfilling. As Sicronici’s first step into Madness, I can at least say that he’s well beyond where most plant their feet when starting out. Will he follow the path of Potke and make massive improvements year-after-year? We will just have to see. For now, this is far too short and rough for me to give it a ranking among the other entries, but the potential for what could be is so strong that it compels me to give it a middling grade at the very least.

CYBERDIVA (2.5/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

What starts off as a boring interdimensional board meeting turns into something that I’m not quite sure how to describe - other than the fact that I have no idea how we end up where we are at the ending. The flow is just all over the place, and by the time the credits roll I have no clue what got us to where and why - the only thing I can really recall from the haze is liking some of the character design elements, the employer-type dudes in the opening each have a pretty creative design that works well to differentiate them, but I don’t really know who they are so there’s not much of a reason to care! I think that somewhere in this heap there’s the protoplasm of a sincerely interesting submission - but it is nigh indiscernible from such a fumbled execution of these ideas.

MADNESS DEATHWISH 3 (7.5/10 -1 for DISAPPOINTMENT)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

A Movie sequel to a series of two games from the older days of madness, to which I religiously played prior to PN1 hitting Newgrounds. It is fair to say that after the maximum ninja collab got cancelled, I didn't have much faith in other 'Resurrect' style collabs getting finished - but here we are. What you get is a well animated, well choreographed series of familiar rooms against a uniquely dressed set of foes. I do think for its length, it could have used some enemy variety to spice up a couple fights - as the Deathwish games certainly had some zanier elements which could have been taken advantage of. Speaking of which, the massive collection of perks available in the second game would have lended itself to far more chaotic and fun battles, yet these are withheld until the final minute - and even then only one ability really gets utilized. Speaking of the ending, I'm going to be honest in saying that it took the thunder out of the movie for me. Just in my case, I felt like the film was too eager to catch its audience off-guard by being so abrupt than to deliver a satisfying conclusion to something that ties back to our childhoods. To better illustrate my point & to speak from my own personal experience resurrecting a long-dead series developing a collab not unlike this one - Imagine if I never opened the package during the finale of paradigmadness 2, how disappointing it would be to miss such an opportunity that may never come by again! It kinda just puts us back at square-one. Everybody here did a great job, but I don't think this stuck the landing it was perfectly capable of achieving.

UNDERWORLD (7.5/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Having been exposed to Cyriak’s work at a young age, I was quite impressed to see a madness flick try to capture the same surrealist photobashing aesthetic - and pull it off this well. With all honesty, I think this is a far more intriguing interpretation of ‘Hell’ in the Madness universe than what we’ve got in the official series. This incomprehensible landscape of duplicating bodies and nightmarish imagery is probably some of the most creative visuals I’ve seen in years from a Madness Day Submission - that alone gives it a good rating in my book. Given the fact that this was all animated on a PHONE legitimately impresses me. This has its rough spots, but I am very interested in seeing where IamMic’s twisted mind can lead us in the years to come. 

MADNESS 3D (0/10 -99999999 for melting my eyeballs !!! )

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I’m very sincerely impressed that this was deemed acceptable to show other human beings, thus it is only reasonable for me to assume this was created by some THING that only wishes to bring pain to others. I cannot say much about the visuals, as the entire animation is plagued with a horrendously intense screen filter reminiscent of the times as a kid where you’d sit so close to a TV screen that you could see the individual color squares. I have no idea if the intention was to call back to that sense of childhood nostalgia, or if this was used as some type of cover for visuals that would have otherwise been quite bland. Either way, this has taken decades of life away from my eyesight, and in this new darkness there is no light to be found.

KILLROY MADNESS 5 (6/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

With all honesty, I wasn’t expecting the series to continue after the solid trilogy we got a few years back, but now we reach what is intended to be the finale to this series which has run since 2017. For as grand as the previous entries have been, I am going to be honest in saying that this just falls flat by comparison. This would have felt more appropriate as some sort of epilogue made to round-out the end of the series, rather than being presented as a full entry. Even so, there’s nothing here that hasn’t been done better in the previous Killroy flicks - there’s no particularly unique applications of choreography or gore that help it out relevant to the action, and besides tying up a loose end from Killroy 4 it doesn’t present any revelations or twists that’d be appropriate to the finale of a War film. You can especially sense how rushed the ending is, given that we don’t even get to see Josef Mengele’s wannabe get gutted like a fish or even shot, instead opting for a cut to black with no credits, outro, or even a “The End” title card. For a series that’s grown a reputation for a slick presentation, this is an omission that cannot be ignored. Personally, I would have had the “Final Boss” of the series be a Tiger tank or some sort of heavy vehicle that needed to be destroyed in a creative way. With Killroy wrapped up, perhaps the next installment in this style will be more fortuitous, but for now this stands as a disappointing conclusion to a now legendary series. 

Boys' Night Out In Nevada (6/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

I was pretty worried this would be a “Guy’s Night” wannabe, but my expectations were very pleasantly subverted when I got to see Hank peel a face off, only for it to be stitched back on later in a permanent frown. Pretty damn short, but it isn’t trying to be anything more than a quick joke - given the fact that I laughed means it did its job well enough. This was actually made by the same guy who made ‘Madness: Magnification’ and ‘Madness: Frankfurterication’ from the last two MD’s. It's interesting to see how he’s managed to use his FBF skills for animating madness, because the animation quality itself was good, and the quality of the voice acting was so good at first I thought it was ripped from somewhere else, but I was proven wrong - so kudos to you!

Zapchon Tries Energy Drink (8/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Another yearly entry from this community's favorite caffine-addict, Gabriel. This time around, he's got the Blue Blur of Madness, Zapchon, racing on a one-way road to a root-canal. Gabe's style of constantly bombarding your senses with in-jokes, background details and soundbytes has yet to get old for me, and I feel as if this entry was more entertaining than last year's due to being faster paced - appropriately so! While certainly not as masterful what I believe to be his greatest entry "The Mad Knight" - this is certainly more than worth your time if you are already interested in Gabe's work. I wish to see Gabe continue to master his craft, and deliver us something truly unexpected next year.

CHASER BLADE (6/10)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Ilan has made a couple of entries back in 2019, and now he returns with some sort of hybrid music-video/art piece. The presentation of the opening is just dripping with dark atmosphere, and had me completely hooked. Unfortunately, the amazing start which lead me to believe this would be some glimpse inside of Hank's demented psyche turns into some sort of music video - which on its own isn't bad, but not what I believe would have been the best route for something of this nature. Even so, the potential radiating off of this team is remarkable - With a greater focus and vision I think this can have the potential to be a classic - but for right now its more of a test-bed for ideas which lie in wait.

AMENDMENT - THE BEAUTY OF SHADZ

MADNESS | THE POINT (8.5/10)

An entry that I've greatly anticipated for some time, and delivered a wholly satisfying film that is a monument to intense, smaller scale skirmishes in Madness. Shadz manages to give every encounter a sense of danger and weight through excellent use of choreography and foes which are remarkably competent - proving that the number of kills means little in the face of such quality. Solid runtime, atmosphere, and SFX help round out an amazing entry for this Madness Day. May next year bring a sequel that blows this one out of the water.

And with that, I've reached Newground's 20-image limit - and the end of this years Madness Day Review. My overall thoughts are very positive, even the solo projects that I consider to be damn messy are still massively preferred over soulless clip collabs that have plagued previous Madness Days. Massive kudos to everybody who'll stick around next year to hone their craft and style, Potke has proven that you can come a long way from a mediocre entry to something truly remarkable. That same potential lies in XIESTORIO, ILAN, and everyone else mentioned here who has the willpower to learn and improve. If we get this same roster back next year, It'll be a damn fine Madness Day for sure. I wish all of you a good day, I must return to constructing the monument to all of our sins ❤ ❤ ❤

We're reviewing the submissions for Madness Day 2022, hurry before it is too late!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLY0nKvv5-4

Just wanted to give an in-between update here before the livestream and ranking post that'll come in a few days - and wanted to make clear in no uncertain terms how well I believe this Madness Day Turned out! From what's been released so far, we have lots of solo projects by up-and-coming animators, some of which are the best I've seen in years. Tune-In to my Youtube Livestream on the 24th where we'll have the MAX 2 team + some Community guests sorting through the top-pickings of this Madness Day - I'll keep my eyes peeled for any late submissions in the meantime.

(Art by Dreadman)

Hello brothers, the day of judgement approaches rapidly. There are many beautiful projects to be released this year by my fellow comrades Raff, Potke, Gabriel Bsarch and others - hopefully shielding us from the unyielding storm of technicolor puke that will no doubt assault this year's Official rankings. In spite of this, I'll be hosting a Livestream on the 24th with folk from the MAX 2 team and an additional community guest, where we'll be going through the most notable Madness Day submissions and ranking them. The additional 2 days is due to how it is quite common for projects to be submitted a day or two late, and I wanted to be sure I wouldn't miss a gem.

Additionally, I'll be doing another media dump of MAX 2 content here to make up for the wait while the Full Project continues to cook towards perfection, and I'll be doing my annual Madness Day Review as-is tradition now. For all you folk who are racing to get their project done for MD, my prayers go out to you! For the rest of 'ye, Look forward to all of the delicious violence.

We're going live in 10 Minutes, hope to see you guys there !!!

----------------------------------------------------

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMj69s3r97s