MadWorld (Wii) > Reviews (4)

From the moment you click on the disc channel you can tell what a game is going to be like. Madworld from the get go you know is going to be stylish and brutal. The plain black background reveals the games white and red logo, The rev of a chainsaw is heard before the gravelly tones of the games main character growls “MadWorld”.

Hit start, the game boots up and it delivers on those sly nods in the disc channel. The first thing that hits you when you start playing is the games distinct visual style. Presented in cel shaded monochrome It’s like a frank miller novel brought to life. Think Sin City meets the Running Man.

You play Jack. A man sent to ‘Jefferson Island’ by the department of justice in order to save the mayors daughter and foil the plot of a mysterious terrorist group that have taken over the city, killed most of the population with a deadly virus and turned it into the stage for a brutal game show known as Death watch, In which contestants must kill or be killed in order to become the top ranked fighter. Thus winning a huge cash prize and their freedom.

The lack of colour and motion comic style of the cut scenes help to bring this griity, if not a little far fetched story to life and only heightens the sense of brutality as you dispatch foes in the most ridiculously violent and bloody way possible. You can thrust poles through their neck, dump them in flaming oil drums, slam them into spikes throw them into the path of express trains and much more besides. If you can pick it up you can kill someone with it.

That’s not to say that the violence is entirely mindless. In fact the more creative you are with your kills the more points you accumulate and as in every good game show points mean prizes. Get so many point s and you will open a weapons container filled with all sorts of goodies such as spiked bats, daggers, and my personal favourite the lance which literally enables you to make a kebab out of your enemies, using these new weapons allow you to mix it up a little more thus racking up even more points which in turn unlocks the levels ‘Blood Bath Challenge’.

Each challenge is introduced by the foul mouthed pimp the ‘Black Baron’ and his fabulous assistant, generally with hilarious and fatal results for the baron, that show you what each challenge is about. These for me are the best part of the game and definitely has some of the games stand out moments, and include such delights as man darts. In which you have to smack foes into a giant dartboard with a spiked baseball bat or the turbinator in which you have to try and throw as many hapless thugs as you can into a whiring jet engine.

These set pieces help to break up the levels and keep the action fresh and exciting as well as greatly helping you to boost your score in order to unlock the inevitable but brilliant boss battle at the end of each level.

The foes Jack fights in the boss battles come in all shapes and sizes from a mace wielding giant called ‘little eddie’ to a tornado chucking nazi robot and everything in between.

The boss fights are where the game truely shines and have some of the most fantastically over the top finishes seen in any game, triggered by God of war style quick time events, Made even more satisfying by the games superb use of motion control.

The controls in general are well done and give real weight to your attacks. Movement is controlled on the analogue stick light attacks by pushing the a button while holding it down will perform a grab which enables you to drag foes to their death or a flick of the remote will throw them. Holding b activates the chainsaw while swinging the remote allows jack to take swipe at foes.

Presiding over the mayhem is commentary from John dimaggio ( futurama) and Greg Proops( Who’s line is it anyway?) . The commentary really compliments the action on screen and is hilarious. After decapitating an enemy dimaggio hollers “Did you know a cockroach can live for days without a head?” Proops retorts with” That’s nothing, I was married for eight years without head!” This is mixed with a blaring hip hop soundtrack which although at times quite catchy and definitely does swiftly degenerate into just background noise. But doesn’t over power the otherwise fantastic sound direction in the game, kicks punches and chainsaws all sound spot on and never out of place of flat.

Madworld although a fantastic game does have a few drawbacks that do stop it from scoring top marks. It is a little short at can be completed in around 6 hours on normal difficulty settings, Playing on Hard does extend this greatly as the game becomes much tougher as higher scores become tougher to reach and enemies a lot less forgiving.

However after an initial play through there is little to bring you back to the game other than a few extra weapons and to attempt to beat your previous scores.

The multiplayer mode in which you can replay bloodbath challenges against a friend although fun does feel a little tacked on and won’t hold most people’s attention for very long.

Despite this i would still highly recommend Madworld to anyone that wants a break from the usual family friendly fun on the Wii. The mix of Itchy and Scratchyesque violence, crass humour and sexual themes mean that this definitely isn’t a game for kids but if you’re old enough and immature enough. Madworld is a fantastic rollercoaster ride from start to finish.