MadWorld

"Absolutely amazing game, yet still one of the greatest missed opportunities in a long time."

Running through the back alleyway, streaks of black and white fly by. You look ahead; a brawl between two street punks is beginning. What do you do?

A.) Rev up the chainsaw on your arm, and slice one of them in half. As the other backs away, you grab him and headbutt him until his head explodes.

B.) Grab the spiked bat nearby and take a big swing, killing them instantly and sending them flying into a wall.

C.) Grab an explosive barrel and throw it at them.

D.) Run up to one and punch him until he's dizzy, then cut his chest open and rip his heart out. Crush it in your hands before he falls over. Then, grab a nearby tire and throw it over the head of the other guy. Then, grab a signpost and shove it through his head... hell, grab five sign posts and put them through his head. Grab a bag of trash and throw it in his face, then pick him up and throw him in the spiked dumpster, the lid slamming down on him and chopping him in half.

While any of the above are entirely possible and extremely enjoyable, there truly is a right answer. You see, in MadWorld, you play a character named Jack with a chainsaw attachment on his arm who has come to a dreadful place called Varrigan City to participate in Death Watch: a game quite similar to The Running Man where contestants must kill each other.

The basis for this game is that as a contestant in Death Watch, you must put up the most violent, gory, and stylish kills possible to please your fans, raise your ratings and subsequently increase the number of people betting that you'll be the Death Watch champion. I won't go any further than this in an attempt to preserve the story - I assure you it's much better than I expected and is definitely worth the time. These kills, however, are converted to points depending on the level of violence and those points accumulate to eventually unlock things such as new weapons, minigames where you can rack up big points, and eventually the boss in each stage. It works quite well and makes enough sense that you actually feel like there's reason to advance through each stage and kill people. It's strikingly different from most beat-em-ups where you really only kill people because they're attacking you and are never really given a reason why.

Throw in comic-book style graphics (onomatopoeia included), extreme violence, hilarious "sports" commentators, an original soundtrack and pretty solid controls that don't rely too much on waggle and you have a recipe for success that's strikingly different nearly every other title on the Wii.

MadWorld is entirely black and white. Not the black and white you're thinking of when you watch that thirty year old, 12-inch television your parents had when they were kids but literally black, and white. MadWorld has an amazing graphical style that may take a little while to get used to and is a little disorienting for some, but everyone can agree that it looks amazing.

The only colors you'll see other than black and white are yellow, for the on-screen HUD and red. Gallons of red. Red splashed onto the walls, onto the screen, red plastered on spikes, grinders, cogs, trash cans, sign posts. Everything can be painted red with blood.

Real-time physics allow for creative combos, one can juggle enemies in the air if timed correctly, or throw one enemy into another, landing both of them in a death trap. Impale an enemy on a spike and their body will stay there for the entire level, rendering that spike useless for future kills, although enemies that die on the ground do end up disappearing eventually in an explosion of blood to avoid too much cluttering the screen at once. The game even allows you, on a select few baddies, to cut off parts of their body and use them as props or weapons. The level of detail put into this game, staying fresh and funny while never getting too realistic, is certainly amazing. If at any point you might have been thinking a kill was a little too gory or harsh, that thought is immediately eliminated by the color commentary on the background cracking jokes at the expense of your poor deceased foe.

This commentary, done by Greg Proops (Whose Line is it Anyway?) and John DiMaggio (Futurama, Final Fantasy X, Gears of War) and is downright hilarious. Sure, it's full of F-bombs, juvenile sex jokes and banter about previous marriages, but it flows so well that it doesn't get old too quickly even if you hear the same line two or three times in one level. There's literally hundreds, possibly over a thousand different lines, usually four or five at time going back and forth between the two commentators. Some are level-specific, some are kill-specific, some are boss battle-specific. They introduce each stage and each boss during the cutscenes and don't shut up until the credits are done rolling.

The soundtrack is primarily hip-hop with some rock or metal undertones. Each song was written specifically for MadWorld, so it's original and somewhat related to the game so even if you're not a fan of the genre you should still be able to appreciate it. There's around twenty different tracks in all, some are catchy and some border on repetitive and annoying, but the game gives you the option to individually customize how loud you want the announcers, sound effects, voices and music so you can mix and match to your liking. Depending on the mood you're in, you may want to turn down the announcers and listen to the music on a stage, while the next day or next stage you may want to listen to the announcers only. You have the option, no matter what your preferences are.

Sound effects are pretty generic, mostly the sound of your chainsaw, a couple lines from your enemies about their desire to hurt you, a ton of screaming and your basic "whack" and "thud" sounds for every collision.

The controls were refreshing and enjoyable when compared to most Wii titles with motion controls. The nunchuck controls Jack's movement, as well as camera-centering, jumping, and a quick shake for a backflip dodge. The wiimote controls your punches with the A-button or a horizontal/vertical wiimote swing. Holding the B button brings out your chainsaw, which then allows you to use the horizontal or vertical wiimote swing to slice down or across. The control pad picks up health items or weapons and can be used as a taunt button as well.

At certain times, a quick cutscene will initiate and you'll have to perform an on-screen action to avoid injury. Actions are simple and are related to the action on screen. If two bullets are fired at you side by side, the game may ask you to swing your wiimote horizontally so Jack can slice the bullets in half. If the bullets are fired at you vertically, you'll be asked to swing your wiimote vertically to cut them down. If you lock your chainsaw with an enemy's weapon, the game may ask you to shake the 'mote and 'chuck repeatedly to win the power struggle. The actions are extremely forgiving and give you plenty of time to initiate them (on normal mode): it's definitely not Resident Evil 4.

While the camera suffers from not being able to be rotated manually, it's still relatively easy to use when you get used to it. Center with the C-button or camera lock-on by holding C. I found it difficult sometimes to locate the items that I knew were directly behind me since I couldn't manually rotate the camera, but you eventually learn to remember where and how far behind you items may be so you don't have to turn around, center the camera, pick up the item, turn around again, center the camera, then use the item on an enemy. It's definitely something that could have been improved, but it's not a major hindrance. The game is forgiving enough in general that having some camera troubles isn't going to cause your untimely death.

Does it stay fresh? Does it stay fun? Surprisingly, it does... to a point. There are enough weapon, items and environmental areas at your disposal that you can use to kill enemies. The drive to find better and more innovative ways to rack up points is always there. The commentators offer lines on just about anything in the game you can do, from throwing a guy in front of a speeding train to slamming a guy down in the electric chair and frying him. The bosses are innovative and each one offers a relatively unique experience. There's at least one minigame in each stage where you can do anything from seeing how many people you can throw into a jet engine to the extremely obscure game of shaking up soda pop bottles, shoving them down someone's throat, then aiming them so they are launched into a billboard, shaped like a woman, with spikes on her most sensitive areas.

The replayability, however, is where PlatinumGames really dropped the ball. The game is extremely short for your first playthrough, and even shorter on subsequent playthroughs. A hard mode is unlockable, but isn't nearly as hard as I would have liked, the main differences being that enemies do more damage, you start out with zero continues, and the on-screen actions you must perform are far less forgiving. The game has unlockable, optional challenges for each level which keep you coming back to replay them. Challenges such as scoring a certain number of points, killing over a certain amount of enemies, going through a level without taking a single hit, or the ridiculously difficult challenge of killing less than a certain amount of enemies. The problem here is that they offered absolutely no incentive to complete these challenges. Some of them are insanely hard and could have kept my attention for hours trying to complete them, but even the most dedicated gamers will give up on the difficult challenges after a dozen tries when they realize that there's absolutely no reward for finishing. The addition of more unlockables for this game is something that should have been strongly considered.

Something that could have made this game nearly endlessly replayable would have been online leaderboards. The game keeps track of just about every stat you could imagine, from number of props and environments used to kill enemies, total number of kills, damage taken, time on each level, etcetera. Imagine the incentive to replay a level over and over again if you could submit your data each time you complete a level and there were individual boards for each specific stat for each stage: most kills, fastest playthrough, best score, best combo, most minibosses killed, and so on. One can dream, I suppose.

Better multiplayer would have been nice as well. A co-op or online mode would have been pleasant, but not necessary for this type of game. This game does have multiplayer, but it's not that enjoyable, as you go split-screen with another player in the minigame challenges.

Overall, the game is extremely solid and fun for multiple playthroughs but I cannot help but feel that they missed an opportunity to make a very good game into something so much better. The game is not difficult, and offers no unlockables for the challenging aspects. The game is fun, but you can only play a single level so many times before getting bored when there is no competition - even indirect competition comparing your scores with other players. When I think of how great this game could have been with a few very simple additions, I cannot avoid being slightly disappointed with the final product.

I still recommend this game for purchase if you like the beat-em-up genre. It's an amazing game that's great to pick up and play for a few hours here and there, but it will not hold your attention for weeks or months at a time.

Statistics: Based on personal experience and opinion. This data is never concrete.

Initial playthrough: 6~10 hours.
Total replayability: 30~50 hours.

Graphics: A-
Sound: A-
Controls: B-
Fun Factor: B+
Replayability: C-
Multiplayer: C

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/18/09

Game Release: MadWorld (US, 03/10/09)