MadWorld

"All around me are familiar faces. Bloodied faces. Sliced up faces."

Hey, you're all video gamers! According to very smart people who know everything about everyone, every single one of you is a bloodthirsty psychopath who will one day destroy the world with a man-made nuclear device because you saw the main character in “Grand Theft Auto: MurderDeathKillRape City Stories” do it!! Well until that day comes, may I direct you homicidal beasts to the Nintendo Wii (yes, the Nintendo “even your grandma can play it” Wii) and a little game called MadWorld. MadWorld is a highly-stylized action beat-em-up brought to you by Sega and developer Platinum Games (the studio made up of former Capcom and Clover Studio employees) where extreme violence and sadistic tendencies are not only legal…they're ALLOWED!

PSYCHOTIC STORY

A group of terrorists know as “The Organizers” have taken over and sealed off Varrigan City, a city located on an island. The terrorists also released a deadly virus into the city that will kill it's entire population in 24 hours, however the Organizers will give the vaccine to the virus to anyone who kills another person before then. So begins the turning of Varrigan City into one big game show, that game show being DeathWatch. the rules of DeathWatch are simple: kill as many people as possible to progress through the game and become ranked number one, earning tons of cash, prizes, and infamy along the way. Of course, lots and lots of thugs who think they are badass have migrated to Varrigan City and have joined it's populace in becoming contestants.

Enter Jack, a mysterious and looming man who has decided to enter the game. He smokes, doesn't take no crap from anyone, and just happens to back up his talk with the retractable chainsaw on his prosthetic right arm. Jack quickly establishes his dominance and catches the attention of an Organizer calling himself “Agent XIII”, who decides to become Jack's sponsor for the game. Jack agrees to the sponsorship and the killing commences…but Jack seems to have other reasons for entering DeathWatch. A somewhat simple premise actually turns into a fairly deep and well-written story presented in cut-scenes that total over an hour in length. For a beat-em-up title, that really goes above and beyond. The game can also be darkly funny, as the violence is so over-the-top and ridiculous that you can't help but be entertained by it. How else will you be entertained, you're wondering? Well…

PSYCHOTIC GAMEPLAY

MadWorld sees you controlling Jack as you take him through various areas in the city killing tons of enemies while surviving DeathWatch's various challenges. Taking place from a typical third-person perspective, you move Jack with the analogue stick on the nunchuck, while the Z button causes him to jump and the c button resets the camera behind Jack. Swinging the nunchuck will cause Jack to do an evasive backflip, and you'll be getting used to this maneuver because it's the only defensive one Jack uses. Jack can do a variety of painful attacks in order to defeat his enemies, starting with the A button on the Wii-mote to cause him to throw basic punch and kick combos. Rapidly pressing the A button will cause Jack to throw punches at lightning speed, usually ending in one deadly final haymaker against some of the weaker enemies. You can also swing the Wii-mote horizontal to perform a backhanded punch or vertically to throw an uppercut, both moves being useful in breaking an enemies guard. By holding down the A button, Jack will grab an enemy, which presents the options of either throwing him with a swing of the Wii-mote, headbutting him repeatedly with swings of the nunchuck, or even walking him to other “surprises” in a level's environment. The Wii-mote's d-pad is utilized by allowing Jack to pick up health items, equip weapons, and taunt to draw in nearby enemies. Finally, holding the B trigger will allow Jack to use his trusty chainsaw, with it's vertical and horizontal slicing attacks performed with Wii-mote swings. Jack can also perform jumping chainsaw attacks that inflict massive damage on tougher enemies and bosses. Beating up enemies enough until they are one hit away from dying will cause the “finish” logo to appear on screen and present Jack with two options: holding the A button to grab your enemy for a giant swing, which you perform by moving the Wii-mote in a circular fashion before letting them fly by letting go of the A button. The second option is to simply press the B trigger and follow the on-screen gestures to perform a brutal chainsaw finish, which include Jack sawing a enemy in half, snapping their spinal column, and even pulling their hearts right out of their chests before crushing it in his bare hands. As you can see, Platinum Games have done a fantastic job in utilizing the Wii's motion capabilities. Violence is fun!!!

Progression through MadWorld's levels flow in the same way for the most part. You're given a thirty minute time limit in each level, and the objective is to kill as many enemies as possibly to earn points. When you earn a certain number of points, you'll earn various “prizes”, like equipable weapons (twin daggers, spiked baseball bat), health pick-ups, and extra lives. Earning enough points will also unlock “Bloodbath challenges”, various over-the-top mini-games that sees you throwing enemies into a jet-engine, using a baseball bat to turn enemies into “Man-Darts”, and seeing how many thugs you can kill by “placing” them in front of speeding locomotives. You can earn points by simply killing thugs, sure, but you'll get even bigger bonuses by getting creative with your kills. That that end, MadWorld's levels have been designed with various objects and deadly traps for Jack to take advantage of. Light posts can be used to jam into enemy heads, enemies can be thrown into flaming barrels, you can pin them to spiked walls, carry them to giant circular saws, throw them into outer space, place them ass-first onto giant floor spikes, and the list goes on and on. You'll get even more points by combining kill methods, like throwing a barrel over an enemy, then jamming a light post into their head, then finally grabbing and throwing him into a spiked wall. All the levels have their own sets of various traps, so it definitely helps keep killing fools less repetitive and fun. Jack's opposition follows the beat-em-up difficulty hierarchy, as they get more challenging as the game goes along, going from simple unarmed thugs to ninjas with swords who can block attacks to giant men with double-chainsaws (a homage to RE4, perhaps). After earning enough points, you'll get the chance to challenge the level's boss, a higher ranked contestant than Jack. The bosses are pretty cool and varied from each other and feature some unique attacks. Defeating most bosses require Jack just to look for an opening and get in a good chainsaw strike, although some require some advanced strategies. There will even be chances when a Wii-mote gesture appears on-screen when the boss attacks, and performing the gesture in time will enter a cinematic “QTE” event where you can cause massive damage to the boss if you are successful. Draining the bosses health will allow Jack to perform a special, and very violent, finish on them. Besides the regular levels, Jack will also come to a couple areas where he'll have to ride a motorcycle, utilizing a very simple control scheme to crash, slice, and throw enemies off of other vehicles. That's really all there is to MadWorld, but even the most simply gameplay mechanics can be the most fun.

MadWorld isn't perfect, however. Most of the game's problems come from the game's camera, which is the type of third-person camera that is zoomed in on the character's back doesn't stay glued there (unlike RE4, for example), so in turn it can be very unreliable. It will get stuck in corners, zoom in when you don't want it to, give you bad angles, and various other annoyances. Not a terrible camera system, but it could have been better. The other problem comes with the game's lock-on system, which let's you lock on to a single enemy by holding down the c button on the nunchuck. Problem is…it doesn't always work! The main reason it doesn't is that the enemy you want to lock-on to has to be on screen, so if your trying to lock-on to an off-screen enemy you're out of luck. This is especially annoying with some of the more fast-moving bosses. You also have to hold the c button again in order to remove the lock-on, since there is no way to fast change it to another enemy, that's say, closing in on Jack with a lead pipe. Frustrating? Yes…yes it is.

PSYCHOTIC TECH

Those who have seen MadWorld in motion know that it's art and graphical style is inspired by Frank Miller's graphic novel Sin City. Not only is it pretty original for a game to do this, but doing this also makes MadWorld on of the most beautiful games on the Wii yet. The game's main color palette may only consist of shades of black and white, but everything in it is so masterfully designed that it would be hard to imagine the game in any other colors. The levels are extremely varied, from subway stations to gothic castles to large arenas, it definitely shows off the art style. In true comic book fashion, sound effects will cause words to appear on screen, like “boom!” for explosions and such. Character models are also highly detailed, as is the games excellent animations. Of course, with a game this violent, one other color will appear on screen for most of the game: red. Not only does the spray of gallons of blood contrast fantastically with the black and white, but it also shows off the game's superior particle effects. I've never seen blood spray and splatter so well in a game before, and various other special effects show off what the Wii is capable of. Some may be disappointed that the game only runs in 480i standard def, but with the games art style it really doesn't matter that there is no progressive scan option, as he game will still look fantastic even in widescreen. Cut-scenes are also great and show off the comic book influence, combining in-game cinemas with still comic book-like panels. Despite some slight slowdown at times, the game runs beautifully, and “beautiful” is the best word to describe MadWorld. Beautiful, beautiful violence…

MadWorld also exhibits some great sound design. The soundtrack consists entirely of hip-hop beats and songs inspired by the game, and while I'm not the biggest hip-hop fan, the music fits into the game and it's art style extremely well. Voice acting is pretty good, as you may recognize Steven Jay Blum's gruff voice as Jack leading a capable cast. The biggest let-down here is probably with the Deathwatch announcers, who despite being very funny, vulgar, and entertaining to listen to, see their lines being repeated very often. Finally, sound effects are very good, from the chainsaw sound that comes out of the Wii-mote speaker to the sounds of body parts being eviscerated. Good stuff indeed.

IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD…

MadWorld, unfortunately, is not a long game. If you just want to blow through it to the end, it will probably just take about 4 hours to do so. You can extend your time by replaying levels for higher scores and completing extra challenges that will open up in them, but even then the game will still last less than 8 hours. You do get a few incentives to play again, including new weapons to use and a “hard” difficulty level. That's about it though, so most of your replay time with the game will come from wanting to just play it again…which I'm sure most people will want to do. There is also a two-player mode that allows you to compete against a friend in split-screen mode in various bloodbath challenges, but that's about as deep as that goes.

Hardcore Wii owners need to buy MadWorld. Even though it isn't perfect, it's a very mature game with a phenomenal art style and satisfying beat-em-up gameplay. The gallons of blood and gore help out, as well. Buy it, and show third-party developers that there are other Wii owners out there that are not little kids, senior citizens, and soccer moms. Then, and only then, will we see more games like this on Nintendo's behemoth of a console. And really, that's far from a bad thing.

KEWL
+Fun beat-em-up gameplay that utilizes Wii motion controls well
+Varied levels that provide various ways to kill enemies
+A good and though-provoking story with intriguing characters
+Phenomenal and original art and graphical style
+Great soundtrack that fits well with the game, good voice acting and sound effects
+An extremely violent treat for hardcore Wii owners!

LAME
-The camera can become pretty wonky
-Lock-on system can become frustrating
-Announcers repeat their lines too often
-It's a pretty damn short game
-Not a whole lot of replay value

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/30/09

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