MadWorld Review [Wii]

Posted April 14, 2009 by Superzone.

Reviewed on the Nintendo Wii

 

 

Nintendo’s Wii console has long been viewed as a machine for family fun and old people parties, largely due to the fact that the system sees a lot of kid-friendly content and many owners of the system are in that age range.  While games like Call of Duty: World at War and The House of the Dead: Overkill have pushed the system’s mature appeal, no game on the system yet has pushed the M rating to the fullest like MadWorld has.  Developed by Platinum Games (those hip guys that made Viewtiful Joe and Okami) and published by SEGA, MadWorld is absolutely the most violent, adult-themed game on the console, and also one of the most fun to play.  Jack Thompson has his next target, and it’s a doozy.

 

Welcome to Varrigan City, a pleasant little city that was recently taken over by insane terrorists who have forced a deadly game upon the inhabitants.  Sometime in the middle of all this madness, a middle-aged man named Jack joins the party, and he’s ready for some action.  Armed with a chainsaw attached to his prosthetic right hand and plenty of cigarettes, Jack begins hacking away the competition.  Literally.

 

The gameplay in MadWorld is executed brilliantly with the motion controls.  Hitting the A button simply executes punches, and holding it will allow you to grab your enemies and either head butt them or toss them away.  The real fun, however, is when you whip out your weapons.  As previously mentioned, Jack has his own built in chainsaw, and he uses it almost as brilliantly as Bruce Campbell did in the Evil Dead films.  Almost.  Holding the B button pulls out your chainsaw and swinging the Wii remote will allow you to either chop up your enemies vertically or horizontally.  The chainsaw can’t be used constantly though, as you have a bar that drains when you use it and when is empties, you must wait for it to fill up before you can use the weapon again.  Now, the chainsaw isn’t the only weapon in the game.  Before long, you’ll find yourself using daggers, a spiked bat, or my personal favorite, a golf club, with which you can kick enemies down and use their heads as your golf ball and practice your drive.  I’m dead serious.  The attacks throughout the game are outrageous, and it’s just a blast to both play and watch.  Before I go any further, I need to point out just how violent this game is.  Limbs fly, heads are crushed, faces are stabbed with caution signs, and people are cut clean in half.  The amount of blood and gore spatter is just ridiculous and entertaining, and the game as a whole is no doubt the most violent game on the Wii, if not any console this generation.  I love it.

 

 

The flow of the game is pretty simple.  As you attack your enemies, you gain points, and the more violent your kills are, the more points you’ll receive.  After earning enough points in the level you’re on, you’ll get to do a Bloodbath Challenge, some of the most ridiculous mini-games I’ve ever seen in a videogame.  In one of these challenges, you’ll be hitting enemies onto a target board while in another you’ll be throwing them into an oncoming train, and there are plenty more of them. These mini-games are really fun to play and it’s actually pretty hard not to laugh while you’re playing them, because it’s just so outrageous.  Soon after you complete the Bloodbath Challenge and after your earn enough points, you’ll face the big bad boss.  The boss fights in MadWorld are very intense and fun, and once you’ve drained all of the boss’s energy, you will be treated to an extremely over-the-top action sequence as Jack brutally finishes the enemy off.  While the boss battles aren’t particularly hard, they are very entertaining and one of the highlights of the game.

 

As far as visuals and sound go, MadWorld is absolutely top-notch.  The black and white art style is genius, and it looks really, really good.  In fact, it’s one of the best looking games on the Wii.  When looking at screenshots of the game, you might think that the game would be hard on the eyes, when in fact it’s actually very easy to look at and it all runs at a smooth pace.  Besides, the game isn’t all black and white, there’s plenty of red too, in case you haven’t figured that out already.  The music in the game is just as awesome.  An upbeat rap soundtrack accompanies most of the game, and some levels will have other cool tunes to listen to.  Sound effects are very crisp and clean, especially the sounds of the chainsaw and the sound of limbs getting torn off and mutilated.  Some of the sound effects are actually pretty gross, which is perfect.  Voice acting is handled very well, with Jack sounding especially good.  The commentators for the DeathWatch game are absolutely hilarious too.  I found myself laughing out loud at points in the game when they were talking.  The only downside in the sound category is that some dialogue repeats too often and can get slightly annoying.

 

 

The biggest flaw in MadWorld is that the lasting value isn’t the greatest.  The single player game runs only about six hours or so.  You will find yourself playing through the game again though, as a hard mode can be played.  Be warned, however, as hard mode is VERY hard.  The other little extra in the game is a two player mode for the Bloodbath Challenges in the game.  While the multiplayer can be fun, some online modes would have been nice, and why isn’t there an online leaderboard?  For a game that focuses a lot on scores, it’s kind of odd that there isn’t online stat tracking.

 

MadWorld is simply one of the finest games on the Wii.  It looks beautiful (well, as beautiful as blood and gore flying everywhere can get), the music is awesome, and the gameplay is intense and fun.  MadWorld is exactly what the doctor ordered for the Wii, as the over-the-top violence and intense gameplay is just what the console needed.  While the game runs kind of short, the game is so fun to play that it hardly matters because you’ll find yourself playing the game multiple times.  One of the finest action games of the last couple years.  Bring on MadWorld 2.

Tagged as Madworld, Platinum Games, Sega