[Wii] MadWorld

[Infernal Monkey]

System: Wii
Developer: Platinum Games
Publisher: SEGA
Genre: Action
Players: 1-2

Back in the futuristic year of 1999, a game show more violent than Wheel of Fortune emerged. Greeted by an overly enthusiastic host, contestants were wished all the best before heading into the arena. Four walls, four doors. Each would slowly open, revealing... goons. Hundreds of them! Plus these weren't just any goons, no, these were goons with spiked bats – and a desire to use them against your face. This was a game of survival; kill or be killed.

A variety of guns and power-ups were provided, although the experience was still completely overwhelming. Rewards however, were grand. Big money, big prizes. 'Super VCRs' were especially popular. Indeed, Smash TV was quite the success. Unfortunately, the show only ran for one episode, as the producers had a baffling amount of difficulty trying to find more contestants. Ultimately, it was replaced with Bert's Family Fued, a game show that proved to be even more disturbing.

Now, in whatever crazy year we're in, a new death sport has hit the prime time. Taking place on Jefferson Island, the aptly named 'Death Watch' has forced its residents to take part in the chaos. MadWorld follows the progress of Jack – a contestant arriving three days into the game. Obtaining a sponser, Jack must now please the viewing audience and challenge the higher ranked contenders. It's a bit like No More Heroes in this regard. And... well, pretty much anything, including bowling. Yep, this is a bowling game. Of course, Jack isn't here just to compete in Death Watch...

Welcome to one of the most violent video games ever developed. On the surface, MadWorld's a good old fashioned beat 'em up; with linear level progress and hundreds of generic enemies to dispatch. Slice through one of their torsos however, and you'll soon discover plenty underneath. The scoring system is by far the biggest focus in this game. In order to reach the end-of-level boss, you'll need to meet a certain score requirement. Jack just so happens to have a chainsaw attached to his right arm, but merely cutting down everyone in his path isn't going to be enough. MadWorld's all about creativity; the more stylish the kill, the more points are awarded. The audience wants to be entertained. And trust me, there are plenty of chances to be creative here.

The potential score multiplies with each 'layer' leading up to the eventual kill. To use a classic example given in the game, you may jam a tyre around an enemy, trapping their arms; leaving them unable to fight back. Now approach a street sign and rip it out of the ground, before forcing it right through the poor bastard's head. As they stagger around, dazed and confused (the unwelcome addition of a metal pole in the face would tend to do that) drag them over to a rose bush (spiked wall) and repeatably slam them against it until they stop moving. Points ahoy!

Each level provides plenty of items to experiement with, while the environment itself is loaded with death traps. Sawblades, deep fryers, wood chippers, the list goes on and gets more absurd with each level. Passing trains can be used to grind people up against, broken branches on a tree are just begging to have bodies impaled upon them (how kinky), even dumpsters and toilets can join in on the fun. But while this is a rather gruesome outing, the sheer insanity of the violence is just so hilariously over-the-top that you can't help but enjoy it. Adding to that, MadWorld never takes itself seriously anyway, and this, to me, is what completes the experience.

The amazing in-game commentators certainly help here. Voiced by John DiMaggio (Bender from Futurama) and Greg Proops (Whose Line Is It Anyway?), the two spew out some genuinely hilarious banter. Extremely crude, but damn, you can tell they had an absolute blast working on this game. Obviously it can get pretty repetitive, but there's a surprising amount of dialogue in here. Jack himself is also voiced by Steve Blum (Spike from Cowboy Bebop). The soundtrack consists of hip hop music, personally I'm not too fussed on this genre, but I found myself really enjoying these tracks. The music's all original; created especially for the game. Platinum Games' Naoto Tanaka composed the backing beats, while the lyrics were by a variety of underground artists. They're addictive and full of energy.

Mid-level 'Blood Bath Challenges' make for a nice change of pace. Hosted by the amusing Black Baron and his lovely, murderous assistant, these take things to a whole new level. Mini-games include the delights of 'Man Golf' where you'll need to tee off with an enemy's head while aiming for floating rings. Sometimes these challenges aren't exactly explained too well, but you get the hang of everything soon enough. Blood Bath Challenges also act as the game's multiplayer mode. Points earned here go towards your overall score. Once access to the boss has been unlocked, slam the bell and away you go. Boss fights are a mix between straight-up chainsaw-to-the-face combat and the more important quick-time events that deal out massive damage.They're all unique and difficult fights with an interesting line-up. Attack patterns must be learnt to survive; fail on a boss and you'll need to restart the entire level again.

Controls are simple enough, Jack's basic attacks consist of punching with the A button or swinging his chainsaw with the B button. A light attack will stun an enemy, while holding the B button down longer will result in a clean vertical or horizontal slice depending on how you swing the Wii Remote. Jiggling the Nunchuck will make Jack backflip (essential against later bosses), or headbutt an enemy whilst holding them. Knock heads with an enemy enough times and you'll even be able to split their noggin apart.

There's no manual camera angle adjustments aside from the C button, which will reset it behind Jack. The camera usually does a good enough job of keeping the action in focus, although like most 3D games, it can be a tad problematic in some situations. Everything else is largely context-sensitive. It's pretty satisfying jerking the Wii Remote forward to hurl someone into a meat grinder.

The graphics are in black and white – just in case you somehow didn't pick up on that yet. Actually, there's a yellow-ish tint in there. The only other colour is red, which you'll see; a lot. Blood splashes everything, and you'll often paint the floor and walls with it. Initially, I had concerns that it might be a tad difficult to see distant objects thanks to this style, but it works wonderfully.

It's too bad then that the PAL conversion is absolutely atrocious. It's possibly the worst PAL game since Final Fantasy X. The game is limited to 50 Hz, which means we're playing a slower version than intended, but worse still, it hasn't even been optimised. Usually when a developer can't be arsed with adding a 60 Hz option in their PAL games, they'll at least keep it near-full screen. Not so with MadWorld. The screen borders are enormous, and the image itself is squished as a result. 4:3 SDTV users are especially in for one hell of a nightmare; your only hope is to set the Wii to 16:9. It'll improve things, but this kind of SNES-era treatment in 2009 is just pathetic.

Still, aside from that unfortunate blemish, MadWorld is a fantastic game. It won't last you long, but the replay value is solid and the gameplay itself is thoroughly enjoyable. It's big dumb fun at its finest. Just uh, don't let the kids play. Wouldn't want them hogging the controller.

Score: 8/10 - "Good buy"
"You shot me!" over and over again!

Review by Lance McGill (Infernal Monkey)

[Aladdin Sane]

Originally Posted by Infernal Monkey

this kind of SNES-era treatment in 2009 is just pathetic.

Then why recommend the game so strongly?

What I've played of an NTSC copy shows that there's a great game in there, but surely Platinum's complete disregard for the PAL market has to count fairly strongly against it. Supporting products like this simply reinforces the message that companies can continue to half-arse PAL releases just because they can and it'll sell anyway. Hell, my copy of Sonic Adventure from ten years ago has 60-Hz support; it might have been acceptable to not have moved on to 60-Hz (or at least optimised 50-Hz) early last gen (unless you were Square-Enix, of course, but even they learnt their lesson) but it should be completely unacceptable by now.

[Infernal Monkey]

Yeah, I was juggling the score around for a while. It's frustrating, because the game is great, but Platinum Games' not giving a shit about the PAL version is just ugh.

I'll probably end up changing the score to an 8 or something. Not that that's much of a difference.

[Boo!]

Hooray Smash TV!

[Aladdin Sane]

Originally Posted by Infernal Monkey

Yeah, I was juggling the score around for a while. It's frustrating, because the game is great, but Platinum Games' not giving a shit about the PAL version is just ugh.

I'll probably end up changing the score to an 8 or something. Not that that's much of a difference.

Don't get me wrong, I want to be able to tell everyone how awesome the game is too. It's got oodles of style, it's funny, the voiceovers are great and it's big, over-the-top fun. But then there's the whole conversion thing. We've been given a lazy product that just shouldn't be on in this day and age and being an Australian site I figure the review should reflect the afterthought that is our version of the game.

At least you made note of it though which is more than can be said for PALGN or IGNAU.

[Gookanheimer]

I still can't understand just why the borders are so huge on 4:3, none of my SNES games or anything ever had anything that big. But still, the game is fun...

[Quicksilver1111]

I have a shitty Conia 32'' HDTV and I seriously get small borders. The 50hz doesn't bother me at all. The lag when you chainsaw 3 guys consecutively, on the other hand...

[Raven]

I have been playing the PALversion on a 4:3 CRT, and when you get into it, you REALLY dont notice the borders. I might boot it up and have a look at it, but its not something that I have noticed at all. The only qualm I have with the visual is the small writing and the lack of 60Hz, because of that I can actually notice 'dodgy lines'.

Good game, and I can see why it would get an 8/10. Infernal, maybe you should put 2 seperate scores?
7/10 PAL
8/10 NTSC

[Gookanheimer]

Dodgy lines?
Do you mean the flicker on the narrow lines?

[Kabal]

Would've given it a flat 7.5 (NTSC version).

Some great entertainment mixed with tiresome commentary, bad camera mechanics, a shitty lock-on system and repetition of so-called 'creative' killing methods. But everything else is good or great - apart from the lousy PAL conversion.

[ChaosTH]

I haven't noticed the borders all that much really. I think theres a small one to the right of the screen but since the game is in black and white it blends in. The main issue I seem to have is with loading.

Nothing too major, but occasionally during a level the game will pause for a second in order to load or something. Could be a problem exclusive to me though. =P

And I though that guy sounded alot like Bender at times. Now I know why.

Anyways, good review Infernal. For a game I wasn't even planning on picking up, I loooooove it. xD

[Tayaun_Nintendo_ftw]

Wait you mean to tell me i've been playing a slower version this whole time :S Dear god. I must see the NTSC version. This reminds me of the old Sonic games. I used to live in America so when I came to Australia and played Sonic I was confused as to why it was slower (I was 5 and unaware of the whole PAL and NTSC thing)

[Sexycon]

Who are you?

[Thomas_Hill]

He's your mother.

Really.

[TSPhoenix]

Originally Posted by Tayaun_Nintendo_ftw

Wait you mean to tell me i've been playing a slower version this whole time :S Dear god. I must see the NTSC version. This reminds me of the old Sonic games. I used to live in America so when I came to Australia and played Sonic I was confused as to why it was slower (I was 5 and unaware of the whole PAL and NTSC thing)

Reminds me of Super Mario Bros on GBC, or any of the SNES games I owned on Snes9x.