MadWorld

MadWorld is possibly the most controversial game of the year, and the reasons are obvious. Going against the grain of the reputation that the Wii has developed for being a casual, party game machine, MadWorld is an ultra gory, ultra violent brawler game.

Set in Varrigan City, a city taken over by terrorists, you play as Jack, a contestant in DeathWatch, a sick TV show where you either kill, or end up killed yourself. The story starts off pretty basic, but as it progresses, you find out that there is a lot more to the story then meets the eye.

The most noticable thing with MadWorld is the graphical style. Presented in a stylish black and white presentation, with the more then the occassional splattering of red, giving the game a very comic book feel. The presentation had the possibility to cause problems, making some things difficult to see, but for the most part, this isn't the game and works extremley well.

The problem with the game is the gameplay itself. It's not… more »

MadWorld is possibly the most controversial game of the year, and the reasons are obvious. Going against the grain of the reputation that the Wii has developed for being a casual, party game machine, MadWorld is an ultra gory, ultra violent brawler game.

Set in Varrigan City, a city taken over by terrorists, you play as Jack, a contestant in DeathWatch, a sick TV show where you either kill, or end up killed yourself. The story starts off pretty basic, but as it progresses, you find out that there is a lot more to the story then meets the eye.

The most noticable thing with MadWorld is the graphical style. Presented in a stylish black and white presentation, with the more then the occassional splattering of red, giving the game a very comic book feel. The presentation had the possibility to cause problems, making some things difficult to see, but for the most part, this isn't the game and works extremley well.

The problem with the game is the gameplay itself. It's not a bad game, infact it's quite good fun, but it's just too repetitive. It amounts to little more then putting something over someones head, stabbing them through the head before throwing them into something, with a little bit of use of Jacks chainsaw in between, which, whilst funny at first, also becomes tiresome. On most levels, there are alternate weapons that can be used instead of the chainsaw, but even these fail to break up the repitition as these become rather tedious themselves after a shortwhile. Even the commentary suffers from the same fate. Whilst each level has it's own unique set of speech, which are funny at first, it doesn't take long before you've heard all of the lines and they lose that comic effect. The one break in the this comes in the form of the Bloodbath Challenges. Presented by the hilarious Baron Black, these challenges are basically about trying to kill as many people as possible in anumber of amusing ways including Man Golf and Man Darts. The only downside is that these can't be unlocked as single player mini games outside of the main game.

Overall, MadWorld is a fun game, but it's best enjoyed in 20-30 minute bursts as there's just not enough variety to make it fun for much longer. It's also fair to say that the main story is just too short, and although you can unlock hard more after completing the game on normal, you may find yourself not wanting to go through the game again.

Sega have been on top form recently. Their Megadrive Collection received top marks, House of the Dead: Overkill got passed Videogames most infamous critic unscathed and Sonic & the Black Knight survived it's release without being hacked to pieces by it's own harsh critics. The topping on the cake of Sega's success over the past couple of months comes from Madworld, a sort of cross between Smash TV, Sin City and the Itchy & Scratchy show.
Madworld is said to be the most controversial game to come out on the Wii but I can honestly say that there really isn't anything offensive about this game except for the bad language which probably gave it the 18 rating rather than the stockpiles of blood & corpses you have to cut up. The Sin City comic style graphics gave Madworld an edge over games of similar gameplay as for one it's less realistic than the frequently banned Manhunt games; and it's thanks to the design of the game that it's so much fun but it's not without fault.
The… more »

Sega have been on top form recently. Their Megadrive Collection received top marks, House of the Dead: Overkill got passed Videogames most infamous critic unscathed and Sonic & the Black Knight survived it's release without being hacked to pieces by it's own harsh critics. The topping on the cake of Sega's success over the past couple of months comes from Madworld, a sort of cross between Smash TV, Sin City and the Itchy & Scratchy show.
Madworld is said to be the most controversial game to come out on the Wii but I can honestly say that there really isn't anything offensive about this game except for the bad language which probably gave it the 18 rating rather than the stockpiles of blood & corpses you have to cut up. The Sin City comic style graphics gave Madworld an edge over games of similar gameplay as for one it's less realistic than the frequently banned Manhunt games; and it's thanks to the design of the game that it's so much fun but it's not without fault.
The graphics does hinder the game at times as it's very hard to locate major enemies, weapons and items. Plus when it comes to boss fights there is not really a particular way you can kill them as all the other creative killing methods are saved for the grunts.
To end I don't really understand what all the fuss is about. Yes it's violent but how is it any different to an Itchy & Scratchy cartoon that appears on a PG rated show; anyway what you have is a very fun game, one that the serious Wii players have been waiting for.