I passed on buying MadWorld when it was released years ago - the mixed reviews made me skeptical - but now that I've played through the whole game (twice!), I'm kicking myself for not buying this earlier! (But, then again, the benefit of waiting so long is the game's current ultra-cheap price)
Platinum Games/Clover Studios (the same developer behind some of my other favorites:
Bayonetta
,
Vanquish
, and
God Hand
) specializes in making games loaded with the most extreme action imaginable and MadWorld is no exception.
What could be more fun and exciting than battling the most delightfully insane enemies ever, ranging from a psychos in skeleton-suits chasing after you wielding giant scissors, to giant mutants, to a cowboy on roller skates, to martial artists and ninjas, to little gray aliens with death ray blasters, to muscle-bound freaks in werewolf costumes, to a couple of guys who look just like the Jedi-pair from Star Wars Episode 1 (but wielding magnetic powers instead of The Force!) ?
---STORY---
The story was the biggest surprise about this game. The basic premise seems simple enough: The main character, Jack, is a contestant on a brutal gameshow in which he must kill enemies to advance. I didn't expect anything more complicated beyond that, but actually the plot features plenty of unexpected twists and turns, intriguing characters, wonderfully written dialogue, and a complex backstory - not simply nothing but mindless violence, as it might be easy to assume.
---GRAPHICS---
The heavily stylized black & white (and red!) look of the game is incredibly unique and artistic. You can tell the visual artists behind the look of this game are very talented. The use of light and shadow, emphasized by the achromatic color scheme, is especially impressive. I never felt like any visual elements blended into each other too much - I could always recognize what I was looking at. The graphical style certainly never hinders the gameplay experience.
Platinum Games had the right idea giving this game a heavily stylized look, because we all know the Wii's limited graphical capabilities can't compete with the competition head-to-head, so the unique style look makes up for the system's graphical limitations by creating something never seen before - something that stands out and looks incredible anyway.
---GAMEPLAY---
The structure of the gameplay is kind of unusual. In typical action games, it generally doesn't matter how you kill enemies - you simply do whatever works to survive. In MadWorld, however, HOW you kill enemies is the key to advancing.
The goal in every level is to build up the required number of points to advance. Your points depend on the brutality of your kills. For example, simply chainsawing an enemy in half is quick and easy, but won't get you that many points. Instead, if you stick a pole through his head, slam a trash-can over his body, and then toss him out the window so that he bounces down the awnings and finally get impaled onto a bed of spikes at the bottom, you'll get much more points. This way, the game rewards you when you explore new and creative ways of killing, instead of simply doing the same old moves over and over.
The levels mostly allow the freedom to run around wherever you want. Exploring is fun, because new methods of killing are found everywhere you go. In fact, just about anything that you stumble across that looks slightly unusual, anything that's not a plain wall, is probably some kind of death-trap that can be used for killing enemies. One of the complaints I've seen people make about MadWorld is that the game is too repetitive - which seems an odd accusation, because the variety of methods of dispatching your enemies is astounding!
As you build up more and more points, you'll unlock new weapons, new parts of the level will open up, new death-traps will be unveiled, and stronger enemies will be unleashed until finally you'll gain access to the big boss battle at the end of each level.
And speaking of bosses, these are some of the most intense boss battles in any game ever. I - like most Wii gamers, I'd imagine - usually play Wii games lazily reclined backwards, while only swinging the WiiMote by flicking my wrist, but I always found myself sitting up straight and swinging wildly with my whole arm when fighting the MadWorld bosses - it's that intense!
Every level also has one or two "Bloodbath Challenges" - gameshow style mini-games in which you attempt to score points under a time limit in bloody fun events such as batting enemies at a giant dart-board or tossing as many enemies as you can under a giant "death-press" to be flattened like pancakes.
Other forms of gameplay you'll come across are motorcycle levels - featuring both driving along a simple straight track, while attacking the enemies sharing the road with you - as well as a couple of stages in which you can freely drive around an enclosed arena, attacking enemies standing on the ground or chasing you on a bike.
---CONTENT---
This game has a reputation as one of the most - if not THE most - violent game on the Wii, and one of the most violent ever on any console. But believe it or not, I'd say that description is exaggerated. The violent content is not as bad as I expected! Yes it's bloody and brutal, but it's no worse than any of the old Mortal Kombat games I used to play on the old Super Nintendo. Plus, the enemies that you kill are muscle-bound thugs, mutants, ninjas, zombies, and all sorts of assorted freaks who are all trying to kill you - nobody weak or innocent or who doesn't deserve it. Yes, it's violent, but it's not cruel - there's an important distinction.
It also helps that this game has a sense of humor. This is not realistic violence. it's violence so over-the-top to the point that it's hilarious. When Jack rips out an enemy's beating heart and squashes it in his hand, you can't help but laugh, because it's so ridiculous!
---ACTING---
Steve Blum, who seems play just about every badass tough-guy videogame voice role, is perfect as Jack.
Great voice acting all around; the rest of the cast is great as well.
But the highlight of the game has to be Reno Wilson (you might recognize him as Sazh in Final Fantasy XIII, among other roles) as The Black Baron, an outrageous extravagantly-dressed jive-talkin' pimp who shows up to introduce the mini-games in every level - and inexplicably keeps coming back to life after getting killed repeatedly by his girlfriend - easily one of the most hilariously offensive video-game characters ever - but as you'll see, his role in the game expands beyond just comic relief!
The game also features a pair of comedic announcers who exchange crude back-`n-forth banter about as you play. I'm usually not a fan of profane or vulgar humor, but these guys are actually pretty funny. If you don't like them, though, you can always turn them off in the options menu.
---SOUNDTRACK----
Yet another surprise for me - I'm generally not the biggest fan of rap/hip-hop music, but I actually quite like the hip-hop-filled soundtrack of the game. The music suits the game well. But if you happen to dislike the music, you can turn it down (the options allow you to control the volume of the music, sound effects, voices, and announcers separately).
---CONTROLS---
I've seen many people complain about the controls not being responsive, particularly during the quick-time events during boss battles and I myself initially thought that this was a problem, but after much experimenting within the game, I've now realized that it's not that the game isn't responding properly, it's just not as forgiving as a lot of other games. Your timing has to be precise, or else you'll fail and your character will get hurt. It took practice, but I've learned the proper timing for these moments. I actually like this, because it adds challenge, but some people may find it frustrating - just don't blame the WiiMote for not working properly or the game for not reading your movements.
Aside from those quick-time events - or "power struggles" as the game calls `em - all of Jack's wide variety of combat moves are easy and intuitive to pull off - nothing to complain about.
---REPLAY VALUE---
Some people have complained about the game being too short - and yes, it's probably possible to play through the whole game in a handful of hours, but you're not likely to see everything there is to see your first time through. For example, the first time I played through the game, I mostly just hung around one particular area of each level, building up points the whole time and didn't explore the rest of the levels until my second playthrough. There's a lot to see and do in the levels - lots of special enemies that I didn't even encounter the first time I played - plenty of good reason to replay levels again.
Hard-mode ups the challenge level significantly and feels like a whole new experience after beating easy mode. Whereas in easy-mode, enemies generally just stand around waiting to get attacked, in hard-mode, they'll fight back relentlessly. It's such a contrast that I actually got killed repeatedly by the first group of enemies in the game the first time that I tried playing in hard-mode after already beating the game in easy-mode. My simple tactics that got me through easy mode failed to work so well in hard mode. The extra challenge is a good thing, of course - more enjoyable than simply cruising through the game, I'd say.
There are also "Deathwatch Challenges" - special challenges that you can try to complete, such as luring a certain enemy in front of a train, or finding hidden items. These give you a big boost in score, but really though, here's where I wish the game has some kind of online scoreboard, or that the Wii has some sort of achievement/trophy system, because I don't find that much incentive to get a score any higher than necessary to complete the levels, since there's no way to publicly show off your scores anyway.
After beating the game, if you replay the levels again, you'll have access to some special super powered weapons - just for a little extra fun after the game is over.
---MULTI-PLAYER---
You can compete against a second player in split-screen Bloodbath Challenge mini-games. I haven't actually spent much time with this mode, but it seems like it could be fun. There's no co-operative play in the main game, though.
...
In summary, I love MadWorld - can't wait for Anarchy Reigns! Oh, and nothing's more satisfying than hearing chainsaw noises coming from right your WiiMote speaker!
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Not a testatement to the games quality but to people in shipping that absolutely destroyed this brand new copy of this wonderful game like that. Shame on you.
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Eduardo Ramirez
Un homenaje a Sin City, con el toque platinum
Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on June 24, 2018Gianni
Great Product! Professional Seller!
Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on August 10, 2021
