MadWorld Review

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Review: MadWorld

Released: 20th March (UK) (Out Now)

Platforms: Wii

FINAL OPINION: WORTH A PLAY / GOOD

Note: Images from Gamespot.com

One of the most ultra violet beat-em-up has landed for the Nintendo Wii accurately entitled as Madworld. Varrigan City has had its transportation and communication links cut off from the rest of the world by a group of terrorists called the "The Organizers". This same group had also released a virus among the population of Varrigan City with a vaccine only rewarded to those that will kill another thus tuning the city into a recurring game show called Death Watch. The remaining citizens of Varrigan City become the contestants of this ultra violet game with the hope of becoming the top ranked fighter in the game and win a large cash prize.

In Madworld you will take control of a character called Jack Cayman, a contestant in the DeathWatch games who also just happens to have a retractable chainsaw on his right arm ready to slice someone. During the Death Watch games you pretty much have one main objective and that’s to kill everyone you see. However simply killing someone isn’t enough you have to be creative in order to rack up enough points to take on each boss character in order to rank up and become the top fighter.

There are many ways to kill someone pin them against a set of spikes or maybe you want to shove a barrel over them first and then stab them with 1, 2 or 3 lampposts and then repeatedly smash them against a set of spikes and watch as piles of blood spill from your opponents bodies. Yeah it says gruesome but that’s what MadWorld is all about over the top creative violence. Being a Wii game it uses the motion control of the nunchuk and wiimote but don’t worry no complex motions required here in fact simple vertical and horizontal motions are what you’ll be doing most of the time. During most levels you will encounter BloodBath Challenges, which are minigames that have you attempt to score kills in certain ways. One particular Bloodbath Challenge called "Man Darts", has the player hit enemies onto a giant dartboard with a baseball bat to score points. Each BloodBath challenge is introduced by the Black Baron who seems to get killed during each introduction.

MadWorld incorporates cel-shaded graphics with limited colour palette of high contrast black and white in fact the only colour you’ll see is red and there’s a ton of it as you kill your opponents over and over and over watching piles of blood spill. MadWorld has a fantastic soundtrack and some great voice audio work. The game also manages to incorporate split screen co-op but this is limited to the Bloodbath Challenges.

MadWorld is a fun game to play but there are number of criticisms. The black and white art style is great but it can make it hard to see at times so sometimes you’ll walk past objects such as baseball bats and lampposts etc. The gameplay is entertaining at first, but it can grow old after awhile as you’ll find yourself following the same routine. You don’t have control of the camera in this game you can only centre it and it can be pretty frustrating when the camera is facing the wrong way and you get blind sighted by an enemy. On top of that the games lock on system is pretty weak as it takes while to lock on properly. Lastly the soundtrack, voice work and sound effects are all just piled on top of each other and it’s hard to hear everything properly some adjusting of the sound levels is needed hear.

All in all I found MadWorld a fun and entertaining game to play. For most players this game will last between 5 – 6 hours and those that like to take their time add a few more hours on top of that. If you’re not the type to play a game at least twice then I suggest renting otherwise I recommend everyone that has a Wii try out MadWorld.

FINAL OPINION: WORTH A PLAY / GOOD