Review: MadWorld (Wii)

The plot is a cross between Smash TV and The Running Man with Jefferson Island quarantined it’s the perfect spot for Death Watch, a Battle Royale type game where the idea is to kill or be killed. Under the watch of your sponsor - the mysterious XIII - you play as Jack, not the nicest chap on the planet who has an ulterior motive for taking part in the game, something you find out as the plot unfolds. As the story actually centres around a game, points are an integral part to the experience.

Each level is essentially an arena with no beginning or end. You’re just placed onto the map with a constantly spawning flurry of enemies all vying for your blood. Points are acquired by slaughtering your opponents by various imaginative ways. Either by using your chainsaw arm, your fists or any of the environmental hazards that litter the arena. Mixing things up a bit is always the best. The most effective for mass points will be using a tyre to wrap around the enemy, then stabbing a signpost into their face all before you grab them and throw them numerous times into a wall of spikes. In case you hadn’t already realised, it’s incredibly over the top.

As points rack up new games and weapons become available. One of the better moments is the appearance of the Black Baron character who appears after a set amount of points to show you a mini-game. Each level has a different one and apart from the odd duff one they’re all pretty effective at adding some much needed variety to proceedings. Not nearly enough though. The problem comes from how long each level takes. We didn’t have a timer, but the first few felt like they lasted about twenty minutes. And this is twenty minutes of violence repeated over and over again; and doing the same moves as well. It’s fun at first, but it feels like the developers were rapidly running out of new ideas. They tried mixing it up a bit by adding a bike section, though this is hardly as great as they should be, and really it’s the bosses that are the real stars.

An enormous giant looking like the El Gigante from Resident Evil, a crazy Japanese woman, and a pack of werewolves are just some of the bosses you’ll encounter, each uniquely designed and coming with a nicely inventive death sequence. Of course beating them is harder said than done. Dodging attacks before using your chainsaw on their backside seems to be the most effective, but every now and again with a swift motion of the wii-mote you’ll enter a quick time event. While we scoff at their presence in games that really could do without them, here they’re used the way they should be. Sparingly, and reprehensive of what movement you’re actually making with the wii-mote and nunchuk. This also carries onto the simple enemies you encounter. Once they get battered you can instigate a simple motion with the wii-mote, depending on where you are in relation to the enemy. You can split people in half, rip their heads off or break the backs folding them like a deckchair. Its brutal, visceral and completely in standing with the games unique visual style. Adding to the carnage that ensues are the two commentators (one of which voiced by Marcus from Gears of War) always adding their insight with clever quips and mockery. It’s just a shame that lines are often repeated, no surprise with the amount of people needing to be dispatched.

The black and white look has always had people who’ve been searching for those ‘proper’ games in the Wii’s line-up intrigued. Like a cross between the Sin City film and other graphic novels, it’s very stylised, none more so than when the blood starts flying. All of a sudden the screen fills with colour and you’re mesmerised by what you’re seeing. Adding to the comic book look are the panels that appear during cut scenes and words popping up on screen as your bikes wheels “screech” or as someone else has their face pummelled with a sickening “squelch”.

What MadWorld has in style it lacks in substance. Despite not being a particularly lengthy game it seems like PlatinumGames ran out of ideas quite soon after the first few levels. Enjoyable at first, it soon degenerates in a constant battle to the end as you perform the same death moves time after time with very little variety needed. Why do anything else when throwing them into a meat grinder earns the most points? Despite not living up to our expectations (and having terrible sales figures) we hope this doesn’t scare developers into not trying anything different with the Wii. After all, we’ve had quite enough of mini-game collections and licensed tat.

Rating: 6 / 10

Words by Adam Gulliver