MadWorld suffers a bit from its short length and a couple other issues but is still a crazy experience like no other.
Pros:
--Fun, over-the-top combat
--Cool art style
--Nice soundtrack, if you like hip hop music
--Some funny jokes
--The main character's just a badass
Cons:
-Not enough gameplay
-Some camera problems here and there
-Some lame jokes, some repetition
-Driving stages are a little dull
Imagine a wholesome, quiet neighborhood with lush green lawns, freshly-groomed flower beds surrounded by white picket fences, and kids playing peacefully outside while mom and dad walk the little family doggie around the block. Houses are clean, faces are smiling, and everybody's happy with their little corner of the world.
Until the new neighbors move in.
The new neighbors are loud and crude and think nothing of dropping F-bomb after F-bomb while standing right next to the playing kids. They have a lawn, but it's filled with weeds and grass that hasn't been mowed in three weeks. In place of a flower bed, they have empty beer cans and cigarette butts. They have a big, mean-looking dog that scares the other dogs in the neighborhood and craps in other people's yards. They leave their windows open when having sex, leave the bass so loud on their stereo that it shakes their neighbor's furniture, and their house constantly reeks of marijuana smoke.
MadWorld is the video game equivalent of that nasty new neighbor. The Nintendo Wii has been viewed by many since its release as the peaceful, smiling, family-friendly console, but all of a sudden, along comes the meanest game on the block to shake things up a bit. And not everyone is happy about it.
Even though MadWorld is not the first decidedly adult game on the Wii -- the chainsaw-heavy classic Resident Evil 4 and the violent and vulgar No More Heroes come to mind -- it has seemed to catch some attention from critics and watchdog groups that don't feel the Wii should be the home for such games. The concern is certainly justified as MadWorld definitely stands alone as the most M-rated game in the console's library (maybe any console's library, for that matter) and seems like it was brought into this world for the sole purpose of scaring parents and deliberately angering the groups of people who get angry over such things. The game's nastiness resume is impressive -- people getting sliced up by fans, impaled on poles, ripped in half, shoved face first into the toilet, and thrown in front of a train, all while two in-game announcers are telling obscene jokes about sex and farts and nasty rap music is playing in the background.
And that's just stage one! :)
For our purposes though, all of that side talk is neither here nor there. If you've gotten this far, chances are you care mostly about one thing, and that's whether or not MadWorld is a good game. The answer to that question is yes. But is it worth your money? The answer to that question isn't as clear.
MadWorld is brought to us by Platinum Games, a developer that features many of the key members of the group formerly known as Clover Studio, which made games for Capcom and was dissolved in 2007, despite delivering fan favorites such as Okami, Viewtiful Joe, and God Hand. Platinum is now with Sega, and MadWorld is the first of four (and hopefully more than four) games that will be released with their new company.
MadWorld picks up where Clover left off in delivering unique, artistic gaming experiences. The game, whose style and main character obviously seem to be inspired by the film "Sin City," feels like it carries elements of each of Clover's previous games -- an artsy style like Okami, a comic book-like feel not unlike Viewtiful Joe, and the old-school brawler feel and wacky sense of humor found in Viewtiful Joe and God Hand. MadWorld carries a black-and-white hand-drawn look that may not look like much in screenshots, but when seen in motion, it is quite impressive.
While the sleazy underbelly of MadWorld and the gruff main character Jack may remind you of Sin City, the plot setting seems to be more influenced by the Arnold Schwarzenegger flick "The Running Man." The player controls Jack as he becomes a contestant on a sadistic game show called Death Watch, where the object is to kill or be killed in the city streets while the world watches. Of course, there's more to everything than meets the eye, which the player will uncover as the game unfolds. All this happens while two in-game commentators describe the action with obscene joke after obscene joke and R-rated hip-hop music plays in the background.
The game may be hardcore in content, but gameplay-wise it's actually fairly simple. The A-button can be pressed for a punch attack, while the B-button triggers the chainsaw Jack has attached to his arm. Players can grab various objects and use them as weapons, ranging from hitting someone over the head with a cardboard box to stabbing them through the head with a road sign. The Wii motion controls can be used to throw enemies or perform various nasty moves such as hanging enemies on spikes. Jack also gains access to different weapons throughout the game, such as a spiked bat and a torch.
MadWorld is split up into several stages, with the object of each stage being to earn a certain amount of points from killing enemies in order to unlock the final boss. Enemies will respawn, and players will need to keep killing in creative ways to rack up the points. The combat can start to feel repetitive at times, but to help keep the action fresh, various mini-games are unlocked along the way, all of which are pretty nasty (such as seeing how many enemies you can throw into a spinning jet engine in a certain time limit), and mini-boss type enemies spawn from time to time as well. MadWorld also has a couple driving stages where you guide Jack on a motorcycle through a group of attacking enemies, but these stages lack the action of the normal beat-'em-up stages.
MadWorld's combat is over-the-top and often very enjoyable, as long as you aren't repulsed by the violence. The game is as brutal as games get, although the violence itself is so cartoony and outlandish that chances are it might not even bother you much once you get used to it and is not as disturbing as more graphically realistic violent games such as God of War II. If anything in MadWorld is likely to offend, it's the endless jokes being told by the Death Watch commentators. Some jokes are laugh-out-loud funny, but others are on the immature side (Announcer 1: "Looks like Jack's running out of gas!" Announcer 2: "Well, I'm not!!!" (cue farting noise)), while still others are so blatant in their attempt to offend that they simply fall flat. The jokes can often get repetitive too as sometimes, the game will inadvertently repeat the same joke three or four times in a row. Rest assured though, it's almost guaranteed that something this game does sooner or later is going to make you cringe.
Another issue with MadWorld is the camera, which can sometimes be uncooperative. The camera can be centered behind Jack by using the Z button on the Wii Nunchuk, while holding the C button can lock in on a particular enemy. In normal combat, the camera is usually not too much of a problem as players can use a radar at the bottom of the screen to help pinpoint enemies. On a few boss fights though where your enemy will be moving around at higher speeds, it can be tough get the camera situated. For the most part though, the camera doesn't stop the boss fights from being cool, fun and unique.
The biggest issue with MadWorld, however, is the game's length. MadWorld quite simply is not a very big game. The campaign can be beaten in a day or two, and even though there is a multiplayer option, extra challenges that are unlocked along the way and a hard difficulty unlocked upon completion that will take some effort to finish, many gamers are going to be turned off by the size of this game. It is true, as some have said, that the six hours or so (maybe less) that it takes to play through the campaign the first time contains more quality in a short time than a lot of longer games have, but players will need to play through more than once to get their money's worth, and many gamers demand more content these days from the games they buy than what MadWorld has.
Overall though, Platinum Games definitely delivered with MadWorld. It's not a game for everyone simply because people will be turned off by the trying-too-hard-to-offend vulgarity, insane violence, and locker room humor, but fans of beat-'em-up games and hardcore gamers in general should give this one a look because even though MadWorld has some familiar elements, there's really nothing else out there like the final package this game delivers. It is mostly fun to play and has a certain coolness factor, is great to look at, and if nothing else, throwing enemies through the sky onto a wall of spikes is a good stress reliever after a bad day. MadWorld may be the equivalent of that the bad kid on the block that mom and dad don't want you to play with, but sometimes, as they say in "The Breakfast Club," being bad can feel pretty good.