Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

10 Hours or Less

The Bottom Line:

"Just plain fun"

What's Good:

- It's fun.
MadWorld is a game unlike any other on the Wii. It's a brutal beat-'em-up that encourages you to be as violent as possible. The game is divided into several stages in which you have 30 minutes to rack up a certain amount of points. The more brutal your kills, the more points you get. Due to this relatively simple setup, along with the over-the-top environmental and cinematic kills, MadWorld excels in the most important department: fun.

- The announcers are hilarious.
Without delving too deep, MadWorld's plot revolves around a fictional sporting event called DeathWatch, which has become one of the most popular sports in the nation. As such, the game is narrated by two hilarious announcers that always have something to say. Their jokes typically arouse smiles at the least, even though there are many repeats and a couple of bombs. Without the announcers, MadWorld would not be half as fun as it is.

- Most of the soundtrack is great.
MadWorld features a soundtrack composed almost entirely of original hip-hop by small-name artists. Many of the songs are really great, even better than most mainstream songs. However, there are a few songs that just aren't very good. They're not bad by any means, but they just don't stick with you as much as other songs in the bunch.

What's bad:

- It's short and overpriced.
Even while playing at a moderately slow pace, I finished MadWorld in under four hours. That wouldn't be much of a problem if its price were any lower, but a full-priced game that's only about twice the length of a movie just isn't right. But the length is understandable; any longer and it would become repetitive. Replay value is entirely dependent on how much you care about beating your previous scores and replaying the game on a significantly harder difficulty setting. So it's not really the length that bothers me, but the price instead.

- It doesn't introduce enough variation.
Even with its short length, MadWorld starts to get repetitive about midway through. This is simply because it doesn't do enough to change up the gameplay. Sure, every level has a distinct "Bloodbath Challenge" minigame, but that's not enough to shake things up. Enemies and weapons only get face lifts from level to level rather than actual variation in terms of behavior and function.

Final Verdict:

Rent it, or get it on sale.
In the end, most hardcore gamers will enjoy MadWorld quite a bit. It's unique, crude, and just plain fun. Just be wary of the short length and borderline repetition. A rental would be most recommended, unless you can pick it up for cheap.