The main reason I ever agreed to getting and playing MadWorld was because I was promised some campy humor, unfortunately I didn’t quite get that. What I did get was something that was still quite enjoyable though. I’d be one of the first to say that mature games for the sake of being mature games are something I’m not a fan of. Its not that I think they are bad, but more often than not they are quite immature and not remarkable in any real way. I like my Wii for the games it gets me, I don’t care if they are “mature” or not. So that’s why I was so against actually playing MadWorld because Sega insistence they bring some “Mature” games to the Wii because it was too kiddie or something along those lines. Course having now played it I probably recommend it here or there, but it certainly isn’t for everyone. Especially considering that the game is all black and white, save for splashes of red blood here or there, it certainly isn’t a bad art style, but I’m not a personal fan of it.
The game is made by Platinum games, and if anyone really knows my history with them, they would know I love them and praise them more than I should. They develop awesome games, but MadWorld I don’t think really fits into that category as much as my instinct tells me otherwise. Don’t get me wrong MadWorld has its upsides, and certainly does have appeal. But this doesn’t stop MadWorld from having terrible gameplay. It’s not even because of the basic gameplay mechanics, but rather the camera itself. Often in MadWorld I fight over the camera over any other enemy in the game. MadWorld has bad camera angles that constantly make it hard for you punch other enemies or make combos with any actions you do, let alone having to fight some buggy controls while trying to hit your enemy.Course the game makes up for bad controls and camera with some brain dead A.I. throughout the game, but this really doesn’t make the game fun as it does functional. Not to mention that the main focus of the game, killing people using various means to score points, actually gets quite repetitive and boring after a while. There are only so many times that slamming a guy into a spike will give any sort of satisfaction, let alone doing it in nearly every stage. The game does have a lot of stages hazards, but the vast majority of them are the same. You’re either ripping people to shreds, burning them, electrifying them, or the majority of the time, impaling them. The same song and dance gets old rather fast and the gory animations playing over and over again just get annoying after a while. Sure, MadWorld has this interesting mechanic with a mini-game of sorts to increase your points faster, but it really is just the same thing over and over again with just a slightly different goal of landing the corpse somewhere else. If you’re not tossing the enemy in a certain direction you’re probably using a weapon to do it instead. MadWorld just gets old rather fast, and with MadWorld being a rather short game as it is, makes it all the more sad to see.
Course, this game doesn’t have just substance to it, but rather flash and really that’s where the game gets interesting. While the game isn’t a solid entry by any means of gameplay; the music, story, dialogue are huge appeal to this game. The music for one, has some of the best songs I have ever heard on the wii, and it always gets me pumped to go kill some enemies. The story is generally interesting once it starts to get going. Sure it still doesn’t make a whole lot of sense even after I beat the game nor does it really accomplish anything deep, but it at least had my attention the whole time. But the icing on this cake, truly, is the dialogue. The announcers are by and far some of the best ones I have heard during any kind of game that mocks announcers. They are crude, rude, funny, and have a ton of attitude. Sure a lot of their lines get repeated over the game, but when you hear some new ones it really makes it worth the trip of playing this game. Especially the end credits, by and far the best credits I have ever seen in any game. I just loved hearing the announcers talk smack on the people that developed this game.
Final Thoughts:
MadWorld may have a mature rating, but it came out a little immature when it came to gameplay. There are just too many problems with the camera, the controls, and the repetitive gameplay. Even for a short game, MadWorld makes killing enemies rather boring after awhile. I mean, if you impaled one guy in the head, you impaled them all. Still though, MadWorld does have a lot of appeal at least, and with great music and dialogue to back it up, this game is at least worth some attention for those that are interested.