A bit late to the hardcore game party.

The Wii- probably the worst console to make a violent game for, and yet developers are trying so hard to get hardcore gamers to use it as a main system. This can be easily linked to Nintendo using all their money to buy the soul of anyone who has basic knowledge of game development.

Now I can’t really complain about this game, SEGA did a fairly good job considering that it’s well…SEGA. And it’s nice to see that they are working on new original franchises which don’t involve a certain hedgehog, summing up MadWorld is as easy as pointing at a skinned rat. Mindless, childish and bloody fun is OK with me as long as they don’t slap a big M on the cover and try to play with the big boys.

The story

The bad guy cuts access to an island-based city, the government can’t step in to fix things because they are wusses and you ( Jack ) are sent in to give them hell. Soon you find out that the once peaceful black and white city is covered in a few different shades of red, as a huge battle arena now stands on top of the island. If you’ve every played Ratchet: Gladiator you’ll have a better idea of what to expect, if not just know that you will be entered into the competition and in order to advance to a new zone you’ll have to raise your ranking in the arena by killing the bosses. The bosses are probably the best thing you’ll find in this game, their thematic stages and humorous cut scenes more than make up for the ease of killing about seventy percent of them.

The presentation

What MadWorld lacks in story, it compensates with two crazy announcers that comment on everything, and I do mean everything you do. Their puns can sometimes repeat themselves to the point of annoyed yawns, but each new zone introduces new items so you’ll have plenty to entertain yourself with. A big selling point of MadWorld is it’s art style which can be explained with one of the following three.

a) Someone creative still works for SEGA

b) It creates a better canvas for bloody masterpieces

c) Hides the otherwise unattractive polygony art

I’d have to guess the right answer would be c) , because after seeing the Wii’s real capabilities with games like SuperMario Galaxy and Metroid Prime 3 I can’t accept this bad excuse for character modeling just because it’s on the Wii.

The Gameplay

This is one of the few non-shooting games, in which the Wii controls are incorporated in an easy to use manner. Waggle controls are used for attacks and you can charge up your handy chainsaw with the B button, picking up new weapons gives new waggle command like a horizontal slash with the WiiMote when using a baseball bat, to launch enemies. To progress in the game you have to gut a certain number of people to collect a certain number of points to get to a boss fight and defeat the boss to get to a certain rank, that lets you get to a new stage and do it all again. Change of scenery and BloodBath challenges keep the game away from repetition.

Overall

If you want a good game for the Wii, then you can’t go wrong with MadWorld. It all depends on your taste…taste for blood that is.

*Ba-dum tish*

Story - 8/10

Presentation - 7/10

Design - 7/10

Overall - 7.5/10