The Wii is always seemingly pressed for hardcore games. Ironically, whenever these games are released on the console, lackluster sales follow with major price drops only weeks in. One such game, is Madworld. Developed by Platinum Games, this is one you can’t miss.

Developer: Platinum Games
Publisher: Sega
Date of Release: Spring 2009 (Released in all territories today, except Japan. Sorry Japan.)
Platforms: Wii

Genre: Action Beat um Up.
Players: 1 to 2 players

Story :
Plot
Varrigan City. In three days time, this city has managed to go from your average metropolis to a insane battleground for a event known to spectators as the “Death Watch” Terrorist known as “The Organizers” had targeted the city, and now released a virus. The virus will kill you in 24 hours if you do not kill another person, and recive a vaccine for your accomplishments. Now, everybody still within the city is forced to kill another or die, and perhaps even work to become the best killer in the city to win a large cash prize from the terrorist organization.

You play as Jack Cayman, a possible candidate for first place. You quickly befriend a man known as “Agent XIII” and attempt to work your way to the top.

Without giving too much away, I can assure that the story is interesting enough to keep you playing the game. Jack is a very interesting character, and as you learn about his past you will most likely come to appreciate him more. The other characters in the game are also big enough assholes that you will come to a general hate for everybody besides Jack. I mean this in the best way possible, as it will by the end be your driving factor for accomplishing your task.

I think it deserves a note as well, that the voice acting for this game is top notch. Steve Blum voices the main character, and does a damn good job of it. Every character has a actor that naturally fits him, and the dialogue flows very well, unlike a lot of games where characters awkwardly seem to somewhat babble to each other. (Star Ocean anyone?)

Graphics :

I will just come out and say it, I am a huge fan of Madworld’s art style and hold this to be one of the best looking games to come out this generation. To start, Madworld chooses a visual style that helps hide it’s lack of polygons. Due to the monochromatic world, everything is generally black or white (and beautiful, beautiful red). The use of shadows in the black and white world is reminiscent of Sin City, and brings to life the beautiful environments that are crafted for you around the environments. The visuals never seemed force, and they never hinder gameplay. Each level has a unique visual style, incorporating heavily some absurd theme to laughable proportions. From fighting Ninja’s in “Little Tokyo” to killing aliens in a government facility, the game always spits freshness directly into your face, assuring you notice the detail put into each and every level. Possibly due to the technical limitations of the Wii, even though each level has a new and diverse enemy set, the actual enemies in the level can get repetitious. The same model is used for the majority of a enemy type contained in a level, so you will be seeing a lot of that guy you just killed. This isn’t enough to detract from the visual style, but it still would have been nice to of had differences between the seemingly 5 enemy models per level.

Gameplay :
Single Player
Thankfully, after giving us a beautiful game developers decided it would be nice if we had fun actually interacting with the world. The gameplay in Madworld is some of the best uses of motion controls to date, making sure the next time your playing Devil May Cry on your 360, you will be attempting to swing your controller to finish your enemies. Rather then map every action to the Wiimote, the developers decided to take the limited approach, akin to games like No More Heroes. Most attacks and combo’s you will be pulling off are done from the use of the A button on the Wii Mote. Holding B on the other hand causes Jack to ready his chain saw, ensuring that a swing of the Wiimote will make quick work of the punks attempting to take you out. Holding down on A grabs enemies, and swinging the wiimote when a finisher is on the screen allows you to perform stylish finishers on your idiotic foes.

The controls are tight, but that is not all that makes the game fun to play. The main objective in a level, unlike traditional games isn’t to progress from point a to point b. The point is to rack up as much points as possible to make a boss appear. Killing enemies traditionally using your own attacks racks up a miniscule amount of points, and each level is on a time limit. So rather then waste time simply dispatching infinitely respawning enemies, the best practice is to use your environment to rack up as much points as possible. Early in the game, it lets you know that instead of cutting a enemy in half with a chain saw, it is better to put a tire around him, shove a sign post in his head, then throw him in a flaming barrel, only to finish him by throwing said barrel into a spike ridden garbage can. While not to most effective way to take somebody out, it is much more aesthetically pleasing.

As you continue to rack up points in a level, you’ll unlock new area’s in the level, as well as various special events. One of these events are called “Blood Bath Challenges” These events are essentially games of death (sans the Bruce Lee) in which you must kill as many enemies as possible, under predetermined conditions and using special devices before the time runs out. For Example, you are given a club and told your objective is to bat the enemies into parts of a huge dart board presented to you. This glorious event is known as “Mandarts”, and is only one of the many Blood Bath Challenges you will face.

Combine with this, eventually levels stir things up with levels that you play while the entire time on your motorcycles. (Of course Jack has a motorcycle, just look at the guy.) These levels manage to change the pace, while keeping consistency present in the game, and be a hell of a lot of fun. While on your bike, you will most likely literally laugh out loud at some of the ways you are going to kill your opponents.

After you have accumulated a fair amount of points in whatever stage you are partaking in (Including the motorcycle ones, excluding sole boss battle stages), you are treated to a boss fight. Like other beat um ups of this generation, that is where the game shines the most. Each boss fight is unique and requires a different way of going about murdering your opponent. As to not spoil the fights for you, I will simply say that you will be going from fighting huge, seemingly insurmountable beast, all the way to badasses on motorcycles.

Sadly for Madworld all that glitters isn’t gold. Do not misunderstand me, Madworld IS gold, but just not enough to satisfy you in the end. The game’s worst enemy is it’s own length. At around 3-4 hours, and low replay value beyond 20 minutes of fun killing people, the game is absurdly short. Once you finish it, you will shed a tear, remembering the good times and how they so quickly leave you.

Another problem with the game, is at times it can seem repetitive. Going through a level once, you will probably enjoy yourself to no end. Dying on a level and having to recoup the points on the other hand, will most likely not be a similar experience. Once you have unlocked all the devices and challenges in a level, it seems rather monotonous to attempt to kill over 100 enemies in ways you have done previously to rack up the same amount of points to continue where you left off.

Regardless of the short comings, the overall experience of the singeplayer is a great one.

Multiplayer

The game also features a multiplayer mode. In this mode, you and a friend get to attempt Blood Bath challenges together, fighting to receive the most points. While good for a few minutes of laughs with a friend, it is not that deep and seemingly a afterthought compared to the single player experience. You definitely wont be buying this one for the multiplayer and most likely wont use it beyond inventive things like drinking games. (Man Darts drinking game, whoever misses the center takes a shot, if it misses completely two shots, if its in the 50’s 3 shots or something.)

Overall

Madworld is a crazy fun experince. If you have a Wii, at it’s current price, I cannot see any reason for you not to own this game. While short, for a reduced price it is more then worth it’s weight next to other great games in your collection. Even with the afterthought multiplayer, the single player manages to be captivating enough for a recommendation. Do yourself a favor and play this game!

Pros/Cons
Pro’s
-Amazing presentation, some of the best for this generation of consoles
-Nice story, with a main character you will likely remember even past this game.
-Superb voice acting
-Fun addictive gameplay
-Great Singleplayer campaign
Con’s
-Multiplayer was a afterthought
-Short
-Can get repetitive
-Low replay value

The save factor
You can grab Madworld right now for $20 bucks. While $50 dollars is to much to ask for this short experience, $20 dollars is a steal and I would easily pay $30 for it.

DMitsuki Review, wii