Madworld was developed by Platinum Games and is one the uncommon M rated games for the WII. The blood and gore caused some consternation amongst parents such that family friendly Nintendo had to defend the game stating that the WII isn’t just for kids and is available to everyone.
You play as Jack Cayman a former police officer, soldier, mechanic and now a mercenary who is a contestant participating in Varrigan City’s death watch competition. The competition is being organized by a terrorist group called The Organizers. They have just recently cut off all transportation and communications from the outside world and then released a virus that is killing people of Varigan City. The evil Organizers have a vaccine but will only give it to residents who take part in a killing game called Death Watch. Everyone living in Varrigan City now has no choice but to participate. Jack is participating as he is on a job to find the mayors daughter and to also put a stop to the competition.
The graphics and art style of the game is very unique. It uses cel shading but it also has a black and white scheme where the only color you will see is either blue or red for blood. For a Wii game it looks incredibly detailed even today. It is heavily inspired by Sin City in terms of art and storyline in addition to the infamous Manhunt series by Rockstar games.
Each level is completely open ended and the main goal is very simple, rack up as much points you can get by killing people in the most violent ways you could think of. Every location has something you could use to kill enemies to rack up points. Some parts might be hidden and you to destroy it to open up new areas. After each boss fight, you advanced further in the rounds.
You could punch people to death, use your chainsaw in all directions but it requires a period of cooling down. You could pick up weapons you find but after a while it degrades. You can use the nunchuk to not only move around but to also dodge enemy attacks. You are not going to simply rack up points by impaling enemies alone. You could place tires or throw them in garbage bins and impale them and then use your chainsaw to form an ultra combo thereby racking up a lot of points.
When you score up a certain amount points, a mini-game unlocks hosted by the current deathwatch champion, a Blaxploitation styled pimp Black Baron. He explains the rules of the mini-game and the better you perform, the more points you will earn to be able to fight the boss.
Some levels have you ride on Jack’s motor cycle. You could fight enemies while riding the motor cycle by ramming them down or brutally grabbing them and throwing them off the road. After you reached your points goal, the boss fight of the level unlocks. Each level’s boss fight is creative and challenging.
The game play is meant to be more accessible to newcomers to the beat em up genre as compared to God Hand. You can kill people in very creative and over the top ways. The control system is very interesting as you have to use the controls in a way like you are brutally murdering someone. The musical score is heavily inspired by the mashup album Collision Course that Jay Z and Linkin Park did, so if you are into nu metal, you will be really fond of this sound track.
The voice acting in the game is really over the top and hilarious. The back and forth commentary between John Dimaggio and Greg Kroops was really one of the highlights of the game. They always have some very funny topics to discuss from Transgender prostitutes, the kind of kills Jack does, their own sociopathic tendencies and adultery as well. A lot of the voice lines they made were improvised and it really made the dialogue feel spontaneous. The sound effects were top notch you really felt immersed into the action of the game. You can replay levels.
You can’t really purchase anything in the game, the score points are really just for show like Vanquish. Beating the game allows you to select the hard mode and earn 2 new weapons: the dual chainsaw and double katanas and you could replay any level you like. The game uses a life system where finding balloons either by exploration or completing mini games.
This is a very fun arcadey style beat em up game.
It gets 4 out of 5 stars.
Knowing the amount of stress going because of the pandemic, this game would be perfect to help alleviate it. If you can’t handle ultra violence or edgy noir type stories, then do not buy this game.