Kombo’s Review Policy: Our reviews are written for you. Our goal is to write honest, to-the-point reviews that don’t waste your time. This is why we’ve split our reviews into four sections: What the Game’s About, What’s Hot, What’s Not and Final Word, so that you can easily find the information you want from our reviews.
What the Game’s About
Nintendo has been slow to the gun when it comes to delivering solid hardcore titles to satisfy the thirst of Wii owners. Wii gamers have scene numerous casual titles land on their beloved system, but Sega is here to make sure you can quench that thirst with blood. First, they delivered House of the Dead: Overkill, and now we have MadWorld. MadWorld is the first title out of the gates of newly found developer Platinum Games. Consisting of former members of the famous Clover Studios — developers of Okami — we knew this title had a great chance of success before even playing it. Well, these boys certainly haven’t lost their touch.
MadWorld lets you play as Jack and sets you out to unleash hell. Kill your enemies anyway you see fit. Whether it be shove a tire around their body, shove a sign post through his head, and then toss him into a jet engine. Your only mission is to kill everyone and everything you see. You want hardcore? You can’t get anymore hardcore than this.
What’s Hot
There are a lot of positive aspects to MadWorld. Platinum Games went a different route when it came to the Wii than most developers have been. Instead of using an old engine to craft a Wii title, Platinum Games created a brand new engine for Wii and it certainly shows. Rather than make a realistic looking Wii game, we are instead given a black and white comic style game. Technically, you could say this game is only one color. Black is the absence of color and white isn’t classified as color, so this game is only one color and that is red. Believe me; you’ll be seeing a whole lot of red. To make up for the obvious lack of color and HD graphics, MadWorld sports one of the sharpest looking artistic styles ever to be crafted in the gaming industry. Little details really make the environment and imagery come to life. Little things really make the world seamless and flow remarkably well.
When you notice the shards of a skull flying through the air after you bash a head against yours, that’s when you know you got a winner. The violence is extremely over the top and you wouldn’t want it any other way. Throwing people into jet engines and seeing the bodies shred into tiny bits and pieces is greatly satisfying. Better yet, batting an enemy into an oversized dart board and watching their necks crack as they reach their destination. The blood squirting out and the cracking of bones is just amazing. It’s never so over the top that you’ll feel nauseated, but it’s just that perfect mix of extreme violence that will keep you satisfied and looking for new ways to finish off your opponents.
All this senseless violence is even more senseless unless it’s fun to perform. MadWorld is all about fun. Whether it be found in the gameplay, announcers, mini-games, or just the overall experience, you’ll find yourself having a great time with MadWorld. Walking around with a bat infused with nails and batting enemies away is a game in itself. You can always find newer and more creative ways to kill someone. The point meter and combo meter will keep you trying new methods of killing until you reach the highest score possible. The game is very open and accessible to your own unique play style.
What’s Not
Overall, MadWorld is very polished and you can tell it was crafted by some truly amazing talented people. Since we are all human, you have to expect there to be some problems. The game suffers from a few. One of the main problems is the camera. While not game breaking, the camera can get in the way and sometimes eclipse surrounding enemies from your view. If that’s not the case, you may think you are going to hit or throw an enemy in a different direction than you really will. The camera isn’t perfect, but you’ll adjust to it and get the flow of it after a little bit of playtime.
These next problems go hand-in-hand with each other. The game is short and is easy — well, at least on Normal mode. The game can be completed in about 6 hours if you sit and just play straight through. But, the real appeal comes from experimenting with new killing methods and building up a high-score. As for being easy, the game on Normal mode won’t offer too much of a challenge. You’ll find yourself cruising through the starting stages and then hitting a snag later in the game when the difficulty ramps up. However, once you beat the game and unlock the higher level difficulty, you’ll find yourself hiding in a corner. The game is out for vengeance on the harder difficulty.
Other than those main concerns, the only other problem I noticed was some slowdown during certain sections of the game. Mainly, I ran into slowdown while riding the motorcycle and crashed into people. It’s not a major concern or problem, but be aware that you may hit a few frame rate drops here and there.
Final Word
There’s no reason to be mad with MadWorld. If the world was like this game, then we’d be in a very happy world. Well, maybe not literally, but Wii owners have a real reason to be happy now. MadWorld is an incredible amount of fun and should be enjoyed and experienced by all Wii owners. Play this game.
