It is not very often that I am taken aback by the amount of violence that is in a videogame. Most of the time I am prepared for it, usually getting an indication from the hype build-up, or even just from an introduction to a game. Subtlety is not a widely used item for games where the primary course of action is eviscerating enemies and eliminating the competition and often times they relish in this fact, letting their characters gloat and really enjoy the work that they are performing. This violence often has a level of disconnect, or comes off as something you’ve seen before with a button press to make the baddie go away. However, the first time I was instructed to take a chainsaw and drive it down on a fallen enemy in order to decapitate him, utilizing the Wii remote to make that final blow, I really got a sense of the impact that my actions were having. That coupled with a sea of red, splashed across a black-and-white universe is what MadWorld does to put you in the drivers seat of a whirlwind of insane violence, over the top gore and the language to fit it all together.

Platinum Games – a group whose members have had a hand in such games as Okami and the cult hit God Hand – have developed MadWorld as a staunch contrast to the image that the Nintendo Wii has gotten with its growth in popularity. The system is often portrayed as a dead zone for mature titles, with a very limited number of M rated titles and an even smaller subset of best-sellers in that category. In my own collection I have two, and both of those are Resident Evil, which have their roots elsewhere and are more offshoots of what the Wii is all about. MadWorld is a game that does not feel like it could exist on any other platform and retain the impact that you feel within the game, with the remote actions able to mimic well enough what you are doing on screen to make the controls feel like they have impact on the game and makes you struggle to perform the actions along with your character.

The game starts off with a comic-style display of a city under siege, seemingly by a terrorist group, and you assume the role of the tough-looking Jack – just Jack – who seems to want to get in on what is really happening in the city, some sort of gladiator style games that pin you against everyone else for money and fame. The comic presentation fits with the aesthetic, which is simply using black and white colours for everything in the environment, with a hint of red when you want to show off someone’s vital fluids. It works well for the system, stays consistent throughout, giving it a good feel if not a bit confusing distinguishing between the background and foreground at times. Its visual style may sound similar to something like Sin City, but the way in which the world is presented gives it a feeling all its own and this is compounded by the fact that you are given the perspective of someone watching all the events unfold on a television program.

Narrating the events are two off-screen announcers, cursing up a storm and making lewd comments about the occurrences on screen. Coupled with some generic rap stylings as your background music, the two quip about your actions, environment and enemies, and it is often actually funny and pertinent in a way that most game narration fails at miserably. That said, repetition can be a big issue and there are times when you will hear the same things repeated throughout a level, and even throughout the entire game. Still, the rap backgrounds and off-beat commentary add to the atmosphere of the game and help solidify its identity. The story that holds the whole piece together does a decent job, as well, while not being all that enticing and surprising fills in the character motivations and the environment well enough to satisfy and reveals and ending that doesn’t do any disservice to the mountains of work that you’ve done.

Controlling Jack is a lot of fun. While there is a large amount of wild remote waving, most of the actions that you perform are contextual. Swing right or left to swing right or left, up or down to do an uppercut, or hold B while performing this actions to horizontally or vertically vivisect your foes. When you have an item in hand, or an enemy, the interaction is also contextual, giving you the option of repeatedly slamming you opponent from side to side doing just that, or grabbing him and throwing him in a spiked dumpster and watching him get sliced in half. Given that we’ve not reached the Motion Plus nirvana yet, the game does a lot with what its given, and while the action doesn’t change drastically besides the inclusion of a small handful of weapons, the environmental interactions change enough throughout the game to always give you something new to kill with. A casino world has a bladed roulette table and bumpers that toss your enemies around, a ninja-infested dojo offers you a table to lay out the bad guys to be turned into a sushi dinner and a whole lot more very funny mini-games like Man Golf, Man Darts and Death Press that allow you to rack up points quickly in order to progress. There is even multiplayer based on the mini-game aspect, that while not life-changing provides entertainment and a good representation of what someone may expect from the full game.

That is the primary goal of each level, for the most part; amassing points by combining various methods of hurt. You run someone through with a sign post, drop a tire over him to bind him and then shove him into a spike repeatedly, gaining you multipliers and huge gains. As you get points, you unlock items in the world, mini-bosses and the eventual boss challenge. There are simple boss stages and even motorbike based levels that are more in-between spots than anything, but don’t really detract from the overall package. The difficulty level associated with these is a bit strange, and some bosses can be laid to waste in mere minutes while others may result in many a frustrating re-try in order to find the ideal way of taking them down. The game is in short enough bursts, and often gives you ample enough lives to balance that, but there are times when you will feel like there enemies designed to just wallop you without a real trick besides lots of dodging, jumping and dying.

As many positives as there are to the title, it doesn’t go without flaws, even technical ones. My first load up of the game resulted in a crash which lost all of the progress I had made thus far. I wasn’t many levels in, but it was still frustrating and something that I can not excuse in games, especially ones that aren’t likely to get any patches. Enemies can appear on your radar, and even on your screen, only to randomly disappear or reappear somewhere else. The default music settings are also cranked to the max, and right away you will find yourself unable to hear the announcers over the hip hop stylings in the background. Slowdown can also occur, especially during the motorbike levels, when a lot is going on at once, and it can be a bit visually distracting with all of the black and white.

Through any minor faults of the game, I left feeling happy with my playthrough and very impressed by what Platinum Games had achieved. A Wii exclusive that feels like it was born and bred for the system that establishes a mature tone, has serious gore without feeling exploitative or even gross and controls perfectly with the remote in a way that lets you feel every hit and get the rush associated with proper timing and a decisive and finishing blow against a boss. It’s a game that screams hardcore at the top of its lungs and manages to pull it off without sacrificing the qualities of a good game. While it is as simple as a beat-’em-up, the controls and style make it something all its own that deserves to be experienced and is likely something I will add to my collection of games in the near future.

So what I’m really trying to say is…
MadWorld does what is sets out to do; creates a mature game on the Wii that feels gritty, gory and lets you feel the impact of all your combat in a way that only the Wii can do. The graphics work for the system and don’t give it a feeling of being scaled down, the story works for the game that surrounds it. The characters are well established, the secrets unveiled and the conclusion satisfying enough to warrant a second playthrough just to catch things you may have missed. The narration is hilarious, the music is fitting, and the crunching and mashing of sounds that is associated with the destruction in the game add to the whole experience in a great way. Some odd technical issues seems to linger, but the game play solidly and fluidly, allowing you to gradually learn and eventually master the ways of massacre that the game allows. Varied gameplay and environmental interaction allow the game not to overstate its welcome, and while the experience won’t last all that long, a harder difficulty that really punishes you warrants a new challenge, and the fun of the game will get you to come back again.

MadWorld is developed by Platinum Games and published by Sega and is available for the Nintendo Wii for $54.99 (CDN). Rented and played for 7-8 hours. Game completed fully on normal difficulty, played briefly on hard difficulty.