Mad World (Wii) Review
Posted by Sean Garmer on 04.15.2009
Platnium Games first move into next-gen is rather bloody...
Nintendo’s Wii is usually the home of the kid friendly games bearing the face of Mario, Zelda, or a cartoon character. However, as Resident Evil 4 and No More Heroes proved, there is an audience for the more mature game on the family system. SEGA and Platinum Games (many of the heavy hitters that made up Capcom’s now defunct Cloverleaf studios) decided to test the limits of the Wii in this category. Known for games such as Okami, Viewtiful Joe, and God Hand it should maybe be no surprise that they created a game like Mad World. Does the first foray for the company on the Wii leave us in satisfaction? Well, if anything no one can ever say Nintendo did not allow carnage in a game.
Graphics: If there is something these guys are known for its original graphics, with the absolute beauty that is Okami and the quirky art style of Viewtiful Joe on your resume, it is no surprise they took what made those cool and put it in MadWorld. With the Wii not high on graphical power, they took the best route they could. The characters are all in black and white, which lends a cool atmosphere to the game, almost making you feel like you are playing a graphic novel on screen. It especially allows the blood to be shown in all its glory and all the impaling, slicing, and blasting provide the only color in the game. It gives the game an artistic feel, where you are using the chainsaw to give color to the screen. Everything from the enemies to the light fixtures all combine to create a fantastic atmosphere in the different levels. You’ll instantly feel like you’re in Asian Town with Ninjas, Varrigan City with punks, or the Mad Castle with zombies, yes, I said zombies. Not to mention, there are some awesome boss battles with characters befitting those worlds as well.
Gameplay: As pretty as the graphics are, this is where Mad World truly shines. I’m not one that generally likes games where you basically go around killing things or people for the fun of it. So I was skeptical about how I would view the game. The premise is rather simple; the world has been taking over by terrorists, you play as Jack (who looks almost identical to Mickey Rourke’s character in the Sin City film.) Your mission is to rise through the ranks of this game called “Death Watch” and the reason is because if you do not you will die (the story is similar to the film “The Running Man.”) The game is a beat-em-up, but unlike Final Fight or Double Dragon, the way you get to where you need to go is by earning style points. You earn points by finding creative ways to destroy the goons in the various worlds. The more points you earn, the closer you get to fun mini-games (that involve mass killings), a new weapon, a mini-boss, and eventually the boss. Essentially the goons whether they be zombies, ninjas, vampires or whatever are there for you to slaughter how you see fit. In that aspect it is similar to the beat-em-ups we know. However, the game does provide you with a variety of ways of destroying the enemies. For example: You can shove a light fixture through their face, you can cut them up with your chain saw in different ways, maybe you like throwing people into a meat grinder or a revolving fans, or the best part impaling them on some spikes. Every world you travel to has pretty much the same basic things for you to use, they are just adjusted to the world’s setting. So like in the City you may see a light pole or a tire, in Asian Town that may be a doll’s head or Japanese looking light pole. Each city also has its own slew of surprises awaiting those players who venture out and explore the towns.
The game breaks down each level into these goals after achieving a certain amount of points. Suddenly a bus may appear with a row of spikes on it waiting for you to impale people on it. Then a little chamber opens and you could get a new weapon like a club. Then you may see a mini-boss show up, and then proceed into a mini-game. They can range from throwing a bunch of goons into a huge turbine, playing golf using skulls instead of golf-balls, or even shoving so much soda up someone’s mouth that it causes them to fly through the air only to be impaled on a billboard of a woman with a spike coming out of her vaginal area or her boobs. Then you’ll get to the real fight, with the big boss that delivers a nice range of difficulty and gives the player a satisfying finisher when you are done dismantling them. There’s nothing like going through this grueling battle and then using the Wii-Remote to watch Jack just totally kick this dude’s ass.
Speaking of the Wii-Remote it works impressively well with the game. You use the nunchuk to dodge, move, jump, and somewhat control the camera. The Wii-Remote does the rest as you use A to punch, B to swing the chainsaw and the other various combos you can do, as well as swinging the remote to throw those people into the oblivion. They did a nice job of constructing the game well for the Wii and made most of the things simple to do.
I say most because there are a few issues. Firstly, the camera is faulty. It is only really an issue in the boss fights, but it makes the boss fights annoying. The camera has a lock-on feature that doesn’t really work too well. You have to press C to use the lock-on, but sometimes it will work and sometimes it doesn’t. Most of the time I didn’t even mess with it because it became frustrating to try to figure out if I was locked-on or not. Regardless, the bigger issue is that you really can’t control the camera. All you can do is center it behind your character, which in most boss fights does not help matters. It doesn’t take away much from the experience but if it wasn’t for the fact that you can easily dodge out of the way of attacks it probably would be a bigger deal. There were many times where I couldn’t even see where the boss was attacking me but I just kept dodging and eventually I could see the boss.
The other issue is that picking up items is not as easy a task as it should be. You hold A to grab the item, but usually in other games you hold that item until you decide to discard it. In MadWorld in order to keep holding the item you have to keep holding down A until you decide to use it, which is annoying. Mainly because many times it made it difficult for me to use the Wii-Remote before I lost control of the item. Other than these two issues that’s about it for the bad stuff overall in the game.
MadWorld also has two levels (I guess you could call them change of pace levels) where you ride on a motorcycle and knock enemies off of theirs until you reach the boss. Though I like that they tried to incorporate something different I didn’t particularly care for them. They seemed unnecessary and tacked on in a way. I felt that they take away from the game too, especially since it just seems like a way for the player to get through the level quicker.
Sound: Hearing the chain saw just slice and dice through bone is an excruciating sound, and you’ll definitely hear plenty of that. The voice acting is good, and jack probably has the perfect voice for his character. The soundtrack is a mix of hip-hop tracks and some upbeat stuff, among the ominous thematic songs done to match the theme of the level. The best part is probably the NFL Blitz type commentary that goes on during the gameplay done by John DiMaggio and Greg Proops. They describe the action with wit and vulgarity that is just tremendous. The only problem is that sometimes it all repeats and when mixed in with the music and sound effects it kinda blurs. For the most part, it all adds to the cool experience that is this game.
Lasting Appeal: The sad thing about the game is that its short, at most it will last you 6 to 7 hours to get through the game. It does have a 2nd difficulty level after you beat the game. You get a double chainsaw and another weapon to fight against the much tougher goons and bosses. There is a multi-player mode but it is really tacked on, as all you do is play split-screen mini-games with a friend. There is also no online mode either, maybe if there is a sequel we will get co-op play, or online co-op play, but for now this is really a short single-player affair. To kinda help keep the fun going, I found the game most fun playing in short bursts, like playing a level and then stopping.
The 411: The game may be short but it is satisfying to see all your hard work culminate in blasting a boss into oblivion or playing a game of skull golf. The game is not for the kids in the slightest but it shows that there is place on the Wii for those adults that are used to playing Halo or Dead Rising. Platinum Games has set the bar pretty high with their first effort, let’s hope that their next title holds up to that.
Graphics
9.0
The black and white graphics provide a great backdrop for the sea of crimson that you create on screen
Gameplay
8.5
Do you like cutting people with a chain saw, impaling people into spikes well this is the game for you
Sound
8.5
the voices are good, the soundtrack matches things well, and the commentary is hilarious
Lasting Appeal
7.0
There is a 2nd difficulty level to go through with a special weapon, but there is no real multi-player aspect or online function, so that hinders it.
Fun Factor
8.5
It all depends on how much you like killing enemies with various weapons and such.
