Review: MadWorld

Developer: Platinum Games

Publisher: SEGA

Playing as Jack Cayman, you end up stuck on Jefferson Island of Varrigan City, which you were transported to on the third day of terrorist rioting there. The only rule is kill or be killed as it’s time to compete in The World’s toughest game show. Each player is backed by a sponsor and it’s only a matter of time before Jack is approached by the mysterious Agent 13 to offer his financial backing, and it seems that large sums of money are being wagered on the outcome of this “game”. All contestants (anyone who got stuck on the island) are told they will die if they attempt to leave the area as they have contracted a virus; be the last one standing and you earn freedom, survival and a huge cash reward.

Lucky for you, Jack is as tough as old boots and has had a chainsaw attached to his prosthetic arm. This is a hack ‘n slash beat ‘em up from way back in the day, stylishly brought up to date by using black and white visuals (plus red blood) and well-drawn characters. You’ll think you’ve landed in Sin City as the simplistic art style and colours lend themselves to the platform well. Remember when you used to get pen and ink style cheats for games? It’s exactly like that, just with shading.

Throughout the levels you’ll have countless waves of goons to dismember in any way you see fit. Feel like putting a signpost in their head, running them through with your chainsaw or slicing them in half with a dumpster lid? All of these are possibilities which you can also combine to rack up the points. Remember, pain means points, and you are aiming to earn enough of them to take on the Boss of the level. Unsurprisingly these guys have massive energy bars and take a while to defeat until you learn their attacks.

There are even specific level fatalities – ever wanted to peg someone on a massive spike, get them zapped by an alien spacecraft’s tractor beam or sliced up by concealed blades in the wall? Now you can, it’s all up to you how you decide to disect your enemies. Of course you can just chainsaw them in half as well, but you need to check that your fuel gauge doesn’t run down too far otherwise your blade stops leaving you vulnerable. Power-ups are scattered throughout the levels in the form of a Happy Onion, which restores your life force and the chainsaw gauge, Happy Pills and Power Pills (to restore health), and lastly the all-important Jack Balloons to give you more continues.

During the levels you’ll encounter the Black Baron who will set up a Bloodbath challenge. These range from throwing goons into a jet engine or throwing enemies onto spikes positioned somewhat fortunately on naked woman billboards (No, this game does exist, honest!). The Black Baron seems to get killed just before every one of these challenges, so I have no idea how he comes back every time. Bloodbath challenges can be played in two player mode, so you can enjoy Zombie Golf with a friend. Unfortunately the main adventure isn’t two player, although that might create way too much carnage. To play the Bloodbath challenges in multiplayer you’ll have to clear them in the main game first.

MadWorld’s tongue is stuck firmly in its cheek. Whilst Jack is doing away with the enemies and hostiles commentary is provided by Joe Dimaggio and Greg Proops. They both have brilliant lines to spout during the game, however these are unfortunately triggered far too often; what was originally funny ends up being repetitive and not so funny. On Area 66, I sniggered the first time Greg asked “How do you sex an alien?”, with Joe answering “As often as possible”. Funny the first time, after that, no. I’m sure there’s more room on a Wii disc than there was on a GameCube disc so I don’t know why there weren’t a few more lines in the game, and that is my biggest grudge. The audio itself is good, with meaty sounds for smacking people, nice chainsaw effects and realistic screams of death.

My only other negative is the AI on the default level, where enemies tend to stand around and line up to be killed. This somewhat distracts from the game, as on the next difficulty up they start wading in a lot more efficiently, and, let’s face it, who wants a game that’s easy to complete?

MadWorld is a bit on the short side for my liking and once you’ve learnt the finishers and implanted one signpost in an enemy’s head it all seems familiar. The changing locales are good, ranging from Chinatown, Area 66 (read 52 for that), Mad Castle and Casino World. However, I didn’t find myself wanting to play through the adventure again after I had finished it the first time, even if it meant I could play with two chainsaws or a Katana. Don’t get me wrong, this is a good game, it’s just I can’t see a lot of people playing through it multiple times. Still, you can usually find it for a fiver (or less) on most internet sites and if you like your beat ‘em ups there’s nothing wrong with it. If you’re not a fan I don’t think this will convert you.