Madworld (Wii)

I've been waiting for `MadWorld' to come out for what feels like absolutely ages and after spending a couple of hours over the past few nights playing it, I am not disappointed at all. This is the second "videogame nasty" to come from Sega this month on the Nintendo Wii and makes House of the Dead: Overkill look like a teddy bear's picnic in comparison as this game is brutal! You play Jack, a contender in a TV show called Death Watch where you are locked into various parts of a city and must kill everyone to be number 1 in the competition - it's like The Running Man meets Sin City meets Streets of Rage!

One of the things that is particularly fascinating about this game is the graphics - this game is visually stunning and easily the best looking game on the Wii by a long shot. Using black and white comic book style visuals with just red blood and the occasional yellow bit of writing for the effects, this game makes you feel like you are actually playing a comic! I think even if I was playing this on the PS3 or Xbox 360 I would still be impressed with the graphics on this one! This game has really pushed the Wii to its limits and this looks great!

Another thing that is very impressive is the controls - Sega have made full use of the Wii's innovate control system and everything works smoothly and is very responsive. It isn't at all difficult to master the moves and is extremely user-friendly and most importantly - great fun.

The commentary from the two presenters is absolutely hilarious and will have you quite literally shocked at some of the things that they say. Humour plays a big part in this game (like HOTD: Overkill) to lighten up the fact that this is probably the most violent game ever made. You'll be harpooning signposts through an enemy's head before throwing them onto a spike repeatedly or dunking them into a flaming oil drum and then throwing them into a dustbin with spikes on which will cut them in half! Trust me - this game has pretty much every over the top kill you can think of (including human darts!)!

As good as this is, this game isn't perfect though. The motorbike sections are fairly pointless and not as fun as I hoped they would be. The gameplay , although fun, can become a little repetitive at times, so this may be best to be played in short intervals as I have to keep its appeal, as at the end of the day, this is just a scrolling beat `em up.

If you thought that the Wii was made for little girls who want pet sims or princess dress-ups, or for middle-aged women who want to keep fit at home, you're probably right...until now! With this, HOTD: Overkill and a few other more "grown-up" games in the pipeline (such as The Conduit) the Wii is finally starting to appeal to older gamers and this is the perfect game to prove this. This is easily the best single player game on the Wii in a long time (since Mario Galaxy, Resident Evil 4 and Metroid Prime 3) so I highly recommend this to anyone looking for a decent and fun to play game on the Wii that just oozes style.

In essence this is a straight forward beat-em-up, but its a beat-em-up that is just filled with the most ridiculous and ultra violent moves and kills. To play its hilarious, some of the things you are encouraged to do in this game is just plain sick but its handled in a very tongue in cheek way and because of the comic book nature it comes across as an over the top bloody mess...a very entertaining bloody mess!

The gameplay is addictive, it has you clearing various stages by performing requested tasks. These tasks could be anything from hit a high score, perform a combo of moves or complete one of the games many blood bath challenges. The later are just hilarious mini game type challenges that you need to complete as quickly as possible. I wont spoil the fun and tell you what they involve but trust me they are hilarious. These bloodbath challenges are unlocked in a multiplayer mode once you have played them in the game, a nice addition i feel because i felt the main game to be a little short. As addictive as it is, the gameplay does not really change through out the game, the only break from clearing a stage of some goons and a boss comes in the form of a motorcycle race (involving chainsaws), its a small breath of fresh air but they could have done more to create some variation.

Graphically the game looks very nice, its black and white look is reminiscent of graphic novel type films such as sin city and because the only color in the game apart from B&W is the red blood it makes it all the more glorified when you impale a man on a spike using his anus. Of course these graphics do have minor set backs, everything tends to blend into itself so it can be a little difficult to find certain objects in the game; You really have to look around properly to find weapons and items. Thats the only gripe graphically but overall i think its a strong looking Wii title because of the art design rather than graphical power.

I for one would agree with the age rating on this one, i understand people buy games for their kids even tho they are not old enough (hell i was playing 18 rated game when i was 10) I would strongly recommend not giving this to anyone under the age restriction because its possibly one of the most violent and graphically involved game since the first manhunt. But if your ok with allowing your kids to actually ram signposts through peoples skulls and then ram fireworks up there jaxie's and watch them take to the skies thats fine.

so, entertaining for all the wrong reasons? hell yes!

I'm a girl so I bought this game thinking it would be one for the lads. But I was pleasantly surprised to see myself sucked into it. I had a little difficulty in the beginning adjusting to the visuals (my old TV doesn't make it easy either) but once I got the hang of it, I couldn't stop! Yes, it's gory - but it's all evidently fictitious and I like how it encourages a great use of the Wii remote. Hours of fun and recommended for those who are looking to catch a break from typical Nintendo Mario games! I'm only giving it 4 stars because the visuals are not very easy to get used to. I wear glasses and have a slight eye-sight problem so it was probably worse for me because of that!