MadWorld Review

By Simon Parkin Published 10 March, 2009

Worn out faces.

Version tested: Wii

Jack has just torn the head clean off a man dressed as a minotaur, when yet another steroid-pumped goon wanders into shot. Perfect timing! In one graceful movement I slam the beast's still-warm horned skull down onto the unfortunate man's shoulders. It connects with such force that, as I step back to admire my handiwork, it remains lodged in place. If Xzibit were here perhaps he'd quip: "Yo Dawg! We heard you like head so we put a new head in your head." Instead, as MadWorld's two commentators come from the Wrestlemania tradition of television commentary, we're treated to the cruder line: "You've got one minute left: which is precisely the amount of time your wife spent f***ing you on your honeymoon."

Next, I grab a signpost and spear the brute's second-hand face with it. As he stumbles about, understandably disorientated from his improbable wounds, I rev the chainsaw attachment on Jack's right arm and, encouraged by the FINISHER! icon flashing on screen, slice him vertically in two with a deft flick of the Wiimote. His torso flaps open like a peeled banana as a crimson puddle bubbles about my feet. Jack's ratings soar.

Gamers who have been clamouring for adult content for Nintendo's Wii are to be sorely disappointed. MadWorld is as juvenile a videogame as Barbie's Horse Adventures. Of course, juvenile doesn't necessarily mean that it's in any way suitable for children. Quite the opposite, in fact. After all, Barbie never got to dip her pony into a flaming oil drum before ramming it onto a spiked wall. Eyes first. Repeatedly.

As manna for Daily Mail Outrage, MadWorld is the choicest morsel yet delivered by gaming in 2009. Of course, the idiosyncratic black and white visuals, interrupted only by the odd splash of yellow comic book onomatopoeia and spattering of bright red blood, bespeak the game's graphical pedigree. This is what Clover Studios did next, the latest addition to Atsushi Inaba's stylised family of games that includes Viewtiful Joe, Okami and Godhand.

But on the other side of MadWorld's family tree sit Manhunt and Smash TV. This is snuff videogaming, the latest in a short but controversial line of games about a character killing other characters in gruesome ways for the viewing pleasure of an in-game television audience. This is a supremely violent videogame but it's the kind of violence in which you catapult a zombie into the light side of the moon, or in which a sumo wrestler leaps up to grab a helicopter from the sky before trying to impale you on its blades: more Powerpuff Girls than sick filth.

Jack, MadWorld's gravel-voiced antihero, is the latest star of Death Watch, a television show filmed entirely by the CCTV cameras of Jefferson Island. This totalitarian future city has been cordoned off and turned into a bloody television set, its residents fighting each other to death for viewing figure glory. Jack ostensibly works for a TV producer, Agent XIII, chasing a grim career trajectory by touring the various areas of the city, facing off against the other show's stars (the game's bosses) and climbing the rankings. But writer Yasumi Matsuno (best known for his games Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story) builds upon this vanilla premise in interesting ways and it's not long before the story becomes a compelling proposition.

'MadWorld' Screenshot 1

At set score thresholds new weapons are unlocked for use in each level, spiked bats, golf clubs and flamethrowers providing useful alternatives to your chainsaw.

Even if it doesn't grab you, the story provides a solid and traditional structure for the game, each district in the city offering up three stages, each with its own rival TV character to defeat. In every level you have to pass a specified score threshold before the boss is drawn out, a target which can be met through a variety of different point-collecting. Firstly, there are the grunts that roam each area. You can take them down with a few punches to the head or, if you prefer, by slicing at them with your chainsaw arm. However, to score the high points you'll need to get more creative, linking together attacks before you finally snuff them out.

This is achieved by making use of the various items and safety hazards littered about each level. For example, you might pull a tyre over an enemy's torso, trapping his arms, before slicing at him with twin blades to chop those arms off. Then you can grab what's left of his body and throw him into a trash cart, the force of which causes the lid to slam down on his waist, chopping him in half. Each step in the sequence acts as a multiplier, and the more steps of violence you can introduce, the higher the points you'll net for the kill.

The complex controls, which make use of every button on the Wiimote and nunchuk, are in practice intuitive. The A button is used to throw punches and grab enemies while special attacks are triggered by moving the controllers in motions that mimic the on-screen violence. As such you'll be swinging the Wiimote around your head to throw enemies into jet engines, or pulling the Wiimote and nunchuk apart from one another to break a grunt's neck. There's a lot going on but the action is never anything but instinctive.

The second way in which you accrue points is via Bloodbath Challenges, mini-games that interrupt each level at set score thresholds. These take the form of timed challenges in which you must, for example, throw as many enemies onto a giant dartboard as possible within 30 seconds, or knock zombie heads through rings in the sky using a golf club. The points you earn in these spot challenges are added to your overall total, so a high score here will shorten the amount of time before the level boss appears.

Boss battles switch between freeform fighting and structured quick-time event-style sections, in which you have to make controller gestures within short time periods. It's a game design crutch often frowned upon in Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 games but, thanks to the gesture controls, it's sensible and compelling here. Your real-life movements mimic the action of, for example, unscrewing a bolt from a giant Frankenstein's head or throwing an eight-foot Nazi into a turbine, so what might feel dull and lifeless on the other consoles is engaging and relevant on this, adding weight to the argument that MadWorld could only really work on Nintendo's console.

The first few stages are a breeze. Enemies attack very little, instead acting more like tokens that must be inserted into the level's sideshow attractions for visual payoff. In this way, the game can at times feel like little more than a giant funfair ride, all spectacle over true substance. Indeed, the first playthrough is fuelled entirely by the delicious promise of what visual horrors are going to be serve up next: a voyeuristic hunger that apes the in-game television audience feel.

But soon enough the difficulty scales dramatically and by the time you reach the Austrian-themed Mad Castle area of the city, careful use of Jack's offensive abilities must be balanced with defensive actions if you're to have any hope of progressing. Bosses start to regenerate their health midway through battle and any bad habits you've picked up in shaking the controllers and hoping for the best (the Wii's version of button mashing?) must be exorcised and replaced with a more thoughtful approach.

'MadWorld' Screenshot 2

Your performance graded on five levels from Routine Violence up to Ultra violence, aggregating your scores for general play and the spot challenges encountered along the way.

It's at this point that the game will lose a chunk of its audience, revealing as it does the unforgiving and orthodox Japanese systems that underpin the experience. Sink 30 minutes into earning enough points to tempt out the boss only to lose all of your lives to him and you'll have nothing to show for your investment: the game doesn't even record the futile time spent to your save file. The funfair ride turns into a precision sport and where any fuzziness in the controls went undetected before, now it stings and irritates. The lack of a block button becomes infuriating; dodging is your only evasive move and the unwieldy camera and ineffective sometimes-broken target lock-on mechanism threatens to ruin the entire experience.

For the skilled player, the heavy emphasis on score attack - your performance in each level is rated for kill efficiency - means that MadWorld is not so much about the destination as it is about the multiplier-winning journey. But even here, under prolonged scrutiny, the systems waver. You're free to summon a stage's boss at any point after you pass the score threshold, but you're also free to continue infighting right up to the time limit. This means that the game rewards those who slog at it, rather than those who are quick and effective, which makes the score-chasing unsatisfying hard work. Perseverance, then, is rewarded only in terms of the story and the set-pieces: over the long haul, the systems fail to deliver.

Still, as a piece of violent spectacle MadWorld is unrivalled. The creativity of PlatinumGames in providing ever more unlikely and delicious ways to kill and maim Jack's antagonists boggles and delights the mind at some deep, base level. And so, no matter how much the schoolboy-humour commentary grates, no matter how repetitive the bits in between the set-pieces start to feel and no matter how frustrating the later levels become, MadWorld provides a rush of blood to the head almost as often as it provides a rush of blood to the pavement.

7 / 10

Read the Eurogamer.net scoring policy
Picture of Simon.

About Simon Parkin

Simon Parkin is an author and journalist on video games. A regular contributor to Eurogamer since 2005, his work has also appeared in Edge, The Telegraph, Gamasutra and Boing Boing.

Read more articles from Simon by visiting the Simon Parkin archive page.

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Comments (86) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Law07 #1 3 years ago

    As good as RE5 then?

  • Genji #2 3 years ago

    Ahahaha. I was having a bet with my friend that the first comment would reference RE5.

    Looks like I won! :D

  • Xerx3s #3 3 years ago

    Not as good as Halo.

  • drumbaby #4 3 years ago

    "Boss battles switch between freeform fighting and structured quick-time event-style sections, in which you have to make controller gestures within short time periods."

    Great. Now all the non-gamers who can't remember where the X and O buttons are on proper controllers can play QTEs for 5 minutes, before remembering they're not gamers and switching off the Wii for good.

  • DUFFKING #5 3 years ago

    /misreads subtitle as 'Worn Out Faeces'

  • Charlie_Miso #6 3 years ago

    Flop?

  • stevetuck #7 3 years ago

    OMG WHAT A FLOP!!!! i dont give a crap about score this is Bought/10 for me :D

  • Tomo #8 3 years ago

    It sounds really, really dull to me. I'm intrigued by it, but I reckon I'll get bored by it very quickly.

  • Tomo #9 3 years ago

    Oh, and although it means fuck all, the review read like an 8 to me.

  • Tomo #10 3 years ago

    Well, that was my guess as I was reading :p

  • Tomo #11 3 years ago

    SPAM

  • Charlie_Miso #12 3 years ago

    FLOP!!!! but for split screen co-op.

  • Eraysor #13 3 years ago

    I haven't bought a Wii game (excluding downloads) since Metroid Prime 3. Try harder developers!

  • Progguitarist #14 3 years ago

    @ Tomo

    I aint talkin' bout that Wii...

    :D

    Seriously, I reckon this would be a good laugh. IGN scored it at 9 for whats its worth.

  • Ryze #15 3 years ago

    This game looks really interesting. Shame there's not enough reason for me to buy a Wii.

    I'm sure that Ninty are shitting themselves without the extra income in this round.

  • stevetuck #16 3 years ago

    Worst thing is... this game will not sell at all :)

  • DS1O9 #17 3 years ago

    Fuck you douchebag

  • 3william56 #18 3 years ago

    ^^

    Wow. After that inciteful piece of devastating critique, what more is there to say? Just curious DS109, who in particular is the, er, "douchebag" to which you so eloquently refer? And what was it that disturbed your overly American sensibilities so?

    As to the game, which part *isn't* a quicktime event? The control isn't subtle enough to actually let you "perform" the variety of carnage on offer, so surely it's just location specific gestures and buttons?

    But black and white don't make stuff art. Just ask Michael Jackson.

  • frankfurter209 #19 3 years ago

    Never saw the appeal in this game. Looks toilet

  • gudnikristinn #20 3 years ago

    Dammit Eurogamer! If it wasn´t for your review score Madworld would have a higher score then RE5 at Metacritic.com
    I just hope some more reviews come in and fix what you have done.
    I really want this game to be game of the month(i have my reasons).....stupid bet.

  • gudnikristinn #21 3 years ago

    Actually as i´m writing this Madworld has a 87 which is the same as the 360 version of RE5 but the PS3 version of RE5 has an 88 score... So one point to go and i win a bet. Can´t wait to see how it goes.

  • MyPointIs #22 3 years ago

    I thought Nintendo only sold games to kids under 12.

  • MyPointIs #23 3 years ago

    I hope that's tomato juice.

  • superjag86 #24 3 years ago

    Instead of complaining that EG 'only' gave it a 7 maybe you guys should appreciate that they're trying to give us a honest review. It sounds likes there are a few problems with this game but that doesn't make it a bad game. I for one won't be cancelling my preorder but I appreciate the heads-up that this won't be the greatest thing ever, just an enjoyable (for the most part anyway) romp.

  • cawley1 #25 3 years ago

    This is still guaranteed at least a 9 if not a 10 in Edge due to it's arty pretentiousness (had to spell check that one in Word!)

    With No More Heroes at less than a tenner everywhere, I have a feeling that this type of game will not sell on the Wii, and it will stir the Daily Mail up... What a waste of developer time, at least it will win some awards!

  • seasidebaz #26 3 years ago

    Did anyone else get the subtitle reference?

    Yep. You missed the other reference though:

    Jack looks like Marcus Fenix, who in turn had "that song" playing on the Gears trailer.

  • thebaron #27 3 years ago

    meh!

  • secombe #28 3 years ago

    I thought Nintendo only sold games to kids under 12.

    I guess you (and others) missed the rather excellent HOTD: Overkill released a few weeks back?

    Whilst entirely different, HOTD has actually put me off buying MadWorld for now, I've already got a very satisfying high-score-attack game which is going to keep me going for some time, and with PES 2009 on the horizon I doubt this is going to get a look in.

  • Pinewood_Groves #29 3 years ago

    I think the graphics look awesome, but the game itself sounds flawed.

    The Xzibit bit in the review was a little embarrassing!

  • Oh-Bollox #30 3 years ago

    With No More Heroes at less than a tenner everywhere, I have a feeling that this type of game will not sell on the Wii

    I remember Rising Star, who published NMH in the PAL region, saying they were weeping with delight in regards to sales. That the game is now a tenner makes fuck all difference, there are loads of games that sold well and are now cheap as chips. I seem to remember Crackdown doing good business, but you can pick that up for less than a tenner now.

  • Sunyavadin #31 3 years ago

    Nothing more or less than I expected, then.

    I eagerly await my preorder.

  • Evolution #32 3 years ago

    Seeing as we're getting a NMH 2, it must have sold enough to justify it. Sounds like MadWorld isn't pretending to be anything other than what it is, a fun game.

  • Triggerhappytel #33 3 years ago

    "IGN scored it at 9 for whats its worth."

    Which isn't much. ;)

    Sounds fun-ish, but like it would get quite tired quite soon.

  • Redeye #34 3 years ago

    Sounds like a hoot, and I shall take great pleasure in pretending that the various enemies are actually PR mouthpieces for the games industry, and dealing with them appropriately. >;)

  • septimus #35 3 years ago

    So would make a better downloadable game on XBLA/PSN? Looks basic, plays basic, bit of fun. Sounds just right for a 9.99 download.

  • FreakyZoid #36 3 years ago

    Starting your review off with a meme already long past its use by date? For shame.

  • kinky_mong #37 3 years ago

    I'll still be getting it. As Tomo said the review reads like an 8. In fact the most important part of the review for me is...

    This is what Clover Studios did next, the latest addition to Atsushi Inaba's stylised family of games that includes Viewtiful Joe, Okami and Godhand.

  • mjhoward #38 3 years ago

    Sounds good enough for me, nothing in the text that stood out that would kill my enjoyment of the game. The preorder stays :)

  • Meho #39 3 years ago

    I was actually pretty afraid that this game would not have the same amount of depth as Viewtiful Joe and God Hand. And it seems that it doesn't. From the review I'd say the emphasis is after all on style over substance. Which IS a little sad considering how all Inaba's games so far had so much style AND substance. But on the other hand, I will be buying it in an instant, because I believe it will be a flawed but fun game. After all, Suda's Ho More Heroes is a game where big parts of the gameplay are pretty much SHIT (driving) and yet I purchased and played that one with a smile.

  • youhavenomail #40 3 years ago

    As soon as I saw the gameplay videos for this I feared the worst. I was bored of watching after a couple of minutes and I saw nothing to suggest that I would feel any other way while playing. I enjoyed No More Heroes, even the purposefully boring bits, but this just looks like a series of unintentionally boring bits sewn together.

    In spite of this lack of substance, the superb style that coats it will have me offering £10 for it when the right moment comes along.

  • spekkeh #41 3 years ago

    Gamers who have been clamouring for adult content for Nintendo's Wii are to be sorely disappointed. MadWorld is as juvenile a videogame as Barbie's Horse Adventures.

    Well that's a bit unfair innit? It's exactly the juvenile efforts on the other consoles (Gears of War, etc), which have motivated the pubescent fanboys to call the Wii a console for kids.

  • HermitArcader #42 3 years ago

    Post deleted at 09:17:39 22-12-2011

  • Rash' #43 3 years ago

    cancels preorder. awaits Edge review. 30 long days to go! :(

  • raion #44 3 years ago

    it's not the violence that puts me off, and neither is the gameplay which promises to become very repetitive very soon (DAMN QTEs!! I hate them! they're in no way a good substitute to proper gameplay!). it's the fact that, as intriguing and unique the visual style is, I really can't make out anything about what's going on.
    I tough it might be the screenshots, and that in movement, you'd be able to tell more easily what's what, so I tried to watch a couple of trailers and... it's even worse!!
    I'm sorry, I just can't. :\

  • rudedudejude #45 3 years ago

    "With No More Heroes at less than a tenner everywhere,"

    Where?!

  • Kami #46 3 years ago

    "Gamers who have been clamouring for adult content for Nintendo's Wii are to be sorely disappointed. MadWorld is as juvenile a videogame as Barbie's Horse Adventures. Of course, juvenile doesn't necessarily mean that it's in any way suitable for children."

    This is exactly the truth. Okay, it's got "Mature Themes" and "Content not suitable for minors" but that doesn't in any way make it grown up. I think people expected something more, they expected Sin City or some ironic look on society and Reality TV today. That was always very unlikely.

    Still, all this needed to be was a good exercise in blood and gore, and it seems to deliver.

  • sanctusmortis #47 3 years ago

    Aspic, why the hell do you read EG reviews when you never agree? Go troll Gamespot or something.

  • neonxaos #48 3 years ago

    I wish I knew why EG has such hot-tempered readers... Ah well, not going to add more fuel to the flame.

    This looks like a flawed gem to me, but a good first effort from a very promising studio indeed. I don't think this will push me over the fence as far as the Wii goes - I need to pick one up cheap if I'm ever going to get one.

    Can't wait to see what they do with Bayonetta and Infinite Space - the latter sounds extremely intriguing.

  • secombe #49 3 years ago

    I wish I knew why EG has such hot-tempered readers... Ah well, not going to add more fuel to the flame.

    Always wondered that myself, never experienced anything like it on the web elsewhere. Pretty amusing (if not a little frustrating) to say the least. I'm guessing when a lot of these peeps grow up they will be more than a little embarrassed by the things they used to spend time spouting off about (I found some of my usenet posts from the late 90s a while back, it was cringeworthy). The forums seem a little more 'grown up', been loving the HOTD:overkill thread over in the Wii forum, plenty of interesting conversation/tips/banter.
    Edited by 1 at 10/03/09 @ 12:33

  • Golgo #50 3 years ago

    Sounds a lot of fun to me. Not over-long like Okami, and not over-hard like Viewtiful Joe.

  • el_vicio #51 3 years ago

    Hey guys, been lurking until now.

    There's one thing about the review that I don't get - the comments about the controls - on p1 they're instinctual (read: flowing and natural), on p2 they're fuzzy.

    All in all, it reads like an 8, and that aside, a 7 is still "a shitload of fun if you like the genre), see Umbrella Chronicles.

  • secombe #52 3 years ago

    The review does seem to turn quite suddenly on page 2, mentioning things that were a positive on P1 and spinning them into a negative for P2.

    Maybe it will become clear when we start playing it, but I personally tend to ignore comments on the control mechanics as I seem to 'get' them even if others don't.

  • Vin #53 3 years ago

    Some silly design flaws listed in that review.

    One for the sales, I reckon.

  • MisterFahrenheit #54 3 years ago

    "With No More Heroes at less than a tenner everywhere,"

    Where?!

    Plenty of copies going for £7.99 in my local Gamestation. Just waiting for a gap in my gaming timescale, which doesn't seem to be coming up any time soon. I know, for that price I should just buy it anyway - I paid more than £7.99 for Street Fighter II on the Spectrum, and that was serious gash.

  • BobsUncle #55 3 years ago

    So to progress on the later more difficult levels you have to count on the Wiimote being an accurate input device...

    Oh dear, oh dear oh dear oh dear....

  • Bitkari #56 3 years ago

    Yo Dawg!

    Yo Dawg I herd you like clicks, so I put a meme in your article so you can revenue while you revenue.

  • retr0gamer #57 3 years ago

    This sounds like a 9 or 10 game for me.

    The review stinks of someone with little patience getting annoyed with a game that has the gall to be challenging in this day and age.

  • TheComedian #58 3 years ago

    This review seems unbalanced. About three quarters is spent jizzing over it, then the final bit crams in all the complaints they had with the game in little detail and too few words.

    I was kinda expecting a 7 tbh, after the initial novelty I thought the fun might wear off.

    Why do people keep mentionning IGN reviews on here btw? They ALWAYS get the score wrong.

  • mcmothercruncher #59 3 years ago

    Another 7/10 Wii game, woo-fucking-hoo.

  • FooAtari #60 3 years ago

    Remember 7/10 is 2 marks above above average. Which means "good"

  • smelly #61 3 years ago

    I SWEAR the xbox fangirls sit with their finger on refresh every day waiting for a wii review so they can post "hahaha this game ONLY got a 7.. that means the wii sux.. i'm selling mine"

    or other such nonsense...

    For some reason i picture them masturbating furiously while typing that too...

  • cyber_nicco #62 3 years ago

    "Did anyone else get the subtitle reference?"

    Did anyone NOT get the subtitle reference?

  • the_dudefather #63 3 years ago

    Baldrick, you wouldn't see a subtle reference if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing 'Subtle references Are Here Again!

  • Dezm0nd #64 3 years ago

    Tough choice whether to buy this, I got a feeling it's another NMHeroes which I didn't enjoy all that much.

    Proabably wait til it's in the pound stretcher bargain bins.
    Edited by 1 at 10/03/09 @ 16:40

  • mcmothercruncher #65 3 years ago

    I've never owned an Xbox, or a PS3 smelly. I do masturbate regularly, you got that right.

  • MisterFahrenheit #66 3 years ago

    Baldrick, you wouldn't see a subtle reference if it painted itself purple and danced naked on top of a harpsichord singing 'Subtle references Are Here Again!

    Did anyone get that subtle reference?

  • smelly #67 3 years ago

    @mcmothercruncher: Did i mention you specifically? Unless you are just sitting there with your finger on refresh waiting for a wii review?

  • MrChallacombe #68 3 years ago

    The review seemed v positive until the end, when it suddenly got all miserable and slapped a 7 on it.

    killjoys.

  • Kami #69 3 years ago

    @ milkyjoe1984;

    The problem is, taking the piss is a great excuse but if there's no substance to the joke then it means absolutely nothing. MadWorld could have played on our fascinations with violence and reality TV, but instead of having an underlying sense of irony it's merely a setup for killing lots of zombies and bosses in as gruesome and spectacular a fashion as possible. THAT is what makes it juvenile, it's like sniggering at someone who is called "Hugh Jazz" or smirking at a dirty joke. Logically, not funny, but you do it anyway because you cave into that inner child.

    Which is kind of a shame, because Watchmen did it just fine (the movie, that is). Movies tend to miss that due to time constraints. MadWorld had the potential, and most people say that it didn't really make that irony stick for very long. It's not the end of the world, but it's a shame that something so ripe and clever and actually quite good looking and fun couldn't just eek out that last extra bit and be a perfect cynical reflection of gamers and the world today.

    Or I'm looking too deep. Ahem.

  • secombe #70 3 years ago

    Or I'm looking too deep. Ahem.

    Or maybe you aren't, the review hints at it...

    But writer Yasumi Matsuno (best known for his games Final Fantasy Tactics and Vagrant Story) builds upon this vanilla premise in interesting ways and it's not long before the story becomes a compelling proposition.

    Again it comes down to the review being inconsistent, the first page discusses intuitive controls, interesting plot and all manner of loveliness, the second page gets bogged down in how 'hard' the game is and seems to dismiss all the good stuff from page 1.

  • Obiwanshinobi #71 3 years ago

    Review sounds whiny. I've been expecting easier, or "dumbed down", or "more forgiving" God Hand (which beats me hard sometimes, but never hurts my pride). Seems like MadWorld is not all that easy. Seems like it is a game after all. Even gamers pampered by RE4-like, family entertainment dressed up in clothes of a "violent game" need more challenge sometimes to make them feel alive (I mean "alive as gamers";). I'm not even talking about "gamer's ethos" bullshit, nor about games being "better back in the days". I'm talking about fun. Some games need to be hard to be fun. Game about beating hoodlums up needs to be hard. In such a game enemies shouldn't be all talk and nasty look, pitiful creatures. They should hurt player character pretty badly to make you want hurt them in exchange. Even the player character's inability to block, despite not making sense in terms of, well, common sense, makes sense in terms of videogame logic if the player character can, say, stomp onto knocked down enemy instead.

  • des #72 3 years ago

    Honest review,ahaha
    Such thing doesn't exist anymore,probably never did...

  • AkiraGr #73 3 years ago

    So the reassons game scored a 7 are the juvenille comentetors comments-the upscaling difficulty-the classic beat em up genre.....That is all the "hardcore" you 've been waiting for.....So a 7?!?! I just want to play the game and see if that is true, or just another elite gamer-reviewer crap we see all this years for core Wii games.

  • smelly #74 3 years ago

    >or just another elite gamer-reviewer crap we see all this years for core Wii games.

    havent you heard its cool to be an anti-wii elite gamer type?

  • AkiraGr #75 3 years ago

    Cool?! Like "cool" in 6th grade......Enjoy the game guys and see for your selfs what is "cool" or not. MadWorld is a great game. Platinum Games is a outstanding game developer studio.

  • tardo #76 3 years ago

    smelly:
    I SWEAR the xbox fangirls sit with their finger on refresh every day waiting for a wii review so they can post "hahaha this game ONLY got a 7.. that means the wii sux.. i'm selling mine"

    or other such nonsense...

    For some reason i picture them masturbating furiously while typing that too...


    >>>>

    It's like you make up your own comments to read or something. I never understand it. Lose some of your hatred of xbox 360/ xbox 360 owners (despite you apparently being one yourself, just so you can state that you don't like certain games on it).
    & please. stop with the masturbating comments. I dread to think how many of your 7000+ posts comment on masturbating. I would google, but I'm not too sure I want to find whatever results come up with the word search of 'smelly' 'masturbate'.

    ...

    As for the game, I was never too sure if I'd like it, but was intrigued/interested in it anyway. I had rented No More Heroes, but didn't really like it/ gave up after a couple of hours. May rent this game as I somehow think/hope I'd like it more.

  • Chalee #77 3 years ago

    7 is good guys. Relax. Plus if you pop over at metacritic you'll see that this is one of the lowest scores the games got - the average is in fact pretty high. Maybe the review is right and there are some design flaws, but the game has a unique look and some interesting ideas, and for that I think it deserves a buy.

  • Malek86 #78 3 years ago

    I hear the PAL version is 576i50 only, and with sucky black bars. If that's true, I'm so not buying it (at least not the PAL version). Someone needs to learn how to properly localize game for PAL regions. Why not just leave the 480i option to choose? Would it have hurt their sales or something?

  • smelly #79 3 years ago

    @tardo: Oh you're soooooooo right! It's NOT the 360 owners who come into every wii thread going "harhahar my machine is better than yours" then leave?

    But i forget the rules of the playground when i post on forums full of kids like this.. you're only allowed to make fun of something if everyone else is doing so.. if you try to show those sad bastards for who they are - then you're in the minority.. and that's not allowed to happen is it?

    sheesh

    Back to the game.. this is the only "average" review of this game i've read so far.. I cant decide if i want it or not.. anyone give it the thumbs up or down for me? I havent played a new game in aggeeees.

  • tomacwhite #80 3 years ago

    Great game, but the PAL version is 50hz only. WHAT THE FUCK.

  • smelly #81 3 years ago

    >Great game, but the PAL version is 50hz only. WHAT THE FUCK.

    See i dont get this complaint... 90% of 360 games run at 30hz (or lower) and no-one seems to complain...

  • CallousB #82 3 years ago

    "See i dont get this complaint... 90% of 360 games run at 30hz (or lower) and no-one seems to complain"

    Er..I think you're talking about the frame rate as apposed to refresh rate.
    Madworld Wii is a throwback to the SNES/N64 days.....no longer giving us the option to display the games like the US at a 60hz refreshrate.....instead we're stuck with a basic PAL 50HZ refresh rate, a slowed down version of the game..and great big black borders at the top and bottom of the screen (something that's a rarity on the cheapest Wii shovelware).

    PAL Madworld is the only Wii game I own that doesn't have the 60Hz option. There's no excuse for it these days. Sega/Platinum should be ashamed.

  • Nikanoru #83 3 years ago

    instead we're stuck with a basic PAL 50HZ refresh rate, a slowed down version of the game..and great big black borders at the top and bottom of the screen


    LOL Ummmmm, it seems you are assuming 50hz automatically means those things just "happen"? Hahaha. Developers rarely slow games down for PAL anymore, bub. Pretty much all games are programmed with time-based instead of frame-based movement these days. Same for the borders, at least on Nintendo systems those have been steadily gotten rid of ever since the N64 days.

    Now I haven't played the PAL version of this game, but know that if they were retarded enough to just slow the game down and leave the black borders in (which I frankly doubt), it's the developer that screwed up, it's not some kind of thing that magically and unavoidably occurs when a game runs at 50hz.

  • Malek86 #84 3 years ago

    Nikanoru: well, half there. The game runs at normal speed (the FFX days are over, thankfully) but there are some pretty ugly black borders on all sides. Now seriously, why couldn't they just leave the 60hz option? It's not like they had any work to do: they only needed to leave it exactly the same as it was in the NTSC version.

  • Nikanoru #85 3 years ago

    The only borders you ever get from a straight conversion are top and bottom (different number of scanlines between regions), so I don't know how you're getting them on all sides. Are you playing 4:3 on a widescreen tv?

  • Malek86 #86 3 years ago

    I don't have the game myself. That's what people are saying on my forum (by the way, they also say the framerate is clunkier. I guess the game originally ran at 30fps, otherwise it wouldn't be noticeable).

    Side bars I've seen a lot of times. They seem to be a common effect on the Wii - Nintendo games excluded - even on 480p. Don't appear on all TV set either, although on mine they surely do. In some games (esp. Umbrella Chronicles) they are quite big. Well, I normally don't care about those. But when I also get FFX-like black bars, it'd mean seeing less than usual. Or, even less.

    Still, that's not my problem here. The problem would be the squashed look and choppy framerate. I'm so going to buy import. And i hope Platinum Games gets the message: all Clover titles had 60hz, so there's no excuse at all for this one.