Review: Mad World -

And you can tell by the way I use my walk...

The Charge:

Spectacular Mayhem! Over-The-Top Madness! Wanna Play?

Opening Statement:

In 2007, Clover Studios, a subsidy of Capcom closed their doors following a string of critically acclaimed, yet commercially excommunicated titles (as well as God Hand; which apparently only I liked). This was less than a year after they’d delivered Okami, which was an incredibly strong contender for 2006’s game of the year. Following the break-up, key members of Clover’s roster banded together to form Platinum Games, and announced that their first title under this new banner would be Mad World; a highly stylized, ultra-violent beat-em-up in the vein of Final Fight or Streets of Rage?! Not only that but it would be exclusive to the Nintendo Wii, a console not exactly known for M-rated titles. One has to wonder if Platinum Games, a proven and talented group of game makers will turn out to be a Led Zeppelin from out the New Yardbirds, or an Andrew Ridgeley from out of Wham!?

What a puny plan...

Facts of the Case:

In a near-future that looks on paper like it had been created by John Carpenter, the bustling metropolis of Varrigan City plays host to the television phenomenon “Death Watch”. The audience is in a bloodthirsty frenzy, cheering as roaming packs of gangs and “Killseekers” turn the streets into a war zone. The entire populace has been infected with an airborne poison that will kill them all off by the end of the season, and the only way to score an antidote is to amass enough kill points by slaughtering fellow citizens to warrant it being awarded. Somewhere along the way, Jack; a grizzled auto-mechanic with a cybernetic chainsaw arm enters the fray alongside morbidly curious gamers.

The Evidence:

Mad World wears its colours on its sleeve with unmitigated pride. A pure beat-em-up in the strictest sense, where throngs of low-level no-good-niks line up like so much cannon fodder to be quite literally be pound into bloody paste by gamers. Where the game truly excels is in its presentation, and the gusto in which it allows gamers to eviscerate on-screen enemies.

Cover your heart Indy!!

Presented in stark black and white (and buckets of red), Mad World is inevitably going to draw endless comparison to Frank Miller’s seminal work; Sin City. In all honesty I found it had more in common visually with ultra violent manga like Battle Angel Alita, MBQ, or Zombie Powder. The stylish visuals help to mask the meager power of the Wii’s under-powered graphics capabilities (as opposed to its competition) as well as the early sensations of boredom that players may feel when confronted with Mad World’s rather limited move set. I’m especially glad because once gamers discover the joys of the various environmental death-traps scattered about the stages, and how their score increases for using these rather than cookie-cutter combos, they’ll be happily giant swinging goons into jet engines with glee.

Where Mad World gets truly immersive is in the game’s cartoonishly gory finishing moves. Much like the God of War franchise; every enemy in Mad World seems to have a selection of macabre fatalities that can be performed to elicit both big points from the game, and chortles of laughter from players. After dealing significant damage, the game will instruct gamers to enter a QTE (quick-time-event) in order to finish an attacker off. Thankfully, with the Wii’s rather unique control scheme, Mad World gets truly creative (and really freaking’ fun) with these crazylicious dispatches. In two hours of playing time, I had slashed the Wii-mote vertically to hew enemies from crotch to crown, rattled the Wii-mote and Nunchuck like a pair of old-west six shooters, and won several quick-draw sword duels with a button tap followed by a quick horizontal cut. All while a hilarious commentary by Greg Proops (remember Whose Line Is It Anyway?) is carried out. THIS is what the Wii’s should be used for! Delivering an immersive play experience full of exciting moments, not pretending to cut up celery for rice and soup.

A rare glimpse at a forthcoming entry in the Cooking Mama franchise.

Rebuttal Witness:

Unfortunately, Mad World’s unwavering dedication to delivering a truly old-school gaming experience comes with a handful of slight drawbacks. Perhaps gamers today have grown soft, but this is the first game of its type since Maximo on the PS2 that I can remember having a punishing limit on how many lives a player gets during any given level. Seriously, it’s worse than Viewtiful Joe ever was. Die during one of the game’s ingenious boss battles? Have fun slogging through the entire level again. Personally I don’t have a major problem with this as I found the levels to be just as much fun on a second play through, but many gamers today may be put-off by Mad World’s rather unforgiving nature. As well, there were points when I found that the roar of Jack’s chainsaw, combined with the commentary and the Hip-Hop soundtrack (complete with lyrics G!!) to form a muddy audio soup that was like hitting a grey wall of N64 quality sound. There are some problematic moments with the camera, when it fails to keep up with the myriad of action onscreen, and the Wii-mote is fairly limiting with only one analog stick to allow for camera correction. There is a quick button press to re-center the camera, but doing so often led to an unjustified in-game death for me.

Jack goes head-on with both Herr Frederik Von Twirlenkiller and broken camera controls.

Closing Statement:

Mad World may not be for everyone, and it sure as hell isn’t aimed at Nintendo’s target audience for the Wii (I really can’t see Grandma or your 8 year old niece enjoying this game very much), but for gamers who are looking for something a little more visceral, or want to giggle like they did watching Beavis and Butthead back in junior high school, they could do a lot worse. This to me felt like the movies Doomsday and Death Race mixed together into a wild concoction. It may be less than 10 hours in length, but the pulverizing difficulty and the nature of the game would make anything longer seem like a chore. As it is, Mad World is a well-oiled machine, managing to deliver a white-knuckle, 200 mph gaming experience despite the limitations of its console.

The Verdict: