Review: MadWorld (Nintendo Wii)

MadWorld isn't the sort of game that you would have thought was made by Sega, or that would only be released on the Nintendo Wii. That's right, at this point in time this violence packed gorefest is only out on the Wii. I'm glad about this because it uses the Wii remote controls extremely well. There is only a limited storyline behind the game. An island is completely locked down, no-one can get in...or out. A deadly virus is then released that will kill you in 24 hours or less, and there is only one way that you can get the vaccine. By killing someone. Doesn't matter how you do it, if you kill someone, the vaccine is given to you, and then there is a slight chance of survival. This game of killing is called DeathWatch, it is filmed by many cameras around the city and is broadcast on ShockTV. If a contestant in the game captures the audiences interest, they will get sponsored and will be entered into the ranks, the rank system is simple. Kill someone of a higher rank and you then become that rank. Three days after the incident, a mysterious man enters the fray...somehow. His name is Jack....just Jack.

Jack is the character you play as. He has a prosthetic arm with a chainsaw blade built into it, and a lot of attitude. He starts off by entering the games to rescue the presidents daughter, but as the game progresses it is revealed that Jack has his own agenda. On each level you are left to run around the area and kill an infinite amount of enemies. Different ways of killing get you different amounts of points and when you have a certain amount of points, more weapons are unlocked, and so are the levels BloodBath challenge and Ranked Battle. A way to achieve a high amount of points is by first finding various items that can incapacitate the enemies, for example a tyre or bin. Once you have picked up these items and rammed them on an enemies head, they wander around aimlessly, wondering what just happened and earning you 6,000 points. A good thing to do next is rip a signpost out of the ground and ram it through their neck, earning a further 20,000 points. “Surely they must be dead by now” you must be thinking, but there is still one more surprise you can play on them. Around each area are walls/buses/trains etc covered in spikes, these are called rosebushes. Simply pick up the enemy and continue to mutilate their body on the rosebush by slamming them onto the spikes repeatedly, this earns another 15,000 points. Putting one enemy through all of this pain earns you a grand total oooooffffff 41,000 points! Just about another 2,500,000 to go until the ranked match so lay down the law on a load more people!

Bloodbath challenges are...how to describe them...well, bloodbaths. I won't ruin all the surprises, I will simply give you an idea of what these challenges have to offer. They usually include something big which you can use to kill everyone, for example, the first BB challenge is called “The Turbinator”. It is a massive jet engine that will suck you into the blades if you get too close. No points for guessing what the aim of this challenge is. Throw as many people into the engine as possible! There is one BloodBath challenge on each level. What's even better is that, the bloodbath challenges are multiplayer! You can take on your mates one on one, he who kills the most people or gets the biggest score using what's on offer, wins. Once you have gained enough points, the ranked match becomes available. These are basically just battles with contestants which have more unique abilities than the normal enemies and are often quite a bit bigger too. Once their life is fully depleted, you finish them off in humorous ways, once again, I won't spoil any surprises if you want to play the game, all I will say is, it usually involves their own weapon.

Something I forgot to mention, is that the whole game is in black and white, kind of like the movie “Sin City”. With one exception, the blood is still red, and man is there a lot of it. Along the way, the commentators make the game even funnier, they always come out with stupid comments, in fact, some of you may recognise who they are. One of the commentators is voiced by John Dimaggio. Dimaggio is best known as the voice of Bender from Futurama, and Marcus Fenix from the X-Box 360 game “Gears of War”. The other commentator is voiced by Greg Proops, who is famous because he was on the popular improvisation comedy show, “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”. This gore filled, blood dripping piece of comedy action is topped off by an incredible soundtrack. I thought it was so good that I listen to it all the time on my iPod and computer, and I'm not even usually into that sort of music! MadWorld is extremely fun, but it is rather short and can be completed in roughly three hours. Once you have completed it, more weapons are unlocked with which you can re-enter the competition and wreak even more havoc. If you are a fan of games that involve a lot of killing, and that are funny, this is definitely the game for you.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed my first review.
Thanks, Karth.