How to Ruin a Childhood in 10 Hours
Written: Jun 30 '09 (Updated Jul 02 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Art design is unique and appealing, creative killing, funny commentary
Cons: Controls are a bit off, somewhat repetitive, short playtime, focused/specific demographic, occasional glitches
The Bottom Line: Will easily offend sensitive people. Fun game & distinct look. It's worth a good $20-30, but it's short gameplay and clunky controls make it a good 'used' or 'late' buy.
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| hewhocanreview's Full Review: MadWorld for Nintendo Wii |
Let's go ahead and make one thing clear: This game is fantastic for children... if you want to rid them of all innocence & moral foundation. Conscience is an overrated characteristic anyways, huh? Who needs bunnies and ice cream when you can repeatedly beat someone into a meat hook?
Truth be told, this is far from a kid's game. I've only played one other game that is more violent and vulgar than this (Manhunt) but MadWorld is a serious contender in the blood and cursing department. I don't mind this so much, but it should be stated outright (as a previous reviewer also noted) that this game has a 'mature' rating, despite being on the Wii, and it drops F-bombs more frequently than a locker room full of mill workers and sailors watching a Scorsese film. It doesn't end there. The blood in this game is to an absurd amount. A humorous amount, really. Think of a blood surplus on the "Dead Alive" level (if you haven't seen this film... you should be opening a tab for your Netflix right now). Anyways, I think I made my point. Lots of blood and violence. Lots of cursing. But is there more to it? Let's dissect...
Story
No spoilers here, so don't worry......
MadWorld is noir-meets-action. While I could call attention to all of the similarities to Sin City, I'm going to resist the urge temporarily to outline the basic story.
You play as "Jack." Jack is a cigar-chewing, 'roided out behemoth of a man with forearms that would make Popeye soil himself, and a voice that would send Snake (of "Metal Gear") back to his garage to huff a can a Hot Shot Flea & Tick Fogger. Now that I think about it.... his voice would even make Snake Plisskin (see: "Escape from NY") run for the nearest 7-11 for some Marlboro Reds.
Anyone else in this game falls by the wayside. Seriously. I beat it last night, and I can hardly remember any of the other characters. The story itself is a bit more developed than I was expecting. It actually has a few twists and turns, though they're relatively predictable and won't be impressing many more people that the average Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys fan. I'm not so sure that it's what this game aims for though to be honest. In the very smallest way, the narration reminds me of Max Payne (the game... not the film) if only in the cynical presentation of narrative material. I can say without a doubt that the action factor highly outweighs noir aspect, which is a positive in my mind.
So, Jack starts out in a city, apparently as some type of agent or spy, who's been inserted into a contemporary gladiator match known as "DeathWatch." While Jack is the anti-hero here, there are other players, some on your side, but most of whom are 'Running Man-style ringmasters' which have some shady vested interest in your advancement through the game. As the story progresses, you gain some insight as to how this all began. The island-city you are on, was gassed with a toxin that will certainly kill everyone, unless they kill someone else, thusly earning the vaccine and ridding themselves of the disease. Yep.... it's about that simple.
Certain measures are taken to make this story progress. Sometimes painful lengths of story are inserted between levels to somehow justify your participation in the meaningless bloodsport. When it comes down to it, the story is irrelevant. I could honestly care less what my reasons are for chainsawing a man in half. The fact of the matter is that I like doing it, so the story becomes nothing more than a calm-down period. It's not a terrible story, and I salute their effort to give some sort of substance to what would otherwise seem to be an exercise in sadism, but it's not really a necessity in my opinion. The story is enough to get the game into a linear medium instead of random and chaotic scramble of brutality.
It's worth sitting through this story to see how they tie it all together (since I'm not going to tell you), but you'll find yourself tempted to press the 'b' button and skip all the minutia and get to battering people shamelessly.
Look
I think the look of this game is its selling-point. Its certainly what drew me in. Here, it is very hard for me to ignore the Sin City similarities. While Jack looks a lot like a beefcake Marv, the art style-is much the same as well. Everything is in black & white, except the blood. considering that the Wii lacks in the graphics department, this game takes full use of what it has to offer. The art-style is such that you really don't notice the shortcomings of the Wii graphics capabilities.
Much of this game is presented in a comic-book fashion. Characters are displayed in frames or windows during the story portion, and in certain parts of battles, two frames will appear letting you know that a 'struggle' is about to begin (more on that later). It should suffice to say that this game has distinct comic book influence, complete with words to emphasize the sounds (you know.. like the old batman 'boom, snap, pow!' type of thing... "onamonapoeias" I think they're called??? though I'm doubting they call them that in the comic industry).
Occasionally, the lack of color can make the image a bit difficult to decipher. More often than not, the look is a 'heavy-ink' one, with most of the screen overrun with dark, thick lines.
What does this boil down to? This game looks very cool. The tremendous amount of blood sticks out as it is the only color you will find in the game.
Gameplay
This game operates by some pretty simple controller movements. At first, its a bit to take on, but once you get most of the controls down it feels natural enough.
Control Specifics: Movement is via the joystick, jumping is also on the nunchuck 'Z-button', and you'll also find the targeting button in your left hand with the 'C-button.' The nunchuck can also be swung left & right to do back hand-springs.... not exactly the most masculine move, but one that aids sufficiently in escaping some nasty situations. The wiimote is mainly used for attacking. This is accomplished by swinging it or pressing the 'A-button.' Jack also has a chainsaw on his arm, and this can be unsheathed by using the 'B-trigger-button.'
Overall the controls do well. The targeting is a bit shoddy, and getting the chainsaw out in time can be iffy. The main issue arises when you are required to perform certain up/down or left/right motions with the wiimote. There are certain situations when it is imperative that you perform a specific move, and while you may make that move, the wiimote decides on its own what you did. This can be pretty frustrating. I got a a bit steamed a few times, but I'm getting better at containing my temper, so I can't tell you whether it's enough to push you over the edge into "I'm-gonna-punch-my-coffee-table-for-3-solid-minutes-with-my-bare-hand" land or not. I'd say the controls are accurate enough to save your coffee table to fight another day.
The controls aside, you'll spend much time performing some moves that raise the value of a kill. Jamming street signs through necks and trapping bad guys by throwing tires (or the like) over them becomes commonplace by the 3rd stage. Once you have someone tangled up, you have a multitude of environment-based kills to perform, from spikes on the walls to meat grinders, and wall fans, floor saws, etc. These kills take on a different look in some places, but really are the same from stage to stage. There is usually 1 or 2 new environment changes per level that provide a different means to eliminate the next bad guy.
Weapons. You can get a few different kinds here. Each has its own unique move and some can be more fun than others. Spiked bats provide a baseball grand slam move to smash bad guys into the stratosphere (or piranha tank...), golf clubs let you drive off a guys head in a nice Tiger Woods style arc. Knives allow a spinning motion that removes the majority of limbs... or inflicts "only a flesh wound" depending on how you see it. These weapons make the game a bit more interesting, and a bit easier. It's a great addition to the standard street sign and tire kills. It should be mentioned that Jack always has use of the chainsaw on his arm, and while it runs out of gas (or power or whatever) after continued use, it refills quickly. This also makes for some great moves which will satisfy the blood-thirsty, and will be a valuable asset in boss fights as it is typically the best way to inflict significant damage on them.
Also, there are "bloodbath challenges." These are basically events in which bad guys will often stumble around waiting for you to toss them into a 'death press' (which operates much like a waffle iron, but for people-waffles!), rocket them onto a dart board, and more. There are a few different kinds of these, however they begin to recycle them about half-way into the game. Some of these are next to impossible to do well, while others go much to quickly to enjoy in full. I truly wish a mode had been included for us to play only these games (if one was included, I did not see it). This is massive oversight in my mind, as it would greatly extend the replay-ability of the game.
As for killing people, the more, the better. If you can chuck 1 person into 3 more, causing all 4 to fly into a spiked-wall (or "rose-bush" as they call it), then you will increase your points in a big way. This really is the point of the game: trying to find ways to increase points by doing as much damage to a bad guy as possible, and if you can add to it by jamming a sign into someone's neck, and the include a couple other blokes, well then all the better.
There are also some mini-bosses who take a bit more work to kill and who require the use of your chainsaw. A sequence of events is triggered if you make the right movement at the right time. This leads to you shaking the controller furiously to win the 'struggle' and undoubtedly looking like a raging idiot to you friends. This does spice up the gameplay a bit, though once you learn the pattern, since it only varies so much, you'll find yourself winning these with ease.
One thing that is done very well in the design of the game is that the enemies change throughout. As you progress, the common enemies change in minor ways. Zombies require a bit more to dispose of, robots only last so long, so you must move more quickly to chain kills together, etc. This aids in keeping the game interesting and giving a sense of development instead of letting it grow stale within the first 5 levels.
Motorcycles also aid in keeping the game moving along. (heh. pun). However, these levels seem tacked on. At least they're a change to the pace of the game. These levels are quicker as well. This is good because there are limited moves and a serious lack of strategy needed to get past any of the motorcycle levels.
Overall the gameplay is pretty good, though the controls lack slightly. They may have been improved by 'motionplus' item that will be coming out soon for Wii, though I've heard no whispers of integrating it into this game. The sloppy controls are not enough to keep you from beating the game, but can make your forehead a bit more wrinkly and your face a darker hue of red for a time. There are glitches here and there. I had to reset the game towards the end after a weird glitch where an enemy became stuck and 'un-killable.' These are rare as far as I can tell though.
Production
This is an area which i really appreciate of this game. specifically, the music is so cheesy but fun and appropriate that I don't think you could have found something better. The music is mainly rap, though there is the occasional score-work to compliment the between-level cut scenes. Most in-game music is fast-paced, and talks about killing people... which works well, since that's more or less what you're doing for the entire 10-12 hours of gameplay that this thing offers. It's silly, but perfect for this game.
Beyond the music, the commentators for the game are hilarious. This is where you'll find most of the cussing. There's no punches pulled, and while playing a stage over and over can lead to hearing the same lines repeatedly, I rarely tired of hearing their one-liners. These guys sound like football announcers with sexual deficiencies and cocaine habits. The commentary stays pretty much along that "gutter" mentality, as they rag on each other and make sarcastic comments about Jack's progress through the levels. This hilarity continues up to nearly the last minute of credits where they berate and belittle the creators of the game. This adds a real tone to the game that, if it is along your lines of humor, can make the game a whole different experience (a humorous one). I imagine you can turn the commentary off... but why deprive yourself of such fantastic humor, unless it offends you... and if it does, then this is likely the wrong game for you... in every respect.
Lastly, the voice acting and sound design: The sound design is fair. Nothing stood out to me, so I guess they did their job alright. If I notice it, then it's usually bad... or unbelievably amazing. Sound effects sound natural enough, though they were often quiet or downplayed. As for the voice acting, it's not too bad. Jack is voiced really well, and the other characters seem to fit well enough. There is one character, "Leo," who was voiced a bit too 'anime-ish' for me. You know, when the character pauses sound sexual? (i.e. speed racer) Otherwise, the voice acting is sufficient enough to pass and give the game a feeling of real emotion.
Overall
This game, on the whole, is pretty fun. It's relatively short (10 hours maybe). It has moderate replay value as you earn different weapons for the second time through. I can't say I'm dying to play through again, but I enjoyed it enough to hold onto it for a future run through again.
Most of the attributes of this game would put it at a higher rating for me, but I just found myself losing interest after a while. I didn't care too much about the story, the battles became slightly repetitive, and the controls were occasionally frustrating.
I'm a harsh critic, I know, but I really have to be wow'ed to give a high score. This game is worth $20-30, but I wouldn't fork out $50 for it. In fact, I got it at $30 by accident as it was labeled wrong at my game store. I don't feel cheated (and I definitely have with other games- i.e. Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway a.k.a. the longest soap opera of a war game that has ever been). Buy this game used or when it comes down a bit in price. Its a great addition to the Wii collection (as it desperately needs some good titles), but I have a feeling that the excess violence, gore, cursing, etc. limits the demographic for this title. If you're easy to be offended, you might pass on this one. If you need an arcade-style blood-covered filth-fest, chalk-full of vulgar one-liners and cynical cracks, you've found your game. Enjoy.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
hewhocanreview
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Member: Tim Duncan
Location: Sacramento, CA, USA
Reviews written: 14
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