Retro Review: Madworld

The Wii is a very decisive console for most gamers, some say it is a baby console, others kind of look at it as a fad. I don’t know where I stand with either side just yet, my Wii’s disc drive broke about seven years ago and I finally just got it repaired and set up this week.

I’ve been excited to get it back for awhile because I knew there were lots of titles that I didn’t get to enjoy while my machine was in disrepair.

Madworld is one of those titles, released in March of 2009 it became the first title to come from developer Platinum Games. Most everyone knows that Platinum Games was the phoenix that rise from the ashes of Clover Studios once it was disbanded by Capcom.

Personally, I am a giant fan of Platinum Games, their titles are always unique, violent as hell and over the top; they also control like a dream, well, maybe not Star Fox 0. The title was directed by Shigenori Nishikawa, a designer on Resident Evil 4, and produced by Atsushi Inaba who produced Viewtiful Joe.

Their first outing with the Wii was an interesting romp into the Mature audience area and a unique title for the Wii.

Let me first say that this game is violent as all hell. You play as Jack, who wields a chainsaw on one arm and is an all around badass. Varrigan City, which was built on Jefferson Island, is the location of the game, you must compete in a show called “Deathwatch” to make a ton of money.

The Island is broken into many parts where you complete many tasks for Agent XIII. Prior to Jack arriving on the island, a terrorist organization infected the city and let the occupants know that if they killed someone they would receive the vaccine.

This of course was a lie to get ratings up, Jack unwittingly finds out about the vaccine and attempts to be one of the biggest anti-heroes in gaming. I’ll let you play to find out if he succeeds or not, I don’t want to spoil Platinum Games’ first game for the world.

Surprisingly enough the controls for this game with the Nunchuk and the Wii Remote plays very well. They do take some time getting use to, but with all the prompts that float across the screen, you’ll master them in no time.

A is punch, you’ll use this a lot, B revs up the chainsaw and swinging the Wii Remote slashes in the general direction you swing. This makes for a lot of blood and gore as you slaughter these hapless victims. Should you suddenly get in trouble during a fight just flip the Nunchuk and Jack will flip away to safety.

There are some obstacles in Jack’s way, and he can jump over them when you press Z. C is lock onto enemies and adjusting camera when you begin to look the wrong way, this helps a lot because you get turned around really quick with this camera.

You can grab enemies and certain items lying around by holding down A, getting close to certain areas or enemies may give you a prompt press B with this prompt and you will do some special moves which gain you more points.

This is an action brawler, and the controls are surprisingly responsive for having motion controls that are sometimes iffy on the Wii.

This is one of the most unique looking games that I have ever played in my forty years. The game is shaded in black and white and kind of looks like the movie Sin City.

The only color that you actually get to see is red, and that’s when you’re murdering people by the hundreds. I actually like how this looks, surprisingly it holds up quite well on my flat screen tv through an A/V cable since I’m yet to get a composite or HDMI cable to work on my Wii.

It wasn’t fuzzy, didn’t run slow and most of all aged quite well over the last decade. The music though, honestly, it is what a headache must sound like. I wasn’t a huge fan of the constant boom boom booming of the hip hop picked for the levels. I guess it fit the idea of the game, but I didn’t enjoy it and I tried to go a little faster in the level just to get the song to end.

Mad World was a great introduction to Platinum Games, you can tell that they were floating lots of ideas and mechanics in this title for their future more popular titles. I see the craziness of Bayonetta and the fast paced action of Vanquish hidden in this title.

Mad World was their first foray into the hack and slash adventure and while it has some repetitive issues and such, the groundwork they laid for future titles is amazing. I would recommend this game to anyone who is a fan of Platinum Games, this one is definitely worth a look.

It should be an easy title to find, and Wii’s are also pretty easy to find. For maybe 50 bucks if you don’t have a Wii already you’ll be greeted with a lot of blood, gore and humor. The controls will take a few tried to get use to, but once you get the hang of the them you’ll be cutting people in half in no time!

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Check out some of my other Retro Reviews on BagoGames!

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