MadWorld

MadWorld

Jack is not your typical Nintendo Wii character just as MadWorld, the game in which he stars, is not your typical Nintendo Wii title. By the end of the game you will have thrown a Sumo wrestler into the mouth of Mount Fuji, screwed the bolts from a giant Frankenstein’s neck, eviscerated a cowboy, chopped the arms off a ninja, driven a motorcycle over a werewolf’s head, fired a zombie splat into the side of the moon and chainsawed in half countless enemy brutes.

MadWorld is blood hungry, its commentators lewd and sweary, its set-piece violence mesmerisingly shocking and its story bleak and dark. It is, in short, not your typical Nintendo Wii game. And for that we can be thankful.

The game’s premise is as old as Smash TV. Jefferson Island has been cordoned off to the public, its remaining inhabitants turned into the stars of a CCTV snuff show called Death Watch. Viewers tune in to watch the programme’s players battle it out for prize money, the most notorious fighters then ranked on a leaderboard by performance.

Jack is the show’s latest player, touring the various districts of the island, battling it out to climb the rankings under the watchful eye of the show’s director, Agent XIII. The story twists and turns as you progress and Jack is soon revealed to have ulterior motives for participating. The story also provides the framework for the game, each area of the island offering three levels apiece for you to play through in search of its boss.

In each stage the emphasis is on scoring points. When you pass certain score thresholds in a level new enemies appear, new weapons become available, special violent minigames open up before, finally when you’ve scored enough points, the level’s boss appears. Points are scored by killing enemies in creative ways. It’s possible to simply chop a grunt in half with Jack’s chainsaw but the high scores come from linking together moves to form a multiplier.

For example, throw a tyre over an enemy’s torso, then spike his head with a road sign before chucking him through a second floor window onto the road below and the points will rack up all the quicker. Much of the game’s enjoyment comes from finding new and ever-more ridiculous ways to maim your enemies and from seeing what new toys the developer has waiting for you around the next corner.

Making full use of the Wii’s remote and Nunchuck controls the game is initially fiddly to control but soon becomes second nature. While the first few levels are a breeze, the difficulty quickly ramps up and, you’ll need to carefully balance offensive and defensive play to avoid losing your three lives and be forced to restart the level.

The bold, stylised black and white visuals, designed to look like a graphic novel and interrupted only by the odd splash of yellow and red colouring, are beautiful and help soften the grisly subject matter. What emerges is a challenging, violent and mesmerising experience that offers something unique the console. For mature gamers only, of course…

4 out of 5