Reviews// MadWorld

There once was a dream that was Wii. It was a dream of happy parents and children, smiling and laughing together in a perfectly decked-out Ikea home, dressed in perfectly coordinated GAP clothing as they wiggled Wii Remotes together and happily beckoned other non-traditional gamers into the fold. Then Rockstar came along with Manhunt 2 and everybody blushed hot. Now, SEGA and Platinum games have come together to break the cosy world again. And now that nuclear family is indeed broken, sobbing in the corner over their blood-stained Alvine rug.

Or so the mainstream media would have us believe. Actually, it would probably have us believe that Rockstar's Manhunt 2 achieved that reprehensible feat, but the game took so damn long to get classified for general release that the Daily Mail forgot all about it.

So, what are we gamers to make of this 'adult' Wii title that's caused so much fuss? Because, let's face it, there's nothing to drive us out to buy a product like a little media outrage.

Well, if anything is going to drive you down to your local games retailer to buy MadWorld, it probably shouldn't be sensationalist reports from the mainstream press. If you're looking to be shocked, don't look here. Once you've forgotten that the Wii is supposedly the system for playing mini-game collections with low production values, there's nothing more shocking in MadWorld than in Gears of War or a copy of Mortal Kombat you could have bought 15 years ago.

The look of MadWorld is certainly enjoyable, but the black, white and red colour palette of the game, combined with its heavily comics-influenced art style, takes the edge off much of the violence. So, that's that out of the way.

The game basically revolves around a chap called Jack wandering around a monochrome, broken cityscape beating the living crap from the bowels of a series of grunts and bosses. He often does this with a chainsaw.

There's a plot in there somewhere. Jack's undercover and trying to infiltrate Deathwatch, the ultra-violent illegal TV show that serves as a thin excuse for all the chainsaw wielding and general decapitation. Platinum might tell you that the plot is a satirical comment on the reality TV plague that fouls our airwaves, but I wouldn't worry about any of that if I were you. All you need to know is: The Running Man meets Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome with Death Race 2000, Rollerball, Battle Royale, Survivor 7... in short - nothing new to see here.

Visually, you would probably want to throw Sin City in there, too. Platinum seems to have absorbed every panel of the brutal, black and white comic series by Frank Miller, and it shows.

That's not, as it turns out, a bad thing. The look of the game is hard and slick, oozing style from every frame. Platinum serves the game well by realising that the way to create a good-looking Wii title is to forsake realism in favour of an over-the-top and visually appealing art style. The numerous instances of dismemberment and blood flow are well realised, coming across as more comical than disturbing.

Unfortunately, the same art style that makes MadWorld stand out sometimes makes it confusing. I, like other denizens of the SPOnG Underwater Castle in their first few minutes of play, found myself struggling a little to see what was going on amid all those black and white lines. Fortunately, it's not a problem that stayed with me long. After a while, your eyes adjust and making out what the hell's happening on screen becomes only an occasional problem. It is, however, still an occasional problem.