MadWorld [Wii]

[Eps]

Only had a chance to play this a bit today before going off to log the first of several 12-hour shifts at work, so I'm sure others will overtake this thread as they speed ahead of me. But I have a few impressions.

First off, it looks amazing. I honestly think this is the closest thing to a moving comic book I've ever seen. I think the black and white hugely helps; in fact, the only other splash of colour I've seen so far is the blood. Speaking of which, you can believe the hype about one thing: this game is violent. The graphics might be stylish, but the level of violence is higher than any other game I own - and I have Manhunt 2. There is one difference though, as far as my experience goes: unlike Manhunt 2, this game is really fun.

It doesn't feel like violence porn, probably because of the comic-book graphical style. It's definitely played for laughs, though I get the impression some people might not get the joke. I like the controls, too - I was worrying about some sort of stupid gesture system for the chainsaw arm, but it's basically two different motions that are easy for the Wiimote to tell apart. Everything else is pretty much conventional stick-and-button stuff.

I'll write more when I've played more, but by then UK forumites' import copies will probably have arrived and there'll be about 50 posts on here covering that ground already. Just take one thing from me: you can show this game (and HOTD: Overkill) to anyone who thinks the Wii is all about little kids' games.

[Miguel007]

What's the commentary like, I love DiMaggio and Greg Proops' work, is it repetitive to things that you do in game like a FIFA commentary or is used to drive the narrative or both?

[The Mole]

I thought the PAL release was tomorrow, but when i was in town today none of the shops that sell early had it with tomorrows new releases Guess i will have to wait

[ezee ryder]

PAL release is next week, 20th March.

[Asylum]

Been really looking forward to this as I loved Okami, Viewtiful Joe and God Hand but the only thing that concerns me is how easy it is to distinguish whats going on on-screen as it appears relatively fast paced. Does the black and white cause any problems?

Pre-ordered it with HMV for the free soundtrack so hope the musics good!

[Destrukticor]

whoah, this game is soo much fun!
the most violent game ever? quite possibly... The black and white graphics don't cause a problem and everything moves along at a fair pace.
the commentary is frequent and funny in places it's like the announcer from sw ep 1 and marcus fenix got drunk and recorded a load of dialogue.
"i **** further than jacks throw" etc
480i? didnt really notice tbh
and what is with the wii revival?
This and HOTD Overkill within a month. One downside so far is i like hip hop but the music is shockingly bad it fits buts was turned down after ten mins so i could hear the commentary more.
love it so far.
And the PAL version is out on the 27th of this month according to gameplay.

[Sixty]

This is really good. It reminds me of the actiony parts of No More Heroes except with the violence cranked up to ridiculous levels. It's hilariously good fun. Like No More Heroes, it uses motion stuff sparingly and it's all the better for it. I agree with Eps, too: I found myself thinking MadWorld is the game that Manhunt 2 should have been.

I'm still trying to get my head around how it works and what the best way of doing things is because so far I've failed to score anything in the top two highest rated, most violent categories. Replaying an early level again I activated a miniboss I didn't see first time through, so I'm wondering how many hidden bits there are in each section. The time limit for each level is very long, so maybe that's an indicator that I should be exploring more. The fact that it's not about killing your enemies but all about getting the highest score means it should be great for repeated playthroughs, almost in a time attack sort of way, if that makes sense.

The only negative thing so far is how repetitive the commentary is. There's lots of it and specific lines for certain situations and bosses, and it is frequently funny, but it really does repeat very often. There was a minigame where the commentators seemed to have two ways of responding to an attack Jack does and they just repeated them over and over for three minutes. To be honest it's not actually annoying to me (yet) and I can put up with it as of now, but I bet it'll drive some people nuts.

This game really needs to succeed and show there is a market for proper, traditional, grown up games on Wii. I hope Sega has some killer marketing campaign lined up or something. In the absence of any do-gooder groups kicking up a fuss and bringing it some free publicity it will certainly need all the help it can get.

[Adam Stone]

Really great to see you guys enjoying this - i'm so looking forward to getting it come next week.

I placed my pre-order today at gamestation, and sadly i am - as of yet - the only one to do so (in that store at least). It's early days i'm sure, but ... Really would like to see more Madworld loving outside internet forums. Like you so rightly say mate, this needs to do well.

[Spatial]

There is one difference though, as far as my experience goes: unlike Manhunt 2, this game is really fun.

Sold!

Manhunt 2 was indeed bollocks of the highest order.

Looking forward to this and it's nice to read peoples positive impressions.

[Eps]

(Double post, sorry)

[Eps]

I don't think the monochrome colour scheme affects things too much (insert here obligatory comments about 'shades of brown', etc ). I think it's the chunky graphical style that keeps the clarity up - it's almost cartoony, with lots of bold lines.

Negatives: with more play, there is an element of repetitiveness. There aren't as many different props as there could have been, and both the commentary and the utterances of your enemies could be a bit more varied. Having said that, I did kind of expect it: this is at heart a beat-em-up, albeit a very stylized and score-attack-centric one. Don't get the wrong idea: this is still a great game. I'm looking forward to getting off these stupid shifts and playing more.

(Also I can't believe this is the only First Play thread I've managed since I moved to the US! )

[Goemon]

Does the fighting system look like it has lots of potential?
As it's Platinum I'm expecting some real learning involved...

[Adam Stone]

Yay! I got to play this briefly this morning (friend brought his american wii round)... and my goodness, it's bloody brilliant. Much like House of the Dead: Overkill... this is likely to become one of the most quotable titles ever :-p

What has me most excited about Madworld is it's strangely retro vibe. I'm a huge lover of Streets of Rage, Double Dragon and Final Fight (not forgetting the excellent Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games on the Nes and Snes) - and from what i've played and seen it's got a classically retro feel to it.

At it's core, this is a good old-fashioned brawler... and with that stance things like the small length and whatnot is all part of that heritage. It's meant to be replayed to better your scores, meant to have brutally compact action. I don't believe it needs to have a deep and involving battle system to be fun - god, just look at Streets of Rage and whatnot as evidence of that - but even so, this is certainly no button-masher...

The gesture controls feel perfectly balanced and there's - from what i saw - various 'standard' moves to master (including a cool looking upper cut). But the real depth is placed within the freedom to experiment with the increasingly sickening ways to kill the foes. Using weapons and the environments is great fun and from what i can gather they'll be No More Heroes-like eccentric bosses... All of which will most certainly keep the inevitable repetition from becoming mind-numbing.

I'm still getting the PAL version next week, but my couple hour playtest this morning has certainly confirmed the awesomeness of this title.

[MattyD]

I've just played through the first level of this and, it's 'alright'. It feels like the bastard child of No More Heroes and Jet Set Radio Future as it's very much style over susbtance, and feels quite simplistic compared to how a similar game would play on a conventional controller setup.

The combat is mostly button-mashing and waggle with the only complexity seemingly being how you choose to finish people off. You can tap A to beat your enemy senseless, at which point you can pick them up to throw them, or you can carry on beating them until you're given the choice to 'finish' them with either a chainsaw or regular special attack. You can also grab enemies who are downed but not stunned and do things like batter them on the floor, spin them around and hurl them etc.

The complexity (term used loosely folks) is really in trying to extract tas many points as possible each victim (they don't put up much of a fight) before he expires. The longer and more tortuous the killing, the more points you get; so whilst you can simply chainsaw each guy in half the instant you meet him, you'll get barely any points compared to say beating him up, trapping him with a tyre / barrel / etc, stabbing him with a road sign and then finally impaling him on a wall spike / electrocuting him / pushing him in front of a train, etc etc.

The main let-down for me is that none of this is particularly challenging in itself. It's no more difficult to take the latter course of action rather than the former, it just takes a lot longer to accomplish. You mash A then you do a couple of waggles and then move on to the next guy and do it all over again. Hopefully things will pick up in this respect otherwise I can see it getting old very quickly.

Another thing I'm not really 'feeling' right now is the audio. Even in an hour's play the commentary got very repetitive, which only serves to drive home how pointedly corny and crass it is. Each snippet is only midly amusing the first time but when heard again and again they soon begin to grate. That said, I haven't switched it off even though that's possible, since it seems so central to the tone and feel of the game. I will confess to outright disliking the music though, but on purely subjective grounds. It's all heavy rap / hip-hop where every other word is MOTHER****ER!!1. It sounds like the result of a group of tittering schoolboys asked to write some hard and gritty lyrics.

I realise this post sounds overly negative but I'm still interested to see what this game has to offer. And I'll fully admit to being tired, grouchy and still fuming doe to Resi 5's stupid co-op persistent inventory system...

[teddymeow]

Evening all!

Looking forward to playing this tonight if someone can clear up a little question that I have.

I'm running a PAL Wii with the Homebrew stuff and Gekko installed too but the PAL copy of Madworld that I picked up today is telling me I need to update before I can play it.

Does anybody know what the update is for? Is it likely to render all the Jap games I recentl bought unplayable?

Cheers for any info.

EDIT: Took the plunge. Everything seems to work okay still. Random.

Oh yeah, this is probably the MOST violent game I have EVER played. It's utterly fantastically over the top!! I can't wait for the headlines in some of the "newspapers". The Daily Mail are going to have a field day!!!