Written by: Alex

 

 

 

Most Wii games exist in the ‘casual’ space, saccharine sweet and family friendly. The few rare developers who have tried to target the more serious gaming audience on Wii have for the most part been met with poor sales. With the comparative failure of such titles and their high development costs who can blame publishers from being a little wary about venturing into this niche market on the little white system? Fortunately for gamers though Sega has thrown caution to the wind with their recent offerings.

 

Foremost amongst is 'Platinum Games' (formerly Clover Studios) developed "MadWorld". Aimed at an older Wii gamer it is M rated and with good reason. The game is best described as a mix of State of Emergency brawling, a Frank Miller comic visual style and Wii Sports gestures.

 

Outward appearances aside it is a simple brawler like State of Emergency (or Double Dragon in 3D), with a few waggle controls added for the Wii.

 

Each of the five areas (which are broken into two levels and a boss fight) brings with it a different style and selection of enemy skin but does little to mask the fact that the combat is for the most part unchanging.

 

 

Levels are simply open kill rooms allowing you to rack up a number of combos by combining a relatively limited number of mundane actions on the hordes of mindless enemies. At least the real world actions you are forced to repeat are rewarded with a number of different kill animations on each level, which appeals to the fifteen year old in me.

 

To mix things up a little each level has a unique bonus stage and each area ends with a boss fight. These intermissions are necessary to break up the brawling action. I found a stage’s enjoyment tended to revolve around the quality of its mini-game.

 

When the mini-games control mechanic was less precise without exception my opinion of the level suffered, conversely when they were good it instantly improved my experience. Boss fights were uniformly fantastic. Everyone possessing a different fighting style suited to his or her areas style. Encounters are usually quite brief but they are the one part of the game where having to retry doesn’t make you want to launch a Wiimote at your dog.