Highly stylized environments, blood, violence, over-the-top ways to inflict damage, fully motion controls, and all sorts of crazy carnage—welcome to a very Mad World! MadWorld was announced last year and is one of the first, great hardcore games for the Wii. The game really shows that a game can look good and play just as good on the Wii without high-def graphics. MadWorld employs a black and white and red all over approach, and it couldn’t be better!

Early on, MadWorld looked to be a typical anorexic storyline, poor presentation beat ‘em up, slasher game. But! This is definitely not the case! MadWorld provides a very gritty, violent gameplay, but also comes packed with a pretty solid storyline. You start off as Jack, just Jack, and you’ve been placed in Varrigan City. The game’s storyline reads as such: “Driven into quarantine and chaos by the outbreak of a deadly virus, ‘survival of the fittest’ takes on a whole new meaning as trapped citizens are pitted against each other in the gruesome sports show, ‘Death Watch’.” While this may seem prototypical, it gets quite a bit deeper as the game progresses. I won’t spoil anything, but suffice it to say, Jack is on a mission and you’ll have to play the game to figure that out.

On to the gameplay, MadWorld uses both the Wiimote and Nunchuk to dish out punishment on anyone and anything in Varrigan City. Your primary weapon, the chainsaw, is utilized by holding the ‘B’ button and swinging the Wii remote either horizontally or vertically. This will have immediate affect on your enemies and is one of the quickest ways to kill in the game. However, as you’ll find out, this is not always the most ‘fun’. While the game is very violent, it is definitely fun to mess around with different ways of dispatching enemies. Almost anything in the environment can be used as a weapon from caution signs, light posts, trash cans, trains, tires, spikes, and many, many others.

You’ll find tons of unique ways to inflict damage as you go and that’s one of the goals in the game–to string together combos and different weapons for more points. Seems a little crazy I know, but this is a game that definitely tries not to push the violence to the point where they hope it’s comical and fun. That being said, this GAME IS DEFINITELY MEANT FOR MATURE AUDIENCES! Speaking of the comedy of the game, John Dimaggio (voice of Bender on Futurama) and Greg Proops do an amazing job with the commentating during the game. The soundtrack and their commentating are one of the main treats in the game besides the graphics.

MadWorld does what it set out to do very well, but there are some things that could be improved. While the motion controls work well for combat, the controls for the motorcycle sequences were too loose and it really felt like an after thought. The game’s graphics, while very pretty in some cases, aren’t amazing because the game does not run in progressive scan or widescreen. I actually had to bust out my old-school composite cables to even play the game–not cool.  But MadWorld’s style really makes up for any shortcomings graphically.

As far as multiplayer, the game allows for a 2-player mode where players can compete in the various mini-games from single-player mode. It’s not great, and a co-op option would’ve been fun, but it’s still better than nothing.

If you’re like me and want a really fun, mature game for the Wii, this is it! MadWorld will have you laughing at the crazy commentating and the shear shock of some of the spectacles you’ll see in the game! At the very least, rent the game, but if you’ve got the money, buy it—uhh, ..unless you’re 13 ;)