Picked up MadWorld this weekend, and I have to say that I'm somewhat underwhelmed. The game does many things right, but I feel that for every step forward, the game takes a few steps back.


Things I liked

• The art style and character design are great. The Sin City-esque art style is an excellent way to get around the technical limitations of the Wii.
  
• So much violence. Seeing guys get chopped in half by closing dumpster lids, tossed in meat grinders, or halved with a chainsaw, is pretty awesome.
  

• The soundtrack is excellent, and oddly fits the game perfectly. On the default setting it's hard to hear the commentary though.
• Man Golf. This is by far the best Bloodbath Challenge.
  

• The camera is terrible. I've read some reviews that referred to it as problematic, but that's giving it too much credit. The camera can't be rotated around Jack, it can only be centered behind him using the C button, and it follows way to closely. Holding down the C button will lock-on to an enemy, but outside of boss fights, it's pretty useless. Sometimes it doesn't even work, forcing you to repeatedly hold down the C button to get a lock on an enemy.
• The commentary(done by Greg Proops and John DiMaggio) is humorous at first, but takes less than an hour before getting stale. Expect to hear about how health pills are better when crushed up and injected into the folds of your scrotum every couple of minutes. This could have easily been remedied by not having comments played after every single goddammed thing you do. Every time you shove a street sign through a guy's neck, they will comment on it, and with a small bank of comments about impaling a guy, you will hear the same ones over and over, and it really started to get on my nerves.
  
• Quick Time Events. I'm ready for these to go away. Forever. QTE's take a lot of punch out of the boss fights in MadWorld. Almost every boss fight in the game boils down to waiting until you get a prompt for the boss' QTE, waggling your Wiimote along with the screen, rinse, repeat.
  
• The motorcycle sections suck. plain and simple. The only good part about them is that they don't last very long.
• Most of the Bloodbath Challenges invole nothing more than grouping guys together, and throwing one into the group, and knocking them all into a Jet Engine, the Death Press, a giant hand, etc.
  
• Lack of co-op story mode. I'm not one of those people that complains anytime a game doesn't have co-op. I'm a firm believer of the single-player experiences that games can provide. But co-op is a staple of the beat-em-up genre. And to put in co-op support just for the Bloodbath Challenge mini-games is just not cutting it. This game's replayability could have been exponentially increased with the ability to play with a friend.
  

Picked up MadWorld this weekend, and I have to say that I'm somewhat underwhelmed. The game does many things right, but I feel that for every step forward, the game takes a few steps back.


Things I liked

• The art style and character design are great. The Sin City-esque art style is an excellent way to get around the technical limitations of the Wii.
  
• So much violence. Seeing guys get chopped in half by closing dumpster lids, tossed in meat grinders, or halved with a chainsaw, is pretty awesome.
  

• The soundtrack is excellent, and oddly fits the game perfectly. On the default setting it's hard to hear the commentary though.
• Man Golf. This is by far the best Bloodbath Challenge.
  

• The camera is terrible. I've read some reviews that referred to it as problematic, but that's giving it too much credit. The camera can't be rotated around Jack, it can only be centered behind him using the C button, and it follows way to closely. Holding down the C button will lock-on to an enemy, but outside of boss fights, it's pretty useless. Sometimes it doesn't even work, forcing you to repeatedly hold down the C button to get a lock on an enemy.
• The commentary(done by Greg Proops and John DiMaggio) is humorous at first, but takes less than an hour before getting stale. Expect to hear about how health pills are better when crushed up and injected into the folds of your scrotum every couple of minutes. This could have easily been remedied by not having comments played after every single goddammed thing you do. Every time you shove a street sign through a guy's neck, they will comment on it, and with a small bank of comments about impaling a guy, you will hear the same ones over and over, and it really started to get on my nerves.
  
• Quick Time Events. I'm ready for these to go away. Forever. QTE's take a lot of punch out of the boss fights in MadWorld. Almost every boss fight in the game boils down to waiting until you get a prompt for the boss' QTE, waggling your Wiimote along with the screen, rinse, repeat.
  
• The motorcycle sections suck. plain and simple. The only good part about them is that they don't last very long.
• Most of the Bloodbath Challenges invole nothing more than grouping guys together, and throwing one into the group, and knocking them all into a Jet Engine, the Death Press, a giant hand, etc.
  
• Lack of co-op story mode. I'm not one of those people that complains anytime a game doesn't have co-op. I'm a firm believer of the single-player experiences that games can provide. But co-op is a staple of the beat-em-up genre. And to put in co-op support just for the Bloodbath Challenge mini-games is just not cutting it. This game's replayability could have been exponentially increased with the ability to play with a friend.
  

So basically, from what I'm reading...the game has a great look and feel to it, but it gets repetitive as fuck like most Dreamcast games?

Basically. Style over substance.

Seems like everyone loves the art style, but the main reason I haven't even looked into that game is because it's just hard to look at.

I haven't actually played MadWorld yet, but just to comment on your last point.  I feel that either a game is meant to be played co-op (a la Left 4 Dead), or has co-op shoehorned in (a la Fable II).  There are some games that maybe provide a bit of a happy medium, but in general, games that are meant to be played co-op have single-player experiences that suffer for it.  So I have no problem with a single-player only campaign in MadWorld.

"Naughton said:

"Basically. Style over substance."

Agreed."

I found a little more to love.  I enjoy the playground style and I enter a level trying to hit the highest level of the combo meter. Currently the highest I get is super, multiple signs through face, barrel or mask, cut off arms and impale repeatedly on spike.   Once I exhaust that I will just do some different kills on dudes using the different environment and weapons I have opened up and my basic chainsaw.  Only about half way through the game did I discover the Death Watch challenges given to you at the beginning of the level i.e. get three bull masks, so I am going back through the stages trying to complete each of those. I won't say the gripes are not valid, but a person can avoid repetition if the move around the levels enough.  Finally new enemy types like those who regenerate limbs do add a level of challenge.  Also the bike parts did not bother me, but they reminded me of Road Rash and I loved me some Road Rash.

"Naughton said:

"Basically. Style over substance."

Agreed."

I feel that some games manage to be really good just because of the style. Prince of Persia is a good example - the combat was bad and the game was easy as hell, but I really enjoyed it because of the superb art direction, sound, animation and storytelling. Is this the case with MadWorld?

I guess you don't like classic games like Smash TV.

"I guess you don't like classic games like Smash TV."

I have to agree, certainly not entirely though. The game has some really annoying flaws, flaws which should simply not be there, but it's still a enjoyable game none the less. It should have been far better though!, and easily could have been I think. PlatinumGames have made some really bad design decisions.

• The bike sections were a major let down for me, I was expecting something on par with that scene in Akira, but instead it's basically a way too shallow means of traversing to the next location. The fact is I can think of many inclusions that would have aided the gameplay in them.

• The camera lock on is plain dumb, and camera controls are woefully bad, For a game of this type it's a serious failing.

• Multiplayer is very shallow, I was expecting so much more from it. I heard it was weak, but I did not expect it to be this weak.

• Enemies NPC AI is weak, even in the later stages when their AI seems to be actually turned on. (default difficulty)

• Annoying repetition in commentary. The sound can be very confusing at times. Men shouting + Hip Hop blaring + sports commentary!  = another day in the hood?. It's way too overpowering and tantamount to white noise, There's simply no moderation.. How could they make such an obvious mistake I wonder : ?
  

• Way too easy in the default difficulty. I raised this issue a while ago on the official forums before I even played the game.
  

I love it. I don't see it as style over substance at all. Awesome beat-em-up action.

"I love it. I don't see it as style over substance at all. Awesome beat-em-up action."

MadWorld was disappointing for me as well, but I actually didn't really have a problem with the camera and I didn't mind the quick time events, I thought the QTE's were balanced enough where it wasn't enough of them to be annoying to me. The most problematic thing for me in the game was the constant use of canned animations. Repeating the same exact way to kill an enemy off gets really repetittive. If they were all unique animations, it would just be so much better. I agree that the commentators become stale. Also, I didn't mind the motorcycle sections myself. I can't fault the game for not having co-op, I don't really see that as a requirement, but online co-op would certainly have added more replay value for it.

There's some good things to be found underneath it's flaws, but it's unfortunate that the flaws are so noticeable.

I knew it wouldn't be good once I saw the quick look showing the mediocre gameplay.

Vinchenzo, don't make yourself look stupid by judging a game by a "quick look".

I am positively surprised by the game. It's unbelievable how satisfying kills and finishers are when combined with simple and effective gestures. And the finisher for the second boss? That alone is worth 50 bucks.

Vinchenzo, don't make yourself look stupid by judging a game by a "quick look".

"Meowayne said:

Vinchenzo, don't make yourself look stupid by judging a game by a "quick look".

Lots of people do, so I'll keep looking stupid and save my money for games that are worth buying."

"Vinchenzo, don't make yourself look stupid by judging a game by a "quick look".I am positively surprised by the game. It's unbelievable how satisfying kills and finishers are when combined with simple and effective gestures. And the finisher for the second boss? That alone is worth 50 bucks."

"Vinchenzo said:

"Meowayne said:

Vinchenzo, don't make yourself look stupid by judging a game by a "quick look".

Lots of people do, so I'll keep looking stupid and save my money for games that are worth buying."

Ignorant fanboy is ignorant."

"Linkyshinks said:

"Arkthemaniac said:

"I love it. I don't see it as style over substance at all. Awesome beat-em-up action."

I'm not going to dispute that, I agree, but surely you can see that there are some clear flaws with the game, flaws that prevent it from being a better game."

Sure, but there hasn't been a game I played that hasn't had those. MadWorld's only issues with me are some camera problems (not a ton, I guess I figured out how to manipulate it quickly) and length. The only times I've really noticed commentator repeats is during Bloodbath Challenges, and even then it doesn't bug me as much. It was inevitable; if they wanted it to seem like a real sport, where the commentators wouldn't shut up, and there's only so much dialogue they can record.

I will say that it definitely is not style over substance to me. There's plenty of substance that I've seen.

"

I felt it looked a little repetetive in the quick look Jeff did, but still awesome. I think I'll buy it anyways, there seems to be a lot over the top fun to be had in it.

"Basically. Style over substance."

I sort of expected it to be disappointing.

Huh, too bad it isn't pleasing the crowds unanimously. I was hoping it would be the kind of awesome that everyone agrees with ans start dancing in the streets.
Still, my copy has not arrived. I'll wait and see for myself.

I called it for MadWorld when everyone else was claiming it to be something like the Second Coming...so I'm using the opportunity to rub it in for people.

I just got the game, and I feel let down by it. I only played up to the first boss, but compared to older beat 'em ups, this game just doesn't have anything.
But I can forgive Platinum Games for it. They're a new team, with a new game, and a very low budget.