On one end of the spectrum, we have No More Heroes, possibly the worst case of style over substance I've seen this entire generation. The story is great, and so are the characters; however, the gameplay is absolute shit. With the exception of the sometimes fun(and sometimes awful) bosses, all(and I do mean all) of the enemies are cannon fodder. All you do is hold down the lock-on button and mash A, occasionally wiggling the Wiimote in some random direction for a finishing move -- that's it. The side missions are equally tedious; repeating the same mundane tasks over and over again just to get enough money for the next story mission is about as fun as watching paint dry(less fun, even(no, I'm not kidding)).

On the other end of the spectrum, we have God Hand, a goddamn marvel of game design. Constantly challenging, but never, ever unfair(and never frustrating, which is insane, because you will die at least a hundred times on your first playthrough). There's no excess fat; no cannon fodder enemies(even the weakest ones can and will kill you if you lose concentration for more than a second); no superfluous mechanics; no dead time spent traversing excessively large environments; no unnecessarily detailed scenery nobody really looks at anyway; every single enemy, every single interactive aspect of the environment, every single animated object, is there to make the core of the game, beating people up, more fun.

And it does. Boy, does it ever. Thirteen hours of beating up more or less the same enemies. Not once was I bored. Not once was I hungering for better graphics or more spectacular set pieces. Not once was I not completely engaged in what I was doing. God Hand is pure beat 'em up gameplay at its absolute finest. But does it sacrifice style for this substance? No; not at all. Funny, ridiculous and utterly charming, God Hand has more impetuous style than Alexander himself.

So here's the thing: I'm sort of interested in MadWorld. However, reception has been pretty mixed and I'm not sure if I should buy it. It looks similar to both God Hand, which I love, and No More Heroes, which I hate, so I need to know which one of those it's like. Is it Style Over Substance: The Game, like No More Heroes, Style And Substance: The Game, like God Hand, or somewhere in between?

I'm going to lean more toward style over substance. Note that I haven't played it, though I've watched friends do so. Check some of the reviews either here or elsewhere. One of them is bound to bring it up.

I've always thought that No More Heroes got good reviews simply for being a "real" game on Wii. Rereading your post, I'd skip Madworld. There's better games out there.

MadWorld > GodHand > No More Heroes imo.

More moves don't necessarily make for  more fun, and you're missing certain NMH moves as well. You could have also asked what people think of this particular game without shitting on another completely unrelated game you know various people around here enjoyed.

MadWorld has more motion related moves but they don't feel as good as NMH's speedy slashes and grapples that are over as soon as you start them, so they seem to get in the way of the rest of the gameplay to me. The bosses weren't as cool either, and I found the challenges stupid (even the first time).

The gameplay of Madworld is more involving than the gameplay of No More Heroes, that's for sure. I haven't played God Hand. 
 
It's repetetive. Thats the only real valid flaw I can find in MadWorld. It's kinda like Assassin's Creed: What you're doing is great, but you're doing the same thing over and over again. MadWorld has incredible boss battles and minigames to freshen things up, though.
 

I never played God Hand, though I have played No More Heroes and MadWorld. For the record, I loved No More Heroes. I enjoyed just about every minute I played it. Sure, the overworld stuff wasn't that great, but hey, no game is perfect.
 
With all that said, I can say I didn't enjoy MadWorld that much. It's not a bad game, but it didn't draw me in as No More Heroes did. Graphics and art style are neat, gameplay is okay but moreso repetitive than No More Heroes, and story I found I could care less about. Really, the most I enjoyed of that game were simply listening to the two commentators' banter.

"You could have also asked what people think of this particular game without shitting on another completely unrelated game you know various people around here enjoyed."

"The gameplay of Madworld is more involving than the gameplay of No More Heroes, that's for sure. I haven't played God Hand. It's repetetive. Thats the only real valid flaw I can find in MadWorld. It's kinda like Assassin's Creed: What you're doing is great, but you're doing the same thing over and over again. MadWorld has incredible boss battles and minigames to freshen things up, though."

I still haven't played my copy of MadWorld.  Must get around to it.  Never played God Hand and was never interested.  I am assuming that MadWorld will amuse me, but not be at the top end of games I love.