Put this disc into the Wii and a strange transformation happens. The small console turns from a family-friendly, happy-clappy love house into a sinister, face-smashing, motherf*****g murder machine.
Madworld isn't messing about. Jack, the main character, turns up in a city (Jefferson Island) full of mental bike-like terrorists and, with you in control, he murders the lot of them in the most gruesome way possible.
The more inventive you are with your killing, the more points you get. Lucky then, that for no obvious reason at all, the city streets are littered with spinning blades, spike-covered walls and bins with blades on their lids.
But what's the object of the game? Sega described it to us as a "new-age Streets of Rage". You're let loose to roam free in a city district killing terrorists with the aim of building up a target score without dying.
Reach that score and you activate the boss battle. Win that and it's on to the next level. That's the simple premise behind a whole lot of blood-stained fun.
It's all about mixing up your kills. You can kill an enemy by slamming him chest-first into a huge spike on a wall (several times over), but if you shove a tyre around his body, headbutt him in the face, slam a pole through his brain, THEN bat him through the air into the spike on the wall, the game will love you more.
We kicked a guy to the ground, slammed an explosive barrel over his head and lobbed him at a group of three other goons. He exploded, the impact sending his mates flying into surrounding spinning blades. Red filled the otherwise black and white screen... and we laughed.
What's brilliant is that, as sinister as this all sounds, the whole scenario is dressed in a TV game show theme. Bloodbath challenges - special mid-level bonus challenges - are introduced like rounds in Supermarket Sweep.
But instead of a camp presenter you get a mean-looking dude who calls himself the Black Baron. He takes to the stage, swears loads, before his female assistant turns up and smashes him in the face with a spiked bat.
The Bloodbath challenges are sweet. We saw two in the level we played - one where you have to throw as many goons under a giant spiked 'Death Press', which slams down and liquefies bones.
The other is a bloody game of human darts; you smash dudes with a spiked bat into a giant dart board, aiming their splatting corpses for the bull's-eye in the middle. Hilarious.
Also during stages you encounter mid-level bosses - like the eight-foot Minotaur bloke with a massive dual-blade chainsaw that run up on us. These battles are a little more challenging because, whereas you can punch, kick, slice and generally mutilate the common enemy with little effort, these geezers don't take it sitting down. He'll slam you across the street.
Part-way through our battle we activated a Gears of War 2-style chainsaw clash (yes, Jack has one too), which has you shaking both the Wii Remote and Nunchuk to win.
This is one of the subtle but neat ways the game uses the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. Normal movement is done with the analogue stick. Hold A to grab someone and you throw them with a flick of the Remote, or headbutt them with a shake of the Nunchuk.
B activates your chainsaw, although if you wave the Remote in a slicing motion you can dismember entire groups of enemies, who fall to the ground pissing blood from the hole where their heads used to be.
Rip a pole out of the floor and a downward swipe with the Remote plants it into someone's face - all the motion controls correspond in a simple way to what's going on on-screen, enhancing the visceral feeling of the game with out ever feeling awkward.
Madworld is one strange game. We've only played the first level, but we already love its comedy spin on graphic violence, with its TV game show theme, custom hip-hop soundtrack and foul-mouthed commentary. This is absolutely not for kids, But you knew that already.
Our exclusive screens below show Jack riding a bike through the street, so we know there's a lot more Sega's keeping under wraps too. C'mon Sega, give us some more.
It's about time the Wii got some additional mature content. I've had about enough of seeing my girlfriend flailing about on Wii Fit. It's about time she saw a game that you have to play whilst going "Raaaah!"
this will be an awesome game. and i am starting to have faith in sega once again, as sonic has gone WAY downhill and we must put down that stupid pre pubescent hedgehog soon
can't wait for this game. Loving the art dtyle. Sin city killfest hells yeah.
Waits for inevitable 360/ps3 bile. I'm just going to take it as sad pathetic jealous ramblings of numbskulls that can't appreciate something that doesn't have army men and a first person view in.
Go f**k off and play call of duty and leave the proper gaming to the big kids ok.
I'm surprised Nintendo aren't allowing this on the Wii. It'll definitely tarnish their squeaky clean image. Well done Sega! Your undercover "kill everyone who killed the dreamcast" campaign is going smoothly.
I'm surprised Nintendo aren't allowing this on the Wii. It'll definitely tarnish their squeaky clean image. Well done Sega! Your undercover "kill everyone who killed the dreamcast" campaign is going smoothly.
Sure you'll be looking forward to the PS3/PSP exclusive BRick. The box says its an fps to rival Killzone2 and Call of Duty, however put it in the machine and it'll turn the console into a .....
i can see it now. Daily Mail newspaper headline "Sicko Nintendo release murder simulator on children's games console"...
This game could do one of a couple of things.. 1, it opens the doors for other publishers to make more mature games for wii... or 2, it scares them into not making them and the wii is destined for eternal family fun shovel ware
I guess the stylised cartoon graphics work in its favour. If it was going for out and out realism then I doubt it would see the light of day over here.
The game looks sick, in the best way possible. The need to use mixed strategies to get points should help keep the game from getting repetitive.
There are no doors that need to be opened for the Wii, it's just snobby developers being stupid. I hope Sega do very well this year, assuming they market their games.
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